BREATHLESS by Dean Koontz

Breathless by Dean Koontz will leave you breathless!

While walking in the woods Grady Adams and his dog Merlin witness something truly amazing. Doctor Cammy Rivers helps run a golden retriever rescue group called Rocky Mountain Gold.

They take custody of 24 breeder dogs that have been mistreated
almost beyond repair. Later in the day, after working flat out to rehabilitate these poor animals, Cammy and her helpers experience a strange phenomenon.
In a farmhouse just off the State highway, something terrible takes place between 2 brothers.
All the animals in the tranquil valleys and hills of the Colorado mountains seem to be affected by something extraordinary -
they are listening, waiting...
Lamar Woolsey in in Las Vegas, looking to do a good deed.

At a fast moving pace, Breathless enlarges upon these seemingly random, supernatural events, which culminate into something
that just could happen, in the future.

Beautifully descriptive, Breathless is Dean Koontz at his most unique, a gripping and suspenseful thriller.

Happy reading!

EVERYTHING AND THE MOON by Julia Quinn

Who believes in love at first sight?

When Robert Kemble, the Earl of Macclesfield, first laid eyes on Victoria Lyndon it is, for him, love at first sight. He promises to give her everything and the moon to prove his love for her.
It's not her beauty, her intelligence, or her grace, but yet she is just perfect. Robert is completely smitten, and vows to marry her one day.

Even though Victoria knows that nothing can come of their union, she falls in love with him too. For 2 months he courts her, secretly. Her father, who is a Vicar, would definitely not approve of their ill-matched relationship. Eventually, of course, her father finds out and is very angry, telling her that the son of an Earl will never marry a lowly Vicar's daughter.

When Robert tells his father he plans to marry the Vicar's daughter, the Earl warns him he faces disinheritance. How will the love
of his life feel about him when he is penniless? Robert refuses to believe that Victoria would not love him if he lost all his money, she would never be so shallow.

The only thing to do is for them to elope.

Plans are made, and then everything goes horribly wrong...

Julia Quinn writes delightful Regency romances, fast-paced, funny, and sparkling.

"Everything and the Moon"is the story of ill-fated love.

A witty tale of wrong assumptions and mistakenly drawn conclusions, this was a charming read which I thoroughly enjoyed, highly entertaining and ideal for a lazy day.

Happy reading!

IN THE MOOD by Suzanne MacPherson

Is it possible to be "in the mood" when your life is spent constantly juggling your bank balance to make ends meet?

In the Mood takes us into the life of Allison Jennings, a struggling single mom, struggling to keep her car from dying, struggling to make ends meet in her dead-end job in an ice cream parlour, batting away the sexual harrassment from her creepy little boss. Her only entertainment is reading tabloid tales about the rich and famous.

Then there is Ethan, her 10 year old son. He is a bright, extremely clever child, a budding little scientist in the making. She knows that very soon he will need to go to a better school. She needs money for his education and all the other things he will need to secure his future. How is she going to manage it all?

"Get married again" her ex says helpfully. But who has the time to meet men, let alone date? Then a fairy godmother in the form of Allison's old school friend Bunny, takes her in hand and gives her a massive makeover in preparation of snaring herself a husband - preferably a rich one. Together they attend a 4th of July party at the estate of billionaire Dex Needham.

The attraction between Dex and Allison is instantaneous - and is it possible they have met before?
Every now and then I feel the need to take a break from gory, gruesome murder thrillers - which I love - and escape with some pure chicklit. In the Mood is just such a book, light and funny and heartwarming, a rags-to-riches love story.

Happy reading!

THIRTEEN HOURS by Deon Meyer

13 Hours by Deon Meyer is the time Detective Benny Griessel has to find a missing girl before all hell breaks loose.

An American girl backpacker is murdered and her friend is on the run, fighting for her life. When she disappears, Detective Benny Griessel has just 13 hours to find her. Griessel, overworked and underpaid, has a drinking problem, his job is in jeopardy  and his wife has left him, and this all conspires to make it a very bad day for him.

As case after case begin to pile up, the obstacles he has to deal with, lack of properly trained staff, incompetence, the ever present racism and Eskom power cuts try his patience.

