In Julianne Donaldson's Edenbrooke: A Proper Romance (Shadow Mountain, April 2012) Marianne Daventry is sent to live with her cantankerous grandmother in "stifling" Bath after the death of her mother, abandonment by her grieving father, and separation from her socially ambitious twin sister.  Unsurprisingly, Marianne soon feels dejected and out...

I admit, with a subtitle like “A Novel of Magic Most Foul,” I had to resist the temptation to mock this book outright.  Thankfully, Leanna Renee Hieber’s novel Darker Still (Sourcebooks, November) offers a bit more substance than this melodramatic teaser of a subtitle. In it, Natalie Stewart, a mute...

At this time of year, one can't help but notice the heart-emblazoned kids' books cramming the shelves in our local chain stores. Pawing through bags of candy hearts and other commercial love-related products, I decided to look at two board books pubbing just in time for Valentine's Day.Dog food, frisbees,...