Rogue by Danielle Steel

Maxine is a well known Psychiatrist and an expert on childhood trauma & adolescent suicide it is her passion as well as her three children of whom she adores. Her marriage to the handsome entrepreneur Blake Williams was may have been something that most women would fawned over to Maxine it was just an adventure in her life. He had done well in providing for his family but his quest for never-ending fun as well as his work drew him away from his family for weeks at a time. He was not anywhere Maxine could find him when their youngest son Sam rolled off the changing table at eight months old and broke his arm and hit his head. Maxine had tried fervently for two days to find him finally catching up with him in Cabo he was on his way to Venice. He flew straight home when he got there she flew into his arms crying and told him she couldn’t do this anymore and wanted a divorce. He didn’t want to get a divorce, he asked her why didn’t she quit and fly around with him, and they could get more help. She said then she would never see her kids just like he didn’t now. Why didn’t he quit and stay at home with them more often, he said that he couldn’t imagine staying cooped up all the time. In the divorce settlement he gave her the apartment in New York, the house in Southampton and a gracious settlement that she turned down and took child support instead, also she had use of his yacht/sailboat once a year for one week a year for vacations. They still remained close friends; Blake still traveled all over the world and visits the children as often as he did when they were married. He buys houses, invests in risky business ventures and continues to have fun. While Maxine continues to grow her successful psychiatric practice and being invited to speak at conferences and be on panels and the like. While her daughter is having a sleep over of a few of her friends and her sons are over at their friends spending the night. She gets a call that one of her teen patients had tried to commit suicide a second time this time it was a very lethal dose of sleeping pills and he seemed more serious this time than he had last time. After she gets back from the hospital that night she checks on the girls and notices beer bottles in the closet. She sits them on the dresser so her daughter will know that she has found them. The next morning she goes into her daughters room and wakes them up Tells her daughter about it and that her friends should get dressed and leave and that she is on restriction for a month. When she returns back to the hospital to she Jason her patient that has tried to commit suicide, his mother is even more distraught and has talked to her doctor who said he would talk to Maxine to see if he could persuade her to let Jason come home instead of an institution. When Maxine received the phone call from Dr. West he acts like a royal pain concerning Jason and his condition just thinking he is trying to get attention by his actions and really acts like a royal jack ass on the phone. She told him to let her handle her patients and he should handle his. She moved Jason to a private facility so he could be watched where he still tried to kill himself again over night proving she was right and causing Dr. West to call and apologize for second guessing her actions with the teen. During Thanksgiving they have lunch at her parents and dinner at Blake’s since he is able to be home for a few days so she eats there that night and drops the kids off. Shortly after the holidays she gets a call from Dr. West to take her to Lunch to get to know her better. This is a bit awkward for her but she takes the offer. Lunch turns into, may I take you to dinner turns, into can I see you again for another dinner turns into, now they are dating. Which makes the kids especially Daphne her daughter upset. Although Sam the youngest doesn’t seem to be upset either way he is happy to see his mother happy and so is Zelda her live in housekeeper. Charles West likes Maxine a lot and seems to get along well enough with Zelda and Sam although he would like to have Maxine all to himself. Around Valentines Day they decide they will get married but not to tell the kids till June and have the wedding till August in her house in Southampton. From the time they tell the kids in June till the time they have the rehearsal dinner in August things seem to be slowly deteriorating with Charles and Maxine. Her two older children still have not warmed to him at all especially Daphne and she still does not want to go to the wedding. Maxine herself has no clue how to bring it all together as one cohesive unit but she is trying the best she can. Danielle Steel once again brings us a award winning book that deals with matters of the heart and everyday happenings with family and marriage. Things that we all would or should take into account in our everyday happenings. She really knows how to look at both sides of the heart so to speak. She is one of the brightest, talented authors I have had the privilege to review and will always be happy to do so.

