Sunday Summary: 10 May 2015

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. Although I'm away from home, I received text messages from my grown kids this morning. My thoughts have turned to my mother and grandmother who were both instrumental in my upbringing. I miss them very much, particularly their wisdom and encouragement.

Hubby and I had a casual breakfast and then he took me shopping for a combined Mother's Day and birthday gift. (My birthday always falls around Mother's Day weekend.) We've been keeping a close eye on the extreme weather back at home in Texas. The Weather Channel has been featuring the county in which we live—and we text frequently to the kids who are back there.

Where I've been reading

Ah, a couple of days at home in Texas, and then a road trip to Las Vegas. I'll be attending a conference all of next week, so we decided to take a couple of days to drive out and then drive home. Being on the road with just the two of us is relaxing. We didn't have a strict schedule, so we could wake whenever we wanted, drive a while, stop as often as we wanted, etc. Sometime in the early afternoon, we'd look at the map, predict about how much farther we'd go before we were ready to stop for the night, and then call ahead to book a hotel room.

 

What I've been reading: Completed this week

Format: eBook
Source: review copy supplied by the author
Completed: 3 May

Beyond Reach is book #2 in Siobhan Davis' True Calling series. It's a science fiction romance for young adults, but enjoyable by us old & crusty grandmas as well. As the story begins, Ari has been taken from Novo, the artificial planet, back to Earth. She's reunited with a former boyfriend, Zane, but she has no memories of Zane from before her move to Novo. With her are her younger brother and her fiance's sister. Left behind were her mother, sister, and fiance, Cal.

Ari is hiding a message her father sent just before his death. Hiding out with the rebels who rescued her from Novo, Ari knows that the authorities on Earth and Novo are desperate to get the information she has hidden. The rebels want it, too, but she is sure that she'll never see her family and Cal again if she gives the info up before they can be rescued.

I'm going to hold off on the number of stars I'm awarding this book until I post the full review—scheduled for Sunday, 17 May, as part of the Beyond Reach Blog Tour. Check in on the 17^th to see what I have to say about Beyond Reach

Format: Hardback
Source: borrowed from Alvarado Public Library
Completed: 5 May

★★★★☆

No! Say it isn't over.

Unfortunately for us fans, Kim Harrison decided to bring her long-running Paranormal series to an end. Knowing that The Witch with No Name was to be the last book in the Hollows series, I was eager to know if everyone would get their happily-ever-after or not.

Rachel Morgan, daylight-walking demon, is once again called upon to save the world. Landon, the elf religious leader, has promised to give the vampires back their souls. When warned that this will probably result in the vampires committing "suncide", he disregards this warning. In fact, it appears that his real goal is to eliminate vampires and the power they wield. And he doesn't care if he destroys the ever after and eliminates the source of most magic. (Doing so would leave elves as the only wielders of magic.) It's up to Rachel, with help from Trent, Al, Jenks, and Ivy, to protect everyone—witches, demons, elves, vampires, weres, and all the people without supernatural natures. Fortunately, she's up to the job.

Format: Paperback
Source: borrowed from Alvarado Public Library
Completed: 6 May

★★★☆☆

No one respects constable Hamish Macbeth. Although Hamish is good at policing his small village, his superiors decide to close the office and reassign him to the nearby (and larger) town of Strathbane. When the villagers of Lochdubh band together to manufacture a small crime wave, Hamish is allowed to return to the little constable station where he is most comfortable.

Hamish discovers new residents in the village, the caustic Maggie Baird and her timid niece. Maggie's past is quite spicy, having spent much of her youth as a mistress to one rich man after another. Now rich and alone, Maggie has decided that she would like to marry again, so she invites four former amours to her home to vie for her hand. Instead, she winds up murdered. Once again Hamish is left to find the murderer in spite of his police superiors telling him to stay out of it.

Format: eBook
Source: borrowed from library via Freading.com
Completed: 7 May

★★★☆☆

Mountain Top Mystery is the 9th of 19 Boxcar Children books written by Gertrude Chandler Warner. I decided to read the entire series this year, and when I hit a lull in reading on Thursday, I picked up this short mystery as a small distraction.

The four Alden children and their grandfather head out to Old Flat Top for a short vacation. They plan to hike to the top, have a picnic lunch, and then hike back down, but a rockfall traps them overnight. The rockfall also exposed an opening into a cave—one that might contain treasures stored there many generations before. Grandfather Alden brings in the right experts to explore the cave and solve the mystery.

Format: eBook
Source: eGalley ARC from NetGalley
Completed: 8 May

★★★☆☆

Charlie Greene, a Hollywood agent, travels to Moot Point, Oregon, to track down a client who hasn't been replying to her mail. Shortly after arriving, she is surprised to find a dead woman beneath her car. With all the clues pointing her way, Charlie knows that she's the only one who knows for sure that she's innocent. And who else to gather as much information as possible to smoke out the real killer.

Format: Paperback
Source: bought a long time ago
Completed: 8 May

★★★★☆

The Quilter's Homecoming is the 10th book in Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek Quilts series. Elizabeth Bengstrom and Henry Nelson marry and immediately leave Pennsylvania for California. Henry has bought a large ranch and they will make their future there. Unfortunately, they arrive to find that they have been swindled. With no money left, they must take jobs on the very ranch that they had expected to own.

While Henry struggles with his pride, Elizabeth sets to making a home for themselves in a small, abandoned cabin. Imagine her surprise when she finds two quilts—one quite old—in a small chest. As Elizabeth spends her evenings repairing the quilts, she's drawn to know more about the quilters who created them.

Format: eBook
Source: gift
Completed: 9 May

★★★☆☆

Wickedly Magical is a novella prequel to Deborah Blake's Baba Yaga series. The reader is introduced to Barbara, one of three Baba Yagas in the United States. What? One of three? Isn't Baba Yaga the witch from Russian folklore who lives in a house that walks around on chicken legs? Well, yes. And no. According to this series, “Baba Yaga” is a title for women who possess the power to perform magic and guard the portal to the Otherworld.

Back to Barbara. She's asked to help a distraught father regain custody of his children. Seems that his wife has taken up with a new age guru and stolen the children away. Sensing that something is Not Right, Barbara investigates.

I typically don't like short works and wouldn't be interested in this one—except that it's the introduction to a series that I hope to like very much. Wickedly Magical didn't disappoint, but I'd really like to see it expanded into a full-fledged novel.

What I've been reading: In progress

Having reviewed the first two books in the Blanche White mystery series, I was thrilled to be given a chance to read and review this third volume. In Blanche Cleans Up, she is substituting for Cousin Charlotte's friend Miz Inez as the housekeeper for gubernatorial candidate Allister Brindle and his wife Felicia. When Miz Inez's son, Ray-Ray dies mysteriously, it is up to Blanche to figure out whether it was a cruel accident or murder.

This Week on the Blog

Very few posts. But with Bout of Books 13 starting on Monday morning, and two reviews to post, there should be much more to read here at Reading in Texas.

1. Stacking the Shelves (31)

 

As usual, I'm linking up with The Sunday Post, hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on the blog, showcase books and things received. Share news about what is coming up on the blog for the week ahead.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which the BookObsessed online community will receive a few cents if you make purchases.