Checking my perfume learning progress

Uncategorized November 4, 2009 Comments: 2

It seems I found a way how to check how much I learned (or more likely didn’t) by smelling Andy Tauer creations. Yep, a good way to test how little I know.

I tried Lonestar Memories and Reverie au jardin. Ok, I did smell a bit more than the first time some months ago but there’s so much more there that my nose cannot get hold of. 🙂

Notes for Lonestar memories: geranium, carrot seed, clary sage, birch tar, cistus, jasmine, cedar wood, myrrh, tonka, vetiver and sandalwood.

The smoky tar hits you straight off, it has a bit strong opening (like all Tauer creations I tried). I get some herbal and fruity notes (got surprised by the fruit, I wasn’t expecting that). I did get hints of carrot (yeey for me) and supposed what smelled somewhat herbal was sage but that’s about it. The rest of the notes are a blur in a smoky, slightly sweet leathery setting that ends in the drydown with a burnt caramel note I completely love.

I have a bit of a problem with all Tauer creations so far – they are strong on the initial spritz and although I actually love all of those I tried, and I tried them on my wrist, I cannot imagine what it would feel like wearing them. They really need to be used sparingly since not only do they come on strong, they stay on forever. 🙂 Well, not forever but longer than anything I’ve been wearing/smelling lately.

I find them all terribly serious. They cannot be taken lightly or worn indoscriminately otherwise it might happen that the perfume is wearing you. 🙂

The second one I mentioned was Reverie au jardin. I realized lately I have a tenuous relationship with lavender – although I like the essential oil and the real-life plant, there are not that many perfumes that have a strong lavender that I find wearable, or even nice.

Notes: green and fresh lavender, galbanum, fir balm, bergamot, rose, frankincense, ambrette, flowery orris, vetiver, tonka bean, oakmoss.

It striked me as a clean and floral lavender before I read the notes. Than I realized it does smell fresh and that the clean part was probably my association regarding fir (so many cleaning product having that smell). Then I got a really strong citrusy feel for the lavender and after that, my smelling fell apart. I mean, everything coalesced into this joyful, loud, sunny, happy creation that I couldn’t for the life of me take apart. So I just kept smelling it and enjoying it. Of all those I tried recently, I don’t think I’ll be able to wear this one as often as others. I wish I could, but at the moment I don’t see myself as how I described it so we woulnd’t suit. But who says that’s not going to change come spring? 🙂 I certainly hope that the sun and greenery will be what it takes for us to get together again.

So, of the 4 I tested recently, my favourite is Lonestar memories. It even sounds like I feel these days.

REMINDER (again): You still have time to win a copy of the first novel in The Black Cobra quartet series, by Stephanie Laurens which, trust me, shouldn’t be missed. You never know, you might get hooked like me (and that’s not a bad thing). 🙂 Or at least have a little fun and spend a cozy evening reading a book that is made for anti-stress therapy.

P.S. I still have Une Rose chyprée to try and see how far I go. 🙂

Subrina hair color

Uncategorized November 3, 2009 Leave a comment

I colored my hair yesterday and was surprised in more ways than I expected. I wouldn’t even be talking about this color today if there wasn’t some kind of promotion so I decided to try it. It’s not like it can be that bad, but since this is a Slovenian company and not my usual L’Oreal, Garnier or Schwarzkopf which I trust, I never before bought Subrina (by Ilirija). I know it’s not nice to be prejudiced against small cosmetic companies but sometimes I can’t help it.

Anyway, it’s in the lower price range regarding what’s on offer (L’Oreal Preference being higher price range for hair colors here).

Anyway, I took the box after seeing the hair color in the book the SA offered without actually reading the name of the color. It looked the right kind of red. Even when opening the box yesterday to mix the color and reading the instructions for the color named Orange, I still thought it was going to look the same as on the box. Well, as you can imagine, I was wrong. 🙂

But truth to tell, I am not disappointed with the color – it does hint toward orange but it’s actually a really strong copper tone. Which is what I aim for most of the time. Only this copper leans more toward orange than red. This will be then the tone of the month – it’s good it’s so lively because the weather here is grey and we had our first snow today! 🙂 Yeey! It was mixed with rain and it’s too warm for it to stick, but I love watching it fall and it has made my gray rainy day much happier.

