Contemporary Thriller / Mystery Jayne Ann Krentz See the Castle Krentz Quick post for reviews of books by Jayne Ann Krentz under her married name (Jayne Ann Krentz), her given (maiden) name Jayne Castle, and and her pen name Amanda Quick. Her Krentz novels are in the murder mystery / thriller / romance genres with…
Category: Fiction
Adult, teen, and all ages fiction. Some subsets (such as fiction manga or science fiction) may be in a separate category.
Paranormal Romance Novels
(Also see the Adult Paranormal Fiction post.) Contemporary Paranormal Lynsay Sands Argeneau series Entertaining and sexy ‘immortals’ (in the vampire) mode long for their life-mates – a life-mate being the one person whose mind you cannot read… unless you’re in the throes of sexual passion – but then have to overcome a life-threatening obstacle or…
Contemporary Romance Novels
Elsa Watson Dog Days by Elsa Watson offers a lightly amusing take on the ‘Freaky Friday’ premise – but with a woman and a stray dog swapping places. I was willing to suspend belief for the story, but found myself getting impatient with the characters and their dialog so I skipped chunks to get to…
Historical Romance Novels
‘Historical Romance Novels’ are set in bygone eras other than ‘Regency’. Thirteenth Century Maya Banks (Note: ‘Neamh Alainn’ is ficitional.) Never Seduce a Scot by Maya Banks is both entertaining and eye roll inducing – likable characters once you get past the (supposedly) thirteenth century Scottish Highlander gender-appropriate behavior. I liked the story a lot…
Miscellaneous Adult Fiction
War and Its Aftermath Nine Stories Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger, though much less well-known today than Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, was quite popular at the time of its publication in 1953 – particularly the semi-autobiographical story “For Esme – with Love and Squalor”. This story was notable for its handling of recovery from…
Sci Fi and Fantasy
Books by George R.R. Martin Windhaven CNP couldn’t get into Windhaven, written by George R.R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle – though at 336 pages in hardback it is considerably shorter than Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series. A Game of Thrones The graphic novel Volume 1 & 2 version of A Game of…
Manju Buns
Manjū – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. In Volume 51 of the Japanese manga One Piece Luffy, Chopper, and Brooks consume mass quantities of the Sabaody version of the manju bun.
Teen Friendly Fiction
Finishing School Series Tofa Borregaard under the pen name Gail Carriger writes Regency romance, steampunk, and paranormal fiction. (See the discussion of her The Parasol Protectorate series in the Romance Novels post.) In the Finishing School series she adds a school setting and teenagers to the mix. This new series which starts in 1851 England…
Food in Fiction
Contemporary Lady of Magick by Sylvia Izzo Hunter Set in an alternate Regency England, Chapter 6 opens on the dessert course of a fancy dinner party. “Joanna prodded irritably at the spun-sugar cage of glazed profiteroles on her plate. What was the use of a dish which one could not eat without first attacking it…
Children’s Fiction
(Also see the posts Children’s Classics and All Ages Manga.) Jane Simmons Quack, Daisy, QUACK! is a colorful picture book with two big bonuses: ducks quacking and the Monet-ish pond and garden backdrops. (With the exception of the first and last pages, the book consists of two-page oil paintings.) The ducks themselves (featuring yellow duckling…