FINISHED -

1. "WILD WICKED SCOT" by Julia London (Highland Grooms #1) (A+++++) Born into riches and groomed in English luxury, Margot Armstrong didn't belong in a Scottish chieftain's devil-may-care world. Three years ago she fled their marriage of convenience and hasn't looked back - except to relive the moments spent in wild, rugged Arran McKenzie's passionate embrace. But as their respective countries' fragile unity threatens to unravel, Margot must return to her husband to uncover his role in the treachery before her family can be accused of it. Red-haired, green-eyed Margot was Arran's beautiful bride. Her loss has haunted him, but her return threatens everything he has gained. As the Highland mists carry whispers of an English plot to seize McKenzie territory, he must outmaneuver her in games of espionage…and seduction. But even as their secrets tangle together, there's nothing to prevent love from capturing them both and leading them straight into danger.
2. "HELL BREAKS LOOSE" by Sophie Jordan (Devil's Rock #2) (A++++++)  Hell hath no hunger like a man let out of a cage...Shy and awkward, First Daughter Grace Reeves has always done what she’s told. Tired of taking orders, she escapes her security detail for a rare moment of peace. Except her worst nightmare comes to life when a ruthless gang of criminals abducts her. Her only choice is to place her trust in Reid Allister, an escaped convict whose piercing gaze awakens something deep inside her. Reid is nothing like her other captors. He’s tougher, smarter…and one blistering look from him makes her hotter than any man ever has. Reid spent years plotting escape and revenge...years without a woman in his bed. For this hardened felon, Grace Reeves isn’t just out of his league - she’s from another planet, but that doesn’t stop him from wanting her. Escaping Devil’s Rock was tough, but resisting this woman could be the end of him. For a man with nothing to lose, protecting her...claiming her as his own, becomes more necessary than his next breath.
3. "A COLD CREEK BABY" by RaeAnne Thayne  (Cowboys of Cold Creek #8) (A+++++) She'd often dreamed about him coming back, with a baby in his arms. And now, Cisco del Norte was home. But the baby he carried couldn't possibly be theirs. Still, Easton Springhill got part of her wish. The man she could never stop loving was back, even for just a little while - with a serious injury, a beautiful baby girl and an explanation about them both that was as flimsy as his excuse for leaving years before. And after five long years of trying to forget him, Easton was faced with a choice: love him - and that little girl - while she had them, or save herself and get away while the getting was good.
4. "WHAT IT TAKES" by Shannon Stacey (Kowalski Family #10) (A+++++) Laney Caswell is looking for a change. A decade's worth of less-than-happy matrimony behind her, she wants peace - movies, books and, best of all, a new job at the Northern Star Lodge in Whitford, Maine. Spending the summer living in a camper is her chance to rediscover what makes her happy, and a perfect transition to her new life. Being a paramedic in Whitford is nothing like Ben Rivers's city life, but when Josh Kowalski offers him the job, the lure of his hometown is too much to resist. Also too much to resist: Laney Caswell. Ben always thought he'd have a wife and kids, a happy family like the Kowalskis have all built, but he never made time in his life. Now he's found a woman who draws him like no other and helps him dream again - and the last thing she wants is a husband. When the annual Kowalski family camping trip is moved to the Northern Star, both Ben and Laney are surrounded by the kind of happiness they've always wanted but never had. It just might be theirs - if they can put aside the past and reach for it together.
5. "AGAINST THE FIRE" by Kat Martin (The Raines of Wind Canyon #2) (A++++)  Where there's smoke...Gabriel Raines still has a pair of cowboy boots in his closet, even though he's now a successful real-estate developer in Texas. And he continues to live by the same Wyoming values that he and his brothers were raised by - hard work, determination and fairness. But when two of his projects are set on fire, Gabe realizes he's crossed dangerous lines. The police suspect the arsonist is a troubled teen. But Mattie Baker, who's been working with the teen, doesn't believe he's responsible. She has to convince Gabe that someone else is targeting him. She just didn't expect Gabe to be quite so rugged. As things between Gabe and Mattie heat up, they race to find the true arsonist...before he finds them. "OUTLAW LAWMAN" by Delores Fossen (The Marshalls of Maverick County #3) (A++++) In