Dead Beat by Jim Butcher

There's an entire world that exists alongside the everyday life of mankind. There are powers, nations, monsters, wars, feuds, alliances - everything. Wizards are part of it. So are a lot of other things you've heard about in stories, and even more you've never heard of...Vampires. Werewolves. Faeries. Demons. Monsters. It's all real.
Harry Dresden knows full well that such creatures exist. Paranormal investigations are his stock-in-trade, and Chicago is his beat as he tries to bring law and order to a world that exists on the edges of imagination. Luckily Harry's not alone in this struggle. And though most inhabitants of the Windy City don't believe in magic, there's a department that's been set up within the Chicago PD to deal with "strange" cases: the Special Investigations department.
Karrin Murphy is the head of SI and a good friend of Harry's. So when a deadly vampire threatens to destroy Murphy's reputation unless Harry helps her, he has no choice. The vampire wants the Word of Kemmler and all the power that comes with it - but first Harry has to determine what the Word of Kemmler is. Now Harry is in a race against time - and six necromancers - to find the Word before Chicago experiences a Halloween night to wake the dead. From Goodreads

I needed an easy read as I am in the middle of moving in to a new flat. I like this series as I know what to expect. Harry is still fighting all evil, this time aided by a unlikely helper and he is battling himself over which powers to use. We are beginning to see a darker side to Harry. It won't be long before I will read the next instalment of this series.

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,
2012 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
Finishing the Series Reading Challenge

Blood Rites by Jim Butcher

HARRY DRESDEN — WIZARD
Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.
For Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, there have been worse assignments than going undercover on the set of an adult film. Dodging flaming monkey-poo for instance. Or going toe-to-leaf with a walking plant monster. Still, there's something more troubling than usual about his newest case. The film's producer believes he's the target of a sinister entropy curse-but it's the women around him who are dying, in increasingly spectacular ways.
Harry's even more frustrated because he only got involved with this bizarre mystery as a favor to Thomas, his flirtatious, self-absorbed vampire acquaintance of dubious integrity. Thomas has a personal stake in the case Harry can't quite figure out, until his investigation leads him straight to Thomas's oversexed vampire family. Harry is about to discover that Thomas's family tree has been hiding a shocking secret: a revelation that will change Harry's life forever. From Goodreads

Yes I know, they are all the same. Harry gets a job, is nearly killed but manages to survive and save a lot of people. But it is an enjoyable read none the less and this one has a family twist at the end which was great. 

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,
2012 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
Finishing the Series Reading Challeng,
Scavenger Hunt 2012 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

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 

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

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

Death Masks by Jim Butcher

HARRY DRESDEN — WIZARD
Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment. 
Harry Dresden, Chicago's only practicing professional wizard, should be happy that business is pretty good for a change. But now he's getting more than he bargained for. 
A duel with the Red Court of Vampires' champion, who must kill Harry to end the war between vampires and wizards... 
Professional hit men using Harry for target practice... 
The missing Shroud of Turin... 
A handless and headless corpse the Chicago police need identified...
Not to mention the return of Harry's ex-girlfriend Susan, who's still struggling with her semivampiric nature. And who seems to have a new man in her life. 
Some days, it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. No matter how much you're charging.

Not much to say here, I am still enjoying The Dresden Series. It is a kind of comfort book for me. Being delayed in an airport I needed something I was sure would capture me and hold my attention from the noise around me and I chose this, which was just right.


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,
2012 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
Finishing the Series Reading Challenge 

The Snow People by Marie Herbert

When she knew she was going to marry an explorer, Marie Herbert saw herself waiting long months at home for news from distant, uncharted areas...

Within two years she was living herself in a remote settlement of Polar Eskimos.

Wally Herbert had developed a profound respect for these independent hunters - they called themselves "Inuit": the real people - when he travelled with them on polar expeditions and he wanted to help them make a record of their dying culture. Marie and Wally - with their 10-month-old baby, Kari - decided to make this record from within: to go alone, without camera crew or film unit, and live with the Eskimos.

Spirited, enthusiastic and sympathetic, Marie Herbert tells the fascinating story of a year of Arctic adventure: in doing so she has written an important anthropological account of a vanishing way of life.

