No Rest For The Wiccan by Madelyn Alt

Maggie O'Neill reluctantly volunteers to care for her bedridden, oh-so-perfect sister, Mel, but strange spirits threaten to divert her attention. Then a friend of Mel's loses her husband to a dreadful fall, and the police call it an accidental death. Maggie's not so sure, and sets her second sights on finding a first-degree murderer.

Maggie's family annoyed me. Minnie the kitten was the cutest. A light, pleasant read.

The Abortionist's Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde

The plot centers on the bludgeoning death of famed abortion doctor Diane Duprey. An outspoken activist, Duprey had garnered plenty of attention and a few public enemies in her two-decade career. She had a laundry list of restraining orders. On the other hand, her husband, the district attorney, had a violent temper, and the neighbors have heard their glass-shattering fights over the years. All of this leaves Dr, Duprey's college-age daughter, Megan, with a host of unanswered questions, including suspicions about her own father's whereabouts on the night of her mother's murder. Megan also has her own personal and romantic life to deal with, in addition to the complete upheaval of her family situation.'

A psychological story of lives unfolding during a murder investigation, and the events and obsessions that led to murder.

Witch Way to Murder ( by Shirley Damsgaard

Ophelia Jensen comes from a long line of witches, and has inherited the gift. Unfortunately the gift let her down when she needed it the most and she has turned her back on it. After her best friend is murdered she moves to a small town in order to be close to her grandmother Abby - a warm hearted, nurturing woman who uses her psychic gifts and healing arts learned in helpful ways.

Just recently, however, the sleepy small town has started a crime spree - thieves have been stealing fertiliser from surrounding farms. Then the office of the local newspaper is trashed and photo's burnt. Finally a handsome stranger, Richard Davis, shows up at the library masquerading as a chemical salesman and asking lots of questions. Ophelia dislikes him from first meeting and suspects he isn't what he seems. Odd dreams have started to disrupt her sleep, and she and Richard stumble upon a corpse while walking in the woods. Abby warns Ophelia of a hidden danger, and tries to keep her safe, but there's only so much white witchcraft can do for an uncooperative subject. To survive, Ophelia must acknowledge her psychic gifts and use them.

I thought it would be a light and fluffy read, instead, it was a complex and rewarding book. Ophelia is an in-depth character, so intent on not getting hurt again that the walls she's built inside have kept her from really knowing people. Ophelia's past is gradually revealed throughout the course of the book, so readers learn why she is the way she is, just as she herself does. Her grandmother, Abby, is content in who she is and not caring what other people think. Finally Darci, Ophelia's library assistance is revealed to have hidden depths as well.

It took a while for much to happen. The ending is left open to further adventures.

One Red Papperclip by Kyle McDonald

The story of one man's dream becoming reality! Kyle MacDonald was meant to be looking for a job. He was at that point in his life where he wanted his own house but how could he achieve that if he didn't even have a job? Inspiration struck when he spied the red paperclip holding his resume together ~ he would trade up (!) for what he wanted! This is the story of how he did just that and his adventure along the way...

I loved this book. The simple idea, the guts to carry through his idea and Kyle's willingness to take a chance all made this an un-put-downable page turner for me.

A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read

Married to a blue collor worker, Madeline trades life in the moneyed fast lane for a warm loving relationship and life in Syracuse New York. Her husband, Dean is a muscular hunk but is not a style setter. She stumbles upon evidence of a 20 year old double murder case that appears to involve a beloved charming and deliciously attractive older cousin who has always fascinated her and who still has loads of money.

The heroine was not particularly likeable. Quite a few of the characters were very unlikeable. A good scattering of red herrings, but in the end the villain wasn't a surprise.

Bareback by Kit Whitfield

For those born feet-first, life is normal. Civil rights are enshrined in law, the world is a comfortable place, and every full moon night, you lock yourself in a secure room to fur up in peace. But for those born head-first, the damage done is more than just physical. For a non, locked in his or her human skin, is first and foremost a conscript, drafted at eighteen into DORLA, the Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity.

For a DORLA agent, insultingly referred to as a 'bareback', full moon creates a battle zone, where they patrol the silent night, in search of citizens breaking the curfew. The rest of the month is a civil service nightmare, mopping up the after-effects of the trespasses, the fights and the maulings. DORLA has lasted centuries, since the Inquisition first set it up, and it's no less hated now than it was then.

Lola Galley, twenty-eight and already a scarred veteran, is assigned to defend a curfew-breaker who mutilated a good friend of hers. She doesn't want the case, but she's used to doing things she doesn't want. Only something happens: her maimed friend is murdered before her client can be tried.

Lola wants justice. She'll settle for the truth. But in a divided world, asking for the truth may bring answers that you don't want to hear.

A good read, if a bit dark and a different take on werewolves.

The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey

Beauty Meets Beast in San Francisco ...
Heiress Rosalind Hawkins was a thoroughly modern medieval scholar, her road through life well planned and already embarked upon: by breaking new ground in the Groves of Academe she would show the world that brains and creativity trumped gender prejudice every time -- and make a name for herself in the process. But when her family fortune suddenly disappeared in a cloud of debt and recrimination Rosalind was forced to the traditional haven of a previously well-to-do woman fallen on hard times: she accepted employment as a governess. She wasn't quite sure how the job -- perhaps the only governess position ever on offer that required skill in medieval French -- had come her way, but she did know that it would pay her several times more than she had expected to be able to earn.

But when she arrives at her employer's mansion overlooking San Francisco Bay, Rosalind discovers that she is to be a governess in a house without children, or even a wife, and with only a single servant to keep the huge old house as immaculate as it was somehow kept. Furthermore, it seemed that she was never to meet her employer face-to-face, but merely to read to him through a speaking tube from ancient manuscripts in obscure and forgotten dialects.

Rose is a great character and I enjoyed the journey that she went through. Jason was an equally interesting character and I really enjoyed the salamanders, especially his "special" one. Very entertaining how they got Rose and Jason their meals... The ending was a nice little twist on the Beauty and the Beast story.

The Loud Halo by Lillian Beckwith

Lillian Beckwith put an ad in a Scottish Paper looking for a quiet place to live. She was eventually contacted by someone from Bruach, in the Hebredies Islands. This is a memoir of some of her experiences in the 20 years she ended up living there.

I enjoyed this look at life in a different place and time.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers - normal, at least, for identical 'mirror' twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn't know existed has died and left them her flat in an apartment block overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin ...but have no idea that they've been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt's mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the twins' mother - and who can't even seem to quite leave her flat.

The story telling is magical, the story thought-provoking and bittersweet. All the elements and characters of a fantastic book are there, but somehow it missed......something.

Something Borrowed by Paul Magrs

Brenda must face her demons, but first she needs to get to the bottom of the sinister goings-on that threaten to overcome an all-too-quiet seaside town.When poison pen letters start flying around the quiet lanes of Whitby, trouble is in store for Brenda and Effie. And with Jessie the Zombie Womanzee, trips down memory lane and amorous ghoul hunting, literary minded and strangely youthful professors of Icelandic history, as well as a terrifying encounter with bamboo wickerwork gods from the dawn of time, even Brenda's ample cup is running over. But her most challenging battle is the one she must fight with herself -- or, at least, parts of herself!

A strange, weird icky-at-times story. The sound intestines make as they go down stairs is more than i needed to know.

I enjoyed it tho.