Dead Girl Running by Christina Dodd

I am a longtime fan of Christina Dodd's historicals -- I'm pretty sure I've read them all -- but I've only read a few books from her several contemporary series.  I was given the opportunity to read Dead Girl Running, the first book in her new Cape Charade series, which has characters from both the Virtue Falls and Bella Terra universes.  However, the book can be read as a standalone story, and you don't miss anything if you haven't read the others (which isn't to say you shouldn't.  You should.)

Dead Girl Running is the story of a woman escaping from her past, a past which she only partially remembers and has reason to fear.  She ends up on the other side of the country from where she grew up, at a remote but exclusive resort in rainy coastal Washington State, working as the assistant to the owner.  There, in the January "monsoon season," with few guests and much of the staff on vacation, Kellen finds a dead body and mayhem ensues.  (I am trying not to give any spoilers, not be flippant.)  It seems obvious that there is a connection between the resort and the murder, but who and how?  I was surprised to find out who the villain was.  In the course of resolving the murder, of course, various romances begin to develop, and Kellen even learns some things about her past that had been hidden from her until then.

If you've read any of Christina's books, you know that in addition to tight plotting and sizzling romance, you will find snarky and whimsical humor.  Characters like the Shivering Sherlocks (a group of women who enjoy murder mystery weekends) and the dueling brother chefs (think the Property Brothers but with knives instead of hammers) all lend a welcome note of levity to what is otherwise a resort filled with high tension.  And although the ending isn't a cliffhanger, you know that there is more to Kellen's story and I hope the next book fills us in.  I can't wait.

I received a free copy of the book in return for my review.

Asian Pickles: Japan

Asian Pickles:  Japan, by experienced food writer and cookbook author Karen Solomon, featured recipes for Japanese sweet, sour, salty, cured, and fermented tsukemono.  If you've ever eaten pickled ginger with your sushi or sashimi, you've eaten tsukemono.  The cucumber salad often served with Japanese meals is tsukemono.  So is the piece of yellow pickled daikon or turnip served in many bento boxes.  

This book teaches you how to make your own tsukemono, and most of the recipes are relatively simple.  The majority do not require a trip to a specialty market for the ingredients (at least I can find almost all of them in my well-stocked normal Texas grocery store).  Some make pickles in under an hour, some take a month or so to produce the desired result, but most of them will please western palates as well as Japanese ones.  I am excited about making my own pickled ginger without the red coloring and preservatives -- and to have the chance to make it according to my own taste.  There are several other recipes I want to try as well:  wasabi pickled carrots will surely be a hit at my next party, and the pickled Asian pear with lemon sounds particularly delicious. 

This book is part of a series of books about Asian pickles from various countries (Korea, Indonesia, and India are planned as e-books to be published in 2013, and in 2014 a print edition collecting all of the e-books and more is planned).  I'm especially looking forward to the Korea book -- kimchee! 

I reviewed the e-book edition of this book provided by NetGalley.com.  Thanks to publisher Ten Speed Press and NetGalley for the opportunity!

The Archived by Victoria Schwab

I was one of many people offered an opportunity to read a large chunk of The Archived by Victoria Schwab for free pre-publication.  I loved it!  It's a young adult (YA) novel about a girl who is a Keeper for the Archive.  The Archive contains the memories of everyone who has ever died (wouldn't that be a historian's paradise!).  It occupies a place that is not a part of the Outer, the Archive's name for the "normal" world we live in.  Mackenzie was chosen by her grandfather, who had also been a Keeper, to follow in his footsteps because she inherited the ability to read Histories' (dead people) memories.  For some reason, some Histories are not at peace in the Archive and attempt to escape.  The Keepers find them in the connecting passages between the Outer and the Archive and return them to the Archive.

Mackenzie's ability to read Histories allows her to read memories that have soaked into places and things as well (she can see, for example, a murder that was committed in the apartment she moves into).  It also makes it impossible for her to bear being touched by other living things, human or animal.  She can't read people's memories but she feels the noise and confusion of their thoughts and emotions.  Her beloved younger brother dies and she is beginning to forget things about him.  

Ms. Schwab created an interesting and imaginative new world.  Although the excerpt was about 1/3 of the finished novel, it wasn't enough to explore all the secrets of the Archive (why is it there at all?  why do the Histories try to leave?), or to find out how Mackenzie and her parents are going to get over her brother's death.  I look forward to reading the rest of the novel when it is published in January, 2013.