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Review: Keeper's Reach by Carla Neggers
Posted on August 31, 2015 August 30, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews
Format read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Series: Sharpe & Donovan #5
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: August 25, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository
Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan, two of the FBI's most valuable agents, are preparing for their next big assignment—their wedding—when Colin's brother Mike alerts them that onetime friends from his military past are on Sharpe and Donovan home turf on the Maine coast. Now private security contractors, they want to meet with Mike. One of them, an FBI agent named Kavanagh, is supposed to be on leave. What is he investigating—or does he have his own agenda?
Mike zeroes in on Naomi MacBride, a freelance civilian intelligence analyst who, aside from a few hot nights, has never brought him anything but trouble. Newly returned from England, Naomi clearly isn't telling Mike everything about why she's snooping around his hometown, but he has no choice but to work with her if he wants to uncover what's really going on.
But the case soon takes a drastic turn—Emma is targeted, and a connection surfaces between Naomi and Kavanagh and a recently solved international art theft case. Not every connection is a conspiracy, but as the tangled web of secrets unravels, Emma and Colin face their greatest danger yet. With everyone they know involved, they must decide who they can trust… or lose everything for good.
I got hooked on the Sharpe & Donovan series a few books ago, and at this point I've read them all. If you like romantic suspense featuring a couple of smart but opposite FBI Agents, start with Saint's Gate (reviewed here).
I'm also saying start at the beginning if you're interested in the new book, because the story relies a lot on past events and relationships. For series fans, it's a solid entry, but it does not stand alone.
This story takes place in Maine, as much of the series does. Colin and Emma originally hail from two relatively close small towns on the Maine Coast – Rock Point for Colin and Heron's Cove for Emma. Even though they are relatively close in age, they never met growing up. Rock Point seems to have been mostly blue-collar, and Heron's Cove is more middle and upper-middle class. Colin's family owns an inn, and one of his brothers is a lobsterman, while another does wilderness adventure tours on Maine's Bold Coast.
Emma's family are world-renowned art detectives. They recover precious art that someone else has stolen. And that's where a lot of the background of this particular story takes root. For a decade, Emma's grandfather Wendell has been chasing one particularly challenging thief. In the previous book in the series, Harbor Island (reviewed here) Emma finally tracks the man down, only to discover that her grandfather's art thief is a wealthy Brit with a dual identity who has covered his tracks way too well.
But now that the jig is up, Oliver Fairbarn/Oliver York has been quietly giving all of his stolen work back to the folks he stole it from. This is mostly a win/win, but Oliver is still rightfully worried that Interpol, or more likely MI5, is going to come knocking on his door.
Instead he gets a freelance intelligence analyst, a secretive FBI agent, and a possible unknown third party who attacks his assistant and takes his insane quest back to the U.S., only to deliver it to Colin Donovan and Emma Sharpe – in a very roundabout fashion.
But that's what finally gets him caught. Along with thinking that he is much, much cleverer than anyone chasing him.
It almost works.
Escape Rating B-: Keeper's Reach, as I said at the beginning, is not a good entry point for this series. Everyone in this book knows everyone else, and series readers will be familiar with the background. While the events that happen within the story are well-explained, there is a lot of nuance in the background that newbies will miss.
The story is all about everyone's past. Colin's brother Mike is the wilderness tour guide. His self-exile to a remote cabin on the Bold Coast is Mike's way of finding healing after a lot of shit he went through in the Army. In Afghanistan.
But Mike's experiences are all coming back to haunt him. The group that he worked with are all coming to Maine to see him, and to see if he can be recruited to do private security work. They are invading his territory, and bringing a lot of shit with them.
The weird thing about the group is that none of them seem to really trust each other. They all worked together, but there's also the possibility that there was a traitor in their midst even back then. And none of these folks are people to whom trust comes easily.
None of this is helped by Mike's romantic history with intelligence analyst Naomi MacBride. They had chemistry then, and they have chemistry now, but Naomi has a way of rushing in and putting herself in harm's way that Mike doesn't trust.
The story is told in the third person, but the perspective moves from one to another as the scene shifts. This worked well in Harbor Island, but it doesn't here.
One of the many things that go wrong in this story is that Emma gets kidnapped early on. She rescues herself about halfway through, but her kidnapping takes her out of the main action for too long. I missed her point of view.
With Emma out of the way, a lot of the story is told from Naomi MacBride's perspective. Naomi may be an intelligence analyst, but she is too emotionally involved in what is going on. She makes an unreliable narrator, in that she doesn't seem to tell herself everything she's thinking, and none of the other players in this game trust her (or each other) and everyone is investigating everyone else and keeping important secrets.
The story got much better when Emma got herself out of her prison, but then she shipped herself off to England to investigate that part of the trail. I missed her common sense perspective on events. A lot.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.
Posted in B Reviews, book reviewsTagged Carla Neggers, Harlequin MIRA, romantic suspense, Sharpe and Donovan
Posted on August 30, 2015 August 28, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Giveaways> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement
We survived Worldcon. The skies over Spokane looked like Mordor, but we survived. We also came home with con crud, really nasty colds. UGH!
We attended the Hugo Awards Ceremony Saturday night. I personally found the results as satisfying as possible under the circumstances. Mileage on that subject varied widely both during the Con and afterward in the blogosophere. Once the complete vote and nomination numbers were released, seeing the works that should have made the ballot but didn't because of the slate-rigging was heartbreaking. I'm kind of hoping this will die down a bit until January, when the run up to next year's nomination process begins. The rhetoric in this mess is even more hyperbole-filled than the U.S. Presidential race. There are plenty of pixels spilled on this topic at File770 and George R.R. Martin's Not a Blog if you want the excruciating details.
I'm going to go read a book. I need to find more good stuff to nominate next year.
Break Out, Deadly Pursuit and Death Defying (2 copies, paperback) + Temporal Shift (5 copies, ebook) by Nina Croft
Nina Croft First in Series (Break Out, Bittersweet Blood and Operation Saving Daniel) ebook prize pack
If You Only Knew by Kristan Higgins (paperback)
Winner Announcements:
The winners of the Clear Your Shelf Giveaway Hop are: Adriana (Back to You), Bethany N. (Armada), Michelle L. (Invasion of the Tearling), Janie M. (Bourbon Kings)
The winner of my ARC of A Pattern of Lies by Charles Todd is: Faye G.
A+ Review: The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny
B Review: Tequila Mockingbird by Rhys Ford
B- Review: The Last Time I Saw Her by Karen Robards
B+ Review: Blood and Metal by Nina Croft + Giveaway
Guest Post by Nina Croft on Living Forever + Giveaway
B+ Review: If You Only Knew by Kristan Higgins + Giveaway
Keeper's Reach by Carla Neggers (review)
Updraft by Fran Wilde (review)
Wildest Dreams by Robyn Carr (blog tour review)
Treasured by Thursday by Catherine Bybee (blog tour review)
Sloe Ride by Rhys Ford (review)
Posted in Giveaways, The Sunday Post, Virtual Nightstand, Winner announcementTagged fantasy, M/M romance, mystery, paranormal romance, romantic suspense, science fiction romance, TBR, women's fiction★ 1 Comment ★
Posted on August 29, 2015 August 28, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Stacking the Shelves
I managed to resist the impulse to buy out the Dealer's Room at WorldCon last weekend. I had a much more difficult time resisting suggestions in some of the publisher's showcase presentations I attended. All the Birds in the Sky is from the Tor Showcase, and Fated is from the Ace/Roc showcase. Just before the Ace/Roc presentation, I finished Jim Butcher's new steampunk book, The Aeronaut's Windlass (awesome, the review will be up when it publishes) and I was looking for something that, honestly, I wouldn't need to write up. I was getting lots of reading done but no time or energy to write up reviews at the end of the day. And I've learned that piling up six or more books to "brain dump" at the end of the week doesn't work very well.
Adding insult to injury, I came home with "con crud". This is not an official term, although it ought to be. When the skies over Spokane looked like Mordor on Friday due to the nearby forest fires, I thought my sore throat was just a reaction to the very bad air. No such luck. On Saturday the skies cleared up, but my throat didn't. It's been a long week. It's a good thing I always have plenty to read!
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
Exit of the Ascended by Neal Tyree
Wicked Ever After (Blud #4) by Delilah S. Dawson
Covered in Paint (Art of Love #5) by Donna McDonald
Cruising Speed (Art of Love) by Donna McDonald
Fated (Alex Verus #1) by Benedict Jacka
Posted in Stacking the ShelvesTagged contemporary romance, paranormal romance, science fiction, TBR, urban fantasy, Worldcon★ 4 Comments ★
Review: If You Only Knew by Kristan Higgins + Giveaway
Posted on August 28, 2015 August 27, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews> Giveaways
Formats available: paperback, ebook, large print, audiobook
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Wedding-dress designer Jenny Tate understands the happily-ever-after business, yet somehow she's still involved in her ex-husband's life. In fact, Owen's new wife may—inexplicably—be Jenny's new best friend. Sensing this, well, relationship isn't helping her move on, Jenny trades the Manhattan skyline for her hometown up the Hudson, where she'll be able to bask in her sister Rachel's picture-perfect family life…and hopefully make one of her own.
Her timing couldn't be more perfect, since Rachel will need her younger sister. Her idyllic marriage has just fallen to pieces in spectacular fashion after she discovers her husband sexting with one of his colleagues. Second chances aren't in Rachel's nature, but the desire for an intact family has her rethinking her stance on adultery, much to Jenny's surprise. Rachel points to their parents' "perfect" marriage as a shining example, but to protect her sister Jenny may have to tarnish that memory—and their relationship—and reveal a secret about their family she's been keeping since childhood.
During this summer of secrets and lies, temptation and revelation, Jenny and Rachel will rely on each other to find the humor in their personal catastrophes, the joy in their triumphs…and the strength to keep hanging on.
This is a story about secrets and sisterhood. And its heart is in the relationship between two sisters, Rachel and Jenny, and in the sure and certain knowledge that no one on the outside ever really knows what happens between the two people who make up a marriage.
And it's about a life-altering secret that achieves closure in the most surprising way.
Three women are trying to discover what comes next after they lose the man they think is the love of their life. Not just Jenny and Rachel, but also their mother.
Mom has been a professional widow for over 20 years by this point. She's never gotten over the sudden death of her supposedly perfect husband, and has become a person always looking for the dark side of life. If there's a silver lining, she's skipped looking for the cloud, and starts immediately searching for the mercury poisoning.
But dear old dad wasn't perfect. Not long before his death, Jenny caught him in the supply closet of his dental practice with one of his assistants, playing tonsil hockey. After dad's death, his secret became her secret – neither her sister nor her mother ever knew about dad's feet of clay.
Jenny always wonders whether things would have been, or would be, different if she let that particular cat out of the bag. It would certainly change her mother and sister's opinions of dad. But it might also destroy them. Or their relationship with Jenny. Shoot the messenger is not an uncommon reaction.
Instead, Jenny holds this secret close as she puts her life together after her divorce, and she watches Rachel's world fall apart after she finds her supposedly perfect husband sexting one of his associates.
The story is told in alternating points of view, switching from Jenny to Rachel. Jenny is still passively friendly with her ex and his new wife. He didn't cheat, he just fell out of love with her, got a divorce, and married and knocked up the first woman he met afterwards. But Owen also gets to have his cake and eat it, too. He gets to keep Jenny's friendship and have a perfect life in all the old familiar places that used to be Jenny's.
No wonder she moves away.
Rachel's world falls apart. She's always said that infidelity was a deal-breaker, but she also wants to keep her perfect life in her perfect house with her suddenly not-so-perfect husband and their triplet daughters. We watch her flail around as the secret and the ensuing distrust undermine her world and her sense of herself.
In the end, both Jenny and Rachel find a future that is different from what they had always imagined, but that might, possibly, be better than they dreamed. And that perfect is an illusion.
Escape Rating B+: I stayed up until 4 am to finish this. I started it and couldn't put it down.
Unlike some of the author's previous books, this one is definitely women's fiction (much as I hate that term) and not a contemporary romance. Jenny does find a relationship, but the resolution of that thread was not the backbone of the book. Instead, it's about finding herself, and also about Rachel figuring out her future.
There were a lot of times when I wanted to shake either Jenny or Rachel for their passivity. Jenny knows that it is insane to be best friends with her ex-husband and his new wife. Note that I'm not saying friendly, I'm saying besties. Friendly is good if it's manageable, because hate just eats at you. However, being an actual part of the life that used to be hers but isn't does not let Jenny move on. Staying too connected to Owen is holding her back and she knows it. But she doesn't make herself let go until near the end, and when she finally does, it made me want to stand up and cheer.
Rachel is in an awful position. It's not just that her husband has been having an affair and continues to lie about it, but the way that he projects all the blame onto her for his inability to keep it in his pants, and to expect that she has to instantly forgive and forget because she's a stay-at-home mother. I wanted to slap his smarmy, lying face. It's not that it isn't possible to rebuild trust after an affair, but that he expects all the work to be on Rachel's side, and that he doesn't have to do anything, including stopping the affair, in order to maintain his outwardly-seeming perfect life.
It takes Rachel a long time to finally realize that she can't go on like this. He's lying to her, and she's lying to everyone else. The scene where she finally puts the mess in terms that he can't ignore was awesome. And heartbreaking.
She also acknowledges that she has to do what Jenny has already done – figure out who she is and what she wants so that she can make a life for herself that might, someday, include someone else in it again. In her need to be a perfect wife and mother, and her exhaustion with caring for the triplets (OMG three babies) she has lost sight of her own person.
A lot of this story resonated with me. Rachel and Jenny's mother is all too much like my own mother, so the things that she said that drove them crazy were all too familiar. And crazy-making. I understood why Jenny didn't tell either her sister or her mother about their father's affair. Some pains are not helped by sharing them, and this is one of them. If he'd lived, it would have been different, but once the person is dead, it's too late.
And I did love that Jenny finally got closure on her dad's secret, just not in a way that she expected.
I'm giving away a paperback copy of If You Only Knew to one lucky U.S. commenter.
Posted in B Reviews, blog tours, book reviews, GiveawaysTagged contemporary romance, Harlequin HQN, Kristan Higgins, Little Bird Publicity, women's fiction★ 9 Comments ★
Posted on August 27, 2015 August 28, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | blog tours> Giveaways> Guest Posts
As part of the celebration of her latest fantastic Blood Hunter book (see today's review for deets) I'd like to welcome Nina Croft back to Reading Reality. In addition to the tour for Blood and Metal, Nina sent me a fantastic guest post about one of the central themes in a lot of her fiction. "Who wants to live forever?" along with that age-old romantic question, "If you could live forever, who would you want to spend it with?" As so many of her marvelous stories involve vampires and other immortals, this question comes up a lot. The answer, at least when Nina is answering the question, is always interesting.
Who wants to live forever?
by Nina Croft
Well, I do for one.
