Tales of a Book Addict

5/5, AUTHOR, Author Debut, Book Review, Fiction, M, RATING, Read in 2013, READING CHALLENGES 2013

2013.34 REVIEW – Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

August 7, 2013August 6, 2013 Tara

Reconstructing Amelia
by Kimberly McCreight

Copyright: 2013
Pages: 380
Rating: 5/5
Read: Aug. 2-6, 2013
Challenge: What’s in a Name 6 Challenge
Yearly count: 34
Format: Print
Source: Library

Blurb: When Kate, single mother and law firm partner, gets an urgent phone call summoning her to her daughter’s exclusive private school, she’s shocked. Amelia has been suspended for cheating, something that would be completely out of character for her over-acheiving, well-behaved daughter.

Kate rushes to Grace Hall, but what she finds when she finally arrives is beyond her comprehension.

Her daughter Amelia is dead.

Despondent over having been caught cheating, Amelia has jumped from the school’s roof in an act of impulsive suicide. At least that’s the story Grace Hall and the police tell Kate. In a state of shock and overcome by grief, Kate tries to come to grips with this life-shattering news. Then she gets an anonymous text:

Amelia didn’t jump.

The moment she sees that message, Kate knows in her heart it’s true. Clearly Amelia had secrets, and a life Kate knew nothing about. Wracked by guilt, Kate is determined to find out what those secrets were and who could have hate her daughter enough to kill. She searches through Amelia’s e-mails, texts, and Facebook updates, piecing together the last troubled days of her daughter’s life.

Reconstructing Amelia is a stunning debut page-turner that brilliantly explores the secret world of teenagers, their clandestine first loves, hidden friendships, and the dangerous cruelty that can spill over into acts of terrible betrayal.

Review: What. A. Book. Undoubtedly this book will make it on my Top Reads list at the end of the year. It’s just one of those books that really sucks you in and spits you back out when you finish the last page. There’s just so much to talk about this book, I don’t really know where to start.

I will try to keep spoilers at a minimum, but definitely read this review with caution.

First, I guess I should talk about my experience as a teenager in high school. To a certain extent, during my junior year, I was bullied. For whatever reason there was this one girl who was absolutely out to get me. Looking back on it, I still try to figure out what on earth I ever did to her, and the only thing I can think of is that she was just plain jealous of me (why, I will never know, but whatever). However, it hurt deeply at the time. Luckily it started and stopped pretty much with this one girl, but for about 4 months it was non-stop. Then one day it stopped as quickly as it started. I never cracked under her pressure. I put on a brave face at school and pushed through it. But I was absolutely aching inside. I still had a lot of good friends behind me, but she sure did manage to wreak havoc. Having said all that, I know it could have been worse. I was in high school before the huge Facebook/Twitter/Texting explosion happened. We had cell phones (we all had those Nokia’s that had the changeable faceplates!) and MSN instant messenger. And yeah, things got around … but not in the instant that it can now. So for that, I was lucky. But I can definitely feel for those teenagers (or tweens) who are being bullied today. It hurts, no matter how it’s happening to you.

So for this reason, I take books about bullying a little differently than some might. I can definitely connect to the character being bullied more than other readers might. And it’s for this reason that I really loved Amelia’s character. When we first meet her she doesn’t care about what others think. She has her best friend, Sylvia, and a mother who, while somewhat absent, definitely loves her, and that’s all she needs. Oh and it doesn’t hurt that she’s super smart and on the field hockey team, too. She’s carved out a nice place for herself in her school. But all that changes when she gets tapped for a club. And as someone who wanted to be accepted and popular in high school more than anything, I can understand why she was curious about joining. But I felt bad for Amelia too when she got tapped. She knew something was off, she knew she had no business being there … she could have walked away, but she didn’t. And that was the beginning of her downfall. I felt like I was watching a really good girl change into someone she wasn’t as I continued to read the book. She started lying to everyone. She started doing things out of character. And then it all backfired on her.

I guess I should mention now that the book is told in alternating views between Amelia and her mother, Kate. And I felt really bad for Kate’s character. She got pregnant unexpectedly in law school. She chose to keep the baby. But something about her irritated me. I guess it was because she was so absent in her daughter’s life. I mean, I know she tried, and I know she loved Amelia … but you don’t become partner at a NYC law firm easily. She was putting in some major hours and I felt like her relationship with her daughter definitely suffered. You could tell that she felt guilty about it, and Amelia was too headstrong to ask her mom for help. Personally I don’t have an important career. Yes, I have a job outside of the home … but I work for my dad and my son comes first and that’s just how it’s going to be. I don’t really know what it would be like to try to juggle a demanding career and a family, but I can imagine that if you were a single parent, it would probably go the way it did for Kate and Amelia.

