August Books I Loved

THE SECRET ROOMS/Catherine Bailey
In 1940, the 9th Duke of Rutland spent his last days locked in a servants' wing of Belvoir Castle. After his death, his son ordered the rooms sealed for sixty years. The author came to Belvoir researching a book on WWI and in the family papers locked away she discovered a tantalizing mystery at the heart of the aristocratic Manners family in the years before and during WWI. An intriguing look at power, privilege, early death, and the changing fortunes of Britain's upper classes in the 20th century.

LOST/S.J. Bolton
10-year-old Barney knows there's a killer taking boys like him off the streets of London. But he has problems beyond that--like searching for the mother who left him when he was young to finding out where his father is going late at night. DC Lacey Flint, still recovering from her last case in Oxford, lives next door to Barney and can't help but become involved with this young boy who desperately needs answers. The 3rd in the Lacey Flint novels, I hope Bolton will write a little faster :)

DEMON'S COVENANT and DEMON'S SURRENDER/Sarah Rees Brennan
The 2nd and 3rd books in the Demon's Lexicon trilogy, Rees Brennan delivers a sharp, funny, and unexpected story of sibling love and what it means to be human. Nick and Alan Ryves navigate a world between demons and magicians, and they thought their life was complicated before they met Mae and Jamie. Now Mae is trying to keep her brother, Jamie, from joining an evil magician and the Goblin Market is in an uproar over Alan's past choices for his brother. Laugh out loud funny, sarcastic and sexy, and heart-in-your throat suspense, Rees Brennan delivers paranormal YA to satisfy a contemporary teen.

A DYING FALL/Elly Griffiths
The 5th book in the Ruth Galloway series, forensic archaeologist Ruth is shocked to learn an old college friend has died in a house fire just after sending her a cryptic letter about an unexpected find. Ruth leaves Norfolk with her young daughter and Druid friend, Cathbad, in tow to investigate. An interesting mix of academic backstabbing, actual backstabbing, murder, witchcraft, and English legend--all held together by the caustic, clever and sometimes insecure Ruth. I met the author, Elly Griffiths, at Bouchercon last month and was as charmed by her as I am by her books.

ELEANOR AND PARK/Rainbow Rowell
A rich, heartbreaking, beautiful YA without demons or angels or magic, just two teens who find themselves falling in love in spite of all the reasons not to. Set in 1986 (my junior year of high school), Park is half-Korean and Eleanor is a redhead with no fashion sense and an absolutely disastrous home life. They begin to bond over music and before they know it they're deep in an experience neither one saw coming. Dazzling.

ON BASILISK STATION/David Weber
Honor Harrington has just been given her first serious command in Manticore's space navy, an out of the way posting to a planet that most people want to forget about. But Honor does not know how to give up, so she takes on incompetent superiors, smuggling aliens, and a native population being primed for rebellion in her stride. A rollicking space opera with a likable heroine that's the first in an apparently endless series. Fun sci-fi for when I'm in the mood.