The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead by Paul Elwork

Description from Goodreads.com  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9521085-the-girl-who-would-speak-for-the-dead
The innocence of childhood,
the unknown of adulthood,
and the search for forgiveness . . .
Emily Stewart is the girl who claims to stand between the living and the dead. During the quiet summer of 1925, she and her brother, Michael, are thirteen-year-old twins-privileged, precocious, wandering aimlessly around their family's estate. One day, Emily discovers that she can secretly crack her ankle in such a way that a sound appears to burst through the stillness of midair. Emily and Michael gather the neighborhood children to fool them with these "spirit knockings."
Soon, however, this game of contacting the dead creeps into a world of adults still reeling from World War I. When the twins find themselves dabbling in the uncertain territory of human grief and family secrets- knock, knock-everything spins wildly out of control.

I found myself pacing this read. I would put it down faster than any other reads, but also found myself picking it up again faster, wanting to know what happens. The book is split into sections and we learn about several different families and the way the war/death/sickness and daily lives have impacted them. The majority of the book we are following twins, Michael and Emily who have decided to spend their long summer days tricking their friends into believing that Emily can talk to the dead. By usuing her angles she can pop them to send off a loud/soft/short or long sound into the air as so noboy can figure out where the sound had come from. She originally played this trick on her brother, who then decided to trick their friends. The tea house they say gets a better ghost reception is where they invite their friends. But this room only provides for a more acoustical sound to arise making it harder to tell where the knocks come from. After a success tricking their friends,
They venture into meeting up with older neighbors whom are wanting to talk to their deceased loved ones and as their (the twins) rules state Emily is "Sprit Knocking" so they can only ask yes or no questions and would hear a knock in return. Many people came away from those meetings with different ideas of what's happening but overall everybody believs because they cannot figure out how she is doing it.
The other sections in this book are family history. The families that shared the land, or the family of the spirits they were trying to contact and what was going on in the war during this time. And how the war effects the families at home.
While I found the writing amazing, and it really kept me coming back, the story made me feel at a loss. Some questions never answered. Some of the families stories never quite completed. It was very compelling but left you in a state of sadness maybe or melancholy.
Emily and Michael are always up front with the reader through the well written pages that these are schemes, they are plotted and studied and they put on a show for their neighbors. Although the neighbors for the majority have some kind of reasoning to not believe them. The comfort they feel in the thought that their loved ones just might really be close even beyond death it still a comfort to them.
A book about sad people, wrong decisions, inability to push through grief, but content with maintaining it to certain levels. And a story about two twins that one summer maybe had just a little too much time on their hands. Trying to escape their own bordom, greif and melancholy

http://www.paulelwork.com/

Connects: Based on a true Ghost Story By Katrina Rose

Description from Smashwords.com

Connects is based on a true ghostly haunt, a nineteen year secret thought to be buried, until Abigail Morrison began to dream of the woman of the past. A woman found dead at the railroad tracks. Through Abigail's dreams and ghostly encounters, she pieces together what could have happened to this woman, and along the way she learns about a drug dealer,an over dose, and the neighbor's dirty secret.
Amazon Link          Smashwords Link

Highly reminiscent of the Ghost Whisperer and Medium. Fantastic read I would recommend to anybody who likes detective stories with some supernatural aspects. Even though I had downloaded this awhile ago, when I sat down to read it, I read it through in one day. Completely engrossing and worth the money. The story was very addicting and never boring. I saw that Amazon had a physical copy for sale and have purchased this for my friend who I agree is going to love it.
As Abigail moves into a new house with her new husband she begins to see things and have weird dreams. She decides to follow her hunches and begins following the clues that may have lead to the girls death. The girl she found out died on her property. To only find out there was more than one death. With several different people (including the police) that become suspects in her book. The addition of drugs

A Discovery of Witches By Deborah Harkness

Description from Goodreads.com
A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism

