The Runaway Princess by Hester Browne

Amy is a professional landscape artist, gardener.  Leo is a modern day prince working in the world of finance.  He is also "babysitting" his younger brother Rolf, a terror at parties who maneuvers through the world with charm and sex appeal.


Rolf literally crashes Amy's flat mate's party.  He destroys Amy's "Dream Seeds", the key to her business expansion.  Leo cleans up his brother's mess, and "WaLa", it's attraction.  Amy, though, does not know that Rolf and Leo are brothers.  Thus she fails to deduce that Leo, too, is a prince.


Like a spring bouquet, The Runaway Princess, elicited from me a smug little smile and a contented sigh.  I knew what was going to happen, with a few sneaky twists being the exception.  Amy made me laugh, and her friendship with Jo was simply fun.  Of course, in this common girl falls in love with the prince story; the prince is lovely, every girl dream and Amy falls.  I wasn't looking for more.


But, more was what I got.  Amy is complex and Leo isn't perfect. She runs her own business and is savvy about promoting and expanding it.  Like Leo, she is a confident in her work life, unlike Leo she is less sure about her personal life. 



Some other reviewers found her quirks irksome, viewing her as whiny.  I didn't.  The fact that she's a little star struck by Leo's "courtship" and undone by his royal family made her more realistic and relatable.  Furthermore, she does find her footing, not an easy task when you fall for a man like Leo, confident and self assured.  Amy doesn't quiver and give in, even as she navigates the brutal waters of paparazzi, royalty, and new in-laws. 


This story was a fun, clean and current romance; it hints at reality but is also nicely situated between comedy and  romance.

The Gate Keeper by Charles Todd

Inspector Ian Rutledge brought home more than just memories of the trenches in France, he brought the voice of a dead soldier, Hamish MacLeod.  Keeping the memories and Hamish at bay for the past two years has forced Rutledge into the vigorous pursuit of the criminals lurking in the London countryside. 


Restless after the wedding of his beloved sister, Frances, Rutledge goes for a drive on dark country roads. Running from the emptiness of his London flat, he drives straight into a messy murder, when he suddenly has to swerve to a stop to avoid a young woman whose hands are covered in blood and the body of a dead man at her feet.


Her story seems unbelievable.  A man standing in the middle of the road stopped their car, and her companion, Stephen Wentworth, stepped out to see if he could help.  They spoke.  Then the man drew out a revolver and shot Wentworth point blank in the heart. 


Now, intrigued and determined to avoid the loneliness of London, he begins digging into Wentworth's life.  Piece by piece he unravels Wentworth's past, his secrets, but Rutledge struggles to find the piece that links to the cause of his death. 


Charles Todd, a mother and son writing team, have, once again, woven the war, it's damage; the unique characters of Rutledge and Hamish; and a murder into a brilliant mystery.  Characters become real, unique and rich as the writing team fleshes out the life of the victim.  And, Rutledge, well, he remains the poignant, painful hero who cannot shake his demons.


Inspector Rutledge is at the top of my list of favorite detectives.  He's real and the post-war world of England is drawn with the muted colors of a confusing time.  I come back to Charles Todd each time a new book is released, and each time I am rewarded with exceptional story-telling and new insights into the people of the past.

Traces of Guilt by Dee Henderson

Slamming into a deer wasn't the way Evie Blackwell wanted to meet the sheriff of Carin, Illinois.  Then again, she doesn't really remember meeting Gabriel Thane because she took a real knock to her head. 


Evie wanted to arrive as the professional, veteran Illinois State Police detective that she is, prepared to initiate a new state task force on cold cases in Illinois starting in Carin.  Of course, no one really wants her poking around, stirring up past pains and pain mixed with guilt is what surrounds the disappearance of the Florist family. Evie convinces Gabe that this time she will look in new directions, open new doors, make different connections, and she does.


Definitely, a procedural detective novel, the draw of the story lies in the character development and the puzzle in the plot.  Thriller is not an adjective I would use for Traces of Guilt but it was assuredly fascinating.

The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking

    I first came across the word hygge in an article about how some words just don't translate clearly.  Later, I discovered this little book, subtitled Danish Secrets to Happy Living and since then hygge seems to have exploded across the internet and the world.
     Like Winnie-the-Pooh's comment about love, "You don't spell it, you feel it", Wiking spends 200 plus pages exploring the Danish idea of hygge.  The important role of light and candles, friends and family, cozy throws and pillows are all discussed.  I started shopping for organic candles on Amazon after the chapter that highlighted the importance of candles to hygge.
    Ultimately, Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute finds that this concept, atmosphere, bonding and coziness rolled together in hygge bring an element of happiness to the everyday.  He concludes with, "Let's face it, this is where (the everyday) most of our lives will play out....hygge is about making the most of what we have in abundance: the everyday."
    I'm still processing hygge.  I think it will show up in the conglomerate that I am: in my home, my relationships and my goals.  I hope I can capture the feeling of happiness and contentment that Wiking unfolds in his little book.  And so, I liked this book, mostly because it gave me pause to reflect on my life, but also because it gives me an excellent excuse to shop for candles and throw pillows.

