8-25-12 The Wolf Hunt by Gillian Bradshaw - Fiction

4 - Oops, forgot one!  This is a period book set in France in the days of lords and lieges.  It is a good combo of intrigue, romance, politics, and the supernatural, surprisingly so.  Marie Penthievre is the heir to her fathers estate and is kidnapped by the Bretons from her Norman priory.  Ironically, one of her kidnappers is a blood relation.  She is kept at court but is treated as one of the family.  At the beginning of her stay, there is some drama with one of the lord's knights rushing off to steal away with his lover before her wedding to another.  The story is full of twists and turns with one mystery leading into the next and the battle, legal and personal, for Marie's lands once her father has been killed in the crusades.  This was a much more interesting book than I initially expected and well written historically.

8-12-12 Hounded by Kevin Hearne - Fiction

4 - This was a surprisingly good read!  I was doing the random walk down a library aisle, turn & grab something, and this caught my eye.  I figured it would be some of that mediocre fantasy that has been released lately but it actually was a well researched and fun book.  It's set in Tempe, AZ so I had a great time because I knew where everything was.  The story is about a Druid living in our time.  He's still living because he is smart and can blend in.  And he has great friends including his dog, Oberon, who he speaks with mentally, his lawyers, a werewolf and a vampire, and the blessings of the Morrigan, one of the Irish goddesses of death.  Hearne intertwines modern day with Irish mythology so well.  Very fun, so I will read the other two books in the set.

8-12-12 The Sacred Band by David Anthony Durham - Fiction

4 - Definitely interesting but this final book of the trilogy let me down a bit. Corinn just becomes such an annoying and blah character.  If you read it, you will understand what I'm saying.  Mena is still a great character and so is Dariel and their parts in this are still fabulous.  Overall, a bit disappointing as the end of a trilogy, but it does ties everything up.  You have no real questions.  Meh.

8-12-12 Blind Sight by Terri Persons - Fiction

4 - I really like this series.  Agent Bernadette Saint Clare is a great character with her fair share of flaws and the cases are very unusual but well planned out.  There is a little bit of the paranormal in these but even if you avoid those kind of books, I think you could really enjoy these because they are more cop than paranormal.  In this one, there is a killer on the loose (of course) who is leaving bodies behind with a pentagram on their forehead. Is he a religious nut or not?  Very good book.  Really enjoyed the story.

4-27-12 A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison - Fiction

4 - Harrison delves more into Trent and Rachel in this book.  Rachel is still wearing the charmed silver band and is trying to live as just a witch.  Unfortunately, there is a militant human faction that wants her blood to create their own demon and engineer a curse to destroy all Inderlanders.  Rachel's life is at stake, as usual, and Trent offers her his own brand of elven magic as help.  There's not too much interaction with Jenks and Ivy in this one but it is still a great adventure as Trent starts trying to master and use his elven magic and Rachel has to decide if she wants to live as half a witch or as a full fledged demon.  Too bad this just came out because I'm all ready for the next book!

3-24-12 Bar Flower by Lea Jacobson - Non-Fiction

4 - Lea Jacobson gives the reader a look inside ukiyo, "the floating world" of Japan. Ukiyo is the entertainment industry mainly focused around sex and Jacobson was part of the highest rungs of that society, a bar hostess. Ironically, a bar hostess, even though the occupation is considered part of the sex trade, involves no sex and barely even any touching. The modern equivalent of a geisha, a hostess is meant to fawn over men. make them feel important, and convince them to part with the better part of their bank account to purchase drinks from the establishment they are patronizing. In Japan, many of the hostesses are foreign born and don't necessarily even have to speak Japanese. In this, the reader is lucky because Jacobson speaks Japanese fluently and studied Japanese culture before travelling to Japan to begin her work as an English teacher. This book is her memoir of her time in Japan and introduces the reader to how an American English teacher becomes a bar hostess and explains many of the cultural differences and beliefs of the Japanese people. A really good read and very entertaining.

3-18-12 Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison - Fiction

4 - Well, Rachel has been shunned, the Coven of Moral and Ethical Standards is after her, Al keeps trying to snatch people she knows, and then there's Trent. A fun adventure that keeps the world of the Hallows alive and kicking. Rachel keeps learning more about what she, as a survivor of the Rosewood syndrome, can do and keeps being surprised by the expanse of her abilities. Aaand, a main and loved character dies in this book. Yes, I cried. Only one more book in this series until the brand new book. I can't wait!

3-14-12 Lost in Shangra-La by Mitchell Zuckoff - Non-Fiction

4 - This is a little known adventure that occurred toward the end of WWII after the European surrender but while the Pacific theater was still in full swing. A sightseeing plane full of army personnel went down in New Guinea in a hidden valley nicknamed Shangra-La by the local soldiers. The survivors had to deal with very limited supplies, potentially fatal injuries, and unknown local tribes rumored to be headhunters and cannibals. Zuckoff gives the background of each of the players and gathered his information from this book from army records, interviews with the tribes, and interviews with some of the people involved and their families. It was a nice little history lesson about some of the people and places that tend to be overlooked in the movies and books about WWII, including the WAC's, the Women's Army Corps. Interested in history or WWII? Check this book out.

3-8-12 White Witch, Black Curse - Fiction

4 - Another fabulous entry in the Rachel Morgan series. Rachel is still struggling to remember the events from her last night with Kisten and discovers that she has a ghost in the church. Not just any ghost but Pierce, a ghost she summoned accidentally when she was 18. Unfortunately, Al grabs Pierce before she can really speak with him. So while she helps the FIB catch a banshee, Rachel tries to get Al to pay attention to her and agree to some ground rules. It's always fun visiting the Hallows.

