Author Alphabet Reading Challenge - Finished

Author Alphabet Reading Challenge hosted by Nothing But Reading Challenges.

Goal: Going from A - Z, and using authors’ first or last names, read the alphabet. For "X" and "Z" you may use authors with those hard to find letters in their names. Unless, of course, you're a ‘purist.’

Yes, you may use an author twice, once with their first name, and again with their last.

Duration: You set the pace.

My goal was to finish this challenge in one year. My finish date was 17th of August 2014 and I achieved my goal as I read the last book for this challenge the 11th of August 2014. This wasn't an easy challenge as I am a purist and only wanted names that started with all the letters.

Books:

A: Richard Adams: Watership Down (finished 25th of August 2013) 
B: Jeanette Battista:  Leopard Moon (finished 11th of November 2013)
C: Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep (finished 12th of September 2013)
D: Debora Geary: An Unlikely Witch  (finished 1st of January 2014)
E: Edward Abbey: Desert Solitaire (finished 28th of September 2013)
F: Ken Follett: Eye of the Needle (finished 17th of October 2013)
G: Alan Garner: The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen (finished 4th of September 2013)  
H: Jack Hamlyn: Necrophobia (finished 26th of September 2013)
I: Ilona Andrews: Magic Bites  (finished 15th of November 2013)
J: Sophie Jordan: Firelight (finished 21st of September 2013)
K: Ashley L. Knight: Fathom (finished 26th of August 2013) 
L: Charles de Lint: Dreams Underfoot: The Newford Collection (finished 28th of September 2013)
M: Carolyn Mackler: Vegan, Virgin, Valentine (finished 18th of September 2013)
N: Neal Shusterman: Unwind (finished 20th of August 2013)
O: Olivia Hardin: Bitten Shame (finished 10th of September 2013)
P: Brenda Pandos: Everblue (finished 29th of August 2013)  
Q: Quindlen, Anna: Blessings (finished 11th of August 2014)
R: Anne Rice: The Vampire Lestat (finished 2nd of September 2013) 
S: Scott Stanford: Dorothy: The Darker Side of Oz (finished 23rd of August 2013)
T: Eric Thomas: DRT  (finished 6th of October 2013)
U: Lisa Unger: Heartbroken 
V: Veronica Rossi: Under the Never Sky (finished 17th of October 2013)
W: Jane Wenham-Jones: One Glass Is Never Enough (finished 5th of September 2013)
X: Xinran: Himmelbegravelsen (Sky Burial) (finished 11th of January2014)
Y: Yann Martel: Life of Pi (finished 19th of August 2013)
Z: Zane, Jennifer: Gnome on the Range (finished 10th of August 2014)

Barnet på Blessings (Blessings) by Anna Quindlen

Late one night, a teenage couple drives up to the big white clapboard home on the Blessing estate and leaves a box. In that instant, the lives of those who live and work there are changed forever. Skip Cuddy, the caretaker, finds a baby girl asleep in that box and decides he wants to keep the child . . . while Lydia Blessing, the matriarch of the estate, for her own reasons, agrees to help him. "Blessings" explores how the secrets of the past affect decisions and lives in the present; what makes a person or a life legitimate or illegitimate and who decides; and the unique resources people find in themselves and in a community. This is a powerful novel of love, redemption, and personal change by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer about whom "The Washington Post Book World" said, "Quindlen knows that all the things we ever will be can be found in some forgotten fragment of family."  From Goodreads.




This was really good and I enjoyed it. Lydia Blessing goes from being a not likeable person  to a very likeable person and as we look back at her life we discover the reasons for being the person she is. Skip finds his purpose in life. This book doesn't have a typical happy ending but in its own way it is not particularly sad either.

This book qualifies for:
I Love Library Books Reading Challenge 2014
CCC A-Z Authors 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges Wheel-A-Thon
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet
Crazy Challenge Connection Scrabble, anyone?
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

Gnome on the Range by Jennifer Zane

Once you get the zing you can't go back.
Jane West has everything a woman could want. A job in a small Montana town's only adult store, two busy young boys and one dead husband. Everything except a little excitement--a little zing. But that changes one summer morning at a garage sale when her kids buy some garden gnomes.
Now someone wants those gnomes and will let nothing get in their way. Including Jane. This new excitement for Jane spells trouble for a relationship with new neighbor--and hot fireman--Ty Strickland. Can Jane and Ty handle a relationship meddling mother-in-law, crazy kids, and stay alive while trying to solve the mystery of the garden gnomes? From Goodreads.

