My Book Views

review: abandon by meg cabot

2012-01-27T14:38:00.000-08:00

When Pierce was a child she met a young man who brought a dead bird back to life. Years later Pierce encountered John again after she drowned in her swimming pool. Now two years after her near death experience, Pierce has moved with her mom to her mom’s childhood home of Isla Huesos which translates to Island of Bones. As Pierce tries to adjust to her new surroundings, she learns the significance of the island’s name and what ties John to it.

Abandon dragged at certain points, especially the beginning when Meg Cabot tried to keep things all mysterious by not revealing much background information. It was only after Pierce finally talked with the cemetery sexton, who had a lot of details about the island and John, that I really got into Abandon. Despite the lackluster beginning, Abandon picked up by the end and excellently set up the next book in the series, Underworld.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Point.

review: the season of second chances by diane meier

2012-01-15T21:58:00.000-08:00

In The Season of Second Chances, a nearing 50 college professor gets the chance to revamp her life when she accepts a teaching position at Amherst after spending a number of years at Columbia. Even as I read, I debated whether or not I like the book. Joy and the other others at Amherst are so completely pompous that they are entirely unappealing; yet Joy is aware that she has not previously put in the effort needed to create and maintain relationships. This awareness seems to cause Joy to go too far in the opposite direction though as she quickly accepts one marriage proposal then launches a campaign to fix-up the man who is renovating her house. At times I thought the author, Diane Meier, might be making a commentary on academia, but then there were subplots that did nothing to forward that commentary. Those subplots were a distraction that simply filled pages. There really was little point to the department secretary being on maternity leave other than it providing Joy with a rotating cast of secretaries to criticize. The storyline involving a battered woman primarily served to show Joy's inexperience with children (she and the others at Amherst took care of the woman's children while she was hospitalized). In the end there was nothing to push me over the edge one way or the other; The Season of Second Chances was interesting enough, but it couldn't have been far better.
3/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Henry Holt and Co.

author interview: lauren clark

2012-01-13T16:27:00.000-08:00

Lauren Clark, the author of Stay Tuned, is currently on a blog tour in promotion of her debut novel. She took the time to answer a few questions about her life and the book. As part of the tour, you have the opportunity to win a $10 Amazon gift card! Just leave a comment on her tour page to enter. (And if you comment here, I'm entered to win too in a separate giveaway!)

Like Melissa, you worked in TV news. How did your experiences in the industry shape Stay Tuned?

Stay Tuned is based—in part—on a true story. Before I began work at an Upstate New York television station as a reporter, the two main anchors (who were in a romantic relationship) got into a fistfight in the parking lot of the television station. They were fired, the incident made the newspaper, and a lot of ugly editorials and threats were exchanged. The story—and the irony of these two successful people losing their jobs—has always stayed with me. When I began to write Stay Tuned, I thought about something similar happening—this time, while the anchors were on live TV—and then let the readers watch what unfolded behind the scenes.

I also wanted the characters in Stay Tuned to be memorable, since the TV news industry is so full of amazing, unique people. My favorite weatherman used to bring his Dachshund in to the station, dress him in a tiny superhero cape, and carry him around in the studio. He actually went on the air with his dog during one show, but our news director quickly put a stop to that! One reporter—when stressed—used to bang on his keyboard with his fists and shout cuss words at the top of his lungs. We were all so used to it that everyone smiled and kept working when it happened! Also—one of the most talented anchors I worked with used to break into “Who Let The Dogs Out?” whenever he got into the mood—you can’t do that in many office jobs!

Who or what was the inspiration for Candace? She seemed like a great friend despite all her Dr. Phil quotes!

What hairdresser doesn’t like to give advice—even if it is from Dr. Phil? In all seriousness, Candace Daughtry is based on my best friend, Lisa. I took all of her wonderful qualities, turned her into a hair stylist, and made her (a little bit) obsessed with Dr. Phil! Like Lisa, Candace is the best friend a girl could ever have—someone you can call at midnight, the person you laugh the hardest with, the person who knows your worst faults and loves you anyway. My friend Lisa has overcome some of the toughest obstacles in life a person could face, and I wanted to draw on that same tenacity and inner fire in Candace. She’s a true friend—I hope everyone is blessed to have a Candace (or Lisa) in her life!

The Dr. Phil obsession was added to make her character stand out. Candace is close to perfect in every other way, so being addicted to Dr. Phil’s advice seemed like a way to add a quirky edge and round out her personality.

What book has had the most impact on your life?

It’s a tie between two novels: For a book that explores the bonds between women, I’d have to say The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I loved the setting, the characters, and the beautiful symbolism. It’s a coming of age story, a ‘triumph over tragedy’ novel written in a way that is both fresh and unforgettable.

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, to me, is hands-down a masterpiece (the ending made my cry). Picoult explores the relationships between sisters and how grave illness impacts a family. The author tells the story from more than half a dozen points of view, manages to give each a distinct personality, all the while weaving a story that breaks your heart and leaves you shell-shocked at the end. I hope to (someday) write a novel that leaves readers with that level of lasting, emotional impact.

What’s your writing routine?

I write best in the morning and need absolute quiet. I often go to the library at the local university near our house—if I stay home, the doorbell rings, the phone rings, and the Internet is too much of a distraction! The other essentials are lots of flavored coffee (yes, I am on a first-name basis with everyone at two coffee shops in town) and I have to have my MacBook!

Just sitting down and typing does not work well for me. I have to have a plan and a rough outline. Once I have the story fixed in my mind, index cards come in handy for switching up scenes and seeing a timeline develop. The novel I’m working on now took about 60 index cards. I lined them up on the floor of my tiny office—there was no room to walk in there for about a week! I also keep a notebook by the bed, in my car, and in my bag to jot down ideas.

What’s up next for you?

Dancing Naked in Dixie is the working title of my next novel. It’s a story about a writer for a travel magazine based in New York City. She’s talented, but really scattered, and is on the verge of being fired. She gets one last chance to pull her career back together and gets sent to the ‘Heart of Dixie’—Eufaula, Alabama—for the city’s annual Pilgrimage. The Pilgrimage is an actual event, a tour of historic homes held every spring. (Part of the movie Sweet Home Alabama with Reese Witherspoon was filmed in Eufaula, Alabama).

In Dancing Naked in Dixie, the main character can’t help but fall in love with the area and its people. She soon discovers, though, that a real estate developer has his eye on making Eufaula into a tourist spot. This challenge divides the city, but helps the writer grow and realize that her job is much more than telling stories about pretty places—her article could help prevent Eufaula from being bulldozed into another strip of vacation condos. As she works on her story, she dreams up an idea that could help save the historic district and the people who love it.

I hope you enjoy Stay Tuned as much as I loved writing it! I’d love to hear what you think about the story and characters. Feel free to drop me at line at laurenclarkbooks @ gmail.com.

review: stay tuned by lauren clark

2012-01-13T16:23:00.000-08:00

When one anchor punches her co-anchor during a newscast, producer Melissa Moore is forced to intervene. She ends up delivering the on-air good-bye despite not being camera ready, but it her quick-thinking impresses her boss. As a result, Melissa ends up filling in as anchor until replacements can be found for the two fired anchors. Melissa struggles to balance an already strained home life with her additional job responsibilities, but finds that sitting behind the news desk is something she really wants.

I’m far more critical of books revolving around the TV news industry because of my own line of work (which is in TV news). Although Lauren Clark once worked in TV news herself, some elements of Stay Tuned just didn’t work. Some of this may be because the industry has changed significantly in the past few years due to technological advances and budget cuts. But some things never really change such as the relationships between departments. Melissa feels alienated when she switches from producer to anchor, but there really shouldn’t have been much of a difference as Melissa would’ve already had strong relationships with the rest of the talent given that she was in a position that works closely with the talent. Furthermore, Melissa simply has too much time on her hands. Some days are fairly laid back, but Melissa and her co-anchor take it the extreme by leaving work in the middle of the day for a picnic. Other things were accurate such as the strain on personal relationships; however, in the case of Stay Tuned, it seemed the problems were really because Melissa’s husband preferred to communicate via post-it note.
3/5
Review copy provided by Chick Lit Plus Blog Tours.

review: ghost files by jason hawes and grant wilson

2012-01-12T15:17:00.000-08:00

Cases of suspected paranormal activity that Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson of the TV show Ghost Hunters have worked on are recounted in each of the two halves of Ghost Files which combines the previously released books Ghost Hunting and Seeking Spirits. I love ghost stories, so I was prepared to be delightfully scared by Ghost Files. Unfortunately only a few of the short accounts bordered on creepy. There really should have been more details (especially considering the size of the book) to allow the reader to envision the scary situations the team from TAPS encountered.
3/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Gallery Books.

review: matched by ally condie

2012-01-06T16:02:00.001-08:00

From the very first page of Matched, Ally Condie had me hooked. Matched is set in a world where the freedom to choose one’s mate no longer exists; instead the Society selects who will marry (some are to remain single) and makes an announcement at the Match Banquet, which is where Cassia finds out she’ll marry her longtime friend Xander. This is highly unusual as people are typically matched with strangers, but then Cassia finds out there’s nothing the slightest bit typical about her match. She soon starts questioning everything she’s ever been taught about the Society.

Although much about how the Society works and how it came to be is left unexplained, that actually works in the book’s favor as it aligns the reader with the characters who also don’t know the whys. When the mystery of the red pill is revealed, it makes sense that so many would blindly accept the rules established for this dystopia. Furthermore, given how real life cults gain total control of members, it is not hard to imagine how people could go along with something like what Condie writes of in Matched. The world of Matched is one I wouldn’t want to live in, but am intrigued by especially since Cassia and Ky (Cassia’s crush who is an Aberration and cannot marry) are compelling characters. I cannot wait to pick up Crossed to continue the story.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Dutton.

giveaway winner: head over heels

2012-01-06T15:31:00.001-08:00

Monique has won Head Over Heels!

review: best friends forever by jennifer weiner

2011-12-29T13:03:00.000-08:00

Addie and Valerie became instant best friends when Valerie moved in across the street after her parents divorced. But as childhood friends so often do, they drifted apart in high school when Valerie became a cheerleader and started hanging out with the popular kids while Addie continued to struggle with shyness and weight gain. During senior year something happened that caused their friendship to be forever severed or so Addie thought until Valerie showed up at Addie’s door begging for help on the night of their high school reunion (which Addie hadn’t attended, of course). Soon the pair are fleeing from the police chief (an attractive man you just know is going to become forever single Addie’s love interest) and remembering their childhood adventures.

