1276. Moscow Rules (Daniel Silva)

Synopsis:

Now the death of a journalist leads Allon to Russia, where he finds that, in terms of spycraft, even he has something to learn. He's playing by Moscow rules now.

This is not the grim, gray Moscow of Soviet times but a new Moscow, awash in oil wealth and choked with bulletproof Bentleys. A Moscow where power resides once more behind the walls of the Kremlin and where critics of the ruling class are ruthlessly silenced. A Moscow where a new generation of Stalinists is plotting to reclaim an empire lost and to challenge the global dominance of its old enemy, the United States.

One such man is Ivan Kharkov, a former KGB colonel who built a global investment empire on the rubble of the Soviet Union. Hidden within that empire, however, is a more lucrative and deadly business: Kharkov is an arms dealer - and he is about to deliver Russia's most sophisticated weapons to al- Qaeda. Unless Allon can learn the time and place of the delivery, the world will see the deadliest terror attacks since 9/11 - and the clock is ticking fast.

My rating: 4 stars

1271. The Runagates Club (John Buchan)

Synopsis:

Mixed collection of twelve short stories, mostly of horror, espionage, or the supernatural, including Buchan's popular "The Green Wildebeest."

My rating: 5 stars

My review: So much fun to read. One of my favorite books ever.

1265. The Charlemagne Pursuit (Steve Berry)

Synopsis:

Ex-agent Cotton Malone wants to know what really happened to his father, officially lost at sea when his submarine went down in the north Atlantic in 1971. But when he uses his government contacts to obtain the submarine's sealed file, he finds he is not the only person looking for answers.

Malone is in the line of fire when he is attacked in an attempt to take the file. He is pitched into a lethal power struggle between Dorothea Lindauer and Christl Falk, twin sisters whose twisted ambition takes sibling rivalry to new levels.

Malone and the twins embark on a dangerous adventure involving Nazi explorations in Antarctica, US government conspiracies, and a series of cryptic historical clues built into the legend of Charlemagne. Forced to choose a side when neither can win, Malone is determined to uncover the truth behind his father's death - but will he be able to escape his own?

My rating: 2 stars

1261. The Nine Tailors (Dorothy Sayers)

Synopsis:
When his sexton finds a corpse in the wrong grave, the rector of Fenchurch St Paul asks Lord Peter Wimsey to find out who the dead man was and how he came to be there. The lore of bell-ringing and a brilliantly-evoked village in the remote fens of East Anglia are the unforgettable background to a story of an old unsolved crime and its violent unravelling twenty years later.

My rating: 4 stars

1224. Ashenden: Or the British Agent (W. Somerset Maugham)

Synopsis:

Inspired by Maughams's own experiences as a British secret agent in World War I, this series of stories features a fictional spy, John Ashenden, whose dangerous assignments entangle him with traitors, assassins and beautiful but treacherous women.

My rating: 5 stars

My review: One of my favorite spy novels. Sadly, it is rare to find a copy.

1189. The Defector (Daniel Silva)

Synopsis:
Six months after the blood-soaked conclusion of Moscow Rules, Allon is in Umbria, trying to resume his honeymoon with his new wife, Chiara, when a colleague pays him a shocking visit. The man who saved Allon's life in Moscow and was then resettled in England has vanished without a trace. British intelligence is sure he was a double agent all along, and they blame Allon for planting him. To discover the truth and clear his name, Allon must go immediately to London - a decision that will prove to be the most fateful of his career.

In the British capital, he finds himself once more on the front lines of the secret war between East and West, where Russian spies and dissidents engage in the old game of cat and mouse. There, Allon uncovers a much greater conspiracy, a plot by an old enemy to resurrect a network of death, to bring the world to the precipice of a new confrontation, and in order to stop it, he must risk everything: his ties to an organization he has served since his youth, his new marriage . . . even his life.

My rating: 3 stars

My review: The character of Gabriel Allon is getting tiresome -- the brooding assassin thing is played out. Silva should start a new series starting Mikhail (but not with his annoying girlfriend Sarah).

1188. The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown)

Synopsis:
As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object--artfully encoded with five symbols--is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation . . . one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon's beloved mentor, Peter Solomon--a prominent Mason and philanthropist--is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations--all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.

My rating: 2 stars

My review:

Dear Dan Brown,

Please get over yourself and your inferiority complex from not having been accepted to Harvard.

