Maternal Harbor by Marie F. Martin

A spine chilling murder mystery. I had a difficult time putting this one down. Totally recommend it!

Reinventing Rachel by Alison Strobel

Rachel is a rather self-righteous Christian who has always done the right thing. She is very active in her church and has the "perfect" life. Until everything falls apart. Then she doubts God and leaves her church and home to move across the country to live with a childhood friend and start over. She rebels in her new freedom and does many things she would never have done before. But that does not really make her happy either. She still feels like something is missing from her life. Then tragedy strikes again.
This is an intriguing story and I enjoyed it very much

Still Life with Shape-Shifter by Sharon Shinn

Melanie has lived her whole life hiding the fact that her sister Ann is a shape-shifter. When the handsome writer, Brody, approaches Melanie because he is writing a book about shape-shifters, she is horrified. She has always protected Ann's secret. Now Ann is ill, and Brody professes to be interested in Melanie for herself, not for the book he is writing. In the end, love is the only answer.

Abhorsen by Garth Nix

It is up to Lirael and Sam to save the world from the Destroyer. Together with the Disreputable Dog and Mogget, the cat they set off to find Nick and stop Hedge from putting the spheres together which will destroy the world. Lirael is an Abhorsen and a Rememberancer and she must go into death to see the past and find out how to stop the Destroyer. Totally excellent book.                  

Lirael by Garth Nix

This is an excellent second book in the series. Lirael is a daughter of the Clayr who has not received her Sight - the ability to see into the future. Her mother is dead, her father unknown and she feels like an outsider. As a loner, she explores the library which contains many dangers and she hones her skills as a mage and brings to life a dog who is her constant companion when no one is around to see her. They are sent on a quest and meet up with Prince Sameth and Mogget and they fight through the dead in an attempt to save the kingdom. To be continued....

Flesh and Bone by Jonathan Maberry

What a gloomy book. I guess books about zombies and the apocalypse would be sad and gloomy though. Who ever heard of a happy zombie book? Humanity sucks, lots of people are crazy and they make up weird religions to justify their insanity. Sounds about right.
If you liked the other two books, you should like this one as well.
I look forward to reading the next book when it comes out.

Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Nikki is 17 years old.  Two boys are in love with her.  Jack, her former boyfriend, best friend and captain of the football team and Cole, sexy immortal lead guitarist of a rock group who took her to the Everneath and fed off of her emotions and energy for a hundered years.  Six months later in the real world, Nikki has returned, drained, confused and apparantly still desired by both guys.  Can love win out?  Can the underworld be cheated or defeated?  Waiting for the next two books in the series to find out!

Sabriel by Garth Nix

I liked this book, but it was easy to put it down. A really good book captivates me and I can't put it down easily. It is a good story. Sabriel's father is the Abhorsen, who sends the dead to death. When he disappears and sends his sword and bells to Sabriel, she must temporarily take over his office as Abhorsen and try to find and rescue him. Having been raised outside of the Old Kingdom, Sabriel knows very little about the happenings of that kingdom and feels like is not well prepared for the job that she has to undertake. She is helped by Mogget, a cat shaped creature, and Touchstone, a man who she rescues. I do plan to read the next two books in the trilogy even though at times I felt like I was slogging through this first one.

Son by Lois Lowry

This book ties together the other three books in the "Giver Quartet". In it, we follow Claire, who had been a birthmother, but had to have a c-section, so was reassigned to work in the fish hatchery. As a birthmother, she had not been required to take the pills that stiffled emotions, and in an oversight, she was never assigned to take the pills, therefore, she alone in her community felt emotion. She realized that she loved and wanted her son and found a way to visit him when he was an infant. Later, her son was taken away by Jonas and Claire was washed out to sea in a storm. After awakening without any meomory, Claire slowly began to remember her past and her son and began a quest in search of him. She meets the evil Trademaster and trades her youth for her child. Don't we all trade our youth for our children? If you enjoyed the other Giver books, I think you will enjoy this concluding book to the quartet.

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

Is there another book planned to follow this one? The book was good, but the ending was rather up in the air. Months after the incident with Anna Dressed In Blood, when she dragged the Obeahman down to hell, Cas has dreams and visions of Anna being tortured by the Obeahman. He decides that he has to go and release her from hell or wherever it is that she is. Accompanied by his witch friend Thomas and followed by Thomas's girlfriend Carmel, they go to England to the Order of the Blah Blah Blah, a secret society is composed of the decendants of the druids who forged the knife that Cas is bound to by his blood and uses to send evil ghosts "on" to wherever it is that they go. There they meet Justine, who is one tough good looking witchy chick who may be Cas's rival or perhaps his friend - or both. Lots of blood and dead people abound in this second book about Anna and Cas.   

Looking For Alaska by John Green

This really is a fantastic book. I read it because it is on the World Book Night list for 2013. It is for high school age and up. In this book, Miles Halter, who memorizes the last words of famous people, goes to a boarding school his junior year in search of "the Great Perhaps". His roommate, Chip, goes by the name "the Colonel" and through him, Miles meets Alaska, a funny, sexy, impulsive girl. Together, Miles, Alaska, the Colonel and their friends Takumi and Lara have many adventures trying to prank the rich kids at the school. The story is funny, sad, philosophical and excellent. I totally recommend it!

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

I don't even like football, but I really enjoyed this book. In this story, Rick Dockery, a third string quarterback who blew the AFC championship for his team, wound up playing football for a team in Italy. He finds that he likes the camraderie, and he plays better than he did in the NFL and he has a great time there. The book is well written and captivating and a really good read.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

The book is beautifully and lyrically written. The story is an ugly one of poverty, alcoholism and teenage pregnancy. The story is told in a way that you sympathize with the characters and begin to understand their lifestyles a bit. I thought the book would be about hurricane Katrina, but that is just the backdrop for telling the story of poverty in the south.