Plagued: The Ironville Zombie Quarantine Retraction Experiment (Plagued States of America Book Three)...could there be a longer title?

From the publisher:

"Book 3 of the Plagued States of America series.

When a helicopter carrying presidential hopeful Senator William Jefferson crashes in the Quarantine Zone, zombie half-breed Penelope Hope is enlisted into the most unorthodox rescue team ever assembled for a mission to save the very man leading the effort to wipe out her kind from the Plagued States of America...

With the recent destruction of Biter's Hill and Biter's Island, the last remaining sanctuary for uninfected humans inside the quarantine zone stands alone against the seemingly endless zombie horde. Tom and Penelope, survivors of the destruction at Biter's Hill, have taken up residence inside the Elevated Platform Station at Biter's Bend in the hopes of rehabilitating Penelope from her half-breed zombie past. Their plans of a normal life are put on hold, however, when Army Ranger Mason Jones arrives seeking asylum from the very man rallying against him, Tom's own father. When Tom's father's helicopter crashes deep inside the quarantine zone, Tom and Penelope enlist Mason Jones and other survivors of Biter's Island on a mission to rescue him."

My review:
 When I first saw this book on Net Galley, I didn't realize it was the third in a series. And, because it's how I roll....I can't just dive into a series, mid-stream, especially after reading the description. So I purchased and read Book One, Plagued: The Midamerica Zombie Half-Breed Experiment and, Book Two, Plagued: The Rock Island Zombie Counteractant Experiment. The first two books do a decent job of setting up the series, but I'm still not very clear on the whole "half breed zombie" thing. Born to mothers who were bitten, just as they turned into zombies? The results of experiments gone bad? Were said experiments to make more zombies? Less zombies? An army of zombies? I might be confused on this particular plot line.

 And since I'm nitpickin' here....not a big fan of the author's pseudonym. It's like three random, but sort of related words just strung together, like a version of a facebook generated "What is your porn star name? The food you last ate and the street you grew up on...." Although I did do some checking and the author has a  reason for his pseudonym. He's a  "mainstream author" who fears that if he becomes known as a "zombie" writer, he won't be taken seriously in his literary fiction writing. So he has created a "label" as opposed to a pseudonym, which he wants to be reminiscent of the dime store pocket novels. Tomes of the Soul has an excellent interview with the author that you can find here.

Ok..on to Book 3, Plagued: The Ironville Zombie Quarantine Retraction Experiment.  The series is an interesting take on the zombie genre. The author has some original ideas, and they're executed pretty well. The characters are well drawn, and we can understand their motivations. And yet, for me at least, I finished the three books with a sense of ..."meh..that was ok. I guess." Will I await the next chapter in this series? Nah. Probably won't bother with it. And I won't recommend it to my equally zombie lit loving sister. That's mostly because she has this weird tic...(yeah, big sister, I called you weird in my blog,  *tee hee). She can't start a series and not read all of them. This woman actually read ALL of the Battlefield Earth books. ALL OF THEM. There's 10 of them! 10! And I think the author died after the first one, so most of them were ghost written. The first one was good, I'll give you that, but the next was soooo bad, I didn't finish it. And she read them ALL.  (wow....exit stage left on this review...) Wait....I guess I have a weird tic too, with the "need to read them from the beginning...." But at least I'll stop!

But I digress....lets finish this up,

Review copy provided by the publisher, Storyteller Press, via Net Galley. The opinions provided by yours truly.

My rating:

Author had some great ideas, but I couldn't get enthused.

Nirvana by J.R. Stewart: Bliss or Bust?

Nirvana  is the first book of a new series by J.R. Stewart. It tells the tale of a very annoying "animal activist/punk rocker" named Larissa Kenders. Larissa goes by the name of Kenders, because she has some negative weirdness about her first name and well, she's just too much the badass activist /rocker to have an ordinary name. Her brilliant scientist significant other; Andrew,  has discovered something dreadful about this dystopian world in which they live, and has disappeared. Everyone thinks that Andrew is dead, but Kenders can communicate with him in a virtual world call Nirvana.

