Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Reading Level: Young Adult
(4 out of 5)

If you aren't all vamped out then you should checkout this series. A patron recommended it to me and I'm glad she did.

Claire Danvers is a sixteen year old genius. She graduated from high school early and headed off to college. Because of her age her parents didn't want her going too far away so she ended up in Morganville. Morganville is a small college town filled with quirky characters. When Claire is harshly hazed by some upper class mean girls she heads off campus and finds solace in the big old house that is Gone With the Wind meets the Munsters with roommates Michael, Shane, and Eve. What Claire finds out is that Morganville is run by vampires. You are either protected by them or you are food. It doesn't take long for her to get on the vampires bad side.

I read through book one rather quickly and have started book two. I am excited that in all she will have 15 books maybe more. Hopefully I won't get bored half way through. Sometimes with long running series that happens to me but I have high hopes.

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

The Peach Keeper is our book discussion book for February. I have to say I really enjoyed this book. I never know with the book discussion books. I try to pick books that sound interesting and that will hopefully appeal to the group. If anyone is interested in coming the meeting is February 21, 2012 at 10:30am. I will be making oatmeal cookies with coffee icing. The recipe is from the book and found on the authors website.

Walls of Water, North Caroline, where the secrets are thicker than the fog from the town's famous waterfalls, and the stuff of superstition is just as real as you want it to be.

Doesn't that just make you want to read more?

Willa Jackson is thirty years old and she hails from a fine old Southern family that met with financial ruin generations ago. The Blue Ridge Madam-built by Willa's great-great-grandfather during Walls of Water's heyday, and once the town's grandest home-has stood for years as a lonely monument to misfortune and scandal. Willa has long strived to build a life beyond the brooding Jackson family shadow, which is no easy task in a town shaped by years of tradition and the well marked boundaries between the haves and the have-nots.

Recently Willa has learned that an old classmate, socialite do-gooder Paxton Osgood, of the very prominent Osgood family, has restored the Blue Ridge Madam to her former glory, with plans to open a top-flight inn. Willa hopes that the troubled past can be laid to rest while something new and wonderful rises from the ashes but what rises instead is a skeleton buried beneath the property's lone peach tree. Once it is unearthed it raises a lot of questions for the Jackson's and the Osgood's. Because once upon a time Willa's and Paxton's grandmothers were best friends and they may know something about the buried bones, those of charismatic traveling salesman Tucker Devlin, who worked his dark charms seventy five years ago.

This throws Willa and Paxton into an unlikely friendship. Willa has a chance at love with Paxton's brother Colin. While Paxton has her own relationship woes with Sebastian. My favorite books have romance so I'm glad there were two love stories going on along with a mystery and a bit of magic. I think I'm going to be checking out Ms. Allen's other books. I'm intrigued.

Once in a Full Moon by Ellen Schreiber

Legend's Run is famous for werewolves but there just stories, or so Celeste Parker thought. Until she meets Brandon Maddox and her whole life changes. Even though she has Nash (boyfriend) she finds herself drawn to Brandon and soon she is pulling away from her friends and Nash to be with Brandon. Brandon is transforming into something that isn't human. I enjoyed this story even though I think Celeste cared about what her friends thought a little too much. But if your friends would stop talking to you because of your choice in boyfriend then they aren't your true friends. Hopefully there will be another book because the author left the ending open for one.

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

Reading Level: Young Adult
(4 out of 5)

I'm not a sports fan so I'm not sure how I get sucked into these sports themed books I read. First it was the baseball books by Kate Angell and now this one is about football. I'm a girl and I was intrigued to read about a girl playing high school football. Not only does Jordan Woods play she is the captain of the team and the quarterback. She has the respect of her teammates and she is one fine player. But everything she has worked so hard for is threatened when Ty Green moves into to town. Not only is he an amazing quarterback but he has Jordan panting over him and she just doesn't do that. Throw in her hottie best friend Sam Henry and we have ourselves a love triangle. I love a good triangle but I have to tell you I'm cheering for Henry. I really enjoyed this book. It was a fast read and even though I don't know a thing about football I didn't feel left out. Ms. Kenneally's next book Stealing Parker, which she promises will have familiar faces, will be out in October. Yeah, I hope to see Jordan and her friends again. The next book is about baseball.

Definitely Not Mr. Darcy by Karen Doornebo

"Definitely Not Mr. Darcy" is definitely an entertaining book, especially for fans of
Jane Austen novels. Karen Doornebos' premise is a mix of "Regency House
Party," a pathetic program that did not at all appeal to me, and the long-running
American television reality program, "The Bachelor," which I love. In the novel,
failing American business women Chloe Parker heads to England to take part in
a reality show based on life in Regency England, but this version seems much
more appealing than "Regency House Party," as the women there to capture
their Mr. Darcy are forced to learn the skills of an accomplished woman in those
olden days, and that's no easy task. They get dates with their bachelor,
Sebastian Wrightman, based on their accomplishment points. Perhaps that's a
trick "Bachelor" should try as well!

