Books Read - August 2019

Barks, Colman

• The Essential Rumi **

Fiction.  Rumi poems.

Bellet, Annie

• Once Upon a Quest ****

Fiction.  Anthology of quest-type fantasies, based on fairytales.

Black, J. Carson

• Cry Wolf ****

Fiction.  Fourth in the Laura Cardinal police series.  A man of lies is found dead in his car, but Laura is having trouble finding her way through his web of lies. 

• The Devil’s Hour ****

Fiction.  Third in the Laura Cardinal police series.  Girls have gone missing, and it’s up to Laura and her team to find out what happened to them.  When bones are found in two locations, she knows there’s a serial killer at large.

Blackwell, Juliet

• Bewitched and Betrothed ****

Fiction.  Tenth in the Witchcraft paranormal cozy mystery series.  Lily and Sailor are moving forward toward their handfasting, but an old enemy of Lily’s has returned.  He now makes his home on Alcatraz Island, and the demon is ready to challenge Lily once again.

Ching, G.P.

• The Soulkeepers ***

Fiction.  First in the Soulkeepers urban fantasy.  A young man finds himself at a loss when his mother disappears and he is forced to move into his uncle’s house in a small town in Illinois.  What he finds is an extraordinary woman living across the street with an even more exotic garden that leads to hidden places.

Colgan, Jenny

• The Bookshop on the Corner ****

Fiction.  Nina has lost her library job, and prospect of getting one at the new office downtown are very slim.  When asked what she’d really like to be doing, she answered that she’d love to own a small bookshop.  Having no funds to rent a space, she comes up with the idea to buy a large van to sell books from.  But the only van she likes is in Scotland, so she makes the move and starts a new career.

Danley, Kate

• Maggie for Hire ***

Fiction.  First in the Maggie MacKay paranormal cozy mystery series.  Maggie lives in two worlds, Earth and the Otherworld.  She learns that the vampires are trying to open portals between the two worlds, so they can take over, and Maggie is the only one who can stop it from happening.

• A Spirited Manor ****

Fiction.  First in the O’Hare House mysteries.  A recent widow moves into a new house hoping to get away from memories of her husband.  But there she finds the house already occupied by a teenage ghost who was murdered.

Dark, Juliet

• The Angel Stone *****

Fiction.  Third in the Fairwick Trilogy.  Callie must travel to the past to help save Fairwick and her college, but she must go through Faerie to get there.  She meets William, who will someday become Liam then Bill, and though they fall in love, they know she loves the man he will become.

• The Demon Lover ****

Fiction.  First in the Fairwick Trilogy.  Callie takes a new job at Fairwick College in upstate New York.  She is fascinated by an old Victorian that used to be owned by Dahlia La-Motte, a Gothic romance writer.  Callie is drawn into Dahlia’s work and also finds that she has a nighttime visitor, one she thinks is only in her imagination, only to find that he is very real.

• The Water Witch *****

Fiction.  Second in the Fairwick Trilogy.  Callie is missing Liam, but she knows she can’t let him back into her life or he’ll suck the life out of her.  Her grandmother summons her to the Grove for an initiation, but when Callie finds out the Grove is planning on closing the gate to Faerie, she is determined to keep it open.

Fowley-Doyle, Moira

• Spellbook of the Lost and Found ****

Fiction.  A mystical tale of seven girls and two boys set in Ireland.  A spellbook is found, and a spell is cast that has repercussions through generations.

Gilbert, Elizabeth

• City of Girls *****

Fiction.  Vivian flunked out of college, struggling to find herself and her path in life.  When her parents ship her off to live with her Aunt Peg in a theatre in New York City, she finds a world like none she has never known about.  This is her story,

Harper, Helen

• Slouch Witch ***

Fiction.  First in the Lazy Girl’s Guide to Magic paranormal cozy mystery series.  Ivy had been kicked out of the Order years ago and worked driving a taxi.  But when she accidentally gets bound to an Order witch to help solve a mystery, she dives right into the job.

Jaffarian, Sue Ann

• Wilde in Love ***

Fiction.  Third in the Winnie Wilde trilogy.  Winnie finds true love in Hawai’i.

MacInerney, Karen

• Scone Cold Dead ****

Fiction.  Twelfth in the Gray Whale Inn cozy mystery series.  Trouble is afoot for the lobstermen, and they suspect an investigator is there to check on them, but when she is found dead, Natalie jumps in to find the killer.

Marple, Mona

• The Ghosts of Mystic Springs ***

Fiction.  First in the Mystic Springs paranormal cozy mystery series.  Connie and her ghostly sister Sage have to solve a murder with the help of their ghostly friends.

• The Secrets of Mystic Springs ****

Fiction.  Second in the Mystic Springs paranormal cozy mystery series.  A journal hides the truth about their town, but someone wants to keep that truth quiet.  Connie, Sage, and the new sheriff are trying to solve a killing, but someone keeps attacking the residents of the town.

May, W.J.

• Rae of Hope ***

Fiction.  Rae is invited to attend a prestigious school in England where only very special student live.  At the age of sixteen, each student receives a tattoo, one that unlocks their special powers.

• Seventh Mark ***

Fiction.  Rouge moves to a new town and meets a girl and her brother who are not quite human.

• Shadow of Doubt ***

Fiction.  A Shadow haunts a college campus and falls in love with a human against the law.

McNeill, Robert

• The Innocent and the Dead ***

Fiction.  First in the DI Jack Knox police drama set in Scotland.  One girl is kidnapped, and another is murdered, and Jack’s team has to solve both cases.

Neal, Toby

• Razor Rocks *****

Fiction.  Thirteenth in the Lei Texeira thriller series.  Lei gets drawn into a piracy and human trafficking case and ends up with her life in danger.

Payne, Melissa

• The Secrets of Lost Stones ****

Fiction.  Jess has lost her son and her will to live.  When she’s kicked out of her apartment, she grabs a few items and takes off in her car heading nowhere.  When it breaks down in a small town, she ends up meeting Lucy, an elderly woman with a special talent for gathering loose ends and tying them together.

Sharp, Anthea

• The First Adventure ****

Fiction.  Prequel to the Feylands cyber fantasy series.   Jennet enters a cyber game only to find it interacts with real life.

• Once Upon a Star ***

Fiction.  Anthology of Sci-Fi stories.

VanBergen, Shannon

• A Family Affair ****

Fiction.  Third in the Glock Grannies cozy mystery series.  A gangland-style murder leads the ladies into a chase to find the killer.

• The Root of All Evil ****

Fiction.  Second in the Glock Grannies cozy mystery series.  Senior men are being killed, and the ladies decide to find out who the murderer is.

• Up in Smoke ***

Fiction.  First in the Glock Grannies cozy mystery series. A group of grannies help stop crime and solve cases in their hometown. 

Whitney, Phyllis A.

• Silversword *****

Fiction.  Caroline was raised by her paternal grandmother after her parents’ death, but after her own divorce, she finds out that her maternal grandmother wants to see her, so Caroline flies to Mau’i to be reunited with her grandmother and her aunt, only to find that her mother is still alive, and the family has been hiding more than one secret for years.

Winter, Justine

• Nature’s Destiny ***

Fiction.  Woman gets bitten by a werewolf, the Alpha of a pack comes searching for her, they fall in love, Evil werewolf attacks but is beaten.