Maverick County, he was the law...When Caitlyn Barnes unexpectedly shows up at his ranch, Texas marshal Harlan McKinney has no idea his ex-lover is trailing a heaping pile of danger. The death threats against the investigative journalist are just the tip of the iceberg. Soon Caitlyn and Harlan are on the run out of Maverick County. Enmeshed in a web of escalating violence, they know their only hope of surviving is to trust each other. But Harlan doesn't know if he can trust himself - and the feelings Caitlyn is awakening. With the noose tightening, tracked by a killer who's always one step ahead, Harlan is blindsided by an explosive secret from the past - and a passion that's even more dangerous.
6. "FURY ON FIRE" by Sophie Jordan (Devil's Rock #3) (A+++++) When you live next door to the big bad wolf...Prepare to be devoured. After years in prison, North Callaghan is finally free. But the demons haunting him still make him feel like a caged beast. He loses himself in work and hard living, coming up for air only to bed any willing woman to cross his path. So when his new neighbor snares his interest, he decides to add another notch to his bedpost. The only problem? Faith Walters is a white picket fence kind of girl. Faith’s new neighbor is the rudest man alive. He’d rather grunt at her than speak and he takes her “welcome-to-the-neighborhood” scones without a thank you. She knows she should run for the hills from the ex-con. If only he weren’t so smoldering sexy…if only the sounds of him with other women didn’t drift through their shared wall and fill her with longing…and if only he didn’t look at her like they were a collision waiting to happen.
7. "FIND HER" by Lisa Gardner (abridged audio CD) (A++++) Seven years ago, carefree college student Flora was kidnapped while on spring break. For 472 days, Flora learned just how much one person can endure. Flora Dane is a survivor. Miraculously alive after her ordeal, Flora has spent the past five years reacquainting herself with the rhythms of normal life, working with her FBI victim advocate, Samuel Keynes. She has a mother who’s never stopped loving her, a brother who is scared of the person she’s become, and a bedroom wall covered with photos of other girls who’ve never made it home. Flora Dane is reckless…or is she? When Boston detective D. D. Warren is called to the scene of a crime - a dead man and the bound, naked woman who killed him - she learns that Flora has tangled with three other suspects since her return to society. Is Flora a victim or a vigilante? And with her firsthand knowledge of criminal behavior, could she hold the key to rescuing a missing college student whose abduction has rocked Boston? When Flora herself disappears, D. D. realizes a far more sinister predator is out there. One who’s determined that this time, Flora Dane will never escape. And now it is all up to D. D. Warren to find her.
8. "HARD TO COME BY" by Laura Kaye (Hard Ink #3) (A+++++) Caught between desire and loyalty...Derek DiMarzio would do anything for the members of his disgraced Special Forces team - sacrifice his body, help a former teammate with a covert operation to restore their honor, and even go behind enemy lines. He just never expected to want the beautiful woman he found there. When a sexy stranger asks questions about her brother, Emilie Garza is torn between loyalty to the brother she once idolized and fear of the war-changed man he's become. Derek’s easy smile and quiet strength tempt Emilie to open up, igniting the desire between them and leading Derek to crave a woman he shouldn’t trust. As the team’s investigation reveals how powerful their enemies are, Derek and Emilie must prove where their loyalties lie before hearts are broken and lives are lost. Because love is too hard to come by to let slip away.
9. "FINDING OUR FOREVER" by Brenda Novak (Silver Springs #1) (A+++++) The search for her birth mother brought Cora Kelly to the New Horizons Boys Ranch. Getting a job there was easy enough, but confiding in Aiyana, the ranch's owner, that she's really her daughter? Cora's not sure she can do that, not unless she's confident the news will be welcomed. And once she gets to know Elijah Turner, Aiyana's adopted son and ranch manager, that decision becomes even more difficult. Although Elijah can't deny his deep attraction to Cora, he's always struggled with trust. Anyone with his past would, and there's something about the ranch's newest employee that isn't exactly as it seems. But if the feelings she awakes in his guarded heart are any indication, she might be just what he's long been waiting for.