At times Best Friends Forever is far-fetched (see the bank robbery scene), but it’s incredibly touching. When one strips away some of the silly plot points, at the heart is the relationship between Addie and Valerie which is very realistic.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Atria.

top ten tuesday: santa

2011-12-20T19:41:00.000-08:00

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every Tuesday the site has a new top ten list with this week's being the books one hopes to receive for Christmas.

My list:

And three that won't be out in time for Christmas, but I'm sure I'll get some gift cards:

giveaway winner: cloudburst

2011-12-20T16:47:00.001-08:00

Mona is the winner of Cloudburst! Hope you enjoy the book.

review: rain falls like mercy by jack todd

2011-12-14T19:10:00.000-08:00

Rain Falls Like Mercy is another addition in Jack Todd’s books about the Paint family (it can be read as a standalone), although the focus is on the man who’s in love with Eli Paint’s wife. The events of this book take place during World War II, which interrupts a murder investigation in a small Wyoming town. When Tom Call returns from fighting, he is just as determined to catch the murderer who he suspects is Pardo Bury, the son of a wealthy man. During the war, Pardo went to prison in Texas on charges unrelated to the Wyoming murders, but now Pardo’s out and preying on women (and now men as well) again. At times the descriptions were gratuitous; I could’ve done without details about Pardo’s exploits. But the narrative was gripping as it set a murderous spree against an illicit romance in the time of war.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Touchstone.

review: liesl & po by lauren oliver

2011-12-09T15:43:00.000-08:00

Liesl & Po jumps right into its alternate universe where the sun no longer shines and ghosts from The Other Side are able to communicate with The Living Side. The lack of setup resulted in me feeling frustrated a number of times. I stopped reading for over a month before I was able to get past my annoyance at plot points. The early chapters primarily serve to introduce the various characters, but there’s no real sense of connection until they all come together late in the book. It takes an excruciatingly long time to reach the rising action and climax, but things do start to pick up as the book progresses and the characters start to interact. Once I got through the first few chapters, Liesl & Po developed into a much more enjoyable book.

The book is fairly grim with a stepmother attempting to kill Liesl (after killing the girl’s father) so the evil woman can inherit all the money. The subplots as equally as dark with The Lady Premiere also trying to kill a child, which makes the suggested Middle Grade reading level a little young, in my opinion. Despite all my early hesitations however, I did enjoy Liesl & Po by the end.
3/5
Review copy from Amazon Vine.

giveaway: head over heels

2011-12-08T19:46:00.001-08:00

Want to read the third book in the Lucky Harbor series? One person will win a copy thanks to Hachette.

My review can be read here; here's the publisher description:
"Free-spirited Chloe lives life on the edge. Unlike her soon-to-be married sisters, she isn't ready to settle into a quiet life running their family's newly renovated inn. But soon her love of trouble--and trouble with love-draws the attention of the very stern, very sexy sheriff who'd like nothing better than to tame her wild ways.

Suddenly Chloe can't take a misstep without the sheriff hot on her heels. His rugged swagger and his enigmatic smile are enough to make a girl beg to be handcuffed. For the first time, instead of avoiding the law, Chloe dreams of surrender. Can this rebel find a way to keep the peace with the straitlaced sheriff? Or will Chloe's colorful past keep her from a love that lasts . . . and the safe haven she truly wants in a town called Lucky Harbor?"

The rules: Enter by leaving a comment to this post with your email (if I can't contact you, you can't win). You can gain additional entries by leaving separate comments letting me know that you're a follower (one extra each for the blog and Twitter) or have posted a link to the giveaway on your site. The deadline to enter is 11:59pm Pacific on December 31. Winner will be selected at random. Since this is from Hachette the winner must have mailing addresses in the US or Canada; no PO Boxes.

review: head over heels by jill shalvis

2011-12-08T19:42:00.000-08:00

The third installment of the Lucky Harbor series from Jill Shalvis focuses on the youngest of Phoebe's daughters, wild child Chloe. Although her sisters have found love in their new town where they run a bed and breakfast, Chloe remains unattached although she does have a somewhat contentious relationship with the local sheriff. It's obvious where this one was headed, but unfortunately the romance between Chloe and Sawyer actually borders on creepy. Chloe has asthma and, as she explains to Sawyer, sex makes her have an attack. The first time the scenes get sexy, it all takes a terrible turn when Chloe nearly dies (her inhaler wasn't nearby); after that, the threat of death seemed all to real whenever the pair hooked up.
2/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Forever.

giveaway winners: hot november romances

2011-12-08T19:39:00.000-08:00

The winners of the November romance (Too Wicked to Wed and Deliciously Sinful) giveaway are Carol M and kayla. Congrats!

review: the bungalow by sarah jio

2011-11-21T21:20:00.000-08:00

It was always assumed Anne would marry Gerard, so she said "yes" to the proposal. As the wedding approaches, however, she has doubts. She questions his character because he's not fighting in WWII. So when her best friend announces she's become a military nurse, Anne takes the opportunity to delay the wedding and serve her country in Bora Bora, which is where she meets Westry and everything changes.

Although not fully a WWII story (the time period is more incidental to the plot), it was incredibly interesting to see the war from the perspective of nurses stationed away from the fighting in Europe. The female side of the war (other than the homefront) is frequently not represented in literature, television, etc. so this was a nice change.

With The Bungalow, Sarah Jio creates a world rife with love and heartache that also contrasts the beauty of the island with the ugliness of a terrible crime. It is captivating. The story is exquisitely detailed and made me want to accompany Anne in her return to Bora Bora. Toward the end, Jio had me crying at the loss of love only to turn it all around in a joyous ending.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Plume.

giveaway: cloudburst

2011-11-20T21:33:00.000-08:00

Want to read the latest from V.C. Andrews? Thanks to Simon and Schuster, one lucky person will win a copy!

Check out my review, then read the publisher description:
"Fate swept Sasha Porter into the lap of luxury, and into a torrent of bitter lies and shocking betrayals—all revealed in the riveting new novel Cloudburst from bestselling author V.C. Andrews®.

Since being taken in by wealthy Mrs. Jordan March and living in her exquisite home like a daughter, Sasha Porter’s traumatic past—destitute on the streets, and the shattering accident that killed her mother—seems like a fading nightmare. Beautiful and sophisticated, as bold and daring as her “sister,” Kiera March, Sasha still keeps her mother’s wise words close to her heart: never fully trust anyone. Inside her privileged new world, it’s advice that will prove more precious than gold.

Against the wishes of Jordan’s husband, Donald, Sasha attracts the attention of Ryder Garfield, a shy, handsome athlete, and maneuvers her way into his heart. But Ryder’s hidden torment soon explodes in a horrific tragedy that pulls Sasha into a flood of guilt and despair. And when someone she thought she could trust targets her vulnerability, Sasha recalls her mother’s warnings—and a violent storm of dark deceptions and shocking family secrets is unleashed. Will she sink or swim?"

The rules: Enter by leaving a comment to this post with your email (if I can't contact you, you can't win). You can gain additional entries by leaving separate comments letting me know that you're a follower (one extra each for the blog and Twitter) or have posted a link to the giveaway on your site. The deadline to enter is 11:59pm Pacific on December 17. Winner will be selected at random. Since this is from Simon and Schuster the winner must have mailing addresses in the US; no PO Boxes.

review: cloudburst by v.c. andrews

2011-11-20T21:32:00.001-08:00

Cloudburst picks up Sasha Porter’s story three years after Family Storms. Although it is a continuation with many of the same characters, it seemed as though the author had not even read the previous book. The continuity errors started almost immediately with Sasha commenting on how having her own car would save her foster father from having to drop her off at school, but in the first book, the driver (who apparently no longer exists in this book) always took her. From there, Sasha was quite nearly a different girl altogether as she snobbily flitted about her private school. I tried to convince myself that Sasha’s personality change was due to all that happened to her in Family Storms as well as what must have occurred over the three intervening years, but her forgiveness of her foster sister was hard to swallow.

When a novel carries the V.C. Andrews name, there are expectations that go along with it; this story seemed more like a typical young adult general fiction novel. That’s not to say it wasn’t still a decent read (after one ignores the continuity issues), but those looking for something similar to Flowers in the Attic or Dawn will likely be disappointed. Here Sasha suffers more typical teen dramas like gossip about how far she’s gone with her boyfriend and her foster parents not wanting her to see said boyfriend. There is a brief glimmer of a V.C. Andrews-esque plot, but it is quickly ended.
3/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Pocket Star Books.

review: make the bread, buy the butter by jennifer reese

2011-11-18T15:34:00.000-08:00

Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese is part cookbook, part memoir. Reese begins by discussing Smucker’s Uncrustables (a frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwich) and the arbitrary lines that are drawn regarding food. She writes, “Not so long ago, people must have wondered who couldn’t fry her own donuts, grind her own sausage, cure her own bacon.” From this introduction Reese sets about determining what’s best to make at home and what should be bought at the store. As she runs through a number of recipes for everything from peanut butter to steak tartare, Reese shares her experiences, including building a chicken coop. I immensely enjoyed reading about her adventures and was thrilled that she determined a number of things aren’t really worth the time and effort when the professionals can do it. I did sometimes question how she made her determinations though. Some made perfect sense, such as buying your Thanksgiving turkey rather than raising and killing it yourself; others like burritos were a little less clear. Although Reese says people should make their own quesadillas, she says burritos are “essentially fast food” not worth the prep work unless someone already makes a lot of Mexican food. I wholeheartedly disagree.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Free Press.

review: the man who couldn't eat by jon reiner

2011-11-17T14:35:00.000-08:00

The Man Who Couldn’t Eat is all about the man who couldn’t eat. Jon Reiner proves himself to be more than a little self-obsessed in his memoir about life with Crohn’s disease. If it weren’t for my prior knowledge of Crohn’s disease, I’d think Reiner to be the first person ever diagnosed. Although his vivid prose regarding his agonizing pain and inability to eat brings the reader in, the wallowing becomes too much over the course of more than 300 pages. Just about every page is filled with descriptions of the food Reiner desires but must deny himself which is followed by far too much information about what eating such food would cause him to do on the toilet. He also rages about the healthcare system in America and his doctors’ inabilities to provide him with specifics; Reiner frequently seems ungrateful as a result. It wasn’t long before I was completely turned off.
2/5
Review copy provided by BookSparks PR.

review: prophet's prey by sam brower

2011-11-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

Before writing Prophet’s Prey, Sam Brower spent years investigating the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) and their leader Warren Jeffs. Brower was raised in the mainstream Mormon church, but left for a few years before returning upon marrying and having kids so he knows a little more than most about the break between the fundamentalists and the mainstream. As such, he provides an interesting perspective.

