Sunday, December 2, 2018

Books Read - November 2018

Allan, Barbara
  • Antiques Maul ***
Fiction. Second in the Antiques cozy mystery series.  Mother and daughter decide to run a stall at a local antiques mall.  When the owner of the mall is killed and her dog is the suspect.  Mother and daughter work together to solve the mystery.

Amitrani, Riley
  • The Haunting of Alfred House **
Fiction.  A young couple move into a house only to find it already inhabited by a taxidermist and his subjects.

  • The Haunting of Carver’s Arms Pub ***
Fiction.  A rash of burglaries in a small village bring two out of town police officers to investigate.  When the ghost of a murdered woman announces her presence, an old crime is finally solved.

  • The Haunting of Excelsior Hotel ****
Fiction.  A hotel has an infamous reputation that everyone who stays in room 33 ends up dead, but when a young woman is desperate for a place to stay, the hotel owner agrees to rent her the room.

  • The Haunting of Luciano House **
Fiction.  A childless couple moves to their dream house in England, where they run into the ghosts of an angry man who killed his wife.

  • The Haunting of Magnolia House **
Fiction.  A little girl has gone missing, but years later when a new couple move into the house they realize she’s still there.

  • The Haunting of Perry Property ***
Fiction.  A young pregnant woman moves to a lovely little cottage not knowing that it was once the site of a cult’s mass murder.

  • The Haunting of Prescott House **
Fiction.  Three college girls rent an abandoned mansion to study up for their exams.  They don’t know a family was murdered there years ago until the ghosts come calling for revenge.

  • The Haunting of Sanderson Mansion ***
Fiction.  A family moves into a home where a man and his mistress were once murdered, and when the homeowner begins having affairs of his own, the dead mistress comes calling.

  • The Haunting of Shawcroft House ****
Fiction.  A couple renovates an old school only to find that the ghosts of the children are coming after them.  

  • The Haunting of Sunnyday House ***
Fiction.  When a former POW returns home to find his wife remarried, he murders the whole family.  When a college freshman is hired to dog sit, she finds that the POW is still roaming the house.

  • The Haunting of Westmore Hospital ***
Fiction.  A mad doctor is responsible for six murders, and years later when a young woman ends up in the hospital, he comes calling again.

  • The Haunting of Woodchester Mansion **
Fiction.  A young couple set up shop at an abandoned mansion to see if they can draw out any spirits who happen to live there.  They do.

Aukes, Rachel
  • The Tidy Guide to Writing a Novel ***
Non-fiction. Guide to writing a nonvel.

Avey, Sydney
  • The Lyre and the Lambs ***
Fiction.  Sequel to The Sheep Walker’s Daughter.  A Basque woman moves into her daughter’s house and tells the story of a troubled young man who dies in the back yard.

Black, J. Carson
  • Dark Side of the Moon ***
Fiction.  Second in the Laura Cardinal police procedural.  A young couple is murdered by a lake, and Laura is called in to solve the case.  A group of ecoterrorists steals plutonium waste, and when the two cases come together, Laura is caught up in the race to solve the crimes.

Bledsoe, Alex
  • Back Atcha ****
Fiction.  Third in the Witch Tales series.  Tanna and Ry are involved in three more cases.

  • The Book of Cunning Women *****
Fiction.  Fourth in the Witch Tales series.  Tanna and Ry are involved in three cases.

  • Croaked *****
Fiction.  Second in the Witch Tales series.  Tanna and Ry get involved in three new cases.

  • The Hum and the Shiver *****
Fiction.  First in the Tufa fantasy series.  Bronwyn is a war hero newly returned home to Needsville, Tennessee, but not everyone is glad she’s home.  As she recuperates from her vast injuries, and old boyfriend comes calling.  The family has receives signs that a death is coming for one of them, but when it happens, Bronwyn is fired up to see justice done in the Tufa way.

  • Sight for Sore Eyes ****
Fiction.  Fifth in the Witch Tales series.  Tanna and Ry are back for three new stories.

  • Time of the Season ****
Fiction.  Three short stories, one standalone, one in the Tufa series, and one in the Witch Tales series.

  • The Firefly Witch ****
Fiction.  First in the Firefly Witch story collection.  Ry Tully interviews the Firefly Witch for his newspaper, and she asks for his help in doing some research.  They fall in love.

Brackston, Paula
  • Return of the Witch *****
Fiction.  Sequel to The Witch’s Daughter.  Tegan is living in Willow Cottage not realizing that Gideon has returned and is hunting her.  Elizabeth returns hunting Gideon and is hoping to save Tegan.

