Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3)Cress by Marissa Meyer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
If you haven’t read Cinder and Scarlet skip to the next book because this isn’t going to make any sense.

Cinder and Scarlet are still on the run.  They escaped with help from a Lunar computer whiz named Cress who was able to hide them from detection by the Lunar forces.  Cress is stuck on a satellite orbiting Earth.  She has been kept as a slave and forced to work for the Queen.  She is supposed to be finding the fugitives but she hopes if she can help them, they will rescue her in return.

This series works in characters from fairy tales.  Cress is Rapunzel, stuck in a satellite until she is rescued.  You have to read these in order or you will be lost.  I’ve enjoyed this series.  I should probably go back and read for the details since I’ve read them fairly quickly the first time through because I want to know what happens!
A Star for Mrs. BlakeA Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It is 1933. Seventeen years ago Cora Blake’s only son, Sammy, died in France in the war. She was given the option to have his body shipped home or to have him buried there. Because she chose to have him buried in France, she receives a notice that the U.S. Government will now pay for her to go to France with a group of other Gold Star Mothers to visit their sons’ graves.

This book is based on a real program that I hadn’t heard of before.  The government sent women to France to visit the graves.  Most of these women had never traveled before so the trip was eye-opening for everyone.

Widdershins (Newford, #16)Widdershins by Charles de Lint

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When two human women with ties to the magical world are abducted by a rogue band of fairies it sets off a manhunt throughout the Otherworld.  The Native American spirits and the Celtic fairies have an uneasy truce and this may just push them into war.

I’ve never read anything by this author before.  This book reminded me of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods with the conflict between older and newer spirits.  There is a huge cast of characters including a formerly abused Pit Bull but no one ever floats over a church like on the cover.  The husband kept asking me if that had happened yet and he was quite disappointed when I reported that it hadn’t.