The remaining adult characters in this book. Just … wow. You would expect adults to act like adults and children to act like children. But it seems a lot of times those roles were reversed in this book. And as the book started to come to a close and things were finally revealed, it was absolutely shocking at times. I finished this book on Monday and I’m still reeling from some of the revelations.

Overall I highly recommend this book. I think it’s a really good read. But I must warn you, it’s not a sugar-coated, G-rated book. So take that into account if you have issues with reading foul language and sexual situations.

But I think that this is a book that all parents should read at some point. It’s definitely eye-opening, and while I’m still 14 years away from any situations like the ones in this book, it is truly something that we as parents need to be aware of so that we can hopefully guide our children in the right direction.

Mailbox Monday, Meme

Mailbox Monday, August 5, 2013

August 5, 2013July 30, 2013 Tara

Mailbox Monday’s August host is The Reading Fever.

When will I learn to not request review books? Answer … never. *Sigh* But I got some goodies all the same!

From Atria’s Galley Alley:

Moses McGuire has good reason to be concerned about his beautiful twenty-three-year-old daughter, Brittany. She moves quickly from one boyfriend to the next, and always seems to prefer a new and mysterious stranger to a man she knows something about. But her most recent ex, Rick Jessup, isn’t willing to let her go, culminating in a terrible night when Brittany is raped.

Within twenty-four hours, Rick Jessup is dead, Moses McGuire is the prime suspect in the investigation, and Dismas Hardy has been hired to defend his brother-in-law. Making things even more complicated, McGuire has fallen off the wagon, and his stay in prison could bring to light old secrets that would destroy Hardy and his closest colleagues’ careers.

As the overwhelming evidence against McGuire piles up, Dismas Hardy focuses on planting doubt in the minds of the jurors – until, in a feat of legal ingenuity that is staggering in both its implications and its simplicity, Hardy sees a new way forward that might just save them all. But at what price?

For review from Megan, publicist at William Morrow:

Kate is ready to put her nomadic, city-dwelling past behind her when she married Joe Krause and moves with him to the Iowa farm that has been in his family for more than 140 years. But life on the farm isn’t quite as idyllic as she’d hoped. It’s filled with chores, judgmental neighbors, and her mother-in-law, who – unbeknownst to Kate until after the wedding – will be living with them.

As Kate struggles to find her place in the small farming community, she begins to realize that her husband and his family are not who she thought they were. According to town gossip, the Krause family harbors a long-kept secret about a mysterious death that haunts Kate as a dangerous, unexplainable chain of events begins.

A win from Shelf Awareness:

On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova—a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than thirty years.

For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova’s dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.

Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova’s eerie, hypnotic world.

The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more.

4/5, AUTHOR, B, Book Review, Fiction, RATING, Read in 2013, READING CHALLENGES 2013, Sean King & Michelle Maxwell, SERIES

2013.33 REVIEW – Hour Game by David Baldacci

August 2, 2013 Tara

Hour Game
by David Baldacci

Copyright: 2004
Pages: 590
Rating: 4/5
Read: July 24 – Aug. 2, 2013
Challenge: Off the Shelf 2013; Sequel Challenge 2013
Yearly count: 33
Format: Print
Source: Personal copy

Blurb: A woman is found murdered in the woods. It seems like a simple case but it soon escalates into a terrible nightmare. Someone is replicating the killing styles of the most infamous murderers of all time. No one knows this criminal’s motives … or who will die next.

Two ex-Secret Service agents, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, have been hired to defend a man’s innocence in a burglary involving an aristocratic, dysfunctional family. Then a series of secrets leads the partners right into the frantic hunt that is confounding even the FBI. Now King and Maxwell are playing the Hour Game, uncovering one horrifying revelation after another and putting their lives in danger. For the closer they get to the truth, the closer they get to the most shocking surprise of all.

Review: Wow, talk about a crazy roller coaster ride! Yes, this book is nearly 600 pages long, but trust me when I tell you that the pages fly by!

I read the first book in this series, Split Second, last year and enjoyed it. I’m not entirely sure why I waited so long to get to the second book, but I’m glad that I did read it. Better late than never 🙂

This book was full of twists and turns. I was constantly trying to figure out the “who-dun-it” part, and while I had it halfway figured out, there was one twist that I never saw coming … one that definitely threw me for a loop to be completely honest.