Sam Brower works as a private investigator, so he seemed a natural person to provide assistance when the Chatwin family was expelled from the FLDS community. After taking that first case in 2004, Brower became deeply involved in investigating every aspect of the FLDS. His own life was placed in jeopardy a number of times because of his actions which he thoroughly documents in Prophet’s Prey. The atrocities he uncovered (many of which have become known through media coverage of Warren Jeffs’s criminal trials) are horrifying. Thankfully he doesn’t delve into graphic detail, but does make clear just how far reaching the abuse of children was. Most astonishing was the number of non-FLDS who did nothing or worse. When someone claiming to be abused at the YFZ Ranch called a crisis hotline, CPS eventually moved in and removed the children. The FLDS made the process of determining parentage and whether or not there’d been abuse incredibly difficult and time-consuming, but District Judge Barbara Walther was prepared to hear the case. Unfortunately, Brower tells of how CPS simply didn’t follow the rules. The judge had ordered DNA testing, but CPS started returning children to people claiming to be their parents. Nothing prevented these people, who may or may not have been the biological parents, from placing the children in abusive situations. Nearly every page contains shocking discoveries like that.

Although the material is gripping, Prophet’s Prey lacks a cohesive narrative. Brower jumps around at times and repeats some stories along the way. The book is informative, but could use a little editing.
4/5
Review copy from Amazon Vine.

giveaway winner: the christmas wedding

2011-11-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

Totally late posting this one, but Kelly's Avenue is the winner of The Christmas Wedding by James Patterson. Congrats!

giveaway: hot november romances

2011-11-10T16:19:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Hachette two people will win one copy each of two books: Deliciously Sinful by Lilli Feisty and Too Wicked to Wed by Cara Elliot.

Read about the books here and here, then read through the rules to find out how to enter. Some have been randomly selected to win, but couldn't because I had no way to contact him/her. Be sure to read the rules!

The rules: Enter by leaving a comment to this post with your email (if I can't contact you, you can't win). You can gain additional entries by leaving separate comments letting me know that you're a follower (one extra each for the blog and Twitter) or have posted a link to the giveaway on your site. The deadline to enter is 11:59pm Pacific on November 26. Winner will be selected at random. Since this is from Hachette the winner must have mailing addresses in the US or Canada; no PO Boxes.

feature: too wicked to wed by cara elliott

2011-11-10T16:15:00.000-08:00

Normally I wouldn’t do a feature since I like to review all the books, but this time around I feel a feature is best. In order to participate in the blog tour for Deliciously Sinful by Lilli Feisty, one also had to tour another book on the same day. Cara Elliott’s Too Wicked to Wed sounded interesting enough that I agreed to the double tour. But I truly struggled to get through Too Wicked to Wed. Although I found no fault with the writing in and of itself, I just couldn’t garner any interest in the plot of this historical romance as Alexa just didn’t seem wicked in the slightest bit. The first few chapters indicated nothing special about the protagonist or any other character. I skimmed ahead to see if it would get interesting, but found nothing. Since I didn’t read the entire book, I feel it would be inappropriate to write an actual review.

Here’s the information from the publisher:
"Outspoken and independent, Lady Alexa Bingham enjoys the heady freedom of making all her own decisions, even though the challenges of overseeing her family's country estate are daunting. But when a chance encounter with London's most notorious rake awakens a secret longing for adventure, she accepts her aunt's invitation for a Season in Town...only to find that breaking the rules of the ton has serious consequences.

The Earl of Killingworth uses his rakehell reputation to hide the fact that poverty has forced him to work for a living. As the owner of a gambling den and brothel, Connor has no time for glittering ballrooms or innocent young ladies. But after a reckless wager leaves him with a new business partner, he is forced to take a risky gamble...Will the cards fall in their favor? Alexa and Connor begin to play a dangerous game of intrigue and deception as they seek to outwit a cunning adversary who wants to put them permanently out of business. But if they are not careful, it is the flames of their own fiery attraction that may destroy them."

Review copy provided by the publisher, Forever.

review: deliciously sinful by lilli feisty

2011-11-10T16:07:00.000-08:00

Lilli Feisty’s Deliciously Sinful is aptly titled. The setting is a family-run restaurant in a small California town. After the deaths of her aunt and uncle, Phoebe needs a chef for the restaurant as she is somewhat talentless in the kitchen. She ends up hiring the very-LA, very sexy Nick Avalon and the two have numerous romps in the kitchen as well as other locales. The book oozes sex on nearly every page. It was so hedonistic that I was quite (pleasantly) surprised to find a touching story interspersed. Phoebe has an 18 year old niece struggling to admit what she really wants in life as she feels she must stay home with her widowed father. Further contributing to the anguish is that Jesse’s been raised vegan, but wants to cook Julia Child recipes that involve meat. In this storyline Nick proves that he actually can be the responsible, settled man Phoebe wants as he mentors Jesse. The drastic difference in the two plots proved a bit uneven, but Deliciously Sinful was a pleasurable romance.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Forever.

review: damage control by denise hamilton

2011-11-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

A scandal involving a political family is at the center of Damage Control, which finds Maggie Silver handling a case involving the family of someone she was once friends with. The public relations firm Maggie works for specializes in damage control, so they’re the perfect people to call in when an attractive young woman working for Senator Paxton is found murdered. Although the firm doesn’t know of Maggie’s relationship with the Paxton family initially, her boss soon decides to use it to their advantage and has Maggie focusing all her time on the matter. But as current lies and past betrayals are revealed, Maggie finds she’s in a very dangerous situation.

Damage Control alternates between present-time and 1993, which is when Maggie was best friends with Anabelle Paxton. At first it is unclear why the two are no longer in touch, but the entire story unravels with perfect pacing that adds to the suspense of some brilliantly tense situations. In addition to the family drama, the murder mystery is also incredible with plenty of twists that kept me guessing.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Scribner.

review: family storms by v.c. andrews

2011-10-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

Way back in middle school (yes, middle school), I devoured all the books written by V.C. Andrews and then moved onto the ones written by the ghostwriter hired by her estate. For the most part, the ghostwriter (Andrew Neiderman) retread the same themes of various atrocities (although I’m pretty sure that one was always rape) befalling a teen girl.

The newer books are in shorter series—two or three books rather than five—and seem less debauched. Family Storms wasn’t too unrealistic in the horrors that transpired. I doubt I’ll ever meet a person who was forced to live in a small room, fed arsenic-laced doughnuts, and then was raped by her own brother while still trapped in that attic (Flowers in the Attic); but it’s reasonable to think something similar to what happens to Sasha in Family Storms could really occur. When Sasha’s father leaves the family, her mother tries to maintain their already struggling existence, but ends up spiraling into alcoholism. Out on the streets, Sasha and her mother are hit by a car; Sasha’s mother is killed instantly, but Sasha survives with a broken leg. The driver is the daughter of a wealthy family who take Sasha in, partly to punish their daughter, but also so Sasha can serve as a replacement for their favored daughter who died of cancer. The formerly destitute Sasha struggles to fit in at her new private school and falls into a trap that results (spoiler, but you knew this was coming) in her rape when she too eagerly embraces her new “friends.” Tragic, yes, but not the complete insanity of something like My Sweet Audrina that had a girl believing her imaginary older sister of the same name was the one who was raped.

The plot was interesting and, as I said, far more realistic than previous titles from V.C. Andrews, but character development was either weak or a little off. The woman who takes Sasha in received an excellent education, but she has this short conversation with Sasha:

“No, my mother wouldn’t beg. She sold her calligraphy, and I sold lanyard key chains [sic] on the beach. I made them myself.”
“Calligraphy?”
“It’s Chinese writing.”
“Oh, yes.” She smiled.

Calligraphy is commonly used for wedding invitations, so Jordan March should be familiar with the concept even if she wasn’t aware of the Chinese version. Later her husband reveals she once bought some calligraphy while they were on vacation which means Jordan sounds even stupider in that conversation. Throughout the book, Jordan seemed naïve or somehow uneducated despite her background. Sasha, on the other hand, was always waxing on philosophically which seemed quite unnatural given her character’s age and background.
3/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Pocket Star Books.

review: dark eden by patrick carman

2011-10-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

Teenager Will is paralyzed by fear. He can’t even attend school because of his phobias. His parents send him to a therapist who promises Will can be cured if he goes to Fort Eden along with six other teens. The teens don’t know each other, but Will knows everything about them because he’s copied all of their therapy sessions onto an electronic device he’s cobbled together. Immediately after arriving at Fort Eden, Will panics and runs. That’s when he discovers there’s something more than a little strange about what’s to happen at Fort Eden. Hidden inside a bomb shelter (where Will decides to set up camp) is a wall of monitors that allow Will to see the others. He’s horrified at “the cure” provided by Rainsford, who is a little creepy. Will is determined not to be cured, but he has no idea what tricks Rainsford will pull to meet his goal.

Dark Eden was such a thrill. The compelling plot kept me on edge as I raced through each chapter desperate to know Will’s fate. Making this book even creepier is that you can actually interact with it via an app available through iTunes and the Android Market as well as taking The Fear Test with a promotional DVD. (If you want to take The Fear Test on the DVD, just send me an email [mybookviews at gmail.com] with your address and I’ll get one out to you.) The one part I didn’t enjoy so much was the long exposition explaining everything about Rainsford. There are some things that just don’t need full explanations.
5/5
ARC Review
Review copy provided by the publisher, Katherine Tegen Books.

review: it's so easy by duff mckagan

2011-10-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

In a word, Duff McKagan’s memoir is amazing. With It’s So Easy (and other lies), he details not just the infamous Guns N’ Roses days of touring while heavily intoxicated, but also reveals some of his childhood and family life. The book opens with Duff and his wife hosting a birthday party for their 13 year old daughter. As Duff sees some of the young party-goers making out, he runs through a checklist of the things they could be doing…the things he was doing at their age and is summarily relieved. It sets the tone for what will come as Duff recounts his early start in the music industry.

With a number of the celebrity memoirs I’ve read, there tends to be an underlying theme of either “how awesome am I?” or “look at my tragic life;” It’s So Easy has neither. Although Duff talks of early financial difficulties, he seeks no sympathy; and when it comes to bragging about successes, Duff actually says things like, “I suppose competition makes a better ‘product,’ and Steven Adler and I would go watch Jane’s Addiction play gigs whenever possible once we got to know them. It made us better—and I think we made them better, too.” I thoroughly appreciated his manipulation-free candor on every topic addressed.

