The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin

Benjamin wrote The Aviator's Wife a fictionalized account of Anne Morrow Lindberg, the wife of Charles Lindberg, the famous pilot who was a famous author and pilot on her own.  In this book, she does the same thing with a fictionalized treatment of the friendship between famous women silent screen star Mary Pickford and screenwriter Frances Marion.

Mary Pickford, Gladys Smith, nee, of Toronto, was pushed on stage by her mother at a young age to support the family, including her younger brother and sister, when her father died.  She traveled around the country until she got a gig on Broadway that led to her chance to become the Biograph Girl in the "flickers".  When they finally put her name on the pictures after a letter campaign demanding that they do so she became famous, especially for her golden curls.  Then she signed on with Famous Players Lansky which was run by Adolph Zukor.  She married Owen Moore, an alcoholic who slept around on her and hit her.  But he didn't rule her any more than Zukor did whom she had the best contract with.  Control over the script, who was in it, making sure that her movies sold to theatres on conditions that other lesser movies also be sold where the theatres lost money on them didn't happen, and a percentage of profits.

In 1914 she met Francis Marion who had just moved to Los Angles and was looking for something to do in the movies, but not act, which is what made their friendship possible.  Mary could never be friends with another actor--someone she would have to compete with for parts.  But Francis was an artist and could write some. She began by acting as an extra in some movies and by doing artwork on the scenery.  Then she moved up and wrote a screenplay, "Rags" for Mary Pickford.  She and Mary and a guy named Mickey worked together on that film and many others, including "Poor Little Rich Girl" where Mary plays a child.  Francis wanted to give Mary back her childhood that she never had and allow her to play.  But when they showed the film to the movie men at Famous Players they hated it and demanded that Mary make up for this "disaster" by working a film with Cecile B. DeMille who was a hard taskmaster and someone she hated working with and avoided doing.  He chased his leading ladies and had a whip he cracked.  But when the two women went undercover to see the movie, the crowd adored it and they barely escaped the theater mob who wanted a piece of Mary.  And Mary never let Zukor forget it.

Mary would help Francis get access to go overseas to go to war to film women at war.  But before she left she would introduce her to Fred Thomson a famous athlete who was a widowed minister who when he married Francis, who was twice divorced, could not return to the ministry because of her is a natural in front of the camera and she pushes him into the film industry where he becomes a famous cowboy film star right after Tom Mix.  Mary, meanwhile, has fallen in love and is secretly seeing Douglas Fairbanks, the famous actor, but doesn't feel that her audience will accept her getting a divorce and marrying Douglas.  Douglas, however, desperately wants to marry her and goes ahead and gets divorced from his wife and child, but after a while, he gives her an ultimatum that he will not wait forever for her.  So, she decides to get divorced and marry him and the world falls in love with Mary and Doug.

This affects Mary and Francis's friendship.  Mary changes and becomes Queen of Hollywood and obsessed with Douglas and making him happy so their friendship suffers and they stop making movies together as Francis goes off and makes movies with others as Mary continues to make the movies with her as a little girl.  At the same time she, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplain, and D.W. Griffin starts the movie production company United Artists which is still around today.

Mary and Francis were two highly unusual women in that they were strong women in a time when men ruled Hollywood.  Which, if I'm honest, men still rule Hollywood.  But back then to demand the kind of things she did in her contracts and to start a production company was highly unusual for a woman and Francis was the highest paid and best screenwriter of her time for years--up until the 1930s when she retired.  She wrote Dinner At Eight, Anna Christie, and The Champ.  She also directed movies.  This book is accurate in that the dialogue feels like something out of the silent era and the jazz age.  Mary seems to have the power in the friendship and Francis feels as though she owes her which makes for a lopsided friendship, but the two went through so much together that only the two of them shared which also makes for special kind of friendship.  This book truly examines the time of the silent film era and the friendship of two women who lived through it.  I really loved this novel and I give it five out of five stars.     

Quotes

I talk to myself all the time; I consider it one of the perquistites of old age.

-Melanie Benjamin (The Girls in the Picture xii)

We’re not supposed to do that are we? We women. We’re not supposed to love something more than we’re capable of loving a man.

-Melanie Benjamin (The Girls in the Picture p 82)

Men can be in love and it doesn’t affect anything else they do; it gives them even more cachet. It adds something to them.  But for women, love doesn’t add, it subtracts. Why do I feel as if falling in love means I have to give something up?

-Melanie Benjamin (The Girls in the Picture p 83)

It’s only when you have no idea what you’re going to do tomorrow that sleep is elusive.

-Melanie Benjamin (The Girls in the Picture p 133)

We’ll never let a man get between us, will we, Fran? How many times had mary told me this?  I had to laugh at myself, my naivete.  It was ridiculous to think this could be true, completely.  We were women, after all. Women, not schoolgirls. And women, even in this new, modern age, could never be completely independent of men. They would always shape us. I realized as I gave my horse an irritated little kick. For good or for bad. It was up to us to deicide which.

-Melanie Benjamin (The Girls in the Picture p 144)

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Girls-Picture-Novel-Melanie-Benjamin-ebook/dp/B0718VC4MV/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+girls+in+the+picture&qid=1553862511&s=gateway&sr=8-1

The Life of Captain Marvel by Margaret Stohl (Writer), Carlos Pacheco (Penciler), Rafael Fonteriz (Inker), Marci Menyz (Colorist), Federico Blee (Colorist), Erica D"Ruso (Arist), VC"s Clayton Cowles (Letterer)

Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers, is training with the Avengers and is being overly aggressive. Tony Stark pulls her aside to talk to her about why and she confesses that it's because of Father's Day.  Her dad was an alcoholic and not always a good dad.   He tells her to take some time off and go home to Harpswell Sound and visit with her mom and brother Joe Jr.  She also reconnects with Little Louis who isn't so little anymore and is running the local donut store.

Her and Joe Jr. have words about her not being there when dad was sick and not being there much since.  Carol points out that Joe always sticks up for dad even though he did some terrible things.  They are at the cemetery at his grave having this argument when Joe, who had been drinking, drives off and crashes his car.  Carol saves his life, but he's in a coma and paralyzed.  Instead of going back to the Avengers she stays with her mother and helps to take care of Joe.

