I’m a little behind on my reading this month as I have my granddaughter visiting.  We have been very, very busy.

But, before she came, I managed to finish the Shadow Children series.  The last 5 books included:

Among the Betrayed

Among the Barons

Among the Brave

Among the Enemy

Among the Free

This was an intriguing series, to say the least, and gives you an .  Very thought provoking even if it is a book for youth.

I will be starting her first book, “Found” in the Missing Series, soon.  But before I do that, I need to finish up the Elm Creek series and a few other books I have checked out from the library.

My granddaughter is in the Summer reading program at the library while she is here.  For every 3 hours she reads, each week,  or has someone read to her…she gets to hand in a coupon and when she reaches the 3rd week, she gets a prize.  The fourth week she receives a free book and the final week, she receives a T-shirt.

And, our library is also conducting a challenge between our county and the next county over….to see who can get a million pages read first.  So, I get to count the books I read to her plus my own.

Summer time is really busy for me,  but I still want to try and meet my own personal challenge of reading 100 books this year.

Again, another page turner.  Luke is given a chance to live life on the ‘outside’ but he must leave his family and everything that is familiar to him.  Through a set of circumstances, that I don’t want to give away if you haven’t read the first book, Luke receives a new identity and is sent to a boarding school.

What he endures there makes him wonder if his ‘freedom’ is really worth it.  But, as he goes through hardships on the outside, he builds character and learns more about the ’society’ in which he is now living.  He finds that everything is not always as it seems and you aren’t completely sure WHO you can and cannot trust.

The school he attends has no windows and that seems odd to him.  Other boys bully him and try to break him down.

In the end, he prevails, but at what cost?  Did he just trade one set of hardships for another?   Keep reading and you’ll find out!

Do you ever read a book because your 13 year old Granddaughter is reading the series?  Well, after talking to mine, online, I had to see what was so fascinating about the books she was reading.  So, I checked 7 of them out at my local library.

“Among the Hidden” is the first book in the series, “Shadow Children”.  It revolves around a futuristic society where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children.  Luke has lived all of his twelve years in isolation and fear hidden in an attic on his family’s farm until another “third” (a hidden child) convinces him that the government is wrong.

I had to read this book straight through to the end.  It was fascinating, yet at the same time a little scary to think about.

Margaret Peterson Haddix About Margaret Peterson Haddix

Margaret Peterson Haddix is the best-selling author of many books for children and teens. Her books for young readers include Running Out of Time, Among the Hidden, Among the Impostors, Among the Betrayed, and The Girl with 500 Middle Names.

Her work has been honored with the International Reading Association Children’s Book Award, American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults and Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers citations, and several state Readers’ Choice Awards. Margaret Peterson Haddix lives with her family in Columbus, Ohio.

I am loving this series, if you didn’t already know  In Cross Country Quilters, the 5 friends who met at the Elm Creek Inn for a quilt retreat, in the previous book, are challenged to each make a block for the “challenge Quilt” that is symbolic of each of their goals.  The story follows each of them as they reach or try to reach their goals and then all meet up again at the next retreat to share their blocks and then work together to put the quilt together.

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I have to tell you that this series has me wanting to quilt again, even tho I gave up my quilting frame years ago because I just couldn’t get into it!  All this talk about quilting just inspires me to try again.

Even if you aren’t a quilter, the book is so good.  It is about a group of women in a quilt club who bond together and share their lives.

In this book, the Elm Quilt Quilters take up a project to create and finish a quilt in which they have all played a part, thus the name Round Robin Quilt.

I found it fascinating to read how each interpreted their own quilt block and how they went about creating it all the while the story revolves around their lives.  It’s hard not to get caught up into each of their lives and feel as though you are a part of them.  Well, for me, anyway.

I would recommend this series to anyone, quilter or not.  And, if you are a quilter, it will even be that more interesting!

This was my first book by J. B. Stanley.  It caught my attention because of it’s weight loss and mystery combination.  The series is called A Supper Club Mystery.  I really enjoyed that they had a group that mixes men and women.  The author even includes healthy recipes.

The book revolves around the characters of the “Supper Club”.  James Henry leaves his university job, where he was a professor, to return to his hometown to care for his widowed father.   He joins a newly formed “supper club” to hopefully help get an extra 50 pounds off.   He meets Lucy Hanover, who works for the local sheriff’s department.   When someone mysteriously drops dead in the Sweet Tooth Bakery, James and his club members find themselves smack dab in the middle of a murder investigation.

A fun read!!!

I just finished “Murphy’s Law” by Rhys Bowen.  Another new to me author and very enjoyable.  I will definitely read the rest in this series.

I have to say that I picked this book because the protagonist in this book is a redheaded Irishwoman. Being that I am both, it caught my eye.

The story begins at the turn of the century with Molly Murphy, a peasant, needing to get out of Ireland because she accidentally kills someone in self defense.  By fate, she ends up on a steamship bound for America, acting as the “mother” for two children that she is to deliver at NYC.  At Ellis Island, she finds herself entangled in yet another murder (one she had nothing to do with…but that she needs to clear herself of).

She ends up helping the handsome police captain actually solve the murder by her incessant digging for the truth behind the murder.

This was a light, entertaining book which I thoroughly enjoyed!

I needed an author whose name started with a U for my Alphabet Challenge on a group I belong to.  What a way to choose a book, huh? But, it works!!

In “Beautiful Lies”, Ridley Jones, leads a great life as a privileged daughter of doting parents.  But, one morning, as she’s waiting for a cab Ridley saves the life of a child who was almost hit by an oncoming vehicle. The story is all over the news.  What happens after that…..unleashes a series of events that challenges her to question everything in her life.  Does she even know who the people in her life really are, anymore?  Can she trust anyone?

It’s a riveting story that kept me turning page after page.

I just now finished “The Quilter’s Apprentice” by Jennifer Chiaverini. I had picked this novel up at the library because of it’s cover Just now, as I closed the book, I was so disappointed to think that it had ended.

I decided to come online and see if I could find a website for the author and plead with her to write another book and maybe even do a series. Much to my shock and surprise, I found that she has already done just that.  Silly me!!!  This first book was written in 1999 and since then, she has written 10 more in the series, with another one that just released.

She also has two quilt books that include some of the patterns mentioned in the books.

It’s a wonderful story about an older lonely widow, Sylvia Compson, and a younger woman, Sarah McClure, whose husband has recently taken a job in a small town in Pennsylvania.  He gets hired by Mrs. Compson to renovate the gardens so that she can sell the estate.  Sarah comes along, one day, and finds herself hired to clean the house.  Sarah is trying to find a full time job but takes this part time job with the cantankerous old woman cause she needs the money.

As time goes by, each one learns more about the other and themselves as Mrs Compson agrees to teach Sarah to quilt as part of her payment for cleaning.

I loved this book!!!

Ok, I needed a break from cozies so I checked out a new to me author, Stuart Woods’ “Dead in the Water”.

I have to say that he IS a good writer and the story line flowed easily, but, I didn’t care for the sex scenes or some of the language…yeah, call me a prude, I don’t care :-).  I think he could have left that out and it still would have been just as good.  But, that is ME.  I don’t care for all that stuff in my books.

The book starts out with New York lawyer and private investigator Stone Barrington coming to the aid of a woman accused of the murder of her missing, wealthy husband.  It takes some twists and turns here and there.

I might have to check out another of his books to see if this happens in all of them and I sure hope not because it was interesting.

So many books, so little time!!!