This memoir isn’t just for Guns N’ Roses fans; it’s for anyone who was into the Seattle or Los Angeles music scene of the era. Duff writing of Seattle’s now defunct weekly The Rocket and shows at VFW halls brought back so many memories. It’s So Easy will definitely strike a note with fans.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Touchstone.

giveaway winners: help! for writers

2011-10-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

Winnie, holdenj, and mrsshukra are the winners of Help! for Writers. Congrats!

review: the harvest of grace by cindy woodsmall

2011-10-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

The Harvest of Grace introduces a new character to Dry Lake, but also continues the stories of the others from the Ada’s House series. Sylvia comes to Dry Lake three years after the man who asked her to marry him married her sister instead when Sylvia said she wasn’t ready. She finds work on the Blank farm; they need help after the death of their daughter (which happened in The Bridge of Peace) and son’s subsequent entering rehab. That son soon returns home and meets Sylvia in an amusing scene that provided a bit of relief in a novel that’s otherwise about heavy subject matter regarding the scandals surrounding both Sylvia and her new friend, Aaron Blank.

The original story from The Hope of Refuge gets its conclusion here as Cara continues her studies of the Amish ways and their language while also working on forgiving her father. Her successes bring happiness, but she also struggles, especially when part of her past resurfaces. The main character from The Bridge of Peace also gets her story wrapped up as Lena and Grey are finally completely honest about their feelings. All of the conclusions are satisfactory, but with Sylvia being a completely new character from a different community it was a stretch to tie her into the previous plots. For much of the novel Sylvia was isolated to the Blank family without any interaction with the other Ada’s House characters. It took far too long for Sylvia to make some friends.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, WaterBrook Press.

review: the local news by miriam gershow

2011-10-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

Miriam Gershow’s debut novel, The Local News, is a peek into the life of a teen who would be unremarkable if it weren’t for the fact that her older brother disappeared while walking home from the park. While some think Danny intentionally left home, the family believes he was kidnapped. They appear on the news, work with the police, and eventually hire a private investigator to pursue the numerous crazy leads that pour in. Lydia becomes very involved with the private investigator’s hunt for answers while her parents completely fall apart.

Despite it being a finalist for the Oregon Book Award, I couldn’t get into The Local News. Lydia is a nerdy teenager who would be utterly boring if it weren’t for the fact that her brother is missing. Even with the missing brother, Lydia does not rise to the level of a protagonist one would root for. She remains a shallow girl with little social skills and evokes no sympathy. The pace is tedious, but then the ending is rushed and unnecessarily tries to wrap up Lydia’s life for the next ten years. The Local News was not an enjoyable read and provided little entertainment.
1/5
Review copy provided by BookDivas.

giveaway: the christmas wedding

2011-10-18T20:55:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Hachette, one person will win a copy of James Patterson's latest (with Richard DiLallo)!

Check out my review of The Christmas Wedding; the publisher description is below:
"The tree is decorated, the cookies are baked, and the packages are wrapped, but the biggest celebration this Christmas is Gaby Summerhill's wedding. Since her husband died three years ago, Gaby's four children have drifted apart, each consumed by the turbulence of their own lives. They haven't celebrated Christmas together since their father's death, but when Gaby announces that she's getting married--and that the groom will remain a secret until the wedding day--she may finally be able to bring them home for the holidays.

But the wedding isn't Gaby's only surprise--she has one more gift for her children, and it could change all their lives forever. With deeply affecting characters and the emotional twists of a James Patterson thriller, The Christmas Wedding is a fresh look at family and the magic of the season."

The rules: Enter by leaving a comment to this post with your email (if I can't contact you, you can't win). You can gain additional entries by leaving separate comments letting me know that you're a follower (one extra each for the blog and Twitter) or have posted a link to the giveaway on your site. The deadline to enter is 11:59pm Pacific on November 5. Winner will be selected at random. Since this is from Hachette the winner must have mailing addresses in the US or Canada; no PO Boxes.

review: the christmas wedding by james patterson and richard dilallo

2011-10-18T20:53:00.000-07:00

The Christmas Wedding has an odd premise. It centers around Gaby’s second marriage which comes as quite the surprise to her adult children. When Gaby’s husband passed away three years ago, the family grew apart. So Gaby plans a Christmas wedding with a mystery groom to bring all her kids back to the homestead. None of that is too unusual, but then it’s revealed that not even the groom knows he’s the groom. Three men (including the brother of Gaby’s deceased husband) have proposed to her, but she’s told no one who she will marry. Now I can suspend disbelief, but this plot point is a little too ridiculous. I could maybe buy the characters’ motivations (though would still have a hard time getting past the issue of the marriage license) if a backstory had been developed, but there was very little to go on. In fact, there was very little character development in this story that’s filled with characters. Not only is there Gaby and her three suitors, but Gaby’s four adult children and their significant others plus some children. This was far too many characters for a fairly short novel, especially considering how much drama each one has in his or her life. Even so, The Christmas Wedding was an enjoyable read. It was nice to see how the family came together again and helped each other.
3/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Little, Brown and Company.

giveaway winners: texas romances

2011-10-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

mbreakfield, PoCoKat, and heatherc8 are the winners of the Texas romances, Heartstrings and Diamond Rings and Don’t Mess with Texas. Congrats!

review: love you to death (season 2) by crissy calhoun

2011-10-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

As she did with season 1 of The Vampire Diaries, Crissy Calhoun breaks down the second season of the popular CW show based on books by L.J. Smith. Love You to Death follows the same format (and uses the same title) as the guide to the first season with Calhoun providing a write-up of each episode followed by extra tidbits on the show in categories like Compelling Moment (something that stands out in the episode), The Rules (rules about the supernatural as put forth by the series), and my favorite Foggy Moments (inconsistencies and continuity errors). Interspersed throughout are actor biographies and essays on things like the use of mirrors on the show; after the episode analysis, there are interviews with “Mystic Falls” natives and some of the actors. Where Calhoun shines is in the essays, particularly a longer one at the end regarding doppelgängers (which Elena is and Katherine was until she became a vampire). With plenty of information on the show along with full-color cast photos, Calhoun has again created a must-read for fans.

One “foggy moment” of Calhoun’s own, however, comes in her essay titled Werewolf Lore. Here she states that Lycaon tested the god Jupiter and received punishment that turned him into a werewolf. According to the myth, Lycaon tested Zeus (Jupiter is a Roman god; this is a Greek myth).
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, ECW Press.

review: mrs. somebody somebody by tracy winn

2011-10-10T21:15:00.000-07:00

Tracy Winn’s debut short story collection is uneven at best. All the stories apparently take place in the mill town of Lowell, MA (the setting is only spelled out on occasion, but seems to be what Winn intended as the thread that brings all the stories together) at different points in the twentieth century. The title story which takes place during the mill’s heyday was thought-provoking as it illustrated the struggle between the workers who wanted to unionize and those who were “company men.” After that story which comes first in Mrs. Somebody Somebody, I had high hopes for the rest of the collection. Unfortunately, few of the stories that followed lived up to the expectations set in that first one. Stories like Gumbo Limbo seemed to be working at something, but never quite got there. Many of the others were nothing more than a slice of life excerpt that could have been interesting if the characters weren’t so boring.
1/5
Review copy provided by BookDivas.

review: the last blind date by linda yellin

2011-10-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

The Last Blind Date accounts how Randy Arthur brought Linda Yellin out of a long depression with a single phone call. Soon she’s planning a trip to New York to see him and he’s flying out to Chicago to meet her. Yellin doesn’t particularly want to move to New York, but her new love has children, so she must make that sacrifice. That’s when Yellin’s insecurities come shining through. She takes a job at a television network despite having no experience, so when it doesn’t work out she calls her coworkers backstabbers and makes fun of the programming. She went to public school, so she makes fun of her neighbors (and husband) who are concerned with what private school their children will attend. Her husband and his friends went to Ivy League universities for undergrad and grad school while Yellin went to the University of Illinois for a bachelor’s and never even thought about grad school, so she deems them pompous. My first turn-off was the whole needing a man thing, but I expected The Last Blind Date to be funny because of the blurbs from numerous great authors so I read on. I suppose Yellin’s criticisms were supposed to be funny, but I must admit to be biased to not be impressed by her complaints. You see I attended private school as a child, went on to prestigious private universities (albeit on the west coast) for undergrad and grad, and now work in television. The only part I found the slightest bit entertaining was the very brief chapter on home renovation. It was the one time that Yellin didn’t seem completely insecure in her role as second wife/stepmother in an unfamiliar city.
1/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Gallery Books.

review: ingenue by jillian larkin

2011-10-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

The story of three young flappers caught up in a mob murder continues in Ingenue at almost the same point that Vixen left off. Everyone has left Chicago for New York City with Lorraine running a nightclub at Carlito's behest, Clara trying to make a different sort of name for herself as a journalist, and Gloria struggling to make it as a singer. The question at the center is, How far will each go to achieve their dreams? Gloria is excited when she finally lands a job, but it's a setup--Lorraine is the one who hired her so that Carlito can have his revenge on Gloria and Jerome. Ingenue is another fun romp in the flapper world that's filled with romance and intrigue. The downside is that the girls are isolated from each other for almost the entire book; the best part of the first book was the interaction between them.
4/5
Review copy from Amazon Vine.

review: the traitor's wife by kathleen kent

2011-10-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

Kathleen Kent’s The Traitor’s Wife (previously published as The Wolves of Andover) serves as a prequel to The Heretic's Daughter as it explains how Martha and Thomas met. Martha went to work for her pregnant cousin with the hopes of finally finding a husband, which she did when she started connecting with another member of the household staff. Knowing that Martha and Thomas had a number of children in The Heretic’s Daughter, there was no question these two would find love as The Traitor’s Wife progressed which meant all of Martha’s pining was a little boring. Furthermore, the characters were not written in a way that created a connection between them and the reader; my only interest in their story came from what I knew about them previously. I enjoyed The Heretic’s Daughter, so this was quite the disappointment. The Traitor’s Wife added nothing to the story other than confirmation that Thomas had indeed participated in the execution of England’s king.
1/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Back Bay Books.

giveaway winners: pinch me

2011-10-03T20:44:00.001-07:00

Carol M, holdenj, and ellie each have won a copy of Pinch Me. Congrats!

review: red wolf by liza marklund

2011-10-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

While working on her latest piece, newspaper reporter Annika Bengtzon finds herself in the middle of a murder conspiracy that reaches into the Swedish government. Despite her boss taking her off the story and her husband being displeased with her return to work (she'd previously taken time off after a different story put her life in jeopardy), Annika continues to dig for details.

