Bess Southerns is a charmer, a wise woman, a healer - trained in the forbidden folk magic of the Catholic church. By helping her neighbors she risks bringing the law down on not only herself, but her family and friends. We watch as she has a family, some that stand by her and some that leave because they fear her skills. We follow the family through her daughter and her granddaughter.

When a neighbor accuses someone of witchcraft, however, the hunt for witches begins and Bess finds her family under scrutiny. This was an interesting look into not only the way the lower class lived, but also how the fear of witches could be contagious, drawing many innocents in along with the guilty.

The book could have been a tad bit shorter. There were a few times I had to set it down because I felt that it had stalled and I needed a break from it.

3.5/5

Alinna is an alien (very human like) that has been sent to scout the earth and decide if they would be good allies for her people. She is instructed to stay out of sight and out of the way. Fate has other plans when her small craft crashed near an Earth space base. She is retrieved by Major David Brown who assumes she is a doctor he has been waiting to show up, but he soon realizes she may not be who he thinks she is.

Whoa Nelly! Talk about a short but very hot romance. The short little book had me blushing like you wouldn't believe. Alinna and David manage to somehow overcome their initial distrust and sparks go flying - perhaps fireworks would be more appropriate. All that aside, the story was cute and entertaining. It ended quite abruptly and seemed almost unfinished though.

2.5/5

Sydney Chase has sworn off all relationships after her most recent disaster of a now-ex-boyfriend. She decides that a one night stand will keep her going for a bit and finds herself in the mysterious Raimond Decoudreau's nightclub, The Panther's Lair.

Raimond is dark, mysterious, handsome, all that you would expect a romance hero to be. But he is also hiding a secret. A secret that he is not sure she will accept.

Another quick steamy book. It helped me pass by a long afternoon.

3/5

First of all, this cover looks amazing, I want to hang it up on my wall.

Lillie St Claire works for the city dispatching ghosts and other various things that go bump in the night, day, or during recess. She is caught between being respected and feared by almost everyone, but never thought anyone would stoop to trying to kill her.

Enter John Thresher, a psi-crime detective that has his eye on Lillie for multiple reasons. John is the kind of guy that always seems to show up at just the right time to save the day. Saving Lillie is going to involve a little more than one heroic moment when some particularly undead begin showing up at her doorstep and are linked to her recently deceased husband. Lillie and John have quite an interesting bond grow between them and sparks start to fly (in a good way).

I enjoyed reading a book where the ghosts, goblins, zombies, and leprechauns are part of the modern world, some even in a good way. A fast paced quick read. 3.5/5

The continuing story of Oz through the eyes of Gregory Maguire. We meet the boy Liir, often seen at the side of Elphaba in the first book of the Oz series. Liir is found beaten, battered, and barely alive by a secluded order of Maunts. As they nurse him back to health he relived in his dreams his past and what has happened in his life since the wicked witch, Elphaba, was killed by Dorothy.

As much as I enjoy Maguire's books, this one had me a bit confused at times (which may have been his intent) about why Liir was acting the way he did. At times it just didn't seem like a logical or an emotional choice was made, he just did something completely random.

I fell in love with the Emerald City all over again - not because it was beautiful, but because it was so real all over again. We run across a few people and places from Wicked, and it was wonderful to visit and see how they turned out.

4/5

Bryton Haruk has a sworn duty to protect his king and his country, but his duty has been difficult ever since the day he wife was killed by invaders. And now he finds the invaders returning and threatening all that remains dear to him. He swears vengence and justice, to be the lawful executioner of the invader's leader.

The King watches as Bryton is eaten up from within and summons a powerful spirit to help ease his pain and teach him to love life again. Salome, a bird-shifter, answers his summons and swears to find a way to bring Bryton peace before he dies.

Salome is an absolutely amazing character. Watching her learn the ways of the human world she has been summoned to brings a lightness to the story that keeps it from becoming too dark. Bryton can't stand Salome and her gentle ways at first, but as they come to know each other he sees a different part of him unlocking. As they come closer and closer to Bryton's goal, both are forced to re-evaluate the reasons behind their actions and learn to look to the future instead of the past.

3/5

A collection of novels and short stories about vampires falling in love (see Msg 107 for review of first in series). Overall pretty good stories, but I wouldn't recommend reading them all together like I did. They start to get a little predictable. I'm going to wait a little bit before diving into the rest she wrote.

3/5

What if genies really existed? And what if you happened to stumble upon a magical flying carpet that could take you to them?

Sara is visiting her father in Istanbul and is totally bored out of her mind. Visiting him one day at work she finds an unusual antique carpet. The next thing she knows she flying across the ocean to an enchanted island of the djinn.

But when Sara and her new friend, Amesh, decide to use the djinn without understanding their ways...disaster strikes. Amesh betrays Sara and leaves her stranded on the island alone. Sara must find a way to escape and return home, and the only way she can do this is to learn the mysterious ways of the djinn and the Carpet of Ka.

This is a great, fast paced book. Some of the dialog seemed a little forced, but the book is aimed at a young teen audience. There were plenty of twists and turns and all the characters end up someplace and someone different than when they started.

3/5

Meagan is a Detroit artist, finally breaking through and making money on her paintings. Then one day she stumbles into Ric Thornhill, and boy does he have a story for her, one that she finds hard to believe. Meagan is not just your ordinary person. In fact, she's a half-elf/half-human, and to top it all off she's an heiress that has an assassin out to get her.

Ric and Meagan must fight not only for their lives, but for the fae city and society. The imagery of the fae world is fantastic. A pleasant mix of several cultures myths. This and the political intrigue were my favorite parts.

A good, quick read. Too bad the characters seemed to be very stagnant and stereotypical.

3/5

Dr. Jaid Merritt's father has mysteriously disappeared...into a portal after performing an ancient Mayan ritual...and she saw it all on her webcam. Jaid heads to her father's dig site (overcoming a childhood fear of digs), to try and find a way to bring him back.

Instead, she stumbles upon an ancient priest, and by ancient I mean thousands of years old, but still amazingly handsome, named Ruin. Ruin is the guardian of the gate her father inadvertently crossed through, which also allowed a few demons from hell into the world.

Jaid and Ruin rush to find a way to close the gate and save their loved ones from eternal torment at the hand of the demons, and to save the world from being devoured by the demons that escaped.

This is an Indiana Jones meets romance style of book, and the author really pulled it off very well. A great read (and not gory), full of action, adventure, mystery, and romance.

4/5