Wow. What a story! AS you read this book, you may think you know what is going to happen next, but trust me you will not see these sharp turns coming! I sounds simple; a man is sold a liquid, by a traveling salesman, that when applied to mirrors makes the person reflected in the mirror, look better. Not perfect or amazing, just a little more full of life and with the rough edges smoothed out. No big thing, right? Wrong!

This was an OK romance book; not too sappy and portrayed the female central character as strong and independent. But there were just too many characters and unnecessary short sub-plots. For example, one of the side characters is losing and then does loose his mother to brain cancer. How can you make this a sub plot? And because the side characters were not well developed it took me a while to remember who everyone was.

While a simple and straight forward read, it almost seemed like this should have been a book for children. It is the story of a young Nigerian boy who learns the important lessons of life as he ignores the advice of adults and falls in with other students who lead him astray.

This book delivers the type of ending all readers long for; something unexpected. And even from about midway into the book, you know something is coming, but there aren’t obvious clues. This author dies an excellent job on her maiden novel. Can’t wait to see what she sends us in her next one.

This is the second book I have read this summer by this author and I really enjoyed this one. It is an old time western, with the traditional “tenderfoot” family moving out west, but having no idea what they were up against which, in this case, is lack of law. Enter Con Vallian, a man who seems to live on the range with just his horse and who decides to stay around to help this family. What I liked most was how well developed the characters were, particularly Con. This author has opened up a whole new genre for me.

This was an engaging story of a RAF war flyer who crashes during a mission, but he winds up in a different year. It is interesting to watch him as he realizes what has happened and then try to figure out what to do. A different type of story.

For those of us who read a lot of mysteries, after a while, you can often see the ending coming. Not in this one! The central character’s alibi appears to be that she is just too dumb to organize and commit this crime. And it turns out what she did do really ends up confusing the police. A good whodunit.

This was an OK book, and while mostly the same as other romance stories, the ending was a bit more realistic. While waiting to start her new job, Josie takes a job at an Alaskan Lodge and, you guessed it, falls for someone she meets there. But while fighting her feelings, it becomes clear that what she thought would make her happy is no longer the case.

This is a haunting tale about the few remaining remnants of a family after a mass murder. But a mass murder committed by Whom? And way do they remain so secluded only to embrace the presence of an obscure relative? This story wonderfully raised more questions than it answers.

While not my typical read, this book was OK and takes place in a dystopian world. Despite being quite dark, two characters do manage to find love and draw strength from that. What is really nice are the illustrations which are wonderfully done.