Of course, I might change my mind in a few thousand years, but until then it seems a way better option than the alternative.
I'm Nina Croft, and I write all sorts of romance often with a speculative element, and this week, BLOOD AND METAL, book 5 in my Dark Desires series releases.
The series is essentially science fiction romance with a paranormal twist and follows the adventures, romantic and otherwise, of the crew of the space ship, the Blood Hunter.
I hope readers find the series fun and sexy, but there is also an underlying deeper theme to all the books—that of man's fear of death and the search for immortality, whether through science, religion or by some paranormal means.
The idea of immortality, and the price people would be willing to pay to obtain it, has always fascinated me, and I believe it's one of the things that draws people to paranormal. It's part of the lure of the vampire—the fact that they cannot die (well not easily anyway). It's certainly one of the main things that draws me, as a writer, to the paranormal.
My Dark Desires series takes place in a future when man has fled to the stars and there they have discovered the secret of immortality—Meridian—a rare substance available to only a few. A new class has evolved; the Collective, super rich and immortal, they rule the universe. And just about everyone else is desperate to earn enough money to pay for the Meridian treatment. Though as the series goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that money isn't the only price to be paid. And some members of the Collective are getting a little squeamish.
The series began with Break Out. Ricardo Sanchez, my hero, is the owner and pilot of the ship. Unlike most of the civilized universe, Rico isn't interested in Meridian. He doesn't need it, because he's already immortal. Rico is a vampire and has lived a long time (he was born on Earth in the middle ages).
Move onto book 5. In Blood and Metal, Daisy, the co-pilot of the Blood Hunter, has never wanted immortality, rather it was thrust upon her when she was dying and Rico did the only thing he could to save her life…turn her into a vampire.
Fergal, our hero, on the other hand, doesn't so much want to live forever as he doesn't want to die (a slightly different goal but with the same results.) With that aim, he signed up for a totally experimental cybernetics programme, and is now dealing with some unexpected results.
So neither Daisy nor Fergal really wanted to live forever, but both are now immortal (if they get to survive the book), and they both have to learn to deal with that.
So what do you think? Would you like to live forever? And just how much would you be willing to pay? Let me know for a chance to win an ecopy of Break Out (book 1 in my Dark Desires series), Bittersweet Blood (book 1 in my Order series) and Operation Saving Daniel (book 1 in my Melville Sisters series).
About Nina Croft
Nina Croft grew up in the north of England. After training as an accountant, she spent four years working as a volunteer in Zambia which left her with a love of the sun and a dislike of 9-5 work. She then spent a number of years mixing travel (whenever possible) with work (whenever necessary) but has now settled down to a life of writing and picking almonds on a remote farm in the mountains of southern Spain.
To find out more about Nina, look for her at her website, Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter.
I have adored all of Nina's series, so I'm absolutely thrilled that she is letting me give away an ebook prize pack of the first books in her three series. The winner will receive ebook copies of Break Out (reviewed here) Bittersweet Blood (reviewed here) and Operation Saving Daniel (reviewed here). I'm a fan, so I'm happy to be able to share some of my favorites with a lucky commenter.
Posted in blog tours, Giveaways, Guest PostsTagged ebook giveaway, Entangled Publishing, giveaway, Nina Croft, paranormal romance, science fiction romance★ 7 Comments ★
Review: Blood and Metal by Nina Croft + Giveaway
Genre: science fiction romance
Series: Blood Hunter/Dark Desires #5
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
She's his last chance for redemption…if she doesn't kill him first.
Copilot of the Blood Hunter, Daisy is a newly-turned vampire, and she's hungry. Really hungry and it's interfering with her plans for revenge. Unfortunately, the only thing that can distract her from said hunger is sex…which is a problem when she can barely refrain from draining any man dry within moments. But old flame Fergal Cain might just be the sexy-assed solution to her problem.
Part human, part cyborg, and with a poison coursing through his system, Fergal's running out of time to find the scientist who has the cure. Unfortunately for him, the misfit crew of the Blood Hunter put a serious kink in his plans. And if the poison doesn't kill him, the hot little vamp he can't resist might do the honors herself…
Plant girl turned vampire meets intrepid reporter turned cyborg. Or at least that's one variation on the romance between Daisy, copilot of the Blood Hunter and Fergal Cain, escaped prisoner. However, there are many, many layers to both of their identities, and lots of both internal and external tension in this latest installment in the marvelous Blood Hunter series.
The previous book in this series, Temporal Shift (reviewed here) serves as a bit of a reboot for the series. During the events of that book, which take place on the other side of a wormhole, only six months pass for the crew of Blood Hunter. It's during those six months that Daisy, a genetically modified young woman with a whole lot of chlorophyll in her DNA, is nearly killed and is changed into a vampire in order to save her life.
The crew of the Blood Hunter has already lost some of their nearest and dearest in the galactic power struggle that they keep finding themselves in the middle of, and Rico, who swore that he would never turn anyone again, turns Daisy to keep her with them. Especially since her near-death is all his fault.
But Daisy the vampire is also a problem. She's hungry ALL THE TIME, and doesn't have enough control to manage her hunger. Her crewmates are now also food, but food she doesn't want to kill. Lucky for her, they are all immortal and can afford to feed her regularly. Rico tells her that sex will also quiet her hunger, but every single person on the Blood Hunter is part of a couple. Everyone has already found their soulmate, except for poor lonely and starving Daisy.
When they come back through the wormhole, they discover that 20 years has passed in the world they left behind, and everything has gone into the shitter. The very militant and anti-anyone-not-pure-human Church of Everlasting Life has taken control of everything, and people in general are either true believers or truly terrified.
The head of the church, Temperance Hatcher, is responsible for the deaths of too many of the Blood Hunter's crew. And he has two of the crew as hostages, Alex and Jon. Alex has been forced to resume her role as reluctant High Priestess in order to keep her husband Jon alive. (If you're curious about how they got together in the first place, read Deadly Pursuit (reviewed here) for the story of Alex' escape from the Church and their unlikely romance.)
In their first unsuccessful attempt to break Jon out of prison, the crew rediscovers Fergal Cain instead. When they first met, Fergal was an investigative journalist infiltrating a company that produced cyborgs. Twenty years later, Fergal is an escaped cyborg attempting to rescue the one man who knows the details of Fergal's condition, and the one man who can possibly keep him alive.
The Blood Hunter crew can't leave Fergal behind, they've just blown his cover as a prison guard. But Fergal is certain that he can't stay with the Blood Hunter, he's carrying too many deadly secrets that will either get them all killed, or get him tossed out an airlock. But when he and Daisy discover that they are everything the other one needs to cure everything that ails them, he can't make himself turn away.
Not even when it is much, much too late.
Escape Rating B+: I'll confess to being a bit confused by the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey bits in Temporal Shift, so it was great that the author put the crew back into normal space and into a story where time behaved normally again.
At the same time, the 20 year break served as an interesting reboot. When the crew left normal space it took the leaders of the two of the three major power groups with them. So the Collective and the rebel conclave both collapsed without their leaders and the Church very much ascendant took over everything.
Rabid theocracy is not anyone's friend in this book. In this case, the True Believers in human purity are unable to tolerate any deviance, either in DNA or in thought. The prisons are full and the people are scared, quite reasonably, to death.
Fergal Cain has a big secret that he is carrying through most of the book. However, it is a secret that is easily guessed by the reader. And my knowing what it was did not detract from the drama, because the tension always revolved around other people's reaction to that secret, not its existence.
Dais y and Fergal make a perfect pair. He is a cyborg, and he normally has to hold back on his strength and capabilities. Daisy is a vampire who is afraid to let down her guard out of fear that she might kill her partner. Except that Daisy discovers that while Fergal may be terrific in bed, he isn't food for her vampire. As a cyborg, he tastes terrible!
But that they are each able to let down their respective guards makes their intimacy, both physical and emotional, hard for them to resist. Fergal has never belonged to anyone or anything before, and his connection to Daisy, and through her to the crew of the Blood Hunter, kills his resolve to remain alone. It may be safer on his own, but he finally discovers that being connected to other people is worth it.
And Daisy finds herself in a relationship that is not just worth fighting for, but also worth living for, and someone with whom she may be able to share "forever".
If you like your science fiction romance with a heaping helping of non-stop action adventure, start this series with Break Out (reviewed here). You'll be glad you did.
As part of the tour, Nina is giving away 2 sets of the paperback copies of the first three books in the series, Break Out, Deadly Pursuit and Death Defying and 5 ecopies of Temporal Shift, book 4
Posted in B Reviews, blog tours, book reviews, GiveawaysTagged Bewitching Book Tours, Blood Hunter, book giveaway, Dark Desires, ebook giveaway, Entangled Publishing, Nina Croft, science fiction romance★ 4 Comments ★
Review: The Last Time I Saw Her by Karen Robards
Genre: paranormal romantic suspense
Series: Dr. Charlotte Stone #4
In this world, Dr. Charlotte "Charlie" Stone skillfully probes the twisted minds of incarcerated serial killers to better understand what makes them tick, and to help nab those who remain at large. But in the next world, Charlotte's ghostly lover—convicted killer Michael Garland—is facing death yet again. It seem the only way Charlie can snatch Michael from the jaws of oblivion is by proving his innocence. And this dead man's dead ringer may just be the key.
A mysterious stranger has turned up in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, and Charlie is shocked to realize he could be Michael Garland's identical twin. But she suspects the resemblance is only skin deep—and that behind the handsome face may lurk the perverse mind of a killer. While using all her keen profiling gifts, Charlie risks her life to discover the shocking secret that will clear Michael's name.
Then a breakout at Wallens Ridge State Prison forces Charlie to contend with a sudden swarm of psychopaths bent on spilling blood. No one has a better chance of tracking down the deadly fugitives than Charlie—unless the rampaging killers manage to find her first and make this case her last. But Michael will move heaven and hell—and even make a devil's bargain—for the chance to save Charlie's life, and feel her touch once more . . . if only for the final time.
The books in this series have all been train-wreck books for me. When I say train-wreck, I mean in the sense that I can't turn my eyes away, no matter how awful things get. I'd say they were crack, but having read my reviews of the earlier books in the series, they haven't always been that good.
But they sure as hell are compelling.
The premise is a grand mix of packages off the troperville trolley. Dr. Charlotte Stone is a psychiatrist who studies serial killers. Why? Because she survived a serial killer's rampage when she was a child, and she still feels guilty about hiding while her best friend was murdered in front of her.
Charlie Stone also sees dead people. So now we have a psychic psychiatrist.
It gets crazier. Charlie is writing up a study of serial killers at the local prison. She interviews these multiple murderers multiple times. It's a dangerous job, and Charlie feels like she's the one to figure out what makes these dudes tick.
Until her sexiest patient is shived right in front of her, and the ghost of serial killer Michael Garland attaches himself to Charlie Stone's life and work. And this is where we enter crazytown, because Charlie falls in love with the damn ghost. And surprisingly vice-versa.
Hey, if you're going to be crazy, go all the way!
When The Last Time I Saw Her starts, Charlie is in a bad way. At the end of the previous book, Her Last Whisper (reviewed here) Michael got sucked off to Spookyville for what looks like the last time. His soul is scheduled for demolition, and the only thing he is hanging on to is Charlie saying that she loves him. The demons that run Spookyville are tormenting him with visions of Charlie in danger, because, of course, she always is.
Consumed by grief, Charlie is at the end of her rope. Then two insane things happen. First, she meets a man who looks like Michael Garland's twin brother. Second, and much more typical for Charlie, she finds herself captured by a whole gang of escaped serial killers as the entire set of death row inmates at Wallens Ridge State Prison scoop up Charlie and a whole bunch of others in their surprisingly well planned prison break.
While heads will definitely roll at the prison when the escape is investigated, Charlie is much, much more worried that all of the hostages' heads will roll much sooner. All those men were in maximum security for damn good reasons, and now they're out and determined to get payback. Breaking Charlie is pretty high on their collective "to do" lists.
Fortunately for Charlie, and unfortunately for the escaped killers, one of the other hostages is Michael Garland's twin. And while the dude is unconscious, the real Michael makes a deal with his demon captors – if they let him save Charlie, he'll let them have his soul.
You guessed it, Michael takes over the body of his twin and saves Charlie. They have two days to experience what life would have been like if they'd met under anything like normal circumstances. Then he's gone forever.
Escape Rating B-: Rating this series is always confusing. I read this on a long flight over the weekend, and was at the 93% mark when the flight landed. I almost didn't get out of my seat because I wanted to finish SO BAD.
On that other hand, the premise for this series is utterly insane. Psychiatrist gets targeted by serial killers over and over and over, and she sees dead people. She falls in love with the baddest bad boy of them all, and tries to help him cheat death – or the afterlife – whatever.
And for most of the series, it's not just that he is a convicted serial killer, but that the case is airtight. While Charlie wants to believe that Michael didn't do it, it's hard not to think that's her heart (and other places further south) talking and not her head.
The one thing I didn't think was remotely possible in this mess was a happy ending, but the author managed to pull one out anyway. The method for doing so is one I've seen used in fanfiction a few too many times. Going back and changing the past, in order to make the future come out closer to what you want. This is the point where the story tripped completely into woo-woo territory.
But the ending, as hokey as it was, was surprisingly satisfying. Charlie drove me crazy every single step of the way, but I still wanted her to get her HEA. Even as my eyes roll at the way it was achieved.
All's fair in love and war and paranormal romance.
Posted in B Reviews, book reviewsTagged Ballantine Books, Dr. Charlotte Stone, Karen Robards, paranormal romance, Paranormal Romantic Thriller, romantic suspense★ 4 Comments ★
Review: Tequila Mockingbird by Rhys Ford
Genre: M/M Romantic Suspense
Series: Sinners #3
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Date Released: June 27, 2014
Lieutenant Connor Morgan of SFPD's SWAT division wasn't looking for love. Especially not in a man. His life plan didn't include one Forest Ackerman, a brown-eyed, blond drummer who's as sexy as he is trouble. His family depends on him to be like his father, a solid pillar of strength who'll one day lead the Morgan clan.
No, Connor has everything worked out—a career in law enforcement, a nice house, and a family. Instead, he finds a murdered man while on a drug raid and loses his heart comforting the man's adopted son. It wasn't like he'd never thought about men — it's just loving one doesn't fit into his plans.
Forest Ackerman certainly doesn't need to be lusting after a straight cop, even if Connor Morgan is everywhere he looks, especially after Frank's death. He's just talked himself out of lusting for the brawny cop when his coffee shop becomes a war zone and Connor Morgan steps in to save him.
Whoever killed his father seems intent on Forest joining him in the afterlife. As the killer moves closer to achieving his goal, Forest tangles with Connor Morgan and is left wondering what he'll lose first—his life or his heart.
I'm really enjoying this series. I'm reading the back numbers so that when I get to Sloe Ride next month, I'm all caught up.
Caught up in all the fun, that is.
