A Book Blogger's Diary

After getting run over by a Pest Terminator van while jaywalking, and then waking up to find her hot ER doctor boyfriend flirting with another woman, Boston based endocrinologist Dr. Nora Stuart finally decides she's had enough and limps back to her island home in Maine that she hasn't returned to in fifteen years. Battered and bruised, she brings with her her huge heart (and an even huge-er dog) and lots of questions about her missing father along with a desire to bridge the distance with her estranged sister via her sister's daughter and a deep longing to understand and be understood by a mother who is just like the island she lives on - rugged, isolated. Kristan Higgins' novel resonates with a purity of intent that will be recognized by every reader who has ever faced an emotional trauma at any age, and of any kind. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This book was received for review consideration.

Have you ever picked up a book by an author you've never heard of, written in a genre that's not your usual cup of tea and with a title that reminds you of a cheesy sci-fi movie...and then ended up loving it? That's how it was with me and 'The Martian'. The story is pretty straightforward. A manned mission to Mars goes wrong and the crew have to flee the surface in haste when a storm threatens to destroy their take-off vehicle. In the chaos, botanist/mechanical engineer Mark Watney is injured. Believing him to be dead, the crew takes off. However, Watney is still alive. And he has every intention of "staying alive" (a song our hero adopts as his theme song - yes, Watney is funny that way). Mark Watney becomes the first Martian - a good humored, resourceful and the one and only resident of Mars. How he survives on a freezing cold planet with no help in sight and no way to communicate with Earth makes for a terrifically compelling read and the suspe...

Book 12 of the Hollows series, The Undead Pool , is officially my favorite! I won't keep you in suspense (as I was, since I missed it's Feb release) but all my dreams for Rachel and Trent finally came true! Here is the synopsis straight from the author's website - Witch and day-walking demon Rachel Morgan has managed to save the demonic ever after from shrinking, but at a high cost. Now strange magic is attacking Cincinnati and the Hollows, causing spells to backfire or go horribly wrong, and the truce between the races, between Inderlander and human, is shattering. Rachel must stop the occurrences before the undead vampire masters who keep the rest of the undead under control are lost and it becomes all-out supernatural war. However, the only way to do so is through the ancient elven wild magic, which carries its own perils When I first mentioned my hope of Rachel and Trent becoming a couple, someone commented that the author would be giving Rachel a...

I've read many books this summer (around 35+, so don't expect many reviews), but Karen Robards' The Last Victim (Ballantine, Isbn-0345535405) is one that I feel deserves a special response, an immediate review. One word summary - Interesting One line Review - An interesting mystery together with stellar characters and complex relationships, this book is one of my top five reads for this summer. Synopsis : Fifteen years ago, young Charlie Stone was the only one to escape the Boardwalk Killer. Now an eminent psychiatrist whose speciality is serial killers, Charlie is called in by the FBI when a series of similar murders rock the town of Kill Devil Hills. Because of her ability to see the ghosts of those who've recently died violent deaths, Charlie is shocked to find that the ghost of her most recent patient, drop dead gorgeous serial killer Michael Garland who died in her arms, has attached to her and refuses to "go towards the light". As the killing...

One word summary - Fantastic! One line Review - S.J Bolton's pulse pounding, modern day Jack the Ripper murder mystery is about the BEST book I've read in a long long time, with enough complex psychological twists and turns to keep the reader guessing literally till the last chapter. Detailed ( & slightly more wordy and coma-inducing long :- ) Review - Just half an hour ago I finished reading S.J.Bolton's Now You See Me (Minotaur, 400p, Isbn-1250001633) which has been glued to my hands for the past day and a half as I was transported into a gory police procedural across an ocean to London where trainee detective Lacey Flint has a dying woman collapse on her. Things get considerably worse as it becomes clear a modern day Jack the Ripper is loose, moving about undetected and disemboweling victims with the same ease and brutality as the original himself. As the panic in London escalates, the Metropolitan police do their utmost to uncover the truth, which unexpectedly...

Zero Day by David Baldacci  When an entire family is found murdered in a rural, coal-mining community in West Virginia, John Puller, Army CID, is sent to investigate this all alone. While Puller finds this suspicious, he follows his orders and starts looking into it with the aid of local cop, Samantha Cole. Note - This book was received for review/feature consideration. ----------------------------------- If you like this post, then please consider subscribing to my Full Feed RSS . You can also Subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.

