Witching You Were Here This is the 3rd in the Wicked Witches of the Midwest series, and although overall it was enjoyable, there were a few things that detracted from the story. The plot, an abandoned yacht, the mysterious re-appearance of Thistle's father and Brian's suspicious behavior, was well paced and enjoyable but I figured most of it well before the middle of the book. 
 
While the banter between the 3 cousins, Bay, Clove and Thistle, was cute in the first 2 books, it's wearing a bit thin.  They're all in their mid-20s but they act like 12 year olds at times.  It's not endearing.  Also, I don't see why they lie about every little thing.  There's no reason for it and it's annoying. Example: instead of saying they were up in the middle of the night to check out something in the register and why, they make up bad excuses and eventually have to fess up anyway.  Why bother lying in the first place?  Ugh.
 
Overall, a fun read but starting to fray in some places.
 
 

Witching on a Star This is the 4th book in the Wicked Witches of the Midwest series, and overall the best book in the series, but still not without a few things that detracted from the story.
 
The plot in this one was riveting; Bay sees the ghost of a little girl who wants to find her mother.  The last thing the little girl ghost can remember is being on a boat with other kids, and then going to sleep.While investigating, Bay learns of a terrifying new crime and races to solve it before there are more deaths.  Meanwhile, she has her hands full while overseeing the building of a new greenhouse for Aunt Tillie, dodging the consultant hired to expand The Whistler, and learning how to trust her relationship with hunky FBI agent Landon. 
 
Aunt Tillie had a lot of endearing moments, it was nice to see the relationship growing between her and Bay into one a bit more supportive. although still testy.  The romance was a nice touch, too.  That'll be cute if it goes forward.
 
A great read, and hard to put down.  But still, getting tired of the inane childish behavior, especially Thistle, who needs a boot up her ass.  Nice that they're starting to be called out on it, though. Maybe this means they'll grow up a bit? Here's hoping.
 
Also, not sure what the point of Edith's rant was.  It didn't add to the story and it really annoyed me.  A little too heavy handed, as was all the talk about sex.  I'm sure there's a better way of writing than to have one character exclaim about all the orgasms that Landon gives Bay.  Really?  Goes back to the childish, inane behavior I pointed out earlier.  If it's supposed to be funny, it went over my head.
 
So, overall,  3.5 stars but would've easily been 5 stars if not for the childish BS. 
 
 
[spoiler]
 Major plot hole: The little girl ghost tells Bay (and Landon, by extension) that she's been aboard the new boat and heard that it's leaving in 2 days.  They don't bother to ask her where the new boat is, because why wrap the whole mystery up only halfway through the book?
[/spoiler]

Deadly Diamond Not as good as the first, I'm afraid. 
 
Assisted by cats Murf, Misty and Pooky, Alyx tries to figure out who killed her friend and solving the robbery of a diamond from a jewelry store.  Not only can the plot be summed up in one sentence, but it really didn't span the whole book so there was a lot of filler.  Romantic troubles, cat troubles, most of it wasn't related to the murder.  I'm going to be kind and say it's building up to future story lines.
 
Just ok, but not terrible. 

This is the 5th book in the series that I've read in about a week so let me just say: it was good, I liked the poltergeist plot, although it only showed up at opportune moments when the Winchesters weren't acting like immature children.
 
What really disappointed me was this was a pivotal point when more dimension could've been added to the characters, particularly Landon, and it failed to do so.  Very little has been revealed about Landon's past, other than introducing his family.  The end was a little implausible as well.  I fail to see why it's so important to keep their witchy-ness a secret when everyone in a 3 state radius already knows.  It's grating on my last nerve, along with the constant lying about trivial things that Bay, Clove and Thistle can't seem to get past. 
 
Overall, still enjoyable but not without a few a few detractors.

I thought I'd take a break from cozy mysteries and read a real mystery for a change. This one was recommended by a friend, with the caveat that it was gory. And there were moments when it was a little bloody, but after reading Stuart MacBride, I 'd have to say it was lite gory. Like, PG-13 gory, not R gory.

