Funny enough, she stumbled across the Psychocat Reads Reviews ...
349186
Psychocat Reads Review of EMERALD FIRE by Caris McRae

(I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)

I'd never heard of this book until an email showed up one day from Caris McRae. Funny enough, she stumbled across the Psychocat Reads Reviews courtesy of a picture of the Psychocat herself in a Google search.

The Book As Part of a Series: As a novella length prequel to the first book, SOUL OF FIRE, I decided to go ahead and read EMERALD FIRE first. It appears to start laying the groundwork for what promises to be an interesting story and world. Not having read the first book yet, I suspect we'll see more of the main characters from this one in some capacity, but that this will have also provided some of the back story.

The Characters: There are three primary characters in EMERALD FIRE. The females, Nia and Serabi, are in vastly different positions in society, but are also very good friends. They are both fiesty, rather mouthy, opinionated, but also loyal. I loved them!

Onyx in one heck of a bad a$$, but like all good characters there is much more to him. He is struggling to overcome some serious history. In some ways he reminds me of Wolverine - a high compliment in my book.

The Relationships: There is intrigue and tension between Nia and Onyx from he start. Though neither of them make it particularly easy on the other when it comes to getting to know each other. Given the strong fantasy elements at play in the story, you just know there's more to the tension there than meets the eye.

In other relationship news, I loved how both of them had strong ties to Serabi. You can readily see how the healer provides some level of balance to both of their personalities, albeit as fiesty is she is that's saying something.

World Building: While the world of the Chronicles of Quiliaris is distinct, I also found it easy to follow and understand. By using the various elements (earth, wind, water, and fire) as a basis for key parts of the world, it is easy to start putting things together.

Jen's Final Rating: 4 STARS! EMERALD FIRE is a great kick off for what promises to be a captivating series. I enjoyed Caris McRae's characters and story telling abilities. There were several minor editing issues that could be cleaned up, but they don't detract from the story enough to prevent my recommending it to those that enjoy fantasy.

Psychocat's Final Rating: She's packing her bags to go join the Hashisin to hunt down a particularly power hungry, sadistic bad guy. Psychocat may love a bit of violence, but even she has a limit.
1870530
It was a fun romp. I laughed a few times. This is for people who read a lot of women's rags and see all the dopey advice--which I do.  It's short, though, have no idea what amt of money per page.... Never mind--I am told that is not how one judges... I used to like the Harper's Bazaar feature where "real women," I mean real socialites, listed their daily food intake. Six almonds, a tray of ice cubes, maybe some wet Kleenex. I think I would do the Marilyn Monroe diet--liver and choc sundaes.
4869437
I listened to the Audible version of this book.

Conjure Woman's Cat was a cute story told (I think) from Lena the cat's POV. I liked the character CW (Eulalie) and the other characters were fun also. She does root work or folk magic and I thought that was pretty neat. I thought there were many fun parts to this story, especially when she says how mad she gets when a disrespectful person makes her spit.

Wanda J. Dixon did a good job narrating this story. I liked her bubbly voice and she made this story fun. She had good voice inflections which added to it as well.