10. "MISTLETOE COTTAGE" by Debbie Mason (Harmony Harbor #1) (A+++++) 'Tis the season for love...Sophie DiRossi loved growing up in Harmony Harbor. But after fleeing in disgrace many years ago, it is the last place she wants to be. Left homeless by a fire, she's forced to go back to the small coastal town that harbors a million secrets, including her own. Sophie sees this secret reflected every day in her daughter's blue eyes-and she must keep it hidden from the only man she has ever loved. Sophie's return is a shock for everyone...especially Liam Gallagher. The firefighter had some serious feelings for Sophie-and seeing her again sparks a desire so fierce it takes his breath away. Now Liam will do whatever it takes to show Sophie that they deserve a second chance at love, even if everything they've concealed threatens to keep them apart. In this special town at this special time of the year, Sophie and Liam can only hope for a little holiday magic.
11. "HARD TO BE GOOD" by Laura Kaye (Hard Ink #3.5) (A+++++) Hard Ink Tattoo owner Jeremy Rixey has taken on his brother’s stateside fight against the forces that nearly killed Nick and his Special Forces team a year before. Now, Jeremy’s whole world has been turned upside down - not the least of which by a brilliant, quiet blond man who tempts Jeremy to settle down for the first time ever. Recent kidnapping victim Charlie Merritt has always been better with computers than people, so when he’s drawn into the SF team’s investigation of his army colonel father’s corruption, he’s surprised to find acceptance and friendship - especially since his father never accepted who Charlie was. Even more surprising is the heated tension Charlie feels with sexy, tattooed Jeremy, Charlie’s opposite in almost every way. With tragedy and chaos all around them, temptation flashes hot, and Jeremy and Charlie can’t help but wonder why they’re trying so hard to be good.
12. "CON ED" by Matthew Kline (new author for me) (A+++++) To save his son, a con man risks his life on one last score. “Keep in mind: This is a story about a con. In a con, everyone takes part in a play. And everyone knows it is a play, except for one man. The thing you want to make sure is that the man is not you.…”  Here’s the setup. A blonde in shades walks into a bar. Spots this hustler who’s trying to stay out of the game. Tells him she has a slap-happy billionaire husband and a big score in her pretty little head. All the hustler has to do is what he does best: lie, cheat, fake, and steal - and watch both the money and the girl fall into his lap. Trouble is, the hustler has pulled every con in the book, and he instinctively knows this: The blonde can’t just be a beautiful blonde, the score can’t just be a score, and the big bad husband has to have an angle of his own. Most of all, Kip Largo has serious suspicions about himself. After all, he’s just gotten out of prison and isn’t interested in going back. But for a man who was born the son of a grifter and now lives in a Palo Alto apartment whose carpeting was last changed when Eisenhower was president, the blonde in the bar bit is starting to look too good to pass up. Then, as in any good con, the pot gets sweetened - and the incentives rise - when Kip’s son shows up with a story about a big gambling debt to the Russian mob. Now Kip is going all-in, doubts and all. He’ll call in old favors from everyone from a porn princess to a slightly bent computer nerd. All because that blonde, her husband’s billions, and a strange racket called fatherhood have convinced Kip that he might just be smart, skilled, and lucky enough to walk away with a fortune. Or not.
13. "STARTING OVER ON BLACKBERRY LANE" by Shiela Roberts (Life in Icicle Falls #10) (A+++++) Time for a Change - or Three! Stefanie Stahl has a husband with renovation ADD. He can't seem to finish anything he starts and her house is littered with his "projects." If he doesn't smarten up, she swears she's going to murder him and bury him under the pile of scrounged lumber in the backyard. Her friend Griffin James is suddenly single and thinking maybe she needs to sell her fixer-upper and follow her career bliss up the ladder of success, even if that scary ladder is clear across the country. Getting her place ready to sell proves harder than she originally thought. She needs help. She's not the only one. Cass Wilkes, their neighbor, has an empty nest - with a leaking roof. When her ceiling crashes in, she knows it's time to do something. When Grant Masters offers his handyman services at a fund-raiser auction, the three women go in together to outbid the competition and win their man. (Cass's friends think she should win Grant in a different way, too!) Now it's time to make some improvements…in their houses and their lives.

