The Ex Hex

The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Nine years ago, Vivi and her cousin Gwen got drunk and cursed Vivi's boyfriend after she broke up with him because he told her he was (sort of) betrothed to someone else back home in Wales.  Now he's returned to her small witchy town to recharge the ley lines, and she discovers her curse wasn't all wishful thinking.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. Too much angst, swearing, and sex. I was listening to the eAudiobook, and I could only listen when my children were either in school or asleep--yikes! It might not have been as bad had I read the ebook instead and could more easily skim over the excessive bits, but I did at least take advantage of the 15-second-skip-ahead button quite a few times.

It wouldn't have bothered me so much if there had been more of a foundation for the relationship, I think. But I was never convinced they had enough in common besides magic to build a life together. They initially broke up because they failed to communicate or be honest about their feelings, and neither one really did enough growing in the intervening nine years before the present-day part begins. So when they reunite, they still can't properly communicate, and when would they fit it in between All The Sex anyway? Seriously, if you have a town full of witches and clueless non-witches with all magic going spectacularly haywire, maybe stop with the sex long enough to focus on figuring out a solution?? And maybe in doing so, you could figure out whether or not you make good partners? I honestly thought for a long time that maybe the sex was in there because it was going to turn out to be somehow related to breaking the curse, but no.

So, meh. I think this book might appeal to folks who are in the mood for an angsty, steamy, witchy fall romance and don't care about character development, multi-dimensional characters, or a well-thought-out plot, though.

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Bewitched

Bewitched by Darynda Jones
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

After a 6-month suspended animation nap, Defiance Dayne is once again awake and getting into and out of trouble. While she was sleeping, her dads and her best friend moved across the county to join her in Salem, MA, in her magical house, Percival, haunted by the ghost of her grandfather. Defiance tries at first to lie and say her magical powers have vanished, but that doesn't work, and soon she is tracking down all sorts of missing objects and people, trying desperately to figure out how to keep everyone alive, or at least keep them from dying again.

This volume in the series could have used some heavy editing, particularly the endless repetitions of how sexy Roan was and what his inked existence did to Defiance's "nether" or "girl" parts. That got old REALLY fast, and the book would have been much improved if we could have just skipped over most of that. Roan's backstory was a key subplot, so I wish Defiance had acted her age (45) and dialed back the lust in favor of really getting to know Roan for who he was and not just fixated on the heavily tattooed, kilted outer package. If readers are supposed to go for the pair as a serious couple by the end of the series, there has GOT to be more to the relationship than electricity. In both directions, though mercifully we are spared the recitation of Roan's lustful thoughts.

I LOVE Darynda Jones' books, but this is my least favorite. Some excellent parts, though! And I do still want to listen to the next book to see how the loose ends get tied up.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary. Tons of sexual content, though really only one actual sex scene. Plenty of profanity, some violence and threats of violence, but not overly graphic. Trigger warnings for spousal and child abuse. LGBTQIA-adjacent, as Defiance was raised by her two dads, one of whom is Latinx. Her grandmother's love interest, the police chief, is African-American. Other characters are either white or not memorably specified.

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Monsters and Mold

Monsters and Mold by Asia Citro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Zoey and her pet cat Sassafras are back with their second magical creature to help. This time they meet Gorp, a monster who wants to attend the upcoming Monster Ball but cannot bear to go with his fur all moldy. Zoey and Sassafras have less than a week to figure out how to stop the mold from growing, and it's going to take some scientific experimentation to find a solution.

The second book in the series delighted my kids just as much as the first. I really appreciated how Zoey didn't give up when her first (and second) theories didn't solve the problem. She kept using the scientific method to figure out what went wrong and why, giving her a new direction to try the next time.

One thing that bugged me and kept this book from a 5-star rating was that Zoey focused on treating the effect (the mold) and not the cause. Figuring out why something is occurring in the first place and preventing *that* is so often a much more valuable use of time. I mean, she did think to have Gorp make sure he didn't go to bed with wet fur, so that was good, but when that didn't stop the mold growth, she didn't revisit to see what other factors might be in play. And yes, I realize this is a very adult, nitpicky thing to pay attention to in a book aimed at young elementary school children. But it's my review, and this is a science-based book!

