Category: RATING

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!!!

4.5/5, AUTHOR, Author Debut, Book Review, E, Fiction, Read in 2008

All the Pretty Girls by J.T. Ellison

Tara
All the Pretty Girls
by J.T. Ellison

Copyright: 2007
Pages: 411
Rating: 4.5/5
Read: Aug. 27-29, 2008
Challenge: Initials Reading Challenge, Suspense & Thriller Challenge – Serial Killer subgenre

First Line: “No. Please don’t.”

When a local Nashville girl is killed by a sadistic serial killer, Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson and her lover, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin find themselves working together to catch the “Southern Strangler.” Up-an-coming TV reporter Whitney Connolly is absolutely positive that The Southern Strangler is her ticket to the big times. She is being contacted by the Strangler. But she has no idea just how close the story is to herself. When the killer starts to spin out of control, Taylor and John have no idea where this case will take them, what it will uncover and how awful the truth actually is.

This book was really good! I thought that it had a slightly slow start, but once I got about 100 pages into it it really picked up and was an awesome read!!! This was a fantastic debut for Ellison, and I look forward to her book for many years to come!!

3/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, L, Read in 2008

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

Tara
Darkly Dreaming Dexter
by Jeff Lindsay

Copyright: 2004
Pages: 288
Rating: 3/5
Read: Aug. 24-28, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read

First Line: Moon. Glorious moon.

Dexter Morgan is not your average everyday man. He may be funny, charming and intelligent. But there’s another side of Dexter that you would not want to meet in a dark alley. He is a killer. If you receive a visit from Dexter, it is because you have done something that is repulsive enough to merit your death. When his sister, Deb, becomes intrigued by a serial killer preying on hookers in their city of Miami, she comes to Dexter to help her figure this killer out. But Dexter really isn’t sure he wants to catch this murderer, but rather find him so he can begin to understand him because there’s something about this guy that reminds Dexter of himself….

I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t really impressed by this book. It was really funny in quite a few spots. But overall, I didn’t really like it at all. I don’t think I’ve ever really read a book that included a character quite as unique as Dexter, but I doubt I’ll be continuing this series.

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 🙂

5/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, M, Read in 2008

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Tara
Twilight
by Stephanie Meyer

Copyright: 2005
Pages: 498
Rating: 5/5
Read: Aug. 18-24, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read

First Line: I’d never given much thought to how I would die – thought I’d had reason enough in the last few months – but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.

Isabella (Bella) Swan moves to Forks, Washington to live with her father. She meets Edward Cullen, and is instantly mesmerized by his perfection. Until Bella moves into town, the Cullen family is able to keep their distance from the rest of the students. But Edward and Bella are drawn to each other for some reason. And Bella will not rest until she knows Edward’s secret. But Bella doesn’t immediately realize that there is a reason why the Cullen’s keep to themselves and that by wanting to get to know Edward she is putting herself and her loved ones at risk.

Okay, I’m going to be honest here, this is not my usual type of book. I have *NEVER* read a vampire book simply because I never thought I would enjoy one. And really other than the Harry Potter books (of which I’ve only read 1,4, & 5) I’ve never read very much young adult. But I have to say it, I absolutely LOVED this book! I was hooked on it and enjoyed it soooo much! I’ve already put myself on the waiting list for the second in the series at the library and can’t wait until I get to read it!!! I highly recommend this book!