Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs

Anna never knew werewolves existed until the night she survived a violent attack…and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the pack, she’d learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males.

Anna is moving in with Charles and learning what having a real pack is like. The mating bond just isn't connecting between her and Charles though because of what her old pack leader did to her. (rape and abuse) Since she's an Omega (basically a werewolf who transcends the dominant/submissive code as well as having the ability to soothe the inner wolf on others) the abuse hit her harder. There's also a rouge wolf on the loose and a sinister witch from a pack member's past.

This book was great! Likeable, well-developed characters in un-put-downable story. I definately want to read more in this series.

Belly Dancing for Beginners by Liz Byrski

Gayle, Sonya and Marissa are all ladies in their 50's wo meet up at Marissa's Belly Dancing class.

They end up going on a Government sponsored tour through outback Western Australia to demonstrate Belly Dancing as healthy sport for ladies of all ages.

Each of them have a past, and each of them have reached a point where they must face the past, go through a crisis and move on.

The book is very well written,and very believable - the plots are not out there in "it could never happen land" like a lot of Chick Lit is today. The three ladies, and the people who come into contact with them, are all very well developed and grow during the story.

I loved this book. Both for the story and for the places they visited. It brought back our travels through Western Australia.

Eva Fairdeath by Tanith Lee

Set in a future polluted world where everyone is tinged with madness, Eva sees no role for herself except to be some man's slave. Then one day a stranger arrives with a gun, he is a seller of death, but for Eva he provides hope of escape from her degradation.

A good story with a rather non-ending.

The Unexpected American by Ann Hulme

Miss Harriet Stanton was independent, outspoken and fiercely attached to her ancestral home, Monkscombe, in the West Country. She already loathed and despised Benjamin Stanton, her American cousin, who was also heir to Monkscombe since her father died one year ago. Unexpectedly and unconventionally, Benjamin makes his appearance and stakes his claim. He is unspeakably brash and arrogant, but not totally without scruples. Knowing that losing Monkscombe is like losing her soul, Benjamin proposes marriage to Harriet in order that she remain mistress of the house. After much consideration Harriet accepts the terms of Ben's aggreement, but by the time he declares it's only fair for him to return to America, Harriet is not at all sure she wants to see him go....

A light and fluffy kiss-me-quick.

Bodily Harm by Margaret Attwood

BODILY HARM is the story of a cancer survivor, Reniee, who, still uncertain of her future, slips away to a small island near Barbados -- ostensibly as a travel journalist, but more realistically, to get some much-needed rest and time to re-group. She and/or her lover had been so uncomfortable with intimacy after her mastectomy that he left her; as the novel opens, she has narrowly avoided rape in her home and, obviously shaken, asks her editor for the travel assignment.

Reniee is clearly having a rough time of it, and her experiences on the island(s) aren't nourishing in any way she had hoped; her room and board are pretty inhospitable, she gets mixed up with dubious characters and political unrest, and so on.

'Bodily Harm' is certainly not the best work by the sometimes brilliant Margaret Atwood. What saves this book are the characterizations and Atwood's stellar prose.

Fires in the Snow by Janis Laden

Adam, Duke of Marchmaine, watched in amazement as Miss Diana Rustin swept gracefully through the corridors of his family's manor. It was incredible that this vivid beauty had just saved the lives of his sister and her newborn baby with her healing knowledge. He certainly couldn't jeopardize his family name by seriously pursuing such an unconventional lady. He would simply have to behave in the manner befitting his station - even if it meant missing true love... Beacause of an unhappy occurrence, Diana Rustin knew she would never experience the loving security of matrimony. Until now, she had been perfectly content assisting her doctor father and following his avocation. Well, it would be an easy matter to put aside her sudden, most inconvenient feelings for the admittedly handsome duke. She would simply have to overlook his attractively fiery spirit, avoid the temptation of his gentle touch - and by doing so forever break her own heart.

A better than average regency. Likeable, well developed characters and a plot that, while not exactly surprising, kept me interested.

The Perfumed Sleeve by Laura Joh Rowland

Sano is back and he's got a particularly messy mystery on his hands. A high court official with an complex sexual past and a slew of enimies is dead. The old man was beaten to death and no-one, not his wife who was sleeping next door, his half witted concubine or his handsome houseguest will admit to knowing anything about it. Sano finds himself attempting to deal with the crime while carefully walking a thin line between two opposing factions and the weaked willed Shogun. If he finds the murderer it may ruin his career and life. If he doesn't the country may be plunged into a war.

Fire Cracker by Shirley Kennett

PJ Gray, psychologist and computer whiz, is feeling pretty satisfied with herself after successfully solving her first case as head of the St. Louis Police Department's Computerized Homicide Investigations Project. But she doesn't have much time to rest on her laurels: someone is using brilliantly engineered computer scams to alter hospital records, making lethal adjustments in prescribed treatments and drug dosages that have caused the deaths of two patients. Using virtual-reality computer simulations, PJ reenacts the murders, hoping she'll find a clue to the killer's identity. Instead, she finds that a fiendish computer hacker has prepared a series of horrifying computerized "clues" to warn her of more deaths to come. PJ and her feisty partner, Detective Leo Schultz, combine their considerable skills to mount a devious trap for the killer, who will stop at nothing to exact the revenge he's spent his entire life plotting.

Overall a book that kept me interested, tho I did find Schultz annoying.

The Telling by Ursula K LeGuin

The
plot involves an envoy from the Ekumen sharing hardships and learning
from the oppressed people of the planet she is visiting. The
twist to the story is that the envoy is from Earth (a middle-distance
future Earth which has suffered and freed itself from a worldwide
theocratic state) and is watching the "Corporation State" on Aka
repeat all the mistakes she witnessed and escaped on her home world.

Sutty,a lesbian linguist who reads and loves the old Akan ideogrammatic
writing, has arrived to find that ideograms are banned and books
are burned. She travels to the provincial interior and finds
remnants of the old culture surviving underground, harried but
not completely suppressed.

A quick, entertaining read.

Fire Get by Cheryl Franklin

Ancient powers awake pitting wizards against kings. Caught in between is Rhianna, sorceress who has been taught to deny her power.

It was a good, light fantasy. Much better than I had expected from the cover.

Shadowfire by Tanith Lee

"He was the son of the witch woman, and of Vazkor the warrior lord. He was brought up by the barbarian tribes, but the mark of strangeness was with him always."

Adventure, magic and mystery. What more could you ask for?

A pleasant light fantasy.

Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler

Charlotte Emory has always lived a quiet, conventional life in Clarion, Maryland. She lives as simply as possible, and one day decides to simplify everything and leave her husband. Her last trip to the bank throws Charlotte's life into an entirely different direction when a restless young man in a nylon jacket takes her hostage during the robbery--and soon the two are heading south into an unknown future, and a most unexpected fate....

The main theme is families - you can't live with them and you can't escape them. Touches a chord at the moment.

Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva

Allon is the physically underwhelming yet world renowned art restorer, who lives a double life in the Israeli Intelligence Service. Once "activated" Allon has no peer as the secret protector of Israeli security.

His mission is a search for the terrorist mastermind behind a recent horrific and deadly bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Rome. All indications are that there is much more death and destruction to follow, so Gabriel is in a rush to find this terrorist before he strikes again. Along the way he learns that the life of his target and his own life are inextricably interwoven. The chase, which does not disappoint, covers a lot of ground and takes the reader from Rome, to Venice, Cairo, London, Paris and Jerusalem, and along the way Silva gives a factual history lesson from 1910 to the present, on the struggles between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

Definitely padded out by the history lesson, but it kept me interested nevertheless. The second half more than the first.