Sincerely,

The Literate Public

1169. Too Good to be True (Kristan Higgins)

Synopsis:
When Grace Emerson's ex-fiancé starts dating her younger sister, extreme measures are called for. To keep everyone from obsessing about her love life, Grace announces that she's seeing someone. Someone wonderful. Someone handsome. Someone completely made up. Who is this Mr. Right? Someone.exactly unlike her renegade neighbor Callahan O'Shea. Well, someone with his looks, maybe. His hot body. His knife-sharp sense of humor. His smarts and big heart.

Whoa. No. Callahan O'Shea is not her perfect man! Not with his unsavory past. So why does Mr. Wrong feel so ... right?

My rating: 4 stars

1157. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Roald Dahl)

Synopsis:
Charlie and Willy Wonka are back, this time in a fantastic journey to outer space in their glass elevator.

My rating: 4 stars

1156. Charlotte's Web (E. B. White)

Synopsis:
The story of a girl called Fern who loves a little pig called Wilbur. It tells of how Charlotte A. Cavatica, a beautiful grey spider, saves Wilbur from the usual fate of nice fat pigs, by a wonderfully clever plan - a plan so original that no one else could have thought of it.

My rating: 4 stars

1144. Just One of the Guys (Kristan Higgins)

Synopsis:
Being one of the guys isn't all it's cracked up to be.

So when journalist Chastity O'Neill returns to her hometown, she decides it's time to start working on some of those feminine wiles. Two tiny problems: #1 - she's five feet eleven inches of rock-solid girl power, and #2 - she's cursed with four alpha male older brothers.

While doing a story on local heroes, she meets a hunky doctor and things start to look up. Now there's only one problem: Trevor Meade, her first love and the one man she's never quite gotten over - although he seems to have gotten over her just fine.

Yet the more time she spends with Dr. Perfect, the better Trevor looks. But even with the in-your-face competition, the irresistible Trevor just can't seem to see Chastity as anything more than just one of the guys..

My rating: 5 stars

My review: Another keeper by Kristan Higgins. I LOVE the ending of this book. For a few reviews, I've been raving about Kristan Higgins without specifically mentioning why. Here are the things that I love about her stories:

• Her heroines are not model-perfect stunners with kindness and sweetness seeping out of their pores. They're normal girls who are nice but have issues.
• The male characters are not billionaires or heroes. They're normal guys who are decent and nice but have issues.
  
• The families are not out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Siblings fight. Parents fight. Siblings and the parents fight. The families are normal.
• In other words, the people in her books are real with real problems mixed in with their good qualities. I found myself identifying with most of her female main characters, not something that happens often.
• And the book covers are cute.
  

1142. Catch of the Day (Kristan Higgins)

Synopsis:
First Date a la Maggie
Take one lovelorn diner owner (me)
A generous helping of nosy local gossips
A dollop of envy at married sister's perfect life
A splash of divine intervention (my matchmaking priest)

Combine ingredients with one adorable puppy, add a strong but silent lobsterman with a hidden heart of gold . . . and watch the sparks fly.

My rating: 5 stars

My review: One of my favorite books by Kristan Higgins.

1135. Unpredictable (Eileen Cook)

Synopsis:
Sophie isn't crazy, she just wants her guy back. And posing as a psychic to give his new girlfriend a fake reading designed to break them up isn't going overboard, is it? Don't answer that.

Faking psychic powers turns out to be fun, especially after a few lessons from Nick, the cute skeptic, who teaches her all the tricks of the trade. But her readings do a lot more than she could have predicted. Now she must decide whether to accept her rising stardom in a less-than-honest line of work-and whether the best option is trying to rekindle her old flame or finding romance with someone new. And, most importantly, she needs to figure out whether the answers lie in the stars-or in herself.

My rating: 4 stars

1134. Fools Rush In (Kristan Higgins)

Synopsis:
Millie Barnes is this close to finally achieving her perfect life . . .

Rewarding job as a local doctor on Cape Cod? Check. Cute cottage of her very own? Check. Adorable puppy suitable for walks past attractive locals? Check! All she needs is for golden boy and former crush Joe Carpenter to notice her, and Millie will be set.

But perfection isn't as easy as it looks -- especially when Sam Nickerson, the town sheriff, is so distracting. Sure, he needs a friend after being dumped by Millie's fortune-hunting sister, but does she really need to enjoy his company that much? He is definitely not part of her master plan. But maybe it's time for Millie to start a new list . . .

