EJJ's 75-Book Challenge for 2015: At last?

I totally lost track of everything last year, as I moved at the end of August and entered a period of funk and little reading. Ah, well, that time is passing: I have a job now and will be moving soon (yay!!), so here I go, hoping again to come somewhere close to, or even to meet, the 75-book challenge. The slow start:

1. The Hen of the Baskervilles by Donna Andrews. A decent entry into the light detective series; Meg is part of the group of locals that has organized a fair. First some items are stolen--a handmade quilt and some chickens--but soon enough, a body shows up. As usual, Meg solves not only the crime but a host of other minor issues, and nearly everyone is grateful. Still, it's a fun story and the llamas provide a little extra.

Welcome back!

2. The Legend by Evelyn Anthony. A somewhat dated suspense novel, set in England during the 1960s. What bothered me the most, I think, about this book was the heroine, whose main features seemed to be that she was lovely, thin, well-dressed, and pretty much dependent on the men in her life. She has a romance with a married former spy, who eventually is manipulated into going to East Germany to fetch her out. The story moved along briskly enough, and had one decent surprise in terms of who was a double agent, but the bottom line was that I didn't like or feel sympathetic toward any of the characters, particularly. Some of that was because the story was dated, but let's face it, there are plenty of much older novels with inspiring heroines. This Mary Wetherby was not one of them, though.

A note, of sorts: I have strayed very far from my usual reading habits in the past year, with the move and new job and some problems with my left eye, but I am determined, now I'm somewhat comfortable with my job and have my own apartment again and so on, to get back into the habit of reading constantly!

Evelyn Anthony! It has been years since I read one, and I don't remember a thing about it except that it was sort of 50ish romantic and spyish. I don't think it was this one though.
I look forward to seeing what comes up next for you now that you're back in reading mode.

3. The Country Butler, by Lori Lyn. This is a book I copy edited, so I won't say much about it: both because of professional reasons and because it hasn't been published yet, though it will be out electronically quite soon. But I did want to record that I'd read it!

4. A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin, a second reading. Let me just say that it was interesting reading this about the same time many of the events occurred in the TV series, although of course there are differences--and they do seem significant in some ways, though I doubt anything I've seen on the show will change the ultimate resolution of the story. Still, I wish Martin would magically finish the final two books before another season of the show. Probably not going to happen . . .

5. Death in Harley Street by John Rhode. This was originally published in 1947, and it's a nice old-fashioned mystery set in London (mainly) and featuring a cast of mostly older men who meet once a week or so for dinner. One doctor relates the story of another who died, seemingly by giving himself an injection of strychnine, but the case offers some questions: why might he have committed suicide when there seemed to be no motive?--on the contrary, he had just heard that he had inherited a nice sum of money. He was a well-known physician, unlikely to have made such an injection by mistake. What then, happened? One still-active police detective diligently follows up on the case, but it's the scientist (?) or philosopher (?) who hosts the dinner parties who ultimately solves the case. It's a well-written little puzzle, but not one to evoke or elicit strong emotions from the reader.

Yep, another big bump in the road for me: a little bout of cancer, with major surgery a month ago, and now no cancer, yay, but still I haven't done tons of reading even with time off of work. I'm really getting quite tired of major downers in my life and would like a span of good stuff, please. Anyway, once more, onward . . .

6. Regenesis by C.J. Cherryh: noted as a sequel to both Cyteen and Downbelow Station, it seems to me much more the former than the latter. But no matter: it's a nice meaty novel about Ari Emery the second, as in a clone raised to replace her murdered predecessor. She comes of age and into power under a variety of trying circumstances, including an attempt to take over the government of the system and continuing uncertainty about who murdered her predecessor--is she still (or again?) a target?

So sorry that life has been full of downers these days. While we're healthy, we've had some challenges over the last year, and we're finding ourselves dreading the "next thing". I'm praying that some good things will come along soon for you!

Thank you, DrNeutron! Hoping good things come along for you and yours, too.

7. Thunder on the Right by Mary Stewart. This was a quick read for me, so maybe there's hope for the future (though I don't think I'm going to make 75 books this year!). At any rate, it was a nice little thrilling suspense novel, with the English heroine, Jennifer, traveling to a convent in the south of France to find her cousin, Gillian. On her arrival she's told her cousin had a car accident and died, but very soon her shock gives way to disbelief. If her cousin was lucid for periods before her death, why didn't she send a message? Then she finds that the patient loved blue gentians, but her cousin was color-blind, so . . . There's romance, suspense, lots of hiking around the mountains, and plenty of vivid description.

8. Hide in Plain Sight by Marta Perry. Oh, lord, it's a Harlequin! Well, it was a quick read, a romantic suspense tale about Andrea, a high-powered businesswoman called to her grandmother's home in Pennsylvania Dutch country to help out--her widowed grandmother is opening a bed-and-breakfast inn, with the help of Andrea's younger sister, Rachel. But Rachel is in the hospital, having been struck by a car, and Andrea goes to see how her sister is doing and stays to help out. She's surprised to find her grandmother has a tenant, an attractive carpenter named Cal who makes Amish-style furniture and lives in one of the outbuildings, which he's transformed into a simple but comfortable apartment.

A series of suspicious incidents and a prowler around the property drive the plot forward--who is trying to stop the opening of the inn or hurt Andrea? Will Andrea get back to her impatient boss and upwardly-mobile job? Will she find out Cal's secret? Well, of course she will, and of course they'll solve the mystery, open the inn successfully, and find love everlasting. Oh, yes, and God, too--this is a Christian suspense romance.

I think I need to find something a bit more challenging to read next . . . you know, a book in which I don't know the outcome by the end of the first chapter.

