“Confessions of a Shopaholic” is a delicious treat, just like the gorgeous things that its heroine Becky Bloomwood obsesses about. Becky is a 20-something Londoner who’s fallen into financial journalism more or less by accident, but–oh, the irony!–she herself is a financial disaster. Even as she’s giving financial advice to others, she herself is constantly […]

Read more "“Confessions of a Shopaholic” by Sophie Kinsella"

A very solid entry in what I’ll call the “hitman’s redemption” genre. Peace has come to Northern Ireland, but it’s a fragile peace, with all the same old players with all the same old dirty hands. Former hitman Gerry Fegan is out of prison but is haunted by the ghosts of the people he killed, […]

Read more "“The Ghosts of Belfast” by Stuart Neville"

A very fun entrant in the paranormal romance genre, with the exotic (for the genre) location of KY!  As a Kentuckian it made me sooooo happy to read something set there that wasn’t a bunch of stereotypes about rednecks and hillbillies.  Anyway, while this book does have pretty much all the cliches of the vampire/paranormal […]

Read more "“Fashionably Dead” by Robyn Peterman"

A fantasy/paranormal romance featuring Slavic characters who are the good guys was an exciting find for me, and I was also drawn by the setting of Ljubljana.  The author depicts the Slavic background and setting matter-of-factly, which is a welcome change from the “exoticification” of Slavdom in most Western literature, although readers who don’t speak […]

Read more "“The Dark Ones” by Gaja Kos"

“The Goddess Denied” is a fabulous continuation of Davitt’s Valkyrie series. I was blown away by the first book, and this second book was equally amazing. Davitt weaves mythology, history, and science to create an alternate world where the gods are real, magic exists and obeys the laws of physics, and Rome never fell. The […]

Read more "“The Goddess Denied” by Deborah L. Davitt"

This is a very fun story in a genre that I enjoyed a lot when I was about Melody’s age, but this particular book is geared at least as much towards adults as it is towards tweens. Melody is a somewhat nerdy and eccentric homeschooled preteen (and as a homeschooled person myself I was very […]

Read more "“Melody Jackson and the House on Lafayette St” by BMB Johnson"

“Regeneration X” is a unique sci-fi book. Set in the very near future–2024-2026, to be exact–it is the journal and experiences of Charley, a woman in her fifties (at the start of the novel) who feels trapped, bored, and ordinary in her comfortable middle-class existence. As an attempt to restart her life and start living […]

Read more "“Regeneration X” by Ellison Blackburn"

Although my primary reading genres these days are fantasy and romance/erotica, detectives, especially police procedurals, have always held a special place in my heart, so when I received this book in exchange for voting for it rather casually in the Kindle Scout program, I got a pleasant surprise. Which just goes to show that you […]

Read more "“The Three Deaths of Magdalene Lynton” by Katherine Hayton"

Although my primary reading genres these days are fantasy and romance/erotica, detectives, especially police procedurals, have always held a special place in my heart, so when I received this book in exchange for voting for it rather casually in the Kindle Scout program, I got a pleasant surprise. Which just goes to show that you […]

Read more "The Three Deaths of Magdalene Lynton” by Katherine Hayton"

Wow! One of the most riveting books I’ve read in a while! In a near-future post-apocalyptic Northern Ireland (already a bit of a post-apocalyptic place in real life), teenage orphan John Dray agrees to run an errand for a local ganglord in exchange for food–only to discover after the fact that the errand was to […]

Read more "“Irish Carraig” by Jo Zebedee"