Something else turned out to be several something elses, all of the fiction variety. Firstly a paperback romance - picked up because who could resist a book called Goddess of the Hunt. Depite the title, the book was pretty good - determined feisty heroine, honourable if emotionally crippled hero who is finally rescued by the love of the former - all you can possibly ask for in a romance and more, because Tessa Dare can really write. Secondly, Barbara Vine's The Blood Doctor". My mother has read every Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell published in the last 20 years, so maybe thats why I haven't. I always enjoy books with a mystery from the past solved in tandem with a story from the present, but was struck by how solving the mystery always seem to rest on a wild coincidence, randomly visiting a particular museum in this case. The present day story - an hereditary peer living throught the last few months before the House of Lords is reformed - was particularly interesting, and balanced the mystery well.
Then, I turned to Teen Fiction in the form of Michael Grants Gone. I read an interview in which he said teenage boys were his target audience, not exactly me, but maybe I've just got the attention span of a teenager. I liked this enough to add the sequel Hunger" to my to-be-read pile.
Just as my mother is responsible for me not reading Barbara Vine in the past, she's now responsible for me having read Marcia Willett's The Summer House, as it was one of the books lying around her home when I visited and had an unexpected half hour of time to myself. What was I to do but read whatever was available? A pleasant, light read, well written, but a bit too happy and idilic - everyone ends up content, and with a new puppy or kitten (honstly!) - for my tastes.