I have no idea whether Gorp will make a return appearance in any future books in the series, but if he does, I hope we find out more about why Sassafras is so drawn to Gorp. I kept expecting it to somehow relate to the mold problem--like maybe because Gorp's fur was, I don't know, covered in catnip or something. But alas, no clue!

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary. This is a great STEM title for kids ages 4 to 9 or so. Human characters are drawn as African American. Lots of illustrations to go with the story, and the main character is a strong female who loves science.

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Dragons and Marshmallows

Dragons and Marshmallows by Asia Citro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Zoey's mom is packing for a work trip when Zoey stumbles across an old photograph of her mom as a child. But it's no ordinary photo--this one glows, and Zoey is the first person other than her mom to be able to see the glowing purple frog in the photo. Next thing she knows, Zoey is in charge of monitoring the secret doorbell on the barn, which magical creatures ring when they need help. At first nothing happens, but eventually the bell chimes. Zoey and her cat, Sassafras, must figure out how to nurse a tiny dragon back to health. Thinking Goggles and the scientific method to the rescue!

My kids LOVE this book and series. Every night they beg to read "just one more chapter, Mommy! No, TWO more chapters!" They love the magical creatures and the problem-solving skills Zoey uses. I love how the STEM concepts are woven into the story! For example, Zoey follows the rules of scientific experimentation to change Just One Thing At A Time, observes how that change affects the result and adjusts accordingly if it doesn't have the desired effect. Zoey makes science a delightful adventure.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character secondary. Zoey's skin color and hair indicate she is most likely African American, though it's not mentioned in the text of the book. In our household it's a read-aloud; the text itself is about a third-grade reading level.

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Payback's a Witch

Payback's a Witch by Lana Harper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Emmy Harlow left town as soon as she graduated from high school and has only been back to visit a few times since then, determined to live a magic-free life on her own terms in Chicago, after a painful breakup from an ill-advised secret romance with the Blackmoore family scion decimated her self-esteem. Now 26, Emmy has a job she adores, a mountain of student-loan debt, and a fierce desire to maintain her distance from everyone and everything she used to love. Enter The Gauntlet, a centuries-old tradition wherein the scions of the town's magical founding families compete once "every fifty years to determine which founding family got to preside over all things magical in Thistle Grove." The Harlow scion is the impartial Arbiter, and Emmy is the Harlow scion.

Her first night back in town, Emmy heads to a local bar and encounters her worst nightmare: Gareth Blackmoore and his drunk buddies. For his part, Gareth...absolutely doesn't recognize her and tries to hit on her, stunned that his pickup lines fail to impress. Natalia Avramov witnesses Emmy and Gareth's encounter and, to Emmy's shock, not only recognizes but actively remembers her from high school, though Talia was two years ahead. The women spend the rest of the evening drinking and bonding. The following morning, Emmy drags her pounding head to brunch with her BFF Linden Thorn and gets another shock: not only has Talia also had..."unfortunate relations" with Gareth, but he recently broke Lin's heart. Talia crashes their brunch to propose revenge: an unprecedented alliance between the Thorn scion (Lin's twin brother Rowan) and Avramov scion (Talia) against the Blackmoore scion (Gareth) at the upcoming Gauntlet. Though the challenges cannot be known in advance, plotting and planning provides ample time for sparks to fly between Talia and Emmy. Will those sparks be enough to rekindle Emmy's love for their town, or will they flame out as the Gauntlet ends?

This book was great fun to read, especially the descriptions of how the magic felt as it roared through Emmy, and I really enjoyed the steamy romance between Talia and Emmy, though sometimes I wanted to remind them that relationships which last cannot be built from chemistry alone--feeling "at home" with your partner is far more important than flutters and zings. Reading Emmy's struggle with her quarter-life crisis made me grateful to be past that phase of life. So much angst and self-delusion, so much pointless resistance to that which feeds her soul. I also appreciated that for all the angst, sexuality was a non-issue. No one batted at eye at Emmy being bisexual or Talia having a strong preference for women, yet also having a foolish fling with a man after a bad breakup. Humans are humans, and heartbreak is heartbreak.

