review: the chameleon by merrick rosenberg

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Before writing The Chameleon, Merrick Rosenberg taught organizational communication and leadership, including the DISC model, for decades. According to the preface of The Chameleon, Rosenberg received feedback that it was difficult for people to remember Dominant-Interactive-Supportive-Conscientious, so he decided to equate each style with a bird in hopes of making it easier for people to understand and remember. Throughout The Chameleon, Rosenberg discusses the personality styles via fables. The fables seem intended to make the traits relevant, relatable, and easy to understand, but the use of names like Xander, Xenia, Sarah, Samuel, and Sadie actually made things a little confusing (it would’ve been far easier to remember who was who if the same letter names had corresponded to the letter of the bird—why not have E names for the Eagles?). Each section ends with bullet points on the important takeaways—many of these are fantastic and the bullet points make for easy reference—but Rosenberg doesn’t elaborate on how to take action. For example, one suggestion here is “manage your emotions when dealing with button-pushers who are different from you,” which is great advice, but hard for someone to implement without an action plan.
3/5
Review copy provided by the publicist, The Cadence Group.

review: evil librarian by michelle knudsen

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When an attractive new librarian arrives at Cyn’s school, she immediately notices a change in her best friend, Annie. Cyn initially thinks Annie is simply experiencing her very first crush (albeit an inappropriate one), but soon realizes there is something dark about the new librarian. Cyn has a crush of her own on a classmate, who she teams up with to defeat Mr. Gabriel after the pair see him in his demon form complete with wings and horns. Mr. Gabriel is on to them, but willing to let them live given their involvement with the high school’s performance of Sweeney Todd, which happens to be a favorite among demons. Evil Librarian is a thrilling and hilarious paranormal novel that is grounded in many of the realities of high school. The characters all feel authentic (even the demons) and there’s never a dull moment.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Candlewick.

review: so damn lucky by deborah coonts

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As a UFO convention hits Las Vegas, Lucky O’Toole finds herself involved in yet another mystery—a magician appears to have died during his final performance—while her personal life becomes unexpectedly complicated. With the UFO convention as a backdrop, conspiracies abound as Lucky is pulled into a world of secret government experiments. The plot involving the magician and the way Deborah Coonts ties it in with the UFO convention keeps the pace of So Damn Lucky moving forward, but Lucky’s romantic interests become diversions in this third book of the series.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publicist, FSB Associates.

review: the candidate by lis wiehl

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After uncovering the shady goings-on at her new employer in The Newsmakers, Erica Sparks has settled into the job. There’s always a new story for a journalist to cover though and the (fictionalized) 2016 presidential election is giving Erica plenty to do, especially after a bomb kills one of the candidates. As Erica investigates the bombing and looks into the background of the man who became the nominee as a result, she realizes there’s something not quite right about the presidential candidate and someone is determined to stop Erica from finding out.

As in The Newsmakers, Lis Wiehl (with Sebastian Stuart) does an excellent job of portraying Erica and the TV news industry. The plot is stellar (and timely!) with the reveals about the candidate unfolding with perfect pacing. The only thing lacking in The Candidate is the ending where the motivation behind the conspiracy should be laid out, but isn’t.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publicist, FSB Associates.

review: the light fantastic by sarah combs

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April has hyperthymesia, which gives her “flashbulb moments” of events. On the day of her 18th birthday, which coincides with Senior Skip Day, she reflects on her ability as well as all the major events that have happened in the month of April (among others: the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Oklahoma City bombing, and the shootings at Columbine High School and Virginia Tech) while others around the country are plotting yet another devastating event for the month of April. Sarah Combs jumped around in these compelling narratives throughout The Light Fantastic, but failed to bring them together in a truly meaningful way. Despite that failure at the end, Combs expertly crafted incredible profiles of teens experiencing terrible pain because of various memories that haunted each of them. The development of characters who had only a few pages devoted to them was superb.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Candlewick.

review: write to die by charles rosenberg

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When entertainment lawyer Rory Calburton enters the office of a client only to find the man dead, he knows better than to touch anything. What he doesn’t know at the time is that his boss will soon be implicated in the murder and Rory will have to conduct an investigation to find the identity of the killer. With Rory as the main character, much of Write to Die focuses on the legal aspects and courtroom maneuverings of both the murder case and the original plagiarism lawsuit that caused Rory to discover the body, but these scenes are still lively because of how unconventional Rory and his colleague, Sarah, are. The murder mystery and how the potential plagiarism relates to it keep the reader guessing as Rory and Sarah pull out all the stops (and, in Sarah’s case, break a few laws) to learn the truth.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publicist, MM Book Publicity.

review: the never-open desert diner by james anderson

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Ben Jones is driving his usual delivery route when he needs to make a pit stop (too much coffee) and comes across a never-built housing development where a woman seems to have taken up residence in the model home. Ben soon becomes infatuated with the woman, Claire, who plays the cello and has many secrets. The Never-Open Desert Diner is a quirky novel that mixes in some mystery and romantic elements, but the pacing is quite slow. The first 50 or so pages are used to establish the characters and setting before some of the “why” starts to be revealed and the action begins. Once it gets going, the necessary intrigue is there, but the plot still moves a little too slowly.
3/5
Review copy provided by Blogging for Books.