I really liked the characters in this installment. Of course Sean and Michelle were enjoyable, but the supporting cast were something else! The Battle family … just, wow. I can’t help but laugh at just how dysfunctional that family really was. Mr. Baldacci sure did create a crazy family in that one! Ha!

The storyline was interesting. There were multiple murders throughout the book and Sean and Michelle had to figure out which ones were connected to the others and which ones were separate. It definitely made for some thrilling moments. I really liked the copycat serial killers aspect, I thought that was an interesting way to take things.

Overall I would definitely recommend this book. I must say that while I always recommend reading a series in order, I don’t think you would necessarily miss anything if you read this one before Split Second.

Book Spotlight

Book Spotlight: Lay Death at Her Door by Elizabeth Buhmann

July 31, 2013July 29, 2013 Tara

Today I’m spotlighting a book that sounds like a really good read, I hope it sounds as interesting to you as it does to me.

About the book:

Twenty years ago, Kate Cranbrook’s eyewitness testimony sent the wrong man to prison for rape and murder. When new evidence exonerates him, Kate says that in the darkness and confusion, she must have mistaken her attacker’s identity.

She is lying.

Kate would like nothing better than to turn her back on the past, but she is trapped in a stand-off with the real killer. When a body turns up on her doorstep, she resorts to desperate measures to free herself once and for all from a secret that is ruining her life.

About the author:

Elizabeth Buhmann is originally from Virginia, where her first novel is set, and like her main character, she lived several years abroad while growing up. She graduated magna cum laude from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh. For twenty years, she worked for the Texas Attorney General as a researcher and writer on criminal justice and crime victim issues. Elizabeth now lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, dog, and two chickens. She is an avid gardener, loves murder mysteries, and has a black sash in Tai Chi.

Connect:

Mailbox Monday, Meme

Mailbox Monday, July 29, 2013

July 29, 2013July 24, 2013 Tara

Mailbox Monday’s July host is Book Obsessed.

One of these days I will learn to stay out of the bookstores, but I had a B&N gift card burning a hole in my pocket and couldn’t resist!

Lie Still

When Emily Page and her husband move from Manhattan to the wealthy enclave of Clairmont, Texas, she hopes she can finally escape her haunted past – and outrun the nameless stalker who has been taunting her for years. Pregnant with her first child, Emily just wants to start over. But as she is drawn into a nest of secretive Texas women – and into the unnerving company of their queen, Caroline Warwick – Emily finds that acceptance is a very dangerous game.

It isn’t long before Caroline mysteriously disappears and Emily is facing a rash of anonymous threats. Are they linked to the missing Caroline? Or to Emily’s terrifying encounter in college, years earlier? As the dark truth about Caroline emerges, Emily realizes that some secrets are impossible to hide – and that whoever came for Caroline is now coming for her.

London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But non of this deters Maggie Hope. She graduated at the top of her college class and possesses all the skills of the finest minds in British intelligence, but her gender qualifies her only to be the newest typist at No. 10 Downing Street. Her indefatigable spirit and remarkable gifts for code breaking, though, rival those of even the highest men in government, and Maggie finds that working for the prime minister affords her a level of clearance she could never have imagined – and opportunities she will not let pass. In troubled, deadly times, with air-raid sirens sending multitudes underground, access to the War Rooms also exposes Maggie to the machinations of a menacing faction determined to do whatever it takes to change the course of history.

And then I had one show up from Atria’s Galley Alley:

It’s an idyllic New England summer, and Sadie is a precocious only child on the edge of adolescence. It seems like July and August will pass lazily by, just as they have every year before. But one day, Sadie and her best friend play a seemingly harmless prank on a neighborhood girl. Soon after, that same little girl disappears from a backyard barbecue – and she is never seen again.

Twenty years pass, and Sadie is still living in the same quiet suburb. She’s married to a good man, has two beautiful children, and seems to have put her past behind her. But when a boy from her old neighborhood returns to town, the nightmares of that summer will begin to resurface, and its unsolved mysteries will finally become clear.