Back to the color. I wanted to talk about it today because I was pleasantly surprised to find that the gloves that come attached to the instructions are much better quality than what can usually be found in the package and that there was more color in the end than I was able to utilize. That has never happened before. I mean, I do have short hair but lately I started asking myself is it possible that they put less and less product into those bottles and tubes because one color is barely enough for my hair. Well, Subrina obviously does put enough which is certainly a plus for them. Another plus is that their instructions say that after washing off the color shampoo, you need to shampoo the hair one more time with a color save shampoo and then apply the conditioner that came in the package. The problem with the conditioner satchet is that it is not perforated which luckily for me, I noticed before starting to wash the color off so I cut the top off.

Now, I cannot as of yet say how lasting it will be (I mean they all wash off, it’s just the question of how soon and how much) but it washes of your skin incredibly well enough. Hopefully it will remain this vibrant long (at least the SA said it would).
REMINDER: You still have time to win a copy of the latest Stephanie Laurens romance (I mean, who doesn’t want to win a book), just leave a comment saying so here.

WoW: Stephanie Laurens and The Black Cobra Quartet, and… – a prize draw

Uncategorized November 1, 2009 Leave a comment

The way I’m going, this writer of the week might turn to be every two weeks. It’s the end of the week and I barely made it. But I have a good excuse. 🙂 I got offered a new book by Stephanie Laurens to read and review, so when it arrived, of course I left everything else and went to read it.

Well, what can I say. It’s a typical Laurens novel and that’s really good. The fact that this book comes with short info on all Cynster and Bastion club novels written so far has been some good thinking on someone’s part. It really made my reading much easier because it put into perspective what year each of the stories happened. You know, after, what? – 16 Cynster books and 8 or 9 Bastion, you kind of lose the details, so having them at the end of the book is really helpful. Especially so, as both Cynsters and Bastion club members feature in The Untamed bride and in the rest of the quartet to come.

I’m not going into the story and how the Black Cobra situation came about, but I’m happy to say that I can’t wait for the next book. The bad thing is those sequels never come soon enough. 🙂

What I really liked about this novel is that I could relate with the main female character, she’s 29 (I’m 30) and her state of mind is in accordance with her age. At least from my perspective. Though it seems, the more stubborn you are, the more likely you are to burst into flame with the right man. And the older you are, the less likely you are to debate on the possible consequences for your social status if you decide to enjoy the man of you choosing. Like I said, totally in accordance with age. 😉

I know that real-life love stories usually do not look like those in romance novels, but there are times I wish they would. At least for a while. I mean I can tell myself I can paint my love life in more romance-like way but in the end, it’s not really the same. Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s the time we live in, but I cannot imagine letting go the way you are supposed to for true love. And sometimes, I do wish I was the kind of person who can do that with the right man. You know, all those real virile, patriotic, handsome, honest, fit, large men are a girl’s dream come true. 🙂

So, if I cannot have them/him in real life, I’ll live in the novel for a while and enjoy myself. You can certainly enjoy yourself while reading Laurens romance.

Now, who of you wants to enjoy yourself reading the latest Laurens romance? 🙂 The lovely people who sent me my copy, also offered 2 copies to my readers (they’ve made me very happy, I have to say). The only unfortunate thing is the copies can go only to US, Canada or UK. If you’re interested in one, please say so until Thursday midnight and on Friday, I’ll announce the winners.

I do hope you will enjoy it as much as I have. 🙂

P.S. This book made me realize the time has come to read some of the love stories from the beginning of the Cynster line. I’ve forgotten some of the stories but I know I enjoyed them very much. After all, I wouldn’t own all of them if that was not the case. 🙂
Like I said, addicted.

Working on my relationship with the roses

Uncategorized October 30, 2009 Leave a comment
As you can probably guess from the title, I’m not really into roses when they make an appearance in a perfume. At least, I believed so. It seems that has if not changed, then changing definitely. I’m still not fascinated by them like with some other notes but I actually started appreciating them and even liking some to the wearable on me extent. Maybe it’s just the learning process and I’m expanding my horizons. Whatever the case, today I’ll talk about one with a rose and one that made me think more of warm sands than the Matthew Williamson did.

