Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci & Jim Rugg

First book in a new series aimed at teenage girls, DC comics recruited novelist Castellucci (Boy Proof, 2004, and The Queen of Cool, 2005) to write this story about outsiders who come together, calling up themes from the author's popular YA novels.

Relocated to suburbia after a brush with disaster in the big city (aka Metro City) Jane and her family relocate to Suburbia. She has changed her entire phsical image down to coloring and cutting her hair drastically, interestingly enough both of her parents are hair dressers so can get jobs anywhere! We learn through the novel that Jane was close to a bomb that explouded leaving a mysterious man in a coma. She would visit him daily in the hospital, sharing her inner most thoughts and worries. Fueled by a notebook she found from a man she takes it with her and continues his diary so to speak.

She finds the urge not to be terrified of the world as a result, Jane rallies a small group of outcasts (all named some form or spelling of Jane) into a team of "art terrorists," called P.L.A.I.N. -- People Loving Art In Neighborhoods. Shaking the high school and town from its conservative complacency by putting bubbles in the city fountain and wrapping objects on the street as Christmas packages. Their activities end up rallying the local teenagers to their cause and working the adults into a dither. The book has its share of stereotypes--popular barbie dolls, droll drauma queen, the science geek, the psychotically overprotective mother, the irrepressible gay teen and the seemingly uninterested, distant boy who she is of course attracted to.

This book has been getting a lot of positive reviews hence why I wanted to read it but it felt rather flat and safe to me. After reading such fabulous graphic novels featuring rebel teens in "Ghost World" I was disappointed. I was discussing it with a friend of mine and we both agreed that it was for those who fear graphic novels so this helps them feel like now here is something not too risque. Too bad as it had a good premise.

Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart

Mary Grey is enjoying her day off by taking in the local tourist sights near her new home. She has recently left her native Canada to return to Northumberland where her great-grand parents had been born. Suddenly a young man confronts her, calling her Annabel and insisting that she is his cousin who disappeared eight years earlier. Mary manages to convince him of her identity but soon finds herself embroiled in a plot to impersonate the missing Annabel in her family home, Whitescar.

Gradually it becomes apparent that all is not quite as it seems, everyone there seems to have a secret, her Grandfather has not disclosed who will inherit the family farm, 'cousin' Con has not revealed the depths of his ambition, the missing Annabel left behind secrets when she fled, even the estate itself has been keeping things hidden. Eventually all is revealed with the usual Stewart flair for drama and romance.

I have always enjoyed a good Mary Stewart novel and this one did not disappoint. She is most well-known for her Merlin & other middle ages fantasy. But she wrote a lot of suspenseful romantic fiction in the 1950's & 1970's. She really does make you read and re-read passages as so much description and in this case clues to the ending are all there right for you. Stewart is able to write such intense characters but not so it feels cliched.

Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Spanning across 25 years, the story begins when newlyweds Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli emigrate to Cambridge, Mass., in 1968, where Ashima immediately gives birth to a son, Gogol. A pet name that becomes permanent when his formal name, traditionally bestowed by the maternal grandmother, is posted in a letter from India, but lost in transit. Ashoke becomes a professor of engineering, but Ashima has a harder time assimilating, unwilling to give up her ties to India.

There are several small scenes dealing with Gogol as a young child to a teen becoming ashamed of his Indian heritage and his unusual name. He sheds his embarrassing name as he moves on to college at Yale and graduate school at Columbia, legally changing it to Nikhil. In one of the most telling chapters, Gogol moves into the home of a family of wealthy Manhattan WASPs and is initiated into a lifestyle idealized in Ralph Lauren ads. After the death of Gogol's father interrupts this interlude, we see Gogol's attitude toward his mother and his culture change and he learns to embrace it. The story then move ahead a year, quickly moving Gogol into marriage, divorce and his role as a dutiful if a bit guilt-stricken son.

I liked this book more than I thought I would as it deals with so much guilt, taking one's family for granted and missed opportunities. Both Gogol and his mother evolve into better people because of life's struggles.

The book was made into a movie with the same name in 2006.

