Elizabeth Mayfair is the leader of one of the ZRT (Zombie Response Teams). Her team cleans up zombies that are still showing up since the big zombie turn a few years ago. Elizabeth has some powers she uses to help her do her job and do it well. While Elizabeth stands out in a way many other characters introduced into the story also vie for the top heroine spot. I felt the story was light and kept me interested but so many characters had equal footing and not much was flushed out. If this becomes a series it may come to fruition but as is, most of the characters are forgettable.

I am pretty new to HTML and CSS. That said, I have always wanted to learn more and thought this book would be a perfect opportunity. I read through and practiced some of the exercises in this book. As a newbie I felt the language used and the steps were pretty straight forward. David DuRocher, the author, lays out and uses an example website to manipulate and practice on giving you real world experience. Overall, I felt it helped me learn a bit more but also there is plenty of room for me to delve deeper into this language and learn more. I hope to try and put into practice more of what pertains to me personally and I think this book gives me the tools to do that.

A Home for the Windswept by Karri L. Moser is about some life changing moments that are largely based on faith. Faith in family, faith in your life partner, and faith in God. Darcy is a young mother and wife, raising her kids in a small paper mill town when that livelihood comes to an end. The struggle to stay in this town or trust in her husbands moment of clarity and faith in God, to move halfway across the country to begin anew in the unknown weighs heavy on her and her unborn child. These life decisions are hard on everyone but the call to a place that was damaged by recent tornados is an even scarier prospect. I feel the author did a great job describing this type of place and showed us a community that believes in picking yourself up by your bootstraps and working together in faith and love for all.

Rev. Rebecca L. Holland shares her journey from studying music to getting the call to become a pastor. Her story develops as the creative writing prompts and the scripture prayers play a role in your own self discovery. There are challenges every week for 6 weeks. In Chapter 3 she writes "others will try to write your story, sometimes a hero, but often, they will make you the villain or the victim. Don't let them -" I felt this is especially relevant to today in the world. I think if you spend some time with examining these writing prompts you will discover much incite and hopefully some of God's Grace. Well worth the read.

Confusing through much of the beginning of the book. The main character Cecelia's life is told in flashes of childhood and adulthood. During her childhood she becomes involved with a teacher at her school while his wife becomes romantically involved with Cecelia's mother. Confusing to be living it but more confusing to read about it. Still there are moments when the author chooses to stay in the present that the story does come alive.

Book three in the Bronze Horseman trilogy. Once I started this third book I was hooked. Paullina Simons captures the familial emotional essence of war so closely you feel part of the Alexander and Tatiana story. This is such an emotional read if you just want a love story to read. This trilogy, however, is so much more. The final chapter of the trilogy is exceptionally wonderful. Savor and enjoy!

For some, finding their place in the world is easy, for others, the journey helps you define your place. In this moving account of Caitlin Shetterly and her husband Dan, this was anything but easy. The couple face choices that take them from their comfort zone to unexpected surprises and heartfelt moments of sadness and joy. Whether you experienced the economic crisis in a good way or a bad way you can not help but glean something from this families journey to find a home wherever that may be.
Very emotional story.

No Safe Haven was written by the mother/daughter team of Kimberley and Kayla Woodhouse. This is a story of finding faith and love in unexpected places but also it is a story of adventure and intrigue. Much happens to the mother/daughter main characters in this story that imitates their real lives. I felt there was a lot of drama for one small family to have in this story but I think the overall story had a message of faith that shows just how big and overpowering that can be.

Kristin Hannah has another solid life story in her latest novel: Night Road. This is the story of friendship and love and seeing things when others don't. Lexi has been passed around in foster care since her drug addicted mother died. When she settles in one place she meets a true friend and becomes a vital part of their family. Many things happen for a reason and this story is all about forgiveness. Very touching.

