Day: July 17, 2011

5/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, C, Fiction, RATING, Read in 2011, READING CHALLENGES 2011, SERIES

2011.35 REVIEW – Shelter by Harlan Coben

Tara

Shelter
by Harlan Coben

Copyright: 2011
Pages: 304
Rating: 5/5
Read: July 16 – July 17, 2011
Challenge:  TwentyEleven Challenge
Yearly Count: 35
Format: Print (ARC)
Source: LibraryThing EarlyReviewer copy

Blurb: After tragic events tear him away from his parents, fifteen-year-old Mickey Bolitar is sent to live with his estranged uncle Myron. For a while, it seems his train wreck of a life is finally improving – until his girlfriend, Ashley, goes missing without a trace. Unwilling to let another person he cares about walk out of his life, Mickey follows Ashley’s trait into a seedy underworld, revealing a conspiracy so shocking it will leave him questioning everything about the life he thought he knew.

Review: I received this book through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program. I am a huge fan of Harlan Coben. His stand alones are great. I’ve only read one of the Myron Bolitar novels, but since Myron takes a backseat to his nephew Mickey in this book, it didn’t affect anything. This is a young adult novel, but Mr. Coben doesn’t hold much back. The situations that Mickey finds himself in are interesting. His friends are funny and well-rounded. Ema is especially intriguing – there’s something about her that we don’t know about yet, but it has made me very interested in finding out more about her character. Spoon provides some great comedic relief in just the right places. Mickey’s character is very real because he is dealing with some very real events in his life – his dad is dead and his mom is a junkie. Any fifteen-year-old kid is going to struggle with that situation, but Mickey seems to deal with it as best as he can. Overall, I’m very interested in this series, I think that Mr. Coben has started a new series that could really grow into something great. It will attract young adults and his faithful adult readers as well. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

This book will be released in September, 2011.

Sunday Wrap-Up

Sunday Wrap-Up, July 17, 2011

Tara

Well I didn’t do a Sunday wrap-up last week. I woke up Sunday morning feeling like I was coming down with something. I slept most of the day and didn’t do hardly anything except get up and eat dinner. That was it. Then Monday hit me like a cube of bricks had fallen on top of me. It was terrible. I’m not a good person when I’m sick. I whine. I complain. I just don’t handle it well. My poor dog didn’t understand why we were at home but I wasn’t playing with him or why he couldn’t stay out in the backyard and play around some (well, it was 100+ degrees, that’s why!). My husband went a little hungry on Monday night because I just didn’t have the energy. He claims the shake that he had when he brought me one was all he needed, but I still felt bad. Of course, he’s a grown man – he could have made his own supper. So you can imagine that I did not have a good start to the week. I missed Monday and Tuesday at work. Then on Thursday my dog ripped half of my big toe nail off my toe. It was my fault, really. I stepped on his leash at work to try to catch him from sneaking out into the front room and when I did so he took off and the leash went up over and caught my toenail just right to bend it back. It’s still very tender, but I think tomorrow I will be able to get it trimmed back as much as I can. It’s going to be super short, but not dangerously so. So let’s just say that all in all, I have NOT had a good week. Can you tell that I’m a whiner?

So needless to say, I didn’t get hardly anything done here at the blog. I had wanted to work on a couple of my pages when I was home, but Monday the computer only got used about 20 minutes before I gave up and went back to sleep. And Tuesday I did everything but work on the blog. Oh well. And I had every intention on posting a Top Ten Tuesday post because I really liked the topic (and I don’t really care for the topics chosen for the next three or four weeks) Oh well.

My reading has definitely suffered from the time I was sick. But that’s okay, I’ll get back into things 🙂

Anyway,  this week I shared my Mailbox.

Oh, and one review: Hell’s Corner by David Baldacci.

I hope that everyone has a great up-coming week and I hope I can finally kick this lingering cough. Have a great week!!