Category: Book Review

5/5, Archie and Gretchen, AUTHOR, Book Review, C, Fiction, RATING, Read in 2009, READING CHALLENGES 2009, SERIES

REVIEW: Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain

Tara

Evil at Heart
by Chelsea Cain

Copyright: 2009
Pages: 306
Rating: 4/5
Read: Sept. 17-22, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; 2009 Celebrate the Author; 2010 Countdown Challenge
Yearly Count: 48

First Line: The rest stop off I-84 on the Oregon side of the Columbia River was vile, even by rest-stop standards.

Gretchen Lowell is still on the loose. And she has become somewhat of a celebrity, with fan websites, fan fiction, her image on t-shirts, in magazines, there’s even a tour that people can take for $35 that will take them to the sites of her murders. But no one knows where she is. Archie Sheridan, the man who she let live for unknown reasons, is still in the hospital … the psych ward to be precise. When they last parted they made a deal – Archie agreed not to kill himself if she agreed not to kill anyone else. But it seems as if Gretchen has reneged on her end of the deal. When some pretty gruesome evidence is found, it all seems to point back to Gretchen. This gets Archie back into action. He is determined not to let Gretchen harm anyone else. But is The Beauty Killer back in action or has the whole obsessiveness around Gretchen turned into something more evil?

Let’s see, I didn’t care for Heartsick. I LOVED Sweetheart. This one was pretty good. It was a quick and easy read. But my main disappointment in this book is that it seemed to have so little of Gretchen in it. This installment was more about Archie. Which is fine and it was interesting, but Ms. Cain – Gretchen is the meat of your story! However, the door was definitely left open for a fourth book in this series, which I will most definitely read if it does come to be.

5/5, Alex Delaware, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, K, RATING, Read in 2009, READING CHALLENGES 2009, SERIES

REVIEW: When the Bough Breaks by Jonathan Kellerman

Tara

When the Bough Breaks
by Jonathan Kellerman

Copyright: 1985
Pages: 351
Rating: 5/5
Read: Sept. 14-17, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; 2009 1st in a Series Challenge; A Well-Rounded Challenge; 2009 Celebrate the Author; RYOB 2009
Yearly Count: 47

First Line: It was shaping up as a beautiful morning.

Alex Delaware is a well-known and established child psychologist when he burns out at the age of thirty-two. But he gets involved when his friend, LA police detective Milo Sturgis, enlists his help as a “consultant” with the department. Charged with helping a terrified seven-year-old girl who might have seen the perpertrators of a horrific murder, he is intrigued with the entire case whereas the police seem less impassioned about it. Determined to get to the bottom of the case, he is caught up in a web of unimaginable evil and a forty-year-old secret.

I have read a few of the more recent Alex Delaware novels and have enjoyed them, so I was really excited to finally read the first in this series. I learned so much about who Alex and Milo really are that I had missed out on in the later books. I was so intrigued by all the twists and turns. Kellerman really wrote a great story with this one. I’m probably like the last person on earth to have read this book, but if you haven’t read this one before I highly recommend this one.

3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, H, RATING, Read in 2009, READING CHALLENGES 2009

REVIEW: Real Murders by Charlaine Harris

Tara

Real Murders
by Charlaine Harris

Copyright: 1990
Pages: 175
Rating: 3/5
Read: Sept. 2-6, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; 2009 1st in a Series Challenge; A Well-Rounded Challenge
Yearly Count: 46

First Line: “Tonight I want to tell you about that most fascinating of murder mysteries, the Wallace case,” I told my mirror Enthusiastically.

Aurora “Roe” Teagarden is a small-town librarian. Nothing much really happens in her town of Lawrenceton. The peak of her excitement comes from her monthly meetings with her group “Real Murders.” They are just a group of people who share an interest in past murder cases. But when one of the members turns up dead at one of their meetings, with her murder scene looking suspcisiously like that of a murder case from the past that Roe recognizes. As time goes on, others in this small town turn up dead, also seemingly patterned after other famous murder cases. Roe can’t help but wonder who is at the heart of these murders – it almost has to be a member of Real Murders … but who could it be?

Okay, so I love the Harper Connelly series and was looking forward to giving this series a try. I liked it to a degree, however there were numerous spelling errors in this book (which really irritates me to no end). But for some reason I didn’t immediately take to this book. I mean it was okay in the end, but I felt as if it was missing something, I don’t really know how to describe my feelings though. It had a slow start. And I felt as if the character development lacked a little bit. But overall it was a decent book and I will probably continue on with this series, I just don’t know if I’ll be rushing to continue it.

