750. Guardian of the Horizon (Elizabeth Peters)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Amelia Peabody and her husband Emerson, along with their son Ramses and foster daughter Nefret, are summoned back to the Lost Oasis, a hidden stronghold in the western desert whose existence they discovered many years ago (in The Last Camel Died At Noon) and have kept secret from the entire world, including their fellow Egyptologists. According to Merasen, the brother of the ruling monarch, their old friend Prince Tarek is in grave danger and needs their help, however it's not until they retrace their steps back to the Oasis, with its strange mixture of Meroitic and Egyptian cultures, that they learn the real reason for their journey.

My rating: 1 star

749. Homer Price (Robert McCloskey)

The donut story is one of my favorites.

Synopsis from Amazon:
Six episodes in the life of Homer Price including one in which he and his pet skunk capture four bandits and another about a donut machine on the rampage.

My rating: 5 stars

748. River of Fire (Mary Jo Putney)

Synopsis from Amazon:
On his return from the Napoleonic Wars, Captain Kenneth Wilding rides to Sutterton Hall to claim his inheritance, only to discover that his father has ruined the estate. The only way to salvage it and provide a dowry for his sister is to accept his creditor's bargain: Wilding's debt will be forgiven, if he infiltrates a prominent painter's household and solves a murder. Wilding takes a job as secretary to the painter, but finds his task complicated by his growing attraction to his employer's daughter and by his own secret yearning to paint.

My rating: 2 stars

747. Lady Killer/Secret Admirer (Michele Jaffe)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Set in London in the late 1500s, this hefty volume offers two distinctly different but equally pleasing paranormal thrillers in one tidy package. In Secret Admirer, a killer with a fixation for the letter W is messing with Lady Tuesday Arlington's pretty head. The Lion, as he calls himself, seems to be able to invade Tuesday's dreams and turn them into horrific nightmares that come true. When Tuesday unknowingly paints the scene of her abusive husband's grisly murder, she becomes the prime suspect, until she becomes a target. The reader soon learns, however, that it isn't Tuesday the Lion is after; it's Tuesday's new beau, Lawrence Pickering, head of Her Majesty's operation against smuggling. This stylishly abstract offering will challenge the attention span with its abrupt scene changes, surrealistic tone and harebrained heroine, who withholds vital information despite being faced with the threat of arrest. Still, there are enough surprising plot twists and enigmatic secondary characters to propel readers to finish this turbulent read and launch right into Jaffe's (The Water Nymph) next offering, a comedic mystery featuring detective Clio Thornton and her smart, simian sidekick, Toast. Clio is already on the outs with her wealthy relatives for taking after her adventurous father; now she risks losing her allowance by disrupting her cousin's marriage to Viscount Miles Loredan. Miles supposedly killed the Vampire of London three years earlier, but Clio is convinced the creature has resurfaced. To replenish her dwindling cash flow, Clio proposes that Miles hire her to track down the vampire, an offer Miles has his own reasons for refusing.

My rating: 4 stars

746. The Fellowship of the Ring (J. R. R. Tolkien)

Synopsis from Amazon:
In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in THE HOBBIT. In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.

My rating: 5 stars

745. No Mercy (Jaid Black)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Book 2 of The Empress' New Clothes: NO MERCY, tells us the story of King Rem Q'an Tal and the capture of his Sacred Mate.

My rating: 4 stars

744. Demon Rumm (Sandra Brown)

Synopsis from Amazon:
It was the publicity stunt from hell as far as Kirsten Rumm was concerned. She may have been writing the book about her late husband, aeronautical daredevil Demon Rumm, but she didn’t see the need to play host to the arrogant bad-boy actor starring in the film version’s title role. Still, for the good of the project, Kirsten agreed to share her beachfront home with the impossibly sexy screen idol.

Any other woman would do anything to be in her sandals, but Kirsten wasn’t falling for Rylan North, even if he did play his role of male lead to perfection. His down-home charm, his gentleness and virile charisma, might be seducing her in every sense of the word, but he was an actor, after all. Seducing an audience was his job. Rylan could have any woman he wanted. So why was he so desperately pretending to want her?

From the moment he saw her, Rylan North knew that Kirsten Rumm was the woman he’d been waiting all his life to cast as the star in his real-life love story. What did it matter if he was every woman’s fantasy if he couldn’t get Kirsten to so much as glance his way? He’d caught the look of past hurt behind her sky-blue eyes–a dark secret that shadowed the sparkle. Rylan was determined to find out what tragedy held this passionate woman back from a second chance at love even if it cost him his reputation, his career, and his life. But first he’d have to get Kirsten to act on her instincts . . . and to trust the flesh-and-blood man behind the fantasy.

