Thursday, September 26, 2019

Open Mic Night at Westminster Cemetery by Mary Amato, 262 pages

When Lacy wakes up dead in Westminster Cemetery, final resting place of Edgar Allan Poe, she's confused. It's the job of Sam, a young soldier who died in 1865, to teach her the rules of the afterlife and to warn her about Suppression--a punishment worse than death.

Lacy desperately wants to leave the cemetery and find out how she died, but every soul is obligated to perform a job. Given the task of providing entertainment, Lacy proposes an open mic, which becomes a chance for the cemetery's residents to express themselves. But Lacy is in for another shock when surprising and long-buried truths begin to emerge.


Fairacre Festival by Miss Read, 104 pages

The first day of October brings an unheralded and violent storm, which whips through Fairacre, blowing down trees and telephone poles -- and, worst of all, damaging the roof of St. Patrick’s Church. The inhabitants of tiny Fairacre can’t imagine how they will be able to afford the repairs, until Mr. Willett suggests a fundraising festival. Preparations for a food sale, a concert, a school play, and a gigantic Christmas bazaar are soon made -- but will they be enough? With her customary humor and grace, Miss Read recounts a story of catastrophe and courage.


Farther Afield by Miss Read, 336 pages

Miss Read, whose real name is Dora Jessie Saint, has been producing these delightful novels of English village life since 1956.On the first day of the summer holidays Miss Read plunges literally into the end of term, by falling downstairs and breaking her arm and twisting her ankle. Her old friend Amy Garfield insists on taking her on holiday to the idyllic island of Crete. The two women, so dissimilar but united in friendship, have time to assess the values of married and single life.


In a Badger Way by Shelly Laurenston, 410 pages

Petite, kind, brilliant, and young, Stevie is nothing like the usual women bodyguard Shen Li is interested in. Even more surprising, the youngest of the lethal, ball-busting, and beautiful MacKilligan sisters is terrified of bears. But she’s not terrified of pandas. She loves pandas.

Which means that whether Shen wants her to or not, she simply won’t stop cuddling him. He isn’t some stuffed Giant Panda, ya know! He is a Giant Panda shifter. He deserves respect and personal space. Something that little hybrid is completely ignoring.

But Stevie has a way of finding trouble. Like going undercover to take down a scientist experimenting on other shifters. For what, Shen doesn’t want to know, but they’d better find out. And fast. Stevie might be the least violent of the honey badger sisters, but she’s the most dangerous to Shen’s peace of mind. Because she has absolutely no idea how much trouble they’re in . . . or just how damn adorable she is.


Monday, September 23, 2019

Hot and Badgered by Shelly Laurenston, 433 pages

It’s not every day that a beautiful naked woman falls out of the sky and lands face-first on grizzly shifter Berg Dunn’s hotel balcony. Definitely they don’t usually hop up and demand his best gun. Berg gives the lady a grizzly-sized t-shirt and his cell phone, too, just on style points. And then she’s gone, taking his XXXL heart with her. By the time he figures out she’s a honey badger shifter, it’s too late.
 
Honey badgers are survivors. Brutal, vicious, ill-tempered survivors. Or maybe Charlie Taylor-MacKilligan is just pissed that her useless father is trying to get them all killed again, and won’t even tell her how. Protecting her little sisters has always been her job, and she’s not about to let some pesky giant grizzly protection specialist with a network of every shifter in Manhattan get in her way. Wait. He’s trying to help? Why would he want to do that? He’s cute enough that she just might let him tag along—that is, if he can keep up . . .

This was probably one of the funniest and best written romance books I've ever read. I picked it up as a lark after my daughter showed me the cover but I can't recommend it enough. I've already got book 2 on my e-reader ready to go.

Lumberjanes: Jackalope Springs Eternal, 112 pages

When Counselor Jen takes the Roanoke scouts on a mission to find a Jackalope, they end up stumbling on a young cowgirl who’s been living in the woods surrounding camp with her herd of unusual critters!

In the aftermath of the time shenanigans set off by Jo’s Mysterious Time Thingy, the Roanoke scouts are a little bit uneasy on their feet. It’s up to Jen to cheer them up and help them get back up and off adventuring again, with a quest to seek out the most mysterious mythological monster of all…the mighty JACKALOPE! 


Oolong Dead by Laura Childs, 320 pages

While riding her horse in a race through the South Carolina Lowcountry, Theodosia Browning finds her arch nemesis, Abby Davis, dead. What's more, the victim's brother is Theodosia's old flame. Who'd have guessed they'd be reunited through cold-blooded murder? Theodosia's investigation takes her from the Lowcountry thicket to the backstage maze of a darkened theater where a maestro of murder waits for the next cue. All proving that when it comes to high drama, Theodosia can give Verdi a run for his money.