As well as the hunt for the missing girl, a well known record producer is found murdered, and the investigation offers an interesting insight into the South African music industry.

Suspicion immediately falls upon the wife, once a hugely popular singer, now a washed out has-been. Benny used to be a fan, and doesn't want to believe the wife is guilty.

Billed by his publishers as "The King of South African Crime Thrillers", Deon Meyer's 13 Hours was my first SA book, set in Cape Town, and it was interesting to experience that little jolt of recognition at the mention of things like SA celebrities and YOU magazine, familiar places and street names, accents and customs, to name but a few, as well as being immensely readable, this gets my top vote!

Happy reading!

ONE DAY IN MAY by Catherine Alliott

All her life, Hattie has been the independent free spirit, never married, with an adopted child who she rescued from war-torn Bosnia, setting up her own business, travelling to France 4 times a year to replenish stock for her antiques shop, happy to flaunt her toyboy lover.

She sees herself as unlucky in love, having fallen hard for her boss, years ago, a married man. All they had shared was 1 stolen kiss, yet the guilt remains, especially as it was Dominic's pregnant wife who discovered them.
Now Dominic is dead, killed in an isolated terrorist attack, and no other man has ever measured up to him.

15 years later, she meets up again with Dom's younger brother Hal, who was her best friend in college, and old feelings resurface, but Hal is engaged to be married in a few month's time. Circumstances in her life start to overwhelm her and she realizes how alone she really is, in spite of her close, loving family and friends, she is a lonely middle-aged woman on a downward path to being old, when all she had ever really wanted was to be barefoot and pregnant, happily married to the man of her dreams, a brood of kids and a cottage in the country.

Only after she faces up to this reality, can she finally admit the truth about what really happened one day in May between her and Dominic.

One Day in May is filled with hopes and dreams, of how Hattie fell in love with the unattainable, finally grew up, lived her life, and then met the man who became her one true love.

There are parts that will have you laugh hysterically out loud, and parts where you want to cringe with embarrassment for Hattie as she repeatedly puts her foot in it, and parts that will make you cry.

There is depth, harsh reality and ugliness also, as truths long hidden begin to emerge. One Day in May is compulsively readable, touching and completely charming.

Yes there is a happy ending here, but perhaps not quite the one you think.

Happy reading!

CHILL FACTOR by Sandra Brown

Cleary, North Carolina, with a record-breaking storm setting in. One of the worst winter storms in recent history. People are
being advised to take precautions, stock provisions, and stay at home.
Ben Tierney is on the mountain, looking at 4 old shallow graves, and 1 new one which is waiting for Millicent Gunn, reported missing a week ago.
Police Chief Dutch Burton and his newly divorced wife Lilly are packing up their belongings in the mountain cabin they once
shared together. She is leaving for good, and going back to Atlanta to carry on with her life, alone. Dutch finally leaves and exhausted, she falls asleep, only to wake as the storm picks up speed. She has to drive off the mountain in icy conditions.

Suddenly a human figure jumps into her path, and she swerves and crashes her car into a tree. She finds she has hit Ben Tierney, he is injured, but not too seriously it seems. They need to get out of the oncoming storm and head back to Lilly's cabin.

Wes and Scott Hamer, father and son, are training together in the high school gym. Scott is resentful of his father's insistence that he lift more and more weights, he just wants to get out of there and go home for dinner. He is thinking about Millicent Gunn.
Marilee and William Ritt, brother and sister and owners of the town drugstore, prepare to leave work and get home before the storm worsens. Marilee is a teacher at the high school. She and her brother are both still single and live together. She overhears two of her female students talking about the recent disappearances of 5 women. The one girl says her father has given her a gun to keep in her car, and told her not to hesitate to use it. Wes and Scott walk in and Wes immediately starts flirting with Marilee. Very soon, chaos reigns in town. Traffic is congested, traffic lights are out, sleet is pelting down, the police have their hands full trying to control the pandemonium generated by the approaching storm. And in the midst of all this, Dutch has to deal with the parents of the missing girl.

Meanwhile, the FBI are investigating Ben Tierney's background, and have come up with some
interesting facts...

