LanyCassandra's 75 in 2012

Starting a little late, but so far I have the following:

1. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, spy (spy thriller)

2. A Perfect Blood (Urban fantasy series)

3. Bayou Moon (paranormal mystery)

4. Hot Blooded (New Orleans Series #1) (crime/thiller series, but can stand alone)
5. Cold Blooded (crime/thiller series, but can stand alone)
6. Shiver (new Orleans series #3) (crime/thiller series, but can stand alone)
7. Lost Souls (crime/thiller series, but can stand alone)
8. Absolute Fear (crime/thiller series, but can stand alone)
9. Malice (crime/thiller series, but can stand alone)

10. The Unseen (paranormal mystery, series, but can stand alone)

11. If Walls could Talk (paranormal mystery, series)
12. Dead Bolt (paranormal mystery, series)

13. Homicide in Hardcover (mystery, series)
14. If Books Could Kill (mystery, series)
15. The Lies that Bind (mystery, series)
16. Murder Under Cover (mystery, series)

17. The Red Queen (historical fiction, series but can stand alone)

18. Curse of the Spellmans (fiction, (not sure mystery is quite right) light hearted, series)
19. Revenge of the Spellmans (series)
20. Spellmans Strike Again (fiction, series, lighthearted mystery(ish))
21. Trail of the Spellmans (fiction, series, lighthearted mystery(ish))

22. Catch Me (fiction, mystery/thriller)

23. Explosive Eighteen (series, fiction, mystery)

24. The Devil's Elixir (thiller)

25. Private Games (thiller)

26. D.C. Dead
27. Son of Stone This actually comes before D.C. Dead.

28. In the Courts of the Sun

29. The Whole Truth

30. Lord John and the Private Matter

31. The Boleyn Inheritance

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Welcome! Looks like a great list so far. I've got the latest Spellman book on my library stack just waiting for me to pick it up! I'm gonna have to hide it from the wife though...she'll steal it from me. :)

Thanks. I love the Spellman books. They are actually rereads. A friend recommended them when I got my PI licence. (MY family is not like the Spellmans though)

Looking through some of the lists, I see that a lot of people offer reviews of the books they read. I am really not that great at long reviews (mostly to avoid spoilers) but I will give a few impressions:

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy It had been many year since I last read a Le Carre novel (maybe A Perfect Spy?) I admit it was a lot slower going than I had expected it to be. Took a long time to get through it and I put it now several times and didn't pick it up again for a week or more. In the end, it is a good story that is worth finishing, but I think I have become rather spoiled/lazy with my fast moving crime dramas. I haven't seen the movie yet, but am looking forward to seeing how it translates to the screen.

A Perfect Blood is the 10th book in Kim Harrison's Hallows series. I love this urban fantasy/paranormal detective series. Racheal investigates someone(s) who is/are impersonating demons and ends up kidnapped herself and struggles with her self esteame and her "demon" classification and trying to "fit in" with the expectations the witches have put upon her. Through the story her relationship with Trent continues to develop, but it still doesn't seem to get anywhere (and that was rather disappointing---I have been 'shipping them for 10 books)

Bayou Moon I was surprised how much I liked this story (it was a discounted nook book). The combination of the investigation, the con game and the supernatural all blend together really well to make an interesting story as a young woman tries to figure out what happened to her mother 20 years earlier. I will certainly look for more books by this aurthor.

The Unseen Heather Graham is my go to for paranormal mysteries. I always enjoy her storiesand this one was no exception. A new team of the Krewe of Hunters is being put together in San Antonio, Texas. The first two members are Raintree, a Texas Ranger with Native American heritage who can see ghosts and O'brien, an ICE agent who has "great instincts". Her "abilities" are still pretty new and grow as she and Raintree communicate with ghosts and follow signs to help solve a series of brutal murders occurring near the Alamo. Graham once again delivers a great read.

Lisa Jackson's 6 book New Orleans series:
Hot Blooded (New Orleans Series #1)
Cold Blooded
Shiver (new Orleans series #3)
Lost Souls
Absolute Fear
Malice

I like following the police officers and their families as they solved these crimes. I did notice a few continuity errors in a couple of the later books which I found greatly distracting, especially as the reason was to tie the two families together. They were colse enough that this artifical plot device was not needed and it definately took away from the story. (ok, I tend to be a little picky about long stories)

They are a good series, but not a great one. I liked the first couple of books best and the last couple the least. I find this happens a lot with long series. The continuity errors are a part of it, but I think the characters were just tired by the end of the series.

Over all, I did like the series.

(no ghosts in these books, just "regular" crime thrillers )

Wow, I should not be allowed to post/type anything after 10pm...every single one had typos. :lol:

If Walls Could Talk, Dead Bolt. This is the second series I have read by this author and I like it a lot. Paranormal mystery but not as intense as the Heather Graham books. Not exactly lighthearted, but certainly on the lighter side of crime dramas. I am a DIYer, love old homes and restoring them to their original beauty (not that I have actually dome much of this, but certainly love the idea of it) so these books appealed to me o several levels. Also, as a woman who has been in male dominated professions, I love the quirky heroine, Mel Turner, that runs the construction company, and doesn’t let the job cramp her style. Definitely fun reads that I would recommend to anyone who likes paranormal mysteries and strong, determined women.

