More reviews from Harriet

Ashes of Twilight
Kassy Tayler
St. Martin's Griffin, $9.99
ISBN: 9780312641788

In 1878 English astronomers detected a comet heading straight to earth. Mankind constructed the great glass Dome to protect the royals and selected others from the comet that ultimately burned the sky.

One hundred and ninety-eight years after people moved inside the Dome, some residents want out. Alex a Shiner tells his friend Wren that “The sky is blue” outside the Dome before he tries to escape the smog-laden city. Alex fails in his attempt; his body burned and placed on display as a warning to other wannabe radicals. However, Alex’s efforts stir Wren to begin a quest with friends at her side even as civil war seems imminent inside the Dome especially with coal running out.

The first Ashes of Twilight post-apocalyptic thriller is a great environmental cautionary tale starring a wonderful coming of age heroine. The Taylor world inside the Dome seems genuine as the residents face the scarcity of the non-renewable energy source at a time when the 1% remains disinterested in what happens to the masses as long as their lifestyle remains intact. Action-packed, fans will appreciate this strong alternate vision of a world struggling to survive two centuries after the great cataclysmic comet changed the planet. Harriet Klausner


Moonshifted
Cassie Alexander
St. Martin’s, $7.99
ISBN 9780312553401

Edie Spence works as a nurse on floor Y4 of County Hospital. The patients on this floor are diversly paranormal. She and her friend Charles head to Rock Ronalds for lunch. They enter a crosswalk as does a silver haired man on the other side of the street. A truck slowing down for the light abruptly accelerates and hits the pedestrian. Charles and Edie rush over to help the injured Hit and Run victim; a werewolf still is alive due to the quick response of the nurses, but remains in critical condition.

After Anna the living vampire visits her to tell her she will be at a gala, Edie rests before starting her next shift where she learns her new patient is Karl Winter, the werewolf king. His daughter Helen, nephew Lucas and pack member Jorgen arrives demanding information from Edie who offers nothing to them. They howl at her and warn her to keep their king alive or else. Attracted to Lucas, Edie trusts none of the weres as bellicose adversarial packs are at war with one another.

The second Edie Spence urban fantasy (see Nightshifted) is a fabulous paranormal thriller starring a fascinating heroine who tries to stay outside the fray, but no one including dead relatives allows her to remain detached. Fast-paced from the moment the hit and run occurs and never slowing down, readers will relish a visit in the fabulous realm of Alexander the Great while looking forward to the next entry in the life of Edie Spence, nurse to the paranormal. Harriet Klausner