The Girl I Used to Be by April Henry

  She is Olivia Reinhart. Her adoptive mother, the one who later gave her up, gave her the name and the courts legalized it.  But, her real name is Ariel Benson, the three year old girl left in a Walmart by the man who rescued her from the woods where her parents were shot.  That day determined the shape of her life. 
     Now, fourteen years later as an emancipated minor, Olivia decides to alter her course and attends the funeral of her father.  His bones have been recently discovered, and suddenly, the "fact' that he was the murderer is not so factual.  Olivia/Ariel moves back to her hometown, and begins poking around searching for the real killer, and finding him may prove fatal.
     Well-paced, The Girl I Used to Be draws the reader in piece by pieced, enticing them to tug at the string of the tightly woven thriller.  Bruised and battered by the foster care system and by well meaning adults, it is logical that Olivia would tackle her task independently.  She moves through the suspects smoothly, but not without mistakes making the ending confrontation more believable. 
     As a mystery-thriller fan and a young adult librarian, I would recommend this well written novel to readers who are growing weary of the tried and tired plots in the adult thriller novels out there.The

The Backwash of War by Ellen N. La Motte

Ellen La Motte had experienced a successful career as a nurse in the United States before World War I.  But, it was a career of politics and bureaucracy that left her empty; so she sought a way out.  In 1915, she found her way to a French hospital on the Front in a small strip of Belgian that the French still held.  Always a writer, she set down her observations of the "human wreckage" of war and these vignettes were publish as articles in the Atlantic Monthly and eventually collected into the book, The Backwash of War.  Quickly it became quite popular in the US, but once the American boys were sent "over there," the American government decided it was too much and the book was banned in the US in 1918.


In her introduction to the 1934 re-release of her book, La Motte noted, "that we are now going through a period of peace, it seems an opportune moment for a new edition of the book....War has been described as 'months of boredom, punctuated by moments of intense fright.' During this time at the Front, the lines moved little, either forward or backward, but were deadlocked in one position...But where there is little or no action there is a stagnant place, and in that stagnant place is much ugliness."  It is that "ugliness" that La Motte captures in her curt, cynical voice through her clinical observations.


La Motte's stories reminded me of the stories I read by nurses from Vietnam.  The calm resignation to the destruction of war.  One of my favorite selections is, "There is an attack going on.  That does not mean that the Germans are advancing.  It just means that the ambulances are busy, for these old troops, these old wrecks upon the beds, are holding up the Germans.  Otherwise, we should be swept out of existence." These lines capture the so much of what La Motte has to say about war and the purpose of a human life caught up in war: a wounded soldier dams the flow, blocks progression of armies, forces  that are mightier and seemingly more important than a life.


I like that La Motte doesn't spend time moralizing or telling me what to think.  She observes and draws her conclusions but she doesn't preach, and for that reason I would highly recommend this little book for anyone seeking to understand at least one part of the impact of war.

Agent in Old Lace by Tristi Pinkston

Shannon Tate’s world is perfect: wonderful parents, great boyfriend ready to propose, and her own company that is fantastic.  As anyone knows, when things feel perfect or seem perfect, the hairs on the back of your neck should be standing on end, because something bad is going to happen.  And, for Shannon it does.  It turns out that her boyfriend is embezzling money from her father and several of her clients.  Then, he tries to kill her while proposing.  When the FBI become involved, she encounters yet another twist: the agent assigned to protect her must dress like a woman in order to stay close to her, then things get really crazy.

Essentially a cute little book with fairly well crafted characters and a solid plot, Agent in Old Lace lives up to its homey title.  There is just enough suspense, just enough romance, just enough humor to keep you interested.  Descriptions of characters, particularly the FBI agent all “woman-upped” could have been hilarious, but were just funny.  The big kiss doesn’t come until three quarters of the way in, but the sexual tension is mild.  A good book centered on a clever plot.  I enjoyed this simple read.

Falling into the mystery-romance genre, Pinkston’s novel has a little something for everyone.  It is LDS fiction so it has some religious references, mostly to prayer and “callings” in the Mormon Church and not enough to feel preachy or heavy handed.  Overall a satisfying read.