  • The Winter Witch ****
Fiction.  A young mute woman is married off to a widowed drover, and while she has powers of her own, she runs into trouble from one who is even more powerful and wants what she has.

  • The Witches of the Blue Well ***
Fiction.  Short story of a young girl who loses almost everything before coming into her own power as a witch.

  • The Witch’s Daughter *****
Fiction.  Elizabeth is being hunted as a witch, but she can’t let herself be caught, so she escapes in the only way she knows how.  Three hundred years later, she’s working as a doctor, but there’s a warlock hunting her who won’t stop until she is his.

Charles, Anne
  • A Bunch of Monkey Malarkey ****
Fiction.  Second in the AC Silly Circus paranormal series.  Madam Electra and Bruno have to solve the mystery of one of the monkey brothers being stuck in a catatonic state after a half-finished spell has gone crazy.  

Clarke, Alexandria
  • Missed Connections Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a trilogy.  Veronica Bauer is taking revenge on the men who raped her and murdered her mother years ago.  When she finds herself in trouble with the police, an old friend comes to her aid.

  • Missed Connections Book 1 ****

  • Missed Connections Book 2 ****

  • The Professor Book 0 ****
Fiction  First in a trilogy.  A woman working on her Master’s degree gets caught up in an on-campus secret society that enables the rich and powerful.  Before too long she finds her life and that of her boyfriend in danger.

  • The Professor Book 1 ****

  • The Professor Book 2 ****

Coyle, Cleo
  • Through the Grinder ***
Fiction.  Second in the Coffeehouse cozy mystery series.  Clare manages the Village Blend coffeehouse, but when three of her customers end up dead from apparent suicides, which the police believe might be homicides, and her new boyfriend is the main suspect, Clare goes out of her way to prove him innocent.

Crabtree, Elisabeth
  • Deadly Magic ***
Fiction.  First in a cozy mystery series.  A woman working at a toy store gets swept into a murder mystery and becomes a target for the murderer.

Creech, Sarah
  • Season of the Dragonflies ***
Fiction.  Magical realism story of a family of women who run a perfume company using magical flowers.  Selling it only to wealthy women, the perfume has special attributes.

Crosby, Bette Lee
  • Memory House ***
Fiction.  First in the Memory House series.  Annie is getting over her failed relationship with Michael and is looking for something new in her life when she finds Ophelia and the Memory House.  She finds she has a lot in common with the older woman, and they form a close friendship, which ends up changing Annie’s life for the better.

Galenorn, Yasmine
  • Fury’s Mantle ****
Fiction.  Fifth in the Fury Unbound urban fantasy series.  Fenrir the Wolf has returned to the world and is bringing on Ragnarok.  They lycanthropes are rampaging through the forest and villages, and Lord Tam decided to return the Underbarrow to the Shining Lands.

Gruley, Bryan
  • Bleak Harbor ***

Fiction.  A teenager is kidnapped in a small town, and there are many suspects, but no one suspects the one person it truly was.  A genius on the autism spectrum.

Friday, November 2, 2018

Books Read - October 2018

Bevill, C.L.
The Bureau of Extraordinaires *****
Fiction.  Steampunk story set during and just after the Civil War.  Silas underwent some scientific experiments against his will by a Dr. Morrow.  As a result, Silas has been turned into a man/beast and is called an Extraordinaire.  With the help of his cohorts and the lovely Agatha, he must stop the scientists from carrying out their evil plan.

Bronte, Charlotte
  • Jane Eyre ****
Fiction.  An orphan attends boarding school where she ends up teaching, afterwards finding a job as a governess to a young girl in the country.  The master of the house falls in love with her, but as they plan on marrying, sinister things begin happening in the home.

Cannon, Sarra
  • Sacrifice Me ****
Fiction.  First in the Sacrifice Me Seasons paranormal series.  Franki loses her job right before her birthday, and when a mysterious invitation appears at her doorstep for a club downtown, she can’t resist going.  It’s a strange atmosphere, but the strangeness is only beginning for her as her life is threatened.

Claflin, Stacy
  • Sweet Desire ***
Fiction.  First in The Transformed paranormal series.  Gessilyn is a witch on the run from her coven who are after her.  As she learns about her powers, she needs to stay one step ahead of them.

Clarke, Alexandria
  • The Haunting of Riley Watson Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a paranormal trilogy.  A fake medium, Lucia, is hired by a resort owner to help his young daughter who is haunted by spirits after the death of her mother.  When the resort is snowed in with only 12 people, tensions run high when one of them is murdered.  Was it by a human hand or by an angry ghost?