This series blends two rather disparate groups that go even better together than peanut butter and chocolate, even though at first blush (not to mention all the blushes later!) they shouldn't.
The combination is of a "getting the band back together story" with an interconnected family romance – and the members of the band do not start out as members of the family, and half the band is dead. On the other hand, that solid family are all cops, so if someone is needed to investigate what went wrong, the detectives are right there.
But this series follows a pattern, and it's a good one (with one minor quibble which we'll get to later).
Sinner's Gin is dead, to begin with. The only surviving member was Miki St. John, and when the book Sinner's Gin begins (reviewed here) he's still in recovery, both from grief and from the accident that killed all his friends. When someone starts trying to kill him, he winds up in the very protective arms of San Francisco Police Lieutenant Kane Morgan. And so it begins.
In Whiskey and Wry (reviewed here), we discover that one of the other members of Sinner's Gin survived. Damien Mitchell is alive and not very well, locked in a sanitarium while guards and drugs try to convince him that he's someone else, and that Sinner's Gin is just a coma dream. Until someone tries to murder him, and he escapes to find Miki. He discovers Sionn Murphy, the killer nearly finds them both, and Damien finds Miki at a Murphy/Morgan Sunday dinner.
The other two members of Sinner's Gin are not coming back from the grave. This isn't that kind of story. Instead, Miki and Damien need a drummer and a bass player to get back on stage. Into that vacancy walks Forest Ackerman, a young drummer that they met in the way back, when Sinner's Gin was still scratching their way up, and Forest's adopted father owned a small recording studio. Their late drummer is the one who got Forest started on the drums. Now it's his turn to take that achingly vacant place.
But not before an awful lot of shit goes down. Just like in the previous two books in the series, someone is trying to kill Forest, for reasons that are not initially clear. When the killer starts by murdering Forest's dad, and tries to take out a bunch of cops in the process, Forest finds himself face to face (and body to body) with SFPD SWAT Lieutenant Connor Morgan.
The lust at first contact surprises them both, since Connor has always believed he was straight, and Forest has always believed that no one good could possibly care for him.
As they grope towards each other, and their possible future, the killer continues his attempts to remove Forest from the land of the living. And while it is great that he keeps missing Forest, he does a lot of collateral damage while he tries to zero in on his target.
When he hits Miki and Damien in yet another attempt to take out Forest, he brings the wrath of all the Morgans down on his head.
Escape Rating B: I enjoyed this story a lot. I was on the long flight home from Spokane to Atlanta, and it made the trip fly by. Pun intended. Speaking of puns, I also loved the two plays on words involved in the book. Tequila Mockingbird is a fairly common mangling of the much more famous title, To Kill a Mockingbird. If this doesn't make sense to you, just say the two titles out loud, one after another. The other bit of wordplay is in the name Forest Ackerman. Forest with one R is one of the protagonists of this story. Forrest Ackerman, with two Rs, is a famous "Golden Age" science fiction writer. Just having returned from Worldcon, which has an award named in Ackerman's honor, the similarity was a bit hard for this reader to miss, whether it was intended or not..
One of the strengths of this series is the Morgan family dynamic. They are amazing, and being adopted by them would be awesome. It is a family that sticks together and in a good way. In spite of some ups and downs and stresses and tensions, they are something that you don't often see in fiction, especially the families of the protagonists – the Morgan family is absolutely the opposite of dysfunctional. Not that the members of the family don't have stuff to overcome, but whatever it is, it isn't a result of parental abuse or divorce or anything else nasty within the family. Donal and Brigid love and support all of their children and whoever they drag in. And also, the author has made it abundantly clear that the spark between Donal and Brigid is alive and well, even though they've raised 8 children to adulthood.
Because the Morgan children mostly have their respective acts together, it stands to fictional reason that the people they bring home with them are particularly damaged, even though they are all very strong in their broken places. Forest is no exception.
His biological mother pimped him out until he was old enough and emotionally strong enough to break away physically if not necessarily emotionally. He was adopted by Frank Marshall, an old hippie who gave him a home and structure and sent him to school, and more importantly didn't expect to either get a blow job or use him as a punching bag in return. When that old hippie is murdered at the beginning of the story, it sets Forest's world into a tailspin. Just because Forest is legally an adult doesn't mean he is remotely ready to let go of the only stable and good person in his life.
Connor steps into the breach, literally, as he is the one who holds Forest as he cries for the man he called "Dad". What surprises Connor is how much Forest gets under his skin. Connor is the oldest Morgan child, and he always expected to grow up to be his father. That meant becoming a cop, rising in the ranks, finding a wife, having a family. Finding a husband instead has never been on his conscious radar, so falling for Forest throws Connor for an internal loop of epic proportions.
In the middle of the internal angst, there's the big external elephant in the room. At first, Frank Marshall's death looks either like an accident or possibly murder for gain. But when someone starts targeting Forest and the studio and coffee shop he inherited, it begins to look like something else.
This is my quibble with the book. As much as I love the Morgans, and loved Connor and Forest together, and I especially loved seeing Forest become part of whatever Miki and Damien's new band is going to be, the reasons for the suspense in this series are getting a bit further out there.
The band that replaces Sinner's Gin should probably be named the Bad Luck Bunch, or something along that line. The reason why Miki got targeted in Sinner's Gin made sense. While the reasons for Damien's troubles almost made sense, the explanations didn't quite cover the motives completely. And for Forest, the killer's motives end up being pretty far out in la-la land. No group this small should be the target of this many completely separate crazed killers. On this score my mind is officially boggled.
But I still love the series and I'm definitely looking forward to Sloe Ride next month. It's going to be especially fun to see the Morgan in the story as the protectee instead of the protector for a change.
Posted in B Reviews, book reviewsTagged Dreamspinner Press, M/M romance, Rhys Ford, romantic suspense, Sinners★ 1 Comment ★
Review: The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny
Format read: ebook provided by the publisher via Edelweiss
Series: Chief Inspector Gamache #11
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardly a day goes by when nine year old Laurent Lepage doesn't cry wolf. From alien invasions, to walking trees, to winged beasts in the woods, to dinosaurs spotted in the village of Three Pines, his tales are so extraordinary no one can possibly believe him. Including Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache, who now live in the little Quebec village.
But when the boy disappears the villagers are faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true.
And so begins a frantic search for the boy and the truth. What they uncover deep in the forest sets off a sequence of events that leads to murder, leads to an old crime, leads to an old betrayal. Leads right to the door of an old poet.
And now it is now, writes Ruth Zardo. And the dark thing is here.
A monster once visited Three Pines. And put down deep roots. And now, Ruth knows, it is back.
Armand Gamache, the former head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec, must face the possibility that, in not believing the boy, he himself played a terrible part in what happens next.
As much as I love this series, and all the characters in it, I would not want to live in Three Pines. Quebec. The murder rate is much too high. I can see the tourist brochures now – Come to Three Pines if you're tired of your life. With the subtext that your life will probably end if you go there.
The regulars all survive. Often not unscathed, but survive. This is a place that people come to for sanctuary, and often stay. Providing they survive their initial introduction.
For a story that starts small, The Nature of the Beast brings in a wider and wider world, even though its entire physical setting is that one small village in Quebec.
We start with one myth, the boy who cried wolf, and end with another, the Whore of Babylon. While that seems like quite a stretch, the path from one to another ultimately becomes clear, even as it obscures who is responsible for the evils that rain down on this place.
A little boy loves to roam the woods around Three Pines, and make up stories about the monsters he finds. Laurent Lepage is not just very imaginative, he's also an excellent salesperson – he does all too good a job at getting people to believe his fantastic tales. But Laurent has been doing this since he was 6, and at age 9 people are generally wise to him. So when he bursts into the local Bistro claiming that he found a gun bigger than his house with a monster on it, no one believes.
And, just as in the fable about the boy who cried wolf, this time he is telling the truth. And it gets him killed.
Three Pines has been hiding a terrible secret. 40 years ago an arms dealer, a genius engineer, and a serial killer built a gigantic gun in the woods near Three Pines. Over time, the arms dealer was murdered, the engineer died, and the serial killer got caught. But the gun remained under camouflage netting until poor little Laurent found it, and touched off a series of murders, a witch hunt, and very nearly a prison break.
Chief Inspector Gamache, formerly of the Surete du Quebec, has retired with his wife Reine-Marie to the village of Three Pines. He became famous for rooting out the long-standing corruption in the Surete, and retired or perhaps retreated, to Three Pines to heal.
But murder, and his past, keep finding him. He is the first to think that Laurent did not die in a bicycle accident, but was murdered. And it is he that starts the search for the boy's trail, and discovers the gun known in the arms trade as Big Babylon.
This Supergun was purported to be able to shoot a payload into low-earth-orbit using mechanical energy only – no electronics. The aiming, however was so imprecise that it could only be used on a very big target, like a city. It is a weapon of mass destruction, and the rumors said that it was purchased by Saddam Hussein. Luckily, he never got it.
During the story I kept wondering if the reason that the image of the Whore of Babylon was etched onto the gun's base was for Saddam's benefit. The reason turns out to be much more chilling than I imagined.
The discovery of the gun brings a host of interested parties to Three Pines. Laurent's death has already brought Gamache's former colleagues to the village. Isabelle Lacoste is now Chief of Homicide, Gamache's old position, and Jean-Guy Beauvoir, originally Gamache's second, is now hers. They are there for the murder.
Following in their wake are a retired physics professor and finally, two agents of the Canadian Security Service. The professor knew the arms dealer, and the Security Officers claim to be paper pushers who just so happen to be experts in the arms dealer, and especially in the Supergun he planned to sell. Or sold.
After a second death, both investigations heat up, and go at cross purposes. This is a case where everyone has secrets, and everyone's secrets get in the way of anyone else finding the truth. They are all going in circles, and they all suspect each other of agendas that may not be for the greater good.
Into the middle of it all, a bigger threat than anyone imagined. The one person left alive who might know the truth of the whole mess is a convicted serial killer, locked in maximum security for a series of murders so heinous that his trial was kept secret. Gamache is the only person who knows who the man really is or just how much he has done.
The question facing the retired Chief is a terrible one – will the world be better off with a soulless serial killer on the loose but the plans for the doomsday gun found and safe, or will it be better to keep the devil locked up and let the world hunt for the Supergun plans throughout Three Pines, with all the chaos and destruction that will cause?
Which is the greater good?
Escape Rating A+: This one kept me up until 3 am. I had to finish. And as usual with this series, it's the way that events affect the people involved that stick with me, and not necessarily the case itself.
This is also a case that fools the reader, as well as the detectives, right up to the end. The story starts with "Who killed Laurent?" but we and the detectives all get so sidetracked by the Supergun that we lose sight of the dead boy. We all think we know the motive for his murder (and the one that follows) but no one seems to fit the frame for the murderer.
The tie to the serial killer seems to come from left field. At first, the detectives think that Gamache is grasping at straws when he brings the man's name into the investigation. At the end, of course, he's right. He's always right in the end, no matter how many times he seems to go off course in the middle. And this course looked very far fetched when it is first introduced. It's only at the end where we discover just how deliberate this particular piece of misdirection was.
And through the entire story range the people of Three Pines. By this point in the series, we know them and love them – even the cantankerously nasty poet Ruth Zardo and her duck Rosa. It is Ruth that is both shielding the present from the awful past, and who provides the insights that make the solution possible. And it's Ruth who provides a surprising amount of compassionate healing to those who are left needing it most. Just as she did with Jean-Guy at the end of How The Light Gets In (enthusiastically reviewed here)
The part of the story that is sticking with me are the open questions that are left at the end. Gamache has healed enough that he needs to find a second act for his life. He's not yet 60, and there is plenty of time for him to leave his mark again in some other service. He still feels the need to fight injustice, right wrongs and solve murders. There are plenty of places begging for him to come and lead them.
At the same time, the serial killer is a manipulative murdering bastard who is looking for a way out of prison and back into the world where he can commit more sick crimes. He knows Gamache's name, and obviously spends his life planning his next action. Or evisceration. I have a feeling that he will (unfortunately for Gamache) be back.
And then there's the Supergun, and everything it brought with it. It's not just that the behemoth is out there in the woods, it's that there are now members of the illegal arms trading community who know where it is and where to look for information on it. Some of those completely unscrupulous people know that Gamache and his colleagues thwarted them this time, and there's a chance they'll want payback.
But the big questions are the hard ones. Do the ends justify the means? Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or of the one? And if they do, who decides which are which? And last, particularly in regards to the security community – Who watches the watchers?
Those are the questions that haunt Gamache at the end of this book, and I expect will play a big part of the next. They are certainly haunting me.
Posted in A Reviews, book reviewsTagged Chief Inspector Gamache, Louise Penny, Minotaur Books, mystery★ 2 Comments ★
Posted on August 23, 2015 August 20, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Giveaways> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand
This is weird. I'm writing this before we leave for Sasquan, but by the time you read it, we'll be on our way back. From here, I'm hoping that our suitcases won't be overloaded with books, but that may be a vain hope. I try to resist picking up print books in the dealer's room, because most of what I see I either have an eARC, or I'm willing to wait to get as an ebook. Howsomever, the one thing that is still better with print is signed books. For that, you need a physical copy. I know John Scalzi will be at Sasquan, which means a print copy of The End of All Things is definitely in my bookish future. As for the rest, we'll see.
Because I'm writing this so far ahead, it is possible that next week's schedule will be affected by what I manage to read (and OMG write up) while we are at the Con. In other words, contents may shift as the week (or the box) settles.
Four books from my shelves in the Clear Your Shelf Giveaway Hop
A Pattern of Lies by Charles Todd (paperback ARC)
A- Review: Daring by Elliott James
B+ Review: Tales: Short Stories Featuring Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford by Charles Todd
C+ Review: Three Moments of an Explosion by China Miéville
Clear Your Shelf Giveaway Hop
A Review: A Pattern of Lies by Charles Todd + Giveaway
The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny (review)
Tequila Mockingbird by Rhys Ford (review)
The Last Time I Saw Her by Karen Robards (review)
Blood and Metal by Nina Croft (blog tour review)
If Only You Knew by Kristan Higgins (blog tour review)
Posted in Giveaways, The Sunday Post, Virtual NightstandTagged contemporary romance, essays, historical mystery, M/M romance, paranormal romance, romantic suspense, science fiction, science fiction romance, TBR, urban fantasy, Worldcon


