Witchcraft by Emma Mills

Jess is no ordinary vampire. Protected by the Manchester vampire clan, and initiated by her family’s east coast American coven, she is sought after by every dark witch and warring vampire faction. Jess must fight if she wants to keep hold of her friends, her sanity and finally her existence.
As the dead bodies of human girls begin to stack up, and her recently accepted vampire boyfriend, Daniel, finds himself in prison, Jess goes on a crazy, forbidden trip to London, racing against time to save an old friend and solve the mystery behind Daniel’s incarceration. In battling new enemies and finding new friends, Jess’s confidence finds room to grow, but who will she lose along the way? from Goodreads

This is the second book in the Witchblood series and it is just as good as the first one. It is not easy for Jess to be both witch and vampire - one of a kind, with the vampire group wanting her to be a fully turned vampire drinking blood directly from humans and the white witches wanting her to be one of them. I am a bit saddened by the end and hope not quite as many has died as it seems. I will be following Emma Mills closely.

This book qualifies for: 
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
2012 Where are you reading Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge

The Brides Baby by Liz Fielding

It’s the wedding planner’s worst nightmare and when the bride elopes with one of her staff three days before the wedding, it isn’t only the groom’s heart that has a debit balance. Sylvie Smith has bills to pay. The jilted groom has his own way of settling debts, however.
Six months on, wedding organiser to the seriously rich, Sylvie Smith is organising a glittering fundraising event: a fantasy wedding at a wedding show, held in a stately home that will be featured in a lifestyle magazine. Not just any fantasy wedding. They want her fantasy…
It should be every woman’s dream, designing her own dream wedding with no expense spared, but for Sylvie it was her worst nightmare.
One, she’s pregnant. Two, Longbourne Court was her ancestral home and she’s just discovered that the new owner is Tom McFarlane: her baby’s secret father.
Now Tom’s standing in front of her, looking at her bump… From Goodreads.



A romance with the usual misunderstandings and of course a happy end. Again happy I didn't pay for it.

This book qualifies for:  
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Where are you reading Challenge,
Why Buy the Cow? Reading challenge 2012 ( this book was free on Amazon.uk the 30th of January 2011)

River Marked by Patricia Briggs

Coyote shifter Mercy Thompson knows that life with her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, will never be boring,, but even their wedding doesn't go as planned. Nevertheless, a ten-day honeymoon camping on the banks of the Columbia River, alone, just the two of them, should make up for it. But the trip - and the pimped-out trailer they're using - is courtesy of the fae. And nothing from the fae comes without strings attached...
Being a different breed of shapeshifter - a walker - Mercy can see ghosts, but the spirit of her long-gone father has never visited her. Until now. An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River - and innocent people are dying. As other walkers make their presence know to Mercy, she must reconnect with her heritage to exorcise the world of the legend known as the river devil.. From Goodreads

I enjoy Patricia Briggs' books and this number 6 in the Mercy Thompson series is no different. Mercy is still a very strong female character though now that she is married to Adam, the werewolf alpha, she has to consider his overly protectiveness and the hierarchy of the werewolf pack. She is still the one that has to be the main fighter in the fight with the river devil and there is nothing Adam can do about it. There is also the usual deception by the fae who never do anything without a reason or price. I am already looking forward to the next book.

This book qualifies for: 
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Where are you reading Challenge

Secrets by Lynne Barrett-Lee

Sisters Megan and Ffion have never had secrets, so when Megan goes to flat-sit all she's expecting is a rest and a change. When a stranger called Jack phones, Megan wonders who he is. Ffion behaves like she's just seen a ghost, and refuses to say any more. So is Jack a ghost? Ffion's not telling and when she disappears too, and the mystery deepens. Megan begins to fear for the future. She's always been the one who's looked after her little sister. Is this going to be the one time she can't? From Amazon.uk

A short romance. Megan is flat-sitting for her sister and suddenly finds out that her thinking that her and her sister never had secrets for each other was a lie. Her sister has a major secret that she has kept for many years.
Okay but not very good. The mystery is all about how the sister cheated in her marriage and made her husband the scapegoat. Glad I didn't pay for it.

