Maybe This Time by Jennifer Cruise

This book is chick lit with a twist of ghosts, orphans, haunted mansion and quirkiness. It was cute and romantic and I liked it.

Andie is divorced and shows up at her ex-husband (of 10 years) to hand over all 10 years worth of uncashed alimony checks. She is getting remarried and wants to be done with him. He asks her to do him one last favor and go take care of 2 orphans who are in his charge. They are troubled and it's a bad situation that he has held at arms-length (it's not the strongest story line ever). So she goes and the house is haunted and all kinds of hi-jinks occur. It's an interesting mix of silly romance novel with a bit of a mystery (but not much of one). I did like it though. It was 'cute'.

The Killing of Strangers by Jerry Holt

This book is based around the Kent State shootings. I was interested in this book because I had heard about this event, but didn't know any details. I now live not far from Kent State and have several friends who graduated from the school.

The Killing of Strangers follows Haggard, a former police officer turned fired security guard, who has been hired as security for one of the central figures of the shootings, a woman named Crystal. At the time of the shootings, Crystal was a star in the anti-establishment movement. She was married to Delbert who disappeared in the aftermath of the shooting leaving Crystal pregnant and bewildered. Now, years later, Crystal is a drunk who believes that Delbert is back. A lot of government agencies are also interested in where Delbert has been and what he knows about what really happened on the day of the shootings.

The story involves Haggard traveling back and forth across the state of Ohio tracking down a conspiracy. I enjoyed the recognition of places in Ohio but thought the book wasn't well written or polished. I did learn some about the history of the Kent State Shootings but am left wondering which parts of the story are truth and which are fiction. It was just 'alright'.