Category: RATING

3.5/5, AUTHOR, Author Debut, Book Review, Fiction, R, RATING, Read in 2015

2015.10 REVIEW – Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Tara

Attachments
by Rainbow Rowell

Copyright:2011
Pages: 323
Rating: 3.5/5
Read: March 4 – March 6, 2015
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 10
Format: Print
Source: Purchased online at powells.com
Series: N/A

AttachmentsBlurb: Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work email. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It’s company policy.) But they can’t quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious emails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O’Neill can’t believe this is his job now – reading other people’s email. When he applied to be “Internet security officer,” he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers – not writing up a report eery time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth’s and Jennifer’s messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can’t help being entertained – and captivated – by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he’s falling for Beth, it’s way too late to introduce himself.

What would he say…?

Review: So earlier this year I signed up for some Goodreads challenges, one of those was to read 14 books from the group’s moderators’ favorite genres. Talk about having to really expand my horizons. One of the genres is chick-lit. Not something I read. Ever. And something that made me a little nervous. But I went searching for a chick-lit book that I felt I would be able to handle (i.e. – not throw across the room in total and utter disgust). Somehow I stumbled upon Rainbow Rowell.

Now, I’d have to be in a complete hole to have never heard of Rainbow Rowell. She seems to have taken the book blogosphere by storm since her debut in 2011. And while I will admit that a couple of her books have sounded a little bit interesting to me, I never took the plunge and gave one a try. Until now.

And I can honestly say that I didn’t throw the book across the room in total and utter disgust. But don’t consider me a chick-lit convert just yet, either.

Overall, I enjoyed the first 98% of this book. I had a lot of fun with Beth and Jennifer’s emails. I loved the parts revolving around Lincoln. He was so screwed up it was ridiculous, but I found him to be endearing all the same. I wish I had a girlfriend relationship like Beth and Jennifer (sure, I have friends that I tell certain stuff to, but no one I can really pour my heart and soul out to). Lincoln’s mom is so dysfunctional it’s not even funny – and I could end up being the type of mother she was … not wanting her baby boy to ever leave her.

But then there’s that other 2% that just left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It was the ending. I. Hated. It. Pure and simple. It made me realize why I don’t read chick-lit. And it really felt at total odds with the rest of the book. It just didn’t work for me. Too cookie-cutter, everything works out for my taste. Just yuck.

So overall I’m glad that I expanded my horizons and read something outside of my comfort zone. And I might even give another Rainbow Rowell book a chance in the future.

I can’t say that I would have really missed anything if I had never read this book. But I can’t say that it was a waste of my time either. It was a decent book for a couple of snowed-in days. But that ending did it no justice in my opinion, and also majorly affected my overall rating of the book.

4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, H, RATING, Read in 2015, SERIES, Sookie Stackhouse

2015.8 REVIEW – Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

Tara

Dead as a Doornail
by Charlaine Harris

Copyright:2005
Pages: 295
Rating: 4/5
Read: Feb. 20 – Feb. 25, 2015
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 8
Format: Print
Source: Personal Copy
Series: Sookie Stackhouse #5

Dead as a DoornailBlurb: Small-town cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse has had more than her share of experience with the supernatural – but now it’s really hitting close to home. When Sookie sees her brother Jason’s eyes start to change, she knows he’s about to turn into a were panther for the first time – a transformation he embraces more readily than most shape-shifters she knows. But her concern becomes cold fear when a sniper sets his deadly sights on the local changeling population, and Jason’s new panther brethren suspect he may be the shooter. Now Sookie has until the next full moon to find out who’s behind the attacks – unless the killer decides to find her first…

Review: This is the 5th book in the Sookie series and I’m kicking myself for waiting so long before starting this series.

I find these books to be fun escapes. There’s not much thinking involved in them and sometimes that’s exactly what I need. Even though paranormal will never be my favorite genre, these books really appeal to me.

I found this book to be interesting. Sookie is always finding herself in trouble. And this installment is no exception. I’m so intrigued by the world Ms. Harris has created in this series. There’s so much pomp and circumstance regarding the vamps and weres and shifters. It’s just so interesting.

Overall, I liked this book and I enjoy this series. Definitely recommended.