This is a reread. The first time I read this book was around 10 years ago, at that time I did not know I was going to end up living in Qaanaaq only 18 miles from Qeqertassuaq, the settlement where Marie Herbert and her family lived. I decided to read this book again just now because after having lived here for two years I am now moving away. The settlement where Marie Herbert lived no longer exists, it is now used as summer home. It is still a harsh environment up here and it is getting more and more difficult for the locals to live by hunting alone. This problem is the same all over Greenland. Qaanaaq is still isolated even by Greenlandic standards. Two supply ships a year - one in July and one in September - 1 flight a week which is sometimes delayed (the last one was supposed to be here on Wednesday, it didn't arrive until Monday) and helicopter connections to the settlements and Thule Airbase.
I enjoyed this book as Marie Herbert tells the story of her stay and the tough daily life in a very fascinating and captivating way. Having lived up here but in a modern house I am full of respect that she managed to live in those primitive conditions. Don't mistake that, I also have a lot of respect for the Greenlandic women doing it.

I highly recommend this book.

This is Herbert Island, the island Marie Herbert and her family lived on. When the light is right it is just possible to spot the houses of the settlement.
This picture is taken from my living room window.





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

Divergent by Veronica Roth

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her. From Goodreads

I have heard about this book for a while and bought it back in beginning of March as it sounded like a book for me. I was not disappointed. It is an exciting fast paced book  and I never knew in which direction it would go next. I read until after 2am this morning just to finish it and one of the first things I have done today is to buy the sequel Insurgent. I have decided not to read it right away, then I have a book I really look forward to.

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,
2012 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge (number 2)

Dead Running by Cami Checketts

Cassidy Christensen is running.
Running from the mercenaries who killed her parents.
Running from a scheming redhead intent on making her life miserable.
Running from painful memories that sabotage her dreams of happiness.
With two very tempting men competing for her attention, she hopes she’ll finally have someone to run to, but can she trust either of them? When secrets from her past threaten her family, Cassidy decides to stop running and fight for her future. From Goodreads









This was a very interesting and gripping book. I just couldn't put it down after I started, I kept wanting to know what was happening next. I really liked Cassidy and her relationship with her best friend and her sister in law. I found it a bit predictable which of the 2 men she preferred but liked the way that things kept popping up to make her question her decisions. I will definitely look for more books from Cami Checketts.

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 

Un Lun Dun by China miéville

What is Un Lun Dun?
It is London through the looking glass, an urban Wonderland of strange delights where all the lost and broken things of London end up . . . and some of its lost and broken people, too–including Brokkenbroll, boss of the broken umbrellas; Obaday Fing, a tailor whose head is an enormous pin-cushion, and an empty milk carton called Curdle. Un Lun Dun is a place where words are alive, a jungle lurks behind the door of an ordinary house, carnivorous giraffes stalk the streets, and a dark cloud dreams of burning the world. It is a city awaiting its hero, whose coming was prophesied long ago, set down for all time in the pages of a talking book.
When twelve-year-old Zanna and her friend Deeba find a secret entrance leading out of London and into this strange city, it seems that the ancient prophecy is coming true at last. But then things begin to go shockingly wrong. From Goodreads.

Okay, this book I was kind of forced to read. My husband is a huge fan of China Miéville and his New Weird books, his favourite being Kraken. He has told me so much about these books and they just sounded way too weird for me. Then this YA book comes along and as he told me about it, I thought that it didn't sound too bad so I might try it.
No regrets. I really enjoyed it. The twist with the main characters, the dangerous giraffes and especially his play on words that is ongoing throughout the book. Not being British I am sure I missed some of the wordplay but what I did get was brilliant. By the way I adore Curdle. I still don't think I am ready for his "adult" books though.

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,
2012 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge (number 119)

Darkhouse by Karina Halle

Enter the world of the highly-acclaimed Experiment in Terror Series by visiting...the Darkhouse:
There’s always been something a bit off about Perry Palomino. Though she’s been dealing with a quarter-life crisis and post-college syndrome like any other twenty-something, she’s still not what you would call “ordinary.” For one thing, there’s her past which she likes to pretend never happened, and then there’s the fact that she sees ghosts. Luckily for her, that all comes in handy when she stumbles across Dex Foray, an eccentric producer for an upcoming webcast on ghost hunters. Even though the show’s budget is non-existent and Dex himself is a maddening enigma, Perry is instantly drawn into a world
that both threatens her life and seduces her with a sense of importance. Her uncle’s haunted lighthouse provides the perfect catalyst and backdrop for a mystery that unravels the threads of Perry’s fragile sanity and causes her to fall for a man, who, like the most dangerous of ghosts, may not be all that he seems. From Goodreads