As I read the first few pages of Red Wolf, I wondered if something was lost in the translation of Swedish to English. My main issue with the beginning of the book was a lack of connection to not only Annika, but all the characters who just seemed to be thrown in without explanation. As I continued to read, I began having a nagging feeling that this was not the first book featuring Annika. That would explain the additional characters and why there were seemingly random references to things in Annika's recent past. So to the internet I went and discovered that Red Wolf is book five in the series; however, not all of the preceding books are readily available in America (earlier works were published, but are out of print). Once I discovered this, I decided to fault the publisher rather than the author; thus, proceeding to read as if the things I felt were extraneous (like the nonsense with Anne's custody issues) would make perfect sense had I read the first four books prior to Red Wolf. I began enjoying this book about a journalist investigating a long ago terrorist act much more after that. The pacing was still a little slow, but the primary plot held my interest. If all the parts with Anne as well as Thomas when he wasn't interacting with Annika were eliminated, I'd boost the rating to 5/5. I read each of those boring scenes in the belief that the subplots would tie into the main one, but was sorely disappointed.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Atria Books.

review: everything we ever wanted by sara shepard

2011-09-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

Every member of the wealthy Bates-McAllister family has a secret. They keep these secrets from each other and everyone else which leads to them all living in isolation despite their proximity. Although the start of Everything We Ever Wanted was a little slow (I didn’t like matriarch Sylvie in the slightest), I was soon sucked into their world. Sara Shepard did a tremendous job of seamlessly weaving in everyone’s back story at the most appropriate times to give insight into how all of these people became so cold. Everything We Ever Wanted is all about keeping up appearances, the judgments people make based on appearance/reputation, and discovering that sometimes getting everything you wanted doesn’t bring happiness. It was a most enjoyable read.
5/5
Review copy from Amazon Vine.

giveaway: help! for writers

2011-09-23T20:12:00.001-07:00

If you're in need of great writing advice, you'll want to enter this giveaway made possible by Hachette. Three people will win Roy Peter Clark's excellent Help! for Writers.

Check out my review; then read the publisher description:
"The craft of writing offers countless potential problems: The story is too long; the story's too short; revising presents a huge hurdle; writer's block is rearing its ugly head.

In HELP! FOR WRITERS, Roy Peter Clark presents an 'owner's manual' for writers, outlining the seven steps of the writing process, and addressing the 21 most urgent problems that writers face. In his trademark engaging and entertaining style, Clark offers ten short solutions to each problem. Out of ideas? Read posters, billboards, and graffiti. Can't bear to edit yourself? Watch the deleted scenes feature of a DVD, and ask yourself why those scenes were left on the cutting-room floor. HELP! FOR WRITERS offers 210 strategies to guide writers to success."

The rules: Enter by leaving a comment to this post with your email (if I can't contact you, you can't win). You can gain additional entries by leaving separate comments letting me know that you're a follower (one extra each for the blog and Twitter) or have posted a link to the giveaway on your site. The deadline to enter is 11:59pm Pacific on October 22. Winners will be selected at random. Since this is from Hachette the winners must have mailing addresses in the US or Canada; no PO Boxes.

review: help! for writers by roy peter clark

2011-09-23T20:03:00.001-07:00

Over the years I've read a number of writing advice books. Some are helpful while others are more of an outlet for the author's bragging. Roy Peter Clark's Help! for Writers is of the incredibly helpful variety. Some writing books go in-depth on a particular genre, but Help! for Writers does a good job of encompassing many types of writing whether fiction or non, short pieces or long. One of my favorite pieces of advice is about writer's block. Clark suggests lowering your standards at the beginning to get started, the raising your standards later in the process. As someone who tends to get stuck because I want it all perfect right away, it was helpful to be given permission, in a sense, to let a first draft be less than stellar. Clark's quick tips are ones I'm sure I'll reference time and again for my writing.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Little, Brown and Company.

giveaway: texas romances

2011-09-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

Want to win two romances set in Texas? Three people will each win a copy of Heartstrings and Diamond Rings by Jane Graves and Don't Mess with Texas by Christie Craig. Many thanks to Hachette for making this giveaway possible.

Be sure to check out my reviews of Heartstrings and Diamond Rings and Don't Mess with Texas. From the publisher:
Heartstrings and Diamond Rings:
He's the man of her Dreams...
In a world full of frogs, Alison Carter is determined to find her prince. Maybe her dating past is more Titanic than Love Boat, but she's seen enough happy marriages to know that true love is possible. No matter what, she won't give up on happily-ever-after. If she can't find Mr. Right, she'll simply hire someone who can.
She just doesn't know it yet
When Brandon Scott inherits a successful matchmaking business, he thinks his prayers have been answered. Set up a few lonely ladies, collect the fee, how hard can it be? No one needs to know he's not really a professional matchmaker-especially not his first client, the beautiful, spirited Alison. Soon he's falling for her-and her dreams of kids and carpools. But Alison is getting close to figuring out his secret, and if she learns he's deceived her too, she'll walk right out the door, taking Brandon's heart with her.

Don't Mess with Texas:
Nikki Hunt thought her night couldn't get worse when her no-good, cheating ex ditched her at dinner, sticking her with the bill. Then she found his body stuffed in the trunk of her car and lost her two-hundred-dollar meal all over his three-thousand-dollar suit. Now not only is Nikki nearly broke, she's a murder suspect.

Former cop turned PI, Dallas O'Connor knows what it's like to be unjustly accused. But one look at the sexy-though skittish-suspect tells him she couldn't hurt anyone. The lead detective, Dallas's own brother, has the wrong woman and Dallas hopes a little late-night "undercover" work will help him prove it...

The rules: Enter by leaving a comment to this post with your email (if I can't contact you, you can't win). You can gain additional entries by leaving separate comments letting me know that you're a follower (one extra each for the blog and Twitter) or have posted a link to the giveaway on your site. The deadline to enter is 11:59pm Pacific on October 15. Winners will be selected at random. Since this is from Hachette the winners must have mailing addresses in the US or Canada; no PO Boxes.

review: don't mess with texas by christie craig

2011-09-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

Nikki and Dallas face quite a few relationship obstacles in Don’t Mess with Texas. The big one is what led to their meeting in the first place. It’s the simple matter of Nikki being accused of killing her ex-husband. Fortunately, Dallas, an ex-cop turned PI, believes she’s innocent and decides to help. They make a good team both romantically and working on proving Nikki’s innocence. Although there are a few subplots that I expected to tie more into the main storyline, they don’t detract much from the primary action. In the case of lead investigator Tony (also Dallas’s brother), it served to humanize a man who was otherwise a hardass. Don’t Mess with Texas does contain a murder mystery, but I found the romance was always at the forefront and the murder was more of a plot device to bring the characters together. It’s a nice mix of romance, mystery, and comedy (see Nana and her retirement home friends!).
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Forever.

review: heartstrings and diamond rings by jane graves

2011-09-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

In what came together as a very cute romance, Heartstrings and Diamond Rings finds Alison newly single and contemplating hiring a matchmaker at the behest of a friend. There’s one hitch: the recommended matchmaker has passed away and her grandson is running the business. Brandon presents himself as an established matchmaker who was taught well by his grandma, but Alison is actually his first client and he’s just in it for the money. Although Brandon makes some hilariously bad matches for Alison, she allows him to keep trying and even starts helping him promote the business. The biggest problem is that the two just can’t seem to get over themselves enough to realize what the reader knows from the first moment Alison and Brandon meet: they are each other’s perfect match. They are characters to root for and come to life with the descriptions Jane Graves gives.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Forever.

review: love story by jennifer echols

2011-09-21T22:42:00.000-07:00

Love Story opens with a fairly groan-worthy short story written by the main character, Erin Blackwell. Erin is studying creative writing at college (a choice that led to her being disowned) and feels she’s a brillianhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift writer. Having studied creative writing in college myself, Love Story was a great trip down memory lane; thankfully no one in my classes offered critiques like Erin’s antagonistic classmate Manohar! The creative writing aspect is what sets Love Story apart from many other young adult romances. It offers Erin and her love interest, Hunter (a late add to the class and someone from Erin’s past), the opportunity to talk to each other without talking to each other. Of course, that creates even more conflict between the two who already have enough problems since Hunter became heir apparent when Erin refused her grandmother’s command to major in business.

I gobbled up Love Story, loving every second of it. Just as Jennifer Echols created amazingly authentic characters in Forget You who reminded me so much of high school, she nailed the introductory college-level creative writing class.
5/5
Review copy provided by the author.

giveaway winners: wildflower hill

2011-09-15T11:21:00.001-07:00

The winners of Wildflower Hill are holdenj and Carrie at In the Hammock Blog! Congrats!

review: frost by marianna baer

2011-09-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

Books and movies with a premise similar to Frost by Marianna Baer always attract me, but the endings usually disappoint; Frost was great from beginning to end. Frost begins at the start of senior year for Leena and her boarding school friends. It’s supposed to be a fantastic year. Not only are the seniors, but Leena was able to convince the Dean to let her small group of friends live in Frost House, a beautiful Victorian usually reserved for senior boys. There’s just one hitch. Leena’s intended roommate is studying abroad for the semester, so she ends up rooming with weird girl Celeste, who needs a first floor room because of her broken leg. Crazy, unexplainable things start happening right away, but why? Leena suspects Celeste, who has a mentally ill father, might be acting out for attention. Celeste first think the other girls are tormenting her, but comes to believe the house is haunted by the spirit of a “hysterical” woman who once lived there. There are so many possibilities here: Leena and/or Celeste could be crazy or there really could be something going on in the house. It is wonderfully unclear throughout Frost what is actually going on; then, the end provides the perfect explanation while still leaving enough hanging to not spoil all that came before.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Balzer + Bray.

giveaway: pinch me

2011-09-06T20:48:00.000-07:00

Want to win a copy of Adena Halpern's excellent modern-day fairy tale Pinch Me? Three will thanks to Simon and Schuster!

