Novelas Romanticas Gratis

I had to finish out the month of October with a ghost story.  Happy Halloween!  I spotted this novel while looking at upcoming releases, and when I saw the main character was a ghost, I just had to read it.  What I got was part supernatural, part history, part philosophical.   The novel takes place in Benito, California; a small Northern California town previously known in the early 1900's for the timber industry.  Now it's a quaint tourist stop.  Hunters--ghost hunters--are bonded by law, and hired to clear spirits out of places, and they've done a pretty good job in Benito--except for one ghost. Emma Rose Finnis died in 1915, and she continues to haunt the town of Benito, and the stately Lambry Mansion.  Alice, the last Lambry, has died, and directed the mansion to be sold and the profits to be divided up between her distant family.  A obnoxious rich couple want to buy the mansion, and completely gut it and change it from the beautiful home it is into a contemporary monst

My interest in bees is fairly new. Up until about 3 years ago, my only reaction to bees was the painful memory of being stung in my ear by a bee as a kid, and how much it hurt! As I started to garden at my house, I would walk outside and notice the butterflies and bees flitting around my flowers, and I was happy--as long as they stayed away from me.  That slight awareness of bees became an interest when I stumbled upon urban beekeeping articles as I was searching for a paper topic in grad school.  From then on, I was interested in bees, and horrified at the mysterious deaths that are sending our bee population into a nosedive.  All of that back history drove me to pick up this book at my library.   This novel is told in three separate historical settings: William, a biologist in 1852 England,  George, a beekeeper in 2007 Ohio, and Tao, a human pollinator in 2098 China.  In Tao's world, the bees have disappeared; world population has plummeted due to food shortages (no bees=no food!

I'm probably one of the last people to climb aboard the Scandinavian mystery/thriller train, but I've finally taken my seat, and I'm happy to say I get all the excitement.   The Scarred Woman  is the 7th novel in the Department Q series by Jussi Adler-Olsen.  I usually don't like to start a series with the latest book, but I thought I'd give it a shot.  For the most part, it worked for me.  But, one of the major parts of the novel has a backstory that I wish I was more familiar with before jumping into this novel.  Adler-Olsen makes up for that by digging into the story of Rose, one of the investigators for Department Q and not only familiarizing the reader with her sad, troubled past, but actually solving a big puzzle that will help her heal and move forward.  Rose is an unforgettable character, and her mental scars from emotional and verbal abuse are so vivid that it's painful to read about her experiences.   So.   The Scarred Woman is really good!  It is dar

As I said in my previous post about Picnic at Hanging Rock , this novel came out of nowhere for me, and after a quick search on the internet, I was intrigued not only by the novel, but by the author, Joan Lindsay.  Joan Lindsay wrote this book in 1967, when she was 70 years old.  Her first novel.  It became an instant hit.  The tale is simple, but as any simple tales go, there's a lot going on underneath the surface.  It's February 14, 1900.  The young ladies at Appleyard College for Young Ladies in Australia are eager to take a day trip to Hanging Rock, a place ideal for picnics and taking in some fresh air and nature.  The group, with Miss McGraw, the mathematics teacher, and Mademoiselle De Poitiers, the popular French teacher as chaperones, take the three hour carriage ride out to Hanging Rock.  The plan is to eat lunch, rest, explore a bit (as much as you can in gloves and corsets), and return to Appleyard at 4 PM.  Other folks are also there picnicking: Michael Fitzhuber

Fans of M.J. Rose, Kate Mosse, and Katherine Neville have, no doubt, already discovered Gwendolyn Womack with her first novel, The Memory Painter. If you haven't, you'd better get busy and start reading. This was one of those novels that I bought, added to my stacks at home, and forgot about for a few months.  When I finally plucked it out of a stack to read for October, I spent plenty of time congratulating myself for being smart enough to buy it and finally read it. It's exactly the kind of historical/magical/thriller/toss-in-just-a-wee-bit-of-romance novel that I relish reading.  Two stories in one that eventually blend together.  Semele Cavnow is an expert at appraising antiquities for a very exclusive auction house in New York City.  She's sent to Geneva to appraise a rare private collection of ancient texts and manuscripts, and finds one written in Greek that is hidden from the rest of the collection.  Slowly translating it, she is a bit startled when it appears

It's been a few years since I read my last Carol Goodman novel.  I stumbled across her while I was shelving at my bookstore, thought I'd try out her writing, and I'm so glad I did. Her contemporary gothic thrillers are just the kind of novel I enjoy.  I would compare her to Kate Morton and Simone St. James; if you're a big fan of novels set around the Hudson Valley, you should read not only The Widow's House , but some of her other novels. She's also written a series for teens: Blythewood, Ravencliffe, and Hawthorn . She hasn't forgotten young readers, either:  The Metropolitans looks like a great little mystery, and I'm adding it to my TBR list.   Onto The Widow's House .  Jess and Clare Martin are two writers who have hit rock bottom.  Jess' first and only novel, written just out of college, was a big hit, but he's failed miserably writing his second novel.  Clare has put aside her own desire to write (she's the better writer of the t

This book.  Seriously loved it.  It came at the right time. It's been sitting in a stack of books for a month or so, I can't believe I managed to hold off as long as I did before I grabbed it and settled in for a good read.   Equal parts humor, sentiment, reflection, and whimsy, Michael Poore's novel about one man's 10,000 lifetimes was such an enjoyable reading experience. Milo is a character that will stay with you long after you've finished the book. So Milo has lived 9,995 lives; in the life he has just recently departed, he's eaten by a shark, after having an otherwise pretty good day.  He's back on the other side, meeting Death--a woman named Suzie (she prefers that to "Death") and falling back into their love affair.  Yes, Milo and Suzie have been lovers for centuries.  Suzie isn't all that happy being Death, and tempts fate by quitting.   Meanwhile, Milo has only 5 lives left to reach perfection/get it right/know all the answers in orde

It never gets old:  the surprise I feel when books  I've been completely unaware of all my adult reading life pop up on my radar. This is one of those books.  And lucky for you, my blog fans, you get a chance to win a copy from Penguin to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this classic.   Here's what Penguin is saying about this newly released paperback edition: A 50th-anniversary edition of the landmark novel about three “gone girls” that inspired the acclaimed 1975 film and an upcoming TV series starring Natalie Dormer PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK by Joan Lindsay Foreword by Maile Meloy “A sinister tale...laced with touches of other-worldliness”  — The Guardian “Deliciously horrific.”  — The Observer “The fact that most people believed that this palpable fiction was a record of a real event is not merely a tribute to the writer...but a testimony to the atavistic power of its theme.”  — The Spectator “Beautifully haunting.”  — The Sun Herald  (Australia) Mysterious and subtly erotic,