Blind Spot by Terri Persons

Female FBI agent, Bernadette Saint Clare, has the power to see through the eyes of a serial killer as he goes about his killing sprees. She's been kicked around field offices all over the United States and her latest assignment is in St. Paul. Hoping that her unusual vision and strange ability will be more welcome than they usually are to both her bosses and her fellow agents. She immediately draws a case involving bodies bound with unusual knots and each missing a right hand. A ring found at one of the sites leads her into the eyes of the killer, but his identity and motives remain unclear.

Because Bernadette makes wrong choices, I found myself wanting to shake her and say "it's him you idiot" as the author gives us almost too much information and not enough for the character to really develope herself.

Honestly I thought it was ok, but not as good as some of the reviews have been. It is an interesting concept but has been done before.

Austenland by Shannon Hale

Thirty-three-year-old Jane Hayes, who has a fairly serious addiction to the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice, inherits a trip to Pembrook Park, Kent, England, the location of a resort where guests dress, talk, think, and act in ways that Jane Austen would approve. Refusing to lie about her age, even on vacation in a place right out of Austen's England, Jane finds herself quickly overcoming the obsession with Mr. Darcy that may very well have jeopardized her 13 "relationships" over the years. Left to walk in last to dinner, mildly obsessed with one of the hotel's gardeners, and annoyed by another guest's overeager attempts to bag a man, Jane is eager to return to Manhattan. Then she decides to give it all one more chance, since Great-Aunt Carolyn did see fit to pay for the entire vacation.

Very enjoyable read, I've read a few of Hales children's and YA novels so it was fun to see how she writes for adults. You can really see her love for Jane Austen.

White Lies by Jayne Ann Krentz
Book 2 in the Arcane Society series - though this is set in contemporary times while book 1, Second Sight, is set in late Victorian era.

Clare Lancaster is a Level Ten para-sensitive – and a “human lie detector” and a member of the modern day Arcane Society. Over the years she has come to accept that someone with her extraordinary talent is doomed to have relationship issues. Clare has even been rejected as “unmatchable” by the Society’s matchmaking agency, arcanematch.com To her frustration she has ben applying to the Jones & Jones, a pyschic detective agency, and continually turned down for a job. In a way, Clare’s whole life has been a lie. Now, however, she has just met the half sister and family whom she never knew until seven months ago.

Her father summons her from California to play a role in his business empire. Clare rejects the offer. But after meeting Jake Salter, Archer Lancaster’s “financial consultant”, she is convinced that things aren’t what they seem. Salter’s careful conversation seems to walk a delicate line between truth and deception. Something sparks and sizzles between them – something more than the usual electricity between a man and a woman. Jake Salter is also a Level Ten para-sensitive with some dangerous psychic talents of his own. He, too, has been declared “unmatchable” by the Society’s matchmakers.

This one heats up pretty quickly as Clare and Jake are immediately attracted to one another and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know where that is heading. The storyline flows fast as there is a murder within the first few chapters, Clare discovering the body, and several attempts on both Clare & Jake's life. The story leaves it open ended for continuation of the series. I've read quite a bit of Krentz and under her two of pseudonyms "Amanda Quick" and "Jayne Castle" and really enjoy her paranormal romances the best.

Butchers Hill by Laura Lippman
Tess Monaghan has finally made the move and hung out the shingle as a P.I.-for-hire, complete with an office in Butchers Hill. Her first client is Luther Beale, the notorious vigilante who five years ago shot a boy for vandalizing his car, just sprung from jail. He wants to make reparations to the kids who witnessed his crime for his own peace of mind, so he needs Tess to find them. But once she starts snooping, the witnesses she locates start dying. Is the "Butcher of Butchers Hill" as it again? Or is there another, even more sinister force at work?

She reluctantly accepts a 2nd case of a woman looking for her sister. Tess quickly finds out that there is no sister and the woman she is looking for is the woman's real idenity. Passing the test she is then assigned to find out what happened to a daughter she gave up for adoption 13 years before. Both cases overlap as Tess tries to discover the truth buried under all the lies.

This novel was inspired by a real-life Baltimore homicide, the story of a man who shot and killed a 13-year-old boy who had thrown rocks at his car. I find myself really liking this character with each book. We see how she is developing into herself. Lots of plot twists and I found myself wondering who was really the bad guy here.