Aaaand....that's all I want to say about the plot. In many ways the novel is a typical dystopian novel, which I  frequently enjoy. Unfortunately, I  have to actually like somebody in the book to get behind it. And I've gotta say...this book is filled with very unlikable characters. Kenders is just irritating. All the animal activism....without thought for the outcome. "Hey...lets release all the minks from the mink farm! Aren't we brave and intrepid souls? Aren't we the only noble ones in the world who are saving these animals from death? Aren't we just WONDERFUL!" Ok...yeah. They saved the minks from becoming coats. I get that. And no, I don't wear fur, because its not my thing. But I'm betting that all those minks suddenly released into the wild after being fed their whole lives either starved to death or were eaten by predators. And the employees of the farm are now unemployed and can't feed their families. But yeah...you're a brave and intrepid activist, with a poetic soul that society just doesn't get. Blech...

 And don't yell at me. Of course I don't support mink farms, or testing lipstick on animals. But I'm not an idiot and I know you can't just release a captive animal into the wild and they will magically know how to survive.  And since I'm sure I'm the beneficiary of animal drug testing..*see previous cancer posts*, I have to come down on the side of testing for drugs. I like being alive and I may be a mean old woman, but if some critters made that possible, I'm grateful to them and appreciate their sacrifice. And don't get me started on the "misunderstood punk rocker with the soul of a poet that the world (and my mother) doesn't understand". Double Blech.

I was actually going to give up on this book at my 50 page rule, but it was an ebook with locations, not pages. I looked up the page count and was doing the math to determine the equivalent page to location, so I would know how far I had to go. My son walked by and inquired what I was up to. I explained...he said, "Don't be a pussy...it's 135 pages....read all of it...". Sigh...so I read the whole thing. The WHOLE THING. Damned kids. Okay, so I skimmed a bunch of it.  Read parts of it very quickly. Very. Quickly. But I finished it. So there.

Nirvana will be available on November 10th at your favorite bookstore. But...meh....not my thing....

(Review copy provided by the publisher, Blue Moon Publishers, via Net Galley. The opinions provided by yours truly.)

My rating: 

I’m sure lots of other people liked it.

The Girl With No Past by Kathryn Croft: A Bullet Train of Suspense!

From the publisher:

Twenty years running from your past. Today it catches up.

A gripping psychological thriller for fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.
Leah Mills lives a life of a fugitive – kept on the run by one terrible day from her past. It is a lonely life, without a social life or friends until – longing for a connection – she meets Julian. For the first time she dares to believe she can live a normal life.
Then, on the twentieth anniversary of that day, she receives a card. Someone knows the truth about what happened. Someone who won’t stop until they’ve destroyed the life Leah has created.
But is Leah all she seems? Or does she deserve everything she gets?
Everyone has secrets. But some are deadly.

My review:

The Girl With No Past by Kathryn Croft is a bullet train that gains momentum as it screams into the station in a thrilling conclusion.     (Nope...there's no emphasis on  trains in the book...I'm just metaphorin' here....)

Meticulously crafted, the author shows us the teen years of the protagonist, Leah, as well as chapters in the present tense. (insert Groucho eyebrows...and boy...are they tense!!) Throughout the years, I've read a LOT of  suspense/ thriller novels, and I've become pretty good at predicting the ending, who the villain is, and usually can see twists in the plot before they appear. Or at least, get a good idea as to where this is all headed. Oh. My. Goodness. The Girl With No Past was inscrutable to me. I kept pinning the villain role on different people. And the actual villain was one I just considered in passing and discarded quickly. The motivation of the novel, was, well...pretty novel. I didn't see that coming either. And although, thanks to the prologue, I knew where the book would end up, I had absolutely no idea why or how.  I actually went back after I finished the book and reread the prologue to see if I had missed any foreshadowing. Ms. Croft makes excellent use of the alternating chapters, every other chapter is a flashback, and the suspense builds throughout. Not only do we have a feeling of dread while we see where the young Leah is probably headed, but we have the same feelings with regards to the present day Leah. We know bad stuff is coming, we just aren't sure what, or who, or why. The Girl With No Past really is, as advertised on the cover....a gripping psychological thriller!