4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Nonfiction, RATING, Read in 2009, READING CHALLENGES 2009, S

REVIEW: sTORItelling by Tori Spelling

Tara

sTORItelling
by Tori Spelling

Copyright: 2008
Pages: 271
Rating: 4/5
Read: Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge
Yearly Count: 45

First Line: When you’re a kid, you don’t worry about what anyone thinks.

Tori Spelling … her name along can evoke a lot of different ideas in one’s head. Donna Martin – America’s Virgin. Aaron Spelling’s daughter. Well-known feud with her mother. So I guess people either love or hate her. Me, I had no real opinion about her going into this book. There was a lot in here that I didn’t know much about to be honest. I knew that she had been raised in an unimaginably huge house (not quite accurate) and her father had bought her a white Christmas one year with the help of a snow machine (accurate) and that she had played Donna Martin, America’s favorite virgin on 90210 (accurate) and that she had been married in a fairy-tale wedding (it was someone’s fairy tale, just not hers) and that she divorced abruptly and remarried in the blink of an eye (fairly accurate) oh and now she has two kids. Okay, so that pretty much summed up what I knew about Tori Spelling. But this book really opened up her world. Tori came across as a girl who had grown up with everything but then didn’t understand when she had to actually work for everything once she turned 16. She seemed to want nothing more than acceptance and love and it didn’t come easy to her. Her life is full of disappointments and sometimes regrets. But you know what, that makes her like every other person. She really proves that life isn’t fair to Tori Spelling. I mean, take for example the fact that her father was reportedly worth $500 million dollars upon his death, all she got out of the will was $800,000 BEFORE taxes … she had to pay rent to her mother for the condo that she lived in for 10 years … she was in debt before she realized what had happened. I guess some people might see this book as nothing more than a sob story, but I really found it enlightening. Sure, she seems to have had a pretty screwed up childhood, but I think that after she met Dean maybe she finally did find what she was looking for in life. Regardless of whatever preconceived notions you have about her, I really do recommend giving this book a shot … if nothing else, it definitely has some hilarious moments like this one:

Dad told me that in order to earn my allowance, I’d have to help out around the house, so he gave me a job and said he’d do it with me. Every weekend we’d go out into the yard to scoop up dog poo and rake leaves. That’s right, every weekend TV mogul Aaron Spelling, net worth equivalent to some small island nation, went out and scooped poo with his daughter (p. 12).

Oh yeah – and her first kiss was with Screech!

5/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, RATING, Read in 2009, READING CHALLENGES 2009, S

REVIEW: She Loves Me Not by Wendy Corsi Staub

Tara

She Loves Me Not
by Wendi Corsi Staub

Copyright: 2003
Pages: 380
Rating: 5/5
Read: Aug. 23-30, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; RYOB 2009; Countdown Challenge
Yearly Count: 44

First Line: Her return to consciousness is a prolonged, painstaking process.

Widow Rose Larrabee is having a hard time coping with her husband’s sudden death. Although it’s been a year, she just isn’t coping well. And with two young children to raise and a job that is barely covering the bills, her stress level is through the roof. The last thing that she needs is someone stalking her. But that’s exactly the feeling that she is getting. It starts with a homemade valentine in her mailbox … a little creepy, but it doesn’t raise concerns yet. But when a box of chocolates mysteriously finds itself in the front seat of her car, the phone starts ringing in the middle of the night, and a heart-shaped gift appears one morning on her husband’s pillow, she starts to get the feeling that there’s someone out there watching her … and he’s hiding in plain sight. Will she figure out what is going on before it’s too late?

I have read Wendy Corsi Staub before and I remember enjoying her book. Well, this one definitely did not disappoint! When the ending came and the killer was revealed, it was someone that I hadn’t even considered!! There are so many twists and turns. Staub really created a character that I could connect with in Rose. And Christine was another great character. Sometimes books can be somewhat formulaic – I didn’t get that feeling from this book at all. I thought it was really well plotted. Although the ending was slightly abrupt, it was still a good way to end the book. I am definitely glad that I picked this book up off my shelf, it was really worth reading! I highly recommend this book and author to anyone that hasn’t given her a try before!

