I like Joan Overfield's Regencies. Her characters are usually very real and likeable. This book started that way, with very likeable characters and an intriguing plot. However, about half-way through, the whole thing just fell apart. The heroine started acting very stupid and naive (not trusting the hero, falling for obvious traps of the villian--unlike the very self-sufficient and competent woman we meet at the beginning) and the romance got very silly (it gets hot and heavy and then very unromantic as the hero becomes a clod and a jerk). Also, the villian emerges as the plot progresses, and although the author doesn't confirm who it is, there is only one suspect...and guess what?!? It's him!

Joan Overfield is much better than this book. For much more coherent fun, read "The Journals of Lady X" or "A Spirited Bluestocking" or delve into "A Door Ajar" and "Time's Tapestry."

Review by Nina Coombs Pykare, author of the Kate Ketterling series, Death Comes to Desdemona, Death Rides a Pink Horse

Another great Joan Overfield story. Good enough to read twice, which I did by mistake. The characters are real and the heroine's dilemma is excrutiating.

If the five stories chosen for the audiobook are the best of the thirteen stories in the unabridged book, then I fear the reader is in for a dull time of it. At least readers like myself, who want a little more meat than short stories deliever. The stories are pretty typical of what you expect from Christie - rather civilized criminals who are found out by one minor slip.

I only read this because I'm trying to read the Miss Marple series in order. My advice to others, persue this book if you like mystery short stories, otherwise don't worry about checking it off your list.

The short stories herein are the first 5 of the Marple collection _The Thirteen Problems_. See my reviews if you're interested in the whole collection, which was divided into 3 separate unabridged recordings narrated by Joan Hickson. Where stories have appeared elsewhere under different names, the title used in this recording (which is the original title) is listed first.

"The Tuesday Night Club" (December, 1927) Raymond West, the writer, is visiting his aunt Jane Marple at her home in St. Mary Mead, and is playing host to a few friends when he opens the subject of unsolved mysteries. The company, representing several professions and outlooks on life, offers different opinions on who is best equipped to solve such problems, and they decide to put the issue to a practical test. Every Tuesday, one member will tell the story of a problem to which he or she knows the answer, and the others will try to solve it.

Unsurprisingly, Sir Henry Clithering, lately retired from Scotland Yard, is asked to tell his story first, and he selects a case that wasn't solved when it first arose; the solution has just come into his hands, and an arrest will soon be made. Middle-aged Mr. and Mrs. Jones, together with her companion Miss Clark, all shared a meal featuring tinned lobster just after Mr. Jones' return from a business trip; they were ill afterwards, and Mrs. Jones (who had the money) died of it. Local gossip prompted an official autopsy that found Mrs. Jones had died of arsenical poison, but no one seemed to have had an opportunity to poison her without poisoning everyone at the meal.

"The Idol House of Astarte", a.k.a. "The 'Supernatural' Murder" (1928) Dr. Pender, an elderly clergyman, tells a story of a tragic death at a house party in his youth. Richard Hayden liked the fancy that Silent Grove near his home was once a sacred grove, and had a kind of folly built to encourage the fancy. Diana Maberly, one of the beauties of the season who was flirting with Richard, his cousin Elliot, and a few others as well, took the fancy to heart, and asked for a costume party. But things went tragically awry.

"Ingots of Gold", a.k.a. "Miss Marple and the Golden Galleon" (1928) Raymond West doesn't know the answer to his problem, but Sir Henry does, and Miss Marple deduces it. He made the acquaintance of an authority on Elizabethan times, who was preparing a treasure-hunting expedition to salvage gold from the wreck of an Armada galleon off Cornwall. But the police were interested in quite another problem: how someone managed to make a lot of gold bullion vanish from the strongroom of the _Otranto_ - if it was ever aboard at all.

"The Bloodstained Pavement" (1928) Joyce Lampiere, like many another painter, stayed in a Cornish village to paint self-consciously picturesque scenery: in this case, the Polharwith Arms (give or take waiting for a boring couple and their flamboyantly dressed companion to get out of the way). A fisherman watching her sketch tells her the story of the near-destruction of the village by the Spanish, and she's annoyed that some of it got into her sketch - bloodstains on the pavement outside the hotel. But she looks up to find that she only painted what she'd really seen, although the fisherman didn't see it...

"Motive versus Opportunity" (1928) Locked-room. Mr. Petherick, Miss Marple's lawyer. After the death of his little granddaughter, Simon Clode made his grown nephew and nieces his heirs. Unfortunately, he got interested in spiritualism, and proposed to make a will leaving his estate to his favorite medium, Mrs. Spragg, against Mr. Petherick's advice (who marked her down as an old fraud). But when the time came to probate the will, Mr. Petherick's safe contained only blank sheets of paper, and nobody seemed to have both motive and opportunity to pull the switch.

"The Thumb Mark of St. Peter", a.k.a. "Ask and You Shall Receive" (1928) Miss Marple herself presents a problem that none of the others can work out. Her niece Mabel made an unfortuate marriage to a man with insanity in his family. After one particularly ugly quarrel, her husband became ill in the night and died suddenly. Not overly grief-stricken, Mabel didn't send for her aunt until she realized that she was suspected of poisoning her husband...