Did I give enough hints about who am I going to talk about? 🙂

I’ve been trying for weeks to find time to sniff Andy Tauer creations again. I realized recently that everything needs at least 2 tries before you can decide how to approach it properly. I smelled my samples some months ago (while on vacation so I couldn’t write about them) and I needed to repeat the experience. Btw, the samples that Aus Liebe zum Duft sends are quite large. So, after testing them I’ll have at least for 4-5 wearings. Yeey! 🙂

I wish I could them justice – by them I mean L’Air du désert marocain and Le Maroc pour elle. Both are so full of perfume life, for lack of a better phrase. And do they last!

L’Air du désert marocain is warm, dry, sweet and smokey? oriental that I don’t think can be described as accurately as to give you the right picture. You just have to try it and see for yourself. 🙂

But what I got from it was a test for my nose. I though the opening was vanilly incense/smoke. Turns out there’s no vanilla in it.

Notes from Andy Tauer site: coriander, cumin, petitgrain, rock rose, jasmine, cedar wood, vetiver and amber.

Don’t ask me what notes I discovered. My mind simply refused tracking them, I get the whole picture and cannot delve into notes. It strangely reminded me of Timbuktu, it reached straight into my subconsciousness and expanded my world vision.

You know, if it smells like this in the desert, I think the time has come to visit one. Dry, slightly sweet, warm and somewhat smokey.

Le Maroc pour elle is a different story. I got surprised by the larger than life opening. Described by Mr. Tauer as a sunny fragrance does it justice. You get hit by all this sunny sweetness that seemed vaguely fruity to me but again, no fruit in this. Unless you consider fresh citrus but that wasn’t what I thought I smelled.

What really surprised me in this one is the fact that as I was enjoying the sunny opening, I didn’t realize there was a rose in it. Or lavender for that matter. It’s upsetting for me how I completely cannot force my nose to smell anything else than the big picture when Tauer creations are concerned.

Notes: fresh citrus, lavender, cedar woods, oriental woods, rose at dawn, evening jasmine.

Anyway, after reading the notes, I finally found lavender in that sunny sweetness and understood that rose does not always smell like the rose I know. It obviously smells similar enough for me to recognize but this one went completely into an elaborate, oriental beautiful depiction of a rose.

One last thing about those two today. I haven’t checked the description to see if they are described as masculine (L’Air) and feminine (Le Maroc pour elle). If you would want to categorize them, then yes, they would be a masculine and feminine. But I think both are wearable for both sexes. I will certainly use up both my samples.

And that is what my newly discovered rose relationship has made me realize. There are some rose scents that can be worn by guys as well. 🙂 It feels like I’m late to some realizations, but some things need to be discovered by oneself. That’s how I comfort myself. 🙂

A bit more on Le Jardin Retrouvé

Uncategorized October 29, 2009 Leave a comment

This line has managed to somehow grow on me. 🙂 I find some of their fragrances unwearable but for most of them I wouldn’t mind having them in my perfume wardrobe.
But before I go on to them, I realized today that I can no longer live without blogging. When I don’t have the time to write something the moment I’d like, I actually get upset. It seems I need to write. Even if it’s going to be short and not terribly interesting.
On to some other Mr. Gutsatz creations. I had to check the dictionary for Chevrefeuille (honeysuckle) for the Croatian equivalent. I had no idea what plant that is. Turns out I did smell it before – again evoking childhood memories. It seems I no longer spend that much time outside playing. 🙂

Unfortunately, this one is not for me. It’s a nice fresh floral that seems to clean to me, too much fresh laundry associations to be used as a personal fragrance. It has that breezy, floral quality – like a smell wafting on clear day on a cool breeze. I thought I got some jasmine in the drydown, but can’t be sure.

I liked the Jasmin, but I’m not sure yet as how much. One of the great things about these fragrances is that there is a lot of greenery there and I for one love that. This Jasmine also has a green quality to it – not exactly grassy but more like you break young green twigs. That’s the best equivalent I could come up with. I also thought I got some smoky hints but am not sure about it and some fruity aspect of jasmine.

On to Le Lys (lily). I wish there weren’t that many lilies around and they probably do not smell the same. Of the lily variety, I only recognize the lily of the valley kind. On my first try, I though that is what I smelled, but second time I was no longer sure, maybe I just wanted it to smell similar to something I recognize. It was a lovely floral, one I could wear much more readily than Chevrefeuille. I though I got some creamy iris in the drydown but checking the Jardin site, I realized there’s no iris in this but vanilla and oakmoss in the drydown, so I guess that’s it. Smells great though. 🙂

Today I also tried one of the masculines for the first time. Pour Homme. Funny. Interesting as well. Ok, funny might not be the right word for it, but it really brought a large smile to my face for being so different from the rest.