PHOENIX, Sept. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — President of BioElectronics Corporation (OTC Pink:BIEL) ("the Company") goes back onto the "Stock Day" podcast. BioElectronics Corporation is a leader in non-invasive electroceuticals and the maker of the unique product line of disposable, drug-free, pain therapy devices: ActiPatch® Therapy, over-the-counter treatment for back pain and other musculoskeletal complaints; RecoveryRx® Devices for chronic and post-operative wound care; and the Allay® Menstrual Pain Therapy. For more information, please visit www.bielcorp.com.
Andy Whelan spoke with Everett Jolly about BioElectronics' progress in the US and UK markets, the US FDA status, new distributors and marketing partnership opportunities, and the use of ActiPatch for post-operative pain to mitigate opioid use.
The Company has submitted an FDA 510(k) application for market clearance for the broad treatment of musculoskeletal pain, (back pain, knee pain, muscle, hip, carpal tunnel, etc.). The Company has also applied to participate in the FDA's Opioid Innovation Challenge program and is in progress with a separate application for post-operative pain reduction market clearance. Post-operative pain accounts for a substantial use of opioids. Whelan stated "we have empirical evidence from our UK User Registry where 65% of opioid users reported a reduction in opioid use and 23% reported complete elimination of its use.
Internationally, "we're picking distribution in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Russia and the Ukraine," Whelan said.
About BioElectronics Corporation: BioElectronics develops, manufactures, and markets unique drug free, noninvasive neuromodulation pain therapy medical devices. The Company's technology platform is for the treatment of central sensitization, which is now widely accepted as the physiological explanation for many neurological disorders, and specifically, chronic pain.