Alex Cross's beloved DC is in turmoil as Saudi terrorists unleash deadly attacks upon the city at a time when all the alphabet agencies are already scrambling about trying to locate the two kidnapped children of the President of the United States. Is there a connection? The misleading title, a two-pronged storyline that proceeds at two different paces and with varying degrees of suspense, the overall similarity (at least of the kidnap scenario) to a previous (and stellar) Alex Cross novel (Along Came a Spider) and various questions unasked and/or unanswered make for an embarrassingly tepid reading in James Patterson's latest Kill Alex Cross (Little Brown & Co, 384p, Isbn-0316198730). There's no mistaking that the quality of Patterson’s writing continues to shrink along with the length of his chapters. The terrorist plot is the one spot of (mild) interest in an otherwise cliched story. The planning and dedication that goes hand in hand with fanaticism, the splinter cell...

Death, Taxes, and a French Manicure: A Tara Holloway Novel St.Martins, 384p, Isbn-0312551266 IRS very Special Agent Tara Holloway is out to nab every tax-cheating sob in the Dallas metroplex area, a job that's surprisingly not as safe and dreary as one might imagine. She's in the thick of things, literally kicking ass and shooting off bullets to keep the tax-evading hordes in line, all the while trying to keep her perfect French manicure intact. While in the race to net her boss that magic number of $1million in recovered taxes, Tara gets involved romantically with a guy who seems perfect. If only he kept company with men who didn't have a history of cheating innocent people of their hard-earned bucks. Will Tara's perfect manicure survive the resulting war between her heart and her head? I rather liked this story. Not only is it sassy and sexy and gave me a lot of tips on how not to get on IRS' bad side (lol), but it's also set in one of my favorite places, Dall...

Ballantine, Isbn-034550691X In this captivating novel of romantic suspense, New York Times bestselling author Linda Howard brings us deep into the wild, where a smart and sexy outdoor guide and her ruggedly handsome competitor must join forces to survive—and avoid becoming what they never expected to be: PREY Linda Howard's books are a general hit or miss for me. Veil of the Night is one book of hers that I still remember with fondness and that's the only reason I made it past the synopsis for this book. Reason - it screamed predictability and in that aspect I was proved right. What's different is Howard's treatment of it which makes it somewhat interesting. I'm not saying I loved it, but then I didn't hate it either. As mentioned before, the story is way predictable: Angie and Dare (the name, the hoarse voice, the attitude - all  kept screaming Clint Eastwood to me) are in the same business - camping/hunting guide - and unfortunately Dare is better so he'...

Kill Me If You Can Little Brown, 384p, Isbn-0316097543 An assassin who calls himself the Ghost, shoots and kills a Russian mobster at Grand Central station in New York. In the resulting mayhem, Matthew Bannon, an impoverished ex-Marine turned art student, stumbles upon the dying mobster and soon walks away with a bag full of diamonds. Prince, a bigwig in the Diamond Syndicate mob, wants his stolen diamonds back at all costs and the Ghost is re-hired, this time to kill Bannon and get back the diamonds. As a precaution, another expert killer is also set the same task. Who comes out on top and how makes for a somewhat entertaining, if highly predictable, read. Spoiler + Cautionary note to all readers - There are Incest scenes in this story ! Spoiler Alert! One of the twists in this story involves incest (family members having sex). Too many details of that incestuous lovemaking are repeatedly provided. Frankly, it was enough to make me want to vomit. It added absolutely nothing to the p...

Georgette Heyer From the queen of Regency romance Georgette Heyer, Sylvester: or The Wicked Uncle is an enjoyable and witty story from start to finish. Sylvester, the Duke of Salford, is a man of consequence and ready to marry. He has his pick of eligible London beauties; if only he couldn’t find flaws in them, which he does. Hearing of a girl from his beloved mother, he goes to see her. He’s disappointed to find Phoebe Marlow has neither beauty nor conversation. She also wants nothing more in life than NOT to marry him. He learns this when she runs off to London in harsh winter weather so as to avoid what she believes is an imminent proposal from him.   Sylvester: or The Wicked Uncle by Georgette Heyer When inclement weather and other misfortunes conspire to throw the two together, Phoebe unleashes her wrath on an icily polite Sylvester. With refreshing honesty, she sharply criticizes his arrogant behavior and regularly takes him to task. This novel experience at once angers and ...