Then she stumbles upon some old love letters her dad wrote to a woman and a mechanical device that she inadvertently turns on which is a beacon that leads to the Krill home planet and leads a woman to head toward Earth.  Is she the woman her dad had the affair with?  Or is she someone dangerous to the family?  When she arrives she has come to fight Carol's mother who is really Mari-El and a Krill.  So, Carol really got her powers from her mother, not Marv-el.  The woman takes Joe and mother and daughter must fight to get him back.

This comic was incredible in its depth of characterization.  Carol dealing with her family issues and finding out about the truth about her parents and learning what led to her father's drinking and perhaps leading to some understanding and forgiveness of her father.  The artwork was also amazing for example when Tony appears in electrical ghostlike form to talk to Carol about coming back to the Avengers.  Or the black and white funeral scene that is haunting.  This is a great book and I give it five out of five stars.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Life-Captain-Marvel-Book-ebook/dp/B07L4376TD/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2PRSIRXS0P3SE&keywords=the+life+of+captain+marvel&qid=1553695845&s=gateway&sprefix=the+life+of+ca%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-1

Smoke in the Wind by Peter Tremayne

For those who haven't read any of the Sister Fidelma mysteries, she is a religieuse and former member of the community of St. Brigid of Kildare and a qualified dalaigh, or advocate of the ancient court laws, her life and times are explained in detail before you read any of the books.  These books take place in 666 AD Ireland at a time when there were five kingdoms. The Four provincial kings of Ulaidh, Connacht, Muman, and of Laigin all of which gave their allegiance to the High King of the fifth province, which is ruled from Tara, and which is an honorary title that rotates among the various kingdoms when each High King dies.  Among the provincial kingdoms, there were also smaller clan territories.

The Brehon Laws rule the land.  It is quite a system.  Women are able to hold any position they wish, including political positions, warriors, doctors, magistrates, lawyers, and judges.  They could divorce their husbands and receive part of the property and could inherit property.  They were protected from rape and sexual harassment. This land was the most feminist era until today.

Fidelma was born at Cashel, capital of the kingdom of Muman.  Her brother is their king.  At the age of fourteen, the Age of Choice, she chose to study the law and became one of the highest ranking members of the courts, a dalaigh.  The schools of Ireland were quite famous and people from all over Europe attended since the rest of it was going through the Dark Ages.  A serious debate is going on between those who believe in being "Irish Christians" and Roman Christians.  Irish Christian priests could marry, be women (there was even a female bishop), and the monasteries and nunneries could be co-habituated with the religious marrying and raising their children in these places.  Roman Christians were now leaning toward making priests remain celibate, though that wouldn't be made a rule until around the 11th century.  In the 9th century, Ireland will convert to the Roman way of doing things, but they keep the Brehon Laws until the 17th century when the British outlaw them.

Having set the stage, Sister Fidelma and her good friend, Eadulf, whom she has just admitted feelings for in a previous book is heading toward Canterbury, his home base for he works for the Archbishop of Canterbury.  Their boat crashes on the Briton coast and since Eadulf was knocked unconscious when their captain fixes his boat and decides to head back out they are in no condition to go with him.  So now they must find another boat, but while they are there, the local king, King Gwlyddien of Dyfed, has a task for them to do.  It seems that a religious community just disappeared into thin air without a struggle. And their animals are gone too.  The king's interest in this community is that his eldest son is a monk there.  By becoming a monk he gave up his claim to the throne and no ransom would be paid for him.  But none has been asked.  These monks have just disappeared.  The coast has been known to be raided by Saxons and by their neighbor to the north, the Ceredigion.

Also, in the town of Llanwnda a young woman has been strangled to death and raped and a young man Idwal has been accused of murdering her because he was found standing over the body.  The lord of the town, Gwnda demanded that a barnwr be brought forth to make it legal. A barnwr is the same as a dalaigh.  Brother Meurig will be traveling with them as the barnwr.  Once they get there, the town is set to hang Idwal and Gwnda is nowhere to be found.  They find him in his home supposedly being held captive.  Iowerth, the girl's father is behind this with help from Iestyn, the shepherd who kicked Idwal out of the house when Iestyn's brother died who was taking care of him.  Idwal's parents are unknown, which makes him an outcast in the village.

When first questioned Idwal is so scared that Brother Meurig lets Sister Fidelma talk to him and it turns out that Mair the dead girl had a lover that she wanted Idwal to give a message to, but he refused.  He wouldn't tell them who it was since he promised her he wouldn't tell anyone about it.  The boy was a bit simple-minded, but he wasn't in love in with Mair in that way and would never hurt her.  He left her after their argument and went away to think about it and changed his mind about delivering the message and came across her body.  Then he heard a crowd coming and ran right into Gwnda who knocked him out.

The crowd came because Iestyn saw them arguing and wanted to cause trouble since Mair wasn't supposed to have anything to do with Idwal. Gwnda's slave Buddog was in the forest to gather mushrooms, but she didn't see anything. She did, however, say that Mair was no virgin like was being said that she was promiscuous and led men on.  Gwnda's daughter Elen confirms this and says that she had an elder lover.

When Fidelma and Eadulf go and examine the community they find a knife with blood on it that leads them to a body hidden in a sarcophagus and that he is a Saxon. When they go into the barn they find the recent death of the head of the community Father Clidro, which the community has been missing for days and the other day someone reported a Saxon ship on the horizon and then a few of the religious men were found on the beach dead with Saxon weaponry upon them.

Then they are captured by Clydog the Wasp and his band of outlaws who have snuck up on them in the community.  Clydog is a conundrum in that he and his friend Corryn are both highly educated men who both command attention by the men.  They must find a way to escape because they plan on killing at least Eadulf because he is a Saxon especially since his usefulness is over in that he fixed up their man who had been stabbed with a knife.

This is a complex mystery that even I didn't figure out all the parts of until they were explained at the end of the book.  Brother Eadulf spends the entire book highly uncomfortable being in Briton because the Saxons did some horrible things to the Britons and they haven't forgotten and he worries that they'll take it out on him.  Fidelma doesn't fully realize this and the two spend a great deal of time fighting in this book.  I really loved this mystery, though it is filled with a great deal of sadness, it is also filled with triumph.  I give it five out of five stars.   

Quotes

There is no safety in trying to make a friend of one’s enemy.