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December Issue 2016
Still in the Anger Mode
One From the Heart
My first awareness of Truck Art dates back to the '70s when, as an art…
Assimilation or Alienation?
So Donald Trump has won the American presidency. The predominant fear expressed by Muslims in…
"We" and the "Other"
Senator Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan Nasar of the ruling party recently stated in a House…
Cash-based economies face persistent threats from counterfeiters who, for obvious reasons, prefer dealing in fake…
BISP: Wasting the Taxpayer's Money?
In the 2008 general elections, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) came to power riding on…
Cover Story: Panamagate: Which way will the scales tip?
All eyes are set on the proceedings of the money-laundering case against Prime Minister…
The first Sindh Literature Festival (SLF) ended with music and a few resolutions on November…
Interview: Jibran Nasir
Jibran Nasir is a lawyer and political activist. He first became known for his relief…
Interview: Ali Zafar
One of Pakistan's most loved superstars, Ali Zafar is a man of many parts —…
Art Review: Shammi Ahmed
Shammi Ahmed's inclination to paint the female face is an enduring one. She displayed her…
Pak-Afghan relations were already strained, but certain recent incidents have added to the tension…
Pumping Poison
The last 24 hours of Ali Farooq's life were like those of any…
One Way War
Each day one wakens to a news bulletin about the killing of random civilians. The…
Art Review: Muhammad Atif Khan
Sanat Gallery marked a significant milestone in November by celebrating its 50th show in just…
Newsliners: Steeped in Tradition
Pakistan's famous qawwals, Ghayoor-Moiz-Mustafa Qawwal completed their first independent tour of the United States, in…
Newsliner: To the Manor Born
Hasan Shehryar Yasin's latest project — the HSY Mansion — is sure to wow his…
Lahore's Smart Future
Lahore's landscape has been changing at such a rapid pace that a little bit of…
The Battle for South Punjab
A respected lawyer from south Punjab, Speaker of the National Assembly during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's…
Coming up Trumps
You have to get India involved. India's the check to Pakistan," Trump said on September…
Whitening Black Money
The decision made by the Indian government recently to demonetise Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000…
Movie Review: Rahm
It is good to see experimental cinema breaking new ground in Pakistan. One such effort…
Paris and After
The UN Climate Change Conference that took place in Paris two years ago, which was…
A Graveyard of Ships and Souls
[caption id="attachment_20922" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Pakistani men gather as they wait for missing relatives in front…
Gadani: An Accident Waiting to Happen
A resident of Altaf Nagar in Orangi Town, Karachi, Kamran Ali doesn't remember the exact…
Review: Abdullah
It can be difficult separating Abdullah: The Final Witness from the real-life controversies that surround…
Review: Dobara Phir Se
Dobara Phir Se is packaged and branded as Mehreen Jabbar's foray into the commercial cinema…
The Bajwa Playbook
Our story begins in Lahore in the 1960s, where a newly orphaned boy, the youngest…
Review: Jeewan Hathi
So grateful that Pakistan's born again, albeit still fledgling film industry is slowly finding its…
Editor's Note: December 2016
Last month, a National Assembly session convened to discuss a motion on the situation along…
By Rahimullah Yusufzai | Newsbeat National | Published 3 years ago
Pak-Afghan relations were already strained, but certain recent incidents have added to the tension and made it even more difficult to mend the uneasy relationship between the two neighbouring countries.
The Pakistani initiative in the summer of this year to start implementing its border management plans was not viewed favourably by the Afghan government and it continues to remain a sticking point. In fact, it triggered clashes at the Torkham border in July, causing casualties among soldiers on both sides and a significant drop in their trade. Though Pakistan subsequently managed to complete the border management at Torkham to disallow the entry of Afghans to Pakistan without visas and installed the gate that the Afghan government had resisted all along, the incident pushed Pak-Afghan distrust to the limit.
Many Afghans believe the border management is part of Pakistan's game-plan to force Afghanistan to give up its old, inflexible stand on the Durand Line and formally recognise it as an international border. No recent Afghan government has recognised the Durand Line as the de jure border, whether it was the monarchy under King Zahir Shah, the Republican regime of President Sardar Daoud Khan, the communist regimes from 1978-1992 and those led by the mujahideen, the Taliban and, finally, the pro-West presidents, Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani.
Pakistan has been keen to resolve the border issue, once and for all. The Afghans, however, are not pushed and every government in Kabul has been arguing that only the Afghan nation has the authority to decide this issue. They don't explain how the Afghan nation would make this decision — through the traditional Loya Jirga, the elected parliament or by a referendum.
Former President Hamid Karzai is fond of claiming that on each of his more than 20 visits to Pakistan during his 14-year rule, the Pakistani rulers asked him to accept the Durand Line as the international border. At a recent Track-II Dialogue in Islamabad between Afghan and Pakistani participants coming from different walks of life, a few Pakistani delegates stated that Pak-Afghan relations would not improve unless Kabul formally recognised the Durand Line. In response, an Afghan participant said the two countries should set the Durand Line issue aside and work on improvements in other areas, including trade and people-to-people contacts, as so many other countries bogged down by intractable disputes have done.
Linked with the border issue was the surprising recent decision by the Pakistan authorities to hold the first-ever public flag-lowering ceremony at the country's Chaman border post adjoining Afghanistan. It reminded one of such a ceremony at the Wagah border with India, when soldiers on both sides of the gate indulge in an aggressive display of nationalistic zeal and fervour, parading perilously close to each other amid applause by fired-up spectators on both sides of the border listening to patriotic songs. The Chaman ceremony held in November by the paramilitary Frontier Corps soldiers was watched by local tribal elders and was widely reported by the media. It isn't quite clear why this ceremony was introduced, but the idea seems to be to make it clear that this is an international border, despite the opposition by the Afghans.
One felt the Afghan government may respond in kind by organising a flag-lowering ceremony on its side of the border at Spin Boldak, sited across the Durand Line from Chaman. This hasn't been done yet, but Kabul reacted strongly through a statement that termed the Chaman ceremony as inappropriate, provocative, and against the previous bilateral commitments. It warned that such ceremonies in the present sensitive situation could cause further deterioration in the Pak-Afghan relations and increase tension on the border. It reminded Pakistan that the residents on both sides of the Durand Line enjoyed brotherly relations throughout history and protested against the pressures being brought on people in Pakistan's border areas to obtain visa for travel to Afghanistan. The statement advised Pakistan to concentrate more on the fight against terrorism, instead of holding special military ceremonies.
The border issue has been hanging fire since Pakistan's independence from British colonial rule in 1947. In fact, Afghanistan was the only country in the world to oppose Pakistan's membership of the United Nations, primarily due to its non-recognition of the 2,500-kilometres long Durand Line and its support for the Pakhtunistan cause of giving the right of self-determination to the Pakhtun and Baloch people. Pakistan has insisted all along that the 1893 demarcation by the British diplomat Mortimer Durand is a settled issue and that it inherited the border at the time of independence.
With the uneasy Pak-Afghan relations touching new lows and political and diplomatic contacts becoming few and far between, the brief meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Ashraf Ghani in the Turkmenistan capital, Ashgabat, on November 26 on the sidelines of an international conference, raised hopes about renewal of efforts to mend their ties. It cannot be termed a breakthrough, but it is possible the contacts would be revived, leading to yet another attempt at peace-building in Afghanistan. Kabul is angry with Islamabad for failing to bring the Afghan Taliban leadership based in Pakistan to the negotiations table and for refusing to take military action against the irreconcilable elements among the Taliban. Islamabad wants Kabul to offer something concrete to the Taliban to make them give up fighting. It has been accusing Kabul of harbouring Pakistani militants on its soil and allowing India to use Afghan territory to destabilise Balochistan and FATA.
Another issue that has strained relations between the two countries is Pakistan's recent move to send back the almost three million Afghan refugees, both documented and undocumented, to Afghanistan. Pakistani officials insist that the presence of such a large number of Afghan refugees, particularly those who are undocumented, is a security risk because the refugee localities serve as hiding places for insurgents involved in terrorist attacks in both countries. Afghanistan wanted Pakistan to extend the stay of the Afghan refugees as it didn't have the resources to resettle them at a time when Iran too was pushing the Afghans back into their homeland and there were also more than a million internally displaced Afghans. However, this time Pakistan is determined to repatriate all the Afghan refugees after hosting them for more than three decades, but it has extended the deadline for their return, yet again.
An Afghan refugee who stood out during this crisis was Sharbat Gula, now in her early 40s, and made famous by her picture as a 12-year-old taken by American photographer Steve McCurry in the Nasir Bagh camp in Peshawar in 1984. That picture of the "Afghan girl with the piercing green eyes" which appeared on the cover of National Geographic had symbolised the plight of the Afghan people as a result of displacement caused by the Soviet invasion in December 1979. Steve McCurry had returned to Peshawar in 2002 with a National Geographic TV channel crew to search for her and film a documentary around the search.
Pushed into the limelight, this simple housewife, once again, grabbed media headlines when the Pakistani authorities arrested and tried her in a court for fraudulently acquiring Pakistan's identity card. The court subsequently sentenced and fined her and ordered her deportation. This caused outrage as Sharbat Gula, now a widow taking care of her four children due to the death of her husband Rahmat Gul, had already suffered enough. Pakistan could have treated her humanely, allowed her to stay and even offered her citizenship to earn goodwill worldwide. Instead, she was deported during the night via the Torkham border. The Afghan government welcomed her warmly, with President Ghani and his wife receiving her and her children at the presidential palace and gifting her with a flat.
Pakistan lost an opportunity to earn the gratitude of the Afghan people — and President Ghani's government got a chance to present Islamabad in a bad light.
Rahimullah Yusufzai is a Peshawar-based senior journalist who covers events in the NWFP, FATA, Balochistan and Afghanistan. His work appears in the Pakistani and international media. He has also contributed chapters to books on the region.
Copyright © 2020 All Rights reserved by Newsline Magazine.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
@implementation NSString (NAUtils)

