Veronica and Stoker are among my favorite will they/won't they couples. Far from getting stale, their relationship looms large in all their adventures. A Dangerous Collaboration continues this trend. I enjoyed the underlying mystery in this novel, a bit more Gothic and less hectic than the last few. Throw in Stoker's big brother and you can cut the tension with a hack saw! Veronica is aggressively independent and doesn't follow the conventions of her time. While there are times when I feel Raybourn goes a bit over the top with this, it doesn't diminish my enjoyment of this series. She throws in enough crumbs of all the main characters back stories to further their development and keep them fresh.

So... where did Rosamund go? Did she pull a run away bride? Was she murdered most foul? Is she stuffed into one of the many secret passages and priest holes littered through the castle? I won't tell, you'll need to read the book! Which you should anyway, since it's pretty fabulous!

Can I possibly explain how excited I was to get my hands on this book? My introduction to Rockton and it's inhabitants occurred a few weeks ago. I read the first book in the series, City of the Lost, from the library and had my name on the wait list for the next two but couldn't wait! I bought them both immediately after finishing the first one. Cue long nights of reading and (kinda) ignoring my family.

This latest novel in the series picks up right where the last one left off. I love the pacing of these books, the plot is driven by plenty of excitement, but you still get character development. I get so disappointed in books where the characters are flat and only seem to exist to move the plot forward. This is so not the case here! The main characters are an integral piece to the puzzle, as well as the setting. Rockton is such a fascinating place and Armstrong does an amazing job of describing the terrain and the ingenious ways people live, and die, there.

Watcher in the Woods continues the adventures of Casey Butler as she builds a life in the last place on Earth she ever thought she'd fall in love with. Her back story is fleshed out even more with the inclusion of her sister. I honestly read these books for both the exciting mystery and to learn more about the characters. This is a knock out series that I am so grateful I found!

Jane Harper keeps knocking it out of the ballpark for me! I have loved her Aaron Falk books and was only slightly disappointed this novel doesn't fall into that series. I shouldn't have worried, everything I loved about the Aaron Falk series is here: the crisp writing style, the slow burning mystery, the use of the terrain as a character all it's own. I am fascinated with how Harper uses where the characters live to explain so much of their personalities. The isolation and forced independence these people face drives so much of the plot.
Nathan, the oldest brother, is struggling with mistakes from his past that are still impacting his every day life. When one of his younger brothers is found dead in the, literal, middle of nowhere, the tragedy cracks open the family. Why was Cam there, nowhere near his car filled with live sustaining and saving equipment? Was there more to the story? Harper does an amazing job of teasing out the details and weaving the past into the current mystery. I devoured this novel and was completely engrossed the entire time. A definite must read!  

What a charming, unexpected book! Who wouldn't love a grumpy, foul mouthed book loving sprite? Shade, as she demands to be called, lost her home and her books to an ill advised fireworks incident. Although this is certainly a tragedy (those books!), the loss spurs Shade to leave her comfortable life and hit the road. Once she leaves her sheltered village and the annoyingly cheerful and dim witted inhabitants, Shade really comes into her own. 

Setting off to find someplace she can read to her hearts content, Shade meets and somehow befriends a motley group of misfits. Although she really would rather not, Shade comes to need, and ultimately love, these fellow exiles. I was thoroughly entertained the entire time I was reading this book, and would recommend it to pretty much everyone, no matter what age!