Notes I was able to find: lavender, rosemary, cinammon and patchouli.

I’m smiling again trying to compose this in my head. But first, do cumin and dirty patchouli smell alike? Because I was so sure there was cumin I was smelling, until I found the notes and it turned out there was no cumin in it but patchouli. So, I’m a bit confused now. How in the world am I going to be able to tell them apart without actually seeing the notes?! Different things shouldn’t smell the same. Ok, they might not be the same to someone with a better trained nose, but that’s not me. Anyway, I got sidetracked by the smell of dirty patchouli – it was shouting so loud I just couldn’t hear the other notes. Not that I minded. I like it when something veers off the usual path. Then it subsided into a nice skin scent that still has hints of “that” patchouli” but nowhere near as strong as in the beginning. I don’t think I’ll be wearing this but I love it for its bravery. 🙂

Re-discovering spring… and the smells of childhood

Uncategorized October 27, 2009 Leave a comment

I will talk about some of the Le Jardin Retrouvé fragrances today. If you want to know more about the house and its history, there’s a lovely post by Divina from Fragrance bouquet.

I’m going to talk more about impressions today. 🙂 It is difficult for me to talk about scents without having notes, my nose is not really that good.

But since Mr. Denis Gutsatz was so kind to send free samples for me to review, I’ll try my best. One thing I realized while trying them is that it took me a second round of smelling them to actually begin appreciating them better. Or maybe it was just the fact that I had a terrible cold.

The things is, it seems there are a lot of citrusy notes in almost all of Mr. Yuri Gutsatz’s creations. Most of the time they are in their right place for me – the one I actually didn’t like was Citron Poivrée (smelled like lemon drops).

Anyway, none of them smelled modern to me or terribly new. Some of them reminded me of my childhood spent running around my grandmother’s garden or parks where I played with other children. Some of the rose fragrances (more about them soon) reminded me of people from my childhood – especially my grandmother.

Of the four I will go through today, Verveine celeste is the one that smelled most spring-like of all the creations and most memory-inducing. And I believe I finally found my cut grass fragrance. I’ve been looking for it for so long and I absolutely love the fact that I can smell it in this. The only problem is that it will wait until spring for me to feel the need to wear it. But I don’t mind.

And that might be one of the reasons I didn’t fall straight away for the Jardin Retrouvé scents. Almost all of them evoke spring feelings for me.

I like Tubéreuse very much – it smells green and tuberose-jasmine like. Very strong – I’d say the strongest of the line and if you don’t like the smell of either tuberose or jasmine, steer clear. I love it. But also in the spring. It smells exactly like I imagine tuberose and jasmine should smell.

One of the woody scents in the line, Santal is lovely if somewhat bland when compared to woody scents of Serge Lutens line for example. This one is listed under masculines but as more of a unisex. Very true. I think it now sounds like it’s not good when compared to more heavy scents but actually it’s quite lovely. On my first try I thought I got some fruity, herbal whiffs from it – but I seem to have missed them on my second try. And it all rests on this lovely santal woody base and sort of stays clear of either going into warm, sweet more feminine territory or the other way into more masculine territory.

The last one for today is Cuir de Russie. Interesting take on leather albeit maybe too sweet for my taste. Not as in candy too sweet, but in leather too sweet. It’s a floral cuir to me. Strange and actually not bad. I’ll be giving this more thought in the near future, there is definitely potential here. Lots of it.

I only had one floral on the list today, but the others in the line are included as those that provoke childhood memories.

All of these scents would in my opinion work great as ambient scents which is what Mr. Gutsatz probably thought himself since some of them come as candles as well.

And the name of the line is apt as well. It is definitely a place to go to find lost scent memories of childhood (in case you have memories of running through green places).

Picture by: http://www.lejardinretrouve.com/

P.S. The best thing of all is if you find something you love, you’re not going to pay terribly much for it – the prices they offer are the ones from 1975. when the company was founded. Worth exploring. I’ll be exploring their beauty oil soon. 🙂

It really does smell that nice

World of Perfume October 23, 2009 Comments: 4

I have no better title for today’s post than this. Before I get on to what I want to say, I have to admit I have a serious credit card problem. It seems I order with abandon because yesterday I got a little package from Juliet Stewart which I completely forgot I ordered. 🙂

And this is where the title of this post comes into play. I’ve been reading around how wonderful her scent Juliet is. Hence, the title. It really is that nice. I don’t even know how to describe it.

