Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Rating: 4/5

Review: The book starts out excruciatingly slow, but starts to pick up in the middle. By the end, I was completely consumed, and couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. I'm told that the movie version wasn't very good and that they actually left out Agent Pendercast, who is one of the main characters.

Book Description: The book that started the New York Times bestselling collaboration of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human...But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders.Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who-or what-is doing the killing. But can she do it in time to stop the massacre?

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Rating: 5/5

Review: Surprisingly, this was my first Agatha Christie book. It was a very fast read, as I finished it in half a day. I loved it! The mystery was so complete that there was no way of knowing for sure who the murderer was. The characters were just real enough that I worried what would happen next. A truly wonderful classic, that I now know why it has stood the test of time.

Book Description: First, there were ten - a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal - and a secret that will seal their fate. For each hsa been marked for murder. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. And only the dead are above suspicion...

Black Order by James Rollins

Rating: 5/5

Review: I started out listening to this book on audio cd, but ended up buying it in hardback for a great price at Waldenbooks. Definitely skip on the audio version, as it is much harder to follow, and you lose a bit of the excitement. This book was definitely full of adventure and suspense. I loved all of the main characters, and really cared what happened to them. I certainly plan to read more books in this series. I have discovered a new favorite author in James Rollins.

Book Description: In Copenhagen . . . a suspicious bookstore fire propels Commander Gray Pierce on a relentless hunt across four continents—and into a terrifying mystery surrounding horrific experiments once performed in a now-abandoned laboratory buried in a hollowed-out mountain in Poland.
In the mountains of Nepal . . . in a remote monastery, Buddhist monks inexplicably turn to cannibalism and torture—while Painter Crowe, director of Sigma Force, begins to show signs of the same baffling, mind-destroying malady . . . and Lisa Cummings, a dedicated American doctor, becomes the target of a brutal clandestine assassin.
Now only Gray Pierce and Sigma Force can save a world suddenly in terrible jeopardy. Because a new order is on the rise—an annihilating nightmare growing at the heart of the greatest mystery of all: the origin of life.

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

Rating: 5/5

Review: Well, this was certainly a very interesting take on the wonderland books by Lewis Carroll. The lead character, Alyss Heart, is nothing like Alice from the original novels. She is a princess, and she has an evil aunt who likes to shout "off with their heads". This was actually the audio version of the book, my first experience of that kind, and it was done very well. Gerard Doyle did an excellent job on all of the voices, and bringing the story to life in my mind. I loved this book, and I will certainly have to partake of the next one in the trilogy.

Book Description: The Myth: Alice was an ordinary girl who stepped through the looking glass and entered a fairy-tale world invented by Lewis Carroll in his famous storybook. The Truth: Wonderland is real. Alyss Heart is the heir to the throne, until her murderous aunt Redd steals the crown and kills Alyss’ parents. To escape Redd, Alyss and her bodyguard, Hatter Madigan, must flee to our world through the Pool of Tears. But in the pool Alyss and Hatter are separated. Lost and alone in Victorian London, Alyss is befriended by an aspiring author to whom she tells the violent, heartbreaking story of her young life. Yet he gets the story all wrong. Hatter Madigan knows the truth only too well, and he is searching every corner of our world to find the lost princess and return her to Wonderland so she may battle Redd for her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts.

The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: This was a very sweet book. I loved the small town feel, and the togetherness of the women in the club. It definitely had a Steel Magnolias feel to it, but there's actually a mystery element that gives it flavor. I adored the main character, Queenie, and seeing the women through her eyes. This was a quick, fun, and uplifting read.

Book Description: It is the 1930s, and hard times have hit Harveyville, Kansas, where the crops are burning up, and there's not a job to be found. For Queenie Bean, a young farm wife, a highlight of each week is the gathering of the Persian Pickle Club, a group of local ladies dedicated to improving their minds, exchanging gossip, and putting their quilting skills to good use. When a new member of the club stirs up a dark secret, the women must band together to support and protect one another. In her magical, memorable novel, Sandra Dallas explores the ties that unite women through good times and bad.

Mary , Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer

Rating: 4/5

Review: This was an interesting account of the life of Mary Tudor. I liked getting an idea of what it must've been like for her, being the daughter of Henry VIII. She was cruelly treated after Henry fell for Anne Boelyn, and was forced to care for their daughter, Elizabeth. The story was fast paced, and I like the facts that Ms. Meyer threw in at the end. It is quite ironic that both daughters Henry renounced ended up being queen. Meyer wrote another book about Elizabeth, so I think I will have to check that one out someday.

Book Description: The story of Mary Tudor's childhood is a classic fairy tale: A princess who is toinherit the throne of England is separated from her mother; abused by an evilstepmother who has enchanted her father; stripped of her title; and forced tocare for her baby stepsister, who inherits Mary's rights to the throne. Believe itor not, it's all true.Told in the voice of the young Mary, this novel explores the history and intrigueof the dramatic rule of Henry VIII, his outrageous affair with and marriage to thebewitching Anne Boleyn, and the consequences of that relationship for hisfirstborn daughter. Carolyn Meyer has written a compassionate historical novel about love and loss, jealousy and fear--and a girl's struggle with forces farbeyond her control.

Eye of the Beholder by David Ellis

Rating: 4/5

Review: The first half dragged a little bit, which made me want to give up. The second half, however, was so riveting that I could barely put the book down. It just kept getting more exciting and even more intense. It also had a shocker at the ending. So, if you can trudge through the first several chapters, it is actually a great book.

Book Description: Renowned attorney Paul Riley has built a lucrative career based on his famous prosecution of Terry Burgos, a serial killer who followed the lyrics of a violent song to gruesomely murder six girls. Now, fifteen years later, the police are confronted with a new series of murders and mutilations. Riley is the first to realize that the two cases are connected-and that the killer seems to be willing to do anything to keep him involved. As the murderer's list of victims becomes less random and more personal, Riley finds himself at the center of a police task force assigned to catch the murderer-as both an investigator and a suspect. Driven by his own fear that he may have overlooked something crucial during the investigation years ago, Riley must sift through fifteen years of lies in order to uncover the truth-but the killer isn't the only one who wants to keep the past buried. . . .