"I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com."
3648313
She a hoot to read, you'll love her if you like snarky
2260075
It made me laugh, The cat Brutus is a perfect rendition of what I think a cat would be like if it could talk. ('Pet B**ch') lol it killed me. There are a few other things I enjoy but I'll let you read and enjoy them for yourself.
3194535
I think I read it somewhere down in the reviews of what a laugh this book was. I mean the review itself was funny, but they were actually right ! Ha ha I've always like Victoria in the fashion industry and I mean she has found a way to take what she likes as a passion and make it into a very profitable business, while glamorizing her life and the fashion in it, so I thought this book would be a little like that, a little "tongue n cheek", with that British sort of humor, and fashion thrown into the mix. It's more like a fashion shoot, and the mention of all the designer brands she wears, and shameless promoting of all her brand lines.  I mean I couldn't take half of her tips seriously because every other sentence you could find the mention of her brand of "Somethings" had whatever you were looking for. Now I don't think she was bragging in anyway but it did keep me laughing the whole entire book and is a good read to read if you find yourself in the need to kill some time.  The fashion tips were vague, but the laughs were worth it.
1332332
I needed a birthday present for the totally adorable Cass N and this was among the torrent of weird stuff that makes up my favorite gal's Wish List.
She having always been mindful of *us* when she ruled over us as QA suprema - and there being few who speak in plainer english -  I spotted this as a natural choice.
Before wrapping, I gave it the once over to see what sort of New Agey stuff Cass is into these days - and lo! I found it speaking rather eloquently to my own situation. So I guess I better order another one for my own soul.
God bless those Wish Lists.
3701902
My daughter first brought this collection to my attention and it had me laughing heartily in moments.  I will also say that, if you've never lived with cats, this won't be nearly as humorous as it would be if you have shared your spaces and time with felines.  It doesn't require reading in sequence; just pick up the book, open to a page, and enjoy!
1380294
Hold on.  Is this just the blog, but put in book form?

I have no idea.  My wife saw that her friends had a copy of this, and then she needed to have a copy of it.  It might have some new stuff though, since my wife, as she read it would comment about how she hadnt read a section.  And she laughed.

I have only read one of the blog-stories that are included in this book, and that was the cartoon about the authors fight with depression.  I haven't faced what she has faced, but the way she described it helped me understand some people I know in a better way.  That was worth the money alone, you know, paying for something you can get free on the internet (support your local artists in the global village, etc).

I  then read them in one sitting and laughed and laughed.

I have a feeling that Brosh can actually draw, but her style is deliberately primitive.  The way she illustrates the weird hatted-tadpole that is the authorial stand-in in these comics shows she understands the human  body.  Dont let the bad drawing of the occasional nasty language dissuade you from reading these tales. Brosh is a keen observer of the human condition, and is someone to keep an eye on (in the anticipatory sort of way, though perhaps in the not trusting with the glassware sort of way as well).
1098715
This is exactly my can of tuna - filthy, funny, violent contemporary paranormal fiction. Now I can go back to reading picture books for a while.

File under: 'If you like Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey.'
4751926
What's unsusual about this guide is the tone of the reviews...The author is clearly a concerned mother herself, and she writes from that point-of-view -  no pedalogical introspection here; just refreshing, from-the-gut accounts of keen-eyed strolls through the campuses, punctuated by a few good strays into humor...or "humour", as the Brit author might write.
492865
The books in this series are published in the U.K. as "Ladybird Books for Grown-Ups" and in the U.S. as "The Fireside Grown-Up Guides". Since 1914 the Ladybird books have been published for children. In 2015 Ladybird began to publish "Ladybird Books for Grownups", which are parodies of their own children's books. They follow the style, artwork and layout of the children's books but address such topics as hangovers, dating, husbands, hipsters and the like. As you can imagine, adults in the U.K. who grew up with Ladybird books take particular delight in these parodies of such familiar books. The "Fireside Grown-Up Guides" are now being published in the U.S. by Simon & Schuster, and are fairly faithful adaptations, (e.g. the book of "Mum" is now the book of "Mom", and so on), and are quite amusing even if you aren't familiar with the Ladybird style they parody.

Either way you can find them, as Ladybirds or as Fireside Grown-Up Guides, these books are a hoot. My first book was the Guide to "the Mom", and it was clever, edgy, funny, and just a bit pointed. Some other Guides I've seen, (especially "Husbands" and "Hangovers"),  are a little broader in their approach, and struck me as about half predictable and half oddly insightful. The authors, (who are television comedy writers in their slightly more "real" lives), have mastered the exaggerated-but-true approach to humor, and their pithy little observations about that fellow squatting under a tree are likely to raise a smile.

The great appeal of the "Mindfulness" book is that the whole mindfulness movement lends itself to especially snarky comment. Indeed, the target seems almost too easy. But, you take your parody targets where you find them and this book, again, hits the wicked bulls-eye about half the time, and the cheerfully amusing ring around the bullseye the rest of the time.