Here are the notes: Amalfi lemons, basil, bergamot, Sicilian orange, mediterranean herbs, Italian jasmine, vanilla, amber, precious woods.

I wish I could do it justice. It starts sweetly floral with hints of fruit and green freshness and you can barely trace hints of something herbal but it is not really a citrusy smell (all those citrusy notes made me think in that direction). And then, you get the jasmine but not like any I’ve tried yet (ok, my experience is not actually extensive, but still). A sweetish, fresh, lightly citrusy jasmine. Absolutely wonderful. The combination is at the same time fresh and floral, utterly feminine and energetic. My idea of it is a vanilla jasmine rendered light by the citruses. And at the end, the smell I was left with in my mind was the picture of amber.

Btw, I think my co-workers think I’m strange. I sniff my wrists all day long. 🙂 Ok, maybe not since we’re really a good bunch so we respect each others idiosyncrasies.

What I had on my other wrist was 5 o’clock au gingembre by Serge Lutens.
Notes: bergamot, candied ginger, honey, pepper, dark cocoa, soft cookies?!, gingerbread, patchouli, vetiver.

I believe I saw somewhere that this is a masculine scent? Anyway, I’d never have said that from the start of this but in the end I could understand why would one make it lean toward that category.

I smelled it before I had the notes. Honestly, if I read the notes before, I’d have thought it was some kind of a tooth-aching sweet cookie monster. 🙂 It’s not that. It’s wonderful but, is it possible that the SL/Sheldrake combo has such a strong signature? I mean, it is recognizable as theirs if you smelled more than one of their scents. But never mind that – I like almost all of them. 🙂

For me the start is sweet and woody. I didn’t get any of the notes listed at the beginning but thought it was a blend of Feminite du bois and Santal blanc or some of those boozy woody fragrances. I loved it! 🙂

Once it got into drydown I found lovely patchouli-vetiver mixed with a citrusy note (that could only be bergamot) that I could understand would be termed more masculine. But I liked it. I know I have a tendency toward “masculine” scents.

P.S. I was wearing Love By Kilian today. No review, but I only wish Love was so sweet…

WoW: Laurell K. Hamilton

World of Perfume October 22, 2009 Leave a comment

If you’re a fan of kick-ass heroines from vampire/werewolf stories, Anita Blake series is definitely not to be missed. It’s how I got started and hooked. 🙂 The series has progressed to some 17 books or something (I don’t really bother remembering the number, I just check periodically to see if something new is coming out).

As you can probably guess that many books usually mean the quality might be questionable at some point. Well, that guess would be true. The good thing though is that it seems with this last book, Mrs Hamilton is on her way to what we came to expect from Anita Blake. The last book in the series “Skin trade” is finally back on track with some serious problems and typical Anita. Strong in her convictions, constantly questioning the rightness of her choices (which are usually one of lesser evils) and standing firm in the face of danger. But, there are many heroines which come with a sense of humor, if that’s what you are looking for, forget it. Anita is not a light, humorous being. She’s dark (on the outside as well) and ironic as hell. She is also constantly conflicted, due to her strong convictions and Catholic upbringing.

It’s actually interesting to follow the books from the beginning and see how they progresses. If I got it right, Mrs Hamilton wasn’t married at the time she started writing and several books in the beginning have no sex in them. Just some physical attraction, and that’s it. At some point though, sex started appearing in all manner of situations and it almost went into porn category (the quantity and explicitness). It just deteriorated with each following book. Now, there’s still sex but the book is much more story oriented. Thank God. 🙂 And I got the feeling that the original Anita is back. With all her lovers. 😉

It’s funny, there’s one more series written by LKH, the Merry Gentry which revolves around Fae. And again you have there the heroine who without any wish or inclination ends up having a whole bunch of lovers. 🙂

Oh, I almost forgot to say, Anita is not a simple human. She’s a federal marshal hunting vampires, called the Executioner by the vampires, and the strongest Necromancer in the last couple of centuries. 🙂 I’ll keep the rest of what she is to myself, if it sounds interesting give it a try. You’re bound to be frustrated and angry at several points but it’s still dark and interesting.

