Book 125: The Chimera Charm

Hattie Jenkins and her immortal cats are at it again in The Chimera Charm, book six of the Hattie Jenkins and the Infiniti Chronicles.  Hattie is trying to relax and enjoy herself while taking her cats to the local fair, but on her way to eat donuts, the famous lawyer, Morag Devlin, jumps from the top of the ferris wheel and dies.  Teaming up again with Chief Paranormal Investigator Trew, they discover that the deceased has been increasingly paranoid over the last few months and was heard muttering about having to hide something.

The cats were as delightful as ever, and the mystery portion was well written.  I was a little disappointed that her relationship with CPI Trew has suddenly taken another large step back after the progress in the last book as well as a bit annoyed that the reason behind his odd behavior is never explained in this book.  Still worth 4 stars.

Book 124: A Cherry Sinister Murder

A Cherry Sinister Murder by Nancy McGovern and Cyra Bruce is the beginning of the Slice of Paradise cozy mystery series.  Faith Franklin's only passion is baking; so when her grandmother calls want her to come run her cafe, Faith is thrilled and immediately sets out for Florida.  While she is still renovating the cafe, the owner of a nearby business complains that she cannot serve cupcakes.  Faith tries to be polite, but it doesn't work.  The outlook quickly takes a turn for the worse when the woman is discovered poisoned, and Faith is the top suspect.

The mystery was entertaining but had an obvious conclusion.  The main characters all need to develop more of a backbone, but the antics of her two fluffy gray kittens were adorable.  3 stars.

Book 123: A Mansion, a Drag Queen, and a New Job

A Mansion, a Drag Queen, and a New Job by C. C. Dragon is the first book in the Deanna Oscar Paranormal Mystery series.  Deanna is visiting New Orleans to apply for a teaching job at Tulane when her grandmother's ghost appears and tells her to stay at her mansion.  At the same time, Deanna gets a premonition that the can driver's granddaughter is in danger of being murdered and tries to earn her.  After the little girl's death, Deanna uses her psychic abilities to assist in the investigation.

Based on the title, I was expecting a lot more humor.  Still it was a decent cozy mystery.  3 stars.

Book 122: Stolen Chaos

Stolen Chaos by A. C. Nichols is the first book in the Cardkeeper Chronicles.  Keira Poe has defended Chicago for twenty-eight years, but her biggest challenge is about to begin.  The chaos card, one of the  darkest, most powerful of all the magicards, has been stolen from the vault; and it falls to Keira to bring it back.

I liked the premise of the book when I originally downloaded it, but the execution fell short for me.  For someone with 28 years of experience, Keira had a lot of doubts.  I found it disturbing that the cards were powered by trapping souls in them, and the overall feeling was a bit unpolished.  3 stars.

Book 121: The Titan's Curse

In The Titan's Curse by Riordan, half-bloods have been going missing, so all the satyrs are in the field looking for new heroes.  Chiron sends Thalia, Percy, and Annabeth to assist Grover in bringing a brother and sister pair safely to camp, but the rescue does not go as planned.  Although the siblings are saved with help from Artemis and her Hunters, Annabeth disappears with the manticore.  Soon Artemis is also in trouble, and a group of five is dispatched on a quest to save them both.

Another 5 star addition to the series.

Book 120: The Leper of Saint Giles

The Leper of Saint Giles is book five in Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael mystery series.  While taking various medicines out to the Saint Giles leper colony, Brother Cadfael happens upon both parts of a wedding party: the groom, old and surly, and the bride, forlorn and hemmed in by her guardians.  Knowing the girl to be the granddaughter of an honorable knight that Cadfael was glad to serve under during the fall of Jerusalem, he sets his abbot to see if the girl is marrying of her own free will.  When she lies to the abbot trying to protect the squire that she loves from charges of theft, Cadfael can think of no way to stop the wedding.  Luckily, the groom turns up murdered so the faithful monk sets out to prove the innocence of squire.

Delightful and intriguing as always.  4 stars.

