Croak by Gina Damico

Croak by Gina Damico - 320 pages

Lexington is just your average teen girl until a sudden eruption of a dark side and bad behavior gets her sent off to the spend the summer with Uncle Mort in Croak.  There she finds her true destiny in helping souls cross over into the afterlife.  This is a fun paranormal read filled with snarky dark humor.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.  

Heather's March Reads

Kiss of the Rose Princess by Aya Shouoto
 Vol. 7 180 pages
 Vol. 8 178 pages
The final showdown begins between Anise and her father who is more than he appears to be.

Clamp School Detectives by Ray Yoshimoto
 Vol. 1 192 pages
 Vol. 2 192 pages
 Vol. 3 192 pages
A little series of cute short mysteries being solved by bored rich children!

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
 213 pages
 Some of the tips and techniques go a little too far with de-cluttering but I have a lot less junk piling up because I can't figure out if I need/want it or not.

Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs
 342 pages
 Mercy puts Adam and the pack in another difficult situation, this time against the homeland of the fae. With some help from new friends and old Mercy again pulls off the impossible to stop an all out war between the wolves and fae that would make them the targets of all humans.

Wedding Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke
 304 pages
 Hannah finally says yes to marriage and everything seems perfect until one of the judges in the Food Network Bake Off turns up dead in Sally's walk in freezer. Now Hannah needs to solve the murder while competing for first place and helping plan her wedding.

Vampire Academy 352 pages
Frost Bite 352 pages
Shadow Kiss 464 pages
 by Richelle Mead
 Set in the boring back woods of Montana we are introduced to a world of vampire killing, light lovey dovey stuff, teen angst, and sarcasm galore. I can't wait to get to the next three books.

The Skull Throne by Peter Brett

The Skull Throne by Peter Brett - 704 pages
The Demon Cycle Book 4
eBook

I was looking forward to this book because I like the series a lot but it's starting to drift in the same way many epic fantasy series do a few books in when the author seems to be extending past their original plan.  There are too many characters and the world is being broadened so far that that the overall plot is very slow to advance because all the time is spent checking in on disparate storylines.

Arlen and Ahmann Jardir disappeared during a fight to the death so there is no one left to take the Skull Throne to lead the fight against the demons.  There is intrigue in both the North and the South as those left behind try to rally their forces and power to take control and be the next Chosen One.  The Demon Cycle is an extended metaphor that references the Crusades and other conflicts between Islam and Christianity with the Atheist perspective thrown in for good measure.  I hope the next book gets the story back on track and focuses more on Arlen and his mission to take the fight to the demons in the Core.

The Precipice by Paul Doiron

The Precipice by Paul Doiron - 336 pages
Mike Bowditch Mysteries - Book 6
Published June 16, 2015.
eBook

Warden Bowditch is trying to have a relaxing vacation when he is called back to assist in the hunt for two missing female hikers in the Maine North Woods.  These young women disappeared on the most desolate portion of the entire Appalachian Trail, the Hundred Mile Wilderness.  The natural world becomes a character on its own for how it influences everything in the narrative.  I've never been to Maine but Doiron makes me feel like I'm right there on the hunt with Bowditch as he encounters a wild cast of backwoods instigators.  Another great addition to a highly enjoyable series.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins - 336 pages
- eBook

This book is being touted as the next Gone Girl.  It definitely has the same close feeling of being in the character's head and the reader not knowing what is truly real since everything is told from a character's own perspective.  I enjoyed the book but I did see the twist coming a bit out so it wasn't as shocking as it might be for some.

Rachel takes the same train into London everyday and daydreams about the lives of the people who she observes in the homes along the tracks.  One of those homes is where she used to live and now her ex lives there with his new wife and baby.  Rachel's life has reached rock bottom through drink and bad choices and she finds a new purpose when trying to unravel the mystery of what happened to the woman she watches from the train when that woman goes missing.