The Isle of Destiny Series, Book 3 Spear Song / Tricia O'Malley / 216 pages

Book three in the Isle of Destiny Series, Gwenith Donovan owns a hobby store called This and That, carries on one sided conversations with her chubby cat, and maintains a huge comic book collection to fuel her geeky obsession.  For all that she lived a normal routine life, everything changes when she discovers her own superpower, she can use magic.  Lochlain Laird is a high sorcerer of the light Fae and has broken one of the highest rules of the light Fae.  He broke into the Goddess Danu’s cave and stole a vial of her sacred blood in order to heal his dying mother, he returned it before anyone could figure out who he used it on knowing the Fae would also punish his mother if they knew, but to break into the cave or even touch the sacred vial is a death sentence.  However Danu punishes him by making him the next Seeker’s Protector.  Feeling that the task is beneath him and knowing that after this duty is accomplished he will still possibly face a death sentence, Loch remains withdrawn and surly during Gwenith’s quest to find the Spear and break a centuries old curse before the dark Fae can stop them.  Narrated by Amy Landon 5h 14min

The Isle of Destiny Series, Book 2 Sword Song / Tricia O'Malley / 253 pages

Book two in the Isle of Destiny Series, Sasha Flanagan has lived her life obsessed with swords, so much so that she became a collector and dealer of antique blades and an expert swordswoman.  But then she finds out that she is a Seeker for the next magical item in an ancient quest.  She has to find a mythological sword before a centuries old curse is complete and before the dark Fae can find it. She is accompanied by a rag-tag team and her Protector Declan who has grown up with her shadowed and silently watched over her since her childhood.  Narrated by Amy Landon 5h 31min.

The Isle of Destiny Series, Book 1 Stone Song / Tricia O'Malley / 296 pages

Clare MacBride has her life exactly in the order she wants it, in a year, she'll have finished her geology dissertation. But she is no closer to figuring out the answer to one question that plagues her and the reason why she went into geology, why can she feel stones pulse with energy? She’s never told anyone about her abilities, after all it sounds crazy in their science and technology driven age.  But one night when coming home from work she is attacked by a strange man with silver eyes who turns out to be a Fae only to be saved by another man who calls himself her Protector. She finds out about a centuries-old curse, a mysterious faction of protectors, and a mythological godstone, and that she is a Seeker which all sounds like old world fairy-tale nonsense to her. But she realizes that this is all real, her life plans are shattered and she is forced to throw everything she knows about the world out the window and go on a quest to find this godstone otherwise the dark Fae will be released and Ireland will be doomed. Narrated by Amy Landon 7h 2min.

The Wonder / Emma Donoghue / 291 pages

The author of this novel also wrote the novel "Room".  This story takes place in Ireland in the mid 1800s.  Anna O'Donnel is an eleven year old girl that is said not to have eaten anything for four months with no affect to her health.  The village forms a committee to prove that this miracle is true.  They hire two nurses from outside the community as "watchers" to monitor Anna 24 hours a day for two weeks to prove that Anna is not eating anything.  Lib Wright is a young English nurse that is hired as one of the "watchers".  She has been trained by Florence Nightingale.  The story is slow paced and was hard to stick with at first, but picked up and I enjoyed finishing it.  The author did a good job making the reader feel what life was like in Ireland in this time period.

The Witch Elm/ Tana French/ 509 pgs

Tana French is an exquisite writer. Her details on every level wrap around you and pull you into the story. However, this book required some fortitude to get through. Toby is a 20-something Irish guy who has skated through life rather easily. After a night out with his pals, two guys break into his house. When he gets out of bed to see what's going on, they beat him to within an inch of his life. After a long hospital stay, Toby, who now finds it hard to concentrate and can't remember much about events prior to the attack, moves in to the old family home to care for his dying uncle, Hugo. Later rather sooner, Toby's cousin's kids find a human skull in the wych elm tree out in the back garden. So, who killed this person and stuffed their body down the trunk of a tree? It's a long road to get to this answer and we only have Toby as our guide. Toby is not a likable person. He's selfish and obtuse. Neither are his two cousins, who are also key players. But Uncle Hugo? Him, I would have liked to know more about. This is a long, circuitous story. The author does bring us back around to the beginning but I wish there would have been a shorter route to get there.

