After writing a book, I usually spend time catching up on my TBR pile. After finishing up, editing and publishing, Redaction, I took November off to read and read and read. Here’s what I’ve read so far this week:

Irobotronics
In book three of Apocalypse Babes, Seffy and the Scooby gang have discovered a way back to their time. They think. But there’s a price. Seffy must volunteer to be the resident guinea pig and go first. What starts out as a 15 minute tour, ends up being a forty-eight hour assignment as the powers running their Montana sanctuary/prison demand Seffy help save their leader.
A last minute change finds Seffy in LA, just not her LA. Not one to waste her good fortune, she gets a new track suit and a hair cut but things quickly go bad. Fortunately, Trent is there to help. Soon bad guys are hunting Seffy and shooting at the couple. Worse, they’ve targeted the alternative universe’s Scooby Gang for extermination.
Can Seffy and Trent complete their mission, save Seffy’s friends and return to the Montana bunker?
Irobotronic is the best in the series so far. The pace never lags, action abounds and there’s more plot twists as we wade deeper into the conspiracy surrounding the Montana bunker and the impetus for the initial time travel and zombie outbreak. I was delighted to see that Seffy is finally facing her problems head on and is no longer acting the victim. The confrontation with Gareth is long overdue as is the one with Fiona and Fenn. We also learn more of Trent’s shady past making his actions all the more heroic.
The series just keeps getting better!

Kumbaya Much:

Something is really rotten in the concrete bunker in Montana. Unfortunately, Seffy, Trent and the gang are stuck in the middle of it. Fortunately, both Seffy and Trent are wily enough to figure out what’s going on and get out. Twice. Alas, circumstances keep pulling them back to the bunker and the conspiracy lasagna going on. The evil pinkness has spread, not zombies this time but something more sinister and dangerous.
First, we start with the other members of the Scooby gang who aren’t as friendly as they could be until happy gas gets piped into the air. Until everything shifts, then shifts again and again, until I’m beginning to wonder if there’s an Apocalypse Babes fault line running under Montana. Forget what you thought you knew, everything changes in this book.
Some for the better (Trent fans will rejoice! I rejoiced!), and others not so much. The dark matter binding Seffy and Gareth is finally revealed.
Ms Street does an amazing job of shaking every character up while staying true to the subtexts of the previous books. Seffy and Trent kinda/sorta/maybe pigeon hole their relationship, which will hopefully carry them through the next two books, help them sort out the real factions inside the fugere, and finally to their own time and their own LA. Overall, Kumbaya Much is an excellent addition to a wonderful series.

Altered Destiny
On starry night, Liane Gautier-MacGregor stands on the Eastern shore and watches something collide with the moon. The next thing she knows, she’s thrown into an alternate universe where elves and dragons exist. Worse, there’s a twin to her ex-husband. Except this Devyn MacGregor is very different. And very hard to resist.

Devyn MacGregor is a man with a mission, a secret mission. Yet, he can’t resist claiming Annie as his bride, especially since his only other choice is to give her over to the Qui’arel as part of the bride bounty (a repugnant act–requiring the first born daughter to be handed over to the aliens).

But claiming Annie has a price they may both regret.

Altered Destiny is a masterful retelling of the Scarlet Pimpernel with a science-fiction twist. Devyn works hard to maintain his meek Bard persona–a disguise that’s constantly threatened because of the danger aimed at Annie. Fortunately, he can charm the scales off a snake and is able to get them out of plenty of dangerous situations. Annie is the perfect foil for Devyn–she’s smart and brave, despite what she thinks.

Ms Scott does a wonderful job of building a world so like ours, yet different. It provides the perfect foil for the romance between Devyn and Annie and highlights the need for every hero to balance the needs of his people against the needs of his heart. For in doing so, he gained a valuable ally that enabled him to win not just the battle but the war. Altered Destiny is definitely a keeper and I hope just the first of many in a long series.