-Peter Tremayne (Smoke in the Wind p 21)

The law is a more sacred thing than the sword which you carry. As you fear, fear is not a passion that makes for virtue. It weakens the judgment…

-Peter Tremayne (Smoke in the Wind p 83)

The sea was cruel and had no charity.  Yet without the sea man would be insignificant for the sea was like a great road between peoples and without contact with one another men would be isolated and there would be no progress between them.  But the sea was patient, watching and waiting and ready, like a murderer on a dark night, hding in an unilluminated lane with a knife to strike at the unexpected moment.

-Peter Tremayne (Smoke in the Wind p 208)

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Smoke-Wind-Mystery-Ancient-Ireland-ebook/dp/B004YESZUA/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2VK0H3NPIDCBJ&keywords=smoke+in+the+wind&qid=1553516850&s=gateway&sprefix=smoke+in+the+wind%2Caps%2C172&sr=8-1

The Mighty Thor Vol 3: The Asgard/Shi'Ar War by Jason Aaron (Writer), Steve Epting (Artist), Russell Dauterman (Artist, Colorist), Frank Martin (Colorist), Mathew Wilson (Colorist), Valerio Schiti (Artist, Colorist), Mat Lopes (Colorist), and VC's Joe Sabino (Letterer)

Dario Agger, the Minotaur who runs Roxxon, makes a deal with King Malekith of Svartalfheim, a dark sorcerer elf who wants the ice giant's skull that Agger has.  Odin has given control of the Destroyer, Asgardia's most powerful weapon, to his evil brother Cul Borson to use it to seek out Thor and find out her identity and bring the hammer back to Asgardia.  Freya is not happy about this, nor is the man now known as Odinson who has a list of names of people he knows who could be Thor and is going around trying to cross them off.  On top of the list is S.H.I.E.L.D agent Roz Solomon who hasn't been seen in a while and has a beef with Roxxon. While he hunts down people from the list he finds out that Dr. Jane Foster, his former lover, is dying from cancer.  Thor goes to Roxxon to try to stop the deal Agger and Malekith is making but gets interrupted by Destroyer.  She takes Destroyer down under the island to protect the innocents.  At one time Destroyer gets a hold of Mjolnir and Thor has to fight to get it back.  But when Freya finds out what has happened she goes to Odinson and plans to head down to help Thor by herself. But Odinson knows some people who would be willing to help a fellow female. And a group of women including Scarlet Witch, Brunnhilde, Karnilla, Hildegarde, Spider-Woman, and Captain Marvel.  Jane is dying from cancer because she is acting as Thor.

Now, Thor has formed the League of Realms because the Council has refused to act when King Malekith of Svartlfheim invaded the land of the Light Elves and took their Queen prisoner.  Included among the League are Thor, Sif, Warrior Goddess of Asgard, Sir Ivory Honeyshot, a royal knight of the light elves of Alfhiem, Screwbeard, of the Dynamite Dwarves of Nidaellir, Angela, a renegade angel exiled from Heaven, Ud, the troll, Ro Bloodroot, the wood wizard of Vanheim, Titanya Vaetilda Viinnsuvius, of the mountain giants of Jotunheim, and Roz Solomon, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. of Midgard.  They go into there to rescue the Queen but wind up facing something brought there by King Malekith.  A creature that is indestructible.

Later, Cul is threatening Jane's position on the council since she is missing meetings.  But there's only one person he hates more than Jane and that's the new Thor.  The Shi'Ar have attacked Asgard in an attempt to get Thor and they have succeeded. The two gods of the Shi'Ar wish to put Thor to a challenge to who is better and if Thor does not go through with the challenge three Shi'Ar ships will blast Earth to bits.  The first is to get as many prayers as possible using a natural disaster so the Shi'Ar gods cause a huge tidal wave to hit the biggest city thereby causing people to turn to the gods in their grief.  But Thor leaps down and stops the tidal wave from landing and gets all of the prayers.

Meanwhile, Lady Sif and the others have gone to Cul to demand that he send troops after Thor to get her back.  It takes some convincing and some shots to his manhood, but he agrees and they go after her and attack the Shi'Ar bringing the Destroyer to help.  The gods have had enough and send out the ultimate judgment for Earth which is the Phoenix Force and the only thing that a possibly control it is Quentin Quire, omega level telepath and reluctant X-Man who is taking a vacation on Krakoa.  Can they stop the Phoenix Force and the gods that unleashed it?

I really liked this comic because of the characters it had in it.  I adore, of course, the Phoenix, but also Quentin and the Shi'Ar are always interesting to see.  Cul is becoming more dangerous to the Council but there are still those who are fighting him and no one has seen Freya or Odin in a long while. Not since Freya got seriously hurt.  And the Council needs to act to what King Malekith is doing soon before he takes over the nine realms.  He's already done one and they've done nothing.  It's like Hitler going into Austria and Czechoslovakia and no one doing anything until he went into Poland. What will be the realm that will be the one that gets the council to act?  And will it be too late?  I do have to shout out to the artists as the artwork is amazing and the colors are glorious.  This was a great book and I give it five out of five stars.

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Thor-Vol-Asgard-Shiar/dp/1302903098/ref=sr_1_1?crid=387UOA0U0XFAS&keywords=the+mighty+thor+vol+3&qid=1553273659&s=gateway&sprefix=the+mighty+thor+vol+%2Caps%2C172&sr=8-1

The Wicked King by Holly Black

This is the second book in a trilogy. In the first book, Madoc, a redcap Faerie took Jude and her twin sister Taryn along with her half-sister Vivian to Elfhame, the land of Faerie after killing their mother and Jude and Taryn's father.  Vivian is his daughter.  He raises them as if they are is own.  But it is dangerous in Faerie for humans.  Prince Caradan and his friends Loche and Nicasia who pick on them incessantly.  Loche makes moves on Jude only to propose to her sister Taryn, as his making out with her sister was a test for Taryn.  Jude who had wanted to be a knight becomes a spy instead in Prince Dain's spy network along with the Ghost, Roach, and Bomb.  When Prince Dain is to be crowned king his brother Balekin kills all his brothers and sisters in order to become king, but Prince Cardan refuses to crown him king he runs and hides.  The Court of Shadows, Prince Dain's spy network has a plan to put Madoc and Oriana's child Oak, whose real mother was Loche's mother and father was the king on the throne.  But he's too young to be put on there now so they send him with Vivian to the mortal world to grow up normal and put Prince Cardan on the throne as Jude has extracted a vow from him to do as she commands for a year and a day.