I found this to be a sad yet inspiring story of the life of Liz Murray, homeless to Harvard College, the journey of Elizabeth Murray and the life decisions she made to get her where she is today. Sad to be born surrounded by drug obsessed parents, on welfare and living from check to check for their basic needs only to have them run out and the rest is spent on drugs. No rules and parental guidance at home. Hair infested with lice and dirty clothes make her an easy target at school for ridicule. Learning about HIV and then losing a parent all make up the person Liz has become. Determination and drive from somewhere deep inside she her through to reveal this miraculous story of her life so far.

Saturday Morning is a delightful story about a group of women all coming together from different walks of life and showing how the power of prayer can change your life and put you on the right path. When you think your life should be going one way and everything else seems against you then finding friends in unlikely places and finding answers to questions you didn't know you had are just part of everyday life if you turn yourself over to God. These ladies have a hard time and many problems to solve but together they can overcome almost everything. This is a lovely story and it really gives you hope if you let it.

The good psychologist transitions in this novel between his therapy office, a night class he teaches and his own life relationship. I was immediately taken with his client, a young exotic dancer that is suddenly taken with anxiety over what she is doing and how her life is going. Equally mesmerizing is the good psychologists teaching in his night class where again he encounters some interesting characters. Probably the most surprising is his own personal life that gradually we become aware of. I really liked the easy way this story unfolds and how all things prove to come together to show us about our own life.

This is a small town setting for a big murder mystery. I found the writing to flow and the story to unfold seamlessly. I was instantly drawn to the towns main family, the Linders. In this story you get to know the family of 3 brothers and one sister as they work for their father and mother. The family monarch takes in some of the less fortunate to work and learn skills and help them provide for their families. One day this relationship is breached and things go desperately wrong for the Linder family. I felt the plot was okay but some of the things that happen are a bit contrived to make it all nice and tidy but it was still an interesting story.

This story starts out a little slow but by halfway it picks up steam. Pia is a ten year old girl. She has gotten by relatively unnoticed in school until her Grandmother explodes and the other children can't get over it. When a young girl disappears in their sleepy little town, still Pia doesn't blend in and gain back her privacy. Things pick up from there and Pia is befriended by another class outcast. The two set off on together to find out who dunnit.

4.5 stars. This book is really a slow moving mystery with a small cast of characters. A young woman fleeing her aristocratic life when her husband hits her. With no where to go she ends up at her fathers doorstep in a small decaying part of London called Bleeding Heart Square. We learn of her neighbors and local businesses all knowing each others business in that microcosm. A letter opens each chapter giving you clues as to the circumstances surrounding the mystery of the story. The times are the 1930's between the wars and there is social unrest as well. Once I got into the story I didn't want to put it down.

This is a heart-wrenching story of a father and his two sons set approximately 30 years ago, during the Ethiopian revolution. The war torn country has a face when this story unfolds and we first experience the mother giving up everything that is dear to her. The struggles of the people in one small close knit community (keble)are laid open to be used against their own family and friends and neighbors. This is a very sad and disturbing read.

I recently read The deep end of the ocean and so it was fresh in my mind when I started to read "No time to wave Goodbye". This story picks up a few years down the road and the family has put itself back together as best as they could. They have careers and new family members added to their clan. They also have more notoriety when oldest son Vincent strikes gold with his new movie. This puts the whole family back in the spotlight.
This story is well done and I could feel the pain and agony of the characters as they try to mend and heal from the crisis of the past and the present. I really liked this sequel.

I was really surprised by how I felt after reading this book. It is funny and sad and informative and tragic. I slowly got to like the main character Bess Heath as she threw off her upper class ways and fell for the river man Tom Cole. The perfect marriage to Edward would save the family from a downward spiral causing her mother to sew at a frantic pace to keep afloat. Turmoil at every turn it seems.I loved all the sewing references in the story and was reminded of sewing beside my mother growing up. I was also touched by the grief felt by the characters and how real and touching the authors words were. I loved this story.