- (NSData *)na_dataFromHexString {
  if ((self.length % 2) != 0) {
    return nil;
  }

  const char *chars = [self UTF8String];
  NSMutableData *data = [NSMutableData dataWithCapacity:self.length / 2];
  char byteChars[3] = {0, 0, 0};
  unsigned long wholeByte;

  for (int i = 0; i < self.length; i += 2) {
    byteChars[0] = chars[i];
    byteChars[1] = chars[i + 1];
    wholeByte = strtoul(byteChars, NULL, 16);
    [data appendBytes:&wholeByte length:1];
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  return data;
}

@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
ACWA Power marks the inauguration of 300 MW first stage of Shuaa Energy 3 PSC
rsz_photo5
Inauguration marks another transformative moment in Dubai's energy transition strategy
Inauguration represents a significant milestone for the ACWA Power led consortium in the path towards full operational capacity at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park
USD 570 million project awarded at a world-record tariff of US 1.6953 cents per kWh last year
Dubai, UAE: 23 August 2021: ACWA Power, a leading Saudi developer, investor, and operator of power generation and water desalination plants, announced the official inauguration of the 300 MW first stage of the 900 MW Shuaa Energy 3 PSC, the fifth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai. The ceremony was held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and in the presence of several notable Dubai government figures, as well as HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, and Mohammad Abunayyan, ACWA Power's Chairman.
The inauguration of the project marks another transformative moment in Dubai's continued energy transition and energy diversification strategies, and its development plans. The 900 MW fifth phase was awarded to an ACWA Power led consortium at a world record tariff of 1.6953-dollar cent per kWh last year and brings the current production capacity of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park to 1,313 MW.
Once fully operational, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park will be the largest single-site solar park in the world based on the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model, with a planned production capacity of 5,000 MW, saving over 6.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually.
Shuaa Energy 3 PSC is the special purpose vehicle incorporated for the project, with 60 percent owned by the Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA) and the remaining 40% split between ACWA Power and Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC).
The inauguration of the first part of the fifth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai reinforces ACWA Power's commitment to supporting Dubai's ambitious strategy to balance economic growth and environmental sustainability, contributing to Dubai's reputation as a global player in green economic transformation, and a driver of global carbon footprint reduction
Mohammad Abunayyan, ACWA Power Chairman
"I would like to express my sincere gratitude, on behalf of ACWA Power, to HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, for both his attendance and this inauguration ceremony, in recognition of this momentous achievement, which was executed in record time – under 12 months – despite the negative operational impact of the pandemic. None of this would have been possible without the support of our long-term partner, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, led by HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, who have been invaluable throughout in the delivery of this project at the highest safety and quality standards," continued Abunayyan.
Shuaa Energy 3 PSC is expected to power 270,000 residential units, and offset carbon emissions amounting to 1.18 million Tons per year in Dubai. The project will use the latest bifacial photovoltaic solar panels, which captures sunlight on both sides of the panel and produces energy with an advanced solar tracking system to increase generation efficiency by 20%.
The project will feature a state-of-the-art automated solar panel cleaning system, with 2662 automatic cleaning robots positioned around the plant. The system guarantees a cleaning factor of 99.3%, further optimising the productivity and operational capability of the plant.
The 13MW photovoltaic first phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park became operational in 2013. The 200MW photovoltaic second phase of the solar park, developed by ACWA Power, was launched in March 2017. Work on the fourth phase 950 MW, CSP and PV hybrid Noor Energy 1 is underway and on track by an ACWA Power led consortium. The fifth phase of the solar park is expected to be commissioned in phases later this year.
ACWA Powers obtains Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) accreditation for excellence in procurement and supply chain management
ACWA Power signs cooperation agreement with Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking to finance new projects
ACWA Power inks strategic agreement with Saudi Arabia's Institute of Internal Audit


We're delighted to announce the launch of Wordfluential , our shiny new company, designed to be out the box ready to make the most of the new and emerging ways of talking to audiences about everything that you do.
Formally known as Onshore Media, we've reconfigured, re-booted and polished our pixels. And, with the help of our talented friends @MutantCreative we have a bold new look, a brand new website and tons of exciting stuff to say. So if you're wondering how to get your brand talked about - get in touch!


