review: snow white must die by nele neuhaus

Snow White Must Die takes place in a small German town where a man has just returned after being released from prison.  Tobias served 10 years for killing his girlfriend and his ex-girlfriend although he has no recollection of the murders.  His return reignites a lot of anger in the community that shunned his parents after the trial.  While Tobias tries to help his father restore their home, he becomes friendly with a teenager who has moved into the home of one of the dead girls.  So of course, that girl disappears and Tobias is the prime suspect.

If I ever get the chance, I'd like to ask publishers why they insist on publishing foreign series out of order when acquired for the United States.  Just as Simon & Schuster did with Liza Marklund's Annika Bengtzon series, Macmillan has started the Bodenstein and Kirchhoff series by Nele Neuhaus in the middle.  As I read Snow White Must Die, I kept wondering why the author was spending so much time writing about the personal lives of the detectives investigating the case.  The details seemed extraneous and detracted from the plot.  Eventually I looked up the book online and discovered that Snow White Must Die was originally published in Germany as the fourth book in the series.  So I decided to give Neuhaus the benefit of the doubt and believe that I actually would be interested in the otherwise boring subplots had I been able to read the books in proper order.  Even with that assumption, the plot of this mystery was lacking.  Even when people's lives were in grave danger, there was no urgency to the writing.  I never felt any tension, which a murder mystery with the culprit still unidentified really should have. 
3/5
Review copy from Amazon Vine.

review: the unfinished work of elizabeth d by nichole bernier

Elizabeth and Kate met at a neighborhood playgroup shortly after their respective oldest children were born.  Of the women in the group, Elizabeth and Kate got along best with each other, but then Kate and her family moved away.  Just before September 11, 2001 Elizabeth dies in a plane crash and her will specifies that the diaries she kept since she was a young girl should go to Kate.  Elizabeth’s husband is none too pleased especially since he read part of a diary and believes Elizabeth was having an affair.  Kate decides to read every diary before making a decision about putting them in a safe deposit box, giving them back to the family, or destroying them.  Through Kate’s reading of the journals, the reader comes to know Elizabeth while at the same time Kate discovers how little she knew about her friend.

Elizabeth’s story and the secrets she kept were interesting, but Kate is a helicopter parent of the worst kind.  Her neurotic tendencies are made all the worse by her constant fear that another terrorist attack will occur.  There were many times when I questioned Kate’s behavior and really wanted to scream at her to just make a decision already.

About the narrator:  Angela Brazil did an excellent job, especially with the children’s voices.  Her inflections were absolutely perfect.

4/5

Review copy provide by AudioGO.

review: level 2 by lenore appelhans

After Felicia dies, she ends up in a place called Level 2 where she and the others there can relive moments from their lives.  This fact allows debut author Lenore Appelhans to fill in the important pieces of Felicia’s life.  Unfortunately, quite a few details about Level 2 are missing which caused me to lose interest.  I very much enjoyed reading about how Felicia came to be involved with Julian (who is also in Level 2) and the estrangement between Felicia and her parents, but the rebellion that Julian gets Felicia involved in on Level 2 fell flat.  While it’s understandable that Felicia would join the rebellion once Julian offered something she desperately wanted, it struck me as odd that she would trust him especially since she never really seemed to like Julian anyway.  Furthermore, the action scenes of the rebellion just didn’t have much bite to them.

3/5

Review copy provided by the publisher, Simon & Schuster.

giveaway winners: the bracelet and two lethal lies

Jenny is the winner of The Bracelet.  Marjorie and skkorman have each won Two Lethal Lies.  Congrats and enjoy!

review: wallflower in bloom by claire cook

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As the middle child, Deirdre feels a little overlooked.  In her younger years, she frequently punished herself in an attempt to separate herself from her siblings.  For example, Deirdre loved her dance classes, but stopped when her younger sister enrolled in the same class.  Decades later Deirdre is still wrapped up in the family drama.  Her brother Tag has become a charismatic self-help guru who employs the entire family.  When Deirdre finally gets fed up with Tag for what she deems the last time, she uses her position as his public relations person to land a spot on Dancing with the Stars.

Wallflower in Bloom is hilarious and Deirdre was relatable on a few levels.  Although her age is never given, I frequently imagined Deirdre to be my age although she could’ve easily been a decade or so older.  Deirdre’s motivation to change was a bit weak, but it seemed likely the frustrations had been building and so it only took a small thing to cause her to explode.  One thing though:  Having studied chiasmus and other rhetorical devices during my undergrad years, I found the not-quite-chiasmus sayings that Deirdre claimed as chiasmus to be a bit distracting.

4/5

Review copy provided by the publisher, Touchstone.

review: rearview mirror by alana stewart

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As is probably the case for many, I was familiar with George Hamilton and Rod Stewart, but knew little of the woman they each had married and had children with.  In a memoir that kept me turning pages well past my bedtime, Alana Stewart shares how she went from living in a home lacking indoor plumbing in a small Texas town to living the Hollywood life as a model/actress who eventually married two famous men.  Her enthralling story came across as incredibly honest.  Stewart notes that “everything I’ve written here has been taken directly from the diaries that I have been keeping since I was nine years old, not from selective or vague memories.”  Refreshingly, Stewart tackles some tough subjects such as her rape, her divorces, and the struggles her family has dealt with without making herself into a victim.

5/5

Review copy provided by Get Red PR.

world book night 2013

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Last year I participated in World Book Night with my selected giveaway of The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.  I was first introduced to Lahiri’s work in an undergraduate English class.  I adored her short stories and was thrilled when the professor said she was working on a full-length novel.  Well before I started my blog, I was telling people to read her books.  So giving The Namesake to others on World Book Night 2012 was an excellent experience.  Unfortunately my work schedule this time around means I likely won’t be able to participate in World Book Night 2013, but I recommend it for anyone who wants to share a love of reading.  To apply you must be at least 16 years old and live in the United States, the United Kingdom, or Germany.  All the details and application can be found on the World Book Night website.  (The links are for the US site, but the other countries can be accessed through the US site.)