Since storytime season is over for a month, and my puppy is no longer absorbing massive amounts of my time, I was finally able to get some reading done. Here is what I have been up to; the first is my very favorite!
"That’s when I saw him—the cowboy—across the smoky room.
I’ll never forget that night. It was like a romance novel, an old
Broadway musical, and a John Wayne Western rolled into one. Out for a
quick drink with friends, I wasn’t looking to meet anyone, let alone a
tall, rugged cowboy who lived on a cattle ranch miles away from my
cultured, corporate hometown. But before I knew it, I’d been struck with
a lightning bolt . . . and I was completely powerless to stop it.
This isn’t just my love story; it’s a universal tale of passion,
romance, and all-encompassing love that sweeps us off our feet.
It’s the story of a cowboy. And Wranglers. And chaps. And the girl who fell in love with them."
"In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last
found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting
when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte,
replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position,
Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious
Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.
With
the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely
devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the
Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy
that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio
journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold
horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa
discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had
imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for
Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and
that one of their own has betrayed them.
Tessa finds her heart
drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his
dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in
Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding
the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about
who she is and what she was born to do?
As their dangerous
search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril,
Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even
the purest heart."
"Growing up with telepathic abilities, Sookie Stackhouse realized early
on there were things she’d rather not know. And now that she’s an adult,
she also realizes that some things she knows about, she’d rather not
see—like Eric Northman feeding off another woman. A younger one.
There’s a thing or two she’d like to say about that, but she has to
keep quiet—Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas
and Nevada), is in town. It’s the worst possible time for a human body
to show up in Eric’s front yard—especially the body of the woman whose
blood he just drank.
Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the
official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks
that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with
her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she
would ever suspect, who’s set out to make Sookie’s world come crashing
down."
"Ari can’t help
feeling lost and alone. With teal eyes and freakish silver hair that
can’t be changed or destroyed, Ari has always stood out. And after
growing up in foster care, she longs for some understanding of where she
came from and who she is.
Her search for answers uncovers just
one message from her long dead mother: Run. Ari can sense that someone,
or something, is getting closer than they should. But it’s impossible to
protect herself when she doesn’t know what she’s running from or why
she is being pursued.
She knows only one thing: she must return
to her birthplace of New 2, the lush rebuilt city of New Orleans. Upon
arriving, she discovers that New 2 is very...different. Here, Ari is
seemingly normal. But every creature she encounters, no matter how
deadly or horrifying, is afraid of
her.
Ari won’t stop until she knows why. But some truths are too haunting, too terrifying, to ever be revealed."
