Category: 4/5

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!

4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Eve Dallas, Fiction, R, Read in 2008, SERIES

Glory in Death by J.D. Robb

Tara
Glory in Death
by J.D. Robb

Copyright: 1995
Pages: 296
Rating: 4/5
Read: Aug. 25-26, 2008
Challenge: Initials Reading Challenge

First Line: The dead were her business.

Beautiful and successful women are being brutally murdered. Their numerous business contacts and lovers provide Eve Dallas with a very long list of suspects. Unfortunately, Roarke is also on that list. For Eve she wants to trust the man she shares her bed with but her profession makes her investigate into areas that she wishes she could just live untouched. Once again murder will come between Eve and Roarke, but in the end, Eve will ultimately get the man and the murder suspect.

This book was MUCH better than the first in the series (Naked in Death). I read this one very quickly and enjoyed every minute of it!! I love the romance sprinkled throughout the mystery. I’m so glad that I’m finally getting around to this series and so glad that I have so many more books ahead of me 🙂

4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, D, Fiction, Read in 2008

Night Fall by Nelson DeMille

Tara
Night Fall
by Nelson DeMille

Copyright: 2004
Pages: 651
Rating: 4/5
Read: Aug. 7-14, 2008
Challenge: Celebrate the Author; Triple Eight – 500+ Pages Category

First Line: Bud Mitchell drove his Ford Explorer along Dune Road.

July 17, 1996 – a date that most Americans will remember for quite some time. That was the night that TWA Flight 800 exploded in mid-air, just a few short minutes after take off, killing the 230 passengers and crew on board. The official conclusion: mechanical failure. But some of the people involved in the investigation simply cannot accept that explanation. The reason?: There is the possibility that a couple on a clandestine tryst on the beach may have videotaped the explosion. But that couple and the videotape has never been found – or have they?! On the fifth anniversary of the crash, John Corey and his wife attend the memorial service. And her past work on the investigation and her unanswered questions and lingering doubts will get him interested in the case and will land them both in hot water when all they’re trying to do is find out the truth behind the explosion of TWA Flight 800.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. The only problem in my opinion with it was the fact that it was sooooo slow in the beginning. It really didn’t pick up pace until the second half of the book. However, those last few hundred pages just flew by and it was amazing! The ending was really, really good!!!

4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, D, Fiction, Lincoln Rhyme, Read in 2008, SERIES

The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver

Tara
The Bone Collector
by Jeffery Deaver
Copyright: 1997
Pages: 423
Rating: 4/5
Read: July 28-31, 2008
Challenge: Triple 8 – First in a Series Category

First Line: She wanted only to sleep.

Lincoln Rhyme was one of the nation’s best criminologists. Then an accident at a crime scene paralyzed him. Now a bitter cripple, he’s ready to end his life. But when his old department drags him into a case, he is swept up into an intriguing case. A man known as the Bone Collector is preying on the New York streets, picking at random, and it will take Lincoln’s genius to solve the case. With police detective Amelia Sachs being his eyes at the crime scenes, it becomes a race against the clock in order to catch this madman before he hits too close to home….
I enjoyed this book. I found it a little difficult to follow in a few places, but that might have been my attention slipping a bit. I’ve only read one other in this series and am glad to have read the first in the series. Although I watched the movie, I didn’t recall enough of it to ruin the book for me (although I’m not sure I really agree with changing Thom’s character into Thelma for the movie). Overall I enjoyed this book!
4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, P, Read in 2008, SERIES, Women's Murder Club

The 5th Horseman by James Patterson

Tara
The 5th Horseman
by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Copyright: 2006
Pages: 428
Rating: 4/5
Read: July 27-28, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read

First Line: Rain was drumming hard against the windows when the midnight-to-8:00 rounds began at San Francisco Municipal Hospital.

People are dying at Municipal Hospital in San Francisco. It’s a hospital, of course people will die there. But doctors are stumped as to why there are recovering patients that are dying. People that should not be dying are dying. Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer becomes convinced that someone at the hospital is playing God. But the hospital is pulling out all the stops in order to protect its reputation. It will wage a court battle with the family members of twenty deceased patients. All the while, Lindsay and the Women’s Murder Club are hunting down a merciless killer.

This one was okay. Definitely not the best in the series (that one still goes to the 3rd in my opinion) but I enjoyed it. As always, it was a quick and fun read with a lot of twists and turns along the way. And the ending was great!! I highly recommend this series to those who have not experienced it yet, I love it!!

4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Dismas Hardy, Fiction, L, Read in 2008, SERIES

Dead Irish by John Lescroart

Tara
Dead Irish
by John Lescroart
Copyright: 1989
Pages: 420
Rating: 4/5
Read: July 16-20, 2008
Challenge: Triple Eight – First in a Series Category

First Line: From his aisle seat, Dismas Hardy had a clear view of the stewardess as her feet lifted from the floor.

