Hope in a JarHope in a Jar by Beth Harbison

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In high school Allie was the pretty one obsessed with beauty products.  Olivia lived in an unhappy home with her mother and stepmother and clung to Allie’s family to feel safe.  They were best friends until senior year when Olivia and her mother moved suddenly.

Now it is time for the 20th class reunion.  Allie recently broke up with her boyfriend, is in a deadend temp job, and is fatter than she’d like to be.  Olivia is a beauty editor at a fashion magazine.  Can they put aside their difference to keep their friend Noah from making a huge mistake?

This book was ok but not as good as other ones from this author.  It was very predictable.

Something from the Nightside (Nightside, #1)Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

John Taylor is a detective.  He can find lost things in the Nightside, a stretch of London where magical beings live.  It is always 3 AM and dangerous.  He left there five years ago to live in non-magical London where it is safer but a wealthy client with a missing daughter persuades him to go back.

I heard this described as The Dresden Files meets Neverwhere so I had to read it.  I think that description is appropriate but it doesn’t have the character development of either of those.  This is the beginning of a series so maybe things are explained better later on but this book left me feeling like there were more questions than answers.