Yeah, don't faint. I only read two books in November, and I didn't finish the second one. (I do intend to finish; it is a great book!) Along with desperately searching for any relief for James' tremendous back pain and seeing doctor after doctor and his getting a full MRI and CT scan of his spine on a Saturday night and a bone density test, I was nursing a sick dog for the second half of the month (the vet doesn't know what happened, but Tucker was very ill and could have died and I had to syringe feed him; when this dog won't eat he is sick). I did manage to finish writing a fanfic and start another one for Christmas.
This is the third book in a series about a community called Glimmer Falls, where all sort of magical folk live: werewolves, witches, vampires, centaurs, etc. Ben Rosewood who runs the town plant store, is a shy werewolf who hates the full moon, knits, and has panic attacks. To get up the courage to give a speech at his friends' wedding, he gets drunk, and inadvertently buys a 99 cent crystal on e-Bay that supposedly holds an imprisoned succubus. To his surprise, it actually does: Eleonore Bettencourt-Devereux, half succubus, half vampire, who was trapped in the crystal by a witch who put a spell on her over 600 years ago. While Ben wonders what he's to do with this stunning young woman, who is now bound to him, Eleonore just thirsts for revenge on her former captor, until she starts to thirst for Ben and soon he does for her as well.
I didn't read the other books in the series, but this is a cute little rom-com about two very different personalities who bond with each other, with a colorful cast of supporting characters, including an uplifting pixie, Ben's sister who's running for mayor, and Ben's very supportive friends.
This is the book I haven't finished, but want to because it's damned good. It doesn't make Europeans out to be total monsters, just people who don't understand that just because Native American civilizations didn't progress to cities and commerce like Europeans had, that they weren't some sort of ignorant savages, but practiced a sufficient lifestyle that suited them. The Native Americans, in turn, are not all drawn as saints or "Magic Indians" with special spiritual powers; they are people content with their lifestyle who practiced diplomacy and trade within their society; when Europeans came along with trade goods, many of them wished to give up the lifestyle and live as Europeans did, only to be treated with contempt and distrust and finally, and always, driven west as more Europeans swarmed over the "free" land. Even though I'm only three-quarters done with the book, I find it engagingly written, forthright on its subjects, and an illuminating look at the destruction of a working human ecosystem ruined by forcing an unsuitable lifestyle upon the Americans already occupying this continent.
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