5/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, H, Harper Connelly, Read in 2009, READING CHALLENGES 2008, SERIES

REVIEW: An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris

Tara

An Ice Cold Grave
by Charlaine Harris

Copyright: 2007
Pages: 280
Rating: 5/5
Read: Aug. 20-23, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; RYOB 2009
Yearly Count: 43

First Line: The eastern seaboard is crammed with dead people.

Harper Connelly is called to a job in Doraville, North Carolina. She is hired to find a missing boy for a grieving grandmother. He is just one of several teenage boys that has disappeared from the area over the past five years. She ends up finding them all, buried at an old deserted house. Having done the job she was hired to do, all she wants to do is get out of town. Instead she finds herself attacked and in the hospital. While recovering Harper will learn more about Doraville, North Carolina, than she ever cared to know.

This is the third book in the Harper Connelly series. I have read online at Ms. Harris’ website that the fourth book due out later this year will be the final book in this series. I sure will be bummed out when this series ends. I have read the first three this year and I have really enjoyed all of them. I personally feel as if the first is still the best so far, but this was one was better than the second. I loved how Harper and Tolliver both grow as characters by leaps and bounds in this installment. I definitely recommend this series.

5/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, M, Read in 2009

REVIEW: Executive Privilege by Phillip Margolin

Tara

Executive Privilege
by Phillip Margolin

Copyright: 2008
Pages: 443
Rating: 5/5
Read: Aug. 15-19, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; RYOB 2009
Yearly Count: 42

First Line: Brad Miller woke up at 6 a.m. even though his meeting with Roy Kineer, the retired Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was scheduled for nine.

When private detective Dana Cutler is hired to follow college student Charlotte Walsh, never in her wildest dreams did she consider that the trail would lead her to the White House. But that is exactly what happens when Walsh turns up dead after a clandestine meeting with the President of the United States, Christopher Farrington. Her murder is blamed on the serial killer, the “D.C. Ripper.” Brad Miller, a junior associate in an Oregon law firm, still quite fresh out of law school, is given the case of the appeal of serial killer Clarence Little. Miller is stunned by Little’s insistence that he killed everyone that he was blamed for except for one: the death of the babysitter of then-governor, now-President Farrington. So a green lawyer and a small-time private eye have to come up with the hard evidence to prove that someone at the very highest level of the United States government is a brutal murderer and that it might very well be the President himself.

I LOVED this book!! It was fast paced and had twists and turns that kept me going all the way until the very end. Phillip Margolin is one of those authors that I have enjoyed every book that I have read of his and this one was definitely no exception. I really enjoyed the two story lines. Sometimes having two story lines is confusing to me, but Margolin definitely weaved his stories together beautifully. The characters were so well developed. I loved Brad and Ginny together! And Dana, well Dana was a firecracker!! The plot was really good too. I really recommend this book to anyone who loves a good thriller!!!

AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, P, Read in 2009, READING CHALLENGES 2008

REVIEW: Swimsuit by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Tara

Swimsuit
by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Copyright: 2009
Pages: 391
Rating: 3.5/5
Read: Aug. 9-11, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; Countdown Challenge
Yearly Count: 41

First Line: I know things I don’t want to know.

On the beautiful beaches of Hawaii a beautiful swimsuit model disappears. Kim McDaniels’ parents immediately fly to Hawaii in order to find their daughter. Ex-cop Ben Hawkins is now a reporter for the L.A. Times. He is given the assigntment of covering the McDaniels disappearance. He starts to get the feeling that this might be the one big story that he’s been searching for. And he also realizes that the local cops just might botch this, so he begins his own investigation. But the killer has a plan in mind. He’s planning his own next move, and it has Ben Hawkins in the middle of it.

This is really a complicated story to try and explain. It is written as a book within a book. Being a pretty big fan of James Patterson, I must say that this one was a slight disappointment for me. First of all, I really did not take to Ben Hawkins’ character one bit. I felt disconnected from him throughout the entire book, and to me that connection with the narrator is a very important part of the whole book experience. Now that’s not to say that I didn’t like the book in general, there were definitely some great parts, but I just didn’t think that it was really up to par in my opinion. I don’t really know what to say about this book if you want the truth. It just really didn’t speak to me much.

