Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

JK has done a marvelous job taking the boy wizard into adulthood to face off against the most evil of archvillains. In her usual style, Mrs. Rowling has created plausibility for a young boy of 17 to face off against an evil dark lord with vastly greater knowledge and be successful. No, I don't want to give away the ending for those of you who haven't read it. Her ability to portray teenage angst and the anger at having to be all grown up before you're ready is flawless. The only criticism I would throw out is a somewhat intrusive (to my way of thinking) explanation for all that has gone before. Rather like a serial or a crime movie where the bad guys, who have no hesitation shooting everybody up but stop to talk with the good guys to tell them their motivation before they pull the trigger, Mrs. Rowling gives the reader information in a similar fashion. Overall, I enjoyed the book - pored through it in two days (all 759 pages). If you love Harry Potter (and some people don't), you'll love this one just as much as the others.

Cover Me by Sharona Nelson

So you've had a bad day. But few people have the run of bad luck that Sunny Montgomery has. Her husband, Kirk the Jerk, walks out on her, forcing Sunny and her daughter to move in with her best friend. Good fortune smiles momentarily, giving her the lease on a plum apartment, but everything goes downhill from there. She loses her job, sprains her ankle and she's afraid to tell her drop dead gorgeous landlord that she's not sure how she's going to pay the rent (after she discovers Kirk the Jerk cleaned out her emergency fund).

Cover me is delightfully fun. Sharona Nelson follows all the requisites of a good novel making life increasingly more difficult for Sunny, bringing the reader firmly in sympathy with her while maintaining a marvelous sense of humor. I found myself laughing out loud in spots. How can you not enjoy a book where the ex-husband's name is Kirk the Jerk? In spite of all Sunny's misfortunes, Cover Me is a light-hearted romp that I would strongly recommend.

Love Walked In by Marisa De Los Santos

For some people, life is like your favorite movie, or like your favorite novel, just not as tidy and quite the way you plan it.

Cornelia Brown is quirky. When Martin Grace walks into the off-beat diner she manages, she steps into the plot of all her favorite movies. But Cornelia is not star struck or flighty. She chooses the direction of her life. Educated and intelligent, it is her choice to manage a diner rather than step into a career she doesn't feel passionate about. Martin Grace's appearance changes her life, but not in ways that she expects.

Young Clare Hobbes has only ever known her mother's love. So when her mother begins to act erractically, Clare is troubled and confused and frightened. A child of divorce, she reaches out to her absent father who poo-poohs her fears, forcing Clare to take a stand and become her own caregiver at 11 years old while her mother becomes increasing unstable. When Clare's mother finally cracks and leaves Clare standing beside the road alone and helpless, Clare has no choice but to call her father, which brings her front and center into Cornelia's life.

Cornelia can see immediately the fear and trepidation on Clare's face when she meets the heretofore unmentioned child of the nearly perfect man she's been dating. More than that, she can see the complete lack of interest her boyfriend has in his own daughter. Not an endearing trait in a man you are hoping to get closer to. But that's the thing about Martin Grace: although he's fun and charming and witty and handsome and the perfect catch, there's a distinct lack of depth in him that prevents Cornelia from falling in love with him. Not so with his fragile daughter. Cornelia immediately tries to mend the little girl's broken pieces and finds herself deeply attached, more to the daughter than to Clare's father.

This book is captivating. Not only in its allure in comparing every day life to classic movies and songs, it's like talking with your best friend, or at times, like reading your best friend's diary. The depth of emotions conveyed by Cornelia and the way she interacts with her inner circle - her family, her friends - are endearing and binding. This is a book you don't want to put down. I admired Cornelia's clear vision in doing the right thing alongside the mesh of family and friends that uphold her through these difficult decisions with their unwavering love and support. This book is a keeper on my bookshelf to be read over and over, one that I can't lend to my friends for fear of not getting it back, but one I will happily buy for them along with a glowing recommendation. A must read, especially for lovers of classic movies.

For those of us that enjoyed "Sabrina," Highland Rogue offers a new spin on an old theme. Claire Talbot is the staid, spinster older sister of Tessa, a flighty young woman engaged in Victorian England. As the spinster sister, Claire has been given control of the family company while her younger step-sister is free to be a beautiful debutante. When Tessa's fickle heart finds a new love interest to distract her while her fiancé is away, Claire and her step-mother step in to keep would-be fortune hunters away.

Ewan Geddes, exiled from his home in Scotland to America, reads of Tessa's engagement in the newspaper. Having grown up as a servant to the Talbot family, Ewan recalls the young girl that epitomizes beauty to him. Now that he has made his fortune in the new world, he finds himself in a position to take possession of the things that have eluded him: A beautiful bride and acceptance in the society that fought to hold him down as a youth.

