Bogormen

Title: Memory House (Memory House Collection #1)
Author: Bette Lee Crosby
Genre: Chick-lit
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 178
Date read: November, 2015

Ophelia Browne has been granted the unique gift of finding and caring for forgotten memories. But now she's nearing ninety, and Browne women seldom live beyond ninety.

Before time runs out Ophelia must find a successor. Someone who can take hold of the gifts and keep the memories from fading.

When broken-hearted Annie Cross shows up on the doorstep of The Memory House Bed and Breakfast, Ophelia knows she is the one. The two women forge a bond of friendship as they sip magical dandelion tea and share stories. When Annie starts to sense the memories Ophelia is delighted, but then a thread of violence begins to unravel and Ophelia fears things have gone too far.


I was contacted by the publisher for an honest review.

Fair or not, experience has taught me to set my expectations low when I'm contacted for a review - especially when it's an author or a publisher I haven't heard of before - so I started this book with some reservations, which quickly turned out to be completely unfounded. I was very pleasantly surprised indeed by this book. Instead of the run-of-the-mill chick-lit/romance I'd expected, it's a charming tale of an unlikely friendship, and I ended up finishing it in just two sittings. It fit the bill perfectly when I was looking for some comfort reading yesterday morning.

I loved Ophelia and Annie, and really enjoyed reading about their growing friendship. They did get very close very fast - almost too fast for credibility perhaps - but it fit the story, so I could forgive that liberty. It did fit the pattern of there being areas of the story that were less polished than I could have wished for though (another example is Michael's actions - I didn't feel they were ever fully explained). It didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the book - it just felt like it lacked the final editing to fully tighten up the writing.

I wish I hadn't read the author's note at the end though. Knowing that the memories were taken from some of Bette Lee Crosby's other books detracted from my enjoyment of it somehow. I preferred the memories to just stand on their own, with no real backstory. People who've read the other books may feel otherwise.

Title: Much Ado About Magic (Enchanted Inc. #5)
Author: Shanna Swendson
Genre: Fantasy / Paranormal
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 298
Date read: November, 2015

Katie Chandler is back in New York and at Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc. - and just in time. The city's in the grip of a magical crime wave from spells that wizarding whiz Owen Palmer thinks look awfully familiar, and the rogue firm Spellworks is raising its profile in the magical world by selling protective amulets. It's Katie's job as the new director of marketing for MSI to fight this battle of public perception while Owen and the other wizards try to uncover what's really going on.

What Katie doesn't realize is that her idea to stage a showcase for MSI's magical achievements is playing right into a devious plot more than three decades in the making. Now Katie has to do damage control that has nothing to do with marketing. To save the magical world, she'll have to prove who the real enemy is, and doing that will require digging deeper into Owen's mysterious past than he wants anyone to go. If she fails, she not only stands to lose a magical war, but she could also lose the man she loves.


That's more like it :) Next to the first book in the series, I think this is my favourite :) It did bother me slightly that we hadn't really heard of the council before this book (or if we had, I'd forgotten all about it), as it did seem a bit out of the blue the way the men in black (no relation) suddenly showed up.

I loved Katie's character development, and thought she really seemed to come into her own in this book. I wish Owen had believed her earlier, but can understand why he didn't.

The final confrontation seemed a tad rushed, but the ending itself threw me for a loop - I had not seen that coming! Will be very interesting to see what happens next.

Does anybody know if book 7 is meant to be the last one, or if she just hasn't published anything since 2013?

Title: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Genre: YA
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 236
Date read: November, 2015

Four minutes changes everything. Hadley Sullivan 17 misses her flight at JFK airport, is late to her father's second wedding in London with never-met stepmother. Hadley meets the perfect boy. Oliver is British, sits in her row. A long night on the plane passes in a blink, but the two lose track in arrival chaos. Can fate bring them together again?


Really sweet YA that I picked up on a whim and was pleased to find very charming. It was a lot less shallow than I had originally expected, and I really loved seeing Hadley evolve as the day went on. Excellent plane reading, as it didn't ask too much of the reader, while still being very enjoyable and entertaining.

Title: Once Upon Stilettos (Enchanted, Inc. #2)
Author: Shanna Swendson
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 320
Date read: November, 2015

Katie Chandler's life is pure magic - literally. As an executive assistant at Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc., she's seen more than her share of fantastical occurrences. A mere Manhattan mortal, Katie is no wizard, but she's a wiz at exposing "hokum" pocus, cloaked lies, and deceptive enchantments. And she's fallen under the all-too-human spell of attraction to Owen, a hunky wizard and coworker. Owen, however, is preoccupied. Someone has broken into his office and disrupted top-secret files, and it reeks of an inside job. CEO Merlin (yes, the Merlin) and taps Katie and her special ability to uncover the magical mole.

Keeping her feelings in check while sleuthing alongside Owen, Katie is shocked to discover that her immunity to magic is waning, putting her in grave danger. Soon she's surrendering to the charms and enchantments of everyone and everything around her, including a killer pair of red stilettos. Katie must now conjure up her natural instincts to get to the bottom of the break-in, regain her power, and win the wizard of her dreams.


Unfortunately not nearly as good as the first book in the series, and parts of it really annoyed me. It really bugs me when a main character - especially in a first person narrative - insists on making poor decisions and keeping things secret when they could so obviously spare themselves a load of problems by just talking about it!

It was still charming enough to make me keep going though, and fortunately the ending was satisfying enough that I could mostly forgive it for making me read through such stupidity. I do hope Katie will be wiser in the next book though.

Title: Alanna Author: Tamora Pierce Genre: Fantasy Rating: 5/5 # pages: 216 Date read: August 2007, October 2010, September 2011, August 2014, November 2015, April 2020, July 2024

Call it fate, call it intuition, or just call it common sense, but somehow young Alanna knows she isn't meant to become some proper lady cloistered in a convent. Instead, she wants to be a great warrior maiden--a female knight. But in the land of Tortall, women aren't allowed to train as warriors. So Alanna finds a way to switch places with her twin, Thom, and take his place as a knight in training at the palace of King Roald. Disguising herself as a boy, Alanna begins her training as a page in the royal court. Soon, she is garnering the admiration of all around her, including the crown prince, with her strong work ethic and her thirst for knowledge. But all the while, she is haunted by the recurring vision of a black stone city that emanates evil... somehow she knows it is her fate to purge that place of its wickedness. But how will she find it? And can she fulfill her destiny while keeping her gender a secret?


The first quartet written by Tamora Pierce, and while "Protector of the Small" has overtaken it as my favourite series, the two first books of this quartet are definitely my favourite books. I love reading about how Alanna fits into life at the palace - her lessons and the friends she makes. I read it for the first time when I was 12'ish and have reread it regularly ever since.