3-4-12 Blind Rage by Terri Persons - Fiction

4 - This is the second book with agent Bernadette Saint Clare and Persons is really opening up the character. She not only can see killers in action with her sort of psychic ability, but she also has a new partner: agent Creed who died on vacation but used to share office. Even if you're not into the supernatural, if you like a good crime thriller I highly recommend these books. The plot moves on normal investigation techniques and the supernatural blends in when needed. Seriously, give these a try.

2-20-12 Charlie Chan by Yunte Huang - Non-Fiction

4 - This was a very interesting look at the history not only of the Charlie Chan character, but also the history of Hawaii. Huang introduces the reader to the real life Charlie Chan, Chang Apana, a police officer in the soon to be state of Hawaii. He also looks at the people who portrayed Charlie Chan in the incredibly popular movies and at the author himself and his life. This book is full of history and information that has almost been lost on a period and area in American history that is often overshadowed by the gold rush. A fascinating read for history buffs.

2-7-12 Every Which Way but Dead by Kim Harrison - Fiction

4 - Rachel's deal with Big Al is now coming back to bite her in the ass. She has to figure out a way that she can fulfill the technical terms of the deal without being dragged into the everafter to be Al's familiar for eternity or until he finds something better, whichever comes first. Not only is she trying to keep herself on this side of the lines, but she also has to deal with Trent again, or more correctly, his security head Quen. And she has pissed off Jenks so much that he has left the firm and moved his family out. Just another day in the life of Rachel Morgan.

2-2-12 An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris - Fiction

4 - Harper gets pulled into a serial killer case this time when she is hired by a woman to find her grandson and she finds him plus seven other boys. The killings in this case are so disturbing that Harper wants to leave immediately and if you are faint of heart you might want to skip this one. But things never quite go Harper's way so she is stuck in the town for a while and is now a target of the killer too. Great crime thrillers even if you didn't have the paranormal twists.

1-29-12 Blind Spot by Terri Persons - Fiction

4 - You know, I really liked this book. Firstly it is written like any police/FBI thriller with a manhunt for a serial killer. So that in itself makes it good. But the characters are what make this truly interesting. Bernadette Saint Clare is an FBI agent with a little extra talent: she can see through a killer's eyes if she touches a piece of evidence in the crime. It makes her a bit of a pariah in the Bureau's eyes, but she does get things done. Usually. she has made mistakes before. And that is what we know about her when she is transferred yet again to her new office in St. Paul. The other characters in the story, her new boss, her persistent upstairs neighbor, are also interesting and the play among them is well written. I'm going to be reading the second book with Bernadette soon.

1-27-12 Destined by PC & Kristin Cast - Fiction

4 - I still like this series and I still get really swept up in the stories. This is the 9th book in the House of Night series and Zoey and her crew are still all tied up in the thick of things in the battle between light and dark that has them facing off against their former High Priestess, Neferet. This story includes not only the main characters we have loved and followed but Kalona, the white bull, and Thanatos all are involved and a new character, Aurox is introduced. Of course, you never know if anyone is what or who they seem to be. Still love these!

1-23-12 Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch - Fiction

4 - This is a collection of short stories, screenplays, and novellas that Robert Bloch wrote featuring Jack the Ripper. And, wow, some are just a bit twisted. Jack does not always come out on top and Bloch played off the various theories about who Jack really was and why he disappeared. The only story I didn't read was was the Star Trek screenplay because it was published as a screenplay and I find those a little tough to actually read. He also has a spectacular short essay at the end discussing why someone who killed very few people is so well known when the student who was responsible for World War II is virtually unknown. (See, I read this and I've forgotten his name already!) And if you are trying to figure out where you've heard the name Robert Bloch before, he wrote a little story called Psycho.

1-11-12 Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris - Fiction

4 - THIS is the second book. I was finally able to get to the library when it was open. I really enjoyed this volume in the series because Sookie gets to travel to Dallas and stays in a vampire hotel where she finds some interesting humans. She also gets to meet the king of Texas and, as per her agreement with Eric, offers her assistance with her special skills. A wild ride.

1-9-12 Club Dead by Charlaine Harris - Fiction

4 - OK, so I'm re-reading them out of order. This is actually the third book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, but I don't have the second one on my bookshelf. You can read them out of order a little, but you will feel lost. If I hadn't already read this series a couple times, I would not have read this book next. But it is a fun addition to the series taking Sookie to Jackson, Mississippi where she works with a werewolf to find the missing Bill. Fun reads!

1-6-12 Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris - Fiction

4 - I do love the Sookie Stackhouse series. Thank goodness it's one of the items on my bookshelf so when I ran out of books I could pick this up again. Harris gives the reader such a great introduction to the alternate reality she has created where vampires have "come out of the coffin" so to speak and live openly among humans. Sookie's telepathy adds a different dimension to the stories too and makes her her own unique character. If you love the True Blood TV series, you should definitely try the books.

12-25-11 Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris - Fiction

4 - Harper Connelly unwittingly inserts herself into another missing person/murder mystery in Harris' second book of the series. As she is being "tested" by an unbelieving professor for his class, she discovers a second body in a grave. That second body is of a little girl she failed to find the year before. And so begins the new mystery of how the child ended up in a different state from where she was missing and who is trying to disrupt the investigation and get Harper accused of murder herself. These are well written murder mysteries. If you don't normally read paranormal themed stories, I suggest you try these anyway. The paranormal is almost second to the great mystery plot.