Everything Happens for a Reason by Kate Bowler

My mother encouraged me to read this book that in turns made me laugh and cry. Can you be irreverent about cancer? Especially if you are a "good Christian" and the diagnosis makes you question so many things? Yes. But not everyone does it with the grace and truth that Bowler writes with. A dip into "Prosperity Christianity" is included; the belief that, if you believe in God enough, if you are a good person, you will be blessed with whatever you want whether it is health or wealth or anything else. Her look at death made me cry so many times but this is the kind of glimpse into Christianity that I adore; brutally honest about the failings but steadfast nonetheless. This is the glimpse into death that I adore; brutally honest about how much it sucks and not just because you have lost or are losing someone but because of how inadequate our culture is in dealing with it.

Four and a half stars
This book came out February 6th, 2018
Hard copy I passed on
Opinions are my own

Iron Kissed by Patricia Biggs

Mercy's mentor Zee has called her in to help solve a series of murders. The victims were all fae so the human police haven't been brought it. Mercy quickly determines the killer but is shocked when Zee is arrested for the man's death. He is obviously not the killer but the Gray Lords are willing to let him take the fall in order to have it cleaned up quickly. The acceptance of fae by the humans is imperative and having one person go down is not beyond their plans.
But Zee belongs to Mercy. Whether or not he wants her to investigate, she's going to. And this book ends with a rather graphic seen and some discussion of what happens in the aftermath of rape. I am so glad that I read this book even though I listened to the rest of the series because there is at least a bit of space between the book and the brain that sometimes isn't there if you are absorbing a book through your ears. I haven't personally had the experience but, from the outside, it seemed like an eloquent description of what a victim has to wrestle with.

Four stars
Follows Blood Bound
Followed by Bone Crossed
This book came out January 82 2008
Ebook borrowed from library
Opinions are my own

Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs

Mercy agrees to help her vampire friend Stefan by being a witness when he goes to warn a vampire that he is encroaching on the local seed (not sure of spelling). But what they find is something far worse than a regular vampire. Shut out from the investigation at first, Mercy suddenly becomes the only one that can save the world.
I don't love love triangles. And to throw in someone else is just even more frustrating. And there still aren't a lot of women in this series which makes it hard to identify with (basically there's Mercy, then a bitchy werewolf named Honey and the head of the vampires, Marsilia -- not exactly shining examples of womanhood.) I'm giving the series a couple more books but am not interested in a series that drags out the will-they-won't-they.

Three stars
Follows Moon Called
Followed by Iron Kissed
This book came out January 30th, 2007
Opinions are my own

Just This Once by Rosalind James

Hannah Montgomery is a hardworking marketing director for a women's athletic clothing company. She also raised both her sister and her brother. Who could be more deserving of a break? And her vacation to New Zealand is fantastic. At least until she gets sucked into a riptide and starts to tire.
Drew Callahan sees her swimming and is able to come up by her in a kayak and get her to shore. He's immediately intrigued and asks her out. Hannah is surprised at first but soon takes him  up on his offer. They do all sorts of fun things like hiking and going for coffee astonishing Drew because mostly the women he dates just want him to buy them things. See, Drew is a big time rugby star and makes so much money, he should pay for them (is what they think anyway.)
This was a really interesting story because it is part whirlwind romance but then turns into long distance and they make it work. There were parts of the story that dragged a bit but mostly a fun story.

Three and a half stars
Followed by Just Good Friends
This book came out August 29th, 2012
I read this book through Kindle Unlimited
Opinions are my own

The Vanishing by Jayne Ann Krentz

The book opens with Catalina Lark and Olivia Dayton, teenagers spending the night in the local cave, witnessing a murder. They save themselves but it's a near thing and they spend the night trapped in a nightmare. When they come out, the townspeople are happy to believe that it was a hallucination. After all, Fogg Lake was the site of a paranormal disaster fifty years ago and the people of the town have been dealing with psychic repercussions ever since.
In the present day, Catalina and Olivia are private investigators, using their psychic powers to help their clients. One the same night that Catalina goes to save a client, Olivia is kidnapped. Luckily, Slate Arganbright has already come to town looking for her. He is also psychic but is still getting over being locked in his uncles' "attic" after being dosed with an unknown chemical that they thought might be driving him crazy. He might've been for a little bit but now he's here to help Catalina find her friend as well as trying to figure out why collectors of psychic items are dying.
There is some overlap with the Arcane Society novels (Vortex is a "bad guy" in that series as well) but I think this might actually be a similar, but new, world. Because it is so very similar, it took some time to adjust to the fact that this is a new series but there is a LOT of world building so we don't really get to see the relationshp between Catalina and Slate develop.

Three stars

Followed by All the Colors of the Night
This book came out January 7th

ARC kindly provided by Berkley and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Reread November 2020 as audiobook from Overdrive, August 2022, January 2024 as audiobook from Libby

Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn

Meg Mackworth has made enough of a name for herself to be able to support living in New York... NEW YORK. Her hand lettering has even netted her an opportunity to have her own line for a larger stationary (something to do with paper) line of her own. But her secret (putting codes into the designs she makes) is about to be uncovered.
Reid Sutherland was astonished to see the word Mistake spelled out on his wedding programs. It made him rethink the whole marriage. Now he's in the shop where Meg used to work (and is coincidentally filling in) asking her why she thought that it would have been bad for him to follow through.
The two opposites (Meg is into words; Reid works with numbers) start to lean on each other to see the world through a new lens which gives each time to relax.
A lot of people are loving this book and I can see why. It is a book that is going to make you start to notice things. However, there were two distinct points where I thought, "Wow, this is wrapping up to be a satisfying ending" and looked down to see that there were 50-150 pages left in the book. It felt as if there were chunks just pasted on to the end. Otherwise a lovely read.

Three stars
This book came out December 31st

Winter Takes All by M. L. Erdahl

Crystal Rainey starts every year with a list of new resolutions. This year, she creates her list and then accidentally opens her list from the year before. They are eerily similar. A year ago, she was in the exact same place. So she pulls a Jerry Maguire and quits everything. Too bad she actually needs money to live. So she bluffs her way into a job with an outdoor company. And her first trip's co-guide, Connor is pretty cute. Too bad the guests are fairly unpleasant and then, of course, one of them dies from means that seem less than natural. Crystal inexplicably decides that she should investigate the death and inserts herself right in, almost getting killed.
I could not get sympathetic to Crystal. She lies about her experience as an outdoor guide and, having worked with outdoor guides and knowing how easy it is for things to go wrong, it made me very hard for me to suspend my disbelief that everything would be "just fine." For other readers, this may not be a problem but it dropped my reading experience down a star. I also have less patience than I used to for well-meaning characters bumbling into an investigation but thinking that they are "helping."There are too many crime TV and podcast shows out there that mention that you should never mess with evidence and Crystal seemed like the type of character that would devour those shows.

Two and a half stars
This book came out October 23rd, 2019
ARC kindly provided by The Wild Rose Press, Inc. and NetGalley
Opinions are my own