Category: H

AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, H, Harper Connelly, Read in 2009, SERIES

Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris

Tara

Grave Surprise
by Charlaine Harris

Copyright: 2006
Pages: 295
Rating: 4/5
Read: June 20-24, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; Countdown Challenge
Yearly Count: 32

First Line: I didn’t like Clyde Nunley the first time I met him face-to-face in the old cemetery.

Harper Connelly is back in this second installment. This time around, she finds herself in Memphis, Tennessee. She has been called in by Professor Clyde Nunley to demonstrate her ability for his Occult Studies class. They end up in an old cemetery on campus where Harper goes to work identifying the people in the old graves as well as what they died from. But she finds someone she never expected to be there – a little girl that she had failed to find the previous year. Now Harper and her step-brother Tolliver set out to find out how Tabitha got where she was and how it could not possibly be a coincidence that Harper ended up finding her in the end.

I really enjoyed this book. I really think that this is a fun and interesting series. I have really taken to Harper as a character, I think that she’s believable even with her strange ability. I am definitely looking forward to reading the third in this series as soon as it comes available at my library, as well as the long-awaited fourth book which is due out later this year.

AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, H, Harper Connelly, Read in 2009, SERIES

Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris

Tara

Grave Sight
by Charlaine Harris

Copyright: 2005
Pages: 293
Rating: 4/5
Read: April 19-21, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; Countdown Challenge; RYOB 2009
Yearly Count: 20

First Line: The silent witnesses lie everywhere, passing from one form of matter to another, gradually becoming unrecognizable to their nearest and dearest.

Harper Connelly has an interesting job. She finds dead people. After being struck by lightning as a teenager Harper has had this uncanny ability to “hear” the dead. She is able to find people who have gone missing and bring closure to the family. She can even tell what the person died of. So she travels the country with her stepbrother Tolliver helping families find their loved ones – for a price of course. This time Harper finds herself in the small town of Sarne. She is there to look for a teenage girl. But in a small town, some secrets aren’t meant to be brought out in the open. So when Harper begins to uncover the truth behind the girl’s disapperance it becomes very clear that some people want Harper out of town at the very least.

Okay, so I was unsure about this book, but the description definitely sounded interesting. However I was pleasantly surprised by this book!! It was a quick and enjoyable read. I really took to Harper as a character and I’m definitely looking forward to getting to the second book in the series soon! Highly recommend this book.

AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, H, Read in 2008

The Falls by Karen Harper

Tara
The Falls
by Karen Harper

Copyright: 2003
Pages: 394
Rating: 4/5
Read: Dec. 1-6, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read

First Line: Though Claire Malvern was a sound sleeper, something woke her.

The Falls are what first drew Claire and Keith Malvern away from their fast paced lives in Seattle. But it will also be the Falls that ends their dream of a bed and breakfast when Keith’s body is found in the river, his death ruled a suicide supposedly from having jumped off the bridge by the Falls. But Claire knows her husband would never take his own life. But it will take all she has in order to convince the local sheriff Nick Braden that foul play has to be involved. But what they eventually discover about Keith’s death will shock them both.

This book had quite a slow start. But once I was able to get well into the book I really ended up enjoying it. My only complaint is that this book read like a lot of other books that I have read in this romantic suspense genre – the husband dies mysteriously and then the widow falls for the man who helps her in the aftermath. It all seemed sort of formulaic, however that doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy the book because I did, it’s just a feeling that I get from books of this sort in general.

2/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, H, Nonfiction, Read in 2008

Aruba by Dave Holloway

Tara
Aruba: The Tragic Untold Story of Natalee Holloway and Corruption in Paradise
by Dave Holloway
Copyright: 2006
Pages: 203
Rating: 2/5
Read: Feb. 18-23, 2008
Challenge: Triple Eight – True Crime Category
First Line: I cannot tell you how much it hurts to lose a child.
This is the story of the Natalee Holloway case from her father, Dave Holloway’s perspective. I remember following this case and watching it unfold in horror in 2005. I could not believe that such a beautiful young lady could simply vanish off an island. I was also shocked that these parents let 100+ 18-year-olds go off to Aruba with only 7 chaperons! But my feelings aside, I felt that this book was really lacking in feeling. I felt as if I was just reading a true crime book written from the perspective of a person who had no involvement in the case whatsoever. All I could feel was anger coming from Dave Holloway when he should have been writing a more heartfelt story in my opinion. I just didn’t care for this one at all.
3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, H, Read in 2008, SERIES

Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris

Tara
Hannibal Rising
by Thomas Harris
Copyright: 2006
Pages: 368
Rating: 3/5
Read: Feb. 7-8, 2008
Challenge: Triple Eight – From my TBR Shelf Category

First Line: The door to Dr. Hannibal Lecter’s memory palace is in the darkness at the center of his mind and it has a latch that can be found by touch alone.

In the fourth installment of the Hannibal Lecter series, we learn about where Dr. Lecter’s evil comes from. We learn about the mysterious sister Mischa’s demise as well as various transgressions of his youth. Harris really strives to provide insight about what caused Dr. Lecter to become the man that we know him as – a monster.
I have mixed feelings about this book. I had myself pumped up for a lot more than what I got out of this book. We learn about what happened to Hannibal and his family in his early years. And the book continues to chronicle his downward spiral until his eighteenth year. Then there was nothing else. It would definitely be interesting to see if Harris writes a fifth book telling about what happened between the time he was eighteen and the time he
4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, H, Read in 2008, SERIES

Hannibal by Thomas Harris

Tara
Hannibal
by Thomas Harris
Copyright: 1999
Pages: 544
Rating: 4/5
Read: Jan. 30 – Feb. 4, 2008
Challenge: Triple Eight – From my TBR Shelf Category
First Line: Clarice Starling’s Mustang boomed up the entance ramp at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on Massachusetts Avenue, a headquarters rented from the Reverend Sun Myung Moon in the interest of economy.
Dr. Hannibal Lecter escaped seven years ago. He might think he’s safe, but the multimillionaire that he left alive many years before, is on the verge of finding him – and seeking his revenge. Lecter also has to worry about an Italian policeman who is willing to sell him for a large sum of money. And there’s also Clarice Starling; she hasn’t been the same since last time. However, only one of these people will get Hannibal in the end, the question is, which one will it be?
I enjoyed this book. There was a section almost in the middle of about 150 pages that I definitely got bogged down in. I was not impressed with the part that was set in Italy. Other than that, though, the book read rather quickly and was quite enjoyable. Makes me ready to read Hannibal Rising!