Recipes

RECIPE: Cheesy Salsa Mini Meatloaves

July 26, 2013July 24, 2013 Tara

Cheesy Salsa Mini Meatloaves (6 servings)

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
1 egg
12 Saltine Crackers, finely crushed (about 1/2 cup)
1-1/2 cups Mexican Style Finely Shredded Four Cheese, divided
1 cup Thick & Chunky Salsa, divided

Directions

Heat oven to 400ºF.
Mix first 4 ingredients with 1 cup cheese and 1/2 cup salsa.
Press into 12 muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray. Use back of spoon to make indentation in center of each. Place muffin pan on foil-covered baking sheet.
Bake 20 to 25 min. or until meatloaves are done (160°F). Top with remaining salsa and cheese; bake 3 min. or until cheese is melted.

Recipe Source: Kraft Recipes

Personal Review: This is another really good recipe that I use often. It’s easy to throw together on a weeknight and it’s something a little bit different too.

There’s not much of anything to say about this recipe, really. It’s fast, easy, and delicious. I would definitely recommend it.

I typically serve it with chips and salsa and spanish rice. You can round it out with a salad as well.

4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, Fiction, RATING, Read in 2013, Review Book, S

2013.31 REVIEW – Torn Apart by Marta Sprout

July 24, 2013July 22, 2013 Tara

Torn Apart: The Abduction of Gillian Curtis
by Marta Sprout

Copyright: 2013
Pages: 327
Rating: 4/5
Read: July 13 – July 21, 2013
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 31
Format: Print
Source: Author for review

Blurb: On a night she’ll never forget, sixteen-year-old Gillian Curtis stumbles into the middle of her father’s fraudulent and lucrative scheme that puts millions of lives at stake in the biggest health insurance scam in US history – and he will kill anyone who gets in his way – including her.

Within seconds of running away Gillie finds herself kidnapped by Walter Lovett, who ironically shows her more kindness than her own father. Clearly he has no intention of hurting her – it’s her dad, Dr. Curtis, who’s the real target. Walter’s wife died becomes of him.

When her dad’s hired guns show up to take on Walter they get more than they bargained for from this retired Green Beret. With his formidable skills, Walter jumps into action and puts it all on the line to protect Gillie. Only a few steps aead of a bullet, they careen through city streets and the dark wooded hills of New Hampshire in a race to expose the truth before it’s too late and face the one man she hates the most – her father.

Review: I was provided a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

I really didn’t know what to expect from this book, but it sure wasn’t what I got from it! Let me just say that you will love, love, love Gillie’s character. She is fun, spunky, and honest. I mean, who would actually like being kidnapped? I have to say that her kidnapper, Walter, was not your typical kidnapper, but still … she was kidnapped and it was like a big adventure to her! It was hilarious in the first few pages when all that initial action happened.

Overall I felt as if this was a very good book. Anyone who reads my blog consistently knows that I am huge on character development. It is very important to me and definitely has a direct impact on my feelings on a particular book. Luckily, this book’s characters are all so awesome! Obviously we know Gillie and Walter the best, but even Lyn, Kip, and Deter felt so very real to me. Ms. Sprout definitely knows how to develop her characters, no doubt about that.

The storyline was interesting. Healthcare is obviously a big debate in America right now, and although this book didn’t necessarily revolve around that particular issue (the story really concentrated more on Walter and Gillie fighting for a change), it is a big part of this story. I honestly think that it helped the book seem so much more relevant. Walter was a good man, but he was a changed man because of what he experienced when his wife got sick. And so many people in this world get sick each and every day, and so many people do not get the healthcare that they truly need … yeah, it definitely makes this story very relevant.

The writing was good and strong. The action was non-stop and exciting. The characters were well-developed. There was some much-needed comic relief when you wouldn’t expect it (Deter’s orange flip-flops come to mind). Overall a very good book and it definitely makes me look forward to Torn Apart 2: Finding Ryan, which will hopefully give the reader some answers in regards to Deter’s story.

Highly recommended.

Mailbox Monday, Meme

Mailbox Monday, July 22, 2013

July 22, 2013July 17, 2013 Tara

Mailbox Monday’s July host is Book Obsessed.

Had a small but great mailbox this week 🙂

A wishlist book from Paperbackswap, I read the second in the series (The Prophet) last year, loved it and wanted to read the first:

Meet Francis Ackerman, America’s most terrifying serial killer.
What excites him most is the game of chance.
He likes to play with ordinary people. Innocent people.
Someone just like you.
If you take part in Ackerman’s game, he’ll stalk you, then take you prisoner.
Will he let you live? Or will you die?
There are so many different ways to die, and Ackerman knows them all. It’s part of his game.
Do you wanna play?
Francis Ackerman does.
And he’s found you…

A win from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program, I’m really excited about this one … I snagged the previous book in the series (The Wrong Man) from LT last summer and thoroughly enjoyed it!