My review can be read here. Below is the publisher description:
"LILY MARRIED THE MAN OF HER DREAMS.THEN SHE WOKE UP.“Never marry a man unless he’s short, bald, fat, stupid, and treats you badly.” That is the advice that twenty-nine-year-old Lily Burns has heard her entire life from her grandmother Dolly and her mother, Selma. Despite this, when she meets Gogo, the handsome, successful pediatrician who treats her like a queen, she has no choice but to let her heart take over. When she agrees to marry him, Dolly and Selma are inconsolable. They decide it’s time to tell her the truth: their family is cursed. If she marries for love, there will be unimaginable consequences.Nevertheless, Lily and Gogo elope. Unable to believe her good fortune, Lily asks Gogo to pinch her—to make sure all this isn’t just a dream. The moment he does, Lily finds herself transported back to the house she lived in when she was single. Gogo is gone. When Lily tracks him down, she finds that he’s married to someone else and has no memory of her. In this modern fairy tale, Lily must find a way to break the curse and turn her nightmare back into a dream come true. "

The rules: Enter by leaving a comment to this post with your email (if I can't contact you, you can't win). You can gain additional entries by leaving separate comments letting me know that you're a follower (one extra each for the blog and Twitter) or have posted a link to the giveaway on your site. The deadline to enter is 11:59pm Pacific on October 1. Winners will be selected at random. Since this is from Simon and Schuster the winners must have mailing addresses in the US.

review: pinch me by adena halpern

2011-09-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

For all of Lily’s life, her mother and grandmother have advised her to marry an ugly man who treats her terribly! Although they never explained, Lily always dated men who fell into that category until she met a wonderful man named Gogo. After they elope, Lily discovers her family is cursed—Gogo no longer remembers her; worse, he’s unhappily married and never fulfilled his dream of becoming a doctor. Lily then sets out to break the curse despite the fact that no woman in her family has ever succeeded.

Pinch Me is a hilarious modern-day fairy tale. The conversations between the generations were fantastic and really made the characters come to life. The various struggles Lily faced as she tried to win back Gogo were very compelling, especially when she started questioning whether or not truly loving Gogo meant leaving Gogo to his current life.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Touchstone.

review: deadly cool by gemma halliday

2011-09-01T13:26:00.000-07:00

When Hartley discovers a condom wrapper in her boyfriend’s locker (yeah, she was snooping), she doesn’t fall apart but goes to confront him instead. And that’s how she finds the body of her rival in her boyfriend’s bedroom. Despite his cheating, Hartley knows Josh didn’t kill Courtney, so in Nancy Drew fashion (as the local TV reporter dubs it) Hartley concocts a plan to find the killer with help from her best friend, Sam, and Josh’s bad boy neighbor who heads the school newspaper.

Deadly Cool may be a murder mystery, but it is absolutely hilarious with Hartley constantly snarking on life (including her mom’s health-craze and the Color Guard’s chastity pledge) and Sam’s attempt to clean up her potty-mouth. Gemma Halliday’s young adult debut is the perfect mix of comedy, drama, and high school.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, HarperTeen.

review: snapped by laura griffin

2011-08-29T19:19:00.000-07:00

When a book starts with a shooting rampage on a college campus, it seems odd to call it a slow starter, but Snapped kind of was. The fourth book in Laura Griffin’s Tracers series focuses on Sophie, the receptionist for the Delphi Center, who finds herself in the middle of the shooting when she goes to enroll in classes. Since the shooter is immediately identified as the man who killed himself, it didn’t seem like there was anywhere to go with the plot despite the fact that more than half the book remained. Eventually (and it took way too long), Sophie realizes that she saw the shooter’s vehicle only minutes before the shooting started. Sophie theorizes that there was an accomplice driving the car, but the police (one of whom is Sophie’s love interest) dismiss her. And that’s where the book gets interesting because yes, there is an accomplice and now Sophie’s life is in danger. Once the story picked up, I really enjoyed Snapped.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Pocket Star Books.

giveaway: wildflower hill

2011-08-24T22:15:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Simon and Schuster, two lucky people will win a copy of Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman.

I thought the book was excellent, but also check out the publisher description:
"Spanning three generations and half the world, Wildflower Hill is a sweeping, romantic, and compelling story of two women who share a legacy of secrets, heartbreak, courage, and love.

Emma, a prima ballerina in London, is at a crossroads after an injured knee ruins her career. Forced to rest and take stock of her life, she finds that she’s mistaken fame and achievement for love and fulfillment. Returning home to Australia, she learns of her grandmother Beattie’s death and a strange inheritance: a sheep station in isolated rural Australia. Certain she has been saddled with an irritating burden, Emma prepares to leave for Wildflower Hill to sell the estate.

Beattie also found herself at a crossroads as a young woman, but she was pregnant and unwed. She eventually found success—but only after following an unconventional path that was often dangerous and heartbreaking. Beattie knew the lessons she learned in life would be important to Emma one day, and she wanted to make sure Emma’s heart remained open to love, no matter what life brought. She knew the magic of the Australian wilderness would show Emma the way.

Wildflower Hill is a compelling, atmospheric, and romantic novel about taking risks, starting again, and believing in yourself. It’s about finding out what you really want and discovering that the answer might be not at all what you’d expect."

The rules: Enter by leaving a comment to this post with your email (if I can't contact you, you can't win). You can gain additional entries by leaving separate comments letting me know that you're a follower (one extra each for the blog and Twitter) or have posted a link to the giveaway on your site. The deadline to enter is 11:59pm Pacific on September 10. Winners will be selected at random. Since this is from Simon and Schuster the winners must have mailing addresses in the US.

author interview: kimberley freeman

2011-08-24T22:07:00.000-07:00

Kimberley Freeman, the author of the amazing Wildflower Hill, was kind enough to take the time to answer some questions.

Wildflower Hill is set in both the 1920s and 2009. What research did you do to create the 1920s setting?

Historical research is one of the things I really enjoy about my job. I have learned so much about different time periods for the novels I've written, and the 1920s and 1930s were such interesting eras to write about.

Authors have so much at their fingertips now with the internet as a tool for research. I actually started with images of the clothes. It was really important for me to be able to see the character: not just her face and hair, but her body, how she wore her clothes. The wonderful thing about this period, especially the 1920s, is that the fashions were so wonderful. I would have loved to wear a flapper dress!

Another great way to do historical research is to read first-hand accounts of the time. I found a wonderful published version of a young woman's diary of the time, and so I was able to find all those little details of what people called things, and what their concerns were especially during the Great Depression. The most horrifying revelation for me was that some people were so poor that they made soup from grass. Not only did it give me a bone-achingly clear idea of how desperate times were, it gave me a wonderful image to work within the story.

You’ve published a number of books as Kim Wilkins. What made you decide to write Wildflower Hill as Kimberley Freeman?

Kim Wilkins (which is my birth name) writes fantasy fiction, and some of it quite dark. I wanted to explore this other side of myself, where stories could be uplifting and set in the real world, but I knew if I published them as Kim Wilkins (at least in the Australian market where I am known) they wouldn't meet the right audience. Freeman is my grandmother's maiden name, but Kim Freeman sounded like it might be a man's name. So I changed it to "Kimberley" because it was much more feminine. Something about writing under the other name really inspired me to write in a different way. I really love going into my office and changing into Kimberley Freeman: she's a fun girl!

You list a number of music-related top tens on your website. What music inspires your writing?

It depends on what I'm writing. I like music that has drama and scope in it. At the moment I'm really enjoying Zoe Keating, a fabulous cellist. I also love music that creates a mood, and for that reason I love Hammock. I find it very hard to write with singing on, so it always has to be instrumental.

What book (your own or someone else’s) has had the most impact on your life?

When I was a little girl, I read a book that affected me profoundly. It was Gladys Malvern’s The Dancing Star, first published in 1944, an account of the life of Anna Pavlova, written for children. Like many little girls, I dreamed of being a ballet dancer but it wasn’t the stuff about ballet that affected me so deeply, it was the stuff about work.

According to the book, Anna Pavlova was obsessed with dancing. She practised all the time. She did it until her toes bled and she just. kept. going. This notion, that one could work so hard and push through barriers of extreme discomfort, really took hold of my imagination. From that moment on, I understood the incredible romance of work: diligent hours spent on something that mattered to make an outcome appear in the world. Art is not a divine bolt from above, but the sweet, constant labour of real human beings manifesting things with their feet in the soil. And there is no idea about art more pleasing to me than that.

What’s up next for you?

I am working on a novel, provisionally titled "Isabella's Gift", about a woman who survives a shipwreck off the coast of Australia in 1901. She has many reasons for wanting to run away from her old life, but has trouble making a new life for herself, especially when somebody from the old life comes after her. The historical plot is mirrored in a contemporary plot about a woman who comes to the same small seaside town in 2011, and has to make some difficult decisions of her own in order to reconcile with her estranged sister. I am having such a wonderful time writing it. I should be done in about a month, so very close to the end now.

review: wildflower hill by kimberley freeman

2011-08-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

Wildflower Hill tells the gripping story of the Blaxland women who ended up a wealthy Australian family after much struggle by Beattie, the matriarch. The focus is on Beattie and her granddaughter, Emma. The two characters seemed very much alive as both had lives filled with romance, heartache, and drama, especially on Beattie’s part. Beattie proved to be an incredibly strong woman after discovering she was pregnant at nineteen by her married boyfriend and then being disowned by her parents. She was the one who made the family fortune. Emma didn’t start out as strong given how quickly she fell apart when she was dumped by her boyfriend on the grounds of being too career-focused and then almost immediately suffered a career-ending injury, but she did eventually get there. The story kept my interest with each page as I tried to figure out what man from Beattie’s life was Emma’s grandfather and what Emma would discover next as she searched through the artifacts of Beattie’s former home.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Touchstone.

giveaway winner: sunset bridge

2011-08-24T21:59:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Beth(bookaholicmom) who has won a copy of Sunset Bridge!

review: no rest for the dead edited by andrew f. gulli and lamia j. gulli

2011-08-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

As No Rest for the Dead begins, Rosemary Thomas is about to be executed for the murder of her husband. For reason not made clear, Rosemary has decided not to fight her wrongful conviction. She does have a dying wish though: she wants a memorial in 10 years. And 10 years later that memorial is about to happen; it also creates the perfect opportunity for the real killer to be discovered.

No Rest for the Dead brings 26 well-known authors together to concoct a murder mystery with almost as many suspects as the book has authors. With so many authors, the plot could have continuity issues, but the editors bring it all together and insert a few transitional paragraphs between chapters when necessary. There are some shifts in perspective (third-person versus first-person) as the authors change, but those weren’t terribly jarring. The biggest drawback is that most of the action of the plot has already taken place. The murder, the investigation, and the trial have already taken place with only the horrific execution taking place on the page. After that it isn’t until the book is almost over before more action happens at the memorial.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Touchstone.

review: hot, shot, and bothered by nora mcfarland

2011-08-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

With years of her own TV news experience, Nora McFarland accurately depicts the world of Bakersfield chief photographer Lilly Hawkins. In the second in the series, a deadly fire rages as the body of a woman from Lilly’s past is pulled from the lake. The woman is presumed to have accidentally drowned in a drunken stupor until Lilly starts raising questions based on her knowledge of the woman. Soon Lilly is chasing leads on two stories and putting her life in danger as she uncovers a career-making conspiracy.