The book is available on October 15th. My advice? Head to your favorite bookstore, either cyber or brick and pick up or order a copy!!

(Review copy provided by the publisher, Bookouture via Net Galley. The opinions provided by yours truly!)

My Rating:  

The Undying by Ethan Reid, a unique entry into post-apocayptic fiction!

In The Undying by Ethan Reid, an unknown calamity has befallen the planet. leaving nothing but death, destruction and oh yes...there be monsters. (Because the earth can't just drop dead...it's going to drop dead with panache!)

It's a little hard to categorize this novel. Apocalyptic--check. Post apocalyptic--check. Zombie--yup. Or are they Vampires? Certainly the monsters in this novel are different than your garden variety zombie/vampire/werewolf lit!

Jeanie, a complex young woman,  and her best bud Ben, have just arrived in Paris for a New Year's blowout bash. When they wake up, hung over and feeling crummy on New Year's Day, they find the world has gone to Hell. Now they must survive Paris if they have a hope of returning to the U.S. and their families.

We never discover the certain source of the worlds end in this novel. Comet strikes, nuclear missiles, aliens, it's all just speculation. And the source of the monsters, again, completely unknown. The monsters even change and evolve throughout the book, and all this uncertainty builds suspense.

My thoughts on The Undying were equally uncertain. At one point, I almost stopped reading, but I couldn't develop a clear reason why I didn't want to finish the book. It wasn't slow or lagging, the protagonist was a great character, and her conflicts were often unique and quite interesting. Honestly, the only thing I could come up with....Ugly American that I am, was the frequent use of the French language. I know....I KNOW! The book is set in France, what the hell else would they speak??? Totally unreasonable of me. Totally. And that was weird. I wasn't bothered in the least when Japanese was spoken frequently in Shogun. The use of Spanish in novels isn't worrisome either. I usually like trying to figure out what they're all saying. So I really don't know what the hell my problem was with French. Maybe it was that many of the French characters were so quick to dismiss Jeanie derisively as "et Americain". I did wonder if these French characters were pandering to our American stereotype of the French. Heck, maybe I'm the epitome of an American stereotype to the French. Then I wondered if stereotypes exist for a reason....hmmm....circular thinking makes my brain hurt...

The book ends in a kind of "non ending " fashion, not  completely satisfying, but leading me to wonder if the author has plans for sequels. And many sequels could come from this. I would be interested to know what was happening in the United States during all this, especially to Jeanie's mother, and Ben's family. The book refers to events in Brazil, which would make a good book as well. And of course, I'd love to see how/if/when the world rebuilds from this disaster. Or what the genesis of the disaster is for that matter!

I'm glad I stuck with the book, it was a solid and satisfying read. And I really do hope that this is the beginning of a series. I do love a good series, and I think The Undying is begging for a sequel. If you're a fan of post-apocalyptic novels, with strong female leads, this one should go on your "To Be Read" pile!

(Review copy provided by Simon & Shuster, via Net Galley. Opinions provided by yours truly!)

My rating: 

 

Brother by Ania Ahlborn? Creepy, gory and scary!

I'm not a fan AT ALL, of gory, creepy, "hang people on a meathook" slasher flicks. And yet, I don't mind the genre at all book wise. Brother by Ania Ahlborn is just that type of book. ( Which probably indicates that I am seriously twisted in many ways....)

In Ania Ahlborn's "Brother",  we meet Michael Morrow,  and his completely batshit crazy Deliverance meets Psycho meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre family. Michael was kidnapped as a very young boy by the Morrow family, and brought into this horrifying household. His older brother, "Reb" is just a sick and twisted as "Momma Morrow", and gleefully joins into the family business of kidnapping and murder. His passive/aggressive/enabling father, Wade, is a terrifying, yet almost a wee little touch sympathetic. (Or is that pathetic??) There are also two Morrow sisters, Michael and Reb's sisters, who both add some small amount of humanity to the family. The brothers participate in the *ahem, "family business", which involves stalking, kidnapping, torturing, murdering and dismembering victims for Momma's pleasure. (I'm not exactly sure what they do for actual jobs that keep the electricity flowing...and yes, practical weirdo that I am...I did wonder....)