  • The Haunting of Riley Watson Book 1 ****

  • The Haunting of Riley Watson Book 2 ****

  • The Haunting of Winchester Mansion Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a paranormal trilogy.  A young couple travel the country renovating and flipping houses, and when they end up in Black Bay renovating an abandoned mansion, they get drawn into the mystery of what happened to the wealthy family that used to live there.

  • The Haunting of Winchester Mansion Book 1 ****

- The Haunting of Winchester Mansion Book 2 ****

  • Little Girl Lost Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a paranormal trilogy.  Bridget has been roaming the world for ten years when her best friend notifies her that her young sister is missing.  She returns home to find her sister and suddenly begins receiving telepathic messages from her begging for help.

  • Little Girl Lost Book 1 ****

- Little Girl Lost Book 2 ****

  • Witch Myth Christmas Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a paranormal trilogy.  Noelle Summers is a winter witch, but when someone comes to town messing with Christmas, she has to resort to her witchy powers to catch the culprit and restore balance in the town.

  • Witch Myth Christmas Book 1 ****

  • Witch Myth Christmas Book 2 ****

  • Witch Myth Wildfire Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a paranormal trilogy.  The Summers coven has fallen under a curse, and the sicker they become, the stronger the need for a healer, so they look outside their coven to find the particular person who can help them, then they kidnap her.

  • Witch Myth Wildfire Book 1 ****

  • Witch Myth Wildfire Book 2 ****

  • Witch Myth Yew Hollow Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a trilogy.  Morgan Summers is a medium but hates talking to ghosts.  When one seeks her help in solving a murder, she has to agree to help in order for the ghost to move on into the afterlife.

  • Witch Myth Yew Hollow Book 1 ****

  • Witch Myth Yew Hollow Book 2 ****

Du Maurier, Daphne
  • Rebecca *****
Fiction.  A paid companion meets a wealthy widower in Monte Carlo, and when they fall in love, he takes her back to his palatial home in Cornwall, where she competes with the memory of his first wife.

Evans, Holly
  • Chaos Conspiracy ****
Fiction.  First in the Sacrificial Magic paranormal series.  A mercenary witch is matched with a demon to solve the case of missing people who have disappeared into a cult.

Hayden, Roger
  • The Haunting of Bechdel Mansion Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a paranormal trilogy.  A young couple buy an abandoned mansion and set about renovating it when they find that it is already inhabited by a group of ghosts.  A family was murdered years ago in the house, and some of the townspeople are determined to keep the killers’ identities secret.

  • The Haunting of Bechdel Mansion Book 1 ****

- The Haunting of Bechdel Mansion Book 2 ****

Holmberg, Charlie N.
  • The Paper Magician ****
Fiction.  First in the Paper Magician fantasy series.  Ceony is apprenticed to Paper Magician Thane, and when his ex-wife attacks him, Ceony is his only hope to survive.

Morton, Kate
  • The Clockmaker’s Daughter ****
Fiction.  A multi-time period tale of a ghost and the artists who surround her and a missing rare blue diamond.

Olson, Melissa F.
  • Bloodsick ****
Fiction.  First in the Old World Tale paranormal series.  Sashi, a witch had kept away from werewolves for her whole life, but when she meets one in need of healing, she must help him.

Parrish, Kat
  • Magic in the Blood ****
Fiction.  First in La Bruja Roja paranormal series.  Aixa is a Red Witch living in a small town on the border.  When a rival witch allies with a drug lord to take over the town, Aixa uses her powers to fight back.

Pope, Christine
  • Hidden Gifts ****
Fiction.  First in the Witches of Canyon Road paranormal series.  Miranda McAllister has been sent to Santa Fe for an arranged marriage to Rafe Castillo, who she has never met.  She’s had to leave her entire life, including her family, behind to marry a man who does not seem to want her, but she’s determined to fulfill a promise her parents made, a debt that must be paid.

Reine, SM
- Caged Wolf ***
Fiction.  First in the Tarot Witch paranormal series.  Rival biker gangs invade town, and Ofelia, a stripper bartender, chases them off with the help of a werewolf.

Tate, Kristy
  • Witch Ways ***
Fiction.  First in the Witch Ways paranormal series.  Evie is a young girl who has no idea she is a witch.  But when her problems with fire get her kicked out of a private school, she starts training at a special school where she hones her powers.