DI Jack Caffrey is called out to an industrial field where a woman is found brutally murdered. Soon, more bodies are found and Jack finds himself caught up in the search for a sexual serial killer that he must stop before it's too late.

I enjoyed the book, it was more than your stereotypical police procedural. Steady pacing kept the plot going through the book with no dragging in the middle when the action thins out. I liked that the mindset of the killer was explored in a little more detail through inner dialogue and memories, giving the character more dimension.

I have to say, the little "cliffhangers" throughout the story kind of annoyed me. From the 5 objects they pulled out during the autopsies that wasn't revealed until a chapter or 2 later to Jack's leaps of intuition that launched him into action that isn't detailed to the reader until after, it's just a messy way of writing. It doesn't add intrigue or suspense, it just pisses me off.


Overall, an enjoyable first in a series, and a creepy, unsettling read. This would make a great Halloween read.

So this is the 3rd book of this 4 book series (mental note to research: 3 is a trilogy, what is 4? A Quadilogy? Is that a word? No, wait, it's flagged by auto-correct. What was I doing again? Oh yeah, reviewing. Ambien must be kicking in...)
 
Each book in the series switches to one of the 4 friends - book 1 was Julie and her issues, book 2 was Gustavia and all of her issues, and book 3 was Amethyst and all of her issues.  So, Amethyst (real name: Jane. Because it's against the law to be psychic and have a name like Jane, apparently.) Amethyst's problem is that she up and left her husband 3 years ago and he appears, in full kismet mode, to swoop her up in his arms and kiss her sensual lips until she comes back to him.  I have to say, out of all the books, this story line was the shakiest.  But ok, I'll go with it.  The girls also have to deal with Julie's psycho ex-boyfriend who is apparently now possessed by an evil spirit, and the girls have to help him.  You know, , after trying to kill Julie and Gustavia in the last 2 books, this is apparently what you do.  But Lo! Amethyst has been blessed by an angel to have her aura seeing powers strengthened and she must complete 3 tests so that she can...I don't know why.  Angels are assholes, apparently 
 
Snarky Ambien-fueled review aside, it was still a pretty good book and I did learn an impressive new triva fact: a flock of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope.  A kaleidoscope of butterflies?  Cool fact.  But now, all that's left is Kat and her issues (seeings ghosts made her go blind. No, really.) which will wrap up this....Quadilogy?  Seriously, what is a 4 book series called?

I have mixed feelings about this book. One one hand, it was a riveting plot.  Genealogist Morton Farrier is hired to unearch his client's family history.  Days later, the client is found dead and Morton sets out to finish the job.
 
The problem I had with this book was that there was too much action; it became formulaic.  Morton finds a clue, Morton gets attacked, Morton has to start over and finds another clue, Morton's house blows up, etc etc.  The action became a way to pad the plot into filling a book.  The action was also a little too Hollywood-y for my taste, not plausible in the least. 
 
So I'll leave this book rated just....ok.  Promising, but not great.

You know that feeling you get when you start a book and you know you're going to be disappointed, so you should just close the book and forget about it?

I really have to start paying attention to that feeling. I guess I was distracted by believing it was going to get better. It didn't.

Words cannot fully express how crappy this book was. Between the immature bitching, the lame plot, and the incessant stupidity, not even Aunt Tillie could conjure up a spell to save it. Like when they were trying to sneak up on a prowler in a greenhouse and stood outside having a noisy argument over who's going to go in first. At that point, I was hoping the bad guy would shoot all of them.

Truly, this was abysmal and a real disappointment compared to the other books in this series.

Bad Days In History Fun and interesting, but it felt like it took a year to read it.  Perhaps getting it out of the library wasn't a great idea. Not a book to read on a time constraint.  But enjoyable.

Wherever She Goes This was the last of the 4 book Psychic Seasons series and frankly, it fell a little flat.  The point of wrapping up the series was to resolve the Logan storyline and to solve the last of the 4 challenges.  All of that was shoehorned into the last 20% of the book.  The other 80% was Kat worrying that she didn't know how to flirt because she's been blind since the age of 14 due to seeing ghosts.
 
So, just...meh.  Yeah, it wrapped up all the storylines, but it could've been done a little better, IMHO.