It's interesting how the family dynamic is developed. Although individually, pretty much every member of the family is warped beyond our understanding, we still manage to find shreds of humanity in each one. (Ok...Momma and Reb might just be completely inhuman and thoroughly terrifying creatures....) The author manages to weave a narrative that explains this family, but manages to never  excuse them. There are a few surprising twists, one of which I sort of speculated about prior to actually getting to that point in the book.. (see above...seriously twisted reader...). I suppose the fact that I was thinking about the book when washing the dishes probably indicates my interest level! Brother is creepy, gory and hideously disturbed and disturbing in very many ways. But it was different, and it kept my interest. And even though I wish it had ended differently, I really can't think of a different ending that would have worked for this story.

If you have a low tolerance for mayhem, murder and gore, you might want to avoid this one. If you aren't too creeped out  by loads of violence when it's central to the plot, then you'll want to pick this one up. It's a disturbing, but interesting read.

(Review copy provided by Gallery Books via Net Galley. The opinions provided by yours truly!)

My rating:

Peter Meredith--Hooray for Zombie Lit! (Is that even a genre??)

I have to begin my Peter Meredith post with a big THANK YOU to Book Bub for introducing my cheap miserly ass to this author. Back in January, I received my daily BookBub email with the list of freebies and almost freebies of the day. For some reason, I've been binge reading apocalyptic zombie stuff for the past couple years.  I'm sure some shrink out there could look at me and give me a detailed explanation given what the past couple years have been...but I don't care...just gimme a good zombie book, ok? That particular day, Peter Meredith's book, The Apocalypse (The Undead World Book 1) popped up. I thought to myself, "self...it's 99 cents...and it's got 4 1/2 stars with well over 500 ratings on Amazon.. go for it."  

I was hooked after the first couple pages. This guy writes a terrific story!! Great characters, multiple story lines, just an all round great read. And I was off and running...It was a Peter Meredith-palooza (Peterpalooza sounds better but.....you know....)  around here for a couple months. First there was The Apocalypse, immediately followed by The Apocalypse Survivors,  The Apocalypse Outcasts, The Apocalypse Fugitives, and The Apocalypse Renegades. Then I was done with the Undead World Series. So bummed. But wait! This guy has written lots of stuff, all equally *ahem* "affordable" on Amazon...(I mentioned I'm cheap, right....)


The Trilogy of the Void, was my next Peter Meredith binge.  No zombies here, just a terrifying romp through hell, filled with monsters, demons and the damned. With, of course, the Meredith hallmark of great characters and  action. I'll admit, I wasn't as fond of the Void series as the Undead, but it was very good.

Once again, I was done. Sigh. Now what? Wait...oh boy! Another Peter Meredith zombie book! The Apocalypse Crusade War of the Undead Day One: A Zombie Tale. Yeah, it's a mouthful, but here is the genesis of the zombie apocalypse, according to Meredith. Hooray! I am such a fan of this guy. He never fails to bring his A game!

I was intrigued by his new set of characters, what was the cause of the zombie outbreak, who would survive the first day, who would escape quarantine to bring the disaster to the rest of the world, industrial spies, Chinese spies, insane convicts, cancer patients, corporate intrigue, with action and pathos galore!! I enjoyed this book just as much as the Undead Series. So, of course, when I received an email that his newest book was available for pre-order, I signed up right away, promptly forgot all about it and was delighted when I woke up one morning to a shiny new Meredith book on my Kindle.

