What I’m Reading Wednesday: Denise Grover Swank

I haven’t done a book review in a while, despite the fact that I’ve been binge reading for the past month

Binge reading to the point where I’m writing  a lot of posts in my head, but don’t get to put them on paper/in my laptop because my nose is stuck in a book. The dangerous thing about Kindles is that you can download the next book in a series you’ve discovered without leaving the sofa, thanks to Amazon and our local library which has amped up its e-book program.

My reading tastes are pretty varied – mysteries, crime novels, chick lit, supernatural. I like a book with clever characters, and if they can make me laugh and turn the page in anticipation, well, all the better.

So I’m going to throw a little love fest for Denise Grover Swank.

I discovered her Rose Gardner mystery series one afternoon while browsing on my Kindle, and fell in love with the main character, a quirky young southern gal who experiences often mundane visions (and awkward habit of blurting them out to the unsuspecting) and lives with a truly overbearing, belittling momma.  In the first book of the series Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes, she has a vision of her own death and makes her bucket list of twenty-eight things she would like to do before that vision comes to fruition. When she finds her mother murdered on her living room sofa (instead of herself, as in the vision) – things get interesting.

Let me just say that I love Rose Gardner – her dedication, her kindness, her spunk – and her devotion to her flatulent  dog, Muffy. It is a fun mystery series and I’m anxiously awaiting the release of Thirty-Two and a Half Complications, due out in June. *Yay*

For those of you who have had enough of vampires and werewolves, The Curse Keepers  is an urban fantasy novel that will interest you. This series was inspired by the Lost Colony of Roanoke, the colonial settlement that disappeared around 1590, and takes its supernatural elements from American Indian folklore. Ellie Lancaster is a descendant of one of the only two people who know what really happened to that colony – she is a “Curse Keeper”. Unfortunately, she never really believed her father’s stories and teachings of the responsibilities of the guardians, leaving her at a disadvantage when the other Curse Keeper finder her.  Their meeting opens the gates that have held all the spirits away from the material world, and she and Collin Dailey, the other curse keeper, have only seven days to close the gates.   It’s a fun and exciting read, and is followed with The Curse Breakers. The third book in the series – The Curse Defiers – is coming in September, and again, I’m waiting impatiently.

From The Curse Keepers series I quickly moved through another series: The Chosen. These fall under the “paranormal thriller” category, and one thing that quickly impressed me is how one author could write in such different categories so successfully and with such different voices.  The first book in the series is Chosen.  Emma Thomson is the mother of a five-year-old son who can see the future; they have spent most of his life on the run from people who are trying to take him from her. Will Davenport is an ex-Marine turned mercenary who is working for another group who are intent on capturing Emma herself.  While Emma is not one to trust anyone, at her son Jake’s urging they escape an attack from Jake’s pursuers with Will (who doesn’t know that there is another group on the hunt for them.)  As Emma’s powers begin to emerge, Jake tells Will he is “the chosen one” – one who will serve and protect Emma.

The question is – what is Jake, and what is Emma? Emma doesn’t know why the men want Jake and she doesn’t know that Will’s intentions are not what they seem.  And I won’t tell anything more, lest I give something away. The other books in the series are Hunted, Sacrifice and Redemption – and they are all a roller coaster ride of twists and turns.

Great reads for sitting outside on a beautiful spring day.

Not so good for my own writing as I’ve been too distracted reading to stay at my laptop for long.

Lucky for me her next book isn’t out for another month, so I’ll forgive her.

What are you reading today????