This book qualifies for:  
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
Why Buy the Cow? Reading challenge 2012 ( this book was free on Amazon.uk the 23rd of August 2012)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn't `retiring' them with his laser weapon, he dreamed of owning a live animal -- the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of animal life. Then Rick got his chance: the assignment to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But in Deckard's world things were never that simple, and his assignment quickly turned into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit -- and the threat of death for the hunter rather than the hunted... From Goodreads

My reason for reading this book was that it fit in my 2012 Sci-Fi Challenge. The film Bladerunner was based on this book. I have never seen the whole film only bits of it. My husband has wanted to read this book for ever and thought I should too.
I liked it but no more than that, I just didn't get pulled in the book as I like. Definitely outside my comfort zone. But I love the fact that my husband and I can read the same books, discuss them and rate them very differently. My husband gave this book 5 stars.

This book qualifies for: 
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Sci-Fi Challenge,
2012 Where are you reading Challenge   

The Calling by Kelley Armstrong

Maya Delaney's paw-print birthmark is the mark of what she truly is -a skin-walker. She can run faster, climb higher, and see better than nearly everyone else. Experiencing intense connections with the animals that roam the woods outside her home, Maya knows it's only a matter of time before she's able to Shift and become one of them. And she believes there may be others in her small town with surprising talents.
Now Maya and her friends have been forced to flee from their homes during a forest fire they suspect was deliberately set. Then they're kidnapped, and after a chilling helicopter crash, they find themselves in the Vancouver Island wilderness with nothing but their extraordinary abilities to help them get back home. From Goodreads

Yes, it is another Kelley Armstrong book! This is the second book in the Darkness Rising series and I really liked it. It started right where the first book finished. A group of paranormal teenagers on the run and they don't even know who exactly they are running from. It is set in the same world as Women of the Otherworld as a couple of the Cabals are mentioned and also linked to the Darkest Powers series. It seems like all these kids are experiments and of the skin-walkers Maya has turned out right, keeping her intellect even when she is a cougar. I am looking forward to the last installment in this series.

This book qualifies for:
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012,
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge,
2012 Ebook Challenge,  
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge,
2012 Where are you reading Challenge 

Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder

I’m Trella. I’m a scrub. A nobody. One of thousands who work the lower levels, keeping Inside clean for the Uppers. I just do my job and try to avoid the Population Control Police, who dream of recycling scrubs into fertiliser. So what if I occasionally use the pipes to sneak around the Upper levels?It’s not like it’s dangerous… Well, turns out it is. Because I know every corridor, pipe and shortcut I’ve become the go-to girl to lead a revolution. I know if we find a gateway to Outside it’ll be suicide plain and simple. But guess who likes a challenge? I should have just said no… From Goodreads.

I have to say I am starting to be quite a fan of Maria V. Snyder. I have previously read her Glass trilogy and I have a few more of her books that I am looking forward to read.
This book was really interesting about people in the different levels and how they thought they knew how the others lived and when they got to know each other. It turned out not to be as they thought. I have just bought the next book and will read it soon.

This book qualifies for:
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge (number 254)

Quietus by Susan Leigh Noble

The Learner Ben Dar had been destroyed by the reluctant use of her powers. In the shadow of his fallen fortress, she had learned the truth – that she was the center of a thousand-year-old prophecy claiming the rebirth of the Elementals – an ancient race dedicated to caring for the Land.
Now Lina and those with traces of Elemental power train in the mountains of South Point in the hopes that they can defeat this unknown danger to the Land. Will her powers be enough to stop the destruction of her homeland?
Quietus is the second book in The Elemental Series. From Goodreads.

I read the first book in this series in March and was looking forward to read this one. It did not disappoint and I read it in one sitting. It was interesting to see things develop for these people with their elemental powers. Most of them had never used their powers and now they had to learn to use them at the same time as they have to use the powers to fight evil. It is a very good book full of love, friendship and, of course, betrayal. Now I am waiting for the next book.

