The Collector by Nora Roberts 483 pages

I have to admit, I am a huge Nora Roberts fan.  I love her trilogies, mainly because I never want the story to end.  She paints her characters so vividly that they come to life, and you want to know what happens, even when the story ends.  This is a stand-alone novel and quite a page turner!  Lila Emerson is a professional house sitter and Young Adult novel writer.  She actually has no permanent address.  All her belongings fit in two suitcases, with some overflow she keeps at her best friend, Julie's apartment.  One of Lila's habits is to watch the neighbors with a pair of binoculars; she like making up stories about them from her brief glimpses into their lives.  One night, 1:40 am to be exact, after wine and cupcakes with Julie, she is watching Ms. Model and Mr. Slick (Lila's names for them), when something goes terribly wrong.  Ms. Model is shoved out the 14 story  window by an assailant unseen!  Lila just knows it is Mr. Slick, although she has never seen anything violent happen between them before.  She calls the police and they find Mr. Slick murdered also!  That is when Lila meets Mr. Slick's (real name Oliver Archer) brother, famous artist, Ash Archer.  Lila and Ash team up and begin to delve into the mystery of why anyone would want to kill his charming and seemingly harmless brother.  Nora Roberts spins you into her web of antiquities, Russian Fabrege eggs, the collector who would to anything to acquire as many as possible and the assassin who would kill, just for the pleasure of it.  Ash and Julie must use their skills, wits and all the power and influence available to them to trap the murderous assassin before she can kill them both.  This is a highly recommend!

Liv, Forever by Amy Talkington 278 pages

Reminiscent of The Lovely Bones, equal parts ghost story, mystery, fantasy, and love story--and oh what a love story it is--Liv, Forever is a glorious debut guaranteed to stay with you long after the last page is read.

Olivia Bloom, Liv for short, is beside herself when she receives a scholarship for the most prestigious prep school in the country, Wickham Hall. After years in the foster system she sees it as her way up and out. Within weeks she meets Gabe a fellow scholarship student and Malcolm president of the student government and for the first time in her life Liv is happy and feeling the possibilities. And then outrageously and tragically and God-why-did-you-have-to-do-that, it all comes to an end. And that's when the story really starts. If you only read one book this has to be the one.

Oh Liv!

The Chase by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg, 320 Pages

I read all of Janet Evanovich's books.  I often complain after reading them, but it doesn't stop me from reading the next one.  Snarkily I wonder how much of this book is Janet and how much is Lee?

I can say I really enjoyed listening to this one.  "The Chase" is the second in the Fox and O'Hare series.  Fox being Nicholas Fox, suave con man extraordinaire and O'Hare being Kate O'Hare, a straight laced FBI agent.

In the first book we learned that Kate spent several years chasing Nick and when she finally caught him the FBI broke him out of jail so he could help catch other criminals.  Now, Kate is secretly partnered with Nick, while publicly still trying to catch him.

The story was a rousing adventure with humor and lots of fun suspense.  This is not deep literature, but I had a fun weekend cleaning the house and working in the yard and following Kate, Nick and their zany crew as they went after the bad guys.

Inferno by Dan Brown 299 pages

I must confess I did not read all of this book.  I posted it as 299 pages because that is where I gave up.  It actually has 461 pages. Those of you really interested in art history and architecture will love this book.  The author gets a bit wordy on these subjects to the point where I personally, felt as if I  was reading a text book.  I am sure this book will make a great movie and I can just see Tom Hanks in the recurring role of Professor Langdon.  I just gave up and went on to read something else.

The Monuments Men by Robert Edsel and Bret Witter, 496 pages

The full title of this book is "The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History."

I wanted to read this book because I saw a preview for the upcoming movie of the same title (the short one) and I love books about World War II.

It took me a good while to get interested in the book, but once it got me hooked, I was hooked for sure.  I never knew of the men and women who were part of the military in World War II, but whose mission it was to save the art and cultural history of Europe.  And actually, not everyone who worked toward this goal was in the Allied military.  There were French museum workers, Austrian mine engineers and even Nazi officers who also did everything they could to save the art from the being looted by the Nazis and later from destruction when the war starting going poorly for Germany.

This book focused on the Monuments Men who worked and were stationed in Western Europe.  Activity occurred elsewhere, but the author explains that he limited the story because the book was just too long otherwise.

If you like history or if you like to read about World War II or if you appreciate art or if you like a good adventure story or if you . . . you get the idea.  Just read this book.