The Bullet

Mary Louise Kelly

Caroline Cashion is not the woman she always thought she was.  She lived for 37 years believing she knew all about herself.  Funny how finding a bullet in your neck, and having no idea how it got there, can change things.  The revelations that keep coming at Caroline shakes her belief in everything she always thought was true.  The very basics of her history, her identity, were a lie.  What does she do? What would you do?  Dig.  And dig and dig and dig.  But the more she finds out, the more she is changed.

I liked the transition from the steady, comfortable life Caroline let prior to her discoveries to the frantic, troubling existence she falls into.  By the end of the book, she is a very different person than she ever thought she could be.  Very bad things happen.  Very bad choices are made.  I get the feeling that the "old" Caroline would have been appalled at some of the choices the "new" Caroline made. Trying to go blonde at home out of a box?  The horror!

The Paper Magician

Charlie N. Holmberg

The premise of this book was familiar, but the execution was so unique.  Bonding to a material for the rest of your life, only being able to perform magic with that chosen, or chosen for you, medium. There was whimsy, romance, mystery and gore, all jumbled up together.  What more could you ask for?  The main character, Ceony, was pushed from one situation to another before landing in the house of Magician Thane. She didn't want to be there.  How many times had her life's ambition been snatched from her?  In her mind, this was one more instance of getting so close, but missing the mark.  

Ceony felt, as apparently many people did, that paper magic was the least desirable.  Nothing flashy or truly powerful in paper.  But there's nothing like a bit of danger to show you what you can do with paper, and with yourself.  I truly enjoyed this book.  It kept me interested the entire time, and I wanted to find out how it would all come together in the end.  I'm glad there are more in the series, gotta love a red-headed, freckled heroine!

Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House #1)

by Mary Pope Osborne

I wish these books had existed when I was young.  I love the mix of magic and science, wonder and learning.  My daughter and I just started this book a few days ago, and she is already half-way through.  This is our first attempt at a true chapter book that she is reading to me, instead of me reading to her.  She needs me to be with her while she is reading, there are words that she isn't familiar with and concepts that she needs help understanding.  The further we get into the book, the more invested she becomes.  She is excited by the story and feels extremely proud of herself for tackling this "on her own."

I have already requested the next book in the series from the library for her to read.  She is an active seven year old that has a difficult time sitting still long enough to read outside the classroom.  I was hesitant to introduce longer chapter books to her, I wondered if she could stick with it long enough to get interested in the plot.  I wish I would have given this book to her long ago!

The Blue and the Grey: A Grand & Batchelor Victorian mystery

M.J. Trow

I have to admit that I have never been a fan of the American Civil War era in books.  For whatever reason, I much prefer mysteries that take place in the Victorian England.  This book may have changed my mind, just a little bit.  There are parts of the story that take place in England and have all the trappings of a Victorian mystery, but I found myself more drawn to the action that took place on American soil.  I enjoyed the transplanted American in London details.  World travel was much more uncommon back then, so the experience for Grand must have been nearly overwhelming.  

The first few chapters, describing Lincoln’s assassination, were well written.  Having recently visited Washington D.C., I found myself remembering the street that contains both the theater and the boarding house that are now so famous in history.  All of the activity that surrounded Lincoln's assassination, the murders and attempted murders of other in the cabinet, was an education to me.  I must have learned about it in school, but I was taken by surprise reading about it in this novel.  They mysteries in the book were interesting and kept me wanting to read to find out who was responsible.  An education inside a novel that you can't put down, hooray for M.J. Trow!

Girl on a Wire

Gwenda Bond

Sometimes the belief in a thing makes it true.  When there is a rich family history of superstition and magic, even if you don't rationally think it's true, there is power.  This book was a treat for me, never having run away to join the circus.  The glimpse into the life of a wire walker and circus family was engrossing.  Sure, the treatment of the family feud and the star crossed lovers was a bit heavy handed at times, but it was never pretentious.  For all the dark motivations and shadowy mysteries in the story, the writing style was light and enjoyable.  

Get in Trouble

Stories

Kelly Link

It's a dark and twisty world out there.  Filled with unhappy, unfulfilled people.  And non-people.  The stories collected in Get In Trouble are not meant to be uplifting feel good tales.  Otherwise, the title would be misleading!  I am not a fan of Pollyanna, happily ever after tales in general, but I had to read this book in small doses.  It became a bit unrelenting after a while.  There were some stories that spoke to me more than others, which is true of any collection.  I knew a story affected me when I woke up the next morning still thinking about it.  Wondering what happened after the last paragraph, the last sentence. 

Kelly Link has a warped sense of the world, which I quite enjoy.  Having grown up reading science fiction and fantasy novels, her stories with a touch of the "other" are the ones that I found the most compelling.  I may not have liked the characters, or even how their stories unfolded, but I was interested and invested despite, or sometimes because of, this.

The Supernatural Enhancements

by Edgar Cantero 

This book was full of surprises.  I love that it took place in the early 90's, the references to pop culture brought back a lot of memories!  As an avid X-files fan from back in the day, I understand A.'s desire to believe.  I expected A. to debunk the mysteries presented, he called himself a skeptic and atheist.  He seemed to want to be the voice of reason to Naihm's  mysticism and belief in what she couldn't see, touch or hear.  The more time that went by, the less A. could explain away.  By the end of the book, we both understood that there was more at work than could be understood.

The style of writing made this book more fun than it would have been otherwise.  The way that Niahm communicated to the world and the use of different mediums to show the progress of the plot was unique.  The book kept me interested and, I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did!

We Are Pirates

Daniel Handle

I struggled with this book.  I wanted so much to like it, to "get" it.  The writing style felt jerky and incoherent.  This helped set the atmosphere of the book, but seemed overly confused at times. The family dynamics were portrayed well, especially between the angsty Gwen and her self centered father.  Gwen felt smothered and abandoned at the same time by her parents, neglected and betrayed by her peers.  She ended up obsessed with a fantasy, introduced by an unreliable, dementia ridden older man.  She felt this fantasy gave her a purpose.  She believed in this purpose so strongly, she influenced others around her to join in.  

What started as a swashbuckling adventure, turned into a warning tale of teen psychopathy.  This story was much than the clash between adolescent struggles and a rudderless mid-life.  As normal as the Needle family may have seemed on the surface, they each had a darkness that manifested in different ways.  I found little to redeem the father.  The mother was used as a prop for Gwen's rebellion.  And the violence that erupts so quickly once the "pirates" are out on the open water, seemed out of sync with the first half of the book.  The relationship between Gwen and Amber was intense, but there was no foreshadowing of the ease they would display in committing bloody, violent crimes.  Again, I struggled. The premise of the novel was unique and caught my interest, but I couldn't connect with the characters enough to make me want to find out how it all works out in the end.

Murder in the Queen's Wardrobe: An Elizabethan Spy Thriller

Kathy Lynn Emerson

As someone who studied European History in a former life, I am drawn to books written in my favorite historical period.  This book touched on all my interests.  Elizabethan era, spies, a murder mystery... There were so few ways women could be independent during this time, it was interesting to read about Rosamond and the ways she found to take charge of her own life.  Despite herself, she gets pulled into this web of political machinations and finds that she is beginning to care about the people forced into her life.  

Her unusual upbringing and exposure to typically male pursuits makes Rosamond the ideal spy. However reluctant she was at first, she seems to relish using her above average intelligence and education. Rosamond guarded her independence so carefully, not wanting to answer to anyone.  Not only did she help solve the mystery at the center of this novel, she learned that being her own woman didn't have to mean being cut off from the ones she loves.  A very enjoyable historical mystery!