4/5, Alex Cross, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, P, RATING, Read in 2015, SERIES

2015.7 REVIEW – Alex Cross, Run by James Patterson

Tara

Alex Cross, Run
by James Patterson

Copyright:2013
Pages: 378
Rating: 4/5
Read: Feb. 15 – Feb. 18, 2015
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 7
Format: Print
Source: Personal Copy
Series: Alex Cross #20

Alex Cross, RunBlurb: Alex Cross is on the hunt of his life … In Washington, D.C., top plastic surgeon Elijah Creem is renowned for his operating skills – and his wild parties of drugs, champagne, and illicit sex. When Detective Alex Cross busts one of Creem’s soirees, the doctor takes the most drastic step to avoid prison. Before Alex can finish this case, a beautiful woman is murdered with a lock of her hair viciously ripped off. Then a second woman is found, hanging from a window with a brutal scar slashed across her stomach. After a third mutilated body is discovered, rumors of three serial killers on the loose send the city into an all-out frenzy. But under intense pressure to solve all these grim cases, the detective doesn’t notice that someone very obsessed and twisted is stalking him – and won’t stop until Alex is dead.

Review: I used to gobble James Patterson up. Somewhere along the way he slowly fell off my radar. Probably because he churns out book after book with the aid of “co-authors” and they just aren’t as good as when he is writing them. For whatever reason, Mr. Patterson has kept the Alex Cross books all to himself. For that, his readers should thank him. Because they are by far (in my opinion of course) the best books that his name appears on.

So when I signed up a Goodreads challenge for us to read 3 books by authors we love in February, I had to go scouring my shelves for something. And as much as I am ashamed to admit it, James Patterson is where my eyes kept coming back to. So I figured I’d pick up the next Alex Cross book I had (I’m a couple behind now).

Looking back through my archives, it had been a little over 3 years since I last read an Alex Cross book. But you know what … I fell right back in with the family with no problems at all. It was like reuniting with an old friend from grade school. It was also a lot of fun.

I feel like the blurb highlighted above really leaves a lot of the book’s plot out. There’s a lot more to this book than just what’s in that simple blurb. And I found it to be a really fun, exciting read!

While these books do not require a lot of thinking, I still enjoy them. Patterson has a bad rep with a lot of people nowadays, but I am not ashamed to admit that I still like Patterson (kind of like I’ll admit to watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians).

So, yeah, I’d recommend this book. It’s a fun, fast read. And I just really like Alex Cross’s character. While you don’t have to, I would definitely recommend reading this series from the beginning, because there’s a lot of great early books in this series.

4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, C, Fiction, Harry Bosch, RATING, Read in 2015, SERIES

2015.6 REVIEW – Angels Flight by Michael Connelly

Tara

Angels Flight
by Michael Connelly

Copyright:1999
Pages: 454
Rating: 4/5
Read: Feb. 5 – Feb. 11, 2015
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 6
Format: Print
Source: Personal Copy
Series: Harry Bosch #6

Angels FlightBlurb: An activist attorney is killed in a cute little L.A. trolley called Angels Flight, far from Harry Bosch’s Hollywood turf. But the case is so explosive – and the dead man’s enemies inside the LAPD are so numerous – that it falls to Harry to solve it. Now the streets are superheating. Harry’s year-old Vegas marriage is unraveling. And the hunt for a killer is leading Harry to another high-profile LA murder case, one where every cop had a motive. The question is, did any have the guts?

Review: I am very slowly making my way through the Harry Bosch series. And so far I’m quite enjoying myself. This particular installment was very good in my opinion.

A lot of things are happening in Harry’s life and to Harry in this book. And I think it will be interesting to see where Mr. Connelly takes Bosch next, on a personal level. I definitely have a soft spot for Harry.

But do you know what I loved most about this book … I had absolutely no idea how it was going to end until it was right on top of me. And when I say “absolutely no idea,” I seriously mean that. I had no idea who the killer was in this book. I had no idea how things would end up. And that’s what makes a great mystery/thriller/suspense novel in my opinion.

So overall, I really had a fun time with this book. It’s a good read, a good installment in a great series. And I can’t wait to read more Harry Bosch in the near future!