One Hundred Names/Cecelia Ahern/471 pages

Katherine (Kitty) Logan's career as a journalist is pretty much over after a scandal that lands both her and her bosses in court. When the judgement comes down that costs the television news program a bundle, Kitty is suspended, another word for fired. Kitty's mentor from her first job, Constance, is dying of breast cancer, but she is still happy to talk about a comeback story for Kitty at the magazine that she and her husband run and where Kitty got her start. Constance tells her to get the file from from her house, and then they will discuss what Constance has in mind for the story. Kitty jumps at the chance for redemption, but before she can get back to the hospital, Constance has slipped into a coma. She dies the next day without regaining consciousness. The magazine will be publishing a tribute issue for her, and Kitty boldly asks to write the story that Constance would have written. The problem is the file is just a list of one hundred names and nothing more. Kitty has less than two weeks to figure out the story or her career will be over for good.

This is a charming story of redemption, forgiveness and love.

Rosie Dunne/Ceclia Ahern/434 pages

Rosie Dunne's dream is to manage, and eventually, own a luxury hotel. She loves everything about the hotel experience, down to the little soaps. Her best friend since they were five is Alex. Alex's dream is to become a doctor. The friends are partners in crime growing up in Dublin until Alex's family moves to Boston for his dad's job for their senior year of high school. They remain long distance best friends via email and IM. Rosie's acceptance to Boston College to study Hotel Management and Alex's Harvard acceptance means they will be back together again until Rosie's life goes off track and keeps her in Dublin. Everyone around them seems to know they are destined to be together as more than friends, even Rosie and Alex, but the two never seem to be on the same page at the same time.


The novel is told entirely in email and IMs, birthday cards and wedding announcements. Ahern really puts the characters, especially Rosie, through the wringer. Rosie is one resilient Irish lass.

Chestnut Street/Maeve Binchy/367 pages

Chestnut Street is a collection of stories about the people who live there. According to her husband, Maeve Binchy had been writing these over the course of 15 years. She had wanted to blend them together into a novel but never got the chance before she died last year. The stories are pure Binchy and are humorous and warm even if they are a bit disjointed from each other. I will miss her voice in literature. The one thing that really stuck in my mind is how many of the marriages in these stories had failed. For a traditional Catholic country, the number of broken homes and single parents seemed really high. Maybe some of that would have changed if Binchy had had the chance to work them into a novel.

Shadow Spell/Nora Roberts/339 pgs

This is book two in the The Cousins O'Dwyer trilogy.  It is Connor & Meara story this time.  They are still battling the evil sorcerer, Cabhan and he has taken a liking to Meara.  Connor & Meara have always been friends but working together is adding a new dimension to their relationship.  This is your typical Nora Roberts novel but I have enjoyed the story line.  I always enjoy her stories when she locates them in Ireland.  

A Week in Winter/Maeve Binchy/326 pages

Chicky Starr has moved back to her hometown of Stoneybridge, Ireland after living in New York for years. She's determined to make Stone House, the ancestral home of Miss Queen, the last remaining Sheedy sister, into a restful holiday by the sea. Miss Queen is thrilled to have her home restored to its glory days, and Chicky has definite plans to make it work. Stone House's first week in business attracts an interesting mix of people looking to escape their normal routines.

Maeve Binchy passed away shortly after finishing this book. It was a bittersweet read because she's one of my favorite writers, and it was hard knowing this was the last one. No one else could make Dublin and Ireland more enchanting. It was her typical charming story.