Hot, Shot, and Bothered won immediate points with me by depicting KJAY-TV realistically. Unlike so many books/movies/TV shows, this one didn’t glamorize the industry or have characters pulling off miraculous “gets” (and speaking of “gets,” the characters are callously accurate in how they play a game about who the better get is). Instead KJAY has only two microwave trucks and is forced to make a deal with the LA station also covering the fire in order to get use of their satellite truck for live shots. Beyond nailing the TV news portion (which is hugely important to the plot), McFarland also creates compelling characters and an intriguing murder conspiracy with a satisfying conclusion.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Touchstone.

review: wanna get lucky? by deborah coonts

2011-08-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

The first in a series about plucky 30-something woman who heads up Customer Relations at a ritzy Las Vegas hotel, Wanna Get Lucky? starts right off with a big problem for Lucky--an ex-hooker plunged to her death from the hotel's helicopter. But before Lucky can start dealing with Lyda Sue's death that just might be murder, Lucky's immediately confronted with yet another potential PR nightmare as a guest is found passed out naked in the stairwell. All this in just the first few pages!

Wanna Get Lucky? is a murder mystery, but it's a comedy too with Lucky having some great lines like, "Being a porn star is like being a writer--only one talent is needed and nobody cares what you look like." I loved Lucky instantly. Also working in the book's favor is that the numerous subplots (and there are a few) come together nicely and each is well done. Furthermore, each major character is well-developed so there's no "who was that again?" when someone reappears after being absent for a few chapters.
5/5
Review copy provided by FSB Associates

review: the memory palace by mira bartók

2011-08-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

Mira Bartók and her older sister grew up in chaos with a schizophrenic mother; their alcoholic father left early on and stopped sending child support a few years after that. The family was soon on welfare and Bartók’s mother was in and out of the hospital. Bartók’s grandparents were unfortunately not much help either— Bartók paints a picture of an abusive grandfather and weak grandmother in The Memory Palace. Given all this, I knew the subject matter would be heavy going into the book; I was utterly exhausted by the time I finished reading. I suppose that speaks to what Bartók and her sister went through as they grew up and broke away from their mother who essentially stalked them to the point that they changed their names and set up PO Boxes so she wouldn’t know where they lived. But The Memory Palace lacked cohesiveness as Bartók jumped around in the story of her life. There were also a number of tangents (such as being involved with art fraud) that were just unnecessary to a story that should have focused on the central subject. At times Bartók tended toward the political with comments about what the country was doing regarding the care of the mentally ill, but she never pushed it any further or even really said just how those changes affected her family.
2/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, FreePress.

giveaway winners: how to seduce a scoundrel

2011-08-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

The winners of How to Seduce a Scoundrel are...holdenj and heatherc8!

giveaway: sunset bridge

2011-08-05T11:03:00.000-07:00

Want to check out the last book in the Happiness Key series from Emilie Richards? One person will win a copy of Sunset Bridge thanks to Planned Television Arts.

Check out my review here. The publisher description is below:
"Former socialite Tracy Deloche has nothing to her name but five ramshackle beach cottages and the unlikely friendships she's formed with her tenants. Wanda, wise waitress turned popular pie-shop owner. Janya, the young Indian wife whose arranged marriage surprises her every day. Alice, a widow raising her complex tween-age granddaughter. And Maggie, Wanda's daughter, a former Miami cop with a love life as complicated as Tracy's own.

The new man in Tracy's life hasn't mentioned love or commitment— and Tracy has just discovered she's pregnant. Janya longs to be a mother—and suddenly has two young siblings in her care. Maggie helps out at Wanda's Wonderful Pies…but is the kitchen big enough for both Gray women? And Alice may lose her beloved granddaughter to someone no one expected….

As a tropical storm brews, the wind carries surprises and secrets over the bridge to Happiness Key. Now, more than ever, five friends will discover just how much they need one another."

The rules: Enter by leaving a comment to this post with your email (if I can't contact you, you can't win). You can gain additional entries by leaving separate comments letting me know that you're a follower (one extra each for the blog and Twitter) or have posted a link to the giveaway on your site. The deadline to enter is 11:59pm Pacific on August 20. Winners will be selected at random. Since this is from Planned Television Arts the winners must have mailing addresses in the US or Canada.

author interview: emilie richards

2011-08-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

Emilie Richards, the author of the Happiness Key series, was kind enough to take the time to answer some questions!

Happiness Key was originally intended as a standalone, yet here's the third in the series, Sunset Bridge. What prompted you to continue to the story?

While the first book did what I intended, which was to establish how possible friendship can be for women with nothing in common--at least on the surface--it also set up characters I wanted to explore even further. So my publisher and I decided three books were in order. The number felt right to me. I could continue threads I'd introduced in Happiness Key, and tie them up by Sunset Bridge.

Some of your books have been turned into films for German television. What's it like to see your characters on the screen? Any plans for English-language versions to be made?

It's a kick, to be honest. They've chosen some of my very first books along with later ones, and it's so much fun to see how the stories are cast, and how the plots are rewritten for the screen. Some are very true to my stories, and some are so different that I almost don't recognize them. But the producers and screenwriters are good at what they do, and nice people to boot. I've had the opportunity to go to New Zealand, where they're all being filmed, to spend time on set, and to Germany to do promotion, so I've gotten to know and appreciate the talent of everyone connected. As for English language versions? One can always hope.

What was your favorite book as a child?

I was a fan of the Oz books, which I read and re-read. But later Little Women and Jane Eyre were huge for me, as well.

What book (your own or someone else's) has had the most impact on your life?

No one book springs to mind. But I've taken some of this and some of that from so many books, including my own. When you're writing a book, you do so much thinking about your story and your characters' growth, that you can't help but be changed.

What's up next for you?

I'm working on a new series for Mira Books, entitled Goddesses Anonymous. It's women's fiction, like Happiness Key, and it stories are interrelated, but each book focuses on only a few characters at a time. It has a different "feel" than the Happiness Key series, but shares a lot with it, too. The series is set in the North Carolina mountains.

review: sunset bridge by emilie richards

2011-08-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

Sunset Bridge begins with what seems like the end of Tracy and Marsh’s relationship—she’s not enjoying their camping trip and he’s being condescending. As it turns out Tracy’s upset stomach isn’t about the raw oyster Marsh made her eat, but is an early pregnancy symptom which means she’s sticking it out with him. However, Marsh figures out the pregnancy news before Tracy works up the courage to tell him which creates more tension. Although other plots and characters come in, the focus remains on Tracy’s drama. I found that storyline a bit ho-hum (it’s nothing that hasn’t been done many times before and the end was always clear), but was pulled in by a visiting Indian family’s tragedy and the mystery surrounding that. I liked the way that part of the story pulled in other characters who are important to the Happiness Key series.
3/5
Review copy provided by Planned Television Arts.

review: never have i ever by sara shepard

2011-08-04T23:00:00.000-07:00

The story of Emma looking for her twin’s murderer continues in Never Have I Ever. This time Emma thinks she knows who killed Sutton (I was pretty convinced too), but Sara Shepard keeps the twists coming. Never Have I Ever takes place immediately after the party for Emma as Sutton that ended The Lying Game. Emma keeps trying to goad the other members of The Lying Game in the hopes that someone will reveal herself as Sutton’s killer, but no one’s giving up any information; however, someone sends Emma a charm in the shape of a train which puts her on a path she hopes will lead to the killer. The second book in a series that will soon be a TV show on ABC Family is a page-turner that entertained from start to finish.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, HarperTeen.

review: judgment day by wanda l. dyson

2011-08-04T15:06:00.000-07:00

Suzanne Kidwell is a Nancy Grace-esque TV anchor. As such, much of Judgment Day revolves around a TV station. The portrayal of TV news/cable shows is incredibly inaccurate, which constantly distracted me from the other part of the plot—the kidnappings and murders Suzanne has somehow become involved with. Shortly after Suzanne’s wealthy fiancé dies while driving her car (later discovered to have been tampered with), Suzanne is framed for the murder of yet another man. She knows she’s innocent, but the only way to clear her name seems to lie with a private investigator she betrayed while they were engaged back in college.

The basic premise is interesting, but there’s a problem that keeps the intriguing element of Suzanne fighting for her freedom from redeeming Judgment Day in any way. There is a gaping plot hole regarding motivation. Suzanne had no idea why teens were disappearing—she even publicly accused the wrong man—until they started going after her. So why go after Suzanne at all? Dues ex machina.

Another issue I had with Judgment Day was the awkward insert of Christianity which seemed only to have been done to get published by WaterBrook. It otherwise had no bearing on the plot.
2/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, WaterBrook Press.

review: creep by jennifer hillier

2011-07-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

When Professor Sheila Tao got engaged and broke off the affair with her teaching assistant, her TA promptly started blackmailing her. Sheila doesn’t fully believe that Ethan really kept a video of their escapades, but she also doesn’t want to take the chance that her closely guarded secret will be revealed—she’s a sex addict who fell off the wagon when her father died. But there’s far more at stake than Sheila’s career and future marriage—someone wants Sheila dead.