Taylor, Nicole R.
  • Crescent Calling ****
Fiction.  First int he Crescent Witch Chronicles paranormal series.  Skye has been fired from her job and has no prospects when an Irish barrister arrives in Australia to let her know that her estranged mother has died and has left her a business and home in Ireland.  She accepts her inheritance and moves to Ireland, where she finds out that her mother wasn’t just an ordinary human.

van Praag, Menna
  • The Dress Shop of Dreams *****
Fiction.  Cora is a single-minded scientist, ignoring all else for her work.  When her grandmother, Etta, nudges her toward Walt, Cora is slow on the up-take.  When her parents were killed when she was a child, her heart froze and wouldn’t let anyone in.  Until now.

Webb, Wendy
  • Daughters of the Lake *****
Fiction.  Kate returns to her parents’ house on the lake to heal her wounds after leaving her cheating husband.  While there, her father stumbles across a dead body in the water, and Kate has a violent reaction to seeing the woman, making her a suspect in the death.  What she can’t tell the police is that she’s been having dreams of this very woman, dreams that seem all too real.

  • The End of Temperance Dare *****
Fiction.  A ghost story set in a former TB sanitarium.  A former reporter takes a job as manager of the renovated sanitarium cum artists retreat, and the woman who hired her dies on her first day.  She has a week to prepare before a new group of artists arrives, and unknown to her or to them, they all have ties to the sanitarium.

  • The Fate of Mercy Alban *****
Fiction.  A gothic suspense set in Minnesota.  Grace Alban inherits her family home when her mother passes away, and though she hasn’t been home in 20 years, she arrives with her teenage daughter to take charge of the home.  A lost manuscript and old love letters lead her on a chase to find the truth in the suicide of a famous author years ago.

  • The Tale of Halcyon Crane *****
Fiction.  A gothic suspense set in a remote island in Minnesota.  Hallie was raised by her father in Seattle after her family home burned down and her mother was killed.  When she suddenly finds out that her mother had been alive all this time, and that Hallie’s father had actually stolen her away and created a new life for them, Hallie returns to her family home to discover what really happened when she was a child.

  • The Vanishing *****
Fiction.  A gothic suspense set in rural Minnesota.  When Julie’s husband commits suicide after bilking investors out of their hard-earned savings, she is left with no prospects until a wealthy stranger arrives to hire her to be a companion to his elderly mother, a famed author.  Julie finds the home haunted by a mysterious force.

Weldon, Phaedra
  • Elemental Arcane ***
Fiction.  First in the Eldritch Files paranormal series.  Sam owns an occult shop in New Orleans, and when children begin changing into monstrous killing creatures, she and her friends are determined to destroy them and to find the real children.

Welling, ReGina
  • A Match Made in Spell ****

Fiction.  First in the Fate Weaver witchy series.  Lexi is a matchmaker, but when a new musician moves to town, her matches are going haywire.  Not to mention she is falling for the musician. She’s running out of time to awaken to her power, and her fairy godmothers aren’t helping at all.

Monday, October 1, 2018

Books Read - September 2018

Acevedo, Chantal
The Distant Marvels ****
Fiction.  Sheltering from a hurricane with other elderly women, Maria Sirena tells the story of her rebels parents and her childhood during the Spanish-American War. 

Blackwell, Juliet
The Lost Carousel of Provence ****
Fiction.  Cady was raised as an orphan in foster care, but when she flies to Paris to photograph some of the iconic carousels, she meets a man who introduces her to his family, and for the first time she feels as if she belongs.

Boling, Dave
Guernica *****
Non-fiction.  Sweeping tale of Basque people and the political temper of Spain’s response to Basque nationalism that engulfs two families leading up to the bombing of Guernica.

Cameron, Claire
The Last Neanderthal *****
Fiction.  A Neanderthal girl loses her family and struggles to survive, while an archaeologist uncovers her remains in a cave in France.

Downie, Ruth
Memento Mori *****
Fiction.  Eighth in the Medicus mystery series set in Roman England.  Ruso and Tilla are living with her relatives in the north of England, when he receives news that his good friend’s wife has been killed.  When they travel to Aqueas Sulis, the find out that Valens in actually accused of murdering his wife, and they must work together to not only solve that murder but also uncover what is going on at the temple.

Duany, Jorge
Puerto Rico: What Everyone Needs to Know *
Non-fiction. Population, demographics, culture, politics, and religion of Puerto Rico

Galenorn, Yasmine
Casting Curses *****
Fiction.  A secret room is found in the attic of the B&B, and a mysterious dark shadow takes over the space.  Maddy must petition a goddess to help lift the curse before another person is killed.

The Wish Factor *****
Fiction.  The story of Maddy’s cjinn and how they found each other.

