Minion by L.A. Banks

First sentence:

"Sarah Richards stood in the middle of her bedroom trying to console her infant who was wailing at the top of her lungs."

Description:

"There is one woman who is all that stands between us and the eternal night. Here is an account of her Legend...

All Damali Richards ever wanted to do was create music and bring it to the people. Now she is a spoken word artist and the top act for Warriors of Light Records. But come nightfall, she hunts vampires and demons -- predators that people tend to dismiss as myth or fantasy. Damali and her Guardian team cannot afford such delusions, especially now, when a group of rogue vampires has been killing the artists of Warriors of Light and their rival, Blood Music.

When strange attacks erupt within the club drug-trafficking network and draw the attention of the police, Damali realizes these killings are a bit out of the ordinary, even for vampires. Instead of neat puncture marks in the neck showing where the blood has been drained from the body, these corpses are mutilated beyond recognition, indicating a blood lust and thirst for destruction that surpasses any Damali has encountered before. Soon she discovers that behind these brutal murders is the most powerful vampire Damali has ever met -- a seductive beast who is coming for her next..." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this first book of the Vampire Huntress Legend series. I liked the interactions of the characters, especially Damali and her friends. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, The Awakening.

Date read: 7/25/2013
Book #: 22
Series: Vampire Huntress Legend, #1
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0312316801
ISBN-13: 9780312316808
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Year: 2003
# of pages: 176
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Of Such Small Differences by Joanne Greenberg

First sentence:

"He stood in the cold outside and to the hinge side of the door so other people could move past him."

Description:

"John Moon was 25, good-looking, intelligent, gifted, and beginning to make his mark as a poet. Leda Milan was a talented and ambitious young actress. They met and were drawn to each other. But there was a barrier between them. Leda could see and hear. John could not.

Nobody ever said that love was easy -- or what a special kind of wonderful it could be. . ." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this book about people trying to communicate. John, Leda, his family, co-workers - all make mistakes and assumptions about what others are trying to say. Yet even with problems, friendships are formed.

Date read: 7/20/2013
Book #: 21
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0451164199
ISBN-13: 9780451164193
Publisher: Signet
Year: 1988
# of pages: 271
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Fifty Acres and a Poodle by Jeanne Marie Laskas

First sentence:

"It's hard to say how a dream forms. "

Description:

The place is almost too perfect to be believed, but there it is: a pretty-as-a-picture-postcard farm, with an Amish barn, a chestnut grove, and vistas so beautiful, they take her breath away.



My thoughts:

I enjoyed this memoir of finding a new life on a farm. I liked Laskas' discovery that what looks like a postcard from a distance is a lot more complicated in real life.

Date read: 7/9/2013
Book #:20
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Memoir

ISBN-10: 0553109049
ISBN-13: 9780553109047
Publisher: Bantam Books
Year: 2000
# of pages: 272
Binding: Hardcover
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Jep's Place: Hope, Faith and Other Disasters by Joseph A. Parzych

First sentence:

"There were 13 kids in our combined family--15, counting two of my father's sons by his first wife."

Description:

"Jep’s Place: Hope, Faith and Other Disasters is the entertaining story of a boy growing up during the Great Depression in a family of 13 children of Polish immigrants in a small farmhouse at the end of a dirt road" -- from BN.com

My thoughts:

I liked this memoir of growing up on a struggling farm during the Depression. Parzych describes the highs and lows well and I liked learning what happened to him and the family.

Date read: 7/8/2013
Book #: 19
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Memoir

ISBN-10: 1591139376
ISBN-13: 9781591139379
Publisher: Joseph A. Parzych
Year: 2006
# of pages:
Binding: Trade Paperback
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The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

First sentence:

Mabel had known there would be silence.

Description:

Homesteaders Jack and Mabel have carved out a quiet life of hard work and routine for themselves in the wilderness that is 1920s Alaska, both still deeply longing for the child it's now impossible for them to have.



My thoughts:

This was a powerful and moving book about family, appreciation for one another, and making a new life. I liked how Faina brought Jack and Mabel closer together.

Date read: 7/4/2013
Book #: 18
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0316175676
ISBN-13: 9780316175678
Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books
Year: 2012
# of pages: 386
Binding: Hardcover
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Room by Emma Donoghue

First sentence:

"Today I'm five."

Description:

"To five-year-old Jack, Room is the world. It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where Jack is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it's the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven foot space. But Jack's curiosity is building alongside Ma's own desperation--and she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.

Room is a tale at once shocking, riveting, exhilarating--a story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances, and of the diamond-hard bond between a mother and her child." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was a very powerful and moving book! I liked the characters' interaction, especially between Ma and Jack as first she protects him from Old Nick and then how she prepares him for a much wider world.

Date read: 6/29/2013
Book #: 17
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0316223239
ISBN-13: 9780316098328
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Year: 2010
# of pages: 321
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Crazy Hot by Tara Janzen

First sentence:

"Dropping a sealed manila envelope on the desk, General Buck Grant eased himself into his chair and stretched out his bad leg."

Description:

"Only the most dire emergency could send paleontologist Regan McKinney racing across the West in search of a man. But her grander has vanished, and Quinn Younger could be the missing link. What the bad-boy-turned-American-hero is doing in a deserted tumbleweed town is an even bigger mystery...until danger trails Regan into Cisco, Utah, and the sexy ex-air force pilot becomes her sole hope of survival....

Quinn figures things can't get worse than being stuck in tiny Cisco on an impossible special-ops mission. Then the dinosaur doc's granddaughter roars into town with bad guys on her tail. Once, Quinn was on the fast track to a life of crime...until Regan's grandfather rescued him. Now Quinn owes it to them both to find the old guy. But throw in a deadly terrorist and some hot dinosaur bones, and a man could get himself killed. Because facing down danger with this revved-up lady is one endless adrenaline-rush of pleasure--especially when they're falling crazy in love...and hanging on for dear life...." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:


I enjoyed this first book in the Steele Street series. The characters were enjoyable to get to know, and the plot moved along well. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Crazy Cool.

Date read: 6/27/2013
Book #: 16
Series: Steele Street, #1
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Thriller

ISBN-10: 0553586106
ISBN-13: 9780553586107
Publisher: Bantam Dell
Year: 2005
# of pages: 403
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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