Dismas is a former husband, father, cop and attorney. Currently he’s living alone and tending the bar at the Little Shamrock. All he wants is some normalcy in his life. What he gets instead for his good friend and boss to ask him to look into the death of his brother-in-law, Eddie Cochran. The police think it’s a suicide, but his family thinks it’s a murder. As Dismas dives into this new task he doesn’t know how to explain it, but he feels that the family is right – Eddie was murdered. Now as his ex-wife reappears in his life, his friend at the police department, Abe Glitsky can’t seem to believe Hardy’s murder claims, he doesn’t know what else to do. But he knows that he wants to do right for his boss’s sister, Frannie, her unborn child, and Eddie’s family. But what he will find in the end will shock everyone.
This is the first in the Dismas Hardy series. I really, really, really enjoyed this one! The person who ends up being the murderer was completely surprising for me. I’m looking forward to exploring more of this series when I get the chance.
4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, C, Fiction, Harry Bosch, Read in 2008, SERIES

The Black Echo by Michael Connelly

Tara
The Black Echo
by Michael Connelly
Copyright: 1992
Pages: 412
Rating: 4/5
Read: July 9-16, 2008
Challenge: Celebrate the Author Challenge; Triple 8 – First in a Series Category

First Line: The boy couldn’t see in the dark, but he didn’t need to.

LAPD homicide cop Harry Bosch is surprised when he is able to identify the body in the drainpipe. It’s Billy Meadows, a fellow Vietnam “tunnel rat” who fought side by side with him. But Billy’s murder turns up evidence that there’s more than just murder to this story. Meadows’ death will take Bosch to clues of a bank heist that was never solved. It’s when working with a female FBI agent that Bosch will discover the true identity of the bank robber and murderer, and it’s a familiar and shocking face.
I enjoyed this book. I thought that it was a slow start, but the ending was REALLY good! Perhaps it was just because I’ve been swamped at work and haven’t had much spare time to read lately. Either way, I’m glad that I finally read this book. It is definitely an interesting read and one that should not be missed.
4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, Lucas Davenport, Read in 2008, S, SERIES

Invisible Prey by John Sandford

Tara
Invisible Prey
by John Sandford

Copyright: 2007
Pages: 420
Rating: 4/5
Read: July 1-6, 2008
Challenge: No Challenge; personal read

First Line: An anonymous van, some-kind-of-pale, cruised Summit Avenue, windows dark with the coming night.

When two elderly women are murdered in a wealthy Minneapolis neighborhood, it looks like a random robbery gone wrong with nothing of real value being stolen. But when Lucas Davenport begins to probe the murder he realizes that this was not only not random but things of major value were stolen. As he continues investigating, he sees a pattern emerge and one can only wonder what path it will lead him down….

This book was really, super good! I really enjoyed it. It is fast paced and enjoyable. You know who the killers are early on in the book but it’s an enjoyable ride trying to figure out how Lucas is going to pull it all together. Highly recommended.

4/5, Alex Cooper, AUTHOR, Book Review, F, Fiction, Read in 2008, SERIES

Entombed by Linda Fairstein

Tara
Entombed
by Linda Fairstein
Copyright: 2005
Pages: 500
Rating: 4/5
Read: June 21-24, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read

First Line: I looked at the pool of dried blood that covered the third-floor landing of a brownstone on one of the safest residential blocks in Manhattan and wondered how the young woman who’d been left here to die yesterday, her chest pierced by a steak knife, could still be alive this afternoon.

Manhattan ADA Alex Cooper is horrified when she realizes that the Silk Stocking Rapist is back on the streets raping women. But she’s mystified when the skeleton of a young woman is unearthed standing upright in a wall in a Greenwich Village brownstone where Edgar Allan Poe once lived. It’s a scene that Poe could have written. It will take a lot of strength and patience in order to get to the bottom of this case. It takes Cooper and her coworkers to the Bronx Botanical Gardens where a secret society of Poe fans may hold all the answers to this macabre story.
This was my first Alex Cooper experience. While I enjoyed it, I felt it could have been better. The story line was great but in some places I found myself struggling to keep up. It seemed to me that she used way to many descriptions in some places where I really didn’t need them. I know that sounds weird, but I just want things to be plainly spelled out for me, I don’t need elaborate descriptions or anything and that’s what I got out of this book. Will I be looking more into this series, of course, but I also hope that it improves some.
4/5, Alex Cross, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, P, Read in 2008, SERIES

Mary Mary by James Patterson

Tara
Mary Mary
by James Patterson
Copyright: 2005
Pages: 413
Rating: 4/5
Read: June 1-3, 2008
Challenge: Title Master Challenge

First Line: Act one, scene one, the Storyteller thought to himself, and couldn’t hold back a dizzying rush of anticipation.

While on a family vacation in California, FBI Agent Alex Cross is asked to help investigate the murder of a famous Hollywood actress. The killer, “Mary Smith,” has already been in touch with the authorities through an email to an LA Times reporter. But Mary Smith has more murders on her agenda as she spins a strange story through emails and dead bodies that causes Cross a lot of personal troubles while trying to catch her.
James Patterson definitely does not disappoint with this one! I read The Midnight Club last month and was a little disappointed, but this one was really enjoyable!! I flew through it and could hardly wait to figure out the ending of it … and trust me, it was a shocker!!! Highly recommended.