Five months have passed and progress has been made in that humans are no longer being made to use as enchanted slaves.  But there is resentment between Cardan and Jude who is acting as his Senchel.  He is chomping at the bit that she controls. Nicasia attempts to kill a lover of his that is in bed with Cardan by shooting an arrow into the room and almost hits him.  She is in love with him and wants the marriage that her mother, the Queen of the Undersea, wants to arrange for her.  Her mother is in constant contact with Balekin from his jail cell in the Tower of Forgetting.  A marriage would be disastrous because it would seal his place on the throne.

As everyone is making preparations for Taryn and Loche's wedding the fear is that the Queen of the Undersea is out to get Oak so strategies are made to protect him.  Jude goes to get Oak and Vivi and her human girlfriend Heather who it turns out knows nothing of Faerie.  So she is finding out all at once.  While at the wedding someone tells Jude that she is needed at the jail and she goes.  Nicasia said that someone would betray her and someone does.  She is captured and taken to the Undersea for a month and tortured and glamoured, though because of her geas from Prince Dain she cannot be glamoured, though she must pretend that she is.

King Cardan makes a deal to get her free which involves letting Balekin free and acting as an Ambassador to the land for the Undersea and allowing the Undersea to attack the Termites without allowing any fighting back.  Jude owes a debt to the Termites for their backing Cardan and they expect her to pay it back if they aren't going to fight for them.  Madoc is furious as he is the General of the Armies.

This book is just as good as the first one.  The chemistry between Jude and Cardan has grown deeper and though they hate each other they can't keep their hands off each other.  Jude is walking on a razor's edge trying to control Cardan without pushing him over the edge.  And what game is Cardan playing?  Is he a spy playing at being king or is he really just a party animal who doesn't care?  The ending of this book is just amazing and shocking.  I can't wait to see where it goes next.  Black really delivers in this series.  I give it five out of five stars.       

Quotes

Fighting was chess, anticipating the move of one’s opponent and countering it before one got hit.

-Holly Black (The Cruel King p 1)

I have heard that for mortals, the feelings of falling in love is very like the feeling fear.  Your heart beats fast. Your senses are heightened.  You grow light-headed, maybe even dizzy. Is that right? It would explain much about your kind if it’s possible to mistake the two.

-Holly Black (The Cruel King p 25)

I have said that he has the power to deliver a compliment and make it hurt. So, too, can he say something that ought to be insulting and deliver it in such a way that it feels like being truly seen.

-Holly Black (The Cruel Prince p 57)

If you’re the sickness, I suppose you can’t also be the cure.

-Holly Black (The Cruel Prince p 57)

It occurs to me that desire isn’t something overindulging helps. Maybe it is not unlike mithridatism; maybe I took a killing dose when I should have been poisoning myself slowly, one kiss at a time.

-Holly Black (The Cruel Prince p 181)

Sometimes when lying on the cold stone floor, I wonder if there’s a limit to what I will let them do, if there is something that would make me fight back, even if it dooms me.  If there is, that makes me a fool.  But maybe if there isn’t, that makes me a monster.

-Holly Black (The Cruel King p 236)

Fear is terrible, but the combination of fear and hope is worse.

-Holly Black (The Cruel Prince p 244)

The point of a fight is not to have a good fight; it’s to win.

-Holly Black (The Cruel Prince p 298)

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wicked-King-Folk-Air/dp/0316310352/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3PKAGWIHFN3UO&keywords=the+wicked+king&qid=1553087156&s=gateway&sprefix=the+wick%2Caps%2C178&sr=8-1

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

I listened to this book on tape (yes tape) years ago when it first came out back in 2000.  I had trouble getting into the first Harry Potter book and found that listening to it made it easier.  I highly recommend listening to either the American or the British version of the audiobook.  They are so amazingly well done and enjoyable to listen to.  But anyway, I decided to pick this book and read it because my daughter is going through the series and I wanted to read them with her.

Harry is back at the Dursley's but things are a little bit different now that they know that his godfather is a wanted murderer who could pop up at any point and take issue with anything they do to Harry.  So when the Weasleys ask if Harry can come with them to the Quidditch World Cup and to spend the rest of the summer with them Mr. Dursley wants to say no but doesn't dare do so for fear of what Sirius will do.  Besides, it gets Harry out of his hair even earlier.

What Harry isn't telling anyone except only Sirius and only part of it to him is that he had a dream about Voldemort killing someone and that he had plans to kill someone, perhaps Harry, and that he woke up with his scar hurting.  Sirius replies to keep him informed of anything suspicious.

The Weasleys arrive by flue powder into a fireplace that's blocked up and must be unblocked but that's not the worst of it. George and Fred leave behind one of their joke candies they have concocted for their business they're trying to start and Dudley eats it and his tongue grows exponentially.  Once that's taken care of they head off toward the Weasley's home where Harry's best friend Ron's older brothers Bill and Charlie and Percy are all there taking time off from work to go with them.

They use a boot as a port key to arrive at the game grounds and find their campground area and set up their tents which Harry is surprised to find hold three rooms inside of them and multiple beds.  The Irish are going up against Bulgaria. The Irish have a strong team but Bulgaria has a strong and popular seeker named Viktor Krum.  Neither disappoints as the Irish win the game but Viktor catches the seeker spectacularly.

Then after the game, some Death Eaters began to have fun with some Muggles by tossing them in the air so wizards have to deal with them when suddenly across the sky is the Dark Mark, the signal to the Death Eaters to come to Lord Voldemort.  The Death Eaters scatter and when Ludo Bagman who works in the Ministry as the Head of Magical Games and Sports as he was once a famous beater for a professional team is there in the forest where Ron, Hermione, and Harry are which is where the Dark Mark was sent.  He accuses Harry but realizes how ridiculous that is when pointed out by Mr. Weasley.  Then Barty Crouch who works for the Ministry finds his house elf, Winky, holding Harry's missing wand right behind them suspicion falls to her but not for long because house elves wouldn't know how to do the spell it is more likely she picked up his wand from the ground after whoever did the spell left.  Barty looks in the bushes for anyone but finds no one there.  He gives his house elf clothes and turns her away from his house.  She is distraught.

