Bubbles Unbound by Sarah Strohmeyer features hairstylist/journalist Bubbles Yablonsky. Bubbles is a divorced single mother of Jane, an 17 year old going on 30, teenager. She knows there is more to life than doing hair in Lehigh, Pennsylvania. She goes back to school, enters journalism classes and gets a job at a local newspaper for on-the-job training. When Bubbles stumbles upon a crime scene on the way home from an assignment, she's suddenly up to her roots in a nasty murder investigation. Plus can she resist Stiletto who keeps leaving her hanging. Very reminiscent of Evanovich's Stephanie Plum mysteries. Fun, light and entertaining.

In the sequel Bubbles in Trouble, Bubbles goes undercover to track down her friend Janice who left her fiance at the alter to go back to Amish country. No more make-up and high heals for Bubbles as she dones her plain dresses and braids her hair and she discovers that not all as it appears in Whoopee, PA. Of course there is the sexual tension between her and Stiletto, and will he finally pop the question. Read and find out.

Bubbles ablaze
Bubbles a broad

Bubbles Betrothed

Bubbles Yablonsky has hung up her curling iron for good, the ex-hairdresser and takes her new career seriously. The Lehigh News-Times reporter is willing to risk a contempt-of-court charge rather than surrender the notes from her interview with accused murderer Julia "Crazy Popeye" Simon. Popeye's poisoning in her jail cell makes the police think maybe she didn't kill high school principal Rudolph Schmidt, even though podiatrist Cerise May found the bag lady in her waiting room with her hands down the administrator's throat. And they think Bubbles's notebook may help them find out who did kill Schmidt, and whether the killing is connected to May's ex-boyfriend, Polish mafioso Karol Smolak.

Of course, keeping her mother Lulu out of trouble and helping daughter Jane fill out her application to Princeton take up most of Bubbles's spare time, so it isn't until the judge fines her $1,000 per minute until her notes resurface that she decides she'd better find out who killed Schmidt. But Bubbles doesn't reckon with the biggest distraction of all: AP photographer Steve Stiletto, who plunks a diamond on her finger and asks her to pretend to be his fiancée so he doesn't get sent to London.

Typical crazy murder and mayhem follow Bubbles where ever she goes. The whole fake engagement was kind of annoying and really didn't add much to the story. Bubbles is always fun but I miss her salon days.

Coraline is a delightfully spooky children's book by Neil Gaiman. Coraline is bored, she and her family just moved flat that is part of a converted house. Her parents are too busy working to pay attention to her and the others who live in the house are old. So she goes exploring. Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity (who calls itself her other mother) in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others. Go to the linked website, it gives you a taste of what the book is about. I really liked this book!

Neil Gaiman's site (http://www.neilgaiman.com) seems to be down so I've linked his name to the publisher.

O Jerusalem : a Mary Russell novel by Laurie R. King. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes have fled to Palestine on a mission for Mycroft Holmes. Disguised as itinerant Muslims and paired with two Arab spies, Russell and Holmes travel through the Holy Land trying to figure out exactly why Mycroft has sent them. A pair of seemingly unrelated murders sets them on the track of a brilliant and power-hungry killer. Only Holmes and Russell (along with some unexpected allies) can stop their adversary from destroying Jerusalem--if they can get to him in time.

I listened to this on CD and kept wanting to drive so I would know what happens. This is the 5th in the series but in time it takes place after Beekeeper's Apprentice. I have enjoyed all the Mary Russell novels especially this one as you get a real impression on how Russell and Holme's relationship developed.

Don't Cry for Me, Hot Pastrami by Sharon Kahn is the third mystery this funny series follows Ruby and the gang from Eternal, Texas, as they take to the Caribbean for a Temple-sponsored cruise to die for. The humor is very Jewish plus we deal with Ruby (a widow) as she begins to have romantic feelings for the prime suspect. A fast-paced mystery, a cast of quirky characters, humor and wit made me laughplus I really enjoyed getting to know this character. I might even try to read the others in the series.

Milicent Le Sueur by Margaret Moseley a mystery about a schizophrenic baglady who is the only witness to a murder. This book was enjoyable but kind of confusing as everything was from the point of view of Milicent who has lots of black holes in her memory. She would find things like a diamond earing in the trash and a baby in a dumpster. She has a compulsive way about her like she has to clean bathrooms and count noises. Plus has this strange friendship with the chief of police who is very protective of her as he lets her do what she wants. A very odd character but likeable at the same time. "WHATCHA LOOKING AT?!

Savannah Blues by Mary Kay Andrews is romantic mystery set in Savannah. Weezie is an antiques "picker" who combs Savannah's steamy back alleys and garage sales for treasures, when she's not dealing with her loopy relatives or her hunky ex-boyfriend. She is convinced that her troubles will be over if she makes a big killing at the upcoming estate sale at a noble plantation house. But when she finds the body of her ex-husband's fiance and is the prime suspect she has to find out who the real murderer.

Shade's Children by Garth Nix - In the brutal world of Shade's Children, your 14th birthday is your last. Malevolent Overlords rule the earth, directing hideous, humanoid creatures to harvest the brains and muscles of teens for use in engineering foul beasts to fight senseless wars. Young Gold-Eye escapes this horrific fate, fleeing the dormitories before his Sad Birthday. He is rescued from certain doom by other refugees who live in an abandoned submarine and work for Shade, a strange, computer-generated adult. Shade provides food and shelter in exchange for information that the children gather on dangerous forays into Overlord territory. But what does Shade really want? He is a sworn enemy of the Overlords, but his use of the children to gain knowledge and power seems uncaring and ruthless. Finally, Gold-Eye and his new friends set out to destroy the Overlords--with or without the enigmatic, dangerous Shade.