After a career in major cider manufacturing and a break to bring up her young family Susan Vaughan decided to start making high quality cider with her brother Robert Hancocks on the family's Herefordshire farm.
Their family has been growing fruit and hops on their farm for over 100 years. They draw on that heritage and the abilities acquired from a history in the cider and brewing industry. Their farm has extensive cider apple orchards and they use 100% home grown cider apples to make their range of ciders.


In 3 Point Challenge, located in the Kissing Tower Hill℠ area, players take 12 shots in 45 seconds. Players must take 4 shots each from 3 designated locations around the basketball court. 1 point is earned for each brown basketball made and 2 points are earned for each green basketball made. Players that score at least 4 points will win a prize.


Discussion in 'MacBook Air' started by donl1150, Feb 7, 2017.
The computer is working just fine I simply want more storage space. I have a complete backup on my network using Time Machine to my AirPort Time Capsule. I am running Windows 7 via Parallels Desktop 11 and have many programs, both Mac and Windows, that are also working just fine. What is the best way to go about this installation and transfer?
Make sure my backup is current.
Remove original SSD and install it in the Envoy enclosure.
Install new SSD into the Mac.
Using Command R, boot up to Mac OS Utilities with the Envoy.
Install Mac OS onto new SSD in the MacBook.
With Utilities & Time Machine, transfer a complete copy of EVERYTHING to the new SSD.
Disconnect the Envoy and boot up the computer via the new SSD.
Does this plan of action accomplish what I hope it will?
CCC will allow you to clone a "live" partition but DU will not, and that's why you have to use the DU from the recovery partition.
I prefer CCC. Put the OWC disk into your Air and the original Apple SSD to the Envoy enclosure (Envoy enclosure will not accept the OWC disk and there is a warning about not putting the OWC disk into the Envoy by the way). Then boot your machine as you hold down the alt/opt key to see the boot disk options. Chose the original disk in the Envoy enclosure.
Once the machine finishes booting, you will practically be using your Air as it exists, however, it is operating from the external USB. Ignore iCloud passwords and Dropbox passwords if they are asked at this stage.
Start the CCC and clone the external Envoy disk to the internal OWC disk. If CCC asks you to create the Recovery Partition on the new OWC drive, say yes and create the Recovery Partition on the new drive.
Once the cloning is finished, restart normally. Your Air will boot from the internal drive this time and you will be practically continuing from where you left on your new OWC drive.
You can use the DU to clone the Envoy to the OWC drive in a similar fashion if you wish. Your procedure steps 1-5 inclusive is fine but from step 5 on, use the DU from the utility menu.
However, I prefer CCC because it is also an excellent backup program to use as an alternative or addition to the Time Machine.
Just use CCC to clone everything from the old ssd (still in the MBA) into the new ssd (in the kit), then swap the 2 ssd's. AFAIK, CCC not only copies the files, but the OS and boot sectors as well. When you turn the MacBook on with the new ssd everything should be in place. I've done twice on my 2012 MBP, when I upgraded my hd to sshd, and then from the sshd to ssd.
Don't do that. OWC specifically warns that Envoy is only compatible with the original Apple SSD and NOT with the OWC SSD.
I stated that in my previous post.
Good point which I absolutely agree. In fact, I had to shave my Aura 480 Pro to make it fit into my 11" Air.
If I was going to buy a third party SSD these days, I'd go for the Transcend JetDrive.
Thanks for the input.....albeit I found it a bit too late. This new drive soon to be installed will be a replacement for the OWC that failed. I bought it in July last year so it looks like I got quite a few good months out of it. Working with their support staff was a decent experience and after a few tests, they quickly provided me with an RMA to send it back to them for replacement. That was yesterday so I will see how quickly it arrives. I will give this one a try but apparently I should not be surprised to see another failure.
Thanks for the advice on installation/transfer and also the heads up on OWC products. I will report back should I experience another failure.
Don't use CCC! While it was a useful tool in the past it just makes a mess with the newer OS's. Best to use Apples Migration assistant after installing a fresh copy of the OS.
Don't use CCC! While it was a useful tool in the past it just makes a mess with the newer OS's.
You are the first person I have ever seen post that. What problems have you had with CCC?
Myself and many of us on the forums use it all the time with no issues.
Any reason everyone is on board the CCC train? I've always used SuperDuper in the past with nary an issue.
I've never tried CCC to SuperDuper. I use the Volume Cloning tool in TechTool Pro. We al have out favorites.
SuperDuper is good, but it does not have one major feature that is important to me. CCC will include cloning the Recovery partition if desired. I use CCC to clone my bootable drives with the intention to have a clone that I can use to COMPLETELY restore my internal drive if needed. Including the the ability to also restore the Recovery partition is important to me.
oldtime and Weaselboy like this.
Like CoastalOR mentioned, CCC will move over the recovery partition and SD does not.
But if you just need a one time clone for a new drive install, you don't really need CCC or SD... you can just use the restore feature of Disk Utility. That will clone the drive as well as the recovery volume.
Ah, okay. Good to know.
I've been using CCC since V3 and never had any problems with it.
The only thing I can criticize is about restoring a specific version of a file, which is a simple job with TC, and with CCC locating the file you want within the _CCC SafetyNet folder is time consuming.
CCC is not designed for reverting back to an earlier version, be it on a file basis or a whole-disk basis.
I used CCC to move the contents of my iMac boot drive (an SSD), which was running Yosemite, to my Macbook Air which came with Sierra. Other than my aged MS Office 2011 which wanted my key number, I had no problems. I had an SATA to USB adapter for the old SSD and booted from it as an external disk using the Option key boot mentioned above. I then formatted the SSD in the Air before doing the full restore. The formatting may be the key to a full disk restore. Don't try to simply restore over the newer OS. The whole process was certainly a lot easier than trying to cope with installing applications one at a time into Sierra. In addition I had some software that I knew was incompatible with Sierra.
Perhaps I should have been more specific. If you have a full backup of an earlier time period and you want to go back to that time by fully erasing your current disk and replacing it with that one, you can indeed go back to that version. As a matter of fact, I had a fully intact copy of my El Capitan on a dedicated backup disk before I upgraded to Sierra and I used that backup disk to roll back to El Capitan last week because of the PDF kit problems I've been having with the Preview in Sierra.
What I'm trying to explain is this: Suppose you have been using a CCC backup disk and your earlier backup goes back a few months. Then for some reason, if you wish to revert your system back to a specific time, say to the previous week, you cannot do it with the CCC backup disk you use unless you make separate (not incremental) backups each time you do a backup.
Also, if I had been using the same backup disk doing an incremental backup with CCC and upgraded to Sierra from El Capitan, and continued using the same disk after the upgrade, I would not be able to roll back to El Capitan using that CCC disk.
Similarly, let's say you are editing a document over a period of time and you wish to go back to a previous version. You will have to search the version you want in the _CCC SafetyNet folder and extract it from there. Not impossible but not as easy as it is with Time Machine.


text:
What Caused This Ferry Accident That Injured 45 Passengers?
Seastreak, the company that operates the new Providence-Newport vessel, is facing $75 million in lawsuits after a ferry accident in 2013 that injured 45 passengers. The ferry was carrying 326 passengers when it smashed into a docking barge. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the ferry did not have a safety management system.
According to the NTSB, there was confusion about which mode the ferry was operating in and the captain lost control. The propellers remained in forward pitch position, which actually sped up the ferry as it approached the dock, rather than slow down. Additionally, there were no procedures that limited passenger access to stairwells during high-risk scenarios, such as docking. There were also no alarms that sounded, nor did the captain inform the passengers of the situation.
If a safety management system was in place, it is possible this ferry accident would not have happened. Safety management systems require companies that own vessels to provide current documents, train workers on safe practices, have emergency systems in place, define all roles of the crewmembers and ensure the captain has the help he or she needs during an emergency situation.
Vessels Must Have Safety Management Systems in Place Before Setting Out to Sea
Maritime accidents put passengers and crews in extremely dangerous situations. A safety management system ensures the safety of the ship, marine environment and all on board. It details how a vessel should operate daily, drills, training and emergency procedures.
When a safety management system is not in place, injuries or worse can occur because crewmembers do not know how to react in emergency situations. If a worker or passenger on a vessel sustained an injury because a safety management system was not in place, it may be possible to hold the company that owns that vessel responsible for his or her injuries.
Latti & Anderson LLP is a maritime injury law firm with offices in Boston and New Bedford, MA.
Source: http://www.golocalprov.com/news/Providence-Newport-Ferry-Co.-Was-Involved-in-75M-Lawsuit-Following-NY-Cras


text:
Q: Synchronize two DOM trees in Java I asked this question in a different format and XSLT was mentioned but don't think I explained the solution I need. I have two xml files and using Java and I am trying to write a program that will accept a source and target xml file and for the most part they will have the same structure except the source will have some new elements added and I need to figure out how I can navigate the source DOM and if an element is not found in the target then add it or at this point even just have the program output what elements are not found in the target file making it easier to manually modify the target file. Does anyone know of a utility where I can do something like this and just get a list of elements not found in the target xml file. Am I correct to use a DOM parser vs. SAX. I need help on this, have to write it today and have about 50 xml files to merge!
Am I thinking in line with the idea of navigating the entire source DOM for each node or element get the full path like people/person/john and then on my target DOM somehow test to see if that node exists? Does this sound more like DOM or a SAX parsing paradigm?