This wasn't great but it was funny in parts and that pulled it up to three Polar bears. Jane is okay but it is the mother-in-law that is funny. No, I don't think I will read more by this author.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 Read Your Freebies! Reading Challenge
CCC A-Z Authors 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges Wheel-A-Thon
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (Z-zorrilla)
Nothing but Reading Challenges - 50 States Challenge
Crazy Challenge Connection Scrabble, anyone?
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

Heartbroken by Lisa Unger

A shattering new thriller about three women, strangers, on a heart-wrenching collision course none of them could have seen coming.Long after anyone expected Kate to do anything with her life, she did. Using the journals left behind by her aunt and grandmother, she wrote a novel based on a very real generation-old love story that ended in tragedy. On the other side of town, Emily is about to set fire to her life. She’s in a dead-end job and is involved with the wrong man; she can feel herself being drawn into darkness, with horrific consequences. With nowhere to go, she finds herself on the run.  Without knowing each other, and with lives that couldn't be more different, Kate and Emily head to the same point on the map: Heart Island, an idyllic place in the middle of a lake in the Adirondacks, owned for generations by Birdie Burke's family. The harsh and unyielding Birdie is at one with this island, which has a terrifying history all its own. She, too, has consequences to face.
     Heartbroken is a tense, mesmerizing novel about the limits of dysfunctional families, of an island haunted by dark memories and restless ghosts, and of the all-too-real demons we must battle.  Wonderfully suspenseful, exquisitely crafted, and written with raw, emotional power, this is Lisa Unger at her very best. From Goodreads.

This was okay. A story including four generations of a family: grandmother (long dead, but has left journals of her life), mother ( a cold woman who prefers being alone on her island), daughter (who nearly always does as she is told by her mother and always keep promises), granddaughter (with the usual teenage problems, but she loves the island).
I didn't find it particular thrilling but the stories of the grandmother's life were interesting. It was also interesting to see how it all tied together and the consequences of the actions of all involved.

This book qualifies for:
I Love Library Books Reading Challenge 2014
CCC A-Z Authors 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection Chinese New Year Challenge
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (U-auk)
Crazy Challenge Connection Monopoly
Crazy Challenge Connection Scrabble, anyone?

Himmelbegravelsen (Sky Burial) by Xinran

 It was 1994 when Xinran, a journalist and the author of The Good Women of China, received a telephone call asking her to travel four hours to meet an oddly dressed woman who had just crossed the border from Tibet into China. Xinran made the trip and met the woman, called Shu Wen, who recounted the story of her thirty-year odyssey in the vast landscape of Tibet.
Shu Wen and her husband had been married for only a few months in the 1950s when he joined the Chinese army and was sent to Tibet for the purpose of unification of the two countries. Shortly after he left she was notified that he had been killed, although no details were given. Determined to find the truth, Shu Wen joined a militia unit going to the Tibetan north, where she soon was separated from the regiment. Without supplies and knowledge of the language, she wandered, trying to find her way until, on the brink of death, she was rescued by a family of nomads under whose protection she moved from place to place with the seasons and eventually came to discover the details of her husband’s death.
In the haunting Sky Burial, Xinran has recreated Shu Wen’s journey, writing beautifully and simply of the silence and the emptiness in which Shu Wen was enveloped. The book is an extraordinary portrait of a woman and a land, each at the mercy of fate and politics. It is an unforgettable, ultimately uplifting tale of love loss, loyalty, and survival. From Goodreads.

I enjoyed this book, it gives an insight into Tibetan culture. Shu Wen seems like a strong woman and struggles to turn from a Chinese city woman into a Tibetan Nomad woman while searching for her husband.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Quick fix Challenge (173 pages)
I Love Library Books Reading Challenge 2014
2014 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge (Auto-Biography/Biography)
2014 Full House Reading Challenge (from the local library)
2014 Women Challenge
CCC A-Z Authors 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory Spell It Out - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (X)
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (X-fox)
CCC-Read your age (first published 2004)
Bout of Books 9.0

An Unlikely Witch by Debora Geary

A toddler and a snowman.
Everyone in Witch Central knows about Jamie Sullivan's precog vision. The one he saw when he first laid eyes on the woman who would one day be his wife.
Now Nat and Jamie have it all. A fiery, adorable daughter, the kind of marriage that lasts to forever and beyond, and deep roots in the love, antics, and magic of Witch Central's leading family.
Those parts of the vision have all come true. All that is missing is one small boy with dancing eyes.
And all the magic in the universe can't seem to make him real.
An Imperfect Witch is book two of the Witch Central series, set in the bestselling, well-loved world of A Modern Witch. From Goodreads.





