The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

In Brisbane, Australia, a passenger ship docks and the passengers disembark and disburse. A young girl of 4 is discovered on the docks by the wharf master, alone, sitting on a small suitcase. She doesn't know her name or where she is from. The wharf master takes her home and when, after several days, no inquiries are made about her, he and his wife decide to call her Nell and keep her as their own.

The Forgotten Garden is the story of Nell's life, with the mystery of her family origins at its center. The story moves back and forth between the early 1900s, the 1970s, and 2005, and incorporates Nell's ancestors and descendants into the story as the mystery slowly unfolds. It is a dark, gothic tale full of family secrets with themes of enchantment and faerie tales woven throughout. I really liked the the character of Cassandra, Nell's granddaughter, and her time spent at the atmospheric Cliff Cottage on the edge of the sea.

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The Vampire Shrink by Lynda Hilburn

Vampires in the Club Kismet is a psychologist in Denver. She meets with a 20-something client, Midnight, whose parents insist on a counseling appointment because of Midnight's infatuation with the underground vampire culture in Denver's nightlife scene, particularly the crowd that hangs out at The Crypt, a popular goth/alternative dance club. Midnight insists that vampires are real and wants to become one; Kismet discovers Midnight is also a lonely individual whose mother is unavailable and whose father is a long-time untreated addict. Kismet becomes interested in the vampire culture and considers writing a book about the psychology of vampire wannabes. Then she meets Devereaux, the owner of The Crypt nightclub. After meeting Devereaux, and other not-near-as-pleasant night walkers who habitually terrorize others, Kismet doesn't know what to believe about whether or not vampires really exist. But she does know her feelings for Devereaux have magic intensity. This is a se...

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

A fantastic winter folktale, bleak and beautiful The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey Reagan Arthur / Back Bay Books The Snow Child is a beautifully written story inspired by a Russian fairy tale. In a rare moment of playfulness, a childless couple named Jack and Mabel lovingly create a little girl made of snow. The next day, the snow person is gone but Jack and Mabel begin seeing glimpses and finding evidence of a young girl in the woods near their homesteading cabin. Jack and Mabel have come to Alaska in the 1920s with hopes of a new start. They’re barely surviving on the return from their crops, farmed exclusively by Jack, while Mabel makes baked goods for a little extra money. They’re considering admitting defeat and leaving Alaska behind when new connections with others in the area, including the mysterious snow child, give them new hope. The atmospheric differences in the writing between the spare, exhausting, isolated despair of Jack and Mabel at the beginning ...

Best Reads ~ 2015 I read 45 b ooks in 2015, and most of those were at least medium enjoyable, but there were about a dozen that stood out from the rest, and one of those was a real surprise to me. It came late in the year and moved right to the front of the line. That book was The Martian by Andy Weir. Hard sci-fi is not something I usually read, but this story captured me. It incorporated adventure, suspense, humor, politics, and lots and lots of science. The list of my best reads of 2015 is below, and each book is reviewed in separate posts. Remember, these are not books that were published in 2015, simply books I read in 2015. The Martian by Andy Weir The Marauders by Tom Cooper The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater Salvage and Demolition by Tim Powers Celeste by I.N.J. Culbard America's Boy by Wade Rou...

Midnight (W)rite ~ Book reviews and other curiosities

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