Hunting Midnight by Emma Holly

After he's betrayed by his longtime lover, Ulric-the leader of a pack of shape-shifting immortals-takes to the streets of Bridesmere. It is there that he introduces an innocent young maiden to the sensuous delights of searing passion. But will he grant her immortality, or will he cast her from his life and send her back to the treacherous world beyond the caves?

It got better the more I read.

Urban Shaman by C.E. Murphy

Joanne Walker has three days to learn to use her shamanic powers and save the world from the unleashed Wild Hunt.

No worries. No pressure. Nevermind the lack of sleep, the perplexing new talent for healing from fatal wounds, or the cryptic, talking coyote who appears in her dreams.

And if all that's not bad enough, in the three years Joanne's been a cop, she's never seen a dead body -- but she's just come across her second in three days.

It's been a bitch of a week. And it isn't over yet.

Joanne's powers were woken by a near death experience. She then had a lot to learn in a very short time.

This book was OK, but not as good as I had hoped. I would read more in the series if they came my way, but won't be chasing them.

Away With The Fairies by Kerry Greenwood

When Marcella Lavender dies, a guilty Detective Inspector Jack Robinson asks private detective Phyrne Fisher to determine whether she died of natural causes or was murdered. Marcella came to him a few weeks ago, showing him threatening letters she received and he told her not to worry because poison pen letter writers usually don't do anything violent. Now he is second guessing himself and wants a second opinion and there is no one he respects more for getting to the bottom of things than Phyrne.

Miss Lavender was a writer who produced many books about fairies and was the advice columnist at a progressive woman's magazine Women's Choice. She also has an unexplained monthly income from the Marshall & Company. Nosing around Ms. Lavender's work place and apartment complex, Phyrne learns that she was not well liked and when the autopsy reports show she died of cyanide poisoning the sleuth dives into the investigation with enthusiasm in part to get her mind off her lover Lin Chung who is in a dangerous China currently wracked by turmoil.

Blue Dahlia by Nora Roberts

After Stella's husband is killed in a small plane crash she relocates back to her home town, just outside Memphis. She accepts a position to manage a plant nursery called In the Garden, part of the conditions is that she and her two young boys move into the ajoining Harper House with the owner Roz, a blunt, self-assured woman whose family have owned the house and estate for many generations. Though strictly regimented Stella forms a fast friendship with Roz, however she clashes with Logan, the nursery's sexy landscape designer he is the complete opposite of Stella—brash and impulsive, he thrives on chaos. Shortly after Stella's arrival a distant relative of Roz's turns up on the door step. Hayley is very pregnant and also looking for a new start.

The three women develop an instant closeness, however there is a fourth - The mysterious Harper Bride. This ghost loves children and sings and watches over any child that comes into the house. It soon becomes very clear that the ghost doesn't like Stella and Logan exploring a relationship. While everyone admits to the ghost always being a presence, they have never suffered the anger that the ghost directs toward Stella and Logan.

It's the start of a trilogy so you don't get the ghosts story, which I think would be the most interesting. This was very predictable.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron,

Dewey (aka Dewey Readmore Books) has a horrible start to life - he is shoved through the after-hours book-return slot at the public library in Spencer, Iowa, on one of the coldest nights of the year. Amazingly the little ginger ball of fluff survives the night and is discovered the next morning by Vicki Myron, head librarian. Vicki relates his story, intermingled with her own, from this point until his death 18 years later in 2006. Vicki formed a bond with him, as Dewey was not the only one who had endured hardship - Vicki was a single mother who had lost the family farm and survived an drunken, neglectful husband. The people of Spencer were going through tough times due to the farm crisis of that time; depression, both literal and mental, seemed to be everywhere.

Dewey's unconditional love of people, fun and rubber bands gives a new lease of life to the local people of Spencer after he is adopted as the Public Library cat, then the interest spreads outwards around the world. Visitors found it hard to be sad when Dewey wrapped himself around their legs - jumped in their laps for a sleep - and played hide and seek.
A nice, sweet story about a very special cat.

I would have liked a little more about Dewey and a little less of the author's life story and a little less of the history of the town.

The Quickie by James Patterson

Lauren is married to Paul. One day, she drives downtown hoping to surprise him at lunch. She spots him going into a hotel with a georgeous young blonde. This betrayal tears her apart and of course allows her to justify having her own fling with a coworker. That's as much of the plot as I'll give away. Let's just say that once Lauren has the quickie, an amazing amount of things go wrong. Lauren is faced with many decisions and dilemmas that force her to decide what really matters in her life.

Lots of twists and turns.

Women Who Run With the Werewolves: Tales of Blood, Lust and Metamorphosis

As usual with short story collections I enjoyed some more than others.