My rating: 1 star

My review: Wow. Books from the 80s do not hold up well. I read this for a book club and it ... sucks. A lot. Everything about it is terrible. The heroine is weak and annoying. The hero is pushy and annoying. The premise of the book doesn't make any sense. Here are a few criticisms (there's no way I can list them all):

• Rylan wears jean shorts -- we have already gone over the heinousness of this fashion crime. One star off automatically.
• In the beginning, Rylan is an extremely rude and pushy houseguest. Why doesn't Kirsten kick him out of the house? It's her house. The importance of a movie does not outweigh good manners.
  
• Rylan coming onto Kirsten. Dude, she lost her husband not too long ago. It's clear she hasn't gotten over it. Back off.
• Rylan is suddenly in love with Kirsten -- uh ... what???
• Rylan's "famous" stare. Dude, get over yourself.

In short, Kirsten's indecisiveness is tiresome (make up your mind already!). Rylan's a jackass. A match made in heaven.

I've read a lot of bad romances and this is one of the worst.

743. The Secret Servant (Daniel Silva)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
A leading terrorism analyst is found brutally murdered in Amsterdam. The Dutch police believe it is the work of a deranged extremist -- but others know better. Gabriel Allon -- art-restorer, spy, assassin -- is called in to make discreet inquiries. It would seem that the dead man was close to uncovering the plans of a major terrorist operation -- a new threat which no-one could have predicted. The trail leads to London, when a young woman vanishes .... She is the daughter of the American Ambassador -- and goddaughter of the President of the United States -- and the kidnappers' demands are at once horrifically clear and clearly impossible to meet. The President turns to Allon, a man whose abilities he has depended on before ... Allon soon finds himself in a desperate search for the missing woman, and those responsible -- but the truth, when he finds it, is not what he expects. In fact, it is one that will shake him, and many others, to the core.

My rating: 3 stars

My review: Not as good as the previous Gabriel Allon books in plot and writing, which, sad to say, is better than a good number of books currently being published. The main sticking point for me is when the characters lecture each other on foreign policy -- shouldn't they know this already? I do not like the practice some writers have of explaining policy issues to their readers; the characters inevitably end up sounding like some blowhard pundit on a cable news show, oversimplifying the issues while maintaining an unrealistic political stance. In his previous books, Silva has refrained from this practice but, in The Secret Servant, there's continual talk and explanation of the "puppet" regimes in the Middle East (such as in Egypt) and it becomes tiresome. I recommend skipping through these parts if you want to enjoy the book.

742. Against the Wall (Rhyannon Byrd)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
She's a good girl ready for her turn to be bad. He's a hard-ass set on resisting the inevitable. When temptation lives just around the corner, who knows what wicked wonders will result? Shea Dresden doesn't need her PhD to know she's more brains than bod-too much bookworm, too little bada-bing!-but this is getting ridiculous. Her sexy nextdoor neighbor, the sinfully irresistible Ryan McCall, has been going out of his way to ignore her for months now. She's flirted, asked him out, done everything but beg-and still come up empty-handed. Tired of waiting for what she wants, Shea hatches a scheme to snag the stubborn ATF agent once and for all. It's the perfect plan, and she's willing to do anything to make it work. But when her little strategy backfires, Shea finds she's being rescued instead of ravished. And she still wants her mind-shattering night of sexual ecstasy. What's a desperate woman to do? Rock his world, of course! Shea's not about to take another no, especially when she's already got the sexy stud in her bedroom. She may have to swallow her pride to get what she wants-but by the end of the night, it's Ryan who's paying all the lip service. Ryan McCall's been burned before, and he knows better than to play with fire. Too bad the shy little scholar living right next door affects him like gasoline on an open flame. He's done his best to stay the hell away from her, but once he gets that first taste, he knows he's in some serious trouble. Shea may be looking for wild times between the sheets, but Ryan soon finds he's ready to convince her to take a chance on a bad boy like himself-forever.

My rating: 3 stars

741. The Neverending Story (Michael Ende)

Synopsis from Amazon Canada:
Bastian embarks on a wild adventure when he enters the magical world of Fantastica, a doomed land filled with dragons, giants, and monsters, and risks his life to save Fantastica by going on a very dangerous quest.

