This is another one of those books where the journey is really fun, but then the author proves that writing endings is really challenging. You can have a great idea for an atmospheric mystery, but you also need to have a great idea for how you are going to close things out, which Sarah Pearse didn't seem to have. The book follows Detective Elin Warner, who isn't really a detective anymore after a case went wrong and she decided to take some extended leave. Elin and her boyfriend, Will, have arrived at a hotel in the Swiss Alps to celebrate her brother's engagement. The hotel just happens to also be a really creepy former sanatorium, because the designer thought that would be a super cool place to build a fancy hotel. To continue with wonderful decision making skills, Elin also decides that this would be a fitting trip to accuse her brother of possibly killing their younger sibling during a childhood vacation. Because, hey, nothing says "happy engagement!" like "did you kill our brother, though? You can totally tell me if you did." There are just a few problems with this plan - first, Elin doesn't really talk to her brother anymore, so finding time to accuse him of this is a challenge. Second, his fiancée just went missing, and it may or may not be in poor taste to accuse him of anything given those circumstances. Third, there is an avalanche approaching the hotel, so they really all need to leave. And, of course, fourth, some people are starting to get murdered. After staying behind and getting trapped from the avalanche, Elin has to really deal with all her personal issues at once because she is the only cop-like person on the mountain who can investigate anything. No one can come help until the weather clears, which probably won't be for a while. There were a few issues I had with the book, two of which I found to be major issues. The first is that this was a fun crime novel, but ultimately it seems like no one could ever be punished for the murders that happened here. Elin isn't a detective in this area, as she points out again and again, and she tends to disobey the orders she is given (or just hides what she is doing because if she doesn't ask permission, she isn't doing anything wrong?) so it seems like everything she has gathered would be utterly useless. She also has a weird tendency to tell everyone around her everything she has discovered. Like, maybe they don't all need to know every piece of evidence you have gathered? You know someone around here is killing people, maybe stop telling everyone everything and you'd have better luck. The second is that the ending was just really dumb. The culprit didn't really make any sense, and it seemed like a massive overreaction for that person to be the one responsible for everything. I think it's worth it for the fun atmosphere of being trapped in the mountains with a killer, as long as you keep your expectations in line for the ending.

This book is by a woman for women. It is about feminism and being the person you were meant to be, not the one society tells you to be. It is a memoir about one woman’s journey through this process and the lessons she learned along the way. Fast read!

This book is about two African American women who join the Women’s Army Corps in World War II. They are subjected to racism and violence and although they are like oil and water become friends given their common predicament. Since both are from New York City, the segregation and treatment they receive is alarming to them.

Miss Graham heads to post-war Germany to assist in rebuilding the infrastructure. In addition to this task, she is requested to locate her former lover and Nazi war criminal who is wanted by the Americans and British for different outcomes. The story is dense with history and intense--recommended if one really enjoys a thoroughly researched and intriguing story.

Jack and Anna were eating potatos for lunch. Then a hail storm hit. Next a very big dust devil came. Then they rush back to the tree house as fast as they can. Then they rushed back to the school to warn every won about the dust devil. then every won took cover.

Second book in the Rock Harbor series. I will finish the series by the end of July. This is an easy read and flows nicely from the first book. I love the characters. I feel like I know the characters and easily find myself engrossed in their lives. This book deals with Bree and her son, whom she found in the first book, alive after a year. Someone breaks into her lighthouse and is searching for something. She and her dog Sampson need to protect her son and find out what they are looking for.

Awesome book with wonderful photographs. Puppies are cute on their own. Put puppies in water and it's just perfect!! Loved the way Savannah laughed when we read it and loved the pages at the end where it showed the puppies, their ages and their names.

I had a weird feeling about this book as soon as one character saw a boy bleeding to death in a field and decided it was appropriate and normal to refer to him as the "beautiful boy." I kept going, and this book was just not entirely what I thought it was going to be. The expectation here would have been that this book was about finding whoever was responsible for hurting Karel, the boy left to die in the field, but that's really not the point at all. This is more a coming of age story about the three children who found him. Matthew is dealing with his new realization that the world has darkness and is unfair, and that sometimes finding answers doesn't bring you the closure you wanted in life. Zoe has just found out that one of her parents is involved in an affair that she can tell no one about, unless she wants to risk breaking apart her family. On the same vein, she's exploring the idea of love figuring out who she wants to be. Duncan, the youngest, has taken the trauma of finding a dying boy in a new direction - he has realization that, being adopted, now is the time for him to seek out his first mother, before something happens to her.

Love ignores rules! The build up for this romance was really well done. The characters had great chemistry when they were falling in love but the ending seemed to fall apart - rushed and jumbled a bit. The set-up to the end could have been expanded

NEED is an amazing sci-fi thriller that grabs onto you from the first page and doesn't let go. Essentially, NEED is a startup website that gives you anything you 'need' in exchange for a small price. But the price of your NEED is increasing drastically, and the book reveals an intricate web of betrayals and blood that NEED leaves behind in their small town. NEED approaches the idea of what we think qualifies as a need, the way we think, and just how far we'll go to get what we want.