"Boobs", Suzy McKee Charnas' tale of a girl who finds puberty to be an unpleasant kind of shape-shifting

Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Wife's Story," which takes the usual werewolf tale from a different point of view, that of the wife of a Werewolf

and

Moon Running about a wolf that changes into a human at the full moon...a Wereperson perhaps?

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

In 1996, as rare book expert Dr. Hanna Heath examines the Sarajevo Haggadah, an illuminated Hebrew manuscript from 15th century Spain, she carefully removes a series of artifacts that, under laboratory examination, will offer insight into the remarkable journey of this unusual text. Having survived the Serb-Bosnian war, the haggadah yields precious clues that allow Hanna to reconstruct the attrition of time: the fragment of an insect wing, an apparent wine stain, a white hair, salt crystals.

Extraordinary people drive the story, from Sarajevo to Vienna to Boston, an intense investigation via scientific methods of chaotic times, religious and political unrest. Each era is revealed through the actions of characters circa 1940, 1894 and 1609, the journey of the haggadah and its protectors, the book hidden from those who would obliterate an invaluable artifact: "To be a human being matters more than to be a Jew, a Muslim, Catholic or Orthodox." Time's guardians reach through the years to pass the haggadah from one century to another.

The main thing that kept this from being a 10 star read for me was the ending. It was a bit too much spy thriller and didn't seem to fit with the rest of the story.

Overall tho, I loved it. The way it went back and forwards telling the story of each fragment found in the Book was very well done.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

The bulk of the story centers around investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist , who has been hired by a wealthy industrialist to solve the murder of a young girl who disappeared nearly forty years ago. There is a lot more to this book than just a murder mystery, though. It is also a tale of corporate intrigues and love triangles populated by interesting characters that includes a whole family of crazies and the amazing girl with the dragon tattoo - Lisbeth Salander, a skinny 24 year old 90 pound, pierced and tattooed goth chick with a distaste for authority figures who has Asperger's syndrome and incredible computer hacking skills.

For the first half I'd read a couple of pages, put the book down and wander off to do something else. Then yesterday it suddenly grabbed me and I couldn't put it down.

There were a couple of odd words used in the translation. I had a smile when I saw Tennant Creek, a town from my part of the world, mentioned ....but a sheep station west of TC is very unlikely. It's all cattle out there.

The Road Home by Rose Tremain

After the death of his wife , whom he dearly loved, and losing his job due to a factory closing, Lev travels to London. He leaves behind his daughter and his mother. Eventually, he finds a job working in the kitchen of an upscale restaurant and a room with an Irish landlord. Lev finds it hard to adjust to his new life. He misses his family.

Rose Tremain deftly shares the tale of a present day immigrant. She describes the pain of leaving and missing those you love and your native land and the pain of feeling out of place in a strange new country.

I didn't think this was as good as other of Rose Tremain's books that I have read.

But, I did enjoy it. She created a cast of characters that drew me in and made me care about about them. It is a page turner in a quiet way. Overall an engaging story.

White Gardenia

In a district of the city of Harbin, a haven for White Russian families since Russia's Communist revolution, Alina Kozlova must make a heartbreaking decision if her only child, Anya, is to survive the final days of World War II.

White Gardenia sweeps across cultures and continents, from the glamorous nightclubs of Shanghai to the harshness of Cold War Soviet Russia in the 1960s, from a desolate island in the Pacific Ocean to a new life in post-war Australia. Both mother and daughter must make sacrifices, but is the price too high? Most importantly of all, will they ever find each other again?

An absorbing and entertaining read. I felt the ending was a little too neatly tied up.

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

Welcome toBascom,North Carolina, where it seems that everyone has a story to tell about theWaverley women. The house that's been in the family for generations, the walled garden that mysteriously blooms year round, the rumours of dangerous loves and tragic passions. EveryWaverley woman is somehow touched by magic.

Claire has always clung to the Waverleys' roots, tending the enchanted soil in the family garden from which she makes her sought-after delicacies - famed and feared for their curious effects. She has everything she thinks she needs - until one day she waked to find a stranger has moved in next door and a vine of ivy has crept into her garden ...Claire's carefully tended life is about to run gloriously out of control.

A lovely, magical story.

Midsummer Masque by Coral Hoyle

The daughter of a bishop, Julia Witton had somehow reached the grand age of four-and-twenty unmarried. So her parents had arranged for her to wed the odious Mr. Oglesby. Julia's efforts to escape this fate resulted only in her eye being blackened, struck by a mysterious pouch thrown from a passing coach - an event that strangely coincided with the arrival of the foppish Lord Rossiter. He was visiting the bishop's country home ostensibly to pursue his passion for flowers. But it soon became apparent to Julia that this devilish peer had not nearly such sweet-scented purposes.

A nice Regency with a good mystery that wasn't immediately obvious.