Sanctus series by Simon Toyne

Absolutely fantastic series !!  

The 3 books in the series are Sanctus, The Key, and The Tower.

Each book in the series is a complete novel unto itself, and has a slightly different focus on the overall theme...to be more precise, the first book, Sanctus focuses on ancient myths and legends, the second book, The Key focuses on the modern world, and the third book, The Tower, focuses on cutting-edge astronomy !!  

The book has a religious slant, as well as a scientific one, and I definitely plan to reread, and probably purchase the whole series !!

And the ending is a complete surprise !!

Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh

I absolutely loved this book !!!  The setting is the near-future, and life in the big cities is divided into High Town, Low Town and Undertown...

High Town is where all the rich live - society is divided into the rich and the poor - and it's called "High Town" because it is actually an elevated level above Low Town, which is on ground-level...

If you live in High Town, then you have freezing insurance - upon your death you will be cryofrozen for 1000 years or so, depending on your particular insurance policy, and you can be revived as many times as you can afford, altho' each revival becomes more difficult...

Generally, if you don't have freezing insurance, when you die you are just cremated...however, if according to an "Attractiveness" chart, if you score high enough, then you are sent to the "Dating Center" of the cryo facility, and you can "date" rich men...

To "date" someone in the Dating Center,  a man pays $9,000 for a 5-minute visit, and you, the "datee" are partially revived - just your face - and an air tube is activated so that you can speak in a rough mechanical voice - and if the man "dating" you decides he wants to marry you, then he will pay for your revival, including any medical issues (often the women were in accidents), and you must sign a life-long marriage contract...

The "datees" were humorously called "Bridesicles" because they were frozen like a Popsicle, and could only be revived if they were chosen to be a bride !!!

The story revolves around Rob, who has just broken up with Lorelei and ends up marrying Winter, a Bridesicle ; Nathan, who has just broken up with Winter (prior to her death) and subsequently has a brief romance with Lorelei ; and Veronika who moons for Nathan and then falls in love with Lycan...

This novel raises a lot of questions about the meaning of life, and what love really is...

 

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

I am about half finished reading this novel, and not sure if I will continue...I began this book because I found out there was a NovelTalk about it this month, and since Kyle is now home from Afghanistan, I thought I could tolerate it...

But, alas, it appears I was wrong...I don't like the Afghani people, and reading this book makes me dislike them even more !!!  

Everything that I've heard or read or noticed about the people of Afghanistan seems to imply that as a group they are ignorant and uncaring...

Even in this novel, in the scene where the protagonist's "brother" is being brutally raped by a gang of well-known neighborhood boys, the protagonist pretends he doesn't see, and runs and hides, and cares only about his own welfare...I write "brother" in quotation marks because the "brother" is in fact the protagonist's half-brother, whom the father refuses to acknowledge and after he was conceived the woman was forced to marry the father's servant, and the "brother" was raised as a servant...

I had a patient from Afghanistan, and the whole family was the most uncaring, self-centered group of people I had ever met...

Ever After by Kim Harrison

Ever After is the last book in the "Hollows" series, and boy, did it end with a lot of loose ends !!!  Hoping her publisher reconsiders and approves another book !!

A lot of things are explained in this book however, for instance, in the Hollows world, the origin of the demons, gargoyles  & witches, what happened between the demons and the elves, and how the ever after was created, how the vampires really live and what their collective dream is, and my favorite part, lots of budding romances !!!

Tho' there IS lots of magic-slinging, the good guys win the day by setting aside their prejudices and cooperating, and thinking logically about solutions :>)

Into the Woods : Tales from the Hollows and Beyond

This book is a series of short stories that relate to the Hollows series :>)  Mainly they are backgrounds of characters in the Hollows series.

I love this book because I love to see the evolution of a character, from their past to the present years  told in the series, and how often something that has happened has greater impact on the person's personality than ever dreamed...

Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

I love vampire stories - both books and movies, and I was really excited when a friend suggested this one :>)  There is a movie version that I plan to watch after I finish the book :>)

The author grabs your interest immediately - I was tearing up before I had finished the first chapter !!

I haven't finished it yet, but so far, the plot is a middle-aged man who kills people and drains them of of their blood for the child-vampire that he takes care of...

There is some sexual innuendo - nothing explicit, but disturbing, nonetheless - which can be quickly skipped over...

There is also the character of  a teen boy who has a life that just makes you cry - and the child-vampire moves in next door to him...

 

The Hollows series by Kim Harrison

I'm rereading The Hollows series while awaiting books on hold :>)

I love this series because it is fantasy set in the modern world...

The general plot is that there was a terrible catastrophe, and a vast majority of the humans died :>(  However, in order to prevent the collapse of  modern civilization, the "Inderlanders" came forward and saved the day - vampires, witches, werewolves, etc. !!!

Turns out all those fairy-tales were somewhat garbled but true - for instance, all the fairy-tales end with "and they lived happily ever after", but it was supposed to read  "and they lived happily IN the ever after", because the "ever after" is a real, alternate world where, possibly, the Inderlanders came into our world from...

The protagonist is Rachel, a "Rosewood baby" witch, who with the help of her roommate, Ivy, a living vampire, and a pixy, Jenks,  and his family, fight human and Inderlander crime :>)  Rachel and Ivy are former IS (Inderland Security -  staffed by Inderlanders) agents that are now working free-lance for the IS, and who also work for the FIB (Federal Inderlander Bureau - staffed by humans). Both agencies are similar to our present-day FBI.

So, in essence these are "Mysteries" with a twist !!  There is some romance, but not really any sex, which makes it so much more enjoyable for me :>)