The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie (1996)

Another utter love. Picked this up at a used bookstore out of a remembered fondness for Jennifer Crusie and she did not disappoint. 

Daisy is a scattered, free spirit artist trying to make her living through her art. Her neighbor, Linc, is a straitlaced English professor who is angling for a job at a prestigious school but needs a fiancee to complete the picture. 

Crusie creates a charming story out of this familiar premise, thanks to her vivid and realistic characters, her humor and her ability to create real chemistry and believable romance for her characters. Beautifully done as always.

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo (2013)

Oh my gosh, I LOVED this book. I have no idea where it came from, why I requested it but it's marvelous.

Li Lin lives in colonial Malaya with her opium-addicted father and her beloved Amah. All is satisfactory pretty much until she receives a marriage proposal from the son of an influential neighbor. However, the son is dead and the proposal is for Li Lin to be his ghost bride. When her intended haunts her in her dreams and she falls in love with the new (live) heir to the family, Li Lin embarks on a fantastical voyage among the dead. 

Choo creates a marvelously rich and detailed world of the dead, from paper funeral offerings and hell money, to the Plains of the Dead and the afterworld bureaucracy. Along the way, she meets Er Lang, a guardian spirit who is not at all what he appears to be. 

This novel is utterly original and impossible to label in a particular genre. It's historical fiction, and fantasy, and a bit of horror, and a bit of romance as well as being wonderfully suspenseful and beautifully written. Much of the mythology is based on Chinese folklore, and Choo's notes section outlines the original stories and her own creations. CRIPES, I loved this book.

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen (2013)

Aw, I adore Sarah Dessen. Although the plots are fairly conventional, her relationships and characters are so wonderfully complex.

This one is about a girl recently graduated from high school, working her butt off at her family's realty company in her coastal tourist town, and her relationships with her longtime boyfriend, an attractive new guy in town who is the assistant on a documentary about a reclusive artist AND her relationship with her semi-estranged father and her new half-brother. Whew! 

 But all you need to know is this: Great characters, even the most minor characters and realistic, well drawn relationships. Just lovely. Oh, and funny. Not laugh out loud funny, but gently, dryly funny.

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott (2008)

"Alice" was kidnapped by Ray when she was about 10 and has been living with (and abused by him) ever since. She barely remembers her former life, and her only hope for escaping him is to find her replacement and she thinks she's found her at a local park.

 Chilling, genuinely upsetting, but well and simply told.

The Girl From the Well by Rin Chupeco (2014)

This young adult horror novel is narrated by Okiku, a 300-year old ghost who avenges murdered children by killing their murderers and freeing their spirits.

Some excellent imagery--very much as if you were reading a novelization of The Ring (but well done) and quite interesting back story and info on Japanese ghost stories. I love the imagery of the ghosts of the murdered children clinging to the murderers, as well as the occasional people who can see Okiku and other spirits.

Quite a well-done and original young adult horror novel.