The Books I Read - Just for Fun - November of 2022

Started 11/20                                      Finished 11/29
This could be the first book in a new series! It has great characters and an interesting premise. Claire is a librarian from Texas whose fiancee walks out on her at their weddding rehearsal. Claire takes her honeymoon to New York anyway and discovers the presence of magic. She even winds up helping to decide who will rule the wizards of New York. There’s a guy, a cute one of course. I can’t give away the ending, but I can tell you that Claire’s research skills come in handy. Would you believe there’s a magical library inside the Main one in New York? You know the one with the lions? If this becomes a series, I’ll be waiting and watching for the next book, Fingers crossed!
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Amazon’s Description:
The wedding was cancelled, but the honeymoon is pure magic

Left at the altar, Claire Jennings wasn’t going to let a cancelled wedding get in the way of her honeymoon trip to New York City, especially since she’d already paid for it. But a chance encounter and a good deed send her vacation in an entirely unexpected direction, drawing her into a side of the city that tourists don’t see—and neither do most New Yorkers.

After she meets a handsome stranger in a hotel bar, she finds herself in a social whirlwind, invited to glamourous parties in impossible venues and included in excursions right out of a movie. She soon learns that she’s become the accidental keeper of something every magical person in New York wants—a source of great power. It’s giving her abilities she never dreamed were possible, but it’s also made her a target.
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If she ever wants to go back to her normal life where she isn’t constantly hunted by wizards, Claire will have to rescue an enchanted prince, find a way to navigate this magical world, figure out who the good guys and bad guys are, and mediate a centuries-old dispute. And all before her flight home.
A new contemporary fantasy with a touch of romance from the author of Enchanted, Inc.

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Started 11/14                                                 Finished 11/20
Shanna Swendson is one of my favorite authors, and I’m working my way through her Lucky Lexie series. I just finished book 5, and I have 2 to go. No magic, but plenty of ghosts, and a murder to solve.

What I love most about her writing – is how fun it is to read. Imagine – a ghost hunter coming into the newspaper office to get the scoop on the haunted hotel, but she doesn’t see the ghost that’s standing right in front of her. I wish I’d written that scene! Or my other favorite ghostbusters – the Spooky Squad. Shanna wrote them just like something out of the Scooby Doo cartoons. Maybe I do need to try writing a mystery, just for the fun of it!

The first time I read one, I can never, ever solve it. If it were real life, I’d be dead😊. The best part about reading a mystery again – you can follow the clues right to the criminal, even when they point at someone else. Here’s to my next Lucky Lexie adventure!
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Amazon’s Description:
It’s the event someone’s dying to attend . . .The grand-opening party at a new bed-and-breakfast in a vintage farmhouse that’s supposedly haunted poses quite the dilemma for Lexie Lincoln. Most of the other guests are noted ghost hunters, and since Lexie actually can see ghosts, she’ll know whether they’re frauds and whether the inn really is haunted. But showing what she knows or honestly reporting on what she sees and hears would make her sound like a tabloid reporter rather than a serious journalist.

Ghosts become the least of Lexie’s concerns when a flash flood blocks the road out and then one of the guests is found dead. Someone in the inn has to be a killer. If they don’t figure out who, there could be more victims. It’s up to Lexie to enlist the aid of the resident ghosts to break the case and save them all, but that may mean revealing her secret talent to the rest of the world. Or is an angry ghost the real threat?

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Started 10/13                                          Finished 11/14
I read this book every couple of years because its elements fascinate me. How many books have you read that begin with a dedication to your banker, who explained the ins/outs of ATMs for your plot? Add in another dedication – a quote from Isaiah about the Son of Morning falling from heaven, AKA Lucifer.  And the story hasn’t even started yet!

The main characters – Grace from 1996 and Niall of Scotland from 1307. How could they connect? Through the Foundation of Evil. Grace thought she was working for an archaeology group, until it destroyed her family. That’s when she learned the truth, that the Foundation was after nothing less than the treasure chest of the Knights Templar. Niall became its Guardian after the order’s destruction on Friday October 13th, 1307. And that was just the beginning of the book!

Some chapters like #9 are so intriguing . . . “The Foundation hadn’t had good luck with the past two Republican presidents, or the Democratic one before them. Their luck had changed four years earlier.” The two Republicans . . . Ronald Reagan and George Bush the elder. The Democrat . . . Jimmy Carter. And when did the Foundation’s luck change? In 1992 when Bill Clinton was elected president.

Another quote from chapter 9 . . . War was so gauche, so much effort for so little gain. The time had passed when nations could be won; now war meant little but destruction. Real power lay in money . . . and whoever controlled the money controlled the world as well as the puppets who stood onstage, in the limelight, and pretended to be the ones in power.”

There may still be war in the Ukraine. But social media and the press control the conversation, and they’re pushing for a new world order, not middle-class values. It seems more true today in 2022, than when this book was published back in 2009.

Chapter 26, puts the religious theme back into focus . . . “The fact that mortal man cannot understand God, that we must not say a thing is impossible, because all things are possible to Him, and our understanding too paltry. God is not limited by our imagination or our small minds. The Church makes rules and says they come from God, but they come only from man and his attempt to interpret God.”

And that brings the reader back to the main characters and their drive for a happy ending. This is a romance after all, and, a brilliant book! (Warning - this is an open-door novel. I skip pages that are too graphic for me.)

Amazon’s Description:
New York Times bestselling author Linda Howard captivates readers in the deeply romantic tale of a contemporary woman who unravels an extraordinary mystery from the past—by living it.

A scholar specializing in ancient manuscripts, Grace St. John never imagined that a cache of old documents she discovered was the missing link to a lost Celtic treasure. But as soon as she deciphers the legend of the Knights of the Templar -- long fabled to hold the key to unlimited power -- Grace becomes the target of a ruthless killer bent on abusing the coveted force. Determined to stop him, Grace needs the help of a warrior bound by duty to uphold the Templar's secret for all eternity. But to find him -- and to save herself -- she must go back in time . . . to fourteenth-century Scotland . . . and to Black Niall, a fierce man of dark fury and raw, unbridled desire. . . .

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