Exploring the Connection Between Mormons and Masons

Exploring the Connection Between Mormons and Masons by Matthew B. Brown

Brown tidily lays out why LDS temples and temple ordinance work is not founded or copied from Freemasonry.  The book, as non-fiction is informative, especially the footnotes, but not a wild and intense read.  Much of the information you probably already knew if you are LDS.  Also, because Brown did not want to leak or slander the sacred LDS ordinances or Freemason rituals, there was actually little he could say......which is probably why you picked the book up in the first place (to get all of the nitty gritty!). 
Brown does a good job of laying out the facts in a timeline fashion so that they are easy to understand.  And he proves his point well.....if you already agreed with the point he was making. However, if you are not LDS, you probably don't really care about what he has to say.  He assumes that the reader will count revelation, visions, and other spiritual activity as a plausable way of gleening information.  While I do.......not everyone does.  So, you could be left saying.........'Well, the whole shebang could have just been lied about or made up."

Rating 3 It didn't rot.  I was interested.  I understand why this wasn't some 'Enquirer' expose...BUT it did leave you wondering why you really read it.  The footnotes were probably some of the best parts.
Rating G

Shadowland

Shadowland (Immortals #3) by Alyson Noel

*Spoiler in here, if you can really spoil this book.
Ever and Damen are unable to solidify their eternal bond because Ever added her blood to the elixer that saved Damen.  Now, if their bodily fluids mix, their immortal souls willl perish and be sent to Shadowland.  Ever wants more than anything to rectify the situation.  Damen at first decides that this is all because of bad karma that he caused by being so self centered for 600 years. 
Ever tries to persuade the elusive Roman to give her the information she needs.  Roman in turn tells her she will have to pay the price (which Ever imagines is probably sex, but turns out to be saving her friend Haven from death by having to decide if Haven becomes immortal or dies). Damen decides to dress like he shops at Wal-mart and ride the bus in order to turn his karma around.  Pointlessness.....upon pointlessness.
Ever gets a job at a psychic shop.  The owner, Jude, turns out to be a major player in their immortal game.  It seems that we now find Jude has followed Ever throughout her lives and that he may have also been her boyfriend/lover.  Damen thinks that because he has persued Ever throughout time, that he has actually negated her agency to choose and now leaves her to spend time with Jude and decide once and for all whom she wants to be with.  In the mean time, he cares for two twin witches that left Summerland in the last book, and have now lost their magik.
The whole book was like an after-thought/segue (and not a smooth one) to book #4.

Rating 3   I can connect with the whole I wish we weren't damned to hell if we touch each other......meh, okay, that's horrible.  But the rest of the story was blah.  Ever's friendships are dull and shallow.  Ever and Damen can't do anything but wish they were together.  The whole Jude ordeal may have been interesting if we were ever given anymore information than 'he followed her through every life'. 
Rating PG........honestly I can't remember....they can't do more than kiss with a magic forcefield between them so it couldn't have gotten too bad.

The Sugar Queen

   The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

Josey Cirrini exists in a small town that holds it memories and judgements like iron fetters.  Everyone remembers what a beast of a child she was.  Everyone knows now that she lives with her harsh elderly mother and does nothing but care for her.  Everyone knows she is plump and alone.  Josey knows she loves sweets and Adam the mailman, and no one else can know.  In a totally bizarre and magical twist, Josey opens her closet one day to find Della Lee......a local waitress.  Della Lee refuses to leave the confines of the closet, saying only that she won't be there for long before she moves on.  In her rough and caring way, Della Lee helps Josey open up to life.  Soon she isn't going to her closet for sweets but to see Della Lee.  Josey finds friendship and possibly LOVE?

This book didn't seem that interesting when I heard about it.  It came with good recommendations and I did like the author's other book 'Garden Spells'.  What do you know?  I loved it.  I read it lickedy split.  The book was magical and a little mysterious.  Josey was able to make a friend after years of being alone.  Many times I don't like books that lend to a 'sisterly' theme because they tend to cut everyone else out of the picture.  This book wasn't like that.  The girls met and became a great support to each other right away.  There were also some really great quotes in this book.  Allen has a beautiful way with words.

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"It feels like he's taken your heart, doesn't it?....Like he's reached in and pulled it out from you. And I bet he smiles like he doesn't know, like he doesn't know he's holding your heart in his hand and you're dying from him."


"You'd be surprised how easy some things can be, things you never thought you'd do, when you take self-restpect out of the equation."


"Sometimes you weren't supposed to share pain. Sometimes it was best just to deal with it alone."



"She'd always known he didn't love her. But it was easier to bear when he didn't know she loved him. That way they were even. Now he knew he had all the power."


Rating PG  domestic abuse, an affair, murder, ghosts
Rating 4.5  Only because I probably won't read it again soon, but I loved the magical qualities and Allen's descriptiveness.

Blood Promise (Vampire Academy #4)

Blood Promise (Vampire Academy #4) by Richelle Mead

Spoilers.........
Book #3 ends with Dimitri becoming Strigoi and Rose running off from the Academy to end his life.

Rose has taken off to Siberia in hopes of tracking Dimitri back to his hometown.  She promised to kill him if he ever became one of the undead.  She meets up with Sydney, an alchemist.  This is a new twist in the VA books.  An alchemist is a human that is like your basic 'men in black'.  They clean up after Strigoi have been killed.  Syndey is able to lead Rose to Dimitri's family.
Rose quickly learns that Dimitri's mother and sisters have no idea of his death.  She is obligated to come clean with the terrible events that she hasn't yet come to grips with.  The family comes to love Rose and treat her like Dimitri's widow.  They do not know that Rose has come to kill him.
Eventually Dimitri finds that Rose has come to hunt him down.  He takes her to an estate in Siberia.  She is held captive.  Dimitri tries to convince her that he is the same but better as a Stigoi and that Rose she allow him to turn (he calls it awaken) her so that they can be together.  During her captivity, Dimitri drinks from Rose and she becomes addicted to the vampire endorphins. 
During her travels, Rose meets another bonded pair, like Lissa and herself.  The woman is a spirit user and is able to help Rose learn more about Spirit and healing.  As she is away from the academy, Lissa finds another friend in Avery, the new headmaster's daughter.  The deeper their friendship grows, the stranger and more dangerous Lissa begins to act. 
It all comes to a head, when Rose must decide to become Strigoi or die.  She searches for some clue that Dimitri is still himself and still in love with her.  When she realizes that this isn't true, she knows she must kill him and return to Lissa before Avery kills Lissa.

The more I read about Rose, the more I like her.  She reminds me a little of myself.  I'm not totally into the whole bondmate thing though.  I still don't find myself really feeling for Lissa.  I was more interested in the to kill or not to kill your soulmate issue.  I guess I'm not really like Rose........she was able to descern if there was any real Dimitri left in the Strigoi Dimitri.  I would have taken one look, seen the man I loved and probably did whatever he wanted.  This book did contain more Rose/Dimitri and less Lissa, so even though there was no happy ending, it was a likeable book.

Rating 4   Love me some Dimitri.
Rating PG 13  Sensualality, swearing, danger, fighting, drug use (vampire endorphin), crack whores (blood whores but the same general idea)