This book qualifies for: 
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge, 
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge,
Scavenger Hunt 2012 Reading Challenge,
Finishing the Series Reading Challeng

July 2012 Update

I didn't read much in the beginning of July but took revenge in the second half of the month while I was on a canoe trip. So I ended up reading 13 books all in all which I am very satisfied with.

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2. Always the Baker Never the Bride by Sandra D. Bricker
3. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
4. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
5. Fierce Dawn by Amber Scott
6. Lirael by Garth Nix
7. Abhorsen by Garth Nix
8. Algonquin Voices - Selected Stories of Canoe Lake Women by Gaye I. Clemson
9. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi 
10. Along the Trail in Algonquin Park: With Ralph Bice by Bice Ralph 
11. Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong
12. Chalcot Crescent by Fay Weldon 
13. Awakening by Karice Bolton

July posts can be found HERE

Awakening by Karice Bolton

Alone in snowy, remote Whistler village, Ana tries to build a new life since losing her parents. With a cozy condo, a sweet-faced bulldog and an evening job to leave the days free for the slopes, life slips into a great routine. If only she could shake the guilt for not remembering anything about her parents and banish the night terrors that haunt her every dream. On a whim, Ana goes out with Athen, a guy she’s just met in the Grizzly Pub... The only problem is that she feels like she already knows him. Within 48 hours of meeting Athen and his family, Ana’s world implodes. She falls for Athen quickly and before she knows it, a past life begins to resurface. As thrilling as the revelations appear at first, she fights against the chilling information that Athen is from the underworld. Soon she begins to struggle as her own supernatural gifts are slowly unveiled, and she realizes that the nightmares she’s been having might be premonitions and not dreams at all. It is up to Ana to decipher between fact and fiction before it is too late, and her new love, Athen, follows in her same fate - one that is lost between two worlds. From Amazon.

Another good versus evil paranormal romance. A interesting book with a twist in the end. I already own the next 2 in the trilogy and I will definitely read them at some point.

This book qualifies for: 
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Where are you reading Challenge,
Why Buy the Cow? Reading challenge 2012 ( this book was free on Amazon.uk the 7th of July 2012)

Chalcot Crescent by Fay Weldon

Meet Frances, one-time national treasure, former famous writer... and Fay Weldon's might-have-been younger sister. It's 2013. Fay has long since emigrated (wouldn't you, if your imaginary sister stole your future?), and eighty-year-old Frances, her glory days gone, is savouring a slice of National Meat Loaf in her once-magnificent house. Communism's dead, capitalism's fallen, and now government bailiffs are banging on her door... How did it come to this? When did CiviCams and powdered egg replace gossipy dinners and chocolate mousse? As Frances tries to make sense of her story, fact and fiction begin to implode. What secrets are her family hiding? Is her skunk-smoking grandson plotting revolution upstairs? And just what makes National Meat Loaf so tasty? From Amazon. 

I have read a few other book by Fay Weldon and my favourite is The Life and Loves of a She Devil.
This book was very slow and I think I was 2/3 through the book before I started finding it interesting. I liked the last third of the book which is why I gave it 3 Polar Bears. The whole story is about a very dysfunctional family in the near future, narrated by 80 year old Frances.

This book qualifies for: 
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Where are you reading Challenge

Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong

13. The breath-taking, explosive finale to the Women of the Otherworld series
War is coming to the Otherworld. A sinister cult known as The Supernatural Liberation Movement is hell-bent on exposing the truth about supernaturals to the rest of the world. Their violent, ruthless plan has put everyone at risk: from werewolves to vampires, from witches to half-demons.
Savannah Levine - fiery and unpredictable - stands at the heart of the maelstrom. There is a new, dark magic inside her, granting her the power to summon spells of terrifying strength. But whether this magic is a gift or a curse, no one knows.
On the eve of battle, all the major players must come together in a last, desperate fight for survival - Elena and Clay; Adam and Savannah; Paige and Lucas; Jeremy and Jaime; Hope, Eve and more... They are fighting for lives. They are fighting for their loved ones.
They are fighting for the Otherworld.  From Amazon.

