A very grown up, magic-laced YA novel!

Spellbinding by Maya Gold
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A very grown up, magic-laced YA novel!

I didn't have high expectations for this book, but Maya Gold drew me in quickly with the ancestor search and subsequent trip to Salem that the protagonist Abby Silva makes, especially since that ancestor was an accused witch.

Abby Silva is a self-conscious girl, not in the "in" crowd at school. She and friend Rachel are overachievers at school, yearning to be at the top of their class. When Abby goes for her driver's test and celebrates with her friend Rachel by taking a trip to Salem to research an ancestor, a cast of interesting and some magical characters enter the story. One of the most magical is Rem, a young man she meets that she feels somehow connected to. Meanwhile, Abby suspects that she has some untapped magical abilities and begins to use them to change things that shouldn't be changed.

Don't want to give away too much of the story, but I will say that the story arc builds to a climax that takes your breath away.

This reads like a stand alone novel, but I'm hoping Maya Gold has more in store for those of us who really enjoyed this magical ride.




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Angels and demons and girl convinced she's crazy

A Shimmer of Angels by Lisa M. Basso
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just finished reading this book and am happy to see that another book in the series is due out in 2014... especially since this one ended without all the threads of the story tied up neatly.

Rayna is 16 and she's been committed to the nuthouse three times because her visions of angels are seen as schizophrenia. I also must add that there is something deeper going on with her father since he's a little too quick to pull the trigger on his daughter's commitment. Unfortunately, the early Rayna sounds incredibly childish and weak minded, believing she must really be as crazy as they say she is. That went on for so long that it almost made me put the book aside and quit reading it. But then I would have missed all the fun stuff, with angels and demons, hunky Cam and Kade, and a story arc that was unpredictable. Characters were so well created that they felt real.

This was an excellent YA novel, especially when Rayna grew stronger and less childish. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series!




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Excellent recipes and beautifully illustrated

Taste of Home: Cooking School Cookbook: 400 + Simple to Spectacular Recipes by Taste of Home
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Calling this a cooking school cookbook may be a bit of a misnomer, but it is entertaining to look at and the recipes I tried were fabulous.

Yes, I'm one of those people who really enjoys reading cookbooks (and craft books). This giant volume has food from every category. Some come with very well illustrated instructions - that may be the cooking school part of the book, but it doesn't illustrate quite enough for beginners to follow. Since I've been baking a lot of bread these days (you can see some in my twitter pics), I gravitated to the bread section. There were only a few bread options, but one was a challah bread that looked so easy to make. Of course braiding wasn't quite as easy as it looked, so my bread looked more like a giant pretzel. Still, the texture was delicate and my family enjoyed the bread so much they keep asking me to make more. Sunday is usually my baking day, so this Sunday I'll make the bread again and, this time, I might just get the braiding down right. I'll follow the braiding instructions in the book a little more closely this time.

The beauty of this book is that these seem to be kitchen tested - there isn't a bad one in the bunch - and the recipes I did make (one example above) came out really well and very tasty. Reading this cookbook has me more interested in trying other Taste of Home titles. Excellent.



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Gotta love Will Robie - the government hit man with heart and soul

The Hit by David Baldacci
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gotta love Will Robie - the government hit man with heart and soul.

This is the second book in the Will Robie series. It bears mentioning here that you really should read book one, The Innocent, first. If you don't then I believe there may be a bit of confusion regarding Julie and Vance, his friend from the FBI.

Robie has been ordered to kill a killer in this thrilling work. But as usual, all is not as it seems, there is something below the surface that makes Robie suspicious about the government and their motives, while also making him wonder if the killer he has been ordered to hit had reasons for her actions. We are led on a bread crumb trail through an amazing plot, feverishly turning pages to see what will happen next. Characters are so well drawn you feel like you've been invited to secret meetings. You really care what happens in this well-crafted tale.

This book fell just slightly short of the first in the series, a common fate. It was so good though, that I'm looking forward to the third book in the series - I hope there is one!