I have to agree with this last statement, the romance aspect was very twilight-esk because the vampire goes out in daytime, he's educated, more human than animal, cautious and fragile-like.
Diana is a great main character, I liked her very much, her development and growth was very well paced throughout the novel and somebody you'd really like to meet.
The romance and plot is very slow moving, snail like and gets a little hot and heavy towards the end, but those scenes still felt like they missed something.
These two main characters are smart, educated, sophisticated and you really feel like you learn a lot about history in this book. But I have to say that there is so much of this background building that I had to force myself to read the middle 150 pages hoping that the ending would be worth my time, instead of just giving up completely. And if this is not the first in a series (and it better be) but just a stand alone novel, it's worth checking out at the library first.
I was amazed that Amazon had the kindle priced the same as the hardback copy $16.00 because I think that is an outrageous price for a ecopy of a book. And if your not into history this book may bore you immensly through a good 400 pages.
The middle of the story focuses on the romance and Matthew's history as a vampire, so lots of stories, very little real action. But then finally around pg 400 something happens and then it's like a roller coaster ride because HUGE event and HUGE decisions happen in a matter of pages and I finished the book going "there are way too many loose ends...and where did that twist in the plot come from?"
A lot of action and then it just ends...?
This book took me about 4 times longer to read than my normal novels. So nevertheless it kept me busy for many hours and unless this is a series, I would recommend checking out your local library before you shell out your money. And if this is a series, I bet book two is gonna rock because all the filler details had to of been shoved into this first book. For now I am rating this book as a three star, but believe me if the story continues book 2 could possibly earn a 5 star review

Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

The first 30 pages disturbed me. So I read into 60 pages, still bothered. Decided to just watch the movie instead (Swedish Version) Loved it, watched it 3 times, decided to give the book another attempt. Finished book and ending up enjoying it. I cannot say that I would recommend it to anybody because 1) The pedophile: it's not like the author just explains to us that he likes little boys, but goes into some sexual details that I really did not want to read. So if I actually recommended this book to anybody they would think that I enjoyed reading about this. Even though the book is not all about this character as he disappears in the 2 middle sections (most of the book) The book really leads into the story through him so he is a major part of the novel.
    I enjoyed the friendship that developed between Oskar and Eli. As is the plot line of this book. Oskar falling in love with Eli. Even though they have huge differences. It just comes back to the basics though of what Oskar sees in Eli and just falls for Eli just because there is a natural attraction and interest in each other. Support, caring and trust are huge storylines through this book with all of the characters that we see. And this book has several characters that we follow and then have it all wrap up in the end.  Overall 4 stars for me.

At The Sharpe End by Hugh Ashton

I thought this book was going to be over my head. In reading the synopsis you see such words as "freelance technology consultant" "2008 wall street collapse" and "global financial markets". I was intrigued by this book because it takes place in Modern day Japan, in the point of view of a foreigner. And that is also the reason that I enjoyed and would recommend this books to others. I found the main character Sharpe a little sarcastic and affable. He is thrown into a mess of a situation involving murder, the mob, and endangers the lives of his girlfriend and friends while rolling with the punches of the situation he's gotten envolved with. A stranger has approached him at a coffee shop, hiring him to write an article on some technology he's been working on. He then hands him a hello kitty box with unknown content and is found dead in mere hours. Leaving Sharpe the last one to see him alive. Come to find out not only are Americans, Britans, North Koreans and the Japanese looking into this technology and now Sharpe is the last one to question. What I found completely encouraging about this novel was as a reader, asking myself questions like "why doesn't he just give up the computer card instead of risking his loved ones" my answers were immediatly answered within seconds. I found that the language used was smooth, detailed and not overwhelming at all. The characters (even the bad guys) were all very well developed and entertaining. I am very happy that this book found its way onto my shelves and encourage others to pick this one up. It's intriguing, intuitive, educational and entertaining.

Hope Burned by Brent LaPorte

This book was pretty intense from the first sentence. A very disturbing story of abuse by the hands of one father to a son through 3 generations. The story is told through Tom who is writing a letter to his own son who is still an infant, describing the events that lead him to kill his grandfather and father. It was a short read, but I think I found myself reading a little bit faster than usual trying to get through the "bad parts" in which he describes the abuse, it was hard to read about and saddened me. It is a very thought provoking story and will have you questioning your own humanity. If you would stop abuse, or help and take in an abused child to get them out of that situation.

Bookcloseouts.com

Hello again my fellow book readers! As you know I am a huge fan of Bookcloseouts.com I do not work for them, I am not an associate nor do I get paid for my opinion. But I received a lovely email from them yesterday in which I have notification that their Black Friday sale has begun and will go through Nov 30th.
They already have great low prices on good books, but now they have discounted 50% off already discounted books, not all their books are on sale but tons are, it is definitely worth the look at their website. (You know I made an order) I was really exited to see some of their new stock in, some books I have been really wanting, and now I can have them for a couple of dollars.
They also are pretty cool in the fact that you can get FREE SHIPPING off orders of $35. I was able to order 16 books for my $35 and that was the best deal I have gotten all year. So be quick about it before you lose out on this great offer!
BOOK Sales are awesome!
http://www.bookcloseouts.com/