Book 119: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth book in the series, begins as usual on Privet Drive with Harry trying to surreptitiously listen to the muffle news for hints about what Voldemort was doing.  The quiet is soon broken when two dementors attack Harry and his cousin.  Harry is taken to Sirius' house, which is also the headquartered for the Order of the Phoenix,  for the remainder of the summer.  Once at school, Harry's fifth year gets off to a decidedly horrible start due to the presence of Dolores Umbridge in the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.  The year goes steadily downhill as Umbridge's powers at Hogwarts are expanded, and Harry once again comes face to face with Voldemort.  5 stars

Book 118: Broken Homes

The fourth installment in Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series, Broken Homes, finds the Folly residents still tracking down leads on Oxford's Little Crocodiles group of magicians.  Two magical murders turn their attention to more pressing matters as they try to figure out what the faceless magician is up to now and how to stop him.

Lots of action, plenty of humor, another intriguing mystery, and a last minute plot twist I didn't see coming.  5 stars

Book 117: Struck

Struck by Amanda Carlson is the first book in the Phoebe Meadows series.  Steeped in Norse mythology this is an action packed tale of survival.  Phone Meadows believes herself an ordinary human working in the shoe department at Macy's until she gets struck by lightning in the storage room.  Arriving home, her neighbor Ingrid comes over dressed in full Valkerie gear explaining that she is Phoebe's aunt, Odin is Phoebe's father, and the Norns are coming to kill her.  Kidnapped away from her aunt, Phoebe escapes the Norns and finds herself in the cave of Fenrir where she gains a powerful albeit unlikely ally in the isolated demigod.  Together they plot to escape back to Midgard and find Phoebe's aunt.  4 stars.

Book 116: Skeleton Key

In his third adventure, Skeleton Key, Alex is asked to be a ball boy at Wimbledon after a Chinese man was seen leaving the facility late at night.  Since the authorities couldn't figure out what the man had been doing, Alex was assigned undercover surveillance.  After successfully stopping the plan and injuring a member of the Chinese triad, another gang member attempts to kill him.  To keep Alex safe while MI6 finds a way to ensure the gang doesn't kill Alex, they loan him to the CIA, who are planning their own surveillance operation on a former Russian General who has reportedly recently purchased weapons grade nuclear material on the black market.  Alex job is supposed to be to have a vacation while his "parents" investigate;  but when they die Alex may very well be in his most dangerous assignment ever.

Another action packed and entertaining tale.  4 stars.

Book 115: Shadows of the Past

Amethyst Lakes moved to Edenton looking for a fresh start after driving away her crazy ex-boyfriend in River's Shadows of the Past, the second full installment in the Others of Edenton series.  Unfortunately her ex planned one last bit of revenge and summoned the most powerful of the Shadow Fae, who is looking for revenge after his defeat at the hands of Amethyst's grandmother centuries before. Amethyst quickly settled into Edenton and into a relationship with the town sheriff after a bit of hesitation. Together they hunt for the Shadow far to send him back to the abyss permanently.

I found the ending on this one to be a little anticlimactic after all the build up about how powerful the Shadow fae were.  Otherwise, it was a great story: plenty of action, good romance without to much angst, and a great cast of characters.  4 stars.

Book 114: My Daylight Monsters

My Daylight Monsters is the prequel novella for the Mary Hades series by Sarah Dalton.  Seventeen year old Mary Hades is admitted to the psychiatric wars of the local hospital for the "hallucinations" that she has been seeing.  When the medications make her numb and withdrawn, one of the other patients recommends that she stop taking them.  As Mary's head clear, She realizes that something is actually amiss in the hospital.  The patients in the end of life care wars across the hall are dying off far too quickly, and the green eyes boy she keeps seeing is a patient who died a few months previous to her arrival.  Rather than hide, Mary sets out to discover what is happening.  4 stars.

Book 113: Every Heart a Doorway

In Every Heart a Doorway by McGuire, Miss Eleanor's school is for children who have been to one of the many fairy lands and returned.  All are having trouble adjusting back to the regular world, and most want nothing except to find a doorway back home to fairyland.  Shortly after Nancy arrives at school, her roommate is found dead in the hallway missing her hands.  Another student is discovered with days dead and missing her eyes.  If Nancy and her new friends can't stop the killer, then they will lose the one place in this world where they feel like they belong.