So, a cheerful bit of parody fun and a nice find. (Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
1317060
I thought I'd read enough of this book in the "Look Inside" feature to be safe in ordering a copy. Reading just a bit more of this cutesy-dialogue laden text convinced me otherwise. Here are some samples, starting on page 30. The speaker is Mother, the narrator, her son, replies.

[Mother:] "I'll say this to you just once: Don't make your poor old mother have to worry about you or I'll have to avenge you. It could get ugly." I sighed. "Aye aye, Your Majesty. I understand." "Good. I love you, son." "I'm moderately fond of you, too, lady." She twitched a smile. "I don't want to have to pull this car over and give you a whupping. I just had my nails done." She laughed, and I laughed with her.

Three pages later: [Mother:] "Make a note: Need to check on the business angle and look up Malcolm Sterling." "Already noted," I said back. [The author could have stopped here, but no-o-o-. He goes on:] "I'm both decorative and useful, remember?" "I knew there was a reason I spent nine hours in labor because of you."

Six pages later: [Narrator:] "Want me to tag along?" [Mother:] "Surely. Or am I expected to do all the work around here myself?" "So that's why I was born? Cheap labor?" I asked in mock indignation." "Seems a fair exchange for the ten hours of labor I put in dragging you out into the world." "Despite the fact that my grand first appearance into the world gets longer every time you mention it. I have it on good authority that I was born premature. I'm fairly certain I was trying to make a break for it."

I quit. I couldn't face another 240 pages of this drivel.
3058809
I did want to read some of the reviews. What's up with her cheeks? Is she storing nuts in there? Bill's nuts?
3159356
To be honest, I bought this book for my son.  When his friends saw the cover, they looked at him kind of funny.  His reply was  "hey it is from my mom  It has a cat on the cover."  Enough said.....
4010618
I just got this latest installment of the Bathroom Reader's series, and a quick glance of the titles of the entries should make it, if not Perpetually Pleasing, at least pleasantly perusable.
3855597
In addition to skimming the book, I also have heard the author speak as part of a workshop for my profession. I was amazed at how deeply disturbed she is, yet her lunacy came across in the most reasonable manner imaginable. This is important to know.
Firstly, the author seems to be a competent chemist. There's no way of actually vetting this aspect, but she presented herself to the degree where I must accept that at face value. Thus, her understanding of chemical properties, cause-and effect, empiricist discussions, etc., is acceptable, despite her arriving at arguably incorrect and inarguably reckless conclusions.
What is not acceptable is her particularly huge, unweildy doom-and-gloom axe. She grinds this axe because--by self-admission--was kept from doing each profession she engaged in. This is due to--and can I assume only from hearing her speak privately--the fact that she demonstrated to each employer that she is quite mentally unstable. (Yes, it is possible to be a compentent and even extremely intellegent scientist and still be a raving lunatic). Additionally, she is a extremly subtle 9/11 conspiracy theorist and, sadly, a very miserable person.

If you read the book--the salient issues are dwarfed by her bitterness, blinding rage, self-rightousness and the blink-and-you'll-miss-it-consiracy theories--one aspect will become clear: she's literally crazed with hatred, anger and bitterness towards her own society. She is the literal female form of Ted Kaziniski, the famed Unibomber. This comparison will tickle her funny bone, and fill her with much delight, which should tell you something!
It should be noted that the author's profession is Arts, Crafts and Theatre Safety. She is not a chemist, despite studying pre-med and chemistry. She is NOT a professional in that arena. It does not matter what her academic credentials or certifications are, or what she puts forward, as she has been barred by her own scientific community from working in the profession!

I would only advise purchasing this book second-hand, through a third-person transaction, for a low, low price, preferably only paid for shipping and handling. Or a quick look at your local library. The book itself is valueless to the professional looking to glean inside information (it's not very comprehensive for a serious scholar). For the layperson, she will astound you with the depth of her ability to spin specious hair-raising tales worthy of Nostodamus, but will leave you with a feeling of inexplicable self-loathing.