I look forward to book two in the series, which presumably will feature Rowan and Isidora. Perhaps the author will flesh out some unanswered world-building questions in that installment, such as how intermarriage between founding families affects magical abilities and bloodlines. Surely this has come up at some point in the past 300 years? They can't *all* have married "normies." Or along those same lines, how are family names passed down? Specifically, do men who marry into the founding families take their wives' last names? Is that how Emmy's grandmother was able to keep and pass on the Harlow name? Or Gareth's grandmother? These questions and others didn't keep me from enjoying the story, but they did make me stop and wonder.

For readers' advisors: story and character doorways are both strong. There is a lot of swearing and drinking (I am seriously concerned for their livers!) but no violence. Tons of flirting, raging hormones, sexy thoughts and banter--in short, it's pretty steamy/spicy, but not especially explicit. The Gauntlet is reminiscent of the Triwizarding Tournament in Harry Potter.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eGalley ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

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Highfire

Highfire by Eoin Colfer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I finished reading the ARC from NetGalley a couple of weeks ago, and even with that amount of time to ponder, I still am not quite sure what I thought/think of the book. It is definitely unlike anything I have ever read before! From the description, I was expecting something much less dark and violent. Yes, there is a great deal of humor, but it's not a lighthearted read. Characters die, nearly die, and lose body parts. The vast quantity of profanity starts on page one, the crude sexual references and jokes not long after.

You can't help but root for teenage (Everett) Squib Moreau, and I grew fond of Vern, the depressed curmudgeon of an ancient dragon, as time went on, too. Constable Hooke freaked me out--he's a ruthless psychopath who has been getting away with murdering people for years, beginning with his cruel zealot of a father.

On balance, I think I'm glad I read the book because it was so unusual and kept me reading to find out what would happen. But it's not one I'll re-read. I prefer my escapist fiction to be more laugh-out-loud and less dark. I'm sure other people with different reading tastes will love this, though.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is perhaps primary? Readers will need an incredibly high tolerance for bad language, sexual references, and on-screen violence. Vern is, he believes, the last of his kind--a fire-breathing dragon ("Vern" is short for "Wyvern"). The closest genre it fits into is contemporary fantasy because the story revolves around a dragon living/hiding in a swamp in a modern-day Louisiana bayou.

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A Witch to Remember

A Witch to Remember by Heather Blake
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Darcy Merriweather is Stressed Out. Not about her wedding coming up in a couple of weeks. No, she's a bundle of nerves over her younger sister's birthday and what it means for the Elder's renewal ceremony. Her family's nemesis, Dorothy, has become increasingly, dangerously unstable in recent months, and Darcy fears for their safety, especially after the Divinitea Cottage is torched, and it initially appears as though Dorothy set the fire after murdering one of the owners. Darcy teams up with her fiancé Nick Sawyer, the police chief, and Dorothy's daughter Glinda, a private investigator, to solve the crime.

This is a cozy mystery series that REALLY must be read in order. Secrets are revealed in each book in the series that would totally be spoilers for the earlier books. In this particular volume, however, Darcy's Big Secret was ridiculously easy to guess, so her angst and fears then seemed overblown.

Surprisingly, I also figured out who the killer was quite a while before Darcy did. I didn't have a clue what the motive might be, but I deduced who and how. I can't remember the last time I correctly guessed the murderer's identity well in advance of the sleuth's reveal. I have to say, I really prefer to be more in the dark!

Given the ending of the book and the divulging of a smaller secret in the final chapter, perhaps this might be the end of the series? I would hate to leave these lovely characters behind, yet this wasn't my favorite installment, so perhaps Ms. Blake is ready to focus on her Magic Potion series instead?

For readers' advisors: story and setting doorways are primary. The strongest language used is a few instances of "hell" and "damn." There is no sexual content, just some quick kisses. The only onscreen violence is Dorothy attacking other witches with (dark) magic/fire. It's a fun, easy read for anyone who's already read books #1-8, but don't expect much in the way of character development.

