Books Read - December 2019

Beaton, M.C.

• Beating About the Bush ****

Fiction.  Thirty-third in the Agatha Raisin cozy mystery series.  Agatha is hired to investigate a case of industrial espionage, but she finds out quickly that is only a ruse to hide a much more serious crime.

Boutwell, Clay

• The Agora Letters Volume 1 

Fiction.  First in the Agora Letters mystery series.  Five short stories set in the Boston area in the mid-to-late 1800’s. The narrator tells tales based on his experiences with the Agora Society 20 years earlier.

Brackston, Paula

• Secrets of the Chocolate House *****

Fiction.  Second in the Found Things time-travel series.  Xanthe is drawn to an old chocolate pot during an estate sale and ends up traveling back to see Samuel in the 1600’s, where she meets a mysterious woman who runs a chocolate shop.  Xanthe fears the Samuel has been jailed for being Catholic, but instead he’s been employed by the wealthy owner of an Abbey under reconstruction.  That man becomes a danger to Xanthe, and she must find a way to save Samuel and return to her own time.

French, Tana

= Faithful Place *****

Fiction.  Third in the Dublin Murder Squad mysteries.  Frank Mackey works in Undercover and leads a life built around his work and his daughter.  But when his younger sisters begs him to come home for a visit, he dreads returning to the place and the family he left 22 years ago.  A suitcase has been found in an abandoned house that should have never been there, and it leads to the discovery of a skeleton, one that takes him back in time and tears apart his life.

• The Likeness *****

Fiction.  Second in the Dublin Murder Squad mysteries.  Cassie goes undercover again posing as a postgraduate student living with four other students in an old house.  Unlike other assignments, due to her uncanny resemblance to one of the students who lived in the house who has been found dead, Cassie is replacing her in order to find out who the killer is.

Gabaldon, Diana

• I Give You My Body ****

Non-fiction.  How Diana Gabaldon writes sex scenes.

Galenorn, Yasmine

• The Eternal Return *****

Fiction.  Tenth in the Wild Hunt urban fantasy series.  Talia lost her powers centuries ago to Lazarous, a liche who has come to the PNW, and she asks the Wild Hunt to help her destroy him. With a powerful sorceress at their side, the team goes searching through mine tunnels to find him.

• A Sacred Magic *****

Fiction.  Ninth in the Wild Hunt urban fantasy series.  Ember is scheduled to fight Nuanda, but the only way to defeat him is for her to retrieve Brighid’s Flame, a magical sword kept in a well in Annuwn.  She travels there with Victor and Yutani as they make their way through a wild forest even the gods dare not enter.

Garrett, Danielle

• First Place Witch ****

Fiction.  Ninth in the Beechwood Harbor Magic cozy mystery series.  Holly wins a spot in a potion contest, but when one of the other competitors dies of a hex, she is the prime suspect and must prove her innocence.

• A Very Beechwood Christmas ****

Fiction.  Christmas isn’t Christmas without Santa, and when he goes missing, Holly and her friends go looking for him.  Though they find him in time, the reindeer are in no condition to fly the sleigh, so they rely on a quartet of winged horses to do the job.

Hamilton, M.L.

• Brief as Lightning *****

Fiction.  Third in the Avery Nolan fantasy adventure series.  Avery just wants to live her life, but when her partner and his son are kidnapped, she must return to the Greensward to find and bring them back.

• Momentary as a Sound *****

Fiction.  Fourth in the Avery Nolan fantasy adventure series.  Agent Braddock comes to Avery and Duncan in need of help. Scientists have found a portal and have been bringing back waters from the Greensward, and they need to be stopped.  Avery’s father gets involved, and she must wrestle with trying to create some sort of relationship with him but doesn’t know if she can overcome the hurt she suffered all her life.

• Short As Any Dream *****

Fiction.  Second in the Avery Nolan adventure series.  Avery is still trying to figure out how to reach the Greensward and rescue Duncan, but she has more worries landing on her doorstep when an ICE agent arrives to inquire about Duncan’s whereabouts.  Afraid he will put Bay into foster care, she hides the aunts and Bay at Duncan’s treehouse.  When Bay’s grandfather, the evil Taeseus arrives to claim Bay, Avery has to work with the ICE agent to try to rescue him.

Hannah, Kristin

• Magic Hour *****

Fiction.  Julia is trying to rebuild her life after one of her young patients went on a killing spree then killed herself.  The bad publicity continues to dog her, and her self-confidence is shot.  When her sister Ellie, the police chief of a small town in the Olympic National Forest calls her to take on a new patient, a young girl who wandered out of the forest and can’t communicate, Julia feels that this could be her second chance.  She has no idea she will fall in love with the little girl and the heartbreak that will bring to both of them.

Lourey, Jess

• Unspeakable Things *****

Fiction.  Cassie and her sister live in fear of their father, a sexual deviant who throws swinging parties several times a year.  Boys in the town are being abducted and molested then returned to their homes.  Cassie is determined to find out who the molester is, though she fears she knows him already.

Medhurt, Rachel

• Magically Banished ****

Fiction.  Fourth in the Hunted Witch Agency urban fantasy series.  The team is searching for the witch who has been killing witches and humans with poisoned drugs.  Devon and Gerard head to Scotland to find him.

• Magically Betrayed ****

Fiction.  Third in the Hunted Witch Agency urban fantasy series.  Devon goes head to head with her grandmother in order to stop her preying on witches.

• Magically Blended *****

Fiction.  Fifth in the Hunted Witch Agency urban fantasy series.  The team has caught up with Cameron, leading to a final showdown while Devon prepares to sever the link she has with warlock magic.

• Magically Bonded ****

Fiction.  Second in the Hunted Witch Agency urban fantasy series.  The agency is still on the search for the super witch who is preying on witches and finally track her down to a castle, which they storm. Devon has received two letters purported to be from her parents who left her when she was a child, and she thought them dead.

• Magically Bound  ***

Fiction.  First in the Hunted Witch Agency urban fantasy series. Devon is half-witch, half-warlock, but she has a decision to make.  She needs to choose one set of skills and let the other go. She takes on a new job with the Hunted Agency, and her first case involves the kidnapping and slave trade of witches.

Neal, Toby

• Clipped Wings *****

Fiction.  Novella in the Paradise Crime Mysteries series.  Lei’s Aunty helps some immigrant children, and Lei helps Constance find a new placement in California in order to save her from criminals.  

Robinson, Steve

• The Penmaker’s Wife *****

Fiction.  Historical fiction. Angelica came from humble circumstances determined to raise her son to be a proper gentleman, but lets nothing, and no one, stand in her way.

White, Loreth Anne

• In the Dark *****

Fiction.  Eight travelers are flown to a remote lodge in the mountains of B.C., only it isn’t the posh new lodge they’re expecting.  Instead it’s an old rundown building where they find themselves alone and in danger.  One by one, someone is hunting them.