The year’s not over with yet, but with the holidays coming up and a list of things I still want to do (top ten list, challenge wrap-ups, goals for 2012, etc.), I thought I’d post this now and do a follow-up later, if needed. Plus, if I never get around to writing all the reviews, at least I have one post I can refer to.  The books are listed in the order in which they were read.

5 Stars

Buffalo West Wing (Hyzy, Julie) {16 Jan 11}
Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil (Karpyshyn, Drew) {6 Feb 11}
Unchained (Ashwood, Sharon) {26 Feb 11}
Queen of Shadows (Sylvan, Dianne) {14 Mar 11}
Song of Scarabaeus (Creasy, Sara) {23 Mar 11}
The Hunger Games (Collins, Suzanne) {6 Apr 11}
Visions of Heat (Singh, Nalini) {12 May 11}
Magic Lost Trouble Found (Shearin, Lisa) {21 May 11}
Caressed by Ice (Singh, Nalini) {22 May 11}
Mine to Possess (Singh, Nalini) {24 May 11}
Magic Slays (Andrews, Ilona) {1 Jun 11}
Renegade Angel (Castle, Kendra Leigh) {6 Jun 11}
Frostbound (Ashwood, Sharon) {13 Jun 11}
Red Heat (Bruhns, Nina) {22 Jun 11}}
Touched by an Alien (Koch, Gini) {30 Jun 11}
Dragon Bound (Harrison, Thea) {2 Jul 11}
Storm’s Heart (Harrison, Thea) {5 Aug 11}
Branded by Fire (Singh, Nalini) {15 Aug 11}
Tiger Eye (Liu, Marjorie M.) {4 Sep 11}
Blaze of Memory (Singh, Nalina) {18 Sep 11}
Bonds of Justice (Singh, Nalini) {23 Oct 11}

4 Stars

Black Wings (Henry, Christina) {4 Jan 11}
Blood Spells (Andersen, Jessica) {20 Feb 11}
Whisper Kiss (Cooke, Deborah {28 Feb 11}
Paying the Virgin’s Price (Merrill, Christine) {12 Mar 11}
Kitty and the Midnight Hour (Vaughn, Carrie) {19 Mar 11}
A Taste of Magic (Madison, Tracy) {31 Mar 11}
Bound by Shadow (Windsor, Anna) {11 Apr 11}
Darkness Dawns (Duvall, Dianne) {17 Apr 11}
Visions of Magic (Hastings, Regan) {24 Apr 11}
Beyond the Night (Ware, Joss) {29 Apr 11}
Secret Society Girl (Peterfreund, Diana) {1 May 11}
Halfway to the Grave (Frost, Jeaniene) {9 May 11}
Just the Sexiest Man Alive (James, Julie) {2 Jun 11}
Master of None (Bateman, Sonya) {5 Jun 11}
Stormwalker (James, Allyson) {11 June 11}
Cold as Ice (Stuart, Anne) {4 Jul 11}
Sylvester (Heyer, Georgette) {10 Jul 11}
Kiss of Midnight (Adrian, Lara) {25 Jul 11}
Marked (Naughton, Elisabeth) {31 Jul 11}
Hostage to Pleasure (Singh, Nalini) {8 Aug 11}
Blood Bound (Briggs, Patricia) {13 Aug 11}
Heiress in Love (Brooke, Christina) {20 Aug 11}
A Regimental Murder (Gardner, Ashley) {27 Aug 11}
Kindling the Moon (Bennett, Jenn) {2 Sep 11}
Kiss of Crimson (Adrian, Lara) {8 Sep 11}
His Majesty’s Dragon (Novik, Naomi) {17 Sep 11}
Murder with Puffins (Andrews, Donna) {20 Sep 11}
Sins of the Angels (Poitevin, Linda) {30 Sep 11}
The Brain and the Beauty (Eliot, Betsy) {6 Oct 11}
Shadow Kin (Scott, M. J.) {8 Oct 11}
Flying Blind (Cooke, Deborah) {11 Oct 11}
Black Night (Henry, Christina) {29 Oct 11}

