Book review: Draw One in the Dark

Today's book review is Draw One in the Dark by Sarah A. Hoyt.

At least as far as I know, this is a standalone novel.  It starts at the beginning of the story and it ends the adventure well.  It does leave characters with lives to live that might be interesting, but it certainly isn't trying to blackmail us into buying a sequel.

this is a modern werewolf story, but it's pretty different from the usual fare.  The supernatural creatures are a little bit less silly than the standard (less bound to the full moon).  Of course, it's still a pretty hard premise to swallow, but everything else follows pretty well from the premise.  There are dragons that are pleasantly different, and villains that you almost have to laugh about, but they work.  There are a few places where the plot is a little hard to swallow, but it mostly works, and it lets us examine some things about love and relationships and responsibility that are worth reading.  The novel's main strength is in managing to making the characters matter to the reader.

Not a perfect book, but as long as you're willing to believe in were-creatures and dragons, definitely a good one.  8 out of 10.

( plot summary )

Not eaten by troll

I managed to leave my windbreaker at birder2's on Monday, and not notice it until today, and I need it tomorrow,  so I had to travel west.  So I decided I'd take my walk at Homer Lake, since it's slightly on the way, instead of being in the opposite direction.  I knew it would be muddy.  I had my boots, I thought I'd be OK.  But as I slogged through a whole lot of mud and quite a few pools of standing water that completely covered the path, I started to imagine that I would sink in, get stuck, and be eaten by a troll.  However, no trolls or other monsters were in evidence; the closest we came  was several friendly doggies who were walking as well.

Nothing is looking very springy, and the wind blowing off the lake felt darn cold, even though the car thermometer claimed it was 48°F.  Except for the frogs in the shallow lake north of Oak Ridge, it felt more like winter than spring.