My Vampire Plus-One

Finished October 23

My Vampire Plus-One by Jenna Levine

This romance novel with a strong element of fantasy and lots of humour was a fun read. This is the second book in a series, and there is an excerpt from the first book at the end of the novel. 

The main female character here is Amelia Collins, a CPA in Chicago who has been given her first solo case to run. It is a non-profit called the Wyatt Foundation, and she's finding it a bit of a headache as the contact keeps sending her a lot of paperwork, mostly not to do with the tax filing. It is March and tax season is naturally a really busy time for her. 

Amelia's father is a retired history professor and her mother is a retired English teacher. They don't really understand her aptitude with numbers and haven't celebrated the moments she considers important as they have for similar achievements in other fields by her siblings. As she is in her 30s, they also pressure her to settle down with someone. 

As the book begins, she is rushing to her family's monthly dinner. She looks forward to seeing everyone, but not certain aspects. One of the things she doesn't like is the pressure on her to find someone. The other is the lack of thought given to her dietary restrictions when they pick a restaurant or host an event that involves food. This lack of thought includes her extended family as well. Outside her office building an attractive man runs into her and she drops most of what she is carrying, include the case work she is taking home. She finds him striking and odd, and strangely attractive. 

At the dinner, when faced with the news that another cousin is getting married and she is given an invitation that includes a plus-one, she blurts that she has a boyfriend. 

As she confides in her best friend Sophie later that evening, she doesn't have a lot of time to find someone. When she sees the man who ran into her again, she decides to ask him as he said he owed her one after their first encounter.

He is Reginald Cleaves, a vampire who has been accused by a small group of his kind of a fire that killed family members more than a century ago. He decides that Amelia's request poses an opportunity to deviate from his normal behaviour to avoid those looking for him. 

While he is honest with her about his vampire identity, she thinks he is joking and this miscommunication sets up the basis for their developing relationship. 

The banter is fun, I loved Sophie and her risky yet practical advice, and the fast-moving plot. Light, amusing, and with some interesting bedroom scenes. 

To Hold the Bridge

Finished October 20

To Hold the Bridge: An Old Kingdom Novella and Other Tales by Garth Nix

The novella of the title starts the book and was the most appealing of the contents for me, likely because I'm a big fan of Nix's Old Kingdom fantasy series. In the novella, Morghan, a teen boy arrives at the Bridge Company, hoping to use the one item he owns, a share certificate, hoping to use it as a way to becoming a cadet for the organization. The Bridge Company has been building a bridge over the Greenwash, the wide and dangerous river that is the northern border of the Old Kingdom, for nearly a century. As the story begins, the company has a cable-drawn ferry, a castle on one side of the river, a fortified bastion in the middle of the river, and several foundational parts of the bridge itself. The employees of the company are grouped into four seasonal shifts, with a change in shift imminent. As Morghan passes the tests set for him to be accepted as a cadet, we see more of his past and his character. As he joins in the shift as they travel to the bridge, he finds his place and gets to know his superiors and guard members. Once at the bridge, he has the time to learn more skills necessary to his work, and he faces a unexpected test that has him drawing on the magic he knows as well as the physical skills. 

Following the novella are short stories separated into five sections, each having three to five stories in them. Many of the stories involve magic, some in a world similar to ours and some in our own world in another time. The first section has stories of magical creatures that appear in our world. The second section has four coming-of-age stories. The third section has stories of struggle with magic working against a dark force. The fourth section has lighter tales, one of which plays on Sherlock Holmes stories. The last section is science fiction and has three stories that take us beyond our known world. 

A nice collection overall. I enjoyed the fantasy and magic realism stories the most. 

Twice in a Blue Moon

Finished October 18

Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren

This book is told in two short time periods fourteen years apart, in chronological order. When Tate Jones is eighteen, her grandmother takes her to London for a much anticipated trip. Her grandmother and mother run a cafe in a small California town. Her grandmother has planned their days out, cramming in as much as she can from museums and galleries to plays. 

On their first day, they meet Sam and Luther, a grandson-grandfather pair from Vermont, who are also on a much anticipated visit. Sam is a little older than Tate, at twenty-one. The four get along well, and do some things together, but Sam and Tate connect more strongly, and after once unplanned meeting in the hotel's courtyard late in the evening, Tate is sneaking out after her grandmother falls asleep to meet Sam. They lie in the grass, look at the stars, and share personal information. Some of Tate's sharing includes things very few people know about her, but she is sure that she can trust Sam with her dreams and sorrows. Sam lets her know that he is worried about Luther's health, and about his grandmother Roberta, who doesn't enjoy air travel, and who stayed home. 

The connection ends abruptly when Sam and Luther leave without goodbyes. The next day, Tate is swarmed by media as she exits the hotel for the day, and her grandmother quickly calls in assistance. With the media knowing things that she's told Sam, including her father's identity as a Hollywood film star, Tate is both sad and mad at the betrayal. 

Fourteen years later, Tate is now an actor herself, and has signed on to a movie where her father also appears in a supporting role. When Sam appears on set, she is shocked, and doesn't know how to react. She needs to talk to him, but she finds her emotions confusing. The tension is already high as Tate and her father haven't had much of a relationship over the years, despite what the media has been told. 

The story is all told from Tate's viewpoint, and while I could relate to the ease of falling in love as a susceptible young woman in her situation, the adult Tate is more controlled and less relatable. The story also lacks the humorous banter that usually appears in Christina Lauren romances, and has a more serious feel to it.