 

2/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, C, Fiction, Kay Scarpetta, RATING, Read in 2015, SERIES

2015.5 REVIEW – Port Mortuary by Patricia Cornwell

Tara

Port Mortuary
by Patricia Cornwell

Copyright:2010
Pages: 494
Rating: 2/5
Read: Jan. 25 – Feb. 4, 2015
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 5
Format: Print
Source: Personal Copy
Series: Kay Scarpetta #18

port mortuaryBlurb: More than twenty years and many successes since the start of Kay Scarpetta’s career, her secret military ties have drawn her to Dover Air Force Base and Port Mortuary, where she’s performing autopsies on fallen soldiers. But her new headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts – the Cambridge Forensic Center – is the first civilian facility in the U.S. to do virtual autopsies, and it is there that she encounters a devastating event.

A young man has died, apparently from a cardiac arrhythmia, eerily close to Scarpetta’s new Cambridge home. But when his body is examined the next morning, there are stunning indications that he may have been alive when he was zipped inside a pouch and locked inside the Center’s cooler. Carious 3-D radiology scans reveal more shocking details about internal injuries unlike any Scarpetta has ever seen – details that suggest the possibility of a conspiracy to cause mass casualties. With Benton, Marino, and Lucy at her side, Scarpetta must fight a cunning, cruel – and invisible – enemy, as she races against time to discover who and why before more people die…

Review: I think I keep hoping that Patricia Cornwell will magically return to her glory days of years past and write an awesome Kay Scarpetta book. And I keep getting massively disappointed. I didn’t like this one. Not much at all, to be honest. To the point where I’m not sure why I even read it in its entirety.

But I read it all. And I am so confused it’s not even funny. First, we learn that Dr. Scarpetta is actually Colonel Scarpetta. What? Apparently she spent time in the military straight out of school to help pay off her debt. She owed them 6 years … she only made it 6 months before something happened and they kicked her out. I actually went on Goodreads to read other reviews of this book after I finished to see if this was mentioned by any other reviewers. Apparently this little background tidbit is not something that I have just forgotten about over the years. It really is something that was never introduced until Book 18 in the series. Ok. Why? If what happened to Kay in South Africa is still bothering her all these years later, why are we the readers just now learning about it? Give me a break.

I’m not going to spend much time going into the particulars of this book. Let me just tell you that all I came away with is that Kay Scarpetta did nothing but whine and moan about the state of affairs at the Center that she is supposedly the head of. When she finds out that Jack Fielding has let the place go to hell, instead of taking the bull by the horn (like she would have done 17 books ago) and fixing the problem, she just whined to her obnoxiously unhelpful husband about poor pitiful Kay. There were murders that needed solving, and instead of focusing on them, we had to endure Kay’s pity party. Ugh.

So yeah. I didn’t like this book. I don’t recommend it. You want a good Patricia Cornwell book …. read one of the first 10 in the series. Then walk away … which is what I should have done, and what I’m doing now.

3/5, AUTHOR, Author Debut, Book Review, Fiction, L, RATING, Read in 2015, SERIES, Tess Monaghan

2015.4 REVIEW – Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman

Tara

Baltimore Blues
by Laura Lippman

Copyright: 1997
Pages: 290
Rating: 3.5/5
Read: Jan. 21 – Jan. 25, 2015
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 4
Format: Print
Source: Personal Copy
Series: Tess Monaghan #1

Baltimore BluesBlurb:  In a city where someone is murdered almost every day, attorney Michael Abramowitz’s death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer’s notoriety – and his taste for illicit midday trysts – makes the case front page news in every local paper except the Star, which crashed and burned before Abramowitz did. A former Star reporter who knows every inch of this town – from historic Fort McHenry to the crumbling projects of Cherry Hill – now-unemployed journalist Tess Monaghan also knows the guy the cops like for the killing: cuckolded fiancé Darryl “Rock” Paxton. The time is ripe for a career move, so when rowing buddy Rock wants to hire her to do some unorthodox snooping to help clear his name, Tess agrees. But there are lethal secrets hiding in the Charm City shadows. And Tess’s own name could end up on that ever-expanding list of Baltimore dead.

Review: I picked this one up off my shelf on a whim. It’s not like I needed another series to begin … but for some reason it caught my eye at the time.

I found this one to be an interesting read. I liked Tess’s character. She’s got humor, but at the same time, she’s pretty serious too. I think it will be interesting to watch her grow as a character in subsequent books.

This is a relatively short and quick novel, clocking in at only 290 pages. But I found myself struggling to read much more than a chapter or so at a time. It had nothing really to do with the book I don’t think, because it was an enjoyable enough read, it just didn’t seem to wrap me up completely like some books do.