AUTHOR, Book Review, F, Fiction, Read in 2009, READING CHALLENGES 2008

REVIEW: The Piper’s Sons by Bruce Chandler Fergusson

Tara

The Piper’s Sons
by Bruce Chandler Fergusson

Copyright: 1999
Pages: 424
Rating: 3/5
Read: Aug. 1-8, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; A Well-Rounded Challenge; RYOB 2009; Random Reading Challenge
Yearly Count: 40

First Line: Would I have gone after the girl if my own daughter, Emma, were still alive?

Paul Sinclair is a haunted man. His brother disappeared many years before. His daughter, Emma, died years ago. But there’s more … there’s a terrible secret in his family. It’s a secret that he will only begin to scratch the surface of, starting with the unexpected death of his father. In his family history is a man called the Pied Piper – a brutal killer who was never caught and was presumed dead. But is he? He seems to be getting closer to Paul and his wife and son. And it’s Paul who is determined to find exactly what is in his past, even if it means losing his family in the process.

Okay, so this was really a strange book. It started out great and had me hooked from the first page. Then I got to the middle and it kind of lulled. Then it picked up again and I was really starting to see what Paul was seeing. But then, in the last 100 pages it hit another lull and I felt bogged down by a lot of unimportant descriptions that seemed more like filler to me than anything of real importance. I just don’t know what to think about this book. I mean, it wasn’t bad, but it was definitely kind of weird. I had a lot of issues with the way Fergusson kept changing who was talking, I had trouble keeping up sometimes. Now I will say this, I hadn’t expected the ending. I was surprised by who the Pied Piper ended up being, but after I finished the last sentence and set the book down and tried to make sense of everything that happened in the last third of the book, I will admit – I was confused. I must have missed something because I never did see how he ended up with the ending he did. But overall it was an okay book, just a little weird that’s all.

AUTHOR, B, Book Review, Fiction, Read in 2009, READING CHALLENGES 2008

REVIEW: Dancing with Ana by Nicole Barker

Tara

Dancing with Ana
by Nicole Barker

Copyright: 2009
Pages: 170
Rating: 4.5/5
Read: Aug. 3, 2009
Challenge:  2009 100+ Reading Challenge; A Well-Rounded Challenge; Countdown Challenge
Yearly Count: 39

First Line: “Christine McCady’s hair is especially shiny today,” Jenny told the three girls sitting with her at the lunch table.

Four sixteen-year-old friends, Beth, Jenny, Rachel and Melanie are struggling to find out who they are as young women. And they’re also struggling with the fact that there’s always going to be someone skinnier, someone prettier, someone with better hair, the list can go on and on. But for Beth, life is going especially tough for her and she hasn’t even really realized it yet. Her father has left their family for a younger woman, she’s falling in love with her best friend, and she is determined to get down to her “target” weight of 110 pounds. She’s so determined that she has enlisted the help of her closest friends to diet together. But their diets are dangerous – they’re hardly eating. The horrible headaches and dizziness finally makes Beth’s friends realize that they have no business dieting like they’re doing. But Beth is determined. However, when she hits 110 pounds, she realizes that she’s not as happy as she had expected to be. In fact, she’s actually even more depressed. But as she keeps going, her friends and new boyfriend are finally able to step in and help her realize that she doesn’t need to do all this dieting in order to be pretty and happy.

I’m going to include a small selection from page 164 that really highlights what has been going on with Beth. The first girl talking in this blurb is Christine, McCady, the most popular girl in school.

She paused at the door. “By the way, love what you’ve done with yourself. Ten more pounds and you’ll be super hot!”

And she was gone.

Beth looked at herself in the mirror, and for the first time, saw the dark smudges under her eyes. Her hair hung loose, laying flat against her head. Her skin was very pale. Hesitantly, she lifted her oversized t-shirt, exposing her stomach. All of her ribs showed, and her stomach was sunken in. For the first time, she saw how frail her arms looked.

She also finally saw how she’d chosen to deal with her father’s abandonment … by destroying herself.

I was contacted directly by the author, Nicole Barker, to read and review this book. I received it in the mail yesterday and sat down with it last night and read it in one sitting. It was that good. I could really relate with Beth’s character; I was a milder version of her my junior year in high school. Barker’s descriptions of the new love that all four of the girls finally began to experience reminded me of those first few months of young love with my husband when we were in high school. I find it kind of ironic that at the age of 24 I find myself enjoying YA reads, whereas when I was 15 or 16 and should have read a book like this I wanted no part of them. I honestly believe that women of all ages could really relate to the girls in this story, I highly recommend this book to everyone.