A Reliable Wife ((Robert Goolrick)

Ralph Truitt, the stern, upright titan of business in a small town in Wisconsin in 1907, long widowed, placed a newspaper ad seeking a "reliable wife." Catherine Land, who answered the ad, is not who she seems to be. We follow the two of them, their lives, past and present, and their deepening relationship, built on lies and lust. There is a whole lot of lust in this book; most of the characters seem driven by unslakable desires. The author explores in some detail life in the darkest, most depraved corners of society, as well as the life available to Truitt, who seems to be limitlessly wealthy.There are secrets within secrets here, but aside from one surprise in the middle of the book, few of the secrets are so very secret after all. I found the setting and the characters interesting and well-drawn and I cared what happened to them, even as they seemed larger than life, nearly mythic. There was more lush, slow description and is my preference, and I found myself skipping paragraphs and whole pages, especially toward the end of the book. This first novel is not without its problems, but its strengths outweigh them.

Secrets to Happiness (Sarah Dunn)

I liked this story about a young woman, still shell-shocked by her sudden divorce a year ago, trying to find love and happiness in New York City. She is earnest and open-hearted, and is surrounded by friends, exes, lovers, and co-workers who are quirky and complex.I really felt for her situation and her capacity to pick up and move on even when she was dazed by the blows life handed her. She has a great capacity for love, extending even to a gravely sick dog, that isn't rewarded as it ought to be, but she continues to try to do the right thing in every situation. I've made her sound like a goody-goody stick figure, but she isn't, and the book is a lot of fun,.

Practical Magic (Alice Hoffman)

Women in the Owens family have been accused of being witches forever. Two sisters who grew up in the home of their witchy aunts both move out, but they can't leave behind their ties to the magic of their birthrights. They both have trouble dealing with love and relationships, though their lives couldn't  be more different. Gillian takes off as a teen, marrying multiple times but never getting tied down, while sensible widowed Sally is raising her two daughters as responsibly as she can, feeding them nutritious vegetarian meals and making sure they are never late to school. They are brought together again by tragedy, and have to find ways to reconcile their hopes, dreams, fears, and traumas. I loved the sensitive, beautiful story telling and the flashes of magic that seem to hide just out of most people's vision.

Rules of Civility (Amor Towles)

This is an elegant and touching story about the high life and lowlife in New York City in the 1930s. Katy, her friend Eve, and a high-class young man they recently met become entangled in webs of debt and dependence, trust and betrayal, even though pretty much everyone is trying to do the right thing. The story is a flashback, so you know Katy came out all right, but you have a hint from the beginning that all didn't go as well for Tinker.the young man they became tied to. There are surprises along the way that were satisfyingly unexpected. I enjoyed the story and the lives these people lived.

Crazy Time (Kate Wilhelm)

This is one of Wilhelm's earlier books, a cross between a romantic comedy and science fiction, and while it was enjoyable it didn't grab me as much as the book of hers I recently read (the mystery The Deepest Water). It was much more superficial in its emotions, relying for depth on some very iffy SF. A military experiment goes awry (because of some hacking by a fat, nerdy 14-year-old boy, the first of many stereotypes) and the adorably awkward hero gets blasted into an altered state of existence where his consciousness is dispersed around the globe. He manages to get himself back together partly because he's on the mind of the adorably awkward heroine, who was the person who happened to be looking at him when he vanished. She spends most of the book denying that he is real or that he is attracted to her, enough that I just wanted to slap her upside the head. Meanwhile, an obtuse military man is convinced that both of them, and practically everyone in the state as well, are involved in a complex spy ring. Eventually, of course, everything ends happily, though I have to say I didn't really get most of the big reveal at the end. Not a strong book, but she definitely got better.

Dead Until Dark (Charlaine Harris)

I only read this because it was the first ebook I got on the waiting list for at the library, and I'm still into this new technology. I did actually finish it, but I never would have if it weren't such a cool techy thing. It's basically a romance novel with vampires. The heroine is pretty tough and smart - it's certainly 1000 times better than Twilight! - but it's all about trying to find true love, and sex scenes. The plot was short on logic, and there was no support for the various magical abilities people have. But Bubba was a nice touch.