The build-up of tension is gripping, along with the bone chilling cold, as Dutch strives in vain to rescue Lilly, and his ever-increasing fear of the man she is trapped in the cabin with.

A really good, fast moving thriller, "Chill Factor"races towards its chilling climax.

Happy reading!

AN OFFER FROM A GENTLEMAN by Julia Quinn

When Sophie receives an offer from a gentleman she is shocked and disillusioned, not what she expected from Prince Charming!

Sophia Maria Beckett is the illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Penwood, deposited on his doorstep at the age of 3. Forced to take her in and give her a home, she is cared for and educated, but never once does the Earl acknowledge her as his child. When Sophie is 7 the Earl remarries, a lady with 2 daughters close to Sophie in age, and she is excited at the prospect of having sisters, but her new stepmother hates her on sight, treats her like a servant, and very reluctantly agrees to have Sophie in the schoolroom with her own precious daughters. Her 2 stepsisters are not much better, taking their mother's example, and Sophie's longing for a family is not to be.

When the Earl dies unexpectedly, Sophie is reduced to nothing more than an overworked, and unpaid, drudge.

So the years pass, it is 1815, and Mrs Bridgerton is having a masquerade ball that Sophie's stepmother and -sisters are preparing to attend. After they leave, the housekeeper, who is very fond of Sophie, tells her to get ready for the ball as well. They dress her up and send her on her way, and as it is a masked ball, no one will know who she is. There she meets her very own Prince Charming, Benedict Bridgerton, a highly eligible bachelor who is dead set against shackling himself to some empty-headed debutante. When he meets Sophie, it is love at first sight, but as the clock strikes midnight she runs off, without even telling him her name.

Two years later they meet again, Sophie's circumstances have worsened, her wicked stepmother has thrown her out of the house virtually penniless and she has been forced to seek whatever employment she can find. When she and Benedict suddenly come face to face, she waits breathlessly for him to recognise her, but... he doesn't, and instead makes her an offer she has to refuse.

This author was advertised as the new Georgette Heyer, and curious to see if anyone could match up to that description, I took 2 books by Ms Quinn to test. It was an absolutely delightful read, very funny and tender. This is a Cinderella story with all the right elements, the wicked stepmother, the stepsisters except they arn't ugly, the beautiful but penniless young girl and the handsome prince, with its own unique version of the fairytale which I found so sweet and charming I couldn't put it down, and will definitely look for more books by this author.

Happy reading!

THE KILLING PLACE by Tess Gerritsen

Here is a new book in the Detective Jane Rizzoli and Medical Examiner Maura Isles series.

16 years previously, a creepy man with homicidal tendencies named Prophet Jeremiah Goode, ran a religious community of people who call themselves The Gathering, in a village called Kingdom Come, in snowy Wyoming. What else went on in this pseudo-religious setting we have yet to discover.

Fast forward to present day, and Maura Isles is in the throes of ending an already dead relationship as she travels to attend a conference. There she meets Doug, an old friend, and over dinner he proposes Maura join him, his daughter Grace, and another couple, Arlo and Elaine, on a cross country ski trip for the day, before her return to Boston. She agrees, and they set off, but somewhere they take a wrong turn, and end up stranded on a deserted road, their car in a ditch. Forced to abandon the car, they walk through the falling snow to a village called Kingdom Come.

Their situation worsens as they trudge through the snow, there is no cell phone reception, and Maura silently berates herself for agreeing to come on this trip in the first place. In the village they find 2 rows of identical houses, all deserted. The beds neatly made up, the table laid with plates, food on the plates, now frozen, snow piling on the floor beneath open windows. Where are the people? They are well and truly stranded, and nobody knows where they are. Searching the houses, they find evidence of some sort of religious community. They also find dead pets, and bloodstains on the floor, and it is clear that something terrible happened in Kingdom Come.

Meanwhile, back in Boston, when Maura fails to return home, Detective Jane Rizzoli sets out to find her missing friend. After much back and forth, her search eventually leads her to Kingdom Come, where a gruesome discovery lies buried beneath the snow...

This was definitely the scariest book I have read from this author, and it was so gripping I stayed up half the night to find out what happens.

Happy reading!