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Wicked Charms

Wicked Charms by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

Lizzy and Diesel are back, this time on the hunt for the Avaritia stone--the third of the powerful SALGLIA stones. Their search is complicated by an insane billionaire and his rabid acolytes, pirates, fires, kidnappings, obsessed treasure hunters, Diesel's cousin Wulf, and Wulf's loony minion Hatchet.

Fun romp of an adventure. Someone called it a "palate-cleansing" book, and I totally agree. It's just silly fun with ridiculous characters, rapid-fire patter, and fast-paced action.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, language (humor) secondary. Plenty of sexual banter and innuendo, but no explicit sex scenes. Also plenty of mild swearing. The violence comes off as more slapstick than anything, even when people die.

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Pleating for Mercy

Pleating for Mercy by Melissa Bourbon Ramirez
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Harlow Cassidy has recently returned to Bliss, Texas, after years of working in NYC as a fashion designer. She's set up a custom dressmaking shop in the house her recently deceased great-grandmother left her, and she's eager to get her new business off the ground. However, having a client's bridesmaid murdered in her garden isn't helping, so Harlow is quite motivated to figure out who the real killer is and clear her name.

This is the first installment of a fun cozy mystery series with elements of magic and ghosts. The Cassidy women have all been gifted with various talents thanks to a wish made by their long-dead many-times-great grandfather, Butch Cassidy. (Yes, that Butch Cassidy.) Death doesn't necessarily put an end to these talented women, either, as Harlow comes to realize.

I read this book about the same time I read the first in another magical mystery series, Secondhand Spirits, by Julia Blackwell. Both are enjoyable, but overall, this one feels more like a cozy, despite surface similarities of magical backgrounds, affinity for knowing what clothes someone should wear, trying to get fledgling businesses off the ground, and potential non-magical love interests. It's a bit lighter in tone.

One thing that left me puzzled, though: How in the world did Miriam and the sheriff know to barge into the bathroom there at the end when Harlow was being attacked by the killer? That made no sense. Did I miss something?

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character & setting secondary. No sex or graphic violence, but I think there might have been a couple of mild swear words? I forget--it's been a couple months since I finished it. (I'm just really behind with reviews.)

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Some Like It Witchy

Some Like It Witchy by Heather Blake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It seems a beautiful day in the Enchanted Village, yet Darcy has a bad feeling that trouble is coming, and her instincts are proven right when she and her friend Cherise discover the body of Cherise's realtor, Raina Gallagher, upstairs in the Tavistock house. The house had only recently come on the market when its reclusive owner died. Rumors of hidden jewels from a famous heist decades ago have brought treasure hunters out of the woodwork, and Darcy must figure out whether they have anything to do with the murder.

The fifth installment of the Wishcraft Mystery series is just as fun as the first four. There is less in the way of character development in this one, but the main characters are still multi-dimensional, which I very much appreciate.

The plot twists kept me from guessing the killer, although I am pretty sure have figured out who the dove and The Elder are. I am looking forward to the next book in the series to confirm whether I'm right and what that will mean!

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character & setting secondary. I only remember one swear word, otherwise it's totally a "clean read."

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One Potion in the Grave

One Potion in the Grave by Heather Blake
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Carly Bell Hartwell uses secret drops to create magical potions that actually work, so when she gets a visit from a famous bride-to-be wanting a love potion, she's curious. And when her childhood friend, Katie Sue Perrywinkle, now Kathryn Perry, stops by her shop to say hello after a ten year absence and sets off Carly's "witchy senses" with the aura of danger surrounding her, Carly grows concerned. Her worry leads her to warn Dylan Jackson, her former-fiance-almost-boyfriend who works for the sheriff's office, that something is amiss. Sadly, Carly's warning doesn't prevent catastrophe, and she must piece together what happened before anyone else dies.

I really enjoy Heather Blake's two mystery series. They are fun cozies with quirky characters and small town settings. Two things affected my rating with this one, though: 1) I figured out near the beginning that a key assumption Carly made about Katie Sue's relationship to the Calhoun family was wrong, whereas it took Carly 3/4 or so of the book to realize her mistake, which was annoying, and 2) I actually figured out who the killer was several chapters before the end of the book. (I prefer not to be certain about who & why.)