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Good, but failed to hit any emotional mark

The Boyfriend by Thomas Perry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've read other Thomas Perry titles and enjoyed them tremendously. I enjoyed this one, but found it's prose a bit... wooden (possibly the right word).

Shocked by their daughter's death, a mother and father visit Jack Till, retired cop turned private eye. Their daughter's murder is seemingly unsolvable. They give a retainer to Till for this hopeless case. Soon Jack Till sees a pattern and begins to unravel a trail of deaths in the wake of this killer. But it's not so simple, the reason is so much more complex than the obvious serial killer story.

For the most part, the story lacked emotion with a few small exceptions. Characters were well developed, but I didn't care about them as much as I would have liked to. So, though I enjoyed the intricacies of the plot and found the story fascinating, Perry failed to hit the heart strings quite as much as he could have.



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A suspenseful story about choices in life

Starting Now by Debbie Macomber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the first Debbie Macomber book I've read. I had heard that Macomber wrote "clean" romance, but the book description didn't sound like a romance novel. When I started reading the book I found that the story was so much more than a romance.

I'm not sure how Macomber did it - she managed to heighten suspense enough for me to stay up until 1:00 am reading, way past my bedtime. No there are no bullets flying, like so many of the suspense novels I've read. The stakes were so high for Libby Morgan, a career lawyer who was convinced that her mother's deathbed oath to her to be successful, meant to be successful professionally. She cared about little other than her career and had let friends and joy in life fall by the wayside on her way to making partner in a law firm. This is all in the beginning of the story, and of course, at the start she is also laid off from the law firm position that she prized above all else. The suspense lies with choices she makes for the remainder of Macomber's remarkable story.

The novel is written in first person, but is mostly focused on the point of view of Libby Morgan, the main character. Macomber created characters who felt so real with just a whisper of description that allows the reader to draw an image in their own minds as they read. This was very well done and suspenseful as you watch Libby make choices in life, many make you cringe.

Macomber created an excellent story that I couldn't wait to finish to see what would happen next and I was sad to see it end. Fortunately, this is just one of a series of books and I'll be reading more of them.



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What Writing Has Taught Me

A delightfully funny and endearing book

Sorry I Barfed on Your Bed: by Jeremy Greenberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Is it any wonder this was written by a comedian? Cat lover that I am, I sat down with this book and laughed out loud. The photography is fabulous and catches cats in all kinds of poses to go with words you may think your cat would say if only they could speak. Sure, what they're really thinking about is that leaf, bug, or bird skittering across the deck outside the window; or they're thinking about food or napping in that tiny scrap of sun coming through the blinds. However, cat lovers tend to think their cats are thinking deeper thoughts and this book is full of them. The author matches every photograph with narrative from the cat in the photo that really will make you laugh out loud. This book was so delightfully funny and endearing that I bought a copy for Mom.



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So why are my reviews all 4 and 5 stars?

The short and sweet answer is that there are so many books waiting to be read that I don't waste time if a book doesn't capture me within the first 50 pages or call to me from the nightstand to be read. The books reviewed here were compelling, and many were read way into the wee hours of the morning.

A book anyone could read and love

A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's so sad that we no longer have Maeve Binchy to tell us her brilliant stories. I believe this book may be her last, unless the estate has found other treasures in her papers.

A Week in Winter has an ensemble cast of characters who end up in Stone House for a week in winter. Binchy kicks off the tale with Chickie, a young girl who goes off to America with a lover she met in her native Ireland. Of course she ends up back in Ireland, alone. As the years move on, we meet her nephew, Rigor, who was on a path of no good in Dublin, now at Stone House in the west of Ireland, life takes a new perspective. Then of course there are visitors from across the globe who stay for a week in winter at Stone House as well - Binchy tells each of their tales with such sensitivity we feel like we know them personally.

A Week in Winter is a tale that I really enjoyed and was sorry to see end. This was such a beautiful tale.



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