Category: First chapter

This week I’m featuring Modern Mrs. Darcy’s August book club selection. As usual, it’s outside my comfort zone… but so far I haven’t been let down by the selections, so I’m eager to dig in!

It was what she would remember always: how the second she stepped inside, before she’d so much as taken her first full breath of new air, she was struck by the feeling – the understanding, the certainty – however improbable, that the house was Joseph. Not merely that it felt like something he would choose or that she saw his handiwork everywhere – fresh paint, thick as cream; re-finished pine floors; green apples in a glass bowl – but that it was him, sturdy and open, light swooping in through every window, forthright and decent and kind. She would not have supposed that a house could be kind, but this one was.

Hm.. I’m not entirely sure about this one. It seems rather “flowery” with the descriptions … that’s not necessarily my cup of tea. I’ll read on, but I can’t say that this intro grabbed me immediately. What about you?!

This week I’m featuring a backlist read that I was looking forward to getting around to! I always love a Harry Bosch novel (and now that I’ve joined Amazon Prime, I’m really looking forward to checking out the Bosch TV show!!!)

The last thing I expected was for Alexander Taylor to answer his own door. It belied everything I knew about Hollywood. A man with a billion-dollar box-office record answered the door for nobody. Instead, he would have a uniformed man posted full-time at his front door. And this doorman would only allow me entrance after carefully checking my identification and appointment. He would then hand me off to a butler or the first-floor maid, who would walk me the rest of the way in, footsteps falling as silent as snow as we went.

Good old Harry Bosch!! I don’t know why I don’t read these more often than once a year … I always enjoy working the case with Harry. I’m also really loving the direction the series is heading for Harry 🙂

This week I’m featuring a book that I picked up for a Goodreads challenge, but one that I was really looking forward to digging into!

I consider myself a professional; a psychic intuitive who is proud of how she makes a living; confident that the skills and abilities I innately possess give me a unique advantage to deal with just about any quirky, strange, bizarre or unusual situation that may crop up in my line of work.

I read and enjoyed the first two books in this series last year. Actually I enjoyed them so much that I quickly acquired the next three in the series. And then I let them sit on my shelves. So I was excited to pick this one up and get back into the series! I hope you’ll come back in a few weeks for my review!!

This week I’m featuring a book that I impulsively picked up off my shelves. After many weeks of having a pretty strict reading schedule, I’m enjoying having some time to select books based on my mood. This one is the 3rd book in the Lucy Stone series (I thoroughly enjoyed the first two) so I’m looking forward to digging in to it!!

“I could just kill him.”

Monica Mayes pressed the gas pedal of her little BMW to the floor and zoomed around a pokey Dodge Caravan, cutting it a bit too close as she pulled back into her lane. The driver of the Caravan braked, and the van swerved, but Monica didn’t notice.

“How could he do this to me?” she asked herself, pulling out the cigarette lighter.

This intro definitely sucked me in! I couldn’t wait to find out what “he” did 🙂

This week I’m featuring a book that I’m reading right now. It was my April BOTM selection. And I’m really loving it!! Such a creepy thriller!

The rules of the Crave were simple. V and I went to a nightclub in a predetermined place a good way from where we lived. We raveled there together but entered separately. We made our way to the bar and stood far enough apart for it to seem like we weren’t together but close enough that I could always keep her in my vision. Then we waited. It never took long, but why would it when V shone as brightly as she did? Some hapless man would approach and offer to buy her a drink or ask her to dance. She would begin a mild flirt. And I would wait, my eyes never leaving her, my body ready to pounce at all times. We have a signal: As soon as she raises her hand and pulls on the silver eagle she always wears around her neck, I must act.

I cut that off in the middle of the first paragraph, which lasts a page and a half. It drew me right in, I wanted to immediately know more about the Crave! This is one messed up psychological thriller for sure! I hope you come back for my review in a couple of weeks!

This week I’m featuring the July selection in the Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club! I had never even heard of this book before she announced it in her Summer Reading Program. But since all the other books I’ve read so far for this club have been really good, I figured it was worth my try! A little outside my comfort zone, just because of where it’s set (Bombay in the 1920s), but I’m definitely looking forward to it!!

On the morning Perveen saw the stranger, they’d almost collided.

Perveen had come upon him half-hidden in the portico entrance to Mistry House. The unshaven, middle-aged man appeared as if he’d slept for several days and nights in his broadcloth shirt and the grimy cotton dhoti that hung in a thousand creases from his waist to his ankles. His small, squinting eyes were tired, and he exuded a rank odor of sweat mixed with betel nut.

Hm… I’m not sure about this beginning. I wanted to share more than just that first sentence about the stranger, but then it got really wordy in that second paragraph. We shall see how it goes!

This week I’m sharing with you a backlist book that has been sitting on my shelf for entirely too long!

The late afternoon sun slanted through the tall windows opening onto the Grand Canal. There were silken peacocks in the velvet draperies and they stirred in the salty Adriatic breeze. These warm evening zephyrs sent sunstruck motes of dust swirling indolently upward toward the vaulted and gilded ceiling.

Not going to lie … this book was slightly slow to start. But I kept with it and I’m really enjoying it now! It’s chunkier than what I’ve been reading lately, but I really enjoy Alex Hawke’s character.

This week I’m spotlighting the ARC I’m reading right now. It was an impulse request on NetGalley and I’m LOVING it! **FYI: Strong language ahead**

The trial has barely made a dent in the national news. Which is good, because it means less publicity, fewer reporters. But it’s also bad, because jut how depraved do crimes have to be nowadays to garner national headlines?

Pretty fucking bad, it seems.

Not going to lie … this book has sucked me in completely! I’ve read half of it the last day and a half and am looking forward to finishing it up rather quickly! Thank goodness, because I was afraid I was on the verge of a slump because I had picked up a book before this one and it was very slow going … I decided a change of pace would be nice and this book has definitely fit the bill of that.

This week I’ve got another backlist book that I’m currently reading for you…

“Were you really serious about the Hitler thing?” Dave said, dousing Meredith’s jeans and sweater with lighter fluid.

“Easy on the rocket fuel there, pyro,” Gideon said. “We’re just torching her clothes, not trying to burn the house down.”

So I read the first book in this series, NYPD Red, last year and enjoyed it. So I happily picked this one up looking forward to a quick and easy read. The intro really caught my attention … why are they burning someone’s clothes?!

This week I’m featuring a backlist title that I’m currently reading (and loving!!):

The last time she would ever go swimming, all of Seattle was baking beneath a sky of blameless blue. For two whole days, temperatures had soared while she begged her family for a quick trip to the lake. An hour? Thirty minutes?

I read the first Reeve LeClaire book (The Edge of Normal) back in 2013 and loved it. This one has been on my shelf for quite some time, so I don’t really know why it’s taken me so long to pick it up. Regardless, I’m glad that I’m reading it now because it’s really good!