It was an enjoyable read, but not one of this author pair's best. 

Murder Road

Finished October 12

Murder Road by Simone St. James

This novel takes place in the summer of 1995. April and Eddie have just got married and are off for a few days at a motel on Lake Michigan. On their drive to the motel, April falls asleep and wakes as they are on a seemingly deserted road. They notice an odd light in the trees, and shortly after come across a woman walking slowly, and ask if she needs a ride. She says yes, and gets in, and as Eddie drives April talks to the woman, who responds slowly and April notices the blood seeping from her coat. About the same time, they both notice a a truck chasing them and Eddie drives as fast as he can, until they see the turnoff for a town. Eddie sees something in the truck that disturbs him, and when they take the young woman to the hospital, she dies soon after.

April and Eddie find themselves suspected of murder, and soon discover that there have been a series of murders on the road they found the woman on, taking place over many years, starting in the 1970s with the discovery of a woman's body that still hasn't been identified. 

As they have to stay in town, the two begin to investigate on their own and discover a few townspeople willing to help them. 

We also learn that April has an interesting past, one she has only partially revealed to Eddie. We also know that Eddie also has a previous life, as he was adopted as a young child. The two have a strong connection to each other, and form a strong team as they tackle this strange situation.

As always St. James writes a fascinating plot, and her characters come alive on the page. I really enjoyed this suspense novel and liked the two main characters.

A great read. 

When You Are Mine

Finished October 10

When You Are Mine by Michael Robotham

This tense, fast-moving novel takes place in London, where Philomena (Phil) McCarthy is an officer of the Metropolitan Police. She is also the only child of a man known to be the leader in a family of criminals. She had not realized that growing up, but has estranged herself from her father as an adult. A significant birthday is coming up for him, and Phil's stepmother has been trying very hard to get her to come to the birthday party.

In the course of her job, Phil attends an apartment after a neighbour calls to report a domestic. She finds a young woman, Tempe, with obvious signs of trauma, and a man who threatens her and uses his own police standing to try to get her to back off. When she forges ahead, she finds herself ostracized, put on desk duty, with her camera footage taken and not uploaded as would be standard. As she befriends Tempe, she finds her hard to disengage from.

Phil is living with her partner Henry who is divorced and has a young son, Archie. They are planning to be married soon, but are having difficulty finding a venue. Tempe proves resourceful in not only getting a venue, but assisting with all the other wedding tasks. She calls herself a wedding planned, but doesn't seem to have any online footprint. Meanwhile, Tempe's former partner, Darren Goodall, is a decorated police officer, one who was deemed a hero in a previous major police incident. He is also married with two young children. 

As Tempe learns more about networks within the police force working against her, and researches more about Darren's past, she finds that her father's connections may prove useful to her. 

This is a novel which will have you worried for the main character, tense about the situations that she gets herself into, and dismayed at the havoc it takes on her personal and professional life. A book that will have you in his clutches more and more as you get into it. 

We Know You Remember

Finished October 9

We Know You Remember by Tove Alsterdal, translated by Alice Menzies

This book won the Swedish Crime Novel of the Year award and is the first of Alsterdal's books to be translated into English. Set in a more northern area of Sweden, this story begins with Olof Hagström, who is delivering a car back to Stockholm, stopping at the house he grew up in, impulsively.

Unfortunately, he walks into a situation. When he retrieves the key from the hiding place he knew, following the barking of a dog inside, he finds not only the dog, but his father dead in the bath. 

As police officer Eira Sjödin, follows the clues from this death, she also finds herself wondering about the investigation of the crime that Olof was accused of back when he was fourteen.

Olof was accused of raping and murdering a local girl a few years older than him, but her body was never found. Olof was forced out of his home by his family into an institution, and his life since then has been a sad and lonely one. 

The case was notable in the town, and although Eira was only nine at the time, she was aware of it, as well as noting the fear that it aroused. Her investigation also leads her to another old crime, one solved years ago, but one that has a long tail, as one of the men involved in the crime has been recognized recently and talk has started. 

I found it interesting that Alsterdal based that crime on a real one that happened in Sweden, one that resulted in legal changes as the crime in the novel did. 

Eira is a capable officer as sees that this case opens opportunities for her. But she has also seen how her area has become a training area for new officers, ones who spend a year or two there and move on, and she feels that she doesn't want to be like them. She wants to made a difference in her community. It is her knowledge of the community, both past and present, that makes the difference in this case, and she is aware of that. 

So in more than one way, memory plays a role in this novel, as does the idea of guilt. There are those that are fearful of discovery, and those who would protect those they care for. Alsterdal digs into this with the various cases at hand, in a way that is engaging and thought-provoking. 

Last Post

Finished October 8

Last Post by Robert Barnard

This stand-alone mystery follows a woman, Eve McNabb, who finds a letter among the various sympathy envelopes in the mail at her mother's house after her mother's death. The letter is anonymous, but hints at a relationship between the letter writer and her mother, May. It also refers to her father Ted, who Eve was told died when she was a child. 

Eve's mother was a skilled a popular teacher, who quickly became deputy, then head of their local school. She was involved in her community and a woman who was very competent and knew her own mind. Eve is saddened by her death as her mother had recently retired and they were starting to grow closer and spend more time together. 

As Eve follows clues to find the letter writer, she also begins to suspect that her father isn't dead after all, and she begins to question what her mother has told her. 

She begins to delve into her mother's past, her friendships, and her father's life.

This is a tale of loss, of discovery, and of the dangers of digging too deeply into the lives of others.