The first book of the year and it is great. Okay I am a huge fan of Debora Geary and her Witch books and this one was very good. It has everything I have come to expect from her books. I cried, I giggled, I felt sad for the characters and I felt happy for them. I am already looking forward to the next book in this series.

As always at the beginning of the year my first books will fit a lot of different challenges, even without trying.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2014 Reading Challenge
2014 Ebook challenge
Quick fix Challenge 2014(243 pages)
2014 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge
2014 Full House Reading Challenge (published 2013)
CCC Winter Seasonal Spell Challenge 2013-2014
CCC A-Z Authors 2014
CCC A-Z Book Titles 2014
CCC-Read your age (published 2013)
2014 Women Challenge
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
The Challenge Factory Spell It Out - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious  (U)
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection RaT #19

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren’t for magic…
One moment magic dominates, and cars stall and guns fail. The next, technology takes over and the defensive spells no longer protect your house from monsters. Here skyscrapers topple under onslaught of magic; werebears and werehyenas prowl through the ruined streets; and the Masters of the Dead, necromancers driven by their thirst of knowledge and wealth, pilot blood-crazed vampires with their minds.
In this world lives Kate Daniels. Kate likes her sword a little too much and has a hard time controlling her mouth. The magic in her blood makes her a target, and she spent most of her life hiding in plain sight. But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, she must choose to do nothing and remain safe or to pursue his preternatural killer. Hiding is easy, but the right choice is rarely easy… From Goodreads.





I have been looking at this series for quite a while without actually getting to it. Now I finally started and I really enjoyed it. A paranormal book with all kinds of paranormal beings, just my kind of book.
Kate is a strong heroine and I will continue this series right away.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Paranormal Reading Challenge (shapeshifters)
2013 Ebook Challenge
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge

Leopard Moon by Jeanette Battista

How do you disappear when you come from a family of predators?
A wereleopard, Kess is forced to flee her home and family in Miami once her brother's obsession with her turns violent. She runs from city to city, trying to stay one step ahead of the investigators her family has dispatched to bring her home. Kess ends up in the mountains of North Carolina and attracts the attention of Cormac, a young man with a secret of his own. As she attempts to live as normal a life as her were-nature allows, her brother Sek continues to hunt for her. He believes she is the key to revitalizing their weakened clan and is driven to extreme measures to ensure their continued existence. As Kess' relationship with Cormac deepens, Sek closes in, threatening Cormac's life and Kess' freedom.
When the moon rises, the hunt is on…. From Goodreads.






This was okay and I liked Kess and Cormac. It wasn't so good that I am rushing out to buy the next books in the series but I might get back to them at a later date.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
2013 Paranormal Reading Challenge (shapeshifter)
2013 Why Buy the Cow? Reading Challenge (free on Amazon.uk 28th of January 2013)

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Aria is a teenager in the enclosed city of Reverie. Like all Dwellers, she spends her time with friends in virtual environments, called Realms, accessed through an eyepiece called a Smarteye. Aria enjoys the Realms and the easy life in Reverie. When she is forced out of the pod for a crime she did not commit, she believes her death is imminent. The outside world is known as The Death Shop, with danger in every direction.
As an Outsider, Perry has always known hunger, vicious predators, and violent energy storms from the swirling electrified atmosphere called the Aether. A bit of an outcast even among his hunting tribe, Perry withstands these daily tests with his exceptional abilities, as he is gifted with powerful senses that enable him to scent danger, food and even human emotions.
They come together reluctantly, for Aria must depend on Perry, whom she considers a barbarian, to help her get back to Reverie, while Perry needs Aria to help unravel the mystery of his beloved nephew’s abduction by the Dwellers. Together they embark on a journey challenged as much by their prejudices as by encounters with cannibals and wolves. But to their surprise, Aria and Perry forge an unlikely love - one that will forever change the fate of all who live UNDER THE NEVER SKY. From Goodreads

This was okay. Set in the future with the usual factions of the lucky ones in some kind of cover and the unlucky battling the elements and each other outside. Aria is thrown out, meets Perry and they have to work together. There were a  few surprises in this one and I might continue this series at a later date.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
A Book A Day Keeps the Boredom at Bay Reading Challenge
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
Dystopia Reading Challenge 2013 

Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett

One enemy spy knows the secret to the Allies' greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin -- code name: "The Needle" -- who holds the key to ultimate Nazi victory.
Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolated island, who is beginning to love the killer who has mysteriously entered her life.
All will come to a terrifying conclusion in Ken Follett's unsurpassed and unforgettable masterwork of suspense, intrigue, and the dangerous machinations of the human heart. From Goodreads.

