Book 2-Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible

Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible by Ursula Vernon is a witty and charming children's book.  Written in a wonderful tongue-in-cheek fashion this author continues to remind me of Mercer Meyer for older children.  In this retelling of sleeping beauty, Harriet proves herself to be anything but a normal fairy tale princess who's willing to accept her fate without a fight.  Neither the curse fate nor her princess fate goes down easy and she quickly proves herself to be more obstinate than those around her expect.  The following early quote is a good example of both the princess and the style of the book:

Her deportment teacher tried to make her walk around with a book on her head to improve her posture. He was later found in the library with a book stuffed in his mouth, and Harriet was grounded for a month.

I discovered Ursula Vernon in an earlier read-a-thon and have been reading her books ever since on read-a-thon day because they're easy, well written and make me laugh.

Fall 2015 Mid-event survey.

Mid-Event Survey:

1. What are you reading right now?

Listening to Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris



2. How many books have you read so far?

two


3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

Not sure yet.



4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

Fair bit of family and mostly just went with it.  It is very hard to convince your almost 80 year old mother not to try to talk to you while your listening to an audio book.


5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

That I haven't had a nap yet but that will be changing shortly.

Fall Read-a-thon 2015 1st book-Jekyll Island

Jekyll Island by Rebecca Patrick-Howard is the fifth book in the Taryn's Camera series.  It centers around around Taryn going to Jekyll island to paint two unrestored cottages.  While there she becomes involved in the mystery of a hotel fire in which many people died more than a century ago and the ghosts won't let her rest until she uncovers the truth.  The only problem is that the case was solved and a man hung for the crime 100 years ago.

This book follows the same format as most of the other books in the series by having both a much older paranormal mystery and a modern one.  Like the previous books I found the modern one horribly annoying and really wish the author would simply leave these out as they aren't all that interesting and detract from the story.  The paranormal ones continue to be both interesting and varied.

Interspersed with the wonderful ghost stories is some really good history of the island which the author clarifies in an author's note so that you'll know what is historical and what is fictional.

These continue to be wonderful, quick and imaginative stories and great entertainment.  Taryn is a fascinating and realistic character especially considering the subject matter.  Her relationships are more unidealistic than I've read in most other books so if you're looking for romance this probably isn't the series for you.

This was a great choice for the read-a-thon and I can only hope that the author will write another book before spring.

Mini-challenge: Cover Escape-peaceful

This looks so isolated and peaceful which would be perfect for a read-a-thon and not the way my day is turning out.

Fall 2015 Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon opening questionaire

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

Williamsport, Pennsylvania USA


2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

Jekyll Island by Rebecca Patrick-Howard 

This is a part of the Taryn's Camera series of paranormal mysteries and it just came out this week in time for the read-a-thon.


3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

Magic cookie pie which I made yesterday and haven't had a chance to try yet.


4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

This is my 6th read-a-thon and aside from some cooking I did yesterday I'm not much more prepared this one than last.  Not too worried about it though as I had a great time in the spring despite not being prepared at all. 


5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today?

Nothing really.  Spring went fairly well and I'm not changing it.

Seven Sisters by M.L. Bullock

Seven Sisters by M.L. Bullock is a supernatural type mystery centered around the restoration of a plantation home in Mobile.  The story is interesting, the writing is good and the book is free on Kindle.  The "free" part is really a lie as it is apparently more of a third of a book that is free.

In the story the main protagonist, Carrie Jo Jardine, is a "dream catcher" who dreams the history of the places where she sleeps.  She is also a trained historian who has been hired to help restore the huge plantation home so it can be turned into a museum.  She soon discovers that there is an old mystery attached to the house regarding an heiress that went missing in the 1850s.   The story centers around what happened to the missing heiress and why a friend, who helped Carrie Jo get the job, is acting so strangely.

This story is a great beginning but ends very abruptly making it very obvious that this is only part of a book.  I have bought the other 2 "books" so I can finish the story but will think long and hard before I start another book by this author.  The deception to lure you into purchasing the books is something I find very hard to accept.

If you like this book try the Taryn's Camera series by Rebecca Patrick-Howard

Griffith Tavern by Rebecca Patrick-Howard

Griffith Tavern by Rebecca Patrick-Howard is the 2nd book in the Taryn's Camera series of ghost stories/mysteries.  The first book, Windwood Farm, was decently written and an interesting story but could have used a more professional editing job.  This book was better edited and the abrupt and confusing scene changes in the first book were pleasantly missing.

In Griffith Tavern Taryn's been hired to do a painting of an old tavern and stage coach inn using her creativity to express how the place would look if fully restored.  Her clients hope the picture will help them raise the money to purchase the property and properly restore the building.  Fairly quickly Taryn, a sensitive, begins to experience ghostly activity and the rest of the story is about her using the clues she is given during this rather varied activity (dreams, sightings and images in the pictures she's taken with her camera) to research and piece together what the ghost is trying to tell her.

As in Windwood Farm, there is a more modern mystery that also comes in to play but that is, in my opinion, just as superfluous in this story as it was in the first one.  Having said that the little bit of twist relating to both mysteries and revealed at the end is kind of cute.

On the whole I had a great time reading this book and easily finished it in 24 hours.  It is just spooky enough to be a good ghost story but not so disturbing to make it a horror novel.

People who like this book would probably enjoy Heather Graham's novels.