So while I enjoyed it and will be looking forward to reading on in this series, it’s not necessarily a book that I will remember in a few days. I think I might ultimately end up preferring Ms. Lippman’s standalone novels to this series.

3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, E-Book, Fiction, K, RATING, Read in 2015, Review Book, TLC Book Tours

2015.3 REVIEW – City of Liars and Thieves by Eve Karlin

Tara

City of Liar and Thieves
by Eve Karlin

Copyright: 2014
Pages: 266
Rating: 3/5
Read: Jan. 14 – Jan. 20, 2015
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 3
Format: E-Book
Source: TLC Book Tours
Series: N/A

City of Liar and ThievesBlurb: A crime that rocked a city. A case that stunned a nation. Based on the United States’ first recorded murder trial, Eve Karlin’s spellbinding debut novel re-creates early nineteenth-century New York City, where a love affair ends in a brutal murder and a conspiracy involving Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr erupts in shattering violence.

It is high time to tell the truth. Time for justice. . . . How she was murdered and why she haunts me. It is not only Elma’s story, it’s mine.

On the bustling docks of the Hudson River, Catherine Ring waits with her husband and children for the ship carrying her cousin, Elma Sands. Their Greenwich Street boardinghouse becomes a haven for Elma, who has at last escaped the stifling confines of her small hometown and the shameful circumstances of her birth. But in the summer of 1799, Manhattan remains a teeming cesspool of stagnant swamps and polluted rivers. The city is desperate for clean water as fires wreak devastation and the death toll from yellow fever surges.

Political tensions are rising, too. It’s an election year, and Alexander Hamilton is hungry for power. So is his rival, Aaron Burr, who has announced the formation of the Manhattan Water Company. But their private struggle becomes very public when the body of Elma Sands is found at the bottom of a city well built by Burr’s company.

Resolved to see justice done, Catherine becomes both witness and avenger. She soon finds, however, that the shocking truth behind this trial has nothing to do with guilt or innocence.

Review: I received a copy of this book for free in conjunction with a TLC Book tour, all opinions expressed below are my own.

When I was first pitched this book I was immediately intrigued. I love a good historical fiction novel based on a true crime story from the past. It takes two of my favorite things – true crime/mysteries and history – and blends them together in a way that I love to read about! So I was really excited to read this book!

Overall, it wasn’t necessarily a bad book. But I felt like the blurb might have been a little bit misleading. I expected more Hamilton/Burr than I got out of this book. I also wasn’t quite prepared for the sheer amount of political references.

But I will say this, I loved the scene that was portrayed by Ms. Karlin. She really brought nineteenth-century New York City to life for me. And definitely made me appreciate the modern conveniences we have and take for granted!

So while this story was a little more politically involved than I had been prepared for, I still enjoyed it quite a lot. I learned about a murder trial I had never heard about before. I felt like I was walking the streets of New York City in 1799. And it was just an overall entertaining read.

Recommended!

About the Author: Eve Karlin was born and raised in New York City. She is a graduate of Colgate University, where she studied literature and creative writing with Frederick Busch. Karlin worked in publishing for more than a decade in marketing, at Random House, Newsweek, and, later, as a foreign book scout with clients in the United Kingdom, Italy, Holland, Brazil, and Japan. She has had several short stories published in The East Hampton Star and has been a contributing writer for Patch.com. She lives in East Hampton, New York, with her husband and their sixteen-year-old triplets. City of Liars and Thieves is her first book.

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Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

GIVEAWAY! There is also a giveaway available in conjunction with this tour. The winner will receive a $25.00 gift card to the e-book retailer of their choice and one copy of City of Liars and Thieves. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE GIVEAWAY PAGE. 

As always, I hope you take the time to visit the other stops on the tour:

Tuesday, January 6th: Mystery Playground
Wednesday, January 7th: Bibliophilia, Please
Friday, January 9th: Fiction Zeal
Monday, January 12th: Omnimystery News – author guest post
Tuesday, January 13th: Dwell in Possibility
Tuesday, January 13th: Kritter’s Ramblings
Wednesday, January 14th: No More Grumpy Bookseller
Friday, January 16th: Reading Reality
Monday, January 19th: From the TBR Pile
Tuesday, January 20th: Sarah’s Book Shelves
Wednesday, January 21st: A Fantastical Librarian
Thursday, January 22nd: Chew & Digest Books
Monday, January 26th: History from a Woman’s Perspective
Tuesday, January 27th: Tales of a Book Addict
Wednesday, January 28th: Staircase Wit
Thursday, January 29th: 100 Pages a Day… Stephanie’s Book Reviews
Friday, January 30th: Books in the Burbs
TBD: Back Porchervations

