HORNSWOGGLED

Alafair Tucker keeps a close watch on her brood of children. That isn't easy when you have three lovely daughters of marriage age. Alice has always been her sharpest and most outgoing of her daughters. She seems to have her sights set on the town's barber who is a recent widower. Things get very interesting when Walter's wife is found in a lake by Alafair's sons, Charlie and Gee Dub while they are fishing. Alafair, along with Sherrif Tucker, are bound and determined to figure who killed the woman. Alafair is sure that Walter was involved somehow and she wants to find out before Alice loses her heart to the charming but somewhat smarmy barber.

As always, spending time with Alafair Tucker and her brood is like being part of a warm and loveable family from a simpler time. I love Donis Casey's descriptions of everyday life in Oklahoma around 1912. Some of the complexities of who killed the woman and how her body got where it finally was found seem just a little too convoluted. Still, the reader is ready to overlook any and all minor faults because the characters are so enjoyable.

Rating - 4.5 stars

THE GIRLS FROM AMES

Eleven girls grow up in Ames, Iowa and become the closest of high school friends. Some of their friendships began in grade school, some later but by high school, they are a very tight group. Nearly thirty years later, they are still very close friends. They manage to get together about once a year and they communicate frequently by email. Together, they remember their days in school and share their current joys and sorrows that are a part of all women's lives.

I loved this book for many reasons. I am an Iowa girl and very familiar with Ames. They girls are only a few years younger than me so many of their high school memories are things that I can relate to. I also am blessed to have friends from college that still get together and a group of adult women friends that I share many things with. We also try to travel together and we certainly share life's ups and downs together. Sometimes all the side notes about women's friendships got a little dull but I really enjoyed the snapshots of each of the girls' lives and how they related to one another.

Rating - 4.5 stars

ROADSIDE CROSSES

Kathryn Dance is tied up with an investigation of roadside crosses that a killer is putting out with dates in the future. The deaths seem to be tied to a blog. It all starts with a fairly innocuous post about an accident that killed two teenagers. The young man driving soon becomes the victim of cyberbullying and it seems he has run away from home and has begun killing anyone who has said ugly things about him on the blog. Kathryn is in totally unfamiliar territory as she tries to learn about the world of games that sometimes seem more real to its participants than the real world. At the same time, Kathryn's mother has been accused of a mercy killing at the hospital and is facing angry mobs and murder charges.

Jeffrey Deaver is one of my favorite authors and once again, he does not disappoint. I thought this book started out a little slow but as I got more caught up in it, I found it to be very intriguing. Kathryn Dance is a very likeable character. Her relationship with her partner, O'Neil, continues to hint at a possible romance but he remains married. The new character, a professor who helps with the computer aspects of this case, introduced in this book seems like a possible love interest, too. Some of the computer stuff is too far out of my reality but overall, I enjoyed the book.

Rating - 4.5 stars

DARK HORSE

Sherrif Walt Longmire has a woman in his jail who is accused of shooting her husband in the head six times after he started the barn with her horses on fire. All the evidence is there but still Walt isn't convinced that she did it. He decides to do some investigation of his own. Everyone agrees that the husband had plenty of enemies but that isn't making it any easier to find the answers as to how the murder happened. Walt finds himself in a small, unfriendly town where it seems that he may get beat up rather than get the answers he is looking for.

Craig Johnson is one of those people who just knows what it takes to tell a story. He weaves another tale of Sherrif Longmire and his friends with Walt searching for justice. There were a few things that I didn't like so well. The narrator kept switching back from the past to present tense. At times, this was very confusing. This is a more minor detail but I would have loved to have had more in the story about Henry Standing Bear, Bea, Walt's daughter and some of the other characters that have become favorites in the past few books. Overall, though, I can't wait for Johnson's next edition in the Walt Longmire series.

Rating - 4.5 stars

QUEEN OF THE BIG TIME

Nella is an Italian farm girl who longs to go to school so that she can be a teacher. Her parents feel that her seventh grade education is plenty. Nella's dream finally comes true and she is allowed to go on to high school. However, a family tragedy changes her life forever. When Nella is only fourteen years old, she meets Renato. He is handsome, exciting and seven years older. Nella and Renato's lives continue to intertwine in unexpected ways throughout their lives.

I love Adriana Trigiani's books. They are the kind of books where nothing seems to happen and still lots is going on. The characters become like family and friends and are always warm and funny people that I wish that I could know in real life. Unfortunately, this audiobook was an abridged edition. I absolutely hate those! I would love to listen to this book again in its complete version.

Rating - 4.5 stars

HEART OF DIXIE

Jake Gannon is a reporter who is working on the story of the disappearance of megastar, Devon Stafford. Devon was at the peak of her career when she walked away from Hollywood over a year ago and she hasn't been seen since. Jake has been doing tons of research and he decides to return to the area where Devon's mother grew up. His plans are stalled though, when his Porsche quits working in a remote little town. The female mechanic who picks him up is also the proprietor for the local cabins where Jake ends up staying. As fascinated as Jake is by figuring out what happened to Devon Stafford, he also finds himself becoming more and more attracted to Dixie, the mechanic and proprietor.

I have read several Tami Hoag books and have enjoyed them. They were thrillers that kept you on the edge of your seat. This was a new audiobook from the library. It didn't take long to figure out that this was a typical romance that Hoag had written before she changed her writing style. This was a fairly predictable romance novel. I did plenty skipping of the love scene descriptions. I found the story to be okay, but certainly not Hoag's best.

Rating - 3 stars

HEART AND SOUL

Dr. Clara Casey has the job of setting up the new heart clinic in a hospital in Ireland. Clara isn't exactly thrilled with the job but she throws herself into decorating it and staffing it with the best people possible. As Clara works usually uphill against the hospital administration, she manages to put together an amazing staff and they are changing the lives of the heart patients they work with. As usual, the staff seems to be very diversified but over time their lives intermingle and they become a family to one another.

Maeve Binchy is a wonderful storyteller. She tends to work in almost short stories, focusing on one character and then another. She does a great job of turning these short stories into a novel filled with people that you like and care about. The only thing that bothered me in this book is that many of the characters seemed to be from previous books. I had read Whitethorn Woods and recognized several characters from there. Some of the characters had obviously come from another story and I felt I was missing quite a bit of background info. Still, I liked the book and Maeve Binchy is always a treat.

Rating - 4 stars