Jacob by Jacqueline Frank

Since time began, there have been Nightwalkers - the races of the night who live in the shadows of the moonlight. Love with humans is absolutely forbidden, and one man makes certain to uphold this ancient law: Jacob, the Enforcer...For 700 Years, He has resisted temptation. But not tonight...Jacob knows the excuses his people give when the madness overtakes them and they fall prey to their lust for humans. He's heard every one and still brought the trespassers to justice. Immune to forbidden desires, uncontrollable hungers, or the curse of the moon, his control is total...until the moment he sees Isabella on a shadowy New York City street. Saving her life wasn't in his plans. Nor were the overwhelming feelings she arouses in him. But the moment he holds her in his arms and feels the soft explosion of her body against his, everything changes. Their attraction is undeniable, volatile, and completely against the law. Suddenly everything Jacob has ever believed is inflamed by the heat of desire...Bring on the night. 

Fantastic start to a new series. Loved the chemistry between Jacob and Bella. Action, romance and a touch of a mystery. I'm looking forward to more in this series. 

While I Was Gone by Sue Miller

Jo Becker has everything a woman could desire: a loving spouse, contented children and a nice dog or two. When her New England veterinary practice takes on a new client, however, her past comes back to haunt her. Long ago, it seems, Jo had escaped her family and identity for a commune in Cambridge. Her Aquarian illusions came to an abrupt, bloody end when one of her housemates was brutally murdered.

Now this unhappy era returns in the person of Eli Mayhew, who had been the odd man out in Jo's boho household. His appearance is both tantalising and upsetting:
"Inside, I slowed down. I felt numbed. I had two last patients, and then I told Beattie to go home, that I'd close up ... I re-filed the last charts, sprayed and wiped the examining table. I reviewed my list of routine surgeries for Wednesday. All the while I was thinking of Eli Mayhew, and of Dana and Larry and Duncan and me, and our lives in the house. Of the horrible way it had all ended."

 I enjoyed this book. I loved the language. The ending was a bit disappointing to me.

I liked this line,  made me think of us,

"We always took one day a week off together, and if the weather was good, we often went fishing. Or my husband went fishing and I went along, usually with a book to read." 

Orchid by Jayne Castle

A top psychic for exclusive Psynergy Inc., Orchid Adams has her hands full with a baffling murder—which doesn’t exactly allow time for husband hunting. Is it even possible there’s a man on St. Helen’s who measures up to her dreams of wedded bliss? Take her new client, Rafe Stonebraker: primitive and elemental, an unlicensed P.I. with some serious secrets, Rafe is hardly marriage material. So why does his powerful presence have Orchid imagining the most outrageous affair? Rafe is embroiled in solving a strange theft while thwarting a hostile takeover of Stonebraker Shipping; he needs a wife—and fast—to salvage his credibility. Orchid Adams doesn’t fit the profile he had in mind, but she fits in his arms. Will their electrifying connection end up getting them burned?

I enjoy this light sci fi romance series.

The Cat Who Tailed A Thief by Lilian Jackson Braun

When small items disappear throughout the town, the residents are up in arms! Pickax has seldom fallen victim to "big city" crimes, particularly during the holiday season. But after the bridge club's money is stolen, the townspeople decide that there is more to this mystery. The rash of petty thievery started when banker Willard Carmichael and his much younger (and flashier) wife, Danielle, moved to Pickax from Down Below. Along with their big-city lifestyle, Willard brought plans to restore the Victorian houses on Gingerbread Alley (fondly known as Pleasant Street). Unfortunately, Willard is murdered in an apparent mugging Down Below. When a local man is accused of the thievery, newspaper columnist Jim Qwilleran has serious questions about the recent crimes plaguing Pickax. For one thing, Danielle's cousin Carter Lee seems too eager to pick up where Willard left off in the restoration project. When he begins to romance wealthy widow Lynette Duncan, things really go awry. It's up to Qwill, Koko and Yum Yum to set the town right and bring the guilty party to justice before both the Duncan family fortune and Pickax are destroyed by greed.

An enjoyable, light read.  

Leopard's Prey by Christine Feehan

Homicide cop, leopard-shifter Remy Boudreux is the oldest and on the hunt for a serial killer that threatens everyone he loves and their way of life. It is not the best time for a big eyed waif from his past to return to the bayou and steal his heart.

Fast paced action, great mystery and steamy romance.

