Waterfall by Lisa T. Bergren

Very teen angsty, but not bad. It kept me reading - if only to see what crisis was going to be so compelling that our heroine would give up her medieval sweetie and return to her proper century. So, that should have telegraphed the basic plot. Teenage sisters trapped for the summer on an archaeological site in Italy accidentally discover a "portal" which transports them back to the 14th century.

In the manner of stories of this type, main character sister falls for a local princeling, who also falls for her and all the subsequent implausibilities are quite readable and fun.

There was one major problem with it - an issue which I have addressed at length on other books in this list. Where do these people get their titles? The title of this book has absolutely nothing to do with the story, nothing! It is clearly intended to be the first in a potentially endless series which is titled River of Time (nothing like telegraphing the plot of the entire series), but there is no allusion to time as a river or a current, and even then one might expect some connection between the plot and the title. It is as if the writer had this "concept" and then couldn't quite make the story fit the concept, but was so enamored of it that she couldn't turn loose of it and chose a more appropriate title.

Oh, well.

Strong as Death by Sharan Newman

Catharine and Edgar have undertaken a pilgrimage to Compostela to pray for a child. Catharine lost one child at birth and has miscarried several times. Edgar fears that she is in danger of lapsing into a religious mania of the sort that has her mother locked up in a convent. Apparently convents were the 12th century equivalent of mental institutions for the wealthier end of the economic spectrum. Poor people just got to go crazy where they stood.

Of course, the murders occur on the road among their group of pilgrims. That is quite logical, what is somewhat less logical is that every important cast member finds reason to come along - Catharine's father, his brother Eliazar, and their nephew Solomon. And in the course of the action, all of them get accused of murder.

The murders themselves are gruesome and creative and the murderer remains hidden until the last chapters, but that is part of Newman's trademark. More of Hubert's family turns up - in quite an unexpected manner. And everyone in their group on the pilgrimage has something to hide.

This book sees the death of Peter Abelard, who had been a mentor to both Catharine and Edgar. They did go visit him shortly before they left, in fact, he is the one that recommended the pilgrimage by interpreting a dream of Catharine's.

Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson

I think I have read this before in the period of this blog. For one thing, it was already on my kindle. Definitely a clue. This one is set in and around a law firm. Goldy is on the scene because she has been catering breakfasts for the firm and meeting a young intern and neighbor of hers at the law office's kitchen for cooking lessons while she preps for the breakfasts. The intern is the victim and the plot is all the usual intrigue and jealousy. A good read.

I am enjoying the fact that they have started tacking the recipes on the end of the book instead of imbedding them in the story. I'm sure they are excellent recipes, and the food talk makes it all very tempting, but I have finally faced the fact that the likelihood that I will ever prepare any of those concoctions is vanishingly small.

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold

What fun! Ivan has definitely gotten short shrift in the whole saga. Maybe his apparent ineptitude is only a result of being a pretty normal kind of hero placed in the midst of a clan of truly extraordinary heroes. Maybe Bujold was feeling guilty - or perhaps she had really run out of options with Miles. He is now married with children, and has rather aged out of the system. Are we now going to have to wait for the next generation of Vor offspring?

Typically, for Ivan, he walks into a situation to help out a friend - well, maybe Byerly isn't a friend, but Ivan has that British sort of guilt complex about holding up the side (in a Russian sort of way). In the course of which help, he meets a beautiful girl, and marries her (quite by accident, sort of).

For followers of the Vor of Barrayar, Bujold gives us background on the colonization of Barrayar which has not been addressed so explicitly before. After all, Ivan has to explain his homeland to his lady-love. And typically for Ivan, once he has married Tej, with the understanding that they will divorce as soon as possible, he actually falls in love with her. And, since Tej is his counterpart in terms of ranking in her family (somewhere on the level of the adored family dog, much loved, but of whom little is expected), she does the same. Throw in a couple of rather dominating mothers-in-law and you have fuel for any quantity of confusion.

