What's In a Name 2 Challenge Complete!

What's In a Name Challenge 2009 is complete as of today.

1. A book with a Profession in the title: GRAVEROBBERS WANTED: NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY - Jeff Strand (Jun 09)
2. A book with a Time of Day in the title: SOMETHING FROM THE NIGHTSIDE - Simon R Green (Apr 09)
3. A book with a Relative in the title: AUNT DIMITY DIGS IN - Nancy Atherton (Sep 09)
4. A book with a Body Part in the title: THROUGH VIOLET EYES - Stephen Woodworth (Sep 09)
5. A book with a Building in the title: THE GHOST AND THE HAUNTED MANSION - Alice Kimberly (Jan 09)
6. A book with a Medical Condition in the title: STAYING DEAD - Laura Anne Gilman (Sep 09)

AUNT DIMITY DIGS IN - Nancy Atherton

From the back of the book: At home in the ghostly Aunt Dimity's idyllic English cottage, Lori Shepherd is up to her elbows in pureed avocados and formula bottles as she strives to be the perfect mother to her three-month-old twins! Aunt Dimity restores order--and Lori's sanity--by sending the beautiful and mysterious Frencesca Sciaporelli to lend a hand with the boys. the nanny is a treasure, but Lori's newfound freedom proves to be a mixed blessing. No sooner does she step outside the cottage for a breath of diaper-free air than she finds herself smack in the middle of a civil war brewing in the nearby village of Finch.
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Who shall occupy the church schoolhouse? Will it be the archaeologist, Adrian Culver, who has come to Finch to dig up the find of his life? Or will the unofficial leader/empress of Finch, Peggy Kitchen, get her way of utilizing the building for her Harvest Festival? It divides the small village since there are some in Finch who think the archaeological dig will put Finch on the tourist map. The rest of the village wants the Harvest Festival to go on as they know they will not hear the end of it from Peggy Kitchen.

I love reading this cozy series. Some are light in tone and there are some that have a dark tinge like AUNT DIMITY BEATS THE DEVIL, which is actually my favorite of the series. It's one that doesn't have Lori having everything go her way and she actually has to fight something bad. Lori only seems to struggle slightly with motherhood before someone steps in to help with her twins and she gets to go galavanting off to solve a mystery. I always feel a twinge of envy when I read those parts. *smile*

Four cozy English beans.....

STAYING DEAD: The Retrievers Book 1 - Laura Anne Gilman

From the back of the book: It starts as a simple job--but simple jobs, when you're dealing with the magical world, often end of anything but.

As a Retriever, Wren Valere specializes in finding things gone missing--and then bringing them back, no questions asked. Normally her job is stimulating, challenging and only a little bit dangerous. But every once in a while....

Case in point: A cornerstone containing a spell is stolen and there's a magical complication. (Isn't there always?) Wren's unique abilities aren't enough to lay this particular case to rest, so she turns to some friends: a demon (minor), mage who has lost his mind, and a few others, including Sergei, her business partner (and maybe a bit more?).

Sometimes what a woman has to do to get the job done is enough to give even Wren nightmares.....

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My buddy, Amy on Shelfari's Paranormal Mysteries, suggested I read this one ASAP when she heard I had it on Mt Git'r'Read. So...I did! I'd been looking for a quick reading story and this did the trick. I also wanted a title for What's in a Name Challenge 2 for the Medical Condition section. Ta-Da! I'd think 'staying dead' is the ultimate medical condition...anyway...

I really enjoyed reading this one, even if I had some difficulties keeping up with dialogue or changes in scenery and characters from time to time. I blame it on the reader rather than the writer as I was on a different shift and wasn't always as alert as I'd have liked for reading the adventures of Wren and Sergei. Wren, the Talent, kicks ass, Sergei, the Null, is a sweetie with 'tude and the two of them make a perfect partnership. 'Talent' is what the people with magical abilities are called and 'Null' is the non-magical.

There's a lot of politics going on throughout the book: there's the Council who tries to run the Talent to their way of doing business and there's the Silence and not much is known of them, but both the Council and the Silence want Wren and Sergei brought to heel and work for them than on their own.

And there's the growing unrest among Wren's friends and fellow magical creatures, human and nonhuman alike.

I'm very glad I finally read this from Mt Git'r'Read and happy that it is a beginning of a series.

Four kick-ass Talent and Null beans.....

THROUGH VIOLET EYES - Stephen Woodworth

From the back of the book: The police call them The Violets...They have a special gift that is crime-fighting's secret weapon....

Through their violet eyes, they can actually expose the face of a murderer.

But now one killer is closing their violet eyes--permanently--and even the FBI can't stop him.

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Dan Atwater is the FBI agent assigned to protect Natalie Lindstrom, a Violet in touch with the murder victims who were her friends. Atwater needs to keep Natalie safe and alive, for her sake and to help solve the murders before more Violets are killed. The two opposite personalities learn to work together. Both need to overcome their pasts and learn to get along.