A Drop Of Red by Chris Marie Green

Chris Marie Green brings us the fourth book in the Vampire Babylon series A Drop of Red. Dawn, Kiko and Frank are back again this time they are in London England, on the trail of the next vampire underground, and to find out why some girls have been disappearing. Dawn is still struggling with her new life and how it has changed. Their Boss is actually two beings in one Costin who is a soul traveler, Costin needed a healthy host to survive. His arrangement with Jonah had gone awry when Dawn decided to save Costin’s life and trap him in Jonah’s body. Costin is in a constant struggle with Jonah to keep him at bay. This is something else Dawn must struggle with since she made him this way, since it was the only way she could save him was to turn him and when she killed Benedict it changed her back to almost human again. Costin brings in a new person to the team as sort of a replacement to Bresei, who is now one of their spirit friends due to an accident in the previous underground hunt. Dawn doesn’t know quite what to think, but Kiko doesn’t like her at all and perceives her as a threat to him & his job since she is a psychic as well. Although her field of expertise is tailored to hearing, and sensing spirits, and Kiko’s is seeing visions through touch of objects or people. Through Kiko’s vision and some of the sounds that Natalia was hearing they are led through a few interviews to an all girl school. They get a tour of the school by pretending they are scouting schools for their sister for when they move to England from the United States. They bring the friends with them to keep an eye out for vampires or a possible underground entrance. The friends’ find four vampire girls and Kiko doesn’t get a reading off of the ones he bumps into as they are walking down the hall. They planned a reconnaissance mission for that same night to the school. Frank, would scout ahead using his vamp senses for danger and any underground openings, Dawn & Kiko would bring up the rear, and Natalia would stay behind monitoring with Costin since she had not been trained in combat fully yet. Costin has them start at a vacant building as an easy access point to the campus. Frank clears the building first while they have the friends keeping an eye on the girls; which are napping in a common room. The team started moving slowly up the tree line when they were notified that Della had gone to her room to get a book. Della looked out the window which was cracked sniffed and then opened the window sniffed again and looked directly in the team’s direction which was over 800ft away. The other girls joined her in the room she was gesturing and pointing in the team’s direction with no lips moving denoting that they had telepathic abilities. The team started hearing dogs barking in the background when they did one of the friends told them that the needed to get back to the car as soon as possible that the dogs had been summoned. They didn’t get to get back to the car they made it back to the abandoned building and Breisi helped them to the roof letting them know that there were feral animals at the car. A friend then lets them know the girls have left the dorm room and that they couldn’t slow them down because. The girls stopped ten feet from the building and started questioning the team, Frank played it off as if he were the teams master and they were the servants. He was an American vampire looking for others of his kind. The girls still didn’t like them being there and there was a small argument among the girls and then one of the girls starts to change into something tailless sphinx cat-wolf like creature. Dawn mind pushed her and bound her hands above her head. Natalia broke the communication silence saying she heard the front door but it was shut but the house alarm was disarmed. This alarms Dawn thinking about Costin, and what could be going on now. Chris Marie Green will have you riveted to your chair with this book in the Vampire Babylon series. You won’t realize you have read as much as you have until the book is done. This was a great addition to the series and I cant wait for the next book in the series if there is going to be one.

Transformation

I never thought how hard it was going to be making the transformation from reviewer to author. But it has been a bit difficult, there is research that goes into it so you don't step on anyone's toes inadvertently. You have to think of what names you want to use for your characters not just first names but last names too. Luckily being a gamer that I used to be I had first names and well some last names that I could use. I pulled out that list and started going over it too see what might work and then some started popping into my head. I wrote those down and then started doing some research on a few other bits and pieces of information I needed, most of it myths and legends. But then I combined alot of different pieces too, being a reviewer helped to because you see how authors see things in a different points of view so I was able to take that and add that to my research so I wrote those bits down too. There was so much I needed to research before I started writing, after I did start then my husband said why don't you write a small story of a day in the life of each char to see how they speak to you. So that is what I am working on now. I have one done and I will post it for you soon, and I am working on an other now. Which of course I will get posted when it is done. Each one will get posted as I get them done that way you can see the characters and how they think and feel. It may not give you a prospective exactly on the story but you can still think about what your favorite character may be, and even give me some constructive criticism if you would like.

This may seem weird but I want to thank all the authors out their for all the hard work they put into writing their wonderful books us reviewers read. Up until recently I knew there was some difficulty doing it but didn't really understand how much. I have recently started writing my own book and that is what brought me to write this thank you, because now I understand just what does go into the writing of a book for us to read. I know there is still alot more that I have yet to find out especially to get it out there and having it published. I just wanted to thank all of you for writing those wonderful books that you do and so well I might add.

Christine Miller aka Zollyanna