I'm currently reading The Apocalypse Crusade 2 War of the Undead: A Zombie Tale,and it's great!!  I haven't made my way through Mr. Meredith's entire bibliography yet. He has a series called The Hidden Lands, which I'm not sure is up my alley. I'm not much of a fantasy reader. And I do want to read some of his freestanding books. I have The Sacrificial Daughter on my Kindle and The Perfect America sound interesting too.

All in all...Peter Meredith...you rock my socks! Peter Meredith books give you  more bang for your buck than you can imagine!!! So far, this author has never disappointed me. And I'd like to extend a big THANK YOU to Mr. Meredith for sharing his stories with me, it's been great fun!!

And if you read this, Mr. Meredith...please? Another Undead World book? I'd love to know what happens to Jillybean, Neil and the whole bunch!!

My rating for all the Peter Meredith books I've read so far?

'

Vale of Stars by Sean O'Brien makes me want to read more Science Fiction!

Wow, okay, so its been a while and I'm pretty sure my reviewing skills are a might rusty. So please bear with me as I get my stuff together! Recently I was in a local bookstore and noticed a poster regarding a local author who would be signing books there. And even though I never, and I mean never read straight up "on another planet with the weird character names" science fiction, I said to myself, "Self, support the local guy." So I got myself a copy and started in.

As I was saying, I don't do  sci fi...Yeah, I read Dune back in the day, and Battlefield Earth and I really did try to read book two of that series. (It was AWFUL!)  I've read my minor share of Bradbury too. But it has been decades, so here's me, dipping my toe back into the reviewing pool with a genre heretofore unknown to me.

Sean O'Brien's Vale of Stars is an ambitious book, covering four generations of women colonizing a distant planet. The book opens aboard "Ship", where we meet our first protagonist, Jene Halfner, as Ship approaches Epsilon Eridani near the end of a hundred year voyage. Jene is a member of the fourth generation born aboard Ship as they make their voyage. The plot has some surprise turns that I really never saw coming. Perhaps because it's an unfamiliar genre? But perhaps because it's just quite imaginative.

The book incorporates many of the ills of our own society, and I'll admit, I kept waiting for it to become preachy or heavy handed as so many books that include the themes of  racism, segregation, religion and environmentalism tend to. Much to my happy surprise, the author manages to include these themes without beating us over the head with them. Not as a preachy point of view, but rather as hard issues faced by the characters.

Since I'm not a geneticist, doctor or any other type of scientist, I can't do any of the nitpicky stuff that I'm sure some readers will do. I found the scientific explanations believable, readable and downright enjoyable. Is any of it even remotely plausible? Heck if I know! But I enjoyed reading about it and imagining what might be!

There are large gaps of time between each part of the story, and I found that it often discombobulated my old brain for a few pages until I sort of caught up. However, I liked that the author doesn't spend time explaining the changes in societal mores, language, physical appearance and the like. He assumes we readers aren't dumb, and we'll figure it out as we go along. And, little miss Smarty-pants that I am, I did.

While on its face, the story is about the colonization of a distant world, this is much more the story of four strong women, faced with difficult choices, and the ramifications of their decisions. It's about people constructing and finding their way within brand new societies; all of whom never chose to be there in the first place.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't expect to like the book, and I found myself staying up way too late during a very busy week to read. And I found myself thinking about it for quite a few days after. In fact, I really only found one negative thing, and it's an aforementioned nitpicky thing....I read an electronic version, and the last 25% of the book had some typos that proofreading should have caught. And if that is the worst thing I can say about a book then it deserves at the very least an enthusiastic thumbs up from me!

Read Vale of Stars. I don't think you'll be disappointed!

My rating:

Preston and Child's Gideon's Sword: Worth a trip to the bookstore?

From Fantastic Fiction—

Introducing Gideon Crew: trickster, prodigy, master thief

At twelve, Gideon Crew witnessed his father, a world-class mathematician, accused of treason and gunned down.

At twenty-four, summoned to his dying mother's bedside, Gideon learned the truth: His father was framed and deliberately slaughtered. With her last breath, she begged her son to avenge him.