OK, and a third thing that didn't help my rating was that I really enjoyed getting to know the characters in the first book in this series, and I had been wanting to get to know them better in this one, which barely happened. There is a little progress made in some key relationships, which I appreciated, but I felt like Blake could have had much more space to flesh out her characters if only they hadn't wasted so much time chasing red herrings. Ah well, it was still fun and a great choice for relaxing on the couch, recuperating after the holiday whirlwind.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary. There is no sex or onscreen violence and only a few mild swear words.

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The Goodbye Witch

The Goodbye Witch by Heather Blake
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Darcy's best friend Starla rushes in to As You Wish, panic-stricken because she's just seen her ex-husband for the first time since he tried to kill her two years ago, Darcy is determined to keep her friend safe. The trouble is, no one else can see Kyle, and how do you defend against someone you can't see? While Darcy's police chief boyfriend focuses on locating the fugitive, Darcy turns her attention to puzzling out why Kyle has suddenly reappeared after all this time. As with everything in this magical village, all is not as it seems, and unraveling the secrets to uncover the truth can be painful in more ways than one.

This is my favorite book in the series so far. The character development is especially strong for a cozy mystery, and I really enjoyed the relationships between all the major and even the minor characters. I admit, I was teary-eyed on more than one occasion! Bring on book #5!

For readers' advisors: character and story are both strong. There is no sex, bad language, or on-screen violence. There is magic, however, as most of the main characters are witches or related to witches. Contemporary setting--a magic-themed neighborhood of Salem, Massachusetts.

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The Good, the Bad, and the Witchy

The Good the Bad and the Witchy by Heather Blake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book #3 in the Wishcraft Mystery series starts off with a boisterous birthday bash for Harriette, an eighty-year-old "floracrafter," (a witch whose magical specialty is flowers), complete with her signature black roses and an aging stripper. The party is just getting going when Darcy Merriweather discovers the recently murdered corpse of the young man who'd come to deliver the birthday cake. Michael's ghost attaches itself to Darcy, urging her to help him find his killer, but Darcy's snooping puts her in conflict with Nick, her police chief boyfriend, because it gives the jealous Glinda ammunition she can use to threaten the couple.

Ms. Blake does such a good job of weaving together subplots and building 3-dimensional characters--better than many, if not most, cozy mystery authors. That's why my rating for this one is 4 stars, even though I often wonder why someone doesn't just wish to discover the murderer--Darcy is a Wishcrafter, after all, and I don't recall any stated laws of wishcraft she'd be violating. Perhaps Ms. Blake will explain that in a future book? Then again, if wishing solved the murders, these books would be VERY short.

I finally realized what I am picturing in my head when I read descriptions of the Enchanted Village: the set of Gilmore Girls but with a magical theme. Makes me wish it were a real place.

For readers' advisors: story & character doorways are both strong, and setting is secondary. No sex, bad language, or on-screen violence.

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A Witch Before Dying

A Witch Before Dying by Heather Blake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Darcy Merriweather, Wishcrafter and sole remaining healthy employee of her aunt's private concierge service, As You Wish, has just been hired to clean out Patrice Keaton's house so her daughter Elodie can sell it. Patrice has been missing for a year and a half, and Elodie can no longer afford to maintain both her mother's house & business. She warns Darcy that it'll be a big job--Patrice was a hoarder--but neither one expect that one of the first things Darcy uncovers will be Patrice's dessicated body.

The more Darcy digs through the debris, the more she uncovers a complicated web of wishes and secrets. At the heart of it all is the Anicula, a charm that both mortals and Crafters (as the witches prefer to be called) alike can use to make unlimited wishes. It's a power coveted by many, and Darcy has her hands full determining who might want it enough to kill for it.

To top it all off, Darcy must complete her investigation while simultaneously dealing with her aunt's imminent wedding, which seems to have been cursed, so many things are going wrong, and the Peeper Creeper who's been watching Darcy from the woods and breaking into homes all over town.

The second installment of the Wishcraft Mystery series does not disappoint. It's light, fun, and a fast read full of quirky characters you'd love to know in real life. Well, perhaps not the creepy Andreus Woodshall, who looks normal in the daylight and scary in the shadows. But definitely handsome police chief Nick Sawyer and his spunky daughter Mimi, Darcy herself, feisty Mrs. Pennywhistle, and the "familiars," Archie the macaw and Pepe the mouse.

