In March, we read Mystery....

Who doesn't need a little mystery in life? Put your sleuthing skills to work with these fascinating reads...

My Top Ten Mystery Titles

# 1 A Northern Light- Working at a popular vacation spot in 1906, Mattie has an interesting conversation with a young female guest just hours before her murder. 

# 2 Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City- Ananka meets Kiki and her band of Irregulars determined to stop use of the underground part of NYC as a hive for criminal activity and gets involved in a kidnapping.

# 3 The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity- At 12, Steve's one great desire is to be a detective. Ironically a class research project gets him kidnapped and accused of traitorous crimes by a secret organization.

# 4  Lovely Bones- *I'm sorry, but this one is an adult book.* From Heaven, Susie narrates what happens on Earth as her family waits on authorities to track her down her killer and attempt to continue living. 

# 5 We Were Liars- Cadence returns to her family's private island the summer after a complete mental breakdown and struggles to remember what she blocked out.

Ok, this is getting depressing. Don't read all these at once. 

# 6 Where Things Come Back-Senior Cullen loses it when his younger brother disappears and the town goes nuts over the reappearance of a woodpecker thought to be extinct. If the woodpecker can return, won't his brother? 

# 7 Beware That Girl- This story alternates between Kate and Olivia's points of view as they get dangerously close to a new young counselor at their private school and struggle with jealousy and secrets, but most importantly, the truth that he is a psychopath with a past.

# 8 So Yesterday- Fashion trendsetter Hunter gets involved with a new girl and a possible kidnapping associated with his job.

# 9 What Happened to Cass Mcbride- In retaliation for the suicide of his brother David, Kyle kidnaps Cass and buries her alive because of her public humiliation of David when he asked her out.

# 10 Clarity- Clarity is called on for help with a murder mystery because she can touch objects and see what the victim last saw, but she is torn when it reveals the involvement of her brother. 

Honorable Mentions: 

Girl I Used to Be

Chasing Vermeer

Ripper

Finding Lubchenko

Confessions of a Murder Suspect

Genre of the month? Romance, of course!

Who doesn't love a little romance in their stories? Love is something everyone craves in one form or another. These, however, are a few of my "pure" romance favorites. Meaning, there's not really any other genre to these books. It's mostly about the relationships.

Top Ten is all I got. Don't read a lot of romance personally, but I LOVED these!

1. Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging- Ok, I lied. This series is pee your pants hilarious. Teenaged Georgia is a bit of wacko British girl trying to snag her first boyfriend, first kiss and fight off the perfect girl arch-nemesis all at the same time. Series.
2. If I Stay- After a carwreck that kills her parents and brother, Mia must decide if she wants to wake up out of a coma and face existence without them to pursue dreams of becoming a cellist and to be with her boyfriend.
3. Pride and Prejudice- Classic original story of two people who like each other getting their signals crossed and re-crossed before finally figuring out they were meant to be together, set in the 1800s because that's when Jane Austen wrote it.
4. Keeping the Castle- Funny modern day farce of Pride and Prejudice.
5. The Fault in Our Stars- Two teenagers with cancer fall in love. Classic, but sad. Everyone loves a John Green romance. Who knew a guy would be such a great romance author?
6. The Possibilities of Sainthood- A Catholic girl has a fascination with becoming a saint and is always proposing what she could be the patron saint of to the Vatican. But boys sometimes get in way of being saintly.
7. Girl, 15, Charming but Insane- Another British chick who is navigating the rough terrain of first crushes and other relationships quite a bit like like Georgia. Shorter series.
8. To All the Boys I've Loved Before- Lara Jean's older sister just went abroad for college, leaving behind the boyfriend next door Lara Jean has always loved too. Her letters to every crush ever get accidentally mailed to the boys, causing great humiliation and sparking a fake romance plan to save face.
9. Son of the Mob-What happens when the son of the mob boss falls in love with the daughter of the police officer's assigned to watch him for criminal activity. Pretty funny. And who doesn't love Gordon Korman?
10. Someone Like You- Sarah Dessen's always good for a romance title. Halley comforts her best friend who just endured the death of her boyfriend, but must now face the challenge of going through with the pregnancy. Halley is distracted from her role when she begins to fall in love with the best friend of the deceased against everyone's advice.

Adventure anyone?

It's a new year! How about an adventure to start you off right? Or maybe your new year's resolutions involve a few items on a bucket list. Either way, reading is always an adventure. Here is a collection of my favorite adventure fiction.

Top 10 Adventure

1. Hero's Guide to Saving the Kingdom- This former Bluebonnet nominee was so tongue in cheek. A twisted take on all fairy tale princes who go sadly unnamed join together in trying to save princesses who need no help at all.

2. Pirates!- Two young women run away from very different but undesirable circumstances and hide away on a pirate ship masquerading as men.

3. Shackleton's Stowaway- Based on the real shipwreck of Shackleton's famous expedition to Antarctica, this story is told from the point of view of a man who should not even have been on the ill-fated journey that lasted more than a year but miraculously saw no loss of life despite desperate conditions.

4. False Prince-A fantasy kingdom is mourning the loss of its royal family when a politician kidnaps four orphans proceeds to train them all to deceive the country as a long lost prince recovered to take his place as their ruler.

5. The Thief- A neighboring fantasy kingdom's thief is caught stealing from the royal palace and imprisoned, where the queen falls in love with him.

6. One Came Home- One sister caused the other's shame, resulting in her runaway attempt that has supposedly led to her untimely and violent death in the wild west. She sets out to look for her sister and prove her to be alive.

7. Wreckers- A boy survives a shipwreck only to watch the other survivors, including his father, be murdered by the locals who only want to claim the ship's cargo for themselves.

8. Take Me to the River- Two cousins set out on a canoe trip alone only to encounter hurricane rains and a fugitive holding a boy hostage.

9. Bloody Jack- Jacky starts a new life aboard a pirate ship and quickly earns a reputation for bravery and resourcefulness despite the fact that she is hiding her identity as a female.

10. Misadventures of Maude March-Two girls recently orphaned run away from their foster family only to run into the man who murdered their aunt and become known as fugitives from the law in this rollicking wild western adventure.

But here are some other great adventure stories I have enjoyed:

Peak- Peak is attempting to become the youngest to ever summit  Mt. Everest with his father in the lead after a run in with NY law while climbing skyscrapers.

Blind Spot for Boys- To get away from bad relationships, Shana takes a trip with her parents to hike Machu Picchu but runs into a guy she's attracted to and then survives an earthquake with him.

Trapped- A terrible snowstorm traps a group of teens in their high school with no adults, no electricity or heat and they must decide how to survive without any hope of rescue.

Cryptid Hunters- Two siblings join an uncle they didn't know after being orphaned while he is on the hunt for prehistoric dinosaur eggs.

Tut- King Tut was immortalized along with his greatest enemy- his uncle- when trying to curse him and must face him once again as an 8th grader in Washington DC.

You Decide How to Survive: Everest- At every turn of the journey to climb Mt. Everest, the reader is able to make a choice and continue the story based on that decision to see if they would make it or not. Also in the series: Amazon, Mars, and  The High Seas.