Although reconciled to spinsterhood, Claire finds herself once again stepping in to protect her flighty step-sister from herself. Claire and her stepmother plot to have Claire distract Ewan from his prize and determine if his motives are true, unaware that he has amassed his fortune in America. What Claire doesn't reckon on are her own suppressed feelings for the handsome highlander.

The concept of a woman succeeding in business in Victorian England was handled deftly by the author. A brilliant and well-crafted romance, I enjoyed Highland Rogue from cover to cover.

Ever feel like your life was living you instead of the other way around? For Karen Sommerfield, a high-powered executive, the hectic pace of her everyday world insulated her from the disappointments and hurts in her life. And then one day, her job was gone.

A cancer survivor, Karen has just returned from a doctor's visit where there is some question that her illness might be returning, but she chooses to defer getting a final diagnosis until after a budget meeting at work. To add insult to injury, the budget meeting announces deep cuts in personnel, her job included. Reeling with the shock, Karen goes home and loses herself playing the piano, not sure what to do next, and then the phone rings. Her sister invites her 'home' to meet some long lost relatives. Home is normally the last place Karen wants to go, with memories of being not good enough and pressures to be perfect, but in this moment of failure and with the dark cloud of cancer hanging over her head, Karen opts for the comforts of a family she has long held at arms' length.

THE LANGUAGE OF SYCAMORES is a book that feels like talking to an old friend. It wasn't a book I had to race through to find out what happens next, it was more like a book I wanted to savor for as long as I could.

Carley Reed's childhood was anything but idyllic, but she determined to rise above the troubles and misfortunes and make a better life for herself. And she did, developing a strict moral code along the way. When the headmistress at the prep school where Carley teaches asks Carley to look the other way when spoiled, rich students cheat, Carley is faced with a dilemma. Should she adapt her moral code to allow for judgment errors? Coincident with this choice, Carley receives a visit from a private detective, searching her out to deliver mixed news: Her grandmother has died and she's an heiress.

Without realizing the extent of her bequest, Carley quits her job, standing by her moral code and travels to Mississippi to settle her grandmother's estate and meet the family she never knew she had. She prepares herself for the possibility of greedy relatives who might feel snubbed at her portion of her grandmother's estate, but instead she finds herself welcomed into a warm family unit. But Carley is skeptical. Good times have turned bad quickly in the past, so she sticks to her plan to settle her grandmother's estate and hustle back to California to look for a new teaching job. Even from a distance, her family extends themselves to her, and when the lease on her California apartment runs out, Carley makes the trip back to Mississippi to pick up a new thread to her life.

Small town life embraces her and Carley feels warm and safe for the first time in her life. But even small towns hide their ugly little secrets in unexpected places. She is pursued by the chief of police, a local hero, but Carley's history with men keeps her cautious. With a new career, Carley befriends a young girl who reminds her of herself and remembers the positive influences in her life, hoping to give this girl the same chances that helped her rise above the bad things that threatened her. She doesn't realize that this girl holds the key to some of the small town's secrets.

A TABLE BY THE WINDOW is a triumph over all the things in life that threaten to weigh us down. It's also a triumph of family lost and found and the value of mentoring. Ms. Blackwell has an easy writing style that keeps you turning pages and an upbeat tone that leaves you cheering the human spirit. Ms. Blackwell's literary references (in keeping with Carley's character) keep Carley looking for the positive spin on questionable situations, in spite of caution learned from experience. Filled with optimism and the fortitude to push through negative fears, this is a novel to share with the whole family.

Valley of the Shadow follows Meg Gentry's return to her hometown for a little healing in the peace and quite. The problem is that the people she meets keep turning up dead. Are the deaths connected?

Meg Gentry has been working the crime beat for the Atlanta newspaper too long. After an ugly divorce from a closet transvestite policeman, she goes back home to the mountains of Tennessee to rebuild her life.

After 10 years, Clay Skinner is amazed to see the one love of his life walk back into his hometown. A failed marriage behind him, he wants to recapture the one that got away, but the changes in Meg after her experiences in the big city make her less approachable than when they were in high school.

There are no bit players in this novel; each character has his own idiosyncrasies that propel the story forward. Charlotte Hughes takes us into life in a small town, sharing each person's contribution to the community along with the skeletons (sometimes literally!) in their closets. While you wonder how Meg will put the past behind her, the quiet small town world around her explodes with suspense that keeps you on the edge of your seat trying to figure out who done it. A mixture of romance, suspense, and mystery, Valley of the Shadow is a page-turner that holds you to the very end. This is one you won't want to miss.