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

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

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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

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

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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

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

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

review: red wolf by liza marklund

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.