Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

It's the usual somewhat clueless heroine gets into embarrasing situations and is finally saved by a night in shining armour (of course he has to prove himself worthy first).


 A light, chic-lit read. Didn't really do it for me.

Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler

One morning Rebecca wakes up and realises she has turned into the wrong person. Is she really the person she wants to be or has she changed herself for those around her?


A bittersweet, beautifully written book filled with quirky, slightly offbeat characters . 

No Mercy b y Sherrilyn Kenyon

Live fast, fight hard and if you have to die then take as many of your enemies with you as you can. That is the Amazon credo and it was one Samia lived and died by. Now in contemporary New Orleans, the immortal Amazon warrior is about to learn that there’s a worse evil coming to slaughter mankind than she’s ever faced before.

Shapeshifter Dev Peltier has stood guard at the front of Sanctuary for almost two hundred years and in that time, he’s seen it all. Or so he thought. Now their enemies have discovered a new source of power- one that makes a mockery of anything faced to date.

The war is on and Dev and Sam are guarding ground zero. But in order to win, they will have to break the most cardinal of all rules and pray it doesn’t unravel the universe as we know it.


A fast paced story with lots of action, questions are answered while others are posed. There's the normal sarcastic wit I love in the hunters that gives some chuckles as well as the vulnerability they all carry and struggle with.

Too little of Ash, but at least Nick isn't as whiny and nasty as he has been.

A Deceptive Clarity by Aaron Elkins

Curator Chris Norgren heads to Berlin to help mount a sensational exhibit of priceless works once thought to be lost. But the occasion turns chilling when Chris's boss, after sensing a forgery in the lot, turns up dead the next day outside a Frankfort brothel. Now Chris faces two near-impossible tasks--finding a fake painting amng the masterpieces, and a REAL killer still at large.... 


 A nice cozy. I worked out the fake painting, but not who or why. 

Kissing Sin by Keri Arthur

From Melbourne's gleaming skyscrapers to its edgy nightclubs, Riley Jensen's world is fraught with danger and desire. A drop-dead-gorgeous werewolf - with a touch of vampire coursing theough her veins - Riley works for an organisation created to police the supernatural races. But when she wakes up naked and bruised in a deserted alley, she knows only that she must run for her life. Within moments Riley collides with steely, seductive, Kade, who is fighting a lif-and-death battle of his own. With old lovers and enemies gathering around her, Riley knows she is being pursued by a new kind of criminal. Because in Riley's blood is a secret that could create the ultimate warrior - if only she can survive her own dangerous desires...


 Lots of action, lots of sex, some new characters and at times it felt a bit like a filler book.

I do like it being set in Australia and coming across familiar places. 

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

The first paragraph reads:
"Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blond Ukrainian divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside."

And that pretty much describes the book. It is written from the point of view of Nadezhda, the younger daughter, who is a sociology instructor (but her family keeps calling her a social worker). Her father, Nikolai, and mother and older daughter, Vera, moved to England after the Second World War where Nadezhda was born. Her parents were married for sixty-five years before her mother died of cancer. After the mother's death the two daughters fought about their mother's will and haven't spoken since. However, the news about the impending nuptials with the Ukrainian divorcee (Valentina) necessitates desperate measures and Nadezhda calls Vera.

The title comes from a book Nikolai is writing and excerpts are scattered throughout the book. Nikolai was an engineer and worked in a tractor factory so he does know his stuff. He is not too smart in terms of money and scheming women though. His marriage to Valentina only ran smoothly as long as his money held out. 


I got a few funny looks at work when people saw the title. When I started telling them it was a really good book and I had trouble putting it down, they would sort of go....umm sure, and wander off. I think I've found the secret to uninterrupted reading at work, lol.

The story of the family sort of tied up with the history of tractors, and I was surprised how interesting I found the bits about tractor history. 

The Childstone Cycle by Kerry Greenwood

"Rebecca you must find the Childstones and give them back. My mother told me to find them. She had the dream too. But I never had the time ... I never did get back to the quest. They were sacred relics of the local Aborigines. There'll be no peace for us until they're returned to their rightful home.

The trail meanders back through the interwoven lives of the seven daughters, back through Rebecca's ancestors: the unloved schoolgirl encountering the '60s sexual revolution; the cynical Second World War concert pianist; the older woman wandering the desert; the nurse at the time of the influenza epidemic; the desting soldier killed on the Somme; the brilliant Jenny Wren, the music hall diva; betrayed Mary, the settler's wife, and her first encounter with the Aborigines; winding finally back to the vengeful Poll McPherson on the Ballarat goldfields in the 1850's.

For Rebecca, lost in the past, finding the Childstones is only the beginning of her story."



 I enjoyed the way this book moved back through the generations. The history was well researched, tho I thought the ending a little too neat.