Desert Wives by Betty Webb; How to Eat a Cupcake by Meg Donohue

I rarely read eBooks except for a select few, but am glad I found Betty Webb's Desert Wives on Kindle, one of her Lena Jones mystery books set in Arizona.

The novel is about a polygamy sect that defies federal and state laws along the Arizona-Utah border by condoning child brides, underage pregnancies, and forced confinement of women and children. Evidently, this is not an uncommon situation in this area of the country, even today, some 9 years after the book was first published in hardcover.

In this mystery novel, a woman escapes with her young child from the compound when the elderly leader of the sect singles the child out to be his next wife. When his body is found in the desert with a fatal shotgun wound, the mother becomes a suspect.  Lena, a P.I., goes undercover as the new wife of one of the members in order to find the true murderer.

Can't wait to find out the who and the why... Desert Wives by Betty Webb is free on Kindle at the moment. This edition was published June 17, 2011.

I often read several books at a time, unfortunately. I do have to keep the plot lines separate. How to Eat a Cupcake is a different book from the others I'm reading. It's a contemporary YA novel about the relationship between two young women, Annie and Julia, who grew up together though their backgrounds are vastly different.

Annie is the privileged child in a household in which Julia's mother lives and works as a cook, one of the hired help. The two children are raised and schooled together, but conflicts and jealousies mar their relationship. They meet again later as adults and try to renew their friendship.

Don't know where this one is going, as I'm only on chapter 3 of the book, which is told from both Annie's and Julia's points of view. It looks like a promising read and is keeping my attention.

How to Eat a Cupcake by Meg Donohue is a paperback published March 13, 2012 by William Morrow. The ARC was sent to me by the publisher.