Pimping a friend and a quick review

Any Broadway fans out there? Being a fan of a things review-y, and also of embarrassing my friends, I'd like to draw your attention to Broadway.com's new word of mouth panel. They have gotten rid of their professional reviewer in favor of "man on the street" type reviews. They chose 12 people to send to shows, then they get to review them for the site. And one of the reviewers is my old buddy Ellen! Here she is, in all her fabulousness. I look forward to seeing what she has to say about NY theater (despite the fact that I never go). Congrats on getting chosen. Can't wait to hear about what you've seen.

I also wanted to quickly review Measure of a Man by Bonnie Dee (who is that guy on the cover and why does he keep showing up everywhere?) This book is part of Liquid Silver's Terran Realm series, which is like...environmental paranormal. Or something. Terrans are a race who live alongside humans and they keep the environment in balance. Or something. Different people have an affinity with a particular element (earth, air, fire, water) and some sort of power that is related to that element. These are called Keepers and there are Protectors who, um, protect the Keepers so that they can do their work. Okay, let's be honest. I didn't really get the world building, nor did I care about it all that much. I didn't even quite get what the heroine's power of mental healing had to do with the air.

Whatever. Doesn't much matter, because I found this to be an enjoyable, fast read. After reading this and Dee's contribution to the Boundless anthology, I can firmly say that I really love this author's characterizations. She writes down to Earth, likeable heroines, and offbeat, tormented and very appealling heroes. In this case, it made the book work despite me being meh about the Terran thing. MoaM has a con artist/petty criminal (Ian) as the hero and he gets drawn into the world of the Terrans when one literally crashes into him. Mirabai has strong mental powers and she works as a psychic healer. Dee was able to make her charming and not overly hippy dippy and sage like, but rather a nice foil for the jaded and self loathing Ian. They had good chemistry and the relationship developed quickly, but worked. Mira has stolen an object from the bad guys (the Destroyers), and it's a pretty standard going on the run type plot. It was the characters that made it work, from Ian and Mira to protector Justin to the bad guy (whose name is currently escaping me). I give it a B, and I've already bought the follow up Fruits of Betrayal. Maybe I'll figure out why the Destroyers want to destroy.