Stealing Magic (A Sixty-Eight Rooms Adventrue) by Marianne Malone

This is the second book in this series and just as good as the first book.  You don't need to have read the first book to understand what is happening, nor does this second installment cover the first book with too much description.  A great YA story for inventive imaginations.

Ruthie and Jack are smart and fun kids who have a good relationship with their parents and get drawn into the most wonderful mysteries. 

Ruthie and Jack thought that their adventures in the Thorne Rooms (the 68 miniature period rooms on permanent display in the Art Institute of Chicago) were over . . . until miniatures from the rooms start to disappear. Is it the work of the art thief who's on the loose in Chicago? Or has someone else discovered the secret of the Thorne Rooms' magic? Ruthie and Jack's quest to stop the thief takes them from modern day Chicago to 1937 Paris during the Nazi takeover and they get to visit the South when slavery was still in practice.

As more items disappear, including the key that allows them to shrink and access the past worlds, what was once just an adventure becomes a life and death race against the clock. Can Ruthie and Jack catch the thief and help the friends they meet on the way before the magic—and the rooms—are destroyed forever?

Waking Up In Charleston by Sherryl Woods

This is a book I didn't expect to like that much, but I did.  I wanted to keep reading because the character's are very real, caring and work hard to be good people - most of them. 

This review doesn't make it sound like much of a book, but it's worth reading.  Sherryl Woods does an excellent job letting us listen in to how people work through their problems and those that don't and make a mess of things.

The moment Amanda defied her rich and powerful father to marry Bobby O'Leary, Big Max disowned her. Even now, with Bobby dead and Amanda mired in debt, he refuses to forgive her.

But Caleb, the new man in Amanda's life, is determined to mend fences between father and daughter. He also has a far more personal mission—to make Amanda and her family his own. But when she learns how close he is to Big Max and the secret Caleb's been hiding, there's every chance she could walk away.

As a pastor, Caleb's used to calling on a higher power for help, and heaven knows it's going to take a miracle to fix this before it's too late.

An Angel for Christmas by Heather Graham

I'm glad the title referenced an angel.  I would not have been able to figure out the story if it didn't.  This book was confusing to me but I kept reading hoping it would all be explained soon.  It did but not clear enough.  The book read like it had been slapped together in a hurry.  I've read better by Heather Graham.

Christmas has never brought out the best in the MacDougal family. Still, year after year, they gather together in the Blue Ridge Mountains to try to make the season merry and bright. This year is an especially strained one, with Shayne's impending divorce, Morwenna's slavish devotion to work and Bobby's reluctance to face what life has to offer. They've never felt less like a family.

Then, in the midst of a snowy sibling shouting match, a mysterious stranger appears. He could be a criminal, a madman—or something far more unexpected. Despite their fears and the growing danger in the dark woods around them, the MacDougals take a leap of faith. But when another stranger arrives on the mountainside, they don't know which of them to believe. One of these men can't be trusted and could be very dangerous.

Joy For Beginners by Erica Bauermeister

This book was such an unexpected pleasure.  I love how Ms Bauermeister writes.  Even though the story is about struggles and challenges, the road traveled is gentle and soothing.  I don't usually re-read books, but this is one I could easily read again and enjoy just as much the second time.  I highly recommend this to everyone.

At an intimate, festive dinner party in Seattle, six women gather to celebrate their friend Kate's recovery from cancer.

Wineglass in hand, Kate strikes a bargain with them. To celebrate her new lease on life, she'll do the one thing that's always terrified her: white-water rafting. But if she goes, all of them will also do something they always swore they'd never do-and Kate is going to choose their adventures.

The challenge each woman takes on is a perfect fit for her and I ended up wanting to take each challenge myself.

Nobody's Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

I always enjoy books by Susan E Phillips.  There are some great characters in this book and a lot of fun repartee.  The story of Jane is a good one. 

Genius physics professor Dr. Jane Darling spends her 34th birthday in tears. She wants a baby, but not a husband.. But finding a father won’t be easy. Jane’s super-intelligence made her feel like a freak when she was growing up, and she’s determined to spare her own child that suffering. Where can she find an average or, preferably, stupid man? She wants a man who is less intelligent that can bring her babies IQ score down to normal.

Cal Bonner, the Chicago Stars’ legendary quarterback, seems like the perfect choice. But his champion good looks and down-home ways are deceiving. Dr. Jane is about to learn a little too late that this good ol’ boy is a lot smarter than he lets on—and he’s not about to be used and abandoned by a brainy, baby-mad schemer and definitely more honorable than she had expected.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

I love romance-time travel books and this book does a good job at portraying life in the past as we would see it with our eyes.

English nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall and husband Frank take a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands in 1945. When Claire touches a  cleft boulder in an ancient henge, she's somehow transported to 1743.

She encounters Frank's evil ancestor, British captain Jonathan "Black Jack" Randall, and is adopted by another clan. Claire nurses young soldier James Fraser, a gallant, merry redhead, and the two begin a romance, seeing each other through many perilous, swashbuckling adventures involving Black Jack.

Scenes of the Highlanders' daily life blend poignant emotions with Scottish wit and humor.  Even in her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she's never known before. Eventually Claire finds a chance to return to 1945, and must choose between distant memories of Frank and her happy, uncomplicated existence with Jamie.

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

This is a historical novel, set in 1906.  It's gives us a good look at life in small american towns.  This is a great YA book.  It a fast page turning, slow paced book.  I didn't find any places I wanted to rush through to get the chapter over because the characters are enjoyable even when we are wishing for different lives for them.

Mattie Gokey, at 16, is a talented writer.  She promised her dying mother that she would always take care of her father and younger siblings. She is stuck on a farm, living in near poverty, with no way of escaping.

With the help of a teacher who can see Mattie has great writing skills, Mattie gets accepted at Barnard College. She is torn between her sense of responsibility to her family and her need to do more with her life.  That summer she gets a job working as a serving girl at a fancy hotel in the Adirondacks.  She splits her salary with her father and saves the rest for herself.

At the hotel, Mattie gets caught up in the disappearance of a young couple who had gone out together in a rowboat. Mattie spoke with the young woman, Grace Brown, just before the fateful boating trip, when Grace gave her a packet of love letters and asked her to burn them. When Grace is found drowned, Mattie reads the letters and finds that she holds the key to unraveling the girl's death and her beau's mysterious disappearance. Grace Brown's story is a true one and author Jennifer Donnelly weaves the real-life story with Mattie's, making Mattie seem even more real.

There is much, much more going on but I recommend reading the book instead of reading the rest in my review.