Now, with a new purpose in his life, Gideon crafts a one-time mission of vengeance, aimed at the perpetrator of his father's destruction. His plan is meticulous, spectacular, and successful.

But from the shadows, someone is watching. A very powerful someone, who is impressed by Gideon's special skills. Someone who has need of just such a renegade.

For Gideon, this operation may be only the beginning . . .


Woohoo!!! Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are BACK!! I’ll admit it, I’m a big fan of these guys, both solo and together, but the last couple Pendergast books seemed a wee bit, well, forced. Pendergast is still a freaky cool guy, but I’m glad the writing duo has decided to step away from him for a while and pursue another character. And what a character they have in Gideon Crew. Crew may not be as elegant and sophisticated as our Agent Pendergast, but he’s a much more approachable guy. He’s got his foibles, and lots of baggage, but we can see a wee little bit of ourselves reflect back at us through him. I loved the book, it's a great start to an "e-ticket ride" of a series. (e-ticket reference will be understood by anyone over 45, who went to Disneyland as a kid...ask yer mom!)

But--and you know if I'm annoyed by something there's going to be a "but"....

Spoiler alert here* Head down to the last sentence if you’ve not read the book yet….Still here?

Okay…Spoiler follows: There is a plot device that is farfetched, and drove me nutty. Gideon’s “rare and previously undiagnosed and uncurable disease that is going to kill him soon anyway so he might as well risk his life for the big payoff.” Umm….I’m not buyin’, this just seemed so incredibly dopey, that I decided that in the next book, once our adrenalin loving hero has been completely sucked into the program, we’ll find out it was all a big manipulation. I mean, it’s a series, right? And how long can a series last if the hero croaks of a rare disease in a year or so? My mental post-it note said “Lame” on that particular page of the book.

Overall, Gideon’s Sword is a slam-dunk action/thriller.

(Galley provided by the publisher via NetGalley)

My Rating:

My review of Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner

In Lisa Gardner’s newest entry into her D. D. Warren series, Live to Tell, D.D. is investigating a brutal and heartbreaking crime. An apparent murder-suicide has occurred in one of Boston’s neighborhoods, and the father, who is a suspect, is barely alive in the ICU. Mostly written off as a murder-suicide, Detective Warren believes that there is more to this case. Investigating this tragedy will bring D.D. to a pediatric psych ward, where she meets Danielle Burton. Danielle is a nurse who specializes in the care of severely disturbed children and is the survivor of a family murder much like the one D.D. is looking into. The anniversary of her family’s violent deaths is fast approaching, and when D.D. and her partner arrive at the hospital, Danielle fears the past is being repeated.

One of my personal hallmarks of a successful book is if, after I finish it, it sends me off to google. After completing Live to Tell, I was googling like a mad woman. I found the basis of the book, severe childhood mental illness both frightening and fascinating. We’ve all heard the phrase, “he/she was just born bad”, but I’ve never really thought before what it would mean to have a child with an illness like this. And after reading this novel, I have a new found respect for the pain a mother must go through when her child looks at her and says in a sweet clear voice, “I’m going to kill you with a knife while you sleep.” Imagine, having to lock up your knives, after counting them to make sure your sweet faced little 7 year old hasn’t taken one. It’s just incomprehensible to me.

I’ve read the first two books in this series, but somehow missed the third one. I enjoy Gardner’s writing and I’ll make an effort to read The Neighbor, the one I missed. I didn’t have any trouble with what was going on, I think this book could stand very well on its own. Every book in the series, builds the characters a bit more, showing us the complex people they are, but never in a “smack us over the head” with it. And like getting to know someone in “real life”, the characters are added to in such a way, that if we miss a book, we can pretty much figure it out as we go along.

Gardner, as usual, never disappoints. Never pedantic or boring, Lisa Gardner knows how to write a good thriller. If you’re a fan of the the genre, Live to Tell is a don’t miss entry!

(Review copy provided by LibraryThing and the Early Reviewer program.)

