I Just Can't....

continue reading the Kate Burkholder series.  I know it is very popular.  I know.  It is just too much introspection, too much romance, too too too much.
Oh man...just too much.  Pray for Silence was very hard for me to finish, but I did.  And since I listened to it, I was, indeed, praying for silence as well.

First Book of the New Year!

And it was underwhelming.   Sworn to Silence was recommended to me by many.  I love the detective fiction.  But this was way too much about the detective and way too little about the people involved in the crime.  I like books about people!  It's just that I like my police novels to be a very certain way.  This was not the way.  Kate is a formerly Amish woman in the town of Painters Mill, Ohio where she is now Chief of Police.  There's a serial killer, come to this sleepy little town and he is a vicious sick dude.  He reminds Kate of someone from her past.  Someone she thought was dead.  How can she chase a dead man?  While her past keeps chasing her?  All that back story was just not my kind of thing for a book like this.  Won't read another, but if you like that kind of thing, you'll enjoy.  Everyone else in the world seems to!  

Oh yeah, OHIO!  Round on the ends and HI in the middle!  

Amish Vampires!

I haven't read a book like The Hallowed Ones before, and that is saying something.  I couldn't put it down and now I hope there is a sequel.  This is a dystopian/paranormal story, but it is unlike any other.  Set in Amish country, it is told from the POV of a teen girl who is about to go on Rumspringa but all of that is called off, as the rest of the world has been overrun with vampires.  The Elders in Katie's community say that no one goes out of the community and no one comes in, while the disaster is taking place, but Katie sees a wounded young man on the edge of the fence and hides him a barn, nursing him back to health.  
Katie's character is strong and smart and easily likable.  It is really interesting to learn about the Amish community AND be terrified by red-eyed, undead, blood-suckers at the same time.  This is a coming of age story in a messed up world and is one of the most different and compelling stories I have read this year.