P.S. It’s evident from what I wrote that I have all the books from both series, right? 🙂

Picture by: http://www.amazon.com/

How to wear Bulgari scents?

Uncategorized October 21, 2009 Comments: 4

I’m totally baffled when it comes to Bulgari. I try them and I like the way they are done and the way they smell, but they are not me. I haven’t found a single one I can fall in love with, or at least develop a friendship so we can hang together. And it’s not that they incompatible with my skin chemistry, I think they develop just nicely.

I was shopping the other day in one of my used to be favorite perfumery in Zagreb, Martimex and I left (after spending a nice amount) with 3 perfume samples (I’m not counting 3 perfume cards). The SA sort of apologetically whispered that that was all they had. The same happened some 2 moths ago as well. So, I hope they fix it, otherwise I don’t see they have a future among Sephora, Limoni and Douglas.
Today I wanted to talk about the sample I got, Bulgari Blv, edp II.

Notes: violet, star anise, liquorice, frosted mandarine, jasmine petals, iris, fresh lily of the water, patchouli, vetiver, ambergris, benzoin, labdanum, tonka, musk.

They went completely for the blue in every sense – all the flowers, gemstones, makeup on Laetitia Casta – everything is ranging from light/frosted blue to darker blue but not really dark blue. Then it hit me, I think one of the reasons I just don’t own and wear Bulgari scents is that all of those I’ve tried, they all smelled cold and distanced. And those are not qualities I look for in anything (or anyone). But Bulgari makes it smell good. 🙂

Anyway, on to the smell itself. I had serious problems trying to discern any notes from it. It goes on fresh, cool and somewhat reminds me of aquatic (maybe beacuse of all the blue). But since I pretty much hate aquatic notes and I don’t hate this, I guess it’s just my imagination. What I got from the initial blast was that there is some flower in it (I didn’t have the notes yet) and that there was also a hint of some fruit but I didn’t think it was anything citrusy. Maybe frosted mandarin can count as something less citrusy than, you know, lemon. 🙂
In my standard fashion, I realized the opening reminded me terribly of something else I smelled, but of course I couldn’t remember. But this time, after some 30 minutes I think I know what it reminded me of – L’eau d’Issey. But it’s been quite a while since I smelled it last and I could be wrong.

So, it goes down this well blended road where I keep wondering how is it possible that they created it so seamlessly that I cannot decipher where are the individual notes? I felt totally stupid but I’ll try again soon. 🙂 I did get the opening well enough, but after that, it was – where’s jasmine, iris? I don’t smell iris. It says there’s patchouli in this, hmmm.

Even the drydown which is supposed to have all those nice, warmish notes is a mistery to me. It keeps the cool, distant aspect through it all although you can feel the underlying well maybe not exactly warmt but, warmish breeze. If the whole scent was more like the drydown, I would probably go through my samples faster. 🙂

This way, I keep wondering what is it with me and Bulgari? I had such high hopes with Omnia Green Jade after realizing the drydown is great, but it takes long to get there and I just am not a patient person.

In the end, I think they are completely correct in the manner they advertise it, it is really this nice crystal, frosted, blue fragrance.

WoW: Patricia Briggs

Uncategorized October 18, 2009 Leave a comment

I barely made it – this being the last day of the week. This week’s author is Patricia Briggs who is climbing my personal writer list. I’ve read this week the “Hunting ground” – her second book in the series Alpha and Omega. Those being the werevolves. It’s interesting, I’ve been reading books with werevolves for quite some time, and I never came across a reference to an omega werevolf (they are quite rare and do not display the aggresive behaviour of most of werevolves nor are they submissive, that being the solution to not being a strong enough wolf so everyone bows to what you say).

The Alpha and Omega series just gets better with each book and I was sorry to read at Mrs. Briggs site that another book is not coming anytime soon, there are other books scheduled for release. The good news is that one of them is another of Mercy Thompson series – happening in the same world as the Alpha and Omega, mentioning some of the characters as well (like the Marrok – leader of all American werevolves and father to sons, one appearing as the Alpha in the A and O series, and another as a friend (used to be lover) of Mercy Thompson.

One more good thing I realized browsing through Patricia Briggs’ site is that there are some fantasy books available (and I already saw some of the titles in my favourite bookstore – Algoritam). I’ll buy one of them to see if I’m going to like them (I somehow don’t doubt it) and let you know after how it went.