Books, Books, Books, and a Cat

  4.5 Stars- Alice Hoffman knows how to write a unique and fascinating novel! Two young women are sent to college in Cambridge in the 1950s, only they are not your typical students. Both Ava and Lauren are witches and as they spend more time at college they learn more about their unique gifts. Ava knew nothing about her heritage until she came to Radcliffe whereas Lauren and her brother were well aware of their heritage. Both girls have had difficult lives but are very different from one another. At first they dislike each other but eventually become friends although they face many different situations and conflicts along the way. The story also flashes back to the very first witch of Cambridge in 1692. Her story was honestly my favorite. The flashback revolved around the Mather family and their persecution of witches as well as the founding of Harvard. The Mather family is important to the 1950s storyline so it was an interesting look at the past, and great insight into what was h...

3.5 Stars- I picked this book because I love a time travel novel.  In this novel the main character can only travel back in time 7 minutes.  She earns a minute from men that she has a spark with but if they die she will lose that minute.   Renee has always been able to rewind time.  She tried telling her family but they didn't believe her.  Her entire life has been defined by this trait.  She takes a job in movies where she makes sure everything stays the same.  She earns money by rewinding time until she gets winning scratch off tickets. Renee has not been lucky in love and has even gone so far to have an affair with a married man that she is still struggling to get over.  When he goes missing Renee is determined to find him but then she loses a minute that she can rewind.  She fears that he is dead and she is determined to find out who did it.  Only things go from bad to worse when she begins to lose more minutes.  She must f...

  This was a highly enjoyable thriller that you won't want to miss.   Becca Larson is a journalist who travels to Flordia to cover a story about a honeymoon gone bad.  She is hoping this piece could possibly win her an award and help her get back to doing more investigative journalism.  However once she gets to Florida things aren't adding up.  After meeting with Eve, the bride, Becca can no longer get her to call her back.  Things start not adding up and Becca has an encounter with a woman that tries to steal her camera equipment.  After returning things go from bad to worse and now an innocent story may have the potential to ruin her life.  There was great suspense in this novel.  There were multiple perspectives which I really enjoyed because it kept me guessing as to who was really responsible for everything.  I was on the edge of my seat for most of the book hoping that things would turn out alright for Becca.  This story ...

 A powerful story about following your own dreams no matter what the cost.  Billie, a 39 single female, on New Year's Eve in Florence, Italy, meets the man of her dreams. Arthur is his name and he is from Scotland.  The only problem is, she had just made up her mind that she is going to have a baby on her own.  They have an instant connection and sparks fly.  However he does not want kids.  Over the next year Billie tries to figure out what she truly wants.  Does she want a relationship with Arthur and no baby or to have the baby and no Arthur?   I thought this novel posed a thought provoking scenerio and really kept the reader guessing as to what was going to happen.  I really liked Billie as a character and liked the romantic elements between her and Arthur.  Both of them had past trauma which seemed to spur their decisions.  There were times in the novel though that I wanted them to be more flexible but people in real life r...

 4.5 Stars- A great second chance romance with a fun Cupid twist! The main characters in this novel are considered divine beings but think along the lines of cupids.  They are archers who go out and shoot arrows of love at humans to help them fall in love and do great things.  However there are also breakers.  Breakers break up the relationships and do to this fact they are seen as less than in this divine society. Anyone who is not an archer experiences discrimination and do not get the same opportunies.  Demi is a breaker but she was born to a family of famous archers.  Her father is the director.  However he is retiring and Demi's protection will soon end and she could be in real trouble.  To make matters worse, her ex and love of her life Gray, accidentally misses his assigned target because he sees her.  He asks Demi to help him fix this mess.  Demi agrees because the missed target has an important destiny that will save lives....

 I love a Susanna Kearsley novel and this one did not disapoint.  This dual timeline novel featured a WWII murder mystery that involving spies, buried secrets, double agents, and thrilling action.   In 2006, Kate Murray, a young journalist, meets an older man who tells her he has a story that might interest her as well as the fact that he knows her grandmother.  Right after telling her this he is killed in a hit and run.  Kate is shocked but finds out that this man does know her grandmother and the story unfolds from there.  Kate soon finds herself on the run and afraid for her life not knowing who to trust as she tries to unravel this story from WWII.  With flashbacks to the past, the reader gains more insight into what actually happened and how that is tied into present day.  This was such a great story with not only historical fiction elements but mystery and action.  There were so many secrets that had to be unraveled that I did not ...

 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. ...

  This was such a sweet and enchanting romance! Annalise has recently lost her uncle to cancer.  He has been the only parental figure in her life for the last several years.  She has effectively closed herself off from the world and only focused on her work.  She will be moving to Liverpool to work on her PhD for 2 years so she needs to sublet her aparartment.  Before she leaves she decides to get a roommate and then that roommate will take over her lease.  However the roommate she thinks she is renting to is not the one she gets.  The roommate ends up being a very hot guy who has come to Toronto to be part of a band so that he can write his own music.  Annalise finds herself falling for him but there is more to the story because his jacket appears to have magical qualities. Every time she puts it on she sees things from the past.  Annalise must figure out where she truly wants her life to go and if she should follow her heart. I loved the ma...

  4.5 Stars- This was a really great mystery that blended a character from classic mystery novels with the writing of one of my favorite thriller authors. The story is set in 1950 at a mountain resort in Switzerland. There are four characters that tell their story.  Each one has a different reason for being at the hotel.  Diana Glass is a companion to Mrs. Bantry and Miss Marple.  She is much younger than the other two women and there is an air of mystery around her.  Catherine Narracott is on a ski holiday with her politician husband.  Catherine is trying very hard to be the perfect wife but her husband is horribly self-centered.  They also money problems although her husband thinks that after this trip their problems will be solved.  Then we have Sylvia Sinclair.  She is a Hollywood movie star who just wants to get away and be with her lover.  Her career in Hollywood is not what it once was.  She went from leading lady to now bein...