Garland, Alex
The Tesseract *
Fiction.  Disjointed vignettes in Manila.

Guo, Luc & Frmprc Seac
Han *
Non-fiction. Basic information on who the Han are.

Hallatt, Alex
A Basque Diary ***
Non-fiction.  The goings on in Hondarribia as told by an Englishwoman.

Harkness, Deborah
Time’s Convert *****
Fiction.  Marcus’ story of growing up during the American Revolution and his introduction to Matthew and how he became a vampire.  Phoebe’s story of her induction into the vampire life.

Hawker, Olivia
The Ragged Edge of Night ****
Fiction.  A former friar has answered an ad for a widow looking for a husband to care for herself and her three young children.  Worried about the war and the effect Hitler is having on Germany, he was lucky to be disabled from service with the Wehrmacht and wants to live a quiet life in the country.  After the wedding, he takes up work teaching music to several children, but his family is still struggling to make ends meet.  When the local priest asks him to join the resistance, he does so willingly, ignoring the danger he could be putting his new family in.

Karade, Baba Ifa
The Handbook of Yoruba Religions Concepts ****
Non-fiction. Introduction to the Yoruba religion.

King, Dean
Skeletons of the Zahara ****
Non-fiction.  In 1815, an American trading ship shipwrecked on the African coast.  Eleven men were captured by nomads and sold into slavery.  They spent months traveling the Sahara desert before some of them were finally ransomed by the British consul and returned to America.

LaManna, Gina
Long Isle Iced Tea ****
Fiction.  Fourth in the Magic & Mixology paranormal cozy mystery series.  The Faction is kidnapping paranormals from The Isle, and Lily and Ranger X are trying to solve the problem.  Lily knows that her father is leading The Faction, and when she too is kidnapped, she faces him down.

Long, Laurette
Biarritz Passion ***
Fiction.  Book one in the French Summer romance novels.  Caroline and her selfish younger sister travel to a villa in Biarretz for two weeks.  Annabel is engaged, but she causes problems in Caroline’s new romance with Edward.  With misunderstandings between them, they separate, Caroline returning to England alone.

Lourey, Jess
The Toadhouse Trilogy: Book One *****
Fiction. First in the fantasy trilogy.  Aine and her brother live in Missouri with their grandmother.  When danger arrives in the form of a fantastical creature, the children must flee with the help of Gilgamesh and his traveling toadhouse.  They hop from book to book trying to stay ahead of Biblos, but he is closing in fast.  As the children learn more about their own heritage, they realize how strong they really are as they search for three keys that will open the doors to Tir Na Nog and reunite them with their mother.

Maddicks, Russell
Cuba, Culture Smart *****
Non-fiction.  Cultural history of Cuba.

Neal, Toby
Wired Fear *****
Fiction.  Eighth in the Sopie ang series.  Sophie and Jake are enjoying their official coupledom, when Sophie Finds she is pregnant.  But the baby might not be Jake’s.  The Chang family is changing leadership again in their customary bloody fashion, and Sophie and Jake are in their crosshairs.

Quieroz, De & Sandy Gueses
= Portugal, Culture Smart *****
Non-fiction.  Cultural history of Portugal.

Robinson, Steve
Letters from the Dead ****
Fiction.  Seventh in the Jefferson Tayte genealogy mystery series.  Tayte is hired to research the genealogy of a Scottish family.  The client is searching for the identity of his 4x great-grandfather.  The rest of the family is searching for a famous ruby that disappeared almost two hundred years ago.  Tayte is on the search for both.

Sullivan, Donald H.
Taino: The People Who Met Columbus ****
Fiction.  Tales of the Taino people of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico.

Thomas, Elizabeth Marshal
Reindeer Moon *****
Fiction.  Yanan lived 20,000 years ago in Siberia.  She grew up with her extended family in lodges of deerskin and antlers.  Orphaned with a young sister to raise, she pulls all her strength together to see them through a vicious winter in hopes to reunite with the rest of their family in the spring.

Undset, Sigrid
Happy Times in Norway ****
Non-fiction.  Sigrid tells of an idyllic time in Norway before WWII about her family living in a small town in Norway.

Vendramini, Danny
Them and Un ****
Non-fiction.  The Neanderthal Predation (NP) theory explained in full.  The Neanderthals were apex predators and almost annihilated the European Early Modern Humans (EEMH), before the humans became the aggressors and killed off the Neanderthals.

Vicente, Alidis
The Coqui and the Iguana ***

- Fiction.  The tale of the coqui frog who is afraid of the dark and the iguana who helps him.