Month: September 2017

I just keep getting more behind than ever in my reviews. One thing I’ve noticed is that when I had a really strong reaction to a book, I wrote out a full review…. these books, while (mostly) all pretty good, didn’t leave me with very much to say. So maybe I’ll just make this more of a habit – when a book really leaves me with something to say about it, I’ll do a full review. Otherwise, you’ll probably be seeing more of these mini-reviews 🙂 Anyhoo, on to the books!

Title: Men in Blue
Author: W.E.B Griffin
Read: Aug. 4-9, 2017
Pages: 352
Source: Paperbackswap
Rating: 2/5

Thoughts: This one was …. weird. I went into it thinking it was going to be a detective type story, but it’s not even close. The reader is presented with a murder within the first chapter but then it never followed the detective work to solving the crime. It was more a background history of the police department itself. This one just wasn’t what I was looking for.

Title: Cross My Heart
Author: James Patterson
Read: Aug. 7-10, 2017
Pages: 432
Source: Purchased new
Rating: 4/5

Thoughts: I’m a sucker for a James Patterson novel. He’s usually something I pick up when I need a good, mindless read that I can knock out in a couple of days. This one fit the bill, but it also ended with somewhat of a cliffhanger. I hate those – bleed more money out of us, why don’t you? Just a pet peeve – finish the book in the book, don’t stretch it to a second book. Especially when it’s a part of a series anyway! Ugh.

Title: Mistletoe Murder
Author: Leslie Meier
Read: Aug. 13-17, 2017
Pages: 240
Source: Purchased used
Rating: 4/5

Thoughts: This one was an impulse purchase at my favorite used book store. I read it in August because I needed it to fulfill a challenge callout in one of my Goodreads groups. And it was a cute book! It is billed as a cozy, but it’s not as “clean” of a cozy as I was expecting – which was a nice sigh of relief for me. I enjoyed it enough to go ahead and order the next two in the series from Paperbackswap!

Title: Dirty Work
Author: Stuart Woods
Read: Aug. 19-22, 2017
Pages: 336
Source: Library book sale
Rating: 4/5

Thoughts: These are no literary feats, but I enjoy a good Stone Barrington novel anyway! This one is the 9th in the series and a good fun read. I’m definitely looking forward to many more Stone Barrington adventures (and I’ve still got a lot ahead of me 🙂 )

Title: Officer Down
Author: Theresa Schwegel
Read: Aug. 23-27 , 2017
Pages: 320
Source: Purchased used
Rating: 2/5

Thoughts: I’m still flabbergasted that this won an Edgar Award. I mean overall the book is not bad. But I just didn’t find it believable. My brother-in-law is a police officer and I didn’t find the main character, Sam, to be a very good representation of a police officer. Perhaps my expectations were a little too high, but it fell below the mark for me.

Title: Mortal Stakes
Author: Robert B. Parker
Read: Aug. 28-31, 2017
Pages: 328
Source: Paperbackswap
Rating: 3/5

Thoughts: Spenser is growing on me. I didn’t like him in the first book, but I thoroughly enjoyed the second book. This is the third installment and I once again enjoyed it. I am looking forward to reading more of Spenser (and again, I have lots more of this series ahead of me!)