Once they return to school they find out about their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Mad Eye Moody who is an Auror, or one who captures Death Eaters and the Triwizard Tournament that is only open to those wizards that are seventeen and up.  Wizards from two other schools Beauxbatons from France and Durmstrang from Bulgaria are also competing.  Viktor Krum will be one of those attempting to compete in the tournament from his school.  You place your name in the goblet but it is spelled to keep out underage wizards.  When they call out the names from each school Viktor Krum is called from Drumstang while Fleur Delacour for Beauxbaton and Cedric Digory from Hogwarts who is from the Hufflepuff House.  Then the goblet throws out another name: Harry Potter.  Someone put his name in the goblet perhaps to try to kill him with the tasks.  But Ron refuses to believe that Harry didn't put his name in and he's pissed at Harry whom he has had to play second fiddle to too many times and won't have anything to do with Harry who gets pissed at Ron for not believing him and won't have anything to do with him which puts Hermione in the middle.

Hagrid finds out what the first task is which is dragons and shows Harry while under his invisibility cloak since he's also showing Madam Maxime the head of Beauxbaton whom he has taken a liking too since she is part giant too, though she won't admit it.  Professor Karkaroff of Durmstrang is sneaking around and finds out himself.  Harry will end up telling Cedric about the dragons to keep things fair.  Mad Eye will also offer some help with the task by pointing him in the right direction to the answer as to how to defeat the dragons.  And during the second task, Cedric will return the favor by helping Harry out though at this point Harry isn't sure he can trust Cedric who took the girl Harry wanted to take to the big dance leaving him scrambling to find a date with someone he didn't care about.

There are all sorts of subplots going on such as Hermione's crusade to free the house elves at Hogwarts whether they want to be freed or not.  And Rita Skeeter a reporter who seems to know things she couldn't know as she's not allowed on school grounds who distorts the truth and makes a general menace of herself.

Mad Eye is the fourth Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and he's only around for this year. I wonder who they'll get next year?  He befriends Harry not quite as Lupin did but in his own way.  Professor Karkoff is said to teach his students the Dark Arts magic.  Is he a Death Eater?  Is that why Moody's here? To keep an eye on him?
       
This is one of Rowlings longest books and the first where a kid dies. When I was a librarian and this book came out there was a huge fight over where to place it between the children's librarian and the young adult librarian.  The young adult librarian argued that someone dies and that's heavy stuff and it should be in the older section of the library.  Since my daughter is reading my copy I checked out a copy from the library and it was found in the young adult section.  I use two libraries from two counties and it was there in both of them.  But my daughter is nine and I had no problem with her reading it.  But then I don't believe in really putting limits on her reading.  This book is a turning point in the series where Rowling begins to take no prisoners.   It's the last book of innocence, which is shattered.  People die including a kid and Ron and Harry's friendship is tested to the limits.  Voldemort is back but no one knows it except maybe Harry and a few other people.  But in what form he's back is unknown as is what he is up to.  This book is one of the best books in the series.  I give it five out of five stars. 

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Goblet-Fire-Rowling-ebook/dp/B0192CTMUU/ref=sr_1_3?crid=HYDKF28VRR5H&keywords=harry+potter+and+the+goblet+of+fire&qid=1552922482&s=gateway&sprefix=hary+potter+and+the+g%2Caps%2C177&sr=8-3

Batgirl and the Birds of Prey Vol 1: Who Is Oracle? by Julie Benson (Writer), Shawna Benson (Writer), Claire Roe (Artist), Roge Antonio (Artist), Allen Passalaqua (Colorist), Hi-Fi (Colorist), Steve Wands (Letterer), adn Deron Bennett (Letterer)

When Barbara Gordon got shot by the Joker and paralyzed she stopped being Batgirl and used her computer skills to become Oracle, a hacker who used her skills to and information to help the police and Batman.  Then when the miracle surgery came about that allowed her to be Batgirl again she stopped being Oracle.  Now, however, someone has taken up to the banner and is selling information to the mob bosses under Oracle's name.  This not only gets Barbara's attention it pisses her off.

So, she goes in search of Dinah Drake, the Black Canary who was the face of Oracle when she was it.  They were the Birds of Prey.  Dinah isn't doing much so she agrees to help.  They go after Louis Terroni a mob worker but get waylaid by the Huntress who is after him to kill him for killing her family the Bertinellis.  Terronoi dies in his car but not by them.

The next mobster on the list is the head of the family Santos and Barbara and Dinah convince Huntress to work with them not against them.  The Huntress knows their secret identities but won't share hers.  So they capture Santos and place him in police custody with Barbara's dad Captain Gordon.  But there's a mob boss that has been out to kill all the other mob bosses called Fenice and she has sent her snake goons out to kill Santos.  The Birds of Prey must protect him but first, they must decide what to do with Oracle whom they have just discovered.

This is a fantastic comic with three ultra-cool characters in it.  Barbara Gordon is both the awesome Oracle and the cool Batgirl while Dinah Drake is the excellent Black Canary and the Huntress is as lethal as the arrows she shoots.  The three together make a formidable team and with the new Oracle, they can't be stopped. But can they trust Oracle?  I really loved this amazing book and give it five out of five stars.   

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Batgirl-Birds-Prey-Vol-Rebirth/dp/1401268676/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ZACJ0N88DHIU&keywords=batgirl+and+the+birds+of+prey+vol+1&qid=1552658099&s=gateway&sprefix=batgirl+and+the+%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-1

The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home by Deensie Kienan

When I was a kid I visited Biltmore House and was awed and amazed.  That experience had me looking forward to reading this book, however, I had to force myself to finish this book it was so boring.  First off the buying of the land and the building of the house by George Washington Vanderbilt beginning in 1888. George and his mother who both suffered from poor health believed that the mountain air would be good for their health.  However, she wouldn't live long enough to live in it.  Now, writing about building something isn't easy to make it sound interesting but it is possible as Erik Larsson does in Devil in the White City as he describes the building of a city within a city and makes it sound completely fascinating.  Kienan fails here.  It's like a listing of items that get checked off.

The great Fredrick Law Olmsted who designed Central Park among a million other things including the White City at the World's Fair of 1893 and Richard Morris Hunt who designed the pedestal for the Statute of Liberty among a million other things, as well as the White City, were the ones who designed Biltmore House.  The grounds had been badly deforested and needed to be replanted which with the help of Olmstead and Gifford Pinchot and Carl Schenck forested the land.  Pinchot would leave to start up the U.S. Forestry Service for Roosevelt and Carl Schenck would come in and take his place.  Schenck would set up a school for forest rangers on the grounds of Biltmore.  Biltmore would set up a nursery that would grow trees and shrubs to be planted.