My rating:

Dark Time: Mortal Path by Dakota Banks: a promising beginning to a new series

In 1692, Susannah Layhem, who is a healer and purveyor of herbs and natural healing stands accused of witchcraft. Subsequently convicted and while awaiting her execution, she delivers her stillborn baby, alone and frightened in a filthy jail cell. She is burned at the stake, but as she dies, she is confronted by a demon named Rabishu. She is filled with anger and bitterness and accepts his offer of eternal life, in exchange for her obedience. Susannah becomes the “Black Ghost”, the personal assassin of Rabishu. Over the years, Susannah slowly regains her conscience and when Rabishu orders her to kill a baby, she discovers a way to nullify her pact with him. If she can save one life for every life she has taken over the centuries, she can become free. But if she should fail, unspeakable and never-ending punishments await her.

(Another entry in my--I've got to get caught up category. It seems like I didn't have time to write reviews, and yet, I kept reading....I'm getting close to being caught up, and it's been fun to go back through the books I've read and be reminded of what I liked about them. I might just take a walk down memory lane with my whole bookcase, just for the fun of it!)

Dark Time Mortal Path, a debut novel by Dakota Banks is an inventive and engaging novel. A bit gruesome in places, the idea behind the book is clever and original. This book is the first in a planned series and given the open ended idea of “saving a life for each one taken” and since we really aren’t privy to the number of lives the protagonist has taken, it might be quite a prolific series. The second book in the series, Sacrifice is coming out on August 31, and it will be added to the “teetering tower o’ to-be-read books”.

(Review copy provided by the publicist)

My rating:

After by Amy Efaw: A Darn Good Teen Read (even for an "older teen" like me)

From www.amyefaw.com

Who would leave her own baby in the trash to die?

Certainly not someone like Devon—straight-A student, soccer player with Olympic dreams, more mature than her own mother. But desperation and panic drove her to do what most people can’t even imagine. Now Devon’s in a juvenile detention center charged with attempted murder. If she’s tried as an adult, she faces life in prison.

Does Devon deserve that punishment? Your answer depends on whether you believe her story—that she didn’t even know she was pregnant. Was she buried in a denial so deep that she was unable to register the seemingly obvious signs of pregnancy? Or were her actions the result of a more devious, premeditated plan?

In my never-ending quest to get caught up, for cryin’ out loud, here is my review (finally) of Amy Efaw’s young adult novel After. (Which I read last October…yep…I said OCTOBER. I’m so ashamed……sigh….)

Being an, *ahem, slightly more “mature” woman, I don’t read much young adult or teen fiction. (Oh yeah, Twilight cured me of that urge….) But I picked up After mostly because of the subject matter. Not only did it seem timely, since it seems like even with Safe Harbor laws, there are still babies found in dumpsters all over the country, but like everyone else, I wondered how a girl DO such a thing.

Efaw addresses those questions very well in this book. Although we find Devon’s behavior incomprehensible, we are slowly lead to the place where we can understand it. The book is an empathetic study of the expectations that we and all of society often place on our teen-aged daughters. I had an appreciation for the person that Devon was trying to be, and by the end of the novel was almost saddened by the outcome. It was refreshing, in this day of, “it’s not my fault..” to see a character assume the burden of personal responsibility.

After is a well-written and interesting book. The subject matter begs for a follow-up discussion when your teen reads it, and it is well worth the time spent to read it yourself.

After is available now in hardcover and will be available in paperback in December of this year.

(Review copy provided by Viking)

My rating:

Moms will LOVE Cowboy and Wills by Monica Holloway (so will everyone else!)

