Books, Books, Books, and a Cat

 This was a really great history inspired romantic adventure.   As a huge fan of any and all things history so I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.  Jessica is a history professor who is looking for a good story in the archives that will help her get published and get tenure when she discovers a coded message.  This message could change the way we think about American history but she will need more proof.  She goes to see Calloway Morgan who was a history professor at Harvard but was forced out when others decided they didn't like his theories that challenged accepted American history ideaologies.  Together the two of them work to figure out if this message and what it implies is real however things get extremely dangerous when it seems that there is someone or a group of people who don't want this message to come out.  They have to go on the run to prove that they are right and to keep themselves alive.   What I loved about this book is tha...

I absolutely fell in love with this book!  A unique and fantastic premise of two people from very different worlds falling in love as they read about each other's every day lives in a book about each other.   Della lives the life of a maid.  She is living in a regency type time period somewhat reminiscent of Cinderella.  One day she finds a book about a man who is a fugitive living in space named Ansel.  She can't stop reading about this man and his world.  Only it turns out Ansel has a mirror copy of the book and can read all about Della's life.  The two begin communicating with each other.  They set about to test the limits of the book and to see if they can improve their lives. Only things do not go as planned and Della needs to save Ansel, so she writes herself into his world.  For the first time she finds herself having an amazing adventure, falling in love, and finding her people.  However there is so much more going on then D...

 4.5 Stars- This was such a great story.  There were so many great aspects to the novel.  There was romance, magic, mystery, action, adventure, twists, and wonderful characters. Thea is a changeling.  She is a mortal who is living in the fae realm although she does posses magic and can take away people's anger.  She was unwanted by her fae parents because they just wanted their original daughter back.  However, Thea has lived too long in the Fae realm and would die if she went back to the mortal realm.  Luckily, she has been raised by a hobgoblin named Mudge who has become her adopted father.  Thea is known as an outcast and has caused lots of chaos in the realm.  She is tolerated because of her abilities and connections.  However she does something the winter lords does not like and now as punishment she is being forced to marry someone from the summer realm.  If she doesn't her father will be hurt and she will be banished to the m...

  This was a charming Christmas time romance with some real heart behind it.  Ali is grieving the loss of her best friend Robyn who died because she never got a heart transplant.   Ali is really struggling as the two of them had a ritual where they would create challenges for each other using an advent calendar at Christmas time. Robyn made one last one that Ali is going to follow.  One of the first challenges sends her to the Alps in France where Ali takes a temporary job as a guest relations manager.  While there she begins to make some new friends and fake dates her boss Leo all while completing the different challenges Robyn made for her.  The only problem is Ali begins to really fall for Leo but there is a secret he has been hiding that could destroy everything.   First of all I loved the setting of this novel.  It is a perfect Christmas time romance and definitely made me want to get away for a ski weekend.  There was a lot of...

 4.5 Stars- A powerful dual timeline historical fiction novel.  What set this book apart was the fact that the historical setting was in Norway.   In 2001, Ruby is dealing with the loss of her twin sister to cancer.  She takes a job as a caretaker of an older woman named Hanna who lives in Shetland.  The living there is rough and isolated but Ruby begins to enjoy her new life and her small cottage while dealing with her grief.  She also begins to learn more about Hanna, who is fiercely independent.  Ruby sees that there are numbers on Hanna's arm and realizes that Hanna had at one time been in a concentration camp during WWII.  Hanna's story slowly comes out and it is quite the story.  Before reading this book I had known that Norway was taken over by the Nazis during WWII even though they had tried to fight the Germans thinking that their mountains would help them win.  In this book I learned so much more about their resistance eff...

 I love historical fiction about smart women doing smart things especially when society says otherwise.  In this fourth installment Petra tries to discover who has killed one of the Merry gentlemen and who is trying to hurt the others.  It's during Christmas and in the 1800s there are a series of dances to try and pair up the men and women.  In this case there are four young women scientists who have been paired up with men who compiment their knowledge in science.  However since it is the 1800s the women can't publish their own work and when their research is stolen all signs point to the men.  The problem is one of the men is murdered.  The four women who are part of a club called the Minerva Society all claim innocence so who could have killed them?  Plus Petra has befriended a street urchin and she finds out that his mother is in prison.  Besides solving this murder she also tries to figure out why Teddy's mother is in prison and how she ...

This is a great feel good novel that will have you running for a cozy chair and a warm cup of tea.  I loved everything about this novel.   Sunny Callaway travels to Woodnote, Alabama to spread her grandfather's ashes never guessing that this place will have a huge impact on her life.  She is recently seperated from her husband after struggling with infertility issues and when she sees The Chamomile Cottage she just has to go in.  There she meets Nova, our other main character.  It turns out that Sunny and Nova are actually cousins.  The two of them grow closer as they try to revitalize Woodnote into a thriving town again and learn that there are many buried secrets in this small town.  This book is a great pick me up and escape from whatever may be troubling you. Both Sunny and Nova were wonderful characters who you will fall in love with.  There were a few aspects in the novel that I could predict would happen but there were many surprising ...

  4.5 Stars- I was so excited to see this book was out as I have loved reading the other 9 books in this series.  It has been awhile since the last book in the series was published but I was able to pick this up and get right back into the world of Quinn.  What makes this series unique is that it blends a little bit of fantasy with historical fiction.   In this novel Quinn investigates with Rhys, a body that has been found preserved in a well in the Lake District in England.  They are hoping that a ring found on the body will speak to Quinn and she will be able to uncover what happened to the body so they can use the story to resurrect their television show Echoes from the Past.  The pressure is on because Quinn was outed as a psychic and there are a lot of people who don't believe she has the gift.  After investigating Quinn learns that the body is a young woman from the 1920s and that her family was in a difficult situation due to her father hav...

This was a great mix of the paranormal, horror, but also fun and a cozy fantasy.   Igor is the doctor's hencheman which basically means he does all the work.  He finds body parts as the doctor is on a quest to make the perfect human.  When Igor and the doctor find themselves at Ravenwald Manor, Igor begins to make friends and find his true worth.  He realizes just how much he has been taken advantage of and begins to think a little differently.  However there is a lot going on at the manor. Tthere is an amulet called the Eye of Anthomset that can destroy the world and people are disapeerings around the village as well as the deer.  The villagers might turn into a mob and kill them all.  This is of course if the vampire or witch don't get them first. This novel was just fun!  I love all things paranormal and this was done in such a way to make me invested in the story.  I love a great underdog story and Igor was just that character. ...