My rating: 5 stars

740. The Return of the King (J. R. R. Tolkien)

Synopsis from Amazon:
While the evil might of the Dark Lord Sauron swarmed out to conquer all Middle-earth, Frodo and Sam struggled deep into Mordor, seat of Sauron’s power. To defeat the Dark Lord, the accursed Ring of Power had to be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. But the way was impossibly hard, and Frodo was weakening. Weighed down by the compulsion of the Ring he began finally to despair.

My rating: 5 stars

739. The Berlin Conspiracy (Tom Gabbay)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Wallowing in a post–Bay of Pigs funk, ex-CIA agent Jack Teller is called out of retirement in 1963 and sent to Berlin to meet an East German agent with a message for Jack's ears only in the debut of screenwriter and former TV producer Gabbay. Jack is floored by both his contact's identity and his information about a plot to kill President Kennedy during an upcoming visit to West Berlin. His dormant idealism roused, Jack delves into the conspiracy while dodging the threats of corrupt CIA higherups and falling in with colorful residents of Berlin's Cold War demimonde.

My rating: 1 star

My review: The writing is terrible; parts of the book sound like a bad gangster movie from the 1930s.

738. Bridge to Terabithia (Katherine Paterson)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Jess Aarons wants to be the fastest boy in the fifth grade -- he wants it so bad he can taste it. He's been practicing all summer, running in the fields around his farmhouse until he collapses in a sweat. Then a tomboy named Leslie Burke moves into the farmhouse next door and changes his life forever. Not only does Leslie not look or act like any girls Jess knows, but she also turns out to be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. After getting over the shock and humiliation of being beaten by a girl, Jess begins to think Leslie might be okay. Despite their superficial differences, it's clear that Jess and Leslie are soul mates. The two create a secret kingdom in the woods named Terabithia, where the only way to get into the castle is by swinging out over a gully on an enchanted rope. Here they reign as king and queen, fighting off imaginary giants and the walking dead, sharing stories and dreams, and plotting against the schoolmates who tease them. Jess and Leslie find solace in the sanctuary of Terabithia until a tragedy strikes and the two are separated forever.

My rating: 1 star

737. It Happened One Autumn (Lisa Kleypas)

Synopsis from Amazon:
The setup is familiar: strong-willed American heiress Lillian Bowman gets under the skin of straitlaced earl Marcus Westcliff, and soon finds herself sharing the sheets with him. But what distinguishes this book from a multitude of similar stories are Kleypas's characters. One can imagine the mouthy Lillian as a regular on Sex and the City and, with his contemporary sensibilities and hunky good looks, Marcus could easily win the heart of a modern woman. Indeed, while the protagonists are both hardheaded in a typical way and their path toward love is peppered with few surprises, it's no chore to sit back and be amused by their antics and engrossed in their struggles.

My rating: 4 stars

736. A Duke of Her Own (Lorraine Heath)

Synopsis from Amazon:
The Duke of Hawkhurst is proud -- and really rather, well, poor! He has an enormous estate, and a long–standing pedigree, but his ancestors have gambled, frittered, and otherwise simply lost the Hawkhurst fortune. Luckily, there are American heiresses galore coming to snare titled gentlemen, and put their money to good use keeping the castles sturdy and the estates afloat.

Lady Louisa St. John -- the daughter of an earl and the sister of an earl -- is forced to become essentially a finishing governess to Jenny Rose. Hawkhurst has decided that the American, Jenny, should be his bride, but it's Louisa who loves him ... and Louisa whom he eventually realizes he loves with a passion he's never felt before ....

My rating: 5 stars

My review: A great spin on the influx of American heiresses who went to England in the 1800s to marry nobility. For once, we see it from the perspective of the British nobility who are forced to marry or cater to these heiresses.

735. Enslaved (Jaid Black)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Book 3 of The Empress' New Clothes: ENSLAVED, tells us the story of King Kil Q'an Tal and the capture of his Sacred Mate.

My rating: 4 stars

734. Body Check (Deirdre Martin)

Synopsis from Amazon:
When persistent sports publicist Janna MacNeil butts heads with hockey team captain Ty Gallagher, they don't just crack the ice-they melt it.

My rating: 2 stars

My review: Not as good as The Penalty Box.

733. Stuart Little (E. B. White)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
This is a story about Stuart Little, who is only two inches tall, with a tail and whiskers, but who has the courage of a lion as he copes with life in an adult-size world. He rides on New York buses, races sailboats on the lake in Central Park and sets out across the world in search of his friend.

My rating: 4 stars