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  When the medications make her numb and withdrawn, one of the other patients recommends that she stop taking them.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.