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.

The Wander Year: One Couple's Journey Around the World by Mike McIntyre

Journalist and author Mike McIntyre and his longtime girlfriend, Andrea Boyles, are in their early 40s and itching for a break. So they rent out their San Diego home—dog, cat and furniture included—and embark on a yearlong journey around the world. “We’re not out to find ourselves, or even to lose ourselves,” McIntyre writes early on. “We’re merely seeking a pause in our routines.” But the couple is soon swept up in the adventure of a lifetime: trekking in the Himalayas, traversing the Sahara on camel, scrambling over the temples of Angkor, crossing the world’s largest salt flat in South America, scaling a New Zealand glacier. The book recounts the odyssey in 48 dispatches from 22 countries. Among them: birdwatching in Indonesia, a haircut from Vietnam’s oldest barber, touring a notorious prison in Bolivia, haggling over rugs in Morocco, on safari in Nepal. McIntyre taps his self-deprecating humor to convey the joys, perils and frustrations of prolonged travel. When the couple ventures into a cyclone in Fiji on a rubber raft, he writes, “The absence of life jackets and paddles meant more room for our lunacy.” And during a ride across India with a hired car and driver, he notes, “His passing technique was so precise, I could see my horrified expression reflected in the chrome bumpers of onrushing trucks.” He also writes eloquently of such poignant moments as sleeping under the stars in North Africa, flying kites with a poor boy in Bali, and the death of a female tour guide in China. By journey’s end, he’s shucked much of his journalist’s cynicism, and he stands in awe of a staggeringly beautiful world and the resilient souls who fill it.

The Wander Year is an expanded version of the popular series of the same name that ran in the Travel section of the Los Angeles Times.

I wish I had the guts (and a partner to follow my whims) to temporarily pack up my life and do something like this!

After finishing reading this book, it makes me realize that this is the kind of book I would love to write myself. It is full of the readers individual personality, what their interests are, their day-to-day life etc. AT times he reminded me of a middle-aged, male Carrie Bradshaw (that is if she wrote about travel instead of shoes!)

While I love reading travel books to get inspiration for my own future expeditions, I find it particularly interesting to read about other travelers experiences in Countries that I have also visited, for example while I was in Bali it never crossed my mind to go bird-watching or fly a kite.

Given that this book is made from excerpts of his newspaper columns, it glazes over many locations very lightly, so you probably won’t really enjoy this book if you want an in-depth view in to each different place, although the author does mention that you can buy the full list of articles for $200! I however, love a bargain so way happy with the condensed version on Amazon for $4.95.

Overall it was a good read with a good ending.

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1) by Deborah Harkness

If the butterfly wings its way to the sweet light that attracts it, it is only because it doesn't know that the fire can consume it.

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together. 

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.

I loved this book. What a great view on what the lives of witches, vampires and daemons would be like in modern times. It had all the elements of a great book: history, drama, conflict, suspense and of course, unrequited love.

Like most other females in 2005 I read the Twilight series and thought they were great, but I thought this take on magical creatures was way better. 

The storyline was more mature and left out a lot of the immature teenage angst that the Twilight series had. The slight downside of this was that the romance and passion between Matthew and Diana was very subdued in comparison, although still evident.

The writing style was very detailed and there were several times when I thought I might need to look up ancient history words or terms that I wasn't familiar with, but was happy when I continued reading slightly on and found that the meaning or definition was woven in to the story through the characters dialogue.  

Part one of this trilogy is set in more modern times, and from the looks of the sequel it will give a contrast by being set in Elizabethan England, so am looking forward to reading on and comparing the two settings.

The Forgotten (The Barronlands Trilogy #2) - Claudia Carozza

Hazel's job at the Antioch didn't work out at all like she had planned. After a daring escape and one very risky delivery of the first baby born in years, she's still holding on to the hope of a better future. Out of the Antioch and on the run, who can Hazel turn to for help and can they really be trusted? In the second book of the Barronlands Trilogy, relationships are tested and even more secrets are revealed. Hazel tries to put the pieces together, hoping everything doesn't fall apart. Will she be able to hold it all together or will there be those who slip through the cracks?

As the second book of the Barronlands Trilogy, The Forgotten picked up right where it left off and continued on the whirlwind journey of Hazel and co.

As with the first book there was so much going on that I was feverishly reading to keep up with it and quickly find out what was going to happen next, but this time I found myself getting a little frustrated with Hazel and her little tantrums she threw. Maybe I needed to remind myself when reading this that she is supposed to be a young girl, or maybe I am just a bit older than the intended reader? 

If you liked the first one book of the series then you will love the second instalment. I hope I don't have to wait to long for the third book.

Every Day - David Levithan

“I wake up thinking of yesterday. The joy is in remembering; the pain is in knowing it was yesterday.” 

Every day a different body. 
Every day a different life.
Every day in love with the same girl. 

Every morning, A wakes in a different person’s body, a different person’s life. There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. 

And then A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day. 

Can you love someone who is destined to change each day? 

David Levithan brings all his trademark insight to a novel that is edgy, romantic and page-turning. Every Day has a touch of the paranormal and a grounding in the real world. 

This was such an interesting topic for a book and David Levithan writes it so well. I have read a couple of books by him before (10 Things I Hate About You, The Lover's Dictionary), but this book makes me want to have a Levithan-athon and I will be looking up more from him I enjoyed it that much. 

Despite the rave reviews it has received online (Amazon and Goodreads) I started reading it with low to medium expectations -  I thought it might be a bit tooYoung Adult-ish for my liking, but I found that after the first couple of chapters I was hooked and when I was at work I couldn't wait to get back on the train so I could find out whose body A entered next. It is very maturely written for a Young Adult literature and I think that is why it has been so popular - it doesn't segregate it's audience.

The characters were so well written, It was great to get a glimpse of so many different lives and I felt like each was portrayed justly and they stopped short of being over-dramatised or over-written, which could have been easy to do it there wasn't any substance.

Loved this book, I'm usually a hard marker but this one deserves a 5 in my opinion.