Dead Bolt by Juliet Blackwell

I love this series. I wish Ms. Blackwell would hurry up and write more. I like the main character, I love her interactions with her friends and family. I especially love how much detail the author gives about home renovation. I think it's a nice touch that the main character, Mel, keeps old skeleton keys and interesting knobs and such from her jobs. There is just the write touch of the supernatural without making it seem silly or unbelievable and the mystery is pretty decent. I did not have everything all figured out halfway through. 

Rating: 4 stars

Recommendations: Ms. Blackwell has another series the The Witchcraft Mysteries that I like almost as much as this one; the first book is Secondhand Spirits. I also like the Home Repair is Homicide series by Sarah Graves; the first book is Dead Cat Bounce. No supernatural flair in that series.

336 pages took me about 2 and half hours.

Abby & Ophelia Mystery Series by Shirley Damsgaard

So, since I read the last 5 books in the series all in a row I decided to simply review them as a series. I reviewed Charmed to Death and the remaining 5 books were (in order): The Trouble with Witches, Witch Hunt, The Witch is Dead, The Witch's Grave, and The Seventh Witch. As I've mentioned in the previous reviews one thing that drove me crazy was how the main character is so inconsistent, she knows she needs to learn to trust her intuition but routinely ignores it, and how she always wants to protect others but puts herself in unnecessary danger. I am pleased to say that over the course of the series a lot of these things are improved. By Seventh Witch I was really starting to like Ophelia and she was (finally!) getting more comfortable with her powers. I'm also really glad that there was finally some romance for Ophelia! Unfortunately, the actual mystery part of most of the books were fairly predictable. The clues were too blatant (at least to me, Ophelia seems pretty dense about her intuition) and not enough red herrings to make you *think* you had it figured out. There wasn't even much of a reveal for the how's and why's of the crime. So, the rating:
3 stars out of 5

If you liked this series try: Bewitching Mysteries series by Madelyn Alt or The Psychic Eye Mysteries by Victoria Laurie.

All of these books were around 250 pages and took me maybe 3 hours a piece!

Charmed to Death by Shirley Damsgaard

I like the concept of this series. And for the most part I like the characters, and the writing; although I figured out who the killer was about half way through. The main character annoys me however. She is supposed to be learning about her psychic abilities but she regularly and deliberately ignores her own intuition, and then complains about how unclear her abilities are!! She is also so consumed with protecting her loved ones. Which is understandable except she also goes out of her way to show how capable they are! But overall I did enjoy this book and this series (this is book two) but I'm only going to give it three stars since I figured out the killer and his/her motivation so early.

Rating: 3 stars

Recommendations: The first book in this series is Witch Way to Murder. Although if you're looking for an even better paranormal series check out Madelyn Alt's Bewitching Mysteries, book one is The Trouble with Magic.

304 pages took about 3 hours.

Not a Review!

Alright, it's a new year and it's time to get going again with this blog! For the new year I'm going to get reviews posted in a more timely manner, and not do lots of reviews at a time. That just results in boring reviews. I've also decided *not* to review every single book I read. Some of the books I run into I'm just not that passionate about. I'll probably do a "meh" review at the end of each month with mention of the books that didn't make it on here for a full review. I think this year I will plan ahead and just tell you now that I won't be posting over the holidays! I think that's it for now. Thanks,
Speed Reader

Sentenced to Death by Lorna Barrett

I'm not sure why my library has books 1,2,3 and 5 of this series but I'm all caught up now. I am really starting to enjoy the character development in this series. I almost didn't even care about the mystery really, although it was clever.

Rating: 4 stars

Recommendations: The rest of this series, the Bibliophile mysteries, and I just found a new series the Library Lovers.

340 pages took about 3 hours.

Thirteenth Child by Patricia Wrede

This was a delightful young adult novel and a great introduction to a new series and world. The main character is an "unlucky" thirteenth child. Eff. Her family moves out to the American frontier to give her a chance to grow up without stigma. The story follows Eff from childhood till she is eighteen. I say the American frontier, but this is a alternate universe that only bears a slight resemblance to ours. There is magic for one and magical creatures like Dragons, and apparently the South won the Civil War... there are other differences but you get the idea. I'm really looking forward to the next book in this series.

Rating: 5 stars

Recommendations: Patricia Wrede has written a lot of young adult novels. I really enjoyed Dealing With Dragons and that whole series. The next book in the Frontier Magic series is Beyond the Great Barrier.

344 pages took me about 2 hours

Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly

I've always loved this book. Part of it is the cover art, by Michael Whelan, I always loved this dragon. The story starts out as a fairly typical dragon story, a dragon has invaded and they need a hero to come slay it. But very quickly we discover that this is not your typical dragon story at all. The characters are complex and so are their motives.

Rating: 4 stars

Recommendations: I like Barbara Hambly, everything I've read by her has been great. There are sequels to this book called Dragon Shadow and Dragon Star that I haven't read yet. I did like The Witches of Wenshar.

391 pages took me about 3 hours, maybe I've read this one many times before