Anyone who knows me or has followed some of my reviews on Agendamag.com or on Amazon.com knows how eclectic my reading interests are. I love a good book, whether it is romance, historical fiction, time travel, horror . . . or any other subject or genre. Sometimes, depending on my mood or the need for a lift from heavier reading, the more escapist the better! Such was the case recently.

From the moment of meeting fifty-nine-year-old retired FBI agent Brigid Quinn, I found myself holding my breath and sitting on the edge of my seat, fearing for her reputation as well as for her life as she covers up an accidental killing of HER POTENTIAL MOLESTER.

The MOMENT, published 2011, is a story of love and betrayal. One moment all is well; the next everything hangs in the balance. Protagonist Thomas Nesbitt is a writer of travel books.

The second in his trilogy—the first, Advent, was reviewed in Agenda’s last issue—Anarchy opens in British Columbia Canada, where strange things are happening.

As suggested by its dust cover, Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna, historical fiction, is about a “hole.” However, throughout the novel, the meaning of that “hole” changes. The novel is alternately set in Mexico and the United States. In 1929 at the age of twelve, Harrison William Shepherd’s parents separated, and he was taken from Virginia to Mexico by his Mexican mother.

A new author, James Treadwell has penned a delightful fantasy of magic and sorcery. Advent, published earlier this year, is literally as well as symbolically the first novel of a trilogy. Having so enjoyed J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and still wishing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had not been the last, this grandmother found Treadwell’s novel a very enjoyable and suspense-filled substitute; and I am looking forward to the second book.

Quite frightening, but the solution was even more frightening. Bertrand Zobris, rich and world-famous doctor, invents a solution, based on the theory that the plagues of yesteryears were a way of balancing the population, for example, the Black Death in Europe in the 14th Century, which killed an estimated 75 to 200 million people.

Begun in 1979, A Woman of Substance is the first in The Emma Harte Saga by Barbara Taylor Bradford and is the story of an impoverished English maiden’s rise from rags to riches.

Ken Follett has done it again—made the bestsellers list, that is. Winter of the World, the second in his Century trilogy, following Fall of Giants, has continued the story of the international heroes of America, England, Russia, and Great Britain during the troubling years of 1933-1949.

After the excitement of the holidays comes always a letdown in spirits; and it seems that just about everyone could use a lift. Well, count on Nora Roberts to provide just that as going in, you know you’re in for a “happy-ever-after” treat.