Jennifer Hillier’s debut is wonderfully suspenseful. The tightly woven plot keeps everything tied together without a bit of extraneous information—every piece is important. Each page kept me on edge even as I started to figure out who the mastermind behind it all was. Creep defines “unputdownable.”
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Gallery Books.

review: night road by kristin hannah

2011-07-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

Slow to start, Night Road is excellent though I recommend having a box of Kleenex handy as the story becomes heart-wrenching about halfway through. Things start off quaintly enough: a girl who bounced around foster homes finally gets some stability when her aunt takes her in at the same time that a “helicopter mom” (who I hated throughout the book—oh how she annoyed!!) tries to deal with her twins growing up. Lexi’s background in foster care keeps her from fitting in with the wealthy students at her new high school, but she soon bonds over books with another outcast, Mia. Mia’s twin is an über-popular football player who Lexi understands to be off-limits (thanks to annoying helicopter mom who overshares about Mia’s one other friend dumping her for Zach). But eventually Lexi and Zach admit their feelings for each other and become seriously involved, much to the chagrin of his parents who’d previously accepted Lexi as family when she was just Mia’s friend. It all changes one night when the trio get drunk at a senior year party and elect to drive home. The contrast Kristin Hannah creates between their mundane lives prior to the party and the grim aftermath made Night Road a powerful and touching story.
5/5
Review copy from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

giveaway winners: prophecy

2011-07-25T21:02:00.000-07:00

Sharn3960 and Rebel are the winners of Prophecy. Congrats!

review: it's hard not to hate you

2011-07-25T20:59:00.001-07:00

Valerie Frankel lets loose in her new memoir, It’s Hard Not to Hate You. Whether it be the kindergartner who convinced Frankel’s daughter her father wasn’t really dead or the best-selling debut novelist Frankel once gave advice to, Frankel announces to all that it’s hard not to hate you. Despite being all about hate (and some tragic health situations), Frankel keeps it funny. My favorite moments revolved around her magazine writing. One such scene involved an unnamed major magazine that strung her along for two years on an assignment that required numerous interviews and a lot of effort before finally asking her to have it ready for them in a few weeks. Frankel declared she’d never work for them again—not even on threat of death. Who doesn’t want to make such declarations when faced with ridiculous requests? I enjoyed Frankel’s venting.
4/5
Review copy from Amazon Vine.

review: never knowing by chevy stevens

2011-07-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

I am stunned by this one. With Still Missing, Chevy Stevens crafted an incredible debut novel that made me beyond excited to see what she was able to come up with next. Never Knowing is every bit as amazing as Still Missing; both compelled me to keep reading despite the difficult subject matter. In Never Knowing, Sara’s quest to find her birth mother (sparked by her concerns about her family medical history) leads her to a horrifying discovery about her biological father—he is The Campsite Killer—and her biological mother is the only one of his victims to have escaped. If this news wasn’t shocking enough, someone close to her lets the information slip out and the media latches onto the story. And who keeps a close eye on any mentions of The Campsite Killer? Well, that would be The Campsite Killer himself, who soon tracks down Sara.

Every detail of Never Knowing is spot on—from the characterizations of each family member (the gruff father, the weak mother, the favored sisters) to the plot’s development and pacing. Never Knowing is done in a format similar to Still Missing with Sara relaying details to her therapist (an unspeaking character) at the beginning of each chapter before transitioning to the chapter’s current and immediate action. Those openings are a nice reassurance that Sara will make it through to tell her story.
5/5
ARC Review
Review copy provided by the publisher, St. Martin’s Press.

giveaway: how to seduce a scoundrel

2011-07-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

Want to win a copy of How to Seduce a Scoundrel by Vicky Dreiling? Thanks to Hachette, two people will!

Here's my review; below is the publisher description:
"Miss Julianne Gatewick is in a pickle. It started when her brother's best friend-for whom she's long nursed a secret tendre-agreed to act as her guardian for the Season, only to seduce her with a risqué waltz. But when the music stopped and the expectant ton waited for Marc Darcett, Earl of Hawkfield, to claim her as his own, he made his disinterest clear. Rather than succumb to humiliation, Julianne does what any self-respecting, recently discarded young miss with a wicked sense of humor would do. She secretly pens a lady's guide to enticing unrepentant rakes . . . and it becomes the hottest scandal sheet in London.

Every honorable rake knows that friends' sisters are forbidden. But suddenly Julienne has a spark of mischief in her eyes that Hawk can't resist. Try as he might to push her away, he spends his days listening for her laughter and his nights dreaming of kissing her senseless. He's always avoided innocents and their marriage-minded mothers, but has the man least likely to wed finally met his match?"

The rules: Enter by leaving a comment to this post with your email (if I can't contact you, you can't win). You can gain additional entries by leaving separate comments letting me know that you're a follower (one extra each for the blog and Twitter) or have posted a link to the giveaway on your site. The deadline to enter is 11:59pm Pacific on August 6. Winners will be selected at random. Since this is from Hachette the winners must have mailing addresses in the US or Canada; no PO Boxes.

review: how to seduce a scoundrel by vicky dreiling

2011-07-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

The first book (How to Marry a Duke) in this series from Vicky Dreiling was quite amusing in how it moved something as modern as The Bachelor into a historical romance; unfortunately How to Seduce a Scoundrel doesn’t come close to the well-done plot of its predecessor. With the second book, the focus has shifted to the sister of the duke from the title of the first book. Julianne isn’t nearly as interesting as her brother or her brother’s love interest. Julianne comes across as a child who prefers to gossip with her friends and toy with the hearts of the men who wish to court her. Although How to Seduce a Scoundrel makes clear that Julianne and her brother’s best friend are destined for each other, the two lack a certain chemistry. Dreiling attempts to create the same amusement found in How to Marry a Duke by having Julianne involved in writing a pamphlet to be titled The Secrets of Seduction, but that plot point fails to achieve much more than a way for the girls to gossip even more.
2/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Forever.

review: the orphan sister by gwendolen gross

2011-07-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

Clementine (who I immediately connected with) is the non-identical triplet to the matched pair of Odette and Olivia. It is not just in appearance that they are different. Clementine is single and applying to veterinary school while the two Os are married, pregnant, and have already followed in their father’s footsteps by becoming doctors. The family dynamic was already very intriguing with this, but then Dad disappeared telling only Olivia how to get in touch and specifying that it should only be for something big like the birth of a grandchild. While the focus is on Clementine and the divergent path she took, it was Dad’s secret that overshadowed everything. Dad’s secret turned out to be not the slightest bit surprising, but I was intrigued by it until the reveal. Overall, Gwendolen Gross created a beautifully described, seemingly realistic look at a family full of overachievers.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Gallery Books.

review: withering tights by louise rennison

2011-07-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

Louise Rennison’s first Georgia book (Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging) knocked me out, but the subsequent books didn’t live up to the expectations I had after that first excellent book. I hoped that starting a new series with Georgia’s cousin would revitalize Rennison’s ideas, but Withering Tights was only mediocre. That’s not to say it wasn’t amusing at times or that I didn’t enjoy some of Tallulah’s crazy adventures during a summer at a performing arts school, but there wasn’t anything to the plot that made Withering Tights stand out against any number of Young Adult books. For those familiar with the Georgia books, this is the same old crazy language mixed with insecurities about appearance and mad crushes on boys.
3/5
Review copy from Amazon Vine.

review: save me by lisa scottoline

2011-07-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

Save Me angered me in many different ways. First, I was angry simply because many of the minor characters had such a horrible reaction in the fire's aftermath. They were so hostile toward a woman who only did what she thought best that I was turned off and almost stopped reading the book. But I eventually did become interested in what legal ramifications would come out of the fire even if Rose’s so-called great husband did come across as callous when he informed her they’d likely be sued because a child was injured despite her best efforts as an untrained school volunteer. Then I was angry about the completely inaccurate portrayal of TV news (that in-depth package on Rose's past would've maybe made a :20 piece, not the minutes long package that Lisa Scottoline wrote). It is completely ridiculous to think a reporter would put in so much time chasing Rose; regardless of time of day, Tanya was there adding to Rose’s trouble. Finally, I was angry when the plot took a totally outrageous turn that made the school fire into a political murder conspiracy. Until that point the writing was quite good, which was what kept me reading, but Scottoline completely lost me with the out-of-nowhere plot twist.
3/5
Review copy from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

review: ten things we did by sarah mlynowski

2011-07-04T12:54:00.001-07:00

Sarah Mlynowski’s excellent Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn’t Have) brought back a lot of high school memories—not that I ever lied so I could live with a friend! But I’m fairly certain I could come up with at least ten things I probably shouldn’t have done. Here, the biggest one is the lie that gets it all started. When April’s dad and stepmom decide to move, April desperately wants to stay in her hometown and is willing to lie to make it happen. April and her best friend Vi concoct a plan that convinces April’s dad to let her move in with Vi; he believes Vi’s mom will be supervising, but Vi’s mom is actually on tour. Some suspension of disbelief is required here as the girls are only able to pull this off by convincing the two parents that the fake email accounts provided are the only way to contact each other. But other than that bit, this book is absolutely high school. There’s the parties, the outcast who threatens to get them all in trouble, and of course, the first loves (or at least, what they believe is love). Ten Things We Did is a hilarious and heart-breaking (oh, how I cried during the vet scenes) novel that I highly recommend.
5/5
ARC Review
Review copy provided by the publisher, HarperTeen.

giveaway: prophecy

2011-07-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Doubleday two people will win Prophecy by S. J. Parris, the sequel to Heresy.

Here's the publisher description:
"It is the year of the Great Conjunction, when the two most powerful planets, Jupiter and Saturn, align—an astrological phenomenon that occurs once every thousand years and heralds the death of one age and the dawn of another. The streets of London are abuzz with predictions of horrific events to come, possibly even the death of Queen Elizabeth.

When several of the queen’s maids of honor are found dead, rumors of black magic abound. Elizabeth calls upon her personal astrologer, John Dee, and Giordano Bruno to solve the crimes. While Dee turns to a mysterious medium claiming knowledge of the murders, Bruno fears that something far more sinister is at work. But even as the climate of fear at the palace intensifies, the queen refuses to believe that the killer could be someone within her own court.

Bruno must play a dangerous game: can he allow the plot to progress far enough to give the queen the proof she needs without putting her, England, or his own life in danger?

In this utterly gripping and gorgeously written novel, S. J. Parris has proven herself the new master of the historical thriller."

The rules: Enter by leaving a comment to this post with your email (if I can't contact you, you can't win). You can gain additional entries by leaving separate comments letting me know that you're a follower (one extra each for the blog and Twitter) or have posted a link to the giveaway on your site. The deadline to enter is 11:59pm Pacific on July 23. Winners will be selected at random. Since this is from Doubleday the winners must have a mailing addresses in the US ; no PO Boxes.

giveaway winners: beg for mercy and books for dad

2011-07-04T12:05:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to the winners!

Beg for Mercy: winnie and chamblinh

Books for Dad: Sharn3960 and kilda

review: love always by harriet evans

2011-07-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

As Love Always begins, Natasha’s life is a bit of a disaster. Her business is failing, the bank wants its money back, and her husband has moved out after cheating on her. And now with her grandma’s death, a family secret that will change much of what Natasha thought she knew is about to be revealed; no one ever talked about the circumstances surrounding the death of Natasha’s aunt Cecily at age fifteen, but now certain members of the family will have to face the truth.

Love Always, which is told primarily from Natasha’s perspective but also includes narrative from the summer Cecily died along with Cecily’s diary, is a weighty family drama. While I thoroughly enjoyed Cecily’s diary and how seamless the transitions were, some of Natasha’s sections dragged a bit. It wasn’t that her life was uninteresting; it was that sometimes it was just too much.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Gallery Books.

giveaway winners: treasures from the attic

2011-06-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

ChristyJan and holdenj are the winners of Treasures from the Attic. Congrats!