"The Body Finder" by Kimberly Derting [5]

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her 'power' to sense dead bodies - or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world ... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat left for her. But now a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer - and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer ... and becoming his prey herself.

Oh Wow this book was truly amazing for a first novel, it is definitely a must read.
So it's about a young girl who has the ability to find dead people by the echoes they leave behind. It is also about the blooming relationship between her best friend Jay and herself. I really enjoyed the way the author has turned a life long friendship and has slowly changed the characters feelings to realize that they are falling in love with each other and how they react to these feelings.

A love story and a thrilling suspense novel all wrapped into one. You won't want too put it down until you've completely finished it.

Beautiful front cover and really well written, a great book for young adults{16 and over}. I would love the author to write a second novel to this book.

I rate this book 5 stars.

'Loving Frank' by Nancy Horan [5]

In the early 1900's polite Chicago society was rocked by terrible scandal as renowned architect, frank Lloyd Wright, ran off with Mamah Cheney, a client's wife.

Abandoning their families and reputations, the lovers fled to Europe and exile. Mamah's actions branded her an unnatural mother and society relished her persecution.

For the rest of her life mamah paid an extraordinary price for moving outside society's rules, in a time that was unforgiving of a woman's quest for fulfillment and personal happiness. headstrong and honest, her love for Frank was unfaltering.

This months book club read is an exceptional and unforgettable story about the love affair of Mamah Borthwick Cheney to the amazing architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

In a time when women were still trying to have the opportunity and the right to vote, a love blossoms between a client's wife and an architect who designs and builds their new home. Mamah is married to a good man, but she is not happy. Her husband decides he wants to build a new modern home and he hires the architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

It is here that a passionate love affair starts and will tear apart two families in the end. Because of the time [early 1900's], the couple flee to Europe for some rest from the hounding of the press. After travelling through Europe they finally settle in Wisconsin where Frank builds his beloved Taliesin for Mamah.

This is an amazing story that will reside with you for days after you've read it, it's mesmerizing and fascinating and the attention to the historical detail is truly brilliant. It is ultimately a very sad story and you wish that it would have had a happy ending for a couple who truly did love each other.

You come away asking yourself questions about how you would have done things if you were in their shoes. How far have women's rights change today, and do you still think it right for a mother too leave her husband and children to pursue her personal growth?

Truly thought provoking.

I rate this novel 5 stars.

"North and South' by Elizabeth Gaskell [5]

Margaret opened the door and went in with the straight, fearless, dignified presence habitual to her.
She felt no awkwardness; she had too much the habits of society for that. Here was a person come on business to her father; and, as he was one who had shown himself obliging, she was disposed to treat him with a full measure of civility.

Mr Thornton was a good deal more surprised and discomfited that she. Instead of a quiet, middle-aged clergyman, a young lady came forward with frank dignity, - a young lady of a different type to most of those he was in the habit of seeing. Her dress was very plain: a close straw bonnet of the best material and shape, trimmed with white ribbon; a dark silk gown, without any trimming or flounce; a large Indian shawl, which hung about her in long heavy folds, and which she wore as an empress wears her drapery. He did not understand who she was, as he caught the simple, straight, unabashed look, which showed that his being there was of no concern to the beautiful countenance, and called up no flush of surprise to the pale ivory of the complexion. he had heard that Mr Hale had a daughter, but he had imagined that she was a little girl.
'Mr Thornton, I believe!' said Margaret, after a half-instant's pause, during which his unready words would not come. 'Will you sit down?'

Set in the mid-nineteenth century and written from the author's first-hand experience,
North and South follows the story of Margaret Hale and her families move from the tranquil but stagnant ways of the southern England to the vital but turbulent north.

The author has cleverly woven together an unusual love story to show how the complex relationships from different classes could survive in this new industrial society.

For all those fans of 'Pride and Prejudice' and Mr Darcy and Elizabeth...
well this is a novel for you.

You'll fall in love with Mr Thornton who is a hard working Cotton Mill owner, and Margaret Hale, who has lived the typical shelter Victorian upbringing. Their story is similar in many ways to Darcy and Elizabeth's, pride, prejudice, and misunderstanding.

A must read for all who love romance.

A little piece of advice...the reading is a little difficult as it's written in there period, but persist,
it's all worth it in the end.

I rate this book 5 stars.

"The Postmistress" by Sarah Blake [3]

It is 1940 and half the world is living through the horror of the Second World War,

but America still believes it is safe from the bloodshed.

In Franklin, a small town on Cape Cod, Iris James is the postmistress and she firmly believes

her job is to keep and deliver people's secrets, to pass along the news of love and sorrow that letters carry. But one day she does the unthinkable: she doesn't deliver a letter and instead slips

it into her pocket.

Every night Iris and Emma Fitch, the young doctor's wife, tune in to Frankie Bard;s radio

dispatches; anguished bulletins sent from the air-raid shelters and

Underground stations of London during the Blitz.

One night in a bomb shelter, Frankie meets a doctor from Cape Cod with a letter in his

pocket, a letter Frankie vows to deliver.

In the last desperate days of the summer of 1941 Frankie leaves a traumatized London,

rides the trains out of Germany and records the stories of refugees

desperately trying to escape . The townspeople of Franklin listen and the war seems a life-time away, but Iris and Emma, unable to tear themselves away from Frankie's voice,

know better.

A truly beautiful front cover and an interesting read for the back cover is what appealed to me.

Sadly I was a little disappointed with the novel.

[First of all, let me just warn you there is bad language in the story.]

The novel is about the secrets we must bear or bury. It is about what happens to love during wartime, when those we cherish leave.

While the novel tells the story through the eyes of three women, most of the content centres around

Frankie Bard and her reporting of the war in England and Europe. Frankie's reporting will touch you and leave you thinking about the horror that comes with war, and the sadness that those left behind face.

The novel is entitled The Postmistress...

which you would think would be about Iris James and her life as the postmistress. It is only

to a small degree, which is why I'm a little disappointed. I don't think the title matches the story

to well. I guess I was hoping to find out a lot more about Miss James and what her story was.

I did find the story a little confusing at first, maybe due to the writing style, a little difficult to follow sometimes. Once you got into the part where Frankie starts to travel it did get interesting.

I stopped and started with this book so many times because I did seem to loose interest in it.

It's not a long book, with just over 300 pages.

For me it was a once read, I'll not pick it up again.

I have read better wartime love stories.

I rate this book 3 stars...just!

"Lament" by Maggie Stiefvater [4 1/2 ]

Sixteen year old Deirdre Monaghan is a prodigiously gifted musician. She's about to find out she's also a cloverhand - one who can see faeries.

Unexpectedly, Deirdre finds herself infatuated with a mysterious boy named Luke who enters her ordinary life, seemingly out of thin air. But his interest in her might be something darker than summer romance. When a sinister faerie named Aodhan shows up with deadly orders from the faerie Queen, it forces Dee right into the midst of Faerie. Caught in the crossfire with Deirdre is James, her wisecracking but loyal best friend.

Deirdre had been wishing her summer weren't so dull, but taking on a centuries-old Faerie Queen isn't exactly what she had in mind.

Another wonderfully told Faerie love story about a young musically gifted girl,

who meets and falls in love with a faerie assassin who is sent to kill her. He is intrigued by her, and after getting to know her falls in love as well. It is a forbidden love and now the Faerie Queen is after both of them.

Beautifully written, it is magical and musical and radiates romance and every teenage girl will just love reading this novel.

Of course the story doesn't end here... it continues with the next novel entitled

"Ballard".

Quite enjoying reading the faerie books at the moment and comparing the authors.

A great read... you will enjoy!