My rating: 4 stars

My review: Kristan Higgins's books are solid. There hasn't been one that I haven't liked or loved yet. A go-to in chick-lit/contemporary romance.

1131. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma (Trenton Lee Stewart)

Synopsis:
Join the Mysterious Benedict Society as Reynie, Kate, Sticky and Constance embark on a new adventure! When an unexplained blackout engulfs Stonetown, the foursome must unravel clues relating to a nefarious new plot, while their search for answers brings them closer to danger than ever before.

My rating: 4 stars

1124. Playing James (Sarah Mason)

Summary:
When Holly Colshannon is made crime correspondent for her local paper, she begins shadowing a detective and writing a diary column about his working life. But, Detective James Sabine is a sour-puss - although he does have very nice green eyes - and furious to be landed with accident-prone Holly.

My rating: 4 stars

1123. The Party Season (Sarah Mason)

Summary:
Respected entrepreneur Simon Monkwell and party planner Isabel Serranti have known each other since childhood. He was a thirteen-year-old bully and she was the eleven-year-old whose life he made a misery. Now she's twenty-six, everything Isabel hears on the grapevine convinces her that Simon hasn't changed one little bit. So when Monty, Simon's father, asks Isabel to help him host a charity ball at the Monkwell's country estate, Izzy has mixed feelings. Determined to put the past behind her, however, and thinking that Simon is away on business in America, Izzy quickly falls under the spell of the eccentric family once more, only to discover that her childhood memories aren't quite as accurate as she thought they were ...

My rating: 3 stars

1122. High Society (Sarah Mason)

Summary:
Clemmie Colshannon's life appears to be on a fast track to nowhere - having lost her job and her boyfriend on the same day, she's retreated to the bosom of her family in Cornwall to recover. Fortunately, life chez Colshannon is never dull. Her mother has taken over the amateur dramatics society and is busy roping the locals into a production of Calamity Jane; brother Barney is going to extreme lengths to impress a girl; and sister Holly, who is a reporter on the Bristol Gazette, needs help with a story. Fellow journalist Emma McKellan, who writes the social diary, has gone missing days before she was due to be married. As Holly and Clemmie search for clues as to her whereabouts in an attempt to reunite her with her fiance, it's not long before the drama turns into a crisis and the whole family is forced to flee to the south of France with an ex-convict hot on their heels ...

My rating: 4 stars

1121. Little Lady, Big Apple (Hester Browne)

Synopsis:
Melissa Romney-Jones went from doormat to diva when she donned a blond wig, became Honey, a no-nonsense bombshell, and set up shop providing London's most clueless men with all the basic girlfriend services -- except, of course, for sex and laundry! Now, her business is booming, but when her flat-mate decides to renovate, she has to temporarily find a new place to live. Then Melissa's dashing American boyfriend (and former client) Jonathan Riley gets a promotion that takes him to New York. There's only one solution: an extended holiday for Melissa in the Big Apple.

Entrusting care of the Little Lady Agency to her tactless best friend and her melodramatic sister, Melissa crosses the pond and finds herself out of her depth among Jonathan's hard-charging friends and his interfering ex-wife. Although Jonathan works all the time, he asks Melissa not to take on any new clients while she's in his hometown. But when she's presented with a tempting new challenge, Melissa decides to put her expertise to use. Then her project lands her in the tabloids, which sets off a hilarious and heartbreaking chain of events that could force her to choose between the man she loves and the unique business into which she has poured her heart and soul.

My rating: 4 stars

1120. The Little Lady Agency (Hester Browne)

Synopsis:
When sweet, naive Melissa seeks a job with her old Home Economics teacher she is half way through the interview before it dawns on her that Mrs McKinnon isn't interested in her cookery skills, but is in fact running an escort agency. Melissa panics, but she needs the cash - and what harm can providing lonely men with stimulating conversation over dinner do? More exciting still, she'll get to wear a disguise...Enter her alter ego: Honey. As flirty and feminine as a Bond girl, as confident and sexy as Mary Poppins in silk stockings, Honey brings out a side to Melissa she never knew she had. A side that will get her into hot water, (and out of it) and that she'll never want to lose...

My rating: 4 stars

My review: A great start to a charming series. Love Melissa and her friends.