George would not see the point in marrying for a long time. He believed in seeing the world before settling down. He would be thirty-six when he married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser, in 1898.  His sisters would put his best friend William Vrandhurst Osgood "Billy", "Willie" Field up to get the two together since they were going to be on the same ship crossing the Atlantic going toward France with a stop in London.  She spends more time with Field than she does Vanderbilt though.  Edith has the name but not the riches.  She has three other sisters and a brother Daniel. Both her parents have been dead for some time and they were raised by a grandmother who is also now dead.  But the two don't get together then. Willie and George head on to India but then when they come back, Field has to go away on business and George is left to his own devices and finds himself meeting up with Edith in Paris where the two fall in love and decide to marry there.

Soon the two are joined by a daughter Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt.  She is born in North Carolina and the state welcomes her completely as one of their own calling her a "Tar Heel Nell".  Cornelia will be brought up along with the servants and villagers' kids and with a sense that she needs to give back to the community like her parents do.  Edith opens up Biltmore Industries a crafts and clothing operation and helps to support the women who run it which provides people with the ability to learn a trade and to sell their crafts.  This makes her no money it all goes to the Institute and the people who are in it. She also opens up a school for those who want to learn how to be a domestic servant and she opens schools for the children on the grounds of Biltmore.

Biltmore was never finished as George essentially ran out of money that he could devote to it.  The music room, for instance, has a ceiling that is unfinished.  As a matter of fact, through some bad investments, George wasn't doing so well financially.  He would begin to look for ways to cut back.  Which would begin a trend over the years as land is sold off (over 88,000 acres to form the Pisgah National Forest the first protected government land to come from private lands) and other things are done to save Biltmore from being torn down or parceled off.

Something that bothers me a great deal in this book is all of the describing of what people wear.  I realize that Edith and Cornelia were some sorts of fashion plates perhaps, but it got quite boring real quick.  Again this is the most boring interesting book ever.  And I know this isn't the author's fault, it's even in the title, the loss that she describes isn't just the real estate it's all the dead bodies in this book. So many people die in this book.  And not just from old age.  There are suicides, murder, sickness, stress, and a ship sinking.  It's a real downer to read that one more person has died like some kind of Shakespearean tragedy.  And if they weren't dying they were getting divorced. The Kennedy curse is to die young, the Vanderbilt curse is to get divorced. This at a time when people could and did divorce, but not in great numbers.  This book did have a few brief moments of interest such as when it talked about the authors Edith Wharton winning the Pulitzer and when it talked about Thomas Wolfe throughout.  However, these pieces of information seemed to meander off of the main point as though she was looking for something interesting to tie into it.  I was disappointed that such a grand house would receive a book that would let it down.  It didn't even live up to its title.  The author provides all the information but fails to provide it in an interesting way.  I give this book two and a half stars out of five stars.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Castle-American-Royalty-Nations/dp/1476794057/ref=sr_1_1?crid=388QATNNDKW6B&keywords=the+last+castle+by+denise+kiernan&qid=1552479801&s=gateway&sprefix=the+last+castle%2Caps%2C174&sr=8-1

Two Girls Down by Louisa Luna

Normally this isn't my type of book: where kids get kidnapped and people try to figure out what happened and where the kids are.  But this book surprised me and I found myself caught up in the characters and the storyline.  Julia is a single mother who does her best by her two daughters Kylie, ten-years-old and eight-year-old Bailey.  One day in March Kylie has been invited to a party so Julie stops by K-Mart to get something for the girl, but leaves her daughters in the car knowing that she can accomplish this task quicker with them in the car not asking for something for themselves when she didn't have much money to spend and was hoping to have some left over to buy her aunt a gift.  When she returns back to her car her kids are gone.   She finds out that they had gotten out to use the bathroom at the ice cream shop, but after that, they disappeared.

The cops are looking with little success, so her sister Maggie hires a private investigator from California, Alice Vega who has a perfect track record in finding the people she goes looking for both children and adults.  Though they don't always wind up alive, or if alive, all there.  Vega seeks out the help of local private investigator Max "Cap" Caplan.  He took the fall for one of the guys on the police force when a teen died in custody of a drug overdose and resigned.  He's divorced with a smart teenage daughter that he has a special relationship with.  He is able to provide her with the witness statements after a while and some convincing of Em the man he covered for who doesn't want to lose his job even if he does owe Cap.

Junior, the Captain of the police, provides them trouble until the Chief of Police finds out and insists that he work with them as they are getting things done.  It turns out that Kyle kept a diary at her friend Cole's house.  They go over there to get it and run into resistance with Cole's father who doesn't want them to have it. He wants to give it to the cops.  The guy is an asshole lawyer and someone who knows who Cap is.  They assure him that they are working with the cops and that it will be going to the cops.  They barely make it out of there without a physical altercation.

Also, someone emailed them that the girl's case is connected to the disappearance of Nolan Marsh a twenty-five-year-old schizophrenic who went missing three years ago.  They talk to his mother but don't get very far. She's dying.  So Vega goes and talks to his younger brother, Evan, who is likely doing drugs but is still looking for his brother.  When they crack Kyle's diary they find out who the mysterious guy is that she is in love with and it's not who you expect.

The camera angles from the stores indicate that Kylie knew and hugged the guy that she got in the car with.  But there was more than one person involved.  Jaime, her mother has no idea who it could be and they are depending on her diary to unveil his identity.  But who is the other guy?  Also, the FBI has gotten involved and they have two missing girls in the state of Pennsylvania with similar looks that both took ballet classes just like Kylie.  So is there a connection?

This book turned out to far exceed my expectations. It was a real page-turner. The more I read the more I got sucked into the story and the characters. Vega is a tough woman who has been through a lot and refuses to lose or be treated like a second class citizen.  Cap is a loveable guy who sees right through Vega's bullshit and calls her on it.  This was a fantastic book that took me by surprise by how great it was.  It got better and better the farther along you got into the book.  I give it five out of five stars.       

Quotes

Perry would have said that if someone crosses you on the wrong day, you grab the nearest pint glass and shove it in their teeth. Don’t stew in your juices, don’t let anything sink in.  Don’t wait, don’t bide your time, don’t dave your breath, don’t sleep on it.  You don’t have the weight, kid, but you got the fire, so bur the motherfuckers to the bone.