There is a villain, a catty aristocratic girl named Grace, and a twist, as the
bachelor the girls are trying to woe to win the prize money is not an actual
moneyed Brit (wasn't there a reality show with this twist as well?). Regardless,
the book is tremendously informative and entertaining as it leads the audience
into the less glamorousaspects of Regency living, like women being forced to do
needlepoint and ride side saddle. It also teaches an in depth lesson in Regency
fashion and manners, which provides this fan an education the real TV show did
NOT do.

The book loses my attention near the end, where. despite a little too much hand
wringing about which of the bachelors she truly has feelings for, Chloe chooses
the "Right Man" for herself after all. Sadly, she leaves England and returns to the
states before she can admit to herself that she wants that relationship with Henry
Wrightman, the supposedly poor brother who in fact is landed gentry and shares
nearly all of her interests, instead of the sexy actor playing his rakish brother.

I enjoyed reading most of the book, except for the end, which -seemed a little
contrived to me, as if it were altered to make it more of a feminist diatribe than
the normal ending to a piece of romantic fluff it should be. But I look forward to
reading more by Doornebos, and hope somebody chooses to turn this book into
a game show soon!

Submitted by Gerti

Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Patillo

This is the third book by Beth Pattillo that I have read, and I am glad it is her last!
While the other two books were lively and had aspects of the unpredictable, this
book was entirely predictable, if the reader is familiar with Pattillo's previous
works. Just like in her earlier books, she has a rivalry here between two men for
the affections of her heroine, named Emma Grant (not Douglas, as it says on the
back cover.) Adam is a friend from way before her failed marriage, and the other,
the sexy villain Barry, just keeps showing up whenever she has a task to
perform. In this book, Barry is also a professor who is eager to publish some lost
Austen letters. The last book of hers also had an evil publisher. Is she trying to
tell us something?

Another similarity to her previous novels, Emma is an American professor who
has come to England on Austen-related tasks. She meets with Gwendoleyn
Parrot, who is a member of a secret group called the Formidables, which is trying
to get Emma to solve a mystery about the great writer. Emma makes good
progress, and her travels around the country to some Austen novel locales like
Bath and Lyme, as well as the lively writing style of the author, are the highlights
of the book.

Emma's relationship angst is the weak link in this novel, however, and just as in a
previous book, the resolution to her man dilemma leaves the reader as frustrated
as the heroine must be. Emma realizes that she loves Adam in the end, but won't
stay with him. Why wouldn't a woman in love stay with the man she loves if he
loves her? I don't agree with Pattillo that the answer for the "modern woman" is to
move in with her parents to "find herself' first! It doesn't make sense, and that
weakness of character in the protagonist weakens the whole book. Yes, I like the
character of Emma Grant, but I think it may be Beth Pattillo's relationship angst
that comes out in the end. Any other woman with sense would realize the
marrying your best friend IS an Austen ending. So in summary, this book is an
easy read, but without a satisfying and charming ending, which I feel it needs.

Submitted by Gerti

Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart by Beth Patillo

Since this is the second Beth Pattillo novel that riffs on a Jane Austen theme I've read, I've become familiar with Pattillo's plots, which generally include a set of sisters in conflict. This is the theme behind "Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart", although men do play a part in the story, as the title might indicate. In this novel, Claire Prescott, laid off administrative assistant, is taking her college-educated sister Missy's place at a Jane Austen convention in England because of Missy's pregnancy. Back in the states, Claire leaves behind a boyfriend named Neil who is so wrapped up in sports that she doesn't even think he will notice her departure. While at Oxford, Claire meets a Darcy-like fellow named James who is handsome, arrogant, rich and well-connected. What she doesn't realize till the end is that he is also a scam artist.

It's a little more obvious to the reader what is going on, as Claire's charms are obviously not up to standard that Manhattan publisher James is used to encountering. But the surprise comes when Neil makes his way to England because he has turned off the TV and realized he does loy~ Claire.and.can't live without her. After a comedy of errors in which Neil catches Claire with James, Claire realizes that she too loves Neil and not her "Mr. Darcy" stand-in, and the original couple gets back together for their return flight to the states, plus one engagement ring.

The most interesting part of the book, however, is not this off-again, on-again romance between Neil and Claire, or even the conflict between hard-working Claire and her more intellectual sister. The real fun comes in when Claire helps a seemingly dotty old British woman back to her cottage, and discovers that this woman has an original copy of Jane Austen's "First Impressions" scattered around the house (and in the garden shed.) Any Austen fan knows that "First Impressions" was the original title of Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," from which the character Mr. Darcy emerges. But as the old woman lets Claire read through some of the pages, it becomes clear that in this faux original version (invented by Pattillo for the book), Elizabeth Bennet does not end up with Mr. Darcy at all, an ending which mirrors the real life scenario of Claire, Neil and James.

The original manuscript takes up a large part of the novel, and is in fact the most
interesting part, even though Pattillo's style of "writing Austen" does not have the
wit and charm of Austen. Still, it is fun to see Elizabeth Bennet end up withanother character than Darcy, and the various twists and turns Pattillo's version
of "Pride and Prejudice" takes make it a worthwhile read. I can't wait to read

Pattillo's third novel, "Jane Austen Ruined My Life."

Submitted by Gerti