CURRENTLY READING - 

1. "Gastien: From Dream to Destiny" by Caddie Rowland (Gastien #2) (reading on an Kindle app on my computer)
2. "Lonestar Angel" by Colleen Coble (Lonestar #4)
3. "Brighter Than the Sun" by Maya Banks (Kelly Group International #11)

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO -

1. "The Collectors" by David Baldacci (Camel Club #2)

Print:

Maine by J Courtney Sullivan

Born to Run by Bruce Sprinsteen

Audio:

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

Finished this month: Obsession Falls by Christina Dodd --- 2nd in the Virtue Falls series, this is a real page turner!  Taylor Summers saves a young boy during a kidnapping/attemped murder and has to run for her life, spending time during the winter months in the Sawtooth Mountains barely surviving.  She makes it to Virtue Falls, WA and tries to start a new life, but the past catches up with her. I hope there's another in this series!

The Black Ice by Michael Connelly --- Detective Harry Bosch is assigned the cases of a fellow cop who has apparently committed suicide, but is it suicide? Three cases overlap and take him to Mexico where he tries to find the answers. Great series!

Broken English by P. L. Gaus --- An Amish Country mystery #2 -- David Hawkins was trained as one of the military's elite snipers, but when he retired he came to Millersburg, OH and embraced the Amish way of life. When his daughter is murdered by a recently released convict, the local sheriff suspects he will seek revenge. A wonderful series that takes the reader into the Amish way of life while dealing with the "English".

The Tail of the Tip-off by Rita Mae Brown --- Harry, Mrs. Murphy, Tucker and Pewter are determined to find the murderer even when there seems to be no murder weapon. Always a fun series.

Honky Tonk Kat by Karen Kijewski --- Kat Colorado is in Nashville, TN trying to find out who is harassing her childhood friend, country-western singer Dakota Jones. When the harassment turns deadly, Kat starts looking into Dakota's past.

Stone Cold by David Baldacci --- I should never start a Baldacci book when I have other things to get done because they won't get done until I finish the book!!  Oliver Stone and his Camel Club friends pledge to help Annabelle Conroy in her fight with Jerry Bagger, meanwhile someone is killing off members of the former Triple-Six team of which Oliver was a member.  A real page turner, don't start if you have pressing issues!!

Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger --- This book started slowly, but as the plot progressed I didn't want to put it down! Ridley Jones thought she knew who she was until she recieved a note from a man who said he was her father. She begins looking for answers and meets a man who has the same questions...who is he really? Tight plot, well-written, I'll be reading more of Unger's books.

Fiddle Dee Death by Caroline Cousins --- A fun, quick read with likable, realisitc characters who are very much in keeping with the Low Country of South Carolina in speech and temperament. Three cousins try to figure out how the man died in the Pinckney Plantation... accident or murder.

Way Down Dead in Dixie by Caroline Cousins --- The three cousins are snooping again into the death of a teenage girl who was thought to have drowned during Hurricane Camille, but when a body turns up in the woods outside the cemetery people begin to wonder if she really died then. I'm enjoying this series so much I'm now reading the last one [which is really the 2nd one, just read them out of order]!!

Marsh Madness by Caroline Cousins --- Finished this series and apparently there aren't any more, or at least I can't find them.  Sorry about that as it is a fun 'cozy'.  The cousins find a woman in a bathroom stall who isn't dead...yet. Then an ex-beauty queen goes missing; the cousin, Mam, is planning the wedding of the year amid all the confusion and the other two cousins, Lindsey & Bonnie, are conned into helping.