I can't imagine what it must be like for Natalie, bombarded at all times with dead souls 'knocking' to get her attention so that they can be heard and somewhat live again if only for a little while. Violets are born with the ability and there isn't a way to shut it off, only control somewhat to have as normal life as possible.

Five intense thriller beans......

GRAVEROBBERS WANTED: NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY - Jeff Strand

From the back cover:

When you're desperate for money, searching for a little adventure, and aren't the most responsible person in the world, you can end up doing some outrageous things. Which is how Andrew Mayhem, an extremely married father of two, ends up accepting $20,000 to find a key...a key buried with a body in a shallow grave.
But what he finds in the grave isn't quite what he expected, and what begins as a simple evening of morally questionable manual labor turns into a really good way to die. Andrew finds himself investigating a murder while forced into a bizarre game of wits and courage played by an unseen killer with a twisted sense of humor. It's a game that will involve him with a group of filmmakers known as Ghoulish Delights, who are hiding a secret that will test every last bit of Andrew's nerve to discover.
And it's impossible to find a babysitter.

I bought GRAVEROBBERS...based on the interview that JA Konrath and Jeff Strand did with each other back in March, I think.

This book made me laugh and scared the bejeezus out of me. Andrew is trying to find his niche in life. Some might call him a slacker. I know I'd be hard pressed to be married to a guy like this..maybe could be a friend. He's smart and funny, really a smartass is what he is and I am drawn to funny smart smartasses....

He and his buddy, Roger, find themselves pulled into a way to make $20,000. All they have to do is dig up a coffin carrying the body of the husband of the woman who hired them. Then all hell breaks loose.

Andrew is fairly quick on his feet in a believable way. I really never felt the need to roll my eyes at any time while reading his terror filled adventure. He finds himself in this situation, he continues with the terror filled mystery when others would have just given in. And it felt real.

I imagine this book would be what the never-ending series of 'Saw' flicks could be like. The murder, torture, and the mechanisms used to get there are beyond my normal ick factor, yet I couldn't stop reading the story.

Five terror and funny beans.....

SOMETHING FROM THE NIGHTSIDE - Simon R Green

If I had done as a shelfari buddy had suggested and made reading this book into a drinking game....where everytime John Taylor said ".....in the Nightside", I'd have been three sheets, knee walkin', tanked, blasted...you get the idea....during the first half of this book. It started getting a wee bit irritating, but I mustered on and glad that I did. John Taylor finally gets done 'splainin' how everything is different "here in the Nightside" (drink your shot) and gets down to telling his tale.
John Taylor is a PI up in London, not doing so well, having a time of it trying to pay the bills. In walks Joanne Barrett, a rich woman in search of her runaway teen daughter. She's done all she can to locate her and now turns to John as she's heard tales of how he knows of a place called....yep...the Nightside (swig).
He takes the case, she insists on coming along, he leads the way. It's been five years since he's been home and things have changed and not changed. It's always 3am and dangerous as Hell and twice as much fun. All the colorful characters along the way were what kept me reading. My favorites are Razor Eddie, Punk God of the Straight Razor and Suzie Shooter, Bounty Hunter.
The search alternates between somewhat mellow , The Hawk's Wind Bar & Grill, the diner where time stands still and remains in the 60's. Then there's the truly awful of the Harrowing - faceless, remorseless, with needles for fingers. I had to read that section very quickly and in the daytime.
I will likely look for the next in the series, AGENTS OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS, and others from his 49 books. The bean count will probably go up with these...until then,

Three Nightside beans.....

THE GHOST AND THE HAUNTED MANSION - Alice Kimberly

THE GHOST AND THE HAUNTED MANSION was a quick and fun cozy to read. A nice sorbet to mellow my palate after the somewhat heavier paranormals and thrillers I've been reading lately. I keep cozies of all styles on hand for just such occasions. I especially looked forward to this one. I've enjoyed the series for a couple of years and happily anticipated when it would be time to read this one.
Penelope Thornton-McClure is a widow, lives with her son and her aunt in the small town of Quindicott above the mystery bookstore they own and operate. Pen also has a friend who happens to be a ghost. He is Jack Shepherd, PI, and helps Pen out with life and the mysteries that keep getting thrown her way.
This time it's a haunted mansion that her friend, Seymour, the postal carrier has inherited. He will get to live up in the ritzy part of town and someone isn't happy about it and it looks like they would be willing to kill to keep Seymour from moving in.
I love this series since it so resembles one of my favorite movies, The Ghost and Mrs Muir. Looking this up(I just love wikipedia), I also found that the movie was based on the book written in 1945 by R. A. Dick, pseudonym for Josephine Leslie.
Four spoooooky beans.....and appropriate bookmark (this is kind of how I see Jack Shepherd)

What's In a Name Challenge 2

Hey, I found my first challenge for 2009. It was way fun this year and I look forward to it in the new year....here's my link on my challenge blog. I'm still working on my titles...just heard about the challenge redux today....