Sister Joan seems to be forever stumbling over dead bodies and, of course, this book is no exception. She takes the convent's horse out for an exercise run and comes across an old building which used to be a chapel. Upon investigation, she finds the dead body of a man who has no identification on him. She decides that he must be a homeless person and reports it to the police. She becomes acquainted with an antique dealer nearby and feels that some of his actions are suspicious and that he might be connected with the murder. Soon she is approached by the man's sister-in-law who expresses concern about her sister. She has not heard from her in some time and she wonders if some harm has come to her. The noose of suspicion tightens around the antique dealer and Sister Joan tries to decide what to do, since her detective friend, Alan Mill, is on vacation. The antique dealer is caught in more and more lies until Detective Mill returns and he and Sister Joan collaborate on the investigation. The ending is complicated and somewhat unexpected.

In a chapel near her Cornish Moorís convent, Sister Joan, an experienced amateur detective of nine previous investigations, finds the corpse of a homeless man. Since her sleuthing buddies (Brother Cuthbert and Detective Mill) are both unavailable to help Joan, she begins to investigate the death of the mysterious man by herself. Adding to her non-Godly, activities is Caroline, who asks Joan to search for her missing sister Crystal. Joan starts that case by looking into the activities of the spouse, antique dealer and waxwork show owner Michael Peter.

Both cases seem to intersect with Michael. Soon a second dead body surfaces, but this time it is clearly murder. As Sister Joan digs deeper into her case(s), she risks her own life from a dangerous killer who has a personal agenda to complete.

VOWS OF ADORATION is a good who-done-it that brings the Cornish countryside to life and adds some insight into Sister Joan, within an interesting but secular story line. This particular novel's crimes, for the first time in the collection, are not linked to religion, thereby, losing the uniqueness that makes this a top rate series. Veronica Black demonstrates her tremendous writing abilities, but readers including fans wanting the true flavor of Sister Joan need to skip this worldly mystery and return to any and all of the previous eight reverent oriented who-done-its.

Harriet Klausner

Lucy's Wish, the other Orphan Train Children book, was better. This book was boring. And it was annoying that Will wanted to go back to his father when his foster parents cared about him better and he had a real future with them.

Basically, Will is rather upset and can't believe that his father would just abandon him. He is placed with a kind couple who loves Will. They are Otto and Sarah Wallace, Otto is a doctor and often takes Will with him to meet his patients. He believes that Will has a real shot at becoming a doctor himself. When his father, Jesse, comes with his traveling circus, Will is torn on whether to go with his father, or stay with the Wallaces. This is a very good book, that builds up to the plot, nicely.

The best part of this book is the cover [model probably should have represented brother, Cameron]Hey guys, where are the blue eyes? almost blonde hair?

Eric Wolfe is another very good representative of the male of the species. Tina Kranas may be a decent female but the story is not strong enough.

The envolvement has to be fast paced for a short story but good grief - the threat is not strong enough nor is Eric's determination to catch the drug dealers.

This series is appearing to be a very light read -- not bad but nothing to recommend it except the last page of the fourth book.

Ah well, onto the next one ----

Eric Wolfe, undercover cop of the narcotics division of the Pennsylvania Police Dept., is officially on vacation. Unofficially, he is following up on a tip his snitch gave him about a large shipment of drugs being made by the pushers who murdered his father. Christina, his very sexy 'new' neighbor, is the only loose end he needs to tie up: Is she involved up to her neck with her ex-husband & his friends or not? The only way to find out is to make things real personal between them...

It paid off for Joan Wai, who turned her experiences writing for wedding websites and marrying off friends into a handy volume on ways to spice up showers,pre-wedding parties and receptions. Suggestions are plenty, instructions are clear, and there's plenty of room to personalize with twists and tips. If you like the old standards, they're here; but if you think shower games aren't your thing, Wai includes fresh activities that might change your mind. She's smart, funny and she knows her stuff.

This is a very good book. I love Laura Gasparis Vonfrolio. She is very sharp, witty and in nurses face about the things that they do to belittle themselves and look less than professional to others and among themselves. This is a reality check for nurses. God knows that we need one. Every Nursing 101 student needs this book. I wish that Laura would revise and reprint this book.

I think this book is a good book to read, beacuse i think it's funny and how the characters are friendly to each other. Also how one of the character were trying to have fun even though the other one is having a bad day. And that just reminded me of one of my bad days.

This book is written for ages 9-14 and I believe the information is written at that level of understanding. It is written very clear and concise. The story or life of the 29 members in this book is different from most of the African Americans who were brought to the American shore starting 1619. It is noted that Phyllis Wheatley was brought to Boston, Massachusetts around 1761. She became a poetess after learning to read and write. She was quite lucky to have been allowed to learn to read and write as most of the other slaves were not allowed that priviledge. She is noted to have had published her first book of poems in 1773 when she was about 22 years old. The book goes on from there enumerating the discoveries and firsts that 28 other African Americans participated in up to the 21st century.

I recommend that every child as well as adult read this informative book of American firsts

Joan Didion is one of America's most gifted writers, and "After Henry" is no exception. Though at times her prose is lax, it is mostly pure and simple. "After Henry" is the perfect book of thoughts, essays for a rainy, Sunday afternoon. It is one of Didion's most heartfelt triumphs. Good