I read this for my Literary Exploration challenge as my espionage book. This is not a genre I usually like to read but this was a pleasant surprise. I like us following "The Needle" for several years.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Mammoth Book Challenge
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
Setting Alphabet Reading Challenge

DRT by Eric Thomas

Greg, a reclusive overnight traffic reporter in Washington, DC, has spent his life in fear, avoiding anything that might shatter his tenuous grasp on normal. It turns out Greg has no idea what it really means to be afraid. After witnessing a horrifying fatal crash, a crash Greg believes he had a hand in causing, he begins to see the ghost of the dead driver. The strain becomes unbearable as Greg attempts to determine why the ghost has sought him out, what it wants from him, and whether any of what is happening is even real.
DRT is the second novel from author Eric Thomas. It's an alternating look at the absurd and the shocking as he tells the story of one man's struggle to maintain his sanity. From Goodreads.

This was okay and it got even scarier when it was revealed why the ghost is haunting Greg.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Paranormal Reading Challenge (ghost)
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Why Buy the Cow? Reading Challenge (free on Amazon.uk 3rd of October 2013)
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge

FrightFall RaT 2013

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

With language as colorful as a Canyonlands sunset and a perspective as pointed as a prickly pear, Cactus Ed captures the heat, mystery, and surprising bounty of desert life. Desert Solitaire is a meditation on the stark landscapes of the red-rock West, a passionate vote for wilderness, and a howling lament for the commercialization of the American outback. From Goodreads.

This was not a book for me. I was bored, basically I fell asleep every time I tried to read this book in the evening and when I like a book I can read far into the night. I felt he was just waffling and filled several pages with names of flowers and mountains.
If you want an interesting desert book do not read this book, read something by Michael Asher instead.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
Setting Alphabet Reading Challenge
September 2013 Takeover Challenge

Dreams Underfoot: The Newford Collection by Charles de Lint

Publisher's Summary: Welcome to Newford: to the music clubs, the waterfront, and the alleyways where ancient myths and magic spill into the modern world. Gemmins live in abandoned cars and skells traverse the tunnels below, while mermaids swim in the gray harbor waters and fill the cold night with their song.
Come meet Jilly, painting wonders in the rough city streets; and Geordie, playing fiddle while he dreams of a ghost; and the Angel of Grasso Street gathering the fey and the wild and the poor and the lost. Dreams Underfoot is a must-read book not only for fans of urban fantasy but for all who seek magic in everyday life. From Goodreads.

This is the best audible I have heard to date, Kate Reading did a good job. I have read Charles de Lint before and really like his urban fantasy. The magic is right here with us if we would just see it.
I enjoyed the different stories and the way they were part of one story. We meet people in one story and learn more about them in another. I am looking forward to read / listen to more books from Newford.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
2013 Audio Book Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
2013 Paranormal Reading Challenge (various)

Necrophobia by Jack Hamlyn

An ordinary summer's day. The grass is green, the flowers are blooming. All is right with the world. Then the dead start rising. From cemetery and mortuary, funeral home and morgue, they flood into the streets until every town and city is infested with walking corpses, blank-eyed eating machines that exist to take down the living. The world is a graveyard. And when you have a family to protect, it's more than survival. It's war. From Goodreads.

I liked this book about zombies. As there are more books in this series the question about why the dead are rising is not quite answered only hinted at. I hope the next books are as good.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
2013 Ebook Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
September 2013 Takeover Challenge
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge

Firelight by Sophie Jordan

A hidden truth.
Mortal enemies.
Doomed love.
Marked as special at an early age, Jacinda knows her every move is watched. But she longs for freedom to make her own choices. When she breaks the most sacred tenet among her kind, she nearly pays with her life. Until a beautiful stranger saves her. A stranger who was sent to hunt those like her. For Jacinda is a draki, a descendant of dragons whose greatest defense is her secret ability to shift into human form.

Forced to flee into the mortal world with her family, Jacinda struggles to adapt to her new surroundings. The only bright light is Will. Gorgeous, elusive Will who stirs her inner draki to life. Although she is irresistibly drawn to him, Jacinda knows Will's dark secret: He and his family are hunters. She should avoid him at all costs. But her inner draki is slowly slipping away—if it dies she will be left as a human forever. She'll do anything to prevent that. Even if it means getting closer to her most dangerous enemy.
Mythical powers and breathtaking romance ignite in this story of a girl who defies all expectations and whose love crosses an ancient divide. From Goodreads.

