Here's what the Gloss team has been reading in February.

The Lily Bard Mysteries Omnibus
Charlaine Harris
Gollancz
RRP $39.99
Firstly, I feel a great sense of achievement after reading this book as it is so big it gives the Bible a run for its money.  I would definitely not describe it as a ‘beach read’ as it would be pretty heavy to carry around with you! The book is made up of five smaller stories that together make a series about Lily Bard.

Before I embarked on this reading venture I decided to do some research on Charlaine Harris and was very put off to find that she had written ‘The Sookie Stackhouse Series ‘ which the ever popular TV show ‘True Blood’ is based on. The show maybe highly rated by millions around the world but for me I have no interest in vampires.

I was however pleasantly surprised to find that ‘The Lily Bard Mysteries’ are actually about a regular girl, and not a pair of fangs in sight.  Lily lived a normal life until four years ago, when she fell victim of a brutal crime and became part of a media frenzy that ruined her life. However courageous she may have been at the time, she could no longer stand her life - the horrific memories it held for her and the way she had changed in the eyes of her friends and family. With this dark cloud hanging over her, she picks a town at random called Shakespeare and makes a new life for herself. She buys a house, starts a cleaning company and lives her life.  Despite her short stint in the media spotlight, nobody seemed to know who she is, and she can live the lonely life she desires.

This all changes however when a member of the close knit community is murdered under suspicious circumstances. Lily tries not to be involved but her natural curiosity leads her to almost single handedly solve the crime.  Each book is based around a mysterious crime and Lily always finds herself in some way involved.

Although for her first 4 years prior to the first story she has lived as a loner, in Shakespeare this gradually changes throughout each story and by the end she has found friendship and love and grows stronger and stronger as her soul starts to heal from her traumatic experience.

Although it is extremely far fetched that this many crimes would occur in such a small town, and the same person should always seem to be caught up in the mystery it definitely makes an entertaining read.  Charlaine Harris writes in such a way that at times I found myself on the edge of my seat with fear for the characters or emotional with the sympathy I felt for them.

Lily Bard is a modern day heroine and Harris does a fantastic job of portraying this and keeping the mystery in each story until the end. A must read for winter nights.
Laura Hodge

I Still Dream About You
Fannie Flagg
Random House
RRP $39.99
Though her friends think Maggie has the perfect life, she's actually perfectly miserable. The former Miss Alabama is worried about how her life has turned out -- she's given up on her dream of living in a beautiful home like Crestview, and instead is a real estate agent in Birmingham. But just when Maggie beings to wonder if there's much point in going on, her life takes a wild turn, and she finds herself catapulted into one surprising discovery after the next. As Maggie learns valuable lessons about the nature of friendship, the challenges of modern life, and the dangers of impossible dreams, she starts to see how much more there is to life than what can be listed in a Miss Alabama bio. Bestselling author Fannie Flagg's trademark comic flair is out in full force in this fabulous new novel about the unpredictability of life.
Emma Smith

Warm Bodies
Isaac Marion
Random House
RRP$29.99
 "R" is a zombie. He has no name, no memories, and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is different from his fellow Dead.

Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Warm and fierce and very much alive, Julie is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape; she means more than flesh and blood. Something imperceptible shifts, a switch is flicked, and R suddenly finds he wants to save Julie instead of eating her; he wants to protect her, whatever happens.

This has never happened before. This is against all the rules and beyond all expectations. R begins to have new thoughts and feelings and powerful longings, and together he and Julie attempt to bring the whole decaying world back from the dead.
Emma Smith

The Secret Lives of Dresses
Erin McKean
Hodder
RRP $36.99
‘The Secret Lives of Dresses' is Erin McKean’s debut novel. Prior to this, she has written dictionaries and I am glad she decided to have a change of career. This story has all the makings for a perfect ‘chick lit’: romance and fashion, what more could a girl ask for!

The book is centred on Dora, an orphan in her early twenties about to graduate university with no idea what she wants to do with her life and is hopelessly in love with her flirtatious boss Gary. Then one day tragedy strikes and she rushes back to be at the side of Mimi her grandmother who raised her and whom she adores. Dora is determined however that she will not close Mimi’s vintage clothes shop and decides to run it herself until Mimi is better again.  She is surprised to find that her grandmother has been writing stories to accompany each dress, about its previous life. Her time spent back at home, the stories, the shop and the people she is close to all help her to realise that what she is looking for was never that far away in the first place….

This story is not exciting and a little predictable, I was not gripped but I wanted to continue to read purely because of the adorable characters, charming story and fabulous dresses. It is a comforting read and will make you smile - a modern day fairytale.
Laura Hodge

Nerd Do Well
Simon Pegg
Random House
RRP$39.99
Zombies in North London, death cults in the West Country, the engineering deck of the Enterprise: Simon Pegg has been ploughing some bizarre furrows in recent times. Having blasted onto the small screens with his now legendary sitcom Spaced, his rise to UK's favourite son status has been mercurial, meteoric, megatonnic, but mostly just plain great.

From his childhood (and subsequently adult) obsession with Star Wars, his often passionate friendship with Nick Frost (co creator and star of Sean of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) and his forays into stand-up which began with his regular Monday morning slot in front of his 12-year-old classmates, this is a joyous tale of a home-grown superstar and a local boy made good.
Emma Smith

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