I just didn't like this book as much as I thought I would. It is not that scary and I don't like the male main character. There was just enough enough interest to pull it up to 3 Polar Bears but I am not going looking for the next books in the 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 Where are you reading Challenge,
Why Buy the Cow? Reading challenge 2012 ( this book was free on Amazon.UK the 3rd of May 2012) 

Northern Lights by Nora Roberts

Lunacy was Nate Burke's last chance. As a Baltimore cop, he'd watched his partner die on the street - and the guilt still haunts him. With nowhere else to go, he accepts the job as Chief of Police in this tiny, remote Alaskan town. Aside from sorting out a run-in between a couple of motor vehicles and a moose, he finds his first few weeks on the job are relatively quiet. But just as he wonders whether this has been all a big mistake, an unexpected kiss on New Year's Eve under the brilliant Northern Lights of the Alaska sky lifts his spirit and convinces him to stay just a little longer.
Meg Galloway, born and raised in Lunacy, is used to being alone. She was a young girl when her father disappeared, and she has learned to be independent, flying her small plane, living on the outskirts of town with just her huskies for company. After her New Year's kiss with the Chief of Police, she allows herself to give in to passion - while remaining determined to keep things as simple as possible. But there's something about Nate's sad eyes that gets under her skin and warms her frozen heart.
And now, things in Lunacy are heating up. Years ago, on one of the majestic mountains shadowing the town, a crime occurred that is unsolved to this day - and Nate suspects that a killer still walks the snowy streets. His investigation will unearth the secrets and suspicions that lurk beneath the placid surface, as well as bring out the big-city survival instincts that made him a cop in the first place. And his discovery will threaten the new life - and the new love - that he has finally found for himself. From Goodreads.

Yes, I liked this book but it only just sneaked up to the four Polar Bears. This is a romance mystery and I must admit I chose the book as it took place in Alaska. I have to chose some books specifically for my "Where are you reading challenge" in order to have any chance of completing it.

As soon as I started reading it I realised I had seen some of the film, luckily I had never finished the film so I didn't know the end. I liked the mystery part a lot and as always I liked it as I could not guess the killer. I also liked Nora Roberts writing style and I giggled a few times which is good.

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

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison

The underground population of witches, vampires, werewolves—creatures of dreams and nightmares—has lived beside humans for centuries, hiding their powers. But after a genetically engineered virus wipes out a large part of humanity, many of the "Inderlanders" reveal themselves, changing everything. Rachel Morgan, witch and bounty hunter with the Inderland Runner Services, is one of the best at apprehending supernatural lawbreakers throughout Cincinnati, but when it comes to following the rules, she falls desperately short. Determined to buck the system, she quits and takes off on the run with an I.S. contract on her head and is reluctantly forced to team up with Ivy, Inderland's best runner . . . and a living vampire. But this witch is way out of her league, and to clear her name, Rachel must evade shape-changing assassins, outwit a powerful

businessman/crime lord, and survive a vicious underground fight-to-the-death . . . not to mention her own roommate. From Goodreads


I heard about this book a while ago, bought it in October last year and have had it in my TBR pile since. I finally got around to reading it and I am glad I did. I really enjoyed it. Rachel Morgan is an okay heroine but I absolutely love Jinx and his family. It was also a very fun read and I will definitely pick up the next books in the series.

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,
2012 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge,
2012 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge (number 202)

The Green King by Stephanie Parker

When her parents move from London to a country town on the edge of a massive wood, Charlotte is sad to be leaving her city friends behind. Yet she's entranced by the spectral image of a green man who seems to metamorphose before her very eyes... Slowly but surely, Charlotte finds herself being inexorably drawn into a magical world of dark and light, good and evil; a world where something mysterious, something wonderful and something terrible is happening in the woods. Together with her shadowy neighbour - a boy who has spent his life exploring the woods - and another who was inexplicably lost there as a child for a week, the three unearth a terrible secret that threatens to destroy not only the woods but also potentially our whole world; and in exposing the mystery they discover their destinies. From Goodreads.

It is basically about good versus evil but done in a very interesting way. It was a quite fast paced book and I enjoyed it very much. A cosy easy read as it should be when it is supposed to be for children 8+ but I found it very good too.

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,
Spring Into Horror Read-a-Thon