Ape House by Sara Gruen

 Isabel Duncan, a scientist at the Great Ape Language Lab, doesn't understand people, but apes she gets.

John Thigpen is a reporter writing a human interest feature when an explosion rocks the lab. John's story turns into the story of a lifetime, and Isabel must connect with her own kind to save her family of apes.

 A good, interesting read. Loved the Bonobos. The ending was a bit abrupt...or maybe I just wasn't quite ready for the story to end. 

Cooking with Baz by Sean Dooley

Sean Dooley’s father Baz is your typical Aussie larrikin who loves his pub, his mates, his meat and, when he finally returns home many hours later to a cold meal, his family. Part autobiography, part memoir, this book is an amusing look back at Australian suburban life in the seventies and eighties with an artistic mother married to a loud-mouthed bookmaker from the wrong side of the tracks. Sean works with his father as a bookie to pay his way through university but chooses bird-watching and literature over interminable drinking and yarn sessions at the bar.
Among the smiles this memoir evokes is the unconditional love shown by Baz towards Di when she is dying from her second bout of cancer. Emaciated, bedridden, in pain and having no appetite, Baz goes to extraordinary lengths to tempt her palate with an array of his deliciously home-cooked meals. It is during these heart-wrenching times that Baz and Sean reconnect and discover the glories in the common ground they thought they’d lost.

Cooking with Baz is a story about being so different from your father while growing up but getting the chance to get to know and appreciate your dad while you can.

Sean and his father Baz are very different - Sean is a bird-watching, arts loving guy and his dad Baz is an Aussie larikan who seems single minded in his pursuits of pubs, drinking with his mates and his family in that order. Then Baz gets cancer... 

Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr

The plot revolves around the intrigue and in-fighting among the park rangers on the border between Texas and New Mexico.  Even among diehard environmentalists such as Anna and her coworkers, political pettiness exists. When a fellow park ranger is found killed by a mountain lion Anna is suspicious. She doesn't believe it's a lion kill--and she knows that the intricate politics and age-old fighting between ranchers and rangers will result in a sanctified lion kill.

Racing against time, Anna sets out to solve a murder that only she believes is a murder. The more she finds out, the more sinister the seemingly beautiful and pristine canyons and mountains become. Two more rangers disappear...and are ultimately found dead. Just what is going on, and how can Anna stop it? The solution, which comes at the very end of the book, is completely unexpected, and quite satisfying.

 Loved it! The mystery was well done with red herrings and twists, the characters were well drawn and and I loved the description of the desert. I'll be looking out for more in this series.

Hot Blooded by Christine Feehan, Maggie Shayne, Emma Holly and Angela Knight

A bound man with a voracious appetite...A werewolf with human desires...A shape-shifter with one basic need...An immortal lover with a passion for mortal women. These are the stories of Hot Blooded. 

I've read the Christine Feehan story in another anthology, but the rest were new to me. All were enjoyable.  I like all the authors.

Fugitive by Cheryl Brooks

Renowned wildlife artist Drusilla agrees to get away from Earth for awhile and travel to Barada Seven. The lure of a unique paradise filled with beautiful species of birds isn't something she's able to resist but she never imagined that within this primitive yet still progressive environment she'll become friends with some of the oddest creatures and one in particular whom she finds irresistible.

Manx is a Zetithian fugitive with a feline gene and sexual powers longed for all across the universe. His home planet has been destroyed and any survivors have bounties on their heads. Manx has been able to remain undetected on Barada Seven because of his self-sufficiency and the remoteness of the cabin which he's secretly borrowed until the beautiful Earth woman's arrival. Now he's torn between the need to remain hidden and a drive to claim this woman as his mate.

Drusilla is stunned to learn that Barada Seven is a peaceful planet - weapons of any sort aren't permitted. How would it even be possible to protect themselves against hostile invaders? Rather than dwell on how different this planet and its inhabitants are Drusilla chooses to get comfortable in her new surroundings and concentrate on her painting. What she doesn't know is her presence is a source of great frustration for Manx and unparalleled amusement for the eltran Zef. Zef is a large ugly amphibian who lives in the lake - and has the undesirable habit of stating exactly what he thinks. Before Drusilla and Manx even meet Zef informs her that she'll like the male very much - and he's right. Their first encounter sets the tone for their relationship - tumultuous, undeniable sexual attraction tempered with a fair amount of uncertainty. They may be on a peaceful planet but because of Manx's heritage, safety from the vicious Nedwuts schemes are not guaranteed.
 