-Louise Luna (Two Girls Down p 139)

It felt like a first date. Vega had never been on a first date. She could not remember sleeping with someone she hadn’t been in a fistfight with first.

-Louise Luna (Two Girls Down p 153)

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Two-Girls-Down-Louisa-Luna/dp/0385542496/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1DMIOLJ1DQ816&keywords=two+girls+down+by+louisa+luna&qid=1552307029&s=gateway&sprefix=two+girls+down%2Caps%2C174&sr=8-1

Ms. Marvel Vol 5: Super Famous by G. Willow Wilson (Writer), Takeshi Miyazawa (Artist), Adrian Alphona (Artist), Nico Leon (Artist), Ian Herring (Colorist), VC"s Joe Caramagna (Letterer)

In the previous comic, Kamala's family's old friends move back to town with their attractive son whom she is interested in until she finds out that he is using his Inhuman abilities for evil things and plans on overtaking Queen Medusa.  He kidnaps her brother and exposes him to the Terrigen Mist that gives him powers that he must find a way to deal with.  Her and Bruno have a conversation about their relationship where she tells him that they can't be more than friends because of what she does.

Now she has been busy working with the Avengers. So busy she hasn't noticed that Bruno is dating a girl named Mike.  Jealousy rouses its ugly head.  But she doesn't have time for that.  A relocation organization is using her face to promote it causing bad feeling in the neighboorhood.  They are wanting to change the neighboorhood into something different and are handing out purple goo drinks that are causing people to turn into zombies.

Dr. Faustus is behind it all and now he has Bruno working for him in a zombie state so Kamala goes to Mike for help.  In another comic, Kamala needs help with being everywhere and Bruno finds a way to create more than one of her.  Her brother has found a woman to marry and she's not being there for him or for her friends or for school as she's trying to be there for the Avengers.  Of course, things get out of control quickly and she finds that she needs help.

This is a great series and this comic delves deep into her emotions as it shows how she feels about Bruno who has moved on from her to someone else who happens to be really cool and you like her so you don't necessarily want him to break up with her to get with Kamala who still doesn't seem to want to be in a relationship as she doesn't have time for one.  And this book explores the differences between two cultures and races marrying as Kamala's brother's bride is African American, but Muslim, yet her family is Christian.  I really loved this book and give it five out of five stars.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ms-Marvel-Vol-Super-Famous/dp/0785196110/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=ms+marvel+super+famous&qid=1552054212&s=gateway&sr=8-1  

Untouchable by Jayne Ann Krentz

In this final book in the Quinton Zane trilogy that began with When Have All the Girls Gone, then Promise Not to Tell and finally this book Quinton Zane was a cult leader who made a great deal of money off of the women in his cult, but they hid the money from him.  He torched the compound and cop Anton Salinas managed to save the children but wasn't able to save the mothers.  All of the children were able to find homes with family members except three boys, Max Cutler, Cabot Sutter, and Jack Lancaster.  Max, Cabot, and Anton opened a PI business while Jack went from the academic world to writing books on criminality to working cold cases that involve fire.

Jack has a way of lucid dreaming that takes him into a trance that helps him solve his cases.  This lucid dreaming takes him into a maze of fire.  He's tried to study them scientifically but has been told that he needs psychiatric help.  Instead, he goes to the new mediative specialist, Winter Meadows, in Eclipse Bay, Oregan where he has just moved.  She helps him to see that using fire doesn't help him and that he should change his dreamscape to ice and create a world of his own rather than a maze.  It immediately helps him.  She also has him create a safe word that will help him escape from his dreamscape at any time.

Sparks fly between the two and once he is no longer a client the two agree to see each other and share a searing kiss.  That night Kendall Mosely, a man from her past who had been stalking her at her old job and was the reason she left her old job at a spa, showed up in her cottage to kill her.  But Winter is a hypnotist and she had placed more than one hypnotic suggestion in his mind when she left.  One was that he would become obsessed with running rather than people and the other was that if he saw her again and she said the words Winnie the Pooh he would freeze.  When he froze she was able to get the knife out of his hand and was beginning to question him about how he had found her which was through someone online when lightning struck and broke him out of the trance. Luckily Jack showed up just then to help her with Mosely and he attacked him when he pulled a gun on her, causing him to hit the coffee table and knock Mosely out.

Jack believes that Zane is behind this and he's right. Zane has been working on taking over his biological father's company.  His dad got some woman pregnant years ago and she sold him for a fix to a couple.  Now he knows who his real father is and he wants revenge and to make money of course.  Zane knows that he needs to get rid of Jack who is his biggest threat in finding him.  He hires two mercenaries, Victoria Sloan and Devlin Knight to help him with his project and to clean up after him after he winds up Mosley online.  Mosely was supposed to kill Winter then go and kill Jack her supposed lover.  They believe he is going to offer them money and power so that they can retire.

This is a fitting end to the trilogy.  However, you don't have to have read the other three books to read and enjoy this book, though I highly recommend it so you can get the full scope of Zane's treachery from the other books.  I love the characters of Jack and Winter.  They are very mild mannered and most odd balled of the group which makes them lovable as people.  The story is interesting too.  I really liked this book a lot.  I give it five out of five stars. 

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Untouchable-Cutler-Sutter-Salinas-Book-ebook/dp/B07C6H8GFG/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=untouchable&qid=1551879054&s=gateway&sr=8-4

Not Dead Yet: A Memoir by Phil Collins

Born on January 30, 1951, in Middlesex, London, Phil Collins had drumming in his blood from the age of three when his parents gave him a drum to play with for a Christmas gift.  When he was older, his brother Clive and his sister Carole would design a drum kit for him until his mother and he could combine their money when he was ten and buy his first real kit.

But drumming wasn't his only interest. His mother was an agent for young actors (actually she became one after he became an actor and she saw a need in the area for one).  He played the Artful Dodger in Oliver! on West End.  That wouldn't be the only character he'd portray in that play. When his voice broke he'd have to give up playing the Artful Dodger, but he would go back at different times in his youth and play various parts.  It was a way to make money to afford a way to see acts of the day and to buy equipment.  Later in life, he would act again for television and for the movies (He was even considered for the part of The Master on Dr. Who).

He would join bands that went nowhere except for the band Hickory that became Flaming Youth once the brilliant producers Howard and Blaikley get a hold of them.  They write them an odd concept album Ark 2 that does so well that Melody Maker picks it as album of the month for October 1969 over Led Zepplin II.  But performing the album live proved difficult and writing new material also proved difficult so the band broke up.