4/5, AUTHOR, Author Debut, Book Review, F, Fiction, RATING, Read in 2015

2015.2 REVIEW – Dust and Shadow by Lyndsay Faye

Tara

Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson
by Lynsday Faye

Copyright: 2009
Pages: 322
Rating: 4/5
Read: Jan. 11 – Jan. 14, 2015
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 2
Format: Print
Source: Personal Copy
Series: N/A

Dust and ShadowBlurb: From the gritty streets of nineteenth century London, the loyal and courageous Dr. Watson offers a tale unearthed after generations of lore: the harrowing story of Sherlock Holmes’s attempt to hunt down Jack the Ripper.

As England’s greatest specialist in criminal detection, Sherlock Holmes is unwavering in his quest to capture the killer responsible for terrifying London’s East End. He hires an “unfortunate” known as Mary Ann Monk, the friend of a fellow streetwalker who was one of the Ripper’s earliest victims; and he relies heavily on the steadfast and devoted Dr. John H. Watson. When Holmes himself is wounded in Whitechapel during an attempt to catch the savage monster, the popular press launches an investigation of his own, questioning the great detective’s role in the very crimes he is so fervently struggling to prevent. Stripped of his credibility, Holmes is left with no choice but to break every rule in the desperate race to find the madman known as “the Knife” before it is too late.

A masterly re-creation of history’s most diabolical villain, Lyndsay Faye’s debut brings unparalleled authenticity to the atmosphere of Whitechapel and London in the fledgling days of tabloid journalism and recalls the ideals evinced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most beloved and world-renowned characters. Jack the Ripper’s identity, still hotly debated around the world more than a century after his crimes were committed, remains a mystery ripe for speculation. Dust and Shadow explores the terrifying prospect of tracking a serial killer without the advantage of modern forensics, and the result is a lightning-paced novel brimming with historical detail that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Review: I have signed up for a few challenges on some Goodreads groups this year, and one of the requirements in one of the challenges was to read an author debut. This is the book that I chose. It’s also been sitting on my shelf since 2009, when I received it from Paperbackswap….

Personally, I was hooked by “Jack the Ripper” and “Sherlock Holmes.” I mean, hello? Do I even have to explain any further than that?! To be completely honest, I’m not all that familiar with the Jack the Ripper case, except for the very bare bones (i.e. London, Whitechapel, 1880s, extremely vicious murders – literally, that’s the extent of my knowledge). I also never really read very many Sherlock Holmes stories. But that didn’t hamper my enjoyment of this very interesting historical fiction blend.

Overall, the book flows quite well. I felt like I was right there in London with Sherlock and Watson. Ms. Faye sets the scene effortlessly. She keeps it interesting without going too far to the side of gore that revolves around Jack the Ripper. I felt that she really had a great grasp of Sherlock’s “voice” too.

I enjoyed this one, a lot. I would definitely recommend it. It’s a fun book that has me wanting to know more about the Jack the Ripper case!

3.5/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Dirk Pitt, Fiction, P, RATING, Read in 2015, SERIES

2015.1 REVIEW – Vixen 03 by Clive Cussler

Tara

Vixen 03
by Clive Cussler

Copyright: 1978
Pages: 362
Rating: 3.5/5
Read: Jan. 1 – Jan. 4, 2015
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 1
Format: Print
Source: Personal Copy
Series: Dirk Pitt #5

Vixen 03Blurb: 1954. “Vixen 03” is down. The plane, bound for the Pacific carrying thirty-six Doomsday bombs — canisters armed with quick-death germs of unbelievable potency — vanishes. Vixen has in fact crashed into an ice-covered lake in Colorado. 1988. Dirk Pitt, who heroically raised the “Titanic,” discovers the wreckage of “Vixen 03.” But two deadly canisters are missing. They’re in the hands of a terrorist group. Their lethal mission: to sail a battleship seventy-five miles up the Potomac and blast Washington, D.C., to kingdom come. Only Dirk can stop them.

Review: I have already declared 2015 the year that I will be reading what I want, when I want. The pressure is off. No review copies will be coming in (unless they look really good …… I have no self-control, after all). So when I went “shopping” on my shelves for the first book to start off 2015 with, this was the one that stuck out to me.