At first I thought Linda Castillo was writing just another sleepy town murder mystery but I was wrong. The story takes place in Painter's Mill, Ohio where the Amish and the English have lived peaceably for many years. Police Chief Kate Burkholder is faced with a similar series of murders sending her plummeting back to her youth when she was an Amish girl faced with a life or death situation. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger they say and I think Kate is proof of that. Linda Castillo leads the reader into the connected worlds of Amish and English and keeps you guessing most of the way.

I waited so long for this new novel by Zafon and it did not disappoint. I was immediately transported back to the streets of Barcelona. Back into the Cemetery of books that I so loved to think about from his Shadow of the Wind. Anyone who loves books will love this intriguing story.

Saints in Limbo is a sort of mystical magical story. I found the writer's style made me want to keep going just because of the beautiful words. I admit that there were many times where I paused and wondered what all the happenings could me, or do mean and it really made me think. After finishing the book I can't say that I know for sure what everything meant but I did like speculating.

This is a historical fiction set in the early 1900's through some of WWI. I did indeed like the historical time period but felt some of the characters were not fleshed out enough. We meet a young American girl named Delia. She marries an English Lord and finds out that there are customs she was not banking on in this new dream life she was about to start. The novel passes on over time to several other characters in the story but each only are presented only shortly. I think the story would have filled out more if there was more to each character but the time line and history I felt, were good.

David Conners, M.D. has a pretty good life until his daughter disappears. He will not give up hope while he searches for her and replays all the losses in his life already. Other people in his life want to give up and move on but he sets out on this mission even though it costs him what little family he has left.
For me there was two many unbelievable things going on in one novel. I have to give it 3 stars only.

This is the story of a college grad studying for her PhD dissertation in American History. Her mother convinces her to help her clean up her grandmothers old house. While doing that she finds clues to her heritage and a connection to Deliverance Dane, a woman hung in the 1600's for witchcraft. The story keeps you interested though out but I find the most compelling is the authors relationship traced back to two women who were actually hung for witchcraft. The subject matter is interesting and the twists are fun.

In the School of Essential Ingredients your senses will feast on the delights of simple foods and the beauty of something as lovely as a tomato. I thought the author did a great job of pulling you into the lives of the students in Lillian's cooking class. At times I felt it was a bit forced to equate the food to the individual's inner most situation. I found it a bit unbelievable that so many people were empathetic to each other while working together in a cooking class. Still parts of it were really beautiful.

Silent on the Moor is the third in the Lady Julia Grey Mysteries and I think it is her best yet. I was drawn into the story as Lady Julia traveled out to the Moors to visit her love interest Brisbane. Lots going on in this mystery that brings up his past and links Lady Julia to him even more.

A very personal glimpse of what it is like to have PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) once home from the war in Iraq. Clint Van Winkle's memoir is at first confusing until you realize what is happening in the telling of this story is what he can not help from happening. Flashes and memories all come unbidden when you least expect them to. Every aspect of his life revolves around the things he has seen and the things he has done in war and they haunt him now that he is home and in peace. This story is gut-wrenching in that you are not able to tell fact from fiction, memory or nightmare as the reader but you also know the author is having that same difficulty. It is a touching story and one that doesn't have an end yet nor might it ever.

A Crusoe-like adventure story of young Mau. He comes to the island to see what is left after the tsunami and he must decide whether he is a man now . Mau must deal with what new things he must face as it appears the island is deserted. I think it I was younger I might have liked the story more but it didn't hold my attention all that long.

This book brings back wonderful memories of reading Victoria Holt each month in the Good Housekeeping magazine. It says a Classic Novel of Romantic Suspense and that is just what you get. The story of a governess sent to take care of a young child. She fits in with the family and servants and becomes curious as to what went on before she came to this great house. Reminds me a bit of Jane Eyre and kept me turning pages till the end.

In my mind I see the scene board ready to snap when action is called and the camera peers into the next glimpse of Beatie Scareli's life. Sometimes the camera pans in very close to the heart of what makes up this 14 year old girls family. On a good day the scene is sad and depressing watching a schizophrenic mother, a drunken step-father and an abusive real father. I can't imagine the reality of such scenes but this story makes it so you can't look away.