The Centaur's Daughter by Ellen Jensen Abbott

Rather a nice YA fantasy. I believe it is the second book in the series, but from the backstory filled in in this one, I am not certain how the first one played. It sounds like it was the girl's father's story, but that wouldn't exactly be true to the genre.

Abisina's father was a shape-shifter, his other form, a centaur. She thinks she is a normal human, but under the stress of trying to rescue a friend, she changes also. For some reason which is never entirely clear, she tries to hide this fact from the community which owes its existence to her father, the shapeshifter.

Most of the YA themes are present, and fairly well done. I think it is often easier for writers to deal with that sort of thing in a fantasy context.

Hell to Heaven by Kylie Chan

I wish I could find something to say about this besides "more of same." The adorable child is now a contrary teenager - thank goodness! She was such a perfect child that she was about to become a bit annoying. She is fairly annoying as a teenager, but in a rather different way.

I really think I had written more about this one, but apparently I closed the file without saving. I do that a lot with notepad. Oh well, I think I remember basically what I wrote. Emma is aging. John is still missing - although he hangs around a lot for someone who is missing. Nobody dies permanently. Some of the characters died several times in this book. Emma has been dedemonized; the demon king pulled that off, but I don't remember what his price was.

The third in the second series should be out in the States in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I think I remember that Chan made this a triple triple instead of just a double triple, so nothing is likely to be resolved in the next book either. I'm not sure if I keep reading because at some level the writing is good enough to keep me reading - or just in the hope that something different will actually happen.

Uniform Justice by Donna Leon

This is one of her creepier ones. Italian political corruption at its worst. There is a murder at a military academy disguised a suicide. The victim is about the same age as Brunetti's son, Rafi, and Brunetti is tormented by the thought that something might happen to his own son.

Actually, I like reading about a cop who becomes emotionally involved with his cases. Very Italian. The political corruption is also very Italian. In most of Leon's books it is a background element, and treated almost with humor on the writer's part and resignation on the part of Brunetti. That element in this one is much darker.

I really enjoy reading her books, probably partly because I know I am never going to win the big lottery and go live in Venice (I hear you actually have to buy a ticket). Leon clearly loves the city because she makes that love a large part of Brunetti's character.

I do wish Brunetti would win one every now and then, though. He always solves them, but he seldom gets to put them away. Maybe they have blown them away a couple of times, but most often there are reasons why the killer is not put away. It's a little frustrating if you love American police procedurals.

Milk and Honey by Faye Kellerman

If I'm going to get caught up during this holiday - I had better get with the program.

I remembered about the bees, of course, given the title, it would be hard not to. The blood covered baby, though, that I had forgotten. And this time it was a truly twisted family. A twisted family of beekeepers. California - what can you say?

Rina, in self-imposed exile in New York, has run into some fairly twisted family situations herself and has decided to return to California and Decker.

Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs

First - I have been reading since the end of October. I finished this one over two weeks ago. For some reason, this semester suddenly seemed to crash around my ears and I was (and am) behind and have an absolute deadline for catching up of - well, in one instance, the final paper for one of the classes I am taking, next Monday. At least we have most of this week off for Thanksgiving. So, with any kind of luck (and a little persistence) I can finish the paper, get everything graded for the classes I am teaching, get the final paper written for the other class I am taking, get the last six assignments finished for the first class, get the den cleared out, AND post comments on the seven books which I have read since I last updated this blog. Yeah, right. These may be very, very brief updates.

I don't believe I had read this one before. I like the way Reichs often makes the story personal for Tempe. This opens with Tempe returning to her childhood and an exotic playmate from Canada who came down to the Outer Banks to spend summers with relatives who lived near the Brennan's summer place, a playmate who was abruptly carried away back to Acadia and was never heard from again. Although the body that is Tempe's first connection to the story turns out not to be that of her friend, there is a connection and the mystery from her own childhood is resolved.