This was interesting and I liked the idea of a person changing into a dragon but most of this book was about trying to fit in as a teenager in a new school. I might read the next books. 

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
2013 Paranormal Reading Challenge (dragon

Vegan, Virgin, Valentine by Carolyn Mackler

Mara Valentine is in control. She's a straight-A senior, a vegan, and her parents' pride and joy. She's neck-and-neck with her womanizing ex-boyfriend for number-one class ranking and plans to kick his salutatorian butt on her way out the door to Yale. Mara has her remaining months in Brockport all planned out, but the plan does not include having V, her slutty, pot-smoking, sixteen-year-old niece — yes, niece — come to live with her family. Nor does it involve lusting after her boss or dreaming about grilled cheese sandwiches every night. What does a control freak like Mara do when things start spinning wildly out of control? With insight, authenticity, and a healthy dose of humor, Carolyn Mackler creates an evolving Type A heroine that every reader will recognize — and root for. From Goodreads.

I liked this more than expected. It had a dysfunctional family and it had the humour I need in a chick-lit book. I might have a look at Carolyn Mackler's other books.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
Setting Alphabet Reading Challenge
September 2013 Takeover Challenge
A Book A Day Keeps the Boredom at Bay Reading Challenge (20)

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

When a dying millionaire hires Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in. From Goodreads.

I used to like mystery books, I read a lot of Agatha Christie and Ruth Rendell but I don't enjoy them as much any more. They are usually okay but I prefer fantasy and paranormal.
That said I didn't actually guess who did it and that, of course, is what I like in a mystery book.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
Setting Alphabet Reading Challenge
September 2013 Takeover Challenge
Ten Book Author Train Challenge

Bitten Shame by Olivia Hardin

Jill Prescott returned from self-imposed seclusion to help save her best friend Devan’s life. Throwing herself into Devan’s problems and bringing an evil organization to its knees might just be the distraction she needs to keep living without the only man she’s ever loved. Her life changed forever when she was hired to spend a week with Doc Massey. On the day she became a vampire her youthful innocence ended, but Doc’s love rescued her from being consumed by the darkness. The shadow of that former life continues to loom over her, keeping her from realizing her own self-worth. Running from her past only brings her closer to a destiny that is inextricably connected to what she is trying to escape… Every gift has both a reward and a price, because All of it fits… From Goodreads.

This is the second book in the Bend-Bite-Shift Trilogy and I found it slightly better than the first. The story is still about Devan but it is from Jill's point of view and it also tells the story about how Jill got turned into a vampire.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Sequel Reading Challenge
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
NBRC Stuck in a Rut
2013 Paranormal Reading Challenge (vampire/witch)
2013 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge

One Glass Is Never Enough by Jane Wenham-Jones

Three women, one bar, and three different reasons for buying it. Single mother Sarah needs a home for her children, Claire's an ambitious business woman. For wealthy Gaynor, Greens Wine Bar is another amusement, or is it?
On the surface, Gaynor has it all - money, looks, a beautiful home in the picturesque seaside town of Broadstairs, and Victor - her generous, successful husband. But while Sarah longs for love and Claire is making money, Gaynor wants answers.
Why does Victor behave strangely and who does he see on his frequent trips away? Who makes threatening phone-calls? Sam - strong and silent with a hidden past - becomes an unlikely friend. But nobody is what they seem in this tale of love, loss and betrayal. From Goodreads





This was okay but no more than that. I don't read a lot of chick-lit but I also prefer a bit more humour in the book. This book was free and if I see other of her books for free I will most likely get them.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
2013 Why Buy the Cow? Reading Challenge (free on Amazon.uk 15th of July 2013)

The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen by Alan Garner

Neither Susan nor her brother, Colin, ever thought that war would be waged over a simple gemstone in her bracelet. But that's what happens when the children visit Alderley Edge, a spooky place in a remote part of England. There, they meet the wizard Cadellin, who needs the stone to rouse his allies in the never-ending battle between good and evil. But when the stone vanishes, Susan and Colin must find it before the forces of evil use it to destroy all the goodness that ever existed in the world. From Goodreads.

I really enjoyed this fantasy book. My husband has wanted me to read it for a while and now it was published in Kindle we got it right away.
I have just visited The Wizard Inn and walked to Alderley Edge this summer which makes it an even better read as I can see the real forest and the edge in my mind as the children are exploring it. I am going to continue reading this series.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Paranormal Reading Challenge (wizard)
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
September 2013 Takeover Challenge
A Book A Day Keeps the Boredom at Bay Reading Challenge
2013 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge
Ten Book Author Train Challenge