Our Husband by Stephanie Bond

They're three women with one thing in common...Our Husband.
When they found out about his cheating heart, they wanted to get even. But how even?

Fate has just thrown a curveball at the women in Raymond Carmichael's life-- all three of them. When they meet at his hospital bed, they discover they're all married to the same man. And when Raymond suddenly dies, the police suspect that one of these spunky ladies has commited murder...

The Socialite-- Blonde, post-menopausal, and mad as hell, Beatrix always suspected Raymond married her for her daddy's money...twenty-one years ago.

The Doctor-- a smart, small-town family physician, thirty-five-year-old Nathalie had ironically insisted on only one thing from her husband of seven years...absolute honesty.

The Stripper-- Twenty-one and an exotic dancer, Ruby would have chalked up her brief marriage to a learning experience...if she hadn't been pregnant.

Now they're three women left with a man's betrayal-- and worse, each other. But one thing they each insist-- they didn't kill Raymond. What can they do? Something outrageous and probably impossible: stick together to catch a murderer...

A perfect combination between chicklit and murder mystery, this book is a good light-hearted vacation read - enough drama to keep me interested, but not too in-depth that it would make me head hurt while sipping on my cocktail.

Elizabeth Street: A Novel Based On True Events by Laurie Fabiano

Based on true events, ELIZABETH STREET is a multigenerational saga that opens in an Italian village in the 1900's, and crosses the ocean to New York's Lower East Side. At the heart of the novel is Giovanna, whose family is targeted by the notorious Black Hand -the precursor to the Mafia. 

Elizabeth Street brings to light a period in history when Italian immigrant neighborhoods lived in fear of Black Hand extortion and violence-a reality that defies the romanticized depiction of the Mafia. Here, the author reveals the merciless terror of the Black Hand-and the impact their crimes had on her family. Giovanna is based on Fabiano's great-grandmother, and the book's heroes and villains - such as Lieutenant Petrosino, the crusading cop and "Lupo the Wolf," a cold-blooded criminal - are drawn from real life in this thrilling tale. 

While set in a dynamic historical context, Elizabeth Street is, above all, the dramatic story of the heroine, Giovanna, and how she triumphed over tragedy.

I love reading books that are based on true events - enough history for me to learn who other societies lived, but enough fiction to keep my imagination on fire. Elizabeth Street was a perfect combination of both of these - I loved hearing about the lives of immigrants in New York, and the story of Giovanna's strength and love for her family was heart-warming.

At first I was a little confused by the flash-forwards in the story, but once I stopped expecting this to follow the flow of a typical novel, I enjoyed the random twist, turns and jumps a lot more. 

While It Lasts by Abbi Glines

Maybe driving home after a few (or more) shots of tequila had been a bad idea, but hell, he did it all the time. The cops had to have been freaking bored to have pulled him over. He wasn’t even swerving! That’s Cage York’s story and he’s sticking to it.

Unfortunately, his baseball coach isn’t buying it. Cage has a free ride to the local junior college for baseball -- or he did, until he’d gotten a DUI. Now, Cage has to decide: does he drop out and give up his dream of getting noticed by a college in the SEC, and possibly making it into the Major Leagues -- or does he give in to his coach’s demands and spend his summer baling hay?

Eva Brooks planned out her life step by step when she was eight years old. Not once over the years had she lost sight of her goals. Josh Beasley, her next door neighbor, had been the center of those goals. He’d been her first boyfriend at seven, her first kiss at ten, her first date at fifteen, and her first tragedy at eighteen. The moment she’d received the phone call from Josh’s mother saying he’d been killed along with four other soldiers just north of Baghdad, Eva’s carefully planned life imploded in the worst way possible.

Cage isn’t real happy with his closet-sized bedroom in the back of a foul smelling barn, or his daily interactions with cows, but he knows that if he doesn’t make his coach happy then he can kiss his scholarship goodbye. Only a sick and twisted man would decide his punishment was to be working on a farm all summer. No hot babes in bikinis waiting to meet a Southern boy to make her vacation complete. Just him and the damned cows.

Oh -- and an uptight, snarky brunette with the biggest blue eyes he’s every seen. But she doesn’t count, because as hard as he’s tried to charm her out of her panties - he’s pretty sure she’d rather see him hung from the rafters than let him get a taste of her pretty little lips.

This novel once again proves that girls love bad boys and they all want them to change for them.

It was good to read a racy young adult book that was actually written quite tastefully. There was plenty of sexual tension but it didn't make me feel dirty or perverted reading them, and it is good to give young women a model of a sexy character without being a tramp or 'easy'.

Not the kind of book you would read if you wanted something with depth, but there was plenty going for it that made you want to  keep turning the pages. 

Shadow of Night (All Souls #2) by Deborah Harkness

"Together we lifted our feet and stepped into the unknown"—the thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestseller A Discovery of Witches

Deborah Harkness exploded onto the literary scene with her debut novel,A Discovery of Witches, Book One of the magical All Souls Trilogy and an international publishing phenomenon. The novel introduced Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and reluctant witch, and the handsome geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont; together they found themselves at the center of a supernatural battle over an enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782.

Now, picking up from A Discovery of Witches’ cliffhanger ending,Shadow of Night plunges Diana and Matthew into Elizabethan London, a world of spies, subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the mysterious School of Night that includes Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh. Here, Diana must locate a witch to tutor her in magic, Matthew is forced to confront a past he thought he had put to rest, and the mystery of Ashmole 782 deepens.

Deborah Harkness has crafted a gripping journey through a world of alchemy, time travel, and magical discoveries, delivering one of the most hotly anticipated novels of the season.

Starting right where Discover of Witches left off, the story of Deborah and Matthew continues.

For the first 25% of the book there really wasn't much vampire of witchcraft going on. I know they were meant to be hiding in a dangerous period for creatures, but it made the story drag on a little slowly when I really wanted it to go fast and continue on with the action from the first book.

But once they found their stride it was just as good as well written and exciting as the first book.

I liked that it went in to detail about what life might have been like in this new ear, not just for creatures, and it was good to see how the relationship between Matthew and Deborah matured once they were 'mated'.

A great story and I can't wait to read the third part to the trilogy.