A: it seems like your problem is much simpler then that.

*

*parse source into DOM

*parse dest into DOM

*traverse source and dest in a depth first search in parallel

*whenever you hit something in source missing in dest, add it (as mentioned in the comments, one easy way to do this is Document.importNode())

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Biolage R.A.W. Color Care Conditioner is a real, authentic and wholesome formula for all hair types.
This is the most caring, natural-origin formula yet!
Biolage R.A.W. Color Care Conditioner with coconut milk & meadowfoam is our most caring formula yet. It helps protect color-treated hair, leaving it soft and shiny with lasting color vibrancy. Nourishes and protects to help maintain the depth, tone and shine of color-treated hair.
After using Biolage Color Care Shampoo, apply Color Care Conditioner and leave in 1-2 minutes. Rinse. In case of contact with eyes, rinse them immediately.
Ingredients: Aqua / Water / Eau, Cetearyl, Alcohol, Brassicamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Cocos, Nucifera Oil / Coconut Oil, Cetyl Esters, Parfum / Fragrance, Tartaric Acid, Caprylyl Glycol, Salicylic Acid, Glyceryl, Stearate, Limnanthes Alba Seed Oil / Meadowfoam Seed Oil, Tocopherol, Glycerin, Linalool, Geraniol, Glycine Soja Oil / Soybean Oil, Cocos Nucifera Fruit Extract / Coconut Fruit, Extract, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Sorbate.


Do women use shaving cream?
Shaving cream has a masculine connotation to me. But I figure, why should a woman be itchy after shaving down there?
If women don't exist, what am I attracted to?
You are probably not attracted to "women in general" Instead, you are probably attracted to some women. There is a difference there.
Wow. I was doing a Strawman fallacy, but not on purpose. I just.. did it, naturally. My apologies, and thank you for teaching me a thing.
What is your definition of women in general, and how does it not exist?
wait is it weird to not use shaving cream at all, as a guy?
I used to dry shave because i was poor and didn't want to spend on the shaving cream. It hurts a lot less and you can shave with a duller razor if you have shaving cream, and you cut yourself less, and get fewer ingrown hairs.
All in all it's actually better to use shaving cream if you can.
what do you use, just warm water?
Not a guy, but I have never used shaving cream. Though I also haven't changed razor blades in 2 years, so I think I am the outlier here.
I've also only ever dry shaved.
The timing on this post is great.
I generally dry shave if I shave, or just use a buzzer. I shaved with shaving gel for the time today and it was really nice. Usually I'm snagging my moustache a lot and my face is itchy. Shaving gel with aloe is the way to go.
There is no way in hell I'm becoming a regular face shaver though.
I'm a man and I've gone old school. Double edge razor and shave soap and a brush. For some reason shaving feels less like a chore even though it's actually more work. The single blade makes shaving around the goatee and handle bar stash alot easier than the new razors.
most moisturizing soaps/conditioners can serve the purpose well enough, and there are many shaving products marketed towards women as well (usually with a bit of unnecessary markup). estrogen-influenced hair tends to be soft, so since shaving creams and gels are partially meant to soften hair, they're less necessary for estrogen-dominant individuals, but these products are also meant to moisturize skin, so if you don't use it and you don't use moisturizer at all you can have irritation.
I usually don't since I shave in the shower, and the water takes care of things-- but if I'm in a pinch and can't take a shower, I'll use shaving cream.
… but that's good point. Shaving cream has a masculine connotation to me, too. Weird!


text:
ISIL is the Direct Result of Western Inconsistency
P 10.06.2015 U Vladimir Mashin
It has been observed that many of those who have identified themselves with aplomb as an elevated European civilization and condescendingly speak about other cultures, who are beneath them in their opinion, however, significant differ in a fair share of self-confidence concerning superiority of their values and rules of life. It can sometimes boomerang. Here, for example, the question of what in Western Europe is called multiculturalism
Even a decade ago, few people in European capitals doubted that the immigrants from Asia and Africa, with the vast majority of them being Muslims, who were allowed to settle in the Old World, would easily give up their convictions and beliefs and, filled with gratitude for those who provided them with a roof over their heads and the ability to earn a livelihood, quickly and without hesitation accept the orders, the rules of life and the values of a new homeland, adapted to the code of conduct and organically will merge into the European environment.
However, this did not happen, although plans in regards to the first generations of immigrants to some extent were achieved. However, subsequent events have evolved in an unexpected direction. Now the problem of immigrants – foreign labour, which for the countries of Western Europe is not only essential, but without which their economies can not function properly, has become one of the most acute and painful for the European Union. The failure of multiculturalism was recognized practically by all European governments, there is a lot of reasons for that. But perhaps one of the main is the arrogant attitude towards other cultures, beliefs, traditions, and poor knowledge and understanding of the peoples of the East. This has led to a dangerous deterioration of the situation in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East, it is in close proximity to the shores of Europe and developments there directly affect the situation in the EU. The fact that the fourth generation of Muslims on the continent was much more religious than their parents and grandparents has come as a surprise to Europeans: 40% of Muslims in Britain support the introduction of Sharia law in the territory. While in France in 1989, 7% of Muslims under the age of 25 years went to the mosque, now it is 23%. 90% of French Muslims strictly observe the fast in Ramadan. The general opinion is that F. Hollande won the presidential election with the support of 85% of the country's Muslims.
Now the world's media are full of reports of confusion and disputes between the elites of the EU about what to do with the tens of thousands of immigrants who seek a better life trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea on the European side by any means, it is obvious that with the onset of the summer months, this problem may become even more rampant. In the end, fear took over, and the idea to conduct military operations on the African coast against illegal immigrants carriers has received support (as the German newspaper Die Welt wrote on May 19 this year, "the purpose of these operations is to undermine the business model of networks of smugglers and carriers of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea ").
Nevertheless, the disagreement about what to do with the problem of migrants among the EU countries has exacerbated. However, an agreement can not be reached and on many other issues related to the relationship with the Muslim world. According to the British Daily Telegraph of 05.03.2015, "rarely has European unity seemed so vital, yet rarely it has been so much under threat."
However, the greatest concern in the capitals of the EU is caused by the rapid expansion of an area of actions of extremist Islamic organizations and the appearance of such a monster as ISIS having influence among Muslims and ruthless to Western civilization. How and from where does this danger come from almost overnight? – This has puzzled many in the West. A convincing answer to this question is provided by many sources of information. For example, the American edition of Judicial Watch on 05.27.2015 reported that in 2013, the US military intelligence provided information about the formation of the ISIS structure, but at that time President Obama disparagingly called them "the B-side team", although the DoD Intelligence Agency warned of the strengthening of the terrorist organizations and the possible establishment of the Caliphate. This report was sent on August 5, 2012. In particular, it said that in Syria it was about religious conflicts and that the driving force behind the rebel movement in Syria wasn't moderate Muslims but Salafis, the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). AQI opposed the Assad government, considering it a "heretical regime." The official spokesman of the Islamic State, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani al-Shami declared the Syrian regime, "the vanguard of the" Front for Shiites"(the so-called Jabhat al-Shamiyya), who declared war on the Sunnis. AQI believes that the Sunni issue in Iraq is a key issue for all Sunni Arabs and Muslims.
In 2009-2010 the influence of AQI in the western provinces waned, however, religious tribal authorities began to sympathize with the insurgents after the start of the uprising in Syria. The report stated, that the US intelligence passed on information to its leadership on the supply of weapons to extremist groups through Turkey from Libya.
Very eloquent data were prepared by special standing committee of the UN Security Council on monitoring of violent Islamism. It is based on information received from intelligence and security services of the 27 member states of the Organization. It contains the following figures: with the beginning of the Arab Spring, i.e. the last four years, the number of fighters in Syria and Iraq reached about 22 thousand men, and beyond that another 20 thousand foreigners joined the jihadist organizations in Syria and Iraq. The Financial Times of 05/28/2015 states that the number of arrivals of militants from nearly 100 different countries is approaching 25 thousand.
The aforementioned report concludes that these terrorist organizations create an "unprecedented threat" to security at present and in the future. And stresses that many governments have not yet realized the extent of the danger. There is a 70% increase in arrivals of militants observed after March 2014. "As a result," the report says, "Syria and Iraq have become a real "international nursery for extremism ", similar to the one established by Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in the 90s of the last century, but on a much larger scale.
According to the message of the Beirut newspaper Dayar on May 31, 2015, a representative of the Islamic State in Saudi Arabia in the widespread video address, urged the youth of the Kingdom to join the group and to purify the Arabian Peninsula of the enemies of Islam and especially the Shiites. According to him, they are "apostate infidels" and therefore "it is necessary to liberate the land of their presence", stressing that the government of King Salman is "unable to defend the Sunnis."
Support for the Islamic Caliphate is rising in a number of Gulf States, as witnessed by the responses on social networks. The same processes are occurring in Muslim communities in Western Europe.
Almost every day there are reports of massacres or new takeovers of ISIS. The situation in the Middle East and North Africa is indeed becoming more and more dangerous.
Meanwhile, the current leaders of the European Union are fixated on the Ukrainian crisis, striving to tear Ukraine away from Russia, apparently underestimating the looming threat to their own countries. Many experts, including those in the West, warn of the danger of new terrorist attacks (among migrants there could be intentionally smuggled people from the 'Islamic State'), and some argue that the current leaders of the so-called "Caliphate", are striving to obtain weapons of mass destruction. That is why the consequences of such a short-sighted approach can be very costly a great many people.
Vladimir Mashin, Ph.D. in History, a political commentator, exclusively for the online magazine "New Eastern Outlook".