James Drinker is a bit of an oddball. A funny-looking, geeky loner, he walks into Jason Kolarich’s office one day with a preemptive concern: two women have recently been murdered, seemingly by the same killer, and Drinker thinks he will be the police’s main suspect. One woman was his ex-girlfriend, he says, and the other was a friend. He’s the only link between the victims and he has no alibi for the night of either murder – surely the police will realize it soon. Believing he’s the target of a frame-up, Drinker hires Kolarich for his defense.

Something about James Drinker seems off from the start, but Kolarich doesn’t give it too much thought. Until another murder occurs. And then another. And as he begins to probe his client’s life and story more closely, it quickly becomes clear that nothing about James Drinker is what it seems … and that the target of the frame-up isn’t Drinker, but Kolarich.

Unable to stop a serial killer – and prove his own innocence – without breaking his sworn attorney-client privilege, Jason Kolarich must hunt for the truth about James Drinker, the series of brutal murders, and why he’s been set up to take the fall. The answers will be beyond anything he could have imagined.

4/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, E-Book, Edelweiss, Fiction, K, Maggie O'Dell, RATING, Read in 2013, Review Book, SERIES

2013.27 REVIEW – Stranded by Alex Kava

July 16, 2013July 13, 2013 Tara

Stranded
by Alex Kava

Copyright: 2013
Pages: 336
Rating: 4/5
Read: June 23-26, 2013
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 27
Format: E-Book
Source: Edelweiss

Blurb: Tired travelers and weary truckers have stopped at rest areas on the nation’s highways for decades to refuel, grab a bite, and maybe get some shut-eye, but one man’s rest stop is another’s hunting ground. For decades the defenseless, the weary, and the stranded have disappeared along the highways and byways, vanishing without a trace, but these seemingly unconnected incidents are no coincidence, and a madman stalks the freeways.

When FBI special agent Maggie O’Dell and her partner, Tully, discover the remains of a young woman in a highway ditch, the one clue left behind is a map that will send Maggie and Tully on a frantic hunt crisscrossing the country to stop a madman before he kills again.

As the body count rises and Maggie races against the clock to unmask the monster who’s terrorizing the nation’s highways, she turns to a former foe for help since he seems to know just what the killer’s next move will be. As she gets closer to finding the killer, it becomes eerily clear that Maggie is the ultimate target.

Review: I was over the moon excited when I found out that Alex Kava’s newest book was available to request on Edelweiss. I try not to request too much on Edelweiss or NetGalley. I’m not a huge fan of e-books in general, so I typically shy away from them altogether. However, Alex Kava’s Maggie O’Dell series is one of my absolute favorites and I couldn’t resist. You can imagine how excited I was when I was approved for it.

And let me tell you, dear readers, this was really a book I needed to read. I had been in a little bit of a slow slump, but I devoured this book in 3 days and loved every single word of it.

I don’t even know what to say about this book. The writing was good. The storyline was good. The character interaction and development was good. The killer was a surprise to me. I feel like Maggie O’Dell is back on top of the game with this book, and I was really excited about it!

I am really a fan of Maggie O’Dell’s character. She just seems so real to me. She’s likeable, she’s tough, she’s determined, she’s successful. And yet she’s flawed in some ways too, she has commitment issues. A few books back there was a big change-up with the characters, and at first I was not impressed. However, I must say that I really liked the direction Maggie’s boss is headed back in. There was very little mention of another character, highlighting Maggie’s commitment problem, so I’m kind of confused as to how Creed plays into the storyline in future books.

I’m excited to see what happens in future books. Between the introduction of Creed’s character and Gwen’s diagnosis, I am very interested in seeing where the series goes in the next book.

This is a series that I recommend to a lot of people, since for whatever reason, it doesn’t seem to be as well-known as some other series out there. There are a couple of duds in the series, in my opinion, but overall the series itself is extremely good.

Overall a great and exciting book for summer reading! Highly recommended.

Mailbox Monday, Meme

Mailbox Monday, July 15, 2013

July 15, 2013July 13, 2013 Tara

Mailbox Monday’s July host is Book Obsessed.

Well, I haven’t posted a Mailbox Monday post in ages … not since May, in fact. So I’m just going to do a quick visual to catch myself back up on my acquisitions.

From the used book store: