Dead Scared/ Sharon (SJ) Bolton / 378 pgs

This is the second book in Bolton's Lacey Flint series. Lacey is a British police officer with a very murky past and a sometimes reckless regard for the rules and her own safety. She's still getting over the trauma she suffered in the first book--I liked this realistic aspect--when she's asked by her one-time lover, a higher level officer named Mark, to go undercover at Cambridge University. Mark almost died in the last book and is still recovering physically. It's clear these two care about each other but there is a lot keeping them apart. i.e. the job, the past trauma, their fragile emotions.

Lacey is sent into Cambridge as a supposedly anxious, bordering on depressed, undergraduate because there has been a pattern of suspicious suicides at the university that has some people concerned. Honestly, Lacey didn't do a very good job of being a meek, high-strung student but she's only there for two weeks as things escalate quickly, so... This story is exceptionally creepy, dealing with people who purposefully bully and drive emotionally fragile young women into suicide just for kicks. It's definitely not for the faint of heart. I'm a big fan of Bolton's books and this is a solid entry in the Flint series.

Dating You/Hating You / Christina Lauren / 353 pgs

This is a workplace romance which, given that and the title, has been compared to Sally Thorne's The Hating Game. I loved The Hating Game and I've liked a few other Christina Lauren books so I was really looking forward to this one.

Evie and Carter are Hollywood agents. They meet at a mutual friend's party, hit it off, and go on an adorable first date. Then disaster strikes. Evie's agency takes over Carter's agency and soon the two are pitted against each, vying for the same job. Despite Evie having more experience (she's about 5 years older than Carter) overall and in the exact position that is up for grabs, she's at a disadvantage because of her misogynistic boss. Women in the workplace and what they must deal with on a daily basis is a theme in this book and I really liked how Carter slowly realized how things were different for Evie. Because they have to put any potential relationship on the back burner while things are tense at work, the romance can seem a little MIA in this one. But Carter is a great hero who accepts everything about Evie, even the fact that she can stand on her own. So while I wished there was a little more actual romance here, the characters and smart dialogue make for a fun read.

Love and Friendship/ Jane Austen / 52 pgs

This is one of Austen's earlier works, written when she was very young. It's a short series of letters  written by "Laura," detailing her chaotic life. I can best sum up Laura by this word: dingbat. Her letters are funny in the way that Austen portrays her shallowness and complete lack of sense. The tale is entirely unbelievable with its frequent coincidences and outlandish behavior from Laura. However, you can see glimpses of Austen's cutting wit and her keen sense of observation.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane/ Neil Gaiman / 181 pgs

I enjoyed my second foray into horror much better than my first. This is an interesting little tale about a boy who lives on the edges of a sometimes magical, sometimes dark fantasy world that is unknown to almost everyone else around him. He is befriended by a neighbor girl a few years older than him and becomes unwittingly drawn into her family's fight to contain some dark creatures that are threatening the human world. Things get pretty tense as our narrator (whose name I don't think we ever learn) is attacked from all sides. While I thought this story was well done and entertaining, I found myself wishing the narrator was a few years older. For one thing, he seemed to know an awful lot for a 7-year-old, including the word "chitinous." But more than that, I couldn't stop feeling doubly horrified that all these terrible things were happening to such a young child. It was easier for me to imagine him being ten instead of seven, and that made me feel mildly better:-)