I found the world intriguing, but the mystery was a little too simplistic and easily figured out.  3 stars.

Book 112: Whispers Underground

In the third Peter Grant book, Whispers Underground, Peter is called to the Baker Street tube station where James Gallagher, the son of an American senator, has been murdered.  While the regular murder team follows the normal channels, Peter is tasked with determining the origin of the magical shard of pottery that was used as a weapon as well as ferreting out any other unusual evidence or suspects related to the case.

With plenty of humor and interesting plot twists, I read this one straight through.  I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.  5 stars.

Book 111: Mercenary Magic

Mercenary Magic by Ella Summers is the first book in the Dragon Born Serafina series.  Condemned at birth for being dragon born, Serafina and her sister were hidden by their parents and trained to do three things:  to hide their magic, to avoid the Magic Council, and to protect their younger brother by any means possible.  Stopping a mage at the business of one of the elite magical families as part of her mercenary work brings Sera to the attention of Kai, a powerful mage and dragon shifter as well as a council member.  Sera is hired to assist Kai in finding the culprit behind a series of break-ins at many of his family's businesses.  This time surviving and protecting her secret may not both be possible.

A quick entertaining read with plenty of action but not much world building or character development.  4 stars.

Book 110: Thrush Green

In Thrush Green by Miss Read, it's the first of May and time for the annual traveling fair to set up in the small village. This charming book meanders through the life of a large portion of the village on this day.  Some find peace as decisions are reached, and others find nothing by trouble. For some the future shines long and bright, and for others the path is coming to a close.  Interwoven together this beautifully descriptive stroll through a day in the life of a small village is a peaceful way to pass the time.  The book itself I thought I'd best summed up through its own words.

"She... suddenly realized what riches were gathered there together in one lovely drop of time."

4 stars

Book 109: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by Rowling begins with a Harry having a strange dream about Voldemort.  The dream is quickly forgotten by Harry the next day as he eagerly awaits news from Ron about going to see the Quidditch World Cup.  The event is no sooner over when a band of Death Eaters March through the campground with a family a floating muggles and Voldemort's mark appears in the sky.  Once at Hogwarts, Dumbledore announced that Hogwarts will be hosting a three school competition named the Triwizard Championship.  When Harry's name is drawn as a fourth champion, it becomes clear that something sinister is afoot.

The fourth book in the series marks a shift to an overall darker time as Voldemort once again begins his rise to power.  There is also a significant increase in the number of pages although I'm not sure what could have been left out. 5 stars

Book 108: Point Blank

Point Blank by Anthony Horowitz is the second installment in the Alex Rider series.  Alex gets himself in a spot of trouble when he tries to deliver a drug lab and its two workers to the police using the crane.  Luckily for him, MI6 is more than happy to extricate him from his difficulties of he will agree to another mission.  After the death of two wealthy and influential fathers whose sons are both attending Point Blank, Alex is sent to the school for troubled teens to determine if the deaths are mere coincidence or if something more nefarious is going on.

This is another face paced, action packed saga.  Parts of the story were again too far fetched to be plausible, but like a good action movie implausibility does not detract from the overall entertainment.  4 stars.

Book 107: Moon Over Soho

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch is the second installment in the Peter Grant series.  While Nightingale is still recovering from a gunshot wound received in the previous book, Constable Peter Grant is on his own for investigations of odd happenings while still having plenty of work as a magical apprentice.  He starts off investigating a string of deaths of jazz musicians who all seem to die of sudden heart attacks.  He then gets tapped to assist a separate string of bloody murders whose means of killing is clearly unnatural.  The cases ultimately intersect with an evil magician whose skill puts him far above Peter's pay grade.

A great addition to the series.  4 stars

Book 106: Black Coffee

The form of Black Coffee by Agatha Christie available from my library is a play featuring the brilliant deductive abilities of Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.  Poirot and his friend Hastings are summoned to the home of Sir Claud Amory to determine the identity of the thief responsible for stealing the formula for a new explosive from the scientist's safe.  Upon arrival Poirot discovers that not only is the formula still missing but Sir Claud has been poisoned.

While a play is not my preferred reading style, I found the mystery to be quite entertaining.  4 stars.