For readers' advisors: story doorway, with character a distant second. No sex or on-screen violence, no bad language.

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A Potion to Die For: A Magic Potion Mystery

A Potion to Die For: A Magic Potion Mystery by Heather Blake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Carly Bell Hartwell's love potions are never more popular than when Mr. Dunwoody predicts someone will be getting divorced soon. His occasional prognostications are never wrong and inevitably lead to Carly being chased to her potion shop by a mob of panicked spouses worried that their marriages might be less solid than they thought. That all changes the morning Carly and her hex-selling cousin Delia discover a body in Carly's break room--a body clutching one of Carly's potion bottles. The fact that the potion wasn't the cause of death doesn't seem to matter to the spooked crowd, which evaporates as quickly as it gathered. The investigation, led by Carly's delicious ex-fiance, Sergeant Dylan Jackson, doesn't progress fast enough to suit Carly's dwindling bank account, and when her falling down house demands immediate repairs, Carly decides to ferret out the truth of who killed local lawyer Nelson Winston, and why she's being framed for it.

Quirky characters fill the pages of the first book in this fun new cozy contemporary mystery series from the author of the Wishcraft Mysteries. Blake does a good job of bringing the small town of Hitching Post, Alabama, wedding capital of the South, to life.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character and setting are secondary. I'm marking it "clean reads" because I can't remember any bad language, and there are no sex scenes or on-screen violence.

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Crystal Cove

Crystal Cove by Lisa Kleypas
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Justine Hoffman was raised by a mother who never wanted to settle down and stay in one place, never allowed her daughter to put down roots. Consequently, Justine craves stability, and as the co-owner of a bed-and-breakfast in Friday Harbor, Washington, she strives to make her guests feel at home. The one thing she despairs of ever finding, though, is love. Justine and her mother are hereditary witches, and it turns out that when she was a child, her mother placed a geas on her, cursed her to never find love so that she would never experience the pain of loss. Justine decides to break the curse, no matter the consequences.

Jason Black is a very wealthy video game designer and reclusive mogul. When his assistant books rooms for Jason and his team at Justine's B&B, he has ulterior motives. Jason knows he has no soul, and he believes Justine's grimoire holds the key to saving him, whether she wants to loan it to him or not. He just didn't plan on falling for her first.

This book could have been so good. It's the fourth installment in a lovely series of magical realism romances, although I accidentally read it third. Unfortunately, Kleypas jumped on the 50 Shades of Grey bandwagon, opted for explicit sex scenes with bondage, and lost interest in making the characters or main relationship likeable.

The concept of Jason having no soul was muddled: supposedly all that meant was that when he died, that was just...it. No afterlife. Which really made him desperate enough to do genealogical research on hereditary witches and enlist his assistant's family's help to do the impossible, regardless of the cost to himself or anyone else? So if he was in all other ways "normal," why did he have to be such a ruthless, controlling jerk? Why are his eyes described as "fathomless...shrewd and opaque as blackstrap molasses--could have belonged to Lucifer himself"?

The fact that Jason was manipulative instead of kind completely undermined the story's central relationship. There was just no foundation for any kind of believable romance--nothing in common, no real friendship or companionship, nothing whatsoever to form a scaffolding for building a life together.

The tipping point for me, however, was when the hemp ropes came out and Justine allowed Jason to turn her into a human pretzel during a graphic sex scene. How can I put this...um, NO. A thousand times NO! There isn't anything wrong with choosing to be passive. Being tied up, restrained, unable to move, on the other hand, I find neither sexy nor erotic. All I could think was, "OW!! Use your safe word! USE YOUR SAFE WORD!!" But she never does, and then she wakes up to find him vanished, having stolen her most valuable possession. Yep. What's even better is that she only stays furious for a few days and then melts for more explicit sex when she catches up to him. Because, see, he "loves" her. Yes, indeedy--this relationship is solid!

Ugh. The more I think about this book, the more the bad parts eclipse the good parts. So I'm going to stop concentrating on this one and move on to writing my next review. (Of book 3 in this series, which I adored!)