9. Three Stations by Martin Cruz Smith. Arkady Renko is about as world-weary as ever, but he manages to solve a murder case and another troubling problem in this crime novel. Moscow is still dark and crime-ridden and dangerous, even when Renko is hobnobbing with a billionaire. This was an enjoyable book despite the depressing environment and kept me turning the pages.

10. Tall, Dark and Lonely by R. L. Matthewson. One of the issues with the books I've downloaded to my Nook is that I don't really know what they are about--no back cover to read! This was somewhat long--more than 400 pages--but a very quick read. It was also completely unedited--crying out for commas, semicolons, and conjunctions. Despite all that, it was a page-turner, as Madison, the responsible older sister of two siblings, reluctantly follows them to New Hampshire and her grandmother's house when her irresponsible slut of a mother turns up and takes them there. Madison is happy to find her grandmother is a loving and respectable woman, though, and settles down to her job as a history teacher. However, one of her grandmother's tenants is Ephraim, a police detective, who turns out to be a vampire (who can walk in daylight) who lusts for Madison's virginal body and her blood. Lots of hot sex and some blood sucking ensue, as well as danger from another vampire, but everything turns out fine in the end. This is part of a series (the "Pyte/Sentinel" series), but I've moved on to another historical romance (I think that's what it is, anyway), which appears to be both better written and better edited.

11. Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen. The heroine of this novel, Barbara, is the granddaughter of duke (deceased); at the beginning of the novel, she is age fifteen and living idyllically in the country with her grandmother and her siblings. Her selfish and trashy mother shows up, her brother takes off for Italy, and after some intense emotional pouting, Barbara is eventually married to her dream man, Roger, a man of great physical attractiveness, youthful appearance, charm, and money. Unfortunately, Roger has a little secret: he's bisexual and about halfway through the book, when the newlyweds have settled for a time in a dissolute Paris, Roger's great love from the past reappears and he resumes the affair--in the wake of Barbara's bereavement when all of her siblings except Harry (the one in Italy) have died of smallpox. The book covers the financial ups and downs of the time, as Roger loses his fortune, Harry commits suicide, and Roger and Barbara are reunited just as he becomes ill and slowly dies. Lots of people died in this book: nearly everyone Barbara cares about except for her elderly grandmother, who rather cleverly dangles the idea of Barbara going to colonial Virginia to check out a plantation she owns. At the end of the very long book, Barbara goes, leaving behind her cousin, the originally fat and incoherent Tony, who has slimmed down, found his voice, and decided he loves Barbara. He's pissed, but no worries: there's another volume in this saga.

The book was fairly well-written and I didn't mind the long descriptions (I peeked at Amazon's reviews: people either loved this book or disliked the long narrative style). However, it was rather depressing, and I'm not sure I really liked any of the characters. There's some fairly pointless stuff about Barbara having an affair with Roger's brother, then sleeping with a young man one drunken night who then gets killed in a duel with the brother, who marries Barbara's cousin when it looks like she's getting back together with Roger . . . all kind of sordid and pointless and depressing.

So, should I go to the trouble of seeking out and reading the next book? I'm not sure . . . and meanwhile have picked another Nook book at random. I think it's a mystery or suspense novel set in fox-hunting circles.

Oh, yeah, and facing my third surgery in six months on Friday. Yawn . . . this one is outpatient and relatively minor, but I have had enough and then some. Will never get another MRI again, either: the procedure may be painless, but the position on the table wasn't. Horrific.

Just an aside to explain my lack of significant reading this year . . .

12. The Hunt by Jan Neuharth. This was a decent mystery set in Virginia's fox-hunting community. The hero, a handsome, wealthy, single attorney, is targeted simultaneously by two different killers, and only one is brought to justice in this volume--maybe that explains the next book in the series. Despite being a tax lawyer, he finds plenty of time to go fox hunting, and on one of the hunts, a former lover is murdered and he finds the body. A deputy sheriff (I think) takes a dislike to our hero and focuses on getting him arrested for this and subsequent crimes; a beautiful attorney defends him and falls in love with him. The world presented herein is definitely class-conscious, with casual references to Jaguars and designer clothing, and fox-hunting is defended against protesters who (apparently) have never lived in the country and so don't appreciate the hunting and killing of an animal just for sport. (Oops, did I give away a point of view there?)

13. Two Left Feet, by Lori Lyn, another book I copy edited, so won't really review. It's a mystery set in the Pacific Northwest, with a former FBI agent/profiler who moves to the west coast and encounters a hunky handyman and a string of murders.

14. These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer. I have read this book more times than I can count or maybe just more than I can remember. I love it. I love Heyer, whom all other Regency romance writers seem to be copying (mostly poorly). Her books are funny and charming and romantic and I will continue reading them forever.

15. No Future Christmas by Barbara Goodwin. Mike Forrester goes forward in time from 2004 to 2110 and gets to know Shauna, beautiful, brilliant, and sexually compatible. The future has some neat stuff: paper that is automatically renewable, so one can use the same tissue over and over; skycabs; rolling devices that relieve pain or heal wounds. But the world is run by four corporations, who use the "Global Guardians" police force to keep people in line. Shauna's parents have been gone for years--she thought they were dead, but then she hears from them--and she and Mike go on the run to help her parents reveal the secrets of the four CEOs--while having hot sex and falling in love along the way.

The story was entertaining enough, but the plot holes are enormous. Having invented the time travel device, why would Shauna not know (at least) of her parents going into hiding, or even prevent the threatened exposure that made that happen? Why would she not warn them of the traitor who caused their original disappearance and later ratted out their location to Global Guardians, who destroyed a hidden location and caused some unspecified number of deaths?

It's fun enough, but doesn't make a lot of sense!