This is the last book of the series (Women of the Otherworld) and that is a pity as I really like these books. I am going to miss them. There is a lot of action in this book and lots of emotions: love, hate, happiness at seeing long lost loved ones and sadness as they have to leave again. This book is from Savannah's viewpoint, the last two have been as well.
I have read all of the books and quite a few of the short stories in this series and I wish there would be more. I would love to read more books about Elena and Clay and not least their children. As far I have heard there should be a collection of short stories being published in 2014, I am already looking forward to that and in the meantime I will enjoy the YA books she has published and also look into the new series that is said to be released next year.

This book qualifies for:
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012,
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge,
2012 Ebook Challenge,  
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012
2012 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge

Along the Trail in Algonquin Park: With Ralph Bice by Bice Ralph

Along the Trail in Algonquin Park has delighted thousands of readers across Canada and the United States from the time of its first publication in the summer of 1980. This is the fourth reprint of the classic work by the late legendary outdoorsman, Ralph Bice of Kearney, Ontario. The writing is vintage Ralph Bice; a combination of unequalled park knowledge, remarkable outdoor adventures and delightful rustic humour. Along the Trail was originally to have been titled "Forty Years in Algonquin Park," but by the time the book appeared, the author's lifelong love affair with the park had exceeded eighty. In 1993, the time of Algonquin Park's centennial, the "Grand Old Man of Algonquin" had entered his 94th year. He was to continue to live nearby his beloved park until his passing in 1997. Remembered not only for his writings, Ralph Bice is honoured by a fitting memorial to "Mister Algonquin" as Algonquin Park visitors will now discover when they enter the west side of the park. For here the lake he favoured over all others, Butt Lake, has been renamed Ralph Bice Lake. From Goodreads

Again, the reason for reading this book was that I was in Algonquin Park. There was a few good stories in this book and I enjoyed reading the stories especially as some of them took place happening in Lakes I was paddling on at the time. Unfortunately it referred a lot to specific people and in my opinion it would have been a lot better for me if I had know at least some of the descendants of all these people.
This was the last book I read on my canoe trip, I finished it on the train back towards Toronto.

This book qualifies for: 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Where are you reading Challenge 

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko...
Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in a chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues 
run rampant across the globe.
What Happens when calories become currency? What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits, when said bio-terrorism's genetic drift forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? Award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers one of the most highly acclaimed science fiction novels of the twenty-first century. From Goodreads

My husband suggested this book for me as one of the books for the 2012 Sci-Fi Challenge I am taking part in. I thought he had read it since he suggested it but it turned out that he hadn't! Well I read it anyway. It was definitely not a book I would have picked up myself. But it ended up being quite an interesting book. I found it a bit slow in the beginning but suddenly it caught me and I just wanted to know what was going to happen. It is Sci-Fi but I don't think the actual state of the world in this book is so far fetched and that makes for a chilling reading.

This book qualifies for: 
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Sci-Fi Challenge,
2012 Where are you reading Challenge  

Algonquin Voices - Selected Stories of Canoe Lake Women by Gaye I. Clemson

This book shares the life experiences of over 20 women, who led very different lives but had one common frame of reference. They all lived at one time or another on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park in the 20th Century. This book captures the stories of various aspects of their life on the lake as pioneers, business women, leaders and feminists from 1905 to the present. From Goodreads.

There was of course a reason to read this book. This summer my husband and I spent 11 days canoeing in Algonquin Park. Our start and finish of the trip was Canoe Lake.  It was interesting hearing about the hardship of the women who lived there but also how much they loved being there despite that. A very good book with lots of interesting stories and I enjoyed sitting by the side of Little Otterslide Lake reading it.

This book qualifies for:

Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge,
2012 Ebook Challenge,  
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Where are you reading Challenge