And I found it to be a really fun read. It really caught my attention from the beginning with Vixen 03 going missing and then Dirk finding it in Colorado. To be honest, I felt like the middle portion of the book was the weakest. I personally could have done without the African political storyline. It just made the book drag on in my opinion. When the story centered back on Dirk and the bombs, it picked back up again.

I would recommend it, but I have a feeling that it probably isn’t the best installment in the Dirk Pitt series. But I am definitely looking forward to catching up a bit more in this series this year …. there’s only a gazillion more books to go 🙂

4/5, A, AUTHOR, Book Review, Nonfiction, RATING, Read in 2014, READING CHALLENGES 2014

2014.53 REVIEW – These Few Precious Days by Christopher Andersen

Tara

These Few Precious Days: The Final Year of Jack with Jackie
by Christopher Andersen

Copyright: 2013
Pages: 308
Rating: 4/5
Read: Dec. 20 – Dec. 31, 2014
Challenge: What’s in a Name
Yearly count: 53
Format: Print
Source: Personal Copy – Purchased new
Series: N/A

These Few Precious daysBlurb: They were the original power couple – outlandishly rich,impossibly attractive, and endlessly fascinating. Now, in this rare, behind-the-scenes portrait of the Kennedys in their final year together, #1 New York Times bestselling biographer Christopher Andersen shows us a side of JFK and Jackie we’ve never seen before. Tender, intimate, complex, and, at times, explosive, theirs is a love story unlike any other – filled with secrets, scandals, and bombshells that could never be fully revealed … until now. Including:

  • Stunning new details about the Kennedys’ rumored affairs – hers as well as his – and how they ultimately overcame all odds to save their marriage.
  • The president’s many premonitions of his own death, and how he repeatedly tried to pull out of his last fateful trip to Dallas.
  • Shocking revelations about how the couple, unaware of the dangers, became dependent on amphetamine injections, the real reason – according to his longtime personal physician – for JFK’s notorious libido, and how the White House hid his many serious medical problems from the public.
  • How the tragic death of their infant son Patrick led to an emotional outpouring from the president that surprised even their closest friends – and brought JFK and Jackie closer than they had ever been.
  • Touching, firsthand accounts of the family’s most private moments, before and after the assassination.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews conducted with the Kennedys’ inner circle – from family members and lifelong friends to key advisors and political confidants – Andersen takes us deeper inside the world of the president and his first lady than ever before. Unsparing yet sympathetic, bigger than life but all too real, These Few Precious Days captures the ups and downs of a marriage, a man, and a woman, the memories of which will continue to fascinate and inspire for generations to come.

Review: This is the fourth book I’ve read by Christopher Andersen, having previously read After Diana, Diana’s Boys, and William & Kate. Overall, I thoroughly enjoy Mr. Andersen’s books and this one was no exception!

It’s really no surprise that I picked this book up. I am a little Kennedy obsessed, after all. But for the most part, everything I’ve ever read about JFK has been entirely related to his assassination. So to say I learned a lot of things while reading this book would be an understatement. There was a ton of information in this book that I had no idea about. I really enjoyed it.

I can’t imagine the tragedy that Jackie went through during her lifetime. To have all that heartbreak with her child-bearing issues, suffering one miscarriage, one stillbirth and losing Patrick just a day or so after he was born (all while having to watch RFK’s wife pop baby after baby out).  And then to lose her husband while she was still grieving the loss of Patrick. I can’t even begin to imagine. Talk about a woman who suffered endlessly it seems.

For all that I know about JFK, there is so much that I don’t know about Jackie. It was fascinating to get a more intimate peek into who Jackie Kennedy was. It definitely makes me want to read more about her in the future.

It’s really amazing what the Kennedys were able to hide from the press and general public. If the world had known then what we know now … “Camelot” probably would have been over before it began. I think it’s just so shocking to me because we are so used to knowing everything about everyone immediately in our culture. JFK’s staff and aides, along with the Secret Service, really protected him in more ways than just physically. It’s amazing, really, what he got away with, so to speak.

Overall, this was a really interesting book to me. I think what draws me to Mr. Andersen’s books so much is that while being non-fiction, they are so easy to read. It reads like fiction, to be honest. It just flows so well and I never found any “dry” spots in this book. I would definitely recommend this author and this book.