The Cat Who Moved A Mountain

Title: The Cat Who Moved A Mountain
Author: Lilian Jackson Braun
Rating: Three Guitars

Sizzilin' Summary:
Qwill is officially a billionaire! He rents a house for the summer in the Potato Mountains, so he can make some big life decisions. But he finds trouble and a mystery instead... one that Koko has sniffed out inside the house they're renting...

Rockin' Review:
Writing level... okay.
Enjoyment level... only average.
All in all, this was an average book. I will say that the author did a good job of showing how long it seemed like Qwill was in the mountains, despite the actual time he was there. There were other good parts to the book... but it was only an average book overall.
This was only an okay book.

The Cat Who Knew A Cardinal

Title: The Cat Who Knew A Cardinal
Author: Lilian Jackson Braun
Rating: Four Guitar

Sizzilin' Summary:
Qwilleran has reconverted and moved into the giant barn, next to orchard, on his estate, and the cats are enjoying it... in fact, Koko is friends with a cardinal that he can see through the windows! But after a celebration of the Theatre Club, an unlikeable man by the name of Hilary VanBrook is found shot dead in Qwilleran's "parking lot"! And Qwill's friend Dennis is missing at the same time...
There's more to Hilary VanBrook and this murder than meets the eye, and Qwill and Koko are set to find out...

Rockin' Review:
Again, this one had a slower start. But it starts grabbing you near the end. The story was pretty well-done, and was enjoyable. The conclusion to the second mystery, however... hmm... could have been better.
All in all, however, this was a good book, it just takes time to get into it.

Starfleet Academy: The Edge

Title: Starfleet Academy: The Edge
Author: Rudy Josephs
Rating: Four and a Half Spaceships

Sizzilin' Summary:
Based on the new Star Trek movie, here's the start of Jim Kirk's Academy adventures!
Kirk is already famous for his boast that he'll get out of the Academy in three years instead of the usual four. But he has other things to worry about... the Academy program is extremely hard and tiring. And he's a got a girlfriend, which is difficult in this atmosphere.
Uhura is here too, trying to deal with the schedule. Spock has caught her attention as well. Dr. "Bones" McCoy, Kirk's friend, is here too. Everyone's got their own adventures.
But things are going to get uglier and busier for Kirk and everyone else when other first-year cadets start dying. There's a mystery to be solved... and everyone's involved in one way or the other!

Rockin' Review:
Rockin' book! I wasn't quite suspecting this. It's a little slow at first, but gets better fast. And the intro of the big cast was well-done, so we really couldn't lose tract of who's who. And the head-switching was good. The story overall was well-done, and it was very enjoyable.
This was a rockin' book, and I just hope the next one is just as good!

The Cat Who Lived High

Title: The Cat Who Lived High
Author: Lilian Jackson Braun
Rating: Three and a Half Guitars

Sizzilin' Summary:
An old friend calls from Down Below to ask Jim Qwilleran to help him save an old apartment building called the Casblanca and to restore it. But it's going to be a harder fight than Qwill thought. And the trio has gotten used to the country. Koko and Yum Yum are acting weird too.
To top it off, Koko has discovered a new mystery in the penthouse apartment they're living in...

Rockin' Review:
This is one of those books when the ending ruins a lot of it.
At first, this book is very good. It takes some time, but it eventually becomes a trap... Life has to force you away from the book! But the "subplot"... the non-mystery storyline... has a bad ending. It was bad ending. I know that real life is like that, but I did not care for it. The ending ruined it for me. It's still very good, and very well-written and mostly enjoyable. The ending was just a bad crasher.
This is not my fave Cat Who book, though it was mostly enjoyable and rockin'. The ending was just what ruined it for me, anyway.

Agatha H. And The Airship City

Title: Agatha H. And The Airship City
Authors: Phil & Kaja Foglio
Rating: Four and a Half Guitars

Sizzilin' Summary:
Agatha Clay is a lab assistant at the Transylvania Polygnostic University. But her life goes completely topsy-turvy (sp?) when Baron Klaus Wulfenbach takes over her hometown of Beetleburg. Something happens that gets Agatha captured and brought aboard the tyrant's airship city, Castle Wulfenbach. There, she is to discover many things... and not all are safe...

Rockin' Review:
Okay, that's not my best summary when compared to the ton of stuff in the book, but that's a basic outline.
This was an extremely good book. It was wonderfully well-written, though I think that the cast is a little big. I lost track of what name belonged to who pretty commonly. And I saw the "Agatha-really-a-Heterodyne" bit from a long way off. Hey, the "H" in the title is a major pointer at it. And I have a good feeling that I've got an idea about her and the Other. There were some awkward and uncomfortable moments, so that's the reason for the lost half-Guitar. But most of the book was very good... especially near the end, when Life has to rip you from it.
This was a very rockin' book. You may have to brace yourself, but go ahead and get this book! It's rockin'!

The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare

Title: The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare
Author: Lilian Jackson Braun
Rating: Three Guitars

Sizzilin' Summary:
Qwill takes his friend Junior Down Below to a party. But Qwill has to yank them out of it and back to Moose County, because an accident has claimed the life of Junior's father, the publisher of the local newspaper! But when things start moving too fast afterwards, Qwill suspects that Jr.'s father may have been murdered... and Koko has developed a thing for knocking off Shakespeare books off of his shelves...
Qwill may have to look in the most unlikely spot for this murderer... and try to save the local paper as well... Can he accomplish both?

Rockin' Review:
This was only an average book. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. It did answer a few questions about what's mentioned in some of the books afterwards, however.
This was only an average book.

A Timely Vision

Title: A Timely Vision
Author: Joyce and Jim Lavene
Rating: Four Guitars

Sizzilin' Summary:
Dae O' Donell runs the thrift store Missing Pieces in the small town of Duck, North Carolina. And her special gift of seeing visions of lost things lets her help people. Her life's gotten busy since she became mayor.
But her life's going to get busier when she discovers the dead body of an important person in Duck. Dae's friend, Miss Mildred, is blamed for the murder of her sister, but Dae knows that the elderly Miss Mildred is no killer. With the help of the new innkeeper of the Blue Whale Inn, new Duck resident, and former FBI agent Kevin Brickman, Dae sets out to prove Miss Mildred's innocence...

Rockin' Review:
These two authors have gotten better since their Renaissance Faire book! This book was actually enjoyable, and the characters made more sense. They did heap too many problems at once during one point of the book. And there were some glitches... but this was a pretty good book anyway.
Overall, this was a pretty good book.