3 Stars

The Painted Lady (Metzger, Barbara) {10 Jan 11}
Not Without Her Family (Andrews, Beth) {24 Jan 11}
The Lord and Wayward Lady (Allen, Louise) {30 Jan 11}
Persecuted (Childs, Lisa) {27 Mar 11}
Hot Mama (Estep, Jennifer) {15 Apr 11}
Darkfire Kiss (Cooke, Deborah) {29 May 11}
Jedi Twilight (Reaves, Michael) {17 Jul 11}
Pride Mates (Ashley, Jennifer) {24 Aug 11}
Passions of a Wicked Earl (Heath, Lorraine) {24 Sep 11}
Viper Moon (Roland, Lee) {29 Sep 11}
Serpent’s Kiss (Harrison, Thea) {6 Nov 11}

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Haunted

Author: Lisa Childs
Copyright: 2006 (Harlequin); pgs. 296
Series: Silhouette Nocturne #6; Witch Hunt #1
Sensuality: Warm

Who:  Ariel Cooper (witch) and David Koster
Where: Michigan

Ariel Cooper is  descended for a long line of witches, each who had a different “gift”.  Ariel’s gift is that she can see the dead.  When she and her sisters — Elena, the eldest and Irina, the youngest — were children, they were taken from their mother.  Before that event, Myra Cooper told them the family legend and gave each of her daughters one of the family charms to help protect them.  Ariel and her sisters were separated and she hasn’t see them since.

Life has been rough for Ariel.  Bounced around from foster family to foster family, and thought to be crazy, Ariel has found it hard to get close to people.  Even so, she’s managed to go to college and become an elementary school teacher.  She’s been dating the brilliant and wealthy David Koster for six months, having met when one of her student writing assignments led to him visiting her classroom.  Though she’s had her heart broken before, Ariel can’t help but fall for this kind and generous man.  In the time that they’ve been dating, she’s manage to keep her secret from him, afraid that she’ll lose him.

But all that changes when the ghost of one of her students appears suddenly in her classroom.  Ariel had long suspected that the little girl was being abused, but without proof, she could only do so much.  She sends the police, already knowing it’s too late to save the child.  The incident leaves her wracked with guilt.  For not being able to help the little girl, for keeping secrets from David and for pushing him away when he was trying to comfort her, and for putting his best friend, police officer Ty McIntyre, in danger.

The incident has also made David realize that he’s afraid to lose Ariel.  He loves her, at that frightens her.  Shunned once before by a former boyfriend, Ariel struggles with telling him the truth.  She keeps putting it off, and instead focuses on finding out what happened to her sisters.  The reason for the urgency is that an old enemy of the witches is out for revenge, and several members of Ariel’s extended maternal family end up dead, including her own mother.  The mysterious killer is after the sisters and their charms.

Since this is the first book in a trilogy, the main story threads — the sisters reuniting and confronting their enemy — are not resolved in this book.  The primary focus is on Ariel’s struggle with being rejected all her life.  She was never adopted and her name was never changed, nor did she leave the community she grew up in.  If any of her family had really wanted her, they could have found her easily enough.  She is stunned to learn that a least one of her sisters lives nearby.

This was a quick read, once I had several hours on uninterrupted reading time.  It wasn’t a scary story or very suspenseful.  Since romance books like this must have a happy ending, the author’s attempt to make us believe the hero was actually the bad guy wasn’t very effective.  I never once thought David was the culprit.

Started: 6 September 2008
Finished: 10 September 2008

Teaser Tuesdays post

Rating:

Enjoyed it!

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to:

Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

The teaser:

As soon as the old woman had given him the book, he had read it all.  He knew every secret now, the other things his ancestor had admitted only in the pages of his private journal.

– from page 95, Haunted (Lisa Childs)

Why I picked this book: I’m reading this Silhouette Nocturne as part of the Ghostly Challenge.  The main character, Ariel Cooper, is a witch who can see the souls of the newly departed.