Sourcebooks Casablanca, 347p, ISBN: 1402238835 Synopsis - Returning to his family seat from Waterloo, Gervase Frant, seventh Earl of St Erth, could have expected more enthusiasm for his homecoming. His quiet cousin, stepmother, and young half-brother seem openly disappointed that he survived the wars.  And when he begins to fall for his half-brother's sweetheart, his chilly reception goes from unfriendly to positively murderous. Yes, this is a sort of a murder mystery, my dear Heyer fans. Or rather attempted murder, I should say (that's not a spoiler, for I'm sure you guessed the hero can't be murdered - right?). I feel the real mystery lies in the romance part of it, for till the end the reader is left wondering who exactly will end up with whom. Not at all the usual sort of fare we've come to expect from this wonderful romance author of yester years, but one which she writes surprisingly well. Before I explain all that, let me begin by telling you about our ...

Chronicle Books, board book, 10p, ages Infant-3, Isbn-9780811879521 Children can't get enough of color, but making them learn the names of these beloved colors is another task. Which is why I'm always happy to introduce my kid to the world of colors with simple, yet fun and informative books like this one. This clever board book has pages of different colors. Each glossy colored page has a flap with a die-cut shape, lifting which reveals a brightly colored image of familiar things. For example, on a page covered with green lily pads, there's a lily pad shaped die-cut. Lifting that up reveals a green grinning frog underneath. Purple flowers are scattered across another page only to reveal purple butterflies underneath, while flying black bats populate another and lift up to reveal a witch flying on a broom. The charming die cuts along with the surprise that awaits beneath each, were the inspiration for many delighted squeals of surprise and laughter among my kids. My older k...

St. Martin's, 374p, Isbn-031265121X As a former Navy SEAL turned cop, Joe Quinn has seen the face of evil and knows just how deadly it can be. When he first met Eve Duncan, he never expected to fall in love with a woman whose life would be defined by her dual desires to bring home her missing daughter and discover the truth behind her disappearance---no matter how devastating. With the help of CIA agent Catherine Ling, they make a shocking discovery that sheds new light on young Bonnie’s abduction and puts Quinn squarely in the crosshairs of danger. Eve’s first love, John Gallo, a soldier supposedly killed in the line of duty, is very much alive---and very much a threat.   Emotionally charged, with one shock after another, Quinn reveals the electricity of Joe and Eve’s first connection, and how they fell in love in the midst of haunting tragedy. As their search takes them deeper and deeper into a web of murder and madness, Joe and Eve must confront their most primal fe...

Sourcebooks Casablanca, 368p, ISBN:1402238797 To say that the beautiful and tempestuous Lady Serena is highly upset to find that her recently deceased (and highly eccentric) father, the Earl of Spenborough, left the care of her fortune and control over her marriage to her jilted fiancé Ivo Barrasford, the Marquis of Rotherham, is to understate the case. Too much time has elapsed since Serena broke her engagement to her childhood companion, Rotherham, (and that too after the invitations had been sent - such a scandal !) for them to feel anything but discomfort at this bit of posthumous matchmaking on the part of the Earl. Or so they both declare. Used to commanding a large household and having acted as her father's hostess from a young age, energetic and politically-savvy Serena soon finds herself in doldrums when her life is suddenly reduced to a small Dower house with none but her father's young widow, Fanny, for company and a social sphere consisting of occasional visits from...

Otherworld, Book 12 Dutton, Isbn: 0-525-95220-9 Savannah Levine is in terrible danger, and for once she’s powerless to help herself. At the conclusion of Waking the Witch , Savannah swore that she would give up her powers if it would help a young girl. Little did she know that someone would take her up on that promise. And now, witch hunting assassins, necromancers, half-demons, and rogue witches all seem to be after her. The threat is not just for Savannah; every member of the Otherworld might be at risk. While most of her fellow supernaturals are circling the wagons at a gathering of the council in Miami, Savannah is caught on the road, isolated from those who can protect her and unable to use her vast spell casting talent, the thing she counts on most.  In a story that will change the shape of the Otherworld forever, Spell Bound gathers Elena, Clay, Paige, Lucas, Jaime, Hope, and others, who soon learn that the greatest threat to supernaturals just may come from within...