51.
Title: The Princess Diaries
Author: Meg Cabot
Pages: 256
Genre: YA
Medium: Kindle
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: June ?, 2012
Rating: ***

I've avoided reviewing this book - to the point that I cannot remember when I actually finished reading it - because of a rather lackluster response.  I didn't dislike the book any more than I actually liked it.  I enjoyed the fact that Cabot's original story is very different from the Disney movie (and I appreciated the drunk and slightly-scandalous grandmother in the novel), but it wasn't thrilling.  I'm giving it three starts because I'm sure others would enjoy it.

52.
Title: Witch Way to Murder
Author: Shirley Damsgard
Pages: 304
Genre: Supernatural Cozy Mystery
Medium: Kindle
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: June 26, 2012
Rating: **1/2

Witch Way to Murder gets a low rating for inconsistency and poor research.  The story itself is what one would expect from any cozy - a librarian is attempting to solve a series of crimes in her small town - and a supernatural cozy  - she's inherited a skill for witchcraft which she is oh-so-dramatically resisting because of a past trauma.   

The big problems - inconsistency in plot and characterization - make the "little" problems all the more irksome.  I can think of two examples off the top of my head: there is a vision involving a young girl dancing ballet, described by the protagonist, and likely inspired by some juvenile fantasy of what ballet should look like.  Oh, sure, she throws in the word "arabesque" for good measure, but here's a big tell: ballet dancers don't cross their laces up to their knees.  I promise. 

The second irksome detail?  A librarian who doesn't know how to conduct research.  Specifically, research on the internet.  I can't imagine that a librarian attempting to do research related to the mystery she is solving would a) be so careless in her search attempts and b) would give up on said research after a single results return.  Really? 

Overall, the story seems careless; there are better examples of the genre to be enjoyed.

50.
Title: Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues
Author: Robert Fate
Pages: 269
Genre: Mystery/Crime
Medium: Kindle
Acquisition: Amazon Loan
Date Completed: June 9, 2012
Rating: ***1/2

The second in the "Baby Shark" series, Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues leaves the personal vendetta behind, and instead focuses on  more traditional territory: PI work, and all the grit and violence Fate can stuff in there.  Less emotionally taxing - and more predictable - Beaumont Blues follows the protagonist through her professional development, and allows Kristin and Otis to shine as the true characters they are.  There's nothing earth-shattering here, but Beaumont Blues is a solid read and a great sequel. 

49. 
Title: Kiss the Dead
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Pages: 368
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Medium: Hardback
Acquisition: Preordered
Date Completed: June 7, 2012
Rating: ***1/2

Fans are - and will continue to be - split on responses to the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, and I for one doubt that the severance will ever be rectified.  Anita as a character is extremely different in book twenty-one than she was in book one, and she will never be the same again.  I, for one, appreciate the change; I found her sense of morals and personal conflict rather stifling, and prefer her growing comfort with life, love, and sexuality.  Many readers will disagree with me, as the Anita that Hamilton writes now is not the Anita they once loved. 

Kiss the Dead will be no different.  More of a law officer than an animator these days, Anita is involved with a fair amount of police work in this latest episode, but neither her professional life nor her personal life grabs center stage; the narratives are relatively compartmentalized, much like Anita's current life, and the stories are disjointed.  I found Kiss the Dead entertaining, and it delivered on many of my expectations, but it isn't likely one I would return to again.  At twenty-one books, I don't know that I would expect such from the series.   

48.
Title: Avalon High
Author: Meg Cabot
Pages: 320
Genre: Young Adult
Medium: Kindle
Acquisition:  Library Book
Date Completed: June 6, 2012
Rating: **1/2

Avalon High has the subtlety of a barrel of bricks dropped from seven stories, and just in case the reader doesn't pick up on the five inches of gooey sloppy allusions slathered on this narrative, the protagonist explains things explicitly at least twice.  While the premise of the novel is fun in theory, Cabot's execution leaves much to be desired, as she demonstrates just how little faith she has in her reader to even understand the basic premise of her story.