A steamy, action filled read.  LOTS of sex, but unfortunately not well written sex.

When Darkness Comes by Alexandra Ivy

It's been a hell of a day for Abby Barlow. In just a few hours, she's survived an explosion, watched her employer die, had a startling dream, and now she finds herself in a seedy Chicago hotel with the sexy, unearthly Dante, a man she both desires and fears. For 341 years, Dante has stood as guardian to The Chalice, a mortal woman chosen to hold back the darkness. A terrible twist of fate has now made Abby that woman. Three hours ago, Dante would have used all his charms to seduce her. Now she is his to protect. And he will do so until his very death. A terrifying plan has been set in motion, one that will plunge Dante and Abby into an epic battle between good and evil - and a desperate race to save their love...

Sizzling chemistry between Abby and Dante.  A good but not great read.  I'm not sure why it didn't quite make it into great...

Moonstruck by Susan Grant

Peace was for little girls, and Coalition starship admiral Brit Bandar was one tough woman. A mere intergalactic treaty could never get her to trust the Drakken Horde. There was too much bad blood between the Coalition and the Horde and, for intensely personal reasons, Brit wasn't sure that she was through spilling it. But now a peaceful accord had made Finn Rorkken, a notorious Drakken rogue, second in command on her starship, and - through some grand cosmic irony - front and centre in her thoughts... and her heart.

Warleader, pirate... either title sat easily on Finn's battle-hardened shoulders. Though second in command to "Stone-Heart" Bandar? That one would take some getting used to. Peace required as much sacrifice as war, so he'd comply even if his reaction to the gorgeous admiral fell decidedly outside protocol. But would he end up kissing or killing her if the galaxy's tentative truce turned into all-out war? 

A nice blend of sic-fi romance and space adventure. 

The Peacock Emporium by Jojo Moyes

Suzanna is Almost forty and not happy with her life or her marraige. She opens the Emporium in an attempt to fulfill her life.
Suzanna, the abandoned daughter of her fathers first wife feels responsible for her mothers death among other dissatifactions. Through the shop, she makes friends with Jesse and others who help her become herself.

The story is told through a number of different threads that gradually come together. It was a very enjoyable read.

The Buffalo Soldier by Chris Bohjalian

 Young Alfred is a ten year old African-American boy from Burlington whose life to date has been a trial. Shuttled from foster family to group home, the boy is on the verge of being lost to the kind of despair that can envelop unwanted children. He cautiously enters the Sheldon family circle, barely willing to hope that he can find a permanent place for himself among these kind people, who are still distracted by grief following the disappearance of their twin daughters, drowned two years before in a flash flood. Across the street from the Sheldons live an older couple, who take Alfred under their wings as surrogate grandparents, and it is they who introduce him to the history of the buffalo soldiers, African-American cavalry troopers whose reputation for bravery and honour inspires the child. Just as life seems to be settling into some sort of normal patterns, Terry who has never been unfaithful to Laura finds himself deeply attracted to the solace offered by another woman's arms. Their encounter, brief as it is, finds the woman pregnant with his baby, a child Terry suddenly realizes he urgently wants.

 Loved the parallel story told through the historical snippets at the beginning of each chapter.

Another wonderful, captivating story fromChris Bohjalian.

Dead Girls are Easy by Terri Garey

There's something about almost dying that makes a girl rethink her priorities. Take Nicki Styx—she was strictly goth and vintage, until a brush with the afterlife leaves her with the ability to see dead people.

Before you can say boo, Atlanta's ghosts are knocking at Nicki's door. Now her days consist of reluctantly cleaning up messes left by the dearly departed, leading ghouls to the Light . . . and one-on-one anatomy lessons with Dr. Joe Bascombe, the dreamy surgeon who saved her life. All this catering to the deceased is a real drag, especially for a girl who'd rather be playing hanky-panky with her hunky new boyfriend . . . who's beginning to think she's totally nuts.

But things get even more complicated when a friend foolishly sells her soul to the devil, and Nicki's new gift lands her in some deep voodoo.

As it turns out for Nicki Styx, death was just the beginning. 

A mix of ghosts and voodoo. It was almost like the author changed direction halfway through the book. I liked the way it started, but not so much where it ended up.