With nothing to do he gets a fateful chance to play on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass.  This isn't his first time meeting a Beatle. He was an extra in a scene in the movie A Hard Day's Night. But don't look for him in the concert scene. He got cut.  The song is "The Art of the Dying" and they need a bongo player. He's never played bongos in his life but that's not going to stop him.  He gets his check in the mail and waits eagerly for the three-sided album to come out.  He isn't in the liner notes and then he can't hear himself in the song.  All he can think is that they went in another direction.  He finally gets a chance to ask George but he says he can't remember much of making that album.  Then George plays a dirty trick on Collins and tells him they found his tracks. He sends him some atrocious bongo playing with George at the end saying can we try it at the top without the bongo player.

Now he's looking for a new band and on a fateful day, he would answer the advertisement for Genesis who were looking for a drummer and a guitarist.  Genesis would go through drummers like Spinal Tap, though none went up in spontaneous combustion.  Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, and Mike Rutherford were private school boy chums as were the members of the band that had quit.  Now they need someone to take their place.  He wins them over and gets the gig and becomes the comic relief in a band where Tony and Peter are often going at each other with Mike playing peacemaker.  The guitarist is Steve Hackett.

That lineup would continue for several albums until the fateful Lamb Lies Down on Broadway that didn't do so well when Peter announces that he is leaving the band while they are on tour. He is convinced to stay for the tour, but now Genesis needs to find a new lead singer.  Eventually, they'll realize that they have a lead singer with Phil Collins and what they need is a new drummer.  Bill Bruford, the former drummer from Yes would drum for them for a year then they'd get Chester Thompson who'd stay with them till the end.

While Genesis is going on Phil reconnects with an old girlfriend who is living in Vancouver and has a daughter, Joley. The two get married and move to England, but the stress of his life of making albums and touring put a strain on their marriage and she cheats on him with the man who is supposed to be helping her fix their house up.  Still, he tries to save his marriage as Genesis takes a break so the guys can do their own personal projects.  By this time they have a son, Simon and she's moved back to Vancouver, but there's no saving the marriage.  He pours his heart out into some songs that would end up on his solo album Face Value, such as "In the Air Tonight", "I Missed Again", "If Leaving Me Was Easy" and one that ended up a single "Against All Odds".  But one of the songs on the album was a love song based on his new romance with Jill Tavelman "This Must Be Love".  At this time Genesis would put out Duke and will have a real breakthrough with the song "Misunderstanding" that Phil wrote.

Genesis is a juggernaut that keeps going and when Genesis isn't going he is on solo projects or he's doing producing with others such as Eric Clapton and Robert Plant.  His marriage is strong and he has a daughter named Lily from it, but not strong enough to withstand him running into a former girlfriend whom he still has feelings for.  He has an affair and they make plans to leave their spouses but she backs out and the short-lived affair ends with him writing an album about it, Both Sides.  On top of that, he meets a woman with whom he falls in love with in Switzerland named Orianne.

This book also talks about the mistakes made at Live Aid and what happened.  Phil Collins was the only person to play at both stadiums in London and Philadelphia during the concert.  How Sting told him before going on that he sometimes changes the words to his songs which left Phil who had learned the words to the songs for the concert at a loss and singing the wrong words.  And the "Led Zepplin" debacle.  At least Eric Clapton went well.

Collins takes you behind the scenes into his life and his songs and his time with Genesis and his time spent with other famous people and his medical problems and his addiction problems.  He really puts it out there and holds nothing back. Sadly, this wasn't a well-written book.  There were many times I wanted to put it down because of its writing but the stories kept me coming back.  In the end, I'm a huge fan of Phil Collins and Genesis and the book was worth reading for that alone.  I give this book three and a half stars out of five.

Quotes

People hate a break-up, but they love a break-up song.

-Phil Collins (Not Dead Yet: A Memoir p 186)

But wisdom comes with age, and I now feel I have a master’s degree in divorce and people management. I will come to view my adult life as forty years of negotiation.

-Phil Collins (Not Dead Yet: A Memoir p 220)

 Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Not-Dead-Yet-Phil-Collins/dp/1101907487/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BW2QK93LWKD0&keywords=not+dead+yet+phil+collins&qid=1551706058&s=gateway&sprefix=not+dead+yet%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-1

Paper Girls Vol. 4 by Brian K. Vaughan (Writer), Cliff Chiang (Artist), Matt Wilson (Colorist), and Jared K. Fletcher (Letterer)

In the previous comic the girls follow KJ to the past and wind up in prehistoric times where they have a run in with a native woman and KJ and Mac get separated from the others.  KJ and Mac follow the streak across the sky which they believe to be a time machine and find the first time traveler, Dr. Qanta Braunstein whom they rescue from the native woman's child's three fathers.  The girls and the doctor decide to risk altering the future and help the native woman to keep her child by attacking the three men. The doctor doesn't make it but leaves her time machine for the girls to use. They get in with Tiffany on the outside and head out and wind up on December 31, 1999.

A cop is hassling Tiffany about being out so late at her age and wants to take her home. Tiffany sees two ginormous robots fighting each other but the cop doesn't see them.  One of the robots crushes the cop car and Tiffany must flee. She heads for home where she runs into her future self's husband. Her future self is out buying something and her parents are out of town.  She explains to Chris who she is and what is going on.  He agrees to help her but he wants to go out and find the older Tiffany first.

Meanwhile, the other girls landed in the mall and realize that one-way time travelers had of communicating with each other was the comic strips, especially Chuck Spachefski's. So they go to his house and find that he is really Charlotte and she knows that they are time travelers and that there is a war going on something a time traveler from the future told her about.  One group believes in time travel and one doesn't.  Both are from different time periods.  Then Charlotte decides they know too much and need to go.  So they hightail it out of there and go in search of Tiffany all the while the robots are still fighting and only Tiffany can see them.

This comic takes the series in a new direction by explaining about the war between the two time periods.  Now the girls are beginning to realize who is after them sometimes.  But all they want is all they've ever wanted which is to go back to their own timeline.  This is a great book from a series that just keeps getting better and better. I give it a five out of five stars.

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Paper-Girls-4-Brian-Vaughan/dp/1534305106/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1N492TMPTU6S8&keywords=paper+girls+vol+4&qid=1551449356&s=gateway&sprefix=paper+girls%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-1