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The last of the summer reads:

Click on the titles of Books of the Week to go to the discussion threads.

• Bachelorette # 1 by Jennifer O'Connell **Book of the Week, August 12, 2003
  
• Catch the Moon by Diana Dempsey **Book of the Week, August 26, 2003
  
• The Dead Wives Society by Sharon Duncan
  
• The Defiant Miss Foster and A Highly Respectable Widow by Melinda McRae
  
• Killer Hair by Ellen Byerrum
  
• The Kissing Blades by Jessica Hall
  
• The Major Meets His Match by Blair Bancroft **Book of the Week, August 19, 2003
  
• The Opposite Shore by Maryanne Stahl
  
• Three Wishes for Miss Winthrop by Shirley Kennedy
  
• The Trouble with Magic by Patricia Rice **Book of the Week, September 2, 2003

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This is a fast-paced, witty (not an Evanovich clone like I'd suspected from the cover--bad Darla, judging a book by its cover! ), about Lacey, a woman who writes a fashion column for a SMALL tabloid-style D.C. newspaper. She's urged by her hairstylist to investigate the murder of another hairstylist that the police have called suicide. It could have been slap-stick-y, but wasn't.

There's even a romance sub-plot, between Lacey and Vic, who are working at cross-purposes. It's quite realistic, showing Lacey's confusion as she tries to figure out what's going on in Vic's head---and don't we all wonder what's going on in men's heads??

Fun and smart. I'll be keeping an eye out for more from this author.

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The third in the White Tiger Swords trilogy, The Kissing Blades lived up to the promise of its predecessors.

In the second book, The Steel Caress, our hero, Sean, kidnaps our heroine, Kameko. They definitely have an uphill battle to get together. He's a retired army intelligence agent, she's a jewelry designer and daughter of a crime lord. But when her teenage assistant is abducted to force Kameko to hand over the swords that have been sought throughout the trilogy, the only person she can think of to help her is Sean.

Lots of twists and adventure--coded messages, secret hiding places, ruthless adversaries, and more than one group is after Kameko & the swords. Surprise ending as well.

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Lucy Winthrop's sister is an activist. And while Lucy shares her sister's views, she keeps them quiet, working as a governess to support her siblings. Then the connection becomes known, and Lucy is fired from her position. Given money by her ex-employer's wife, she plans to follow her dream of opening a school, until her brother gambles it away and she's forced to accept Lord Granville's offer of a new position.

Lord Granville had been impressed by Lucy's spirit, which prompted him to offer the job, but he's used to leaving the household and even decisions about his private life to his mother, who is less impressed. Still, an attraction grows between Granville and Lucy, spurred on by those three wishes he grants her.

An entertaining & enlightening read--Lucy's sister's prison reform activism is fascinating all on its own.

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What would you do if you caught your husband in a passionate kiss with your sister? That's the question Rose has to face in this book.

Rose takes her teenage daughter & moves into a friend's island house for the summer to try to heal. In the middle of all this turmoil, Rose & William's teenage daughter experiences first love.

Impressively, all of the characters end up understandable, all of them are hurting, and none of them is really the bad guy.

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What seems to be a simple case for private investigator Scotia MacKinnon, tracking down an ex-spouse, ends up involving a serial con man, murder, spies, and the FBI. Not to mention that her client seems to be attracting Scotia's significant other.

There's a lot going on in this story, and a lot of details.

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In The Defiant Miss Foster, our hero, Valentine Debenham, discovers that he's been the unknowing guardian of a family of orphans for the seven years since his father's death.

Kat Foster, the oldest of those orphans, has been keeping her family together all this time.

His determination to do right by them collides rather strongly with her determination to keep her family together. Falling in love provides both a bridge between the two and an added source of conflict.


When we first meet the Earl of Knowlton in A Highly Respectable Widow, he's thinking he needs a new mistress. When he meets a poverty-stricken widow, he thinks she might just fit the bill. She, however, is of another opinion.


It's hard to choose a favorite between these two, but fortunately, with a two-in-one volume, I don't have to.

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