Wicked Wildfire

The Wicked Wildfire Read-A-Thon is a time when we all get together to dedicate the days of June 20-24to as much reading as possible. You read as much as you can in order to get yourself a little further through that huge to-read pile! We know real life gets in the way and even if you can’t participate more than one day, you’re welcome to join in on the fun!

In the meanwhile, we will be hosting book-related challenges where you can win some awesome prizes and have a Twitter party at the hashtag #WWReadathon! You can posts updates on your blog, Twitter, Goodreads or Facebook — as long as the profile is public and we all can enjoy your reading progress!

Fifty Percent Off Murder

50% Off Murder is by Josie Belle and is the first book of "Good Buy Girls Mysteries". The Good Buy Girls are friends who love bargains. They clip and share coupons and get together to get the best buys at sales by planning ahead. The town librarian, Claire Freemont comes late to a meeting with a cake but without her cake knife. Maggie Gerber goes to visit her at the library the next day. They discover a dead man who has been stabbed with a knife. The murder weapon turns out to be Claire's knife and she is arrested by the new sheriff, Same Collins, who was Maggie's old boyfriend. The dead man is from Claire's past. Maggie and the rest of the girls try to clear Claire of the murder. They enlist the local ice cream window person as Claire's lawyer as he was a member of the bar. They find out that the dead man had been known to lend money to people and then take over there business and put in franchises which gave them some suspects. We learn a lot about the "girl" and the other members of their community while they are investigating. Will they get Claire off? Will Maggie take over the thrift shop? What other adventures will happen? Reading the book will answer the first question but, we will have to wait for more books to find out the answers to the other two questions. I love cozy mysteries and this book sure fits the bill. I certainly would recommend it to other mystery lovers.

Borrowing the Bride

This book is by Roni Denholtz.

Brett Ryerson believes his first love, Julie Merritt, is engaged to Warren Wesley.  He decides to borrow her  for a few days to convince her that Warren is wrong for her.  What he does not know if that she had broken her engagement but promised not to tell anyone until after the celebration for Warren's win as mayor.  Brett introduces her to several people who have much to tell her about Warren.

Julie decided to go along with him to see if she still had feelings for him and if he had any feelings for her.  His parents are able to see that she does before he realizes that he does.  He learns from someone else that she had broken the engagement and wondered why she had not told him.  She was about to say something just before he learned her secret.

I have not met Roni but we are both fans of Judy Bolton and I have read other books she has written.  I have loved all of them and would recommend them to others who like romance.

Pink House

The Pink House is by Louise Platt Hauck and was published in 1933 by the Penn Publishing Company. This is the story of Jacelyn Westmore whose father had committed suicide after financial disaster. She finds a four room pink house off of Lake Pequoia for a price that she can afford. The house had one major problem - no water inside. There was a pump located outside and a fireplace inside. Mr. Van Cortland decided to sell the house out right vs renting it to summer tenants. It was $3,500 to buy the house. Jocelyn sees that the floor needed refinishing and there was a need for some paint. She decides to confront the seller directly. Philip Rutherford Van Cortland was a young man. He decides to look into repairs and agrees to rent old furniture to her for $100 a month. He made an excuse that he owed her some money which would cover the first few months rental. This book is really about the relationship between Jocelyn and her mother and with Mr. Cortland. Throughout the book, you see a change in relationships and wonder if they are falling in love but just don't realize that they are. Because of the age of this book, it is probably hard to find a copy except perhaps in a library or if someone were to sell their copy. I finished the book in one sitting. I would recommend it to others if they can find a copy.

Redemption Day

Redemption Day by Steve O'Brien was obtained by me as a free e-book from Amazon.com for my kindle for pc application.  The book cover shown is of the book available from Barnes and Noble and cover was copied for spelling purposes.                  

According to a note at the end of this book, there is an organization known as the Posse Comitatus which feels they are justified in doing what they do. .

This book starts with the firing of Nick James, who was a contract employee at Center Tech.  He has a former girlfriend, Kate Buchanan who is an agent from the Department of Justice.  The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is kidnapped and Kate is one of the agents of various government departments assigned to the case.  A sheriff is killed and Nick's gun is found to be the murder weapon, so Nick is on the run from the law.

Nick eventually is captured and winds up helping the task force as he was an expert on the Posse.  In fact, his father as had many other farmers had joined the group as they had promised to help prevent farms from being foreclosed.  Nick's dad actually committed suicide after all was taken from them.

The group calls for Redemption Day which Nick realizes is April 19th as that was when Branch Davidian and Timothy McVeigh acted.  

Are there still people who feel that they are empowered to in act justice under the Constitution?  I am not a purist as the men who framed that document owned slaves and did not consider women to be equal.  This book really makes you realize how easily a city could be cut off from the rest of the world by blowing up a bridge and subway and causing a traffic jam could hurt D.C.  I just hope we are not that exposed to what happens in this work.  I hope government has the means to protect citizens from others who think they are above the law or are the law.

      

May Challenge Buried

 
Buried by Linda Singleton is the story of a finder of lost items.  Thorn's mother is a minister and does not approve of Thorn (real name is Beth Ann) appearing as a Goth girl - dressed in black and wearing wigs, dark makeup, piercings and metal jewelry.  Originally from California, the family is forced to move to Nevada after Mr. Matthews loses his job and Rev. Matthews is offered a post as minister in Nevada.

One day, Thorn finds a necklace which leads her to the bones of an infant in the desert. The local Sheriff originally thinks Thorn may have been involved in their burial but the age of the bones proves that she was not in the area at the time.  Most of the book deals with her search to find out who owned the necklace.  Along the way, she meets the Grim Reaper, a fellow student who gets justice for those who have been wronged.  He becomes very important in her life.  Her relationships with her best friend and her parent's especially her mom change over the course of the book.

I have loved all of Linda's work that I have read.  We first meet in 1986 because of a mutual love of Judy Bolton books by Margaret Sutton.  I am certainly not a teen which is who she writes for but I wish I had a teen I could enjoy this book with as much as my parent's shared the books I loved with me.

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