From Barnes and Noble
The day Monica learns that her lovable, brilliant three-year-old son, Wills, has autism spectrum disorder, she takes him to buy an aquarium. It's the first in a string of impulsive trips to the pet store to buy animals as a distraction from the uncontrollable, crushing reality of Wills's diagnosis. But while Wills diligently tends to the growing menagerie, what he really wants is a puppy. And one Christmas, when Wills is six, Cowboy Carol Lawrence joins their family.
Like all dynamic duos, Cowboy and Wills complement each other perfectly. Wills is cautious, fastidious, and irresistibly tenderhearted. Cowboy, a rambunctious golden retriever, is overeager, affectionate, and impulsive. And from the moment Cowboy enters their lives, Monica sees her son step a little farther into the world.
Soon, the boy who could barely say hello to his classmates in kindergarten is sharing stories of his new "sister" Cowboy during morning circle. Children crowd around them at the park, and instead of running away, Wills, holding Cowboy's leash in his sweaty fist, proudly answers all of their questions. With Cowboy, he finds the courage to invite kids over for playdates, overcomes his debilitating fear of water to swim along beside her in the family pool, and, after years of gentle coaxing, Wills finally sleeps in his own bed with Cowboy's paws draped across his small chest.
Through it all, Cowboy is there, dragging him toward other children, giving him the confidence to try new things and the courage to face his worst fears. And when Cowboy turns out to need her new family as much as they need her, they discover just how much she has taught them — about devotion, about loyalty, and about never giving up.
Sometimes it's what you don't know to hope for that saves you. For Monica, her husband, Michael, and their son, Wills, salvation came in the form of a puppy with pale blond fur, chocolate brown eyes, a fondness for chewing the crotch out of underpants, and a limitless capacity for love.

(A quick apology…I read this book waaay back in January and then got further behind than a one-legged man in a butt-kickin’ contest. I adored this book and can’t believe I’m just now reviewing it. *Hangs head in shame……And, although I am terribly behind on reviews, I sometimes find it much harder to review a book that I love. I finished the last couple of chapters sitting on the counter in the laundry room so my family wouldn't see me crying like a little girl. It's easy, fun and, yes, maybe even a little mean, to be snarky and slam a bad book. But it's not simple to describe and evaluate a book as good as this one.)

I’m not much for non-fiction, and yet it seems like when I finally read a non-fiction book, I’m often surprised by how wonderful it is. Cowboy and Wills is one such book. Even though we see the struggles that this family go through, this book deals with it in an unflinching, straightforward manner, with humor and grace.

Over the next year, as Wills slowly navigated the preschool mine field of noises and messes and crowded hallways, my animal fixation persisted. With every new problem Will encountered, I bought a new pet. We now had six more hermit crabs and two more hamsters. I cruised Petcos the way drunks frequent bars.

I loved this book. Wills is shown to us as the adorable sweet little boy he is, a child on the autism spectrum. But Holloway doesn’t define Wills solely by his diagnosis. Rather than focusing on what Wills is unable to do, she opens the world for him in ways he can connect. Cowboy and Wills is a delight, as I suspect Wills himself is. (And it's a keeper, one of the permanent residents on my bookshelf). I loved Monica Holloway’s unflinching and wry style and thanks to Cowboy and Wills, I now have her first book, a memoir, Driving with Dead People on my Sony Reader.

(Review copy provided by Sneak Attack Media)

My rating:

Cue the applause for Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson

One beautiful morning, Rose Mae Grandee got her Pawpy’s old gun from the box she’d hidden in the closet and went to shoot her husband, Thom, while he was on his morning run. All because a gypsy at the airport told her to. I’m not kidding. And as absurd as this sounds, it is the beginning of a really good book. Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson is the story of Rose Mae, a beautiful young woman, who has been beat down by the men in her life since she was a child. From an abusive father to rotten boyfriends to cruel husband, Rose Mae has come to the place where she must change or die.

It’s hard to understand how women end up with such abusive men, and I’m sure that Rose Mae is a compilation of most women who end up in this situation. Beaten down to the point of believing that they aren’t of any value, it’s the rare woman who stands up and re-discovers herself. This is a page-turning account of one such woman. We are privy to the fear and pain of the abusive life that Rose Mae has endured, and cheering her on every step of the way in her escape from it. Along the way, Rose interacts with realistic characters, some a bit offbeat, but all are well portrayed and believable. Certain plot devices might seem a little contrived, but surprisingly, it didn’t bother me. (And contrived stuff usually drives me crazy…) I was rooting for Rose Mae all the way through the book