For readers' advisors: story doorway. Do not suggest it to anyone who didn't love 50 Shades of Grey or similar titles.

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Wicked Business

Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just when Lizzy's life is calming down, Diesel returns. He needs her help in locating another SALIGIA stone--the Lust stone this time--before his less-scrupulous cousin Wulf or the mysterious Anarchy find it. In no time flat, Lizzy is off saving the world again, a madcap romp through dark tunnels with giant rats, posh houses Diesel breaks into so they can gather (i.e. steal) clues, and a natural history museum visit with Carl-the-Monkey. Explosions, fires, kidnappings, and threats abound, so it's no surprise when both friend and foe alike begin accumulating injuries. Good thing Lizzy bakes cupcakes! Baked goods make everything seem better. And they can be used to pacify a loony minion in medieval garb.

Ms. Evanovich had me laughing out loud a few times in this one, and I appreciated that she gave a bit more depth to her secondary characters, particularly Wulf. This offshoot series is as zany as her Stephanie Plum books, with a dose of the paranormal thrown in for extra fun. It's not going to win any literary prizes, but it's great entertainment.

For readers' advisors: story doorway (character secondary), no actual sex, just sexual innuendo, a little bad language, and a monkey who gives people the finger.

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Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict

Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to wake up in a different place and time? How would you react? How would you adapt?

Jane Mansfield hits her head when she falls off her horse in England in 1813, but when she awakens, it is 2009, and she is in the body of Courtney Stone...in L.A. There is a strange man in the other room, a glowing box contains tiny people acting out her favorite book, all of the clothes in the closet are inappropriate for a lady, and a horrible, deafening noise only stops when she accidentally knocks into the bumpy black box with the bright red numbers. How can this be? Why can she not wake from this strange dream? And how on earth is she supposed to fix Courtney's messed-up life?

This is the companion to Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, and I wish I had read them closer together because I had forgotten a few details about the first book. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the story of a Regency-era lady experiencing for the first time the freedom to make her own choices. I love the idea of time travel and have often daydreamed about what it would be like to travel backward or forward in time. How would one avoid the insane asylum?

For readers' advisors: character and story doorways, with character primary

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Don't Hex with Texas

Don't Hex with Texas by Shanna Swendson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


4.5 stars, actually

Katie Chandler fled New York City four months ago to escape the magical battle that was brewing. However, her tiny little un-magical hometown of Cobb, Texas, is not as lacking in magic as she thought. Strange things are happening, and Katie needs some backup. Pretty soon, the town is a hotbed of magical mysteries she needs to solve, some of which hit a little too close to home.

Book 4 in the Enchanted, Inc. series is just as fast-paced as the first three. In fact, I read this one in one sitting because I simply could NOT put it down until I'd finished it. It's a good thing I did not have to get up early the next morning.

For readers' advisors: story and character doorways. Still no sex or violence or bad language.

There is not yet a published book 5--although Swendson has started it--because the publisher won't publish it until books 3 & 4 start selling better. So please encourage your friends and family to buy copies or make their libraries buy copies--I need to know how the story turns out!!



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The Future of Us

The Future of Us by Jay Asher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It's difficult to know how to categorize this book. Is it Time Travel? Magical Realism? Paranormal? Exactly what box should I check to describe a book in which an AOL CD-ROM in 1996 opens an internet portal to Facebook 15 years in the characters' futures?

Since the characters themselves never time travel, and no one has psychic abilities of any kind, I'm electing to put it under "magical realism." Close enough, I suppose.

Josh & Emma have been best friends since they were little kids, but their friendship has been strained most of this school year due to some misread signals in November. Now it's May, and Emma's father has sent her a new computer, for which Josh's mother has given her an AOL CD-ROM. But when Emma boots it up, a strange thing happens: her computer displays this weird website called "Facebook." Is it an elaborate prank? Why are there photos of Emma looking older? And how much DO you really want to know about your future self?

For Readers' Advisors: story and character doorways. Plenty of teen angst. Some swearing. And the audiobook alternates between a male and female narrator reading chapters from Josh and Emma's perspectives.


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