Currently reading: Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber

Finished About Grace by Anthony Doerr. I wanted to love it, or even like it but I just didn’t. The main character was incredibly irritating.

just started the Underground Railroad. Enjoying it very much, only at page 30.

I am reading Man Up by Ross Mathews.  It is laugh out loud funny.  He came to fame when he was an intern for Jay Leno on the Tonight Show.  On a complete lark, they gave him an on-air opportunity to interview celebrities at an awards show.  When he surprised them--and himself--by hitting a homerun, his career was magically born.  I love stories like his; but even better are books like his.  So so funny, and endearing. 

Finished in September:  The Thorn Birds  by: Colleen McCullough  for book club

                                    The Murder Of Sherlock Holmes (Murder, She Wrote)  by:  James Anderson

                                    Knit Two  by:Kate Jacobs

Currently Reading:  Knit the Season  by:  Kate Jacobs

Hope to get to:   Nature Girl  by: Carl Hiaasen  for book club

                        The Secrets of My Life  by: Caitlyn Jenner

                        True Women Cookbook  by:  Janice Woods Windle

Reading:

The Hardest Working Man: How James Brown Saved the Soul of America by James Sullivan

Second Life by SJ Watson

Heat: Adventures in the World's Fiery Places by Bill Streever

Chinese Takeout by Arthur Nersesian

Finished:

Positively Fifth Street by James McManus

A Tight Lie by Don Dahler

Pursuit: The Chase, Capture, Persecution & Surprising Release of Jefferson Davis by Clint Johnson

The Free by Willy Vlautin

MARTians by Blythe Woolston

When Race Becomes Real: Black and White Writers Confront Their Personal Histories edited by Bernestine Singley

The Prisoner by Alex Berenson

The Company of Strangers by Robert Wilson.

Still on The People of The Morning Star and Soulless.

Judye

I have just read one of Susan Elia Macneal's books, His Majesty's Hope, and it is great!    All of her books are great!  This one is about Maggie Hope in

World War II in England and in Berlin.  If you read one of her books, you will want to read all of them, so do look up the author and see what she

has written!

The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman. I have another Hillerman I may read next.

Earthly Remains by Donna Leon for a book club. This is the first I have read in the series; maybe the others were good but I didn't much like this one. I really liked the characters and their relationships though.

Finished The Underground Railroad, but I ownder why he made the railroad an actual train underground instead of figuratuvely.

Still Reading Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen who I really enjoy. Such a busy month for me, this is a good one that I can pick up for a few minutes at a time.

Hunger by Knut Hamsun. I read this once but it has been so long ago I have no memory of it.

There and Then: the Travel Writing of James Salter by James Salter. These are short pieces that were written for magazines. Interesting. I went through a James Salter phase some years ago. Read Solo Faces and thought it was outstanding. Then read Light Years and it was ok but the book was mostly about a marriage and I've never been married so it didn't connect much with me. Then read A Sport and a Pasttime and it was again outstanding. A Sport is short but has some beautiful prose in it.

Just finished: Classic Ghost Stories by Wilkie Collins, M. R. James, Charles Dickens and Others

Just started:The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty.  I thought I had read this when I was a teen, now I'm not so sure. I've seen the movie many times.

you are braver than me. I have seen The Exorcist exactly one time in a theater when it came out. That was enough for me.

Charles, I love because it is so scary!

Listened to Frankenstein on audio cd.

I read a bio of James Whale a few years ago. His studio talked him into making the first Frankenstein movie. When it was completed and released about 1931 I think it became a huge hit. very popular. The popularity surprised everybody. This was the first scary movie and nobody knew that people would like scary movies. The studio pushed Whale to make a sequel The Bride of Frankenstein and the industry has been pumping out scary movies ever since.

Charles, I'm glad they did make it. Love those 2 movies and many other horror movies.