That stack of books is just part of what I read on vacation last week. Chris and I also listened to a couple Audible books including You Are My Sunshine by Sean Dietrich which I reviewed here, and Down and Out in Paradise : The Life of Anthony Bourdain by Charles Leerhsen. While we loved You Are My Sunshine I can not say the same about the book about Anthony Bourdain. Maybe I wasn’t ready to hear about his troubled life, all the drugs and craziness that was his life, maybe it was just the way the author wrote, maybe it was just not my cup of tea but I found myself not really liking this one at all. And that’s okay. Because I don’t have to love every single book I read.

The other books shown above were great vacation books.

First up: The Family Game by Catherine Steadman. 5 stars on this one, friends, for a great psychological thriller that held my attention. A family drama with a lot of weird stuff including games with rules that aren’t shared, the New York affluent, twists and turns at almost every page turn. Thoroughly enjoyed this one.

The Last to Vanish by popular author Megan Miranda is a great thriller set in North Carolina and centers around some unexplained disappearances that seem connected to The Passage Inn in Cutter’s Creek. Abigail Lovett found a job managing the Inn and while she has been there for 10 years she still feels like an outsider. The feeling continues as more disappearances are unexplained but finally at the end of the book the reader is let in on all of the secrets of the community. A great can’t put it down thriller.

Daddy’s Girl by Lisa Scottoline is an older book from 2007 (thanks, Transylvania Friends of the Library sale) and was just the ticket for this vacation reading marathon. I love her writing and this one was a really great one that I enjoyed. Natalie Greco, a law professor, finds herself involved in a hugely complicated situation when as part of her job she finds herself at a local prison during a riot. If that wasn’t enough she was witness to the last cryptic words of one of the guards before he died and a message to his widow leads Natalie through a complicated and dangerous time. Definitely had some hints along the way in this one but it was a great book that I enjoyed.

The Bookman’s Tale : A Novel of Obsession by Charlie Lovett was attractive because it involves books. I love a good book about books, libraries, librarians, bookstores, anything related to books. I found three in this series in the AAUW donation box so I pulled them to read before they go into a sale and I must admit it is not quite what I anticipated but I gave it a go. The problem I had was that the book goes back and forth, chapter by chapter, between time periods and that is not always my favorite structure. I would just get into the time period and then the new chapter appeared and there I was in another time period. The author obviously loved his subject and put a lot of time into researching the various aspects included in the book such as book binding and the mystery of Shakespearian times but I must admit I struggled a bit with this one. The characters were just okay but I will continue to read in the series to see if I like the next one better.

Finally, Malice House by Megan Shepherd. I saved the best for last. When this one appeared in my local book store, Highland Books, I missed the book signing event by the local author and was sad but did manage to get an autographed copy later. This author has written several YA books and has had great success but this book – whew! I am not a huge horror book reader but this one had me from the start. Honestly, it was a book within a book and I am still looking at Chris suspiciously when he uses his metal straw. (You have to read the book to understand that notation but let your imagination run with it.) I could not read this at nighttime because it was so scary to read. Like I said, this is not my normal read but I could not put it down. I would say that Megan Shepherd has found her sweet spot with this book and I loved it. Once again, a book store was involved so of course I loved that part of it. Hats off to this author. If you like scary and horror- check this one out.

There you have it. Some short reviews of the latest books I read. Stay tuned for more reviews and remember I always love to read what you are reading so leave me a comment and remember to Comment for a Cause – Operation KeepSafe.