Homicide in Hardcover
If Books Could Kill
The Lies that Bind
Murder Under Cover
There is really only one word needed to describe this series: FLUFF.
Not that fluff is a bad thing, sometimes it is exactly what is needed to distract you from real life. In some ways they reminded me a bit of the tv show “Murder, She Wrote.” Which leads me to my biggest complaint with the books, there is no time lapse between them. In just a few short months (5), one woman is involved in over 10 murders. (kind of made me think of Cabot Cove being the murder capital of the US). I did enjoy the books and I liked learning about book binding and restoration. Cute, fluff, fun.

The Red Queen I should have skipped this one since I did not enjoy The White Queen by the same author, but it sounded so interesting and I always wondered about Margaret Beaufort (she is the “very devout” grandmother of Henry VIII that helped raise him).

The main issue for me is that I really don’t like books written in the first person, especially when the main character is totally unsympathetic and comes across as more narcissistic than any other character I have read (other than Elizabeth Woodville from The White Queen). I honestly think a large part of the problem is the author/writing style.

The good parts: I love historical novels in general and the War of the Roses is such a great time period for them. Seeing what the daily life of people (nobility, of course) was like, the great detail and amazing amount of research all enabled me to get through the book.

There are several other books in this series (The Cousins War) and part of me wants to read them, but part of me dreads it as well.

(I have read The Sunne in Splendour and Figures in Silk that also deal with the War of the Roses and loved them both)

One of the major downsides to living in a rural area is the small sucky library. I have requested #4 & #5 of the Spellman books on inter-library loan.

In the mean time, I picked up Wormwood and Magic Bleeds & Magic Slays (I think they are 2&4 of the series) to keep me busy until the Spellman books come in.

The helpful dude working there also showed me how to download books to my nook, but the good ones are still "out" with waiting lists.

I got the Spellman books and will be starting them. I didn't like Wormwood at all. It rambled too much and I just couldn't get into it.

Magic Bleeds and Magic Slays are like 4&5 in the series and they were not stand alone books. I need to read the first ones to fully understand them.

I got the latest Spellman from the library, and it was promptly snagged by the wife. I'm gonna have to be a rebel and rk up some overdue charges if I want to read it. Fortunately it's only 20 cents a day and I read fast. :)

Excellent. I read #4 in under 24 hours and am strating on #5 Trail of the Spellmans I have a doctor's visit tomorrow one hour away and the husband is driving, so I will have a lot of extra reading time. Should get it finished by the end of the day (it's a work free day after my procedure :) )

18. Curse of the Spellmans
19. Revenge of the Spellmans
20. Spellmans Strike Again
21. Trail of the Spellmans

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz are probably the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time. There are currently 5 books in the series (the first one is actually titled The Spellman Files.)

The Spellmans are a rather dysfunctional family of private investigators living in San Francisco. The stories are told from the point of view of Izzy (Isabel) the middle child and to date cover about 7 years in their lives. They all tend to investigate each other, and anyone that dares to date them or even befriend them. I would hate to spoil the books for anyone, so I think I’ll just describe the Spellman family:

Dad (Al, Albert): Former police officer; big guy with health/weight issues, but rather laid back (most of the time);

Mom (Olivia): a true and professional meddler in her children’s lives.

David: the oldest of their children; nearly perfect, well behaved, good grades, law school, corporate lawyer, blah blah blah. (I might be channeling Izzy there ; ) )

Isabel (Izzy): The middle child, (I keep hearing “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha” when I think of her and David) rebels against just about everything. I get the feeling that since she couldn’t live up to the standards David set, she goes completely in the opposite direction. Her rebellion is not limited to her teens, but follows her into her 20’s and maybe beyond. I honestly think Izzy is the most like her mother and was born to be a PI. She has a curiosity that she can’t overcome and often investigates things/people that she should leave alone (having a restraining order against you should be a clue). But I love Izzy and her rebellious, quirky ways. Although she is the narrator of the story, you still get to see all her faults.

Rae: the youngest, 14 at the start of the books, (13/14 years younger than Izzy, 15/16 years younger than David) and a pretty typical “baby” of the family (if anything about this family is typical, it is the family placement and roles). Rae is the ultimate negotiator and refuses to ever take no for an answer and does what she wants, working to bring everyone else to here point of view. Sometimes she can seem a little bratty, but I am not sure that isn’t a little of Izzy’s bias. (ok, maybe she is a little bratty from time to time, but who isn’t?) Rae is also a skilled blackmailer, just like the rest of her family.

If you want fun, quirky stories about a family that you can care about, this is a great series.

Been a little slow on updating my list. I missed my goal by one book, but that isn't so bad considering how far I was behind when I started.

Starting In the Courts of the Sun today. Should be very interesting mixture of myth and science. (the 2012 Mayan calendar combined with computer gamers/programers). Pretty excited about this one.