A long holiday post

Have been living (barely!), reading (a lot), taking exams (what a nightmare!) and having flu (so awful!) this previous month so, I say I’ve pretty busy.
Right after final exams, dear hubby and I got stomach flu and a bad case of cold on top of it and have been resting (read being imprisoned!) at home for two weeks. Imagine you have only three weeks vacation time and spend 2/3 of it in bed sneezing!
Have read a lot though. Here is the list in order of genre:

Paranormal/Fantasy/SiFi (romance)
“Succubus Dreams” (Georgina Kincaid, Book 3) by Richelle Mead. Georgie is having troubles, her recruiting imp is back in town trying to sabotage her, she has an apprentice, lots of weird dreams, and yes she is losing her energy strangely. Also she is pushing her boyfriend and best friend together, no wonder Seth cheats on her! Poor Georgie!
“Dark Light” by Jayne Castle is the fifth or sixth book in Planet Harmony series. A guild boss and a reporter join forces to solve the mysterious disappearances of retired ghost hunters.
“Kitty and the silver bullet” (Kitty Norville, Book 4) by Carrie Vaughn. Kitty is back in Denver because her mother is diagnosed with cancer. There is a vampire war and she has to choose sides, also it means facing those two assholes alphas of Denver pack Cal and Meg. I liked this book better than the previous one. Kitty is growing, she is more responsible and she isn’t all talk anymore!
“Underground” (Greywalker, Book 3) by Kat Richardson. I didn’t like it (you can read it if you like!). There is so much going on in the story and the main character is unpolished and weak.
“Bone Song” by John Meaney was dark mystery full of death and zombies and wraith and bones and stuff. I liked the book, the writing, the plot, the characters but not the overall theme. It is a great book if you are into morbid stuff!
“Dragon Wytch” (Sisters of the Moon, Book 4) by Yasmine Galenorn. Camille and her sisters are facing another squad of demons and looking for the third seal. She loses Tristian and spends sometime with smoky the dragon. A unicorn, a pixy and an incubus are in the story (and no, they don’t go into a bar!).
“The Bride of Casa Dracula” (Casa Dracula, Book 3) by Marta Acosta. Milagro
is preparing for her wedding but it looks like the universe is against her! For better I say, because Oswald is not in love with her anymore and Ian (ooh, fabulous Ian) is back!
“All I Want for Christmas Is a Vampire” (Love at Stake, Book 5) by Kerrelyn Sparks was OK. Ian has grown 12 years in 12 days and is ready to find a bride. When he tackles a thief finds his love!
“Living with the Dead” (Women of the Otherworld, Book 9) by Kelley Armstrong was great. A human friend of Hope is in trouble and Hope and Carl are helping. A ghost seeing detective and his sidekick are investigating a murder and a new race of super-naturals are introduced.
The Vampire Babylone series by Crystal Green: “Break of Dawn “ and “Night rising” (reread) were truly boring! I hate Dawn’s character, the busy plot and the untied treads of story. Not good, not good at all!

Romance
“The Beach house” by Jane Green was a great read. So full of beautiful landscape and a great house and interesting characters. I loved Nan!
“Secret desires of a gentleman” by Laura Lee Guhrke was a good romance. Good plot, great dialogs, good characters but a historic romance it was not! Sorry, it was hard to imagine the story happening in 1850 or whatever date was given in the book. The characters were straight from a contemporary romance dressed in 1800s-something clothing and riding coaches and carriages and being dukes and duchesses!
“Tempted by the night” by Elizabeth Boyle was great. Had a little supernatural in it as well. The story was funny, the dialogs great and Ms. Boyle writing style enchanting. I liked it so much that I went ahead and read another of her book’s “Love Letters from a Duke” too. This one is also funny with an entertaining cast of characters. You want to laze in the bed and enjoy times long gone and have a laugh, read something from this author!

Mystery
Should I put “Bone song” here again?
“Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk” by Boris Akunin was perfect. I loved the translation, the style and the plot. I hadn’t been reading anything from Russian authors (except the classics: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov) and this book was great. I’m reading the first book of the series now, “Sister Pelagia and the white bulldog” and enjoying it a lot.
Akunin is such a great writer, I’m thinking of starting a Russian phase and reading all I can find from his books and other contemporary Russian authors. Let’s see what happens!