Voyager - Diana Gabaldon

Where to start with this? There's so much that happens.

The basic plot of the story is this: Claire goes back to find Jamie. Her husband died two years prior and her daughter is in her third year of college. She contemplates which would be better for her ... staying with Bree in the present or going back to put her heart together again.

She went back but it wasn't the easy, blissful ending she pictured in her mind. Jamie had changed and so had she. If they'd been together for the prior 20 years, those changes wouldn't have been as obvious. And probably some of them wouldn't have occurred at all. They have a lot to relearn about the other.

While they were newly reunited, Jamie's nephew Ian was kidnapped and taken to the West Indies. They followed him and the usual mayhem ensues on the trip. Jamie's seasickness, Claire's healing (which gets her pushed into the King's service for England) among other things. Fergus and Marsali (Laoghaire's daughter) handfast. There's a snitch among Jamie's men who turns out to be Mr. Willoughby (an Asian that Jamie saved from himself), a murderer on the loose in Jamaica when they get there and more. The new governor of that island is a former jailer and current friend of Jamie's. He has custody of Jamie's bastard son. It just never ends.

And that's what makes this series so compelling. Everything keeps piling up but you just can't put the books down.

The Ship Who Sang - Anne McCaffrey

This is another compilation of stories which centers around a main character. In this case, the main character is the brain portion of a ship. The main character is also human. When human children have physical deformities that may end their lives if left to their own devices, their parents have the choice of allowing them to become "shell people." They will, in essence, become a ship and are heavily conditioned to avoid curiousity, regret, and other conditions which could adversely affect their mental well being.

Some of these shell people are installed into ships. Others are installed into cities and act as administrators. This particular story focuses around one particular person named Helva. She is installed as a BB ship and is assigned to Medical at human age 16. The term BB stands for brain/brawn. The brain is installed in the ship and has a mobile human partner or "brawn." Helva is unique for she figured out how to manipulate her diaphragm and amplify the sounds into singing, thereby earning the nickname "The Ship Who Sings." The stories deal with her falling in love for the first time with her very first brawn, helping in the aftermath of a planetwide plague, helping to restore a population to another ravaged planet, finding a rogue BB ship, and various other adventures.

The original stories were written as shorts for Science Fiction Magazine and turned into this book. It sparked a series of other stories written about BB ships. These partnerships also show up in various other series that Anne McCaffrey has written. Love.Them.

Crystal Singer - Anne McCaffrey

She's better known for her series on Pern but I like her non-Dragon series better. Anne McCaffrey was one of the first female sci-fi writers. This book is originally a series of stories from Science Fiction Magazine and published in the 1960s. Love. It.

In the future, humankind is scattered throughout galaxies after having figure out space travel. On one of the planets that they were hoping to transform into suitable living for people, they find a crystalline substance that will change virtually everything. It can be used for communication, data storage, transportation, and so much more. The shards and slivers can be used for artwork and jewelry as well. It is to this planet (named Ballybran) that Killashandra Ree comes looking for a fresh start and a new career.

She was in training to become an operatic singer. There were planets to explore, arias to sing, people to visit, and accolades to collect. It was all she had ever wanted from the time she was a little girl. However, her dreams were shattered when the judges noticed a slight flaw in her voice that hadn't been trained out. On the day she received the devastating blow, she met the man who would change her life.

He was a Crystal Singer and it seemed that everyone deferred to him, especially when he heard a shuttle at the spaceport that was ready to explode from improperly tuned crystal. Killashandra heard it too. They spent several months together until Carrick had to start back to the Heptite Guild. She wanted to go with him but never expected it to be by his bedside. As they were explaining to authorities that she was in her right mind and not been twisted by the Singer, a shuttle exploded. Carrick, having superhuman senses, was rendered unconscious in the blast and returned to Ballybran where he was in a coma for the rest of his days.

The rest of the story deals with Killashandra going through the training upon reaching Ballybran and the trials and tribulations of starting out in a career. There are secrets to be discovered in this first of the trilogy and Killa is one of my favorite characters. I go back again and again.

Face the Fire - Nora Roberts

I think I want to be Mia Devlin. lol ... is it possible to become a fictional character? The chick has it all together. She's smart, beautiful, a successful business owner, has a rockin' body ... and is a hereditary witch. What's not to love?

Oh right ... the evil powers that want her to fail at her portion of the task set to the Three of Three Sisters Island. They want to cause her death. She also has to either accept or reject the love of her life, Sam Logan. It's a fascinating look into how a strong woman can still struggle with basic issues like compromise, love, acceptance, and compassion. Does she win? Does she lose and plunge her island into the sea forever? That's for Mia and Nora to tell you.

And she owns a bookstore. I think it's nirvana.

The Last Boleyn - Karen Harper

I've done a lot of reading this year about the Tudor era in England's history. Granted, it's been historical fiction but there are some facts involved. This particular book is about Mary Boleyn. For those who aren't familiar with her or the timeframe involved, she was Anne Boleyn's sister. And Anne Boleyn eventually ascended to the crown to become the first commoner Queen of England.

Mary's story takes a different turn. She was sent away at age 10 to live with Princess Mary (King Henry's sister) as she became Queen of France. She was allowed to stay at the French court when all the other Englishwomen were sent home. She kept the secret that, after the French king's death, that Mary and Charles Brandon were secretly married. But she was soon to be used by the new king all in the name of love. Her father told her to submit to whatever the new king had in mind and she did. So he used and abused her. Literally. At one point, he gave her to a member of his court as payment for a gambling debt.

Eventually her father brought her home to England where she caught the eye of Henry VIII. She eventually bedded him as well and was rewarded with lands and titles for her family. As all her father and uncle cared about was wealth, power, and those titles, they encouraged her to continue. She married a man of the king's choosing who also benefitted from Mary's being mistress to the King but resented every second of her time away from him. It was all about duty with William Carey. But there was someone else waiting in the wings ... William Stafford.

While Mary was pregnant with her first son (and there was a question as to who had fathered the boy), her father thrust Anne under the king's nose. And the rest, shall we say, is history. Through it all, Mary persevered. And lived a long, full life.

Heaven and Earth - Nora Roberts

In this second book of the Three Sisters trilogy, Ripley Todd is the focus. She turned her back on who she is and what she possesses on the cusp of adulthood. The story pulls us into the middle of the 300 year old culmination of the spell cast on the island by one of the original Three. For Ripley to stop what's building, she has to forgive and accept herself without condition.

Again, I love the story and I love the final scene on the beach with Ripley making her choice. I know this is brief but I'm trying to review it without giving too much away.

Dance Upon the Air - Nora Roberts

Nell Channing is a hunted woman. She's on the run from an abusive husband, who thinks her dead. She finds her way to the Massachusetts coastline and to a little island called Three Sisters. There is lore and legend attached to it, as there usually is to such places. In this case, the island itself is created by three witches and cast out to sea to protect them from the insanity of the Witch Trails in Salem Town in 1692.

In this first of my favorite trilogy, Nell rediscovers herself, finds her courage, and falls in love. She also discovers she's a witch, one of three descendents of the original Sisters who created their island. And she learns to begin harnessing that power. She uses that power, along with love, to free herself of the enslavement that her ex-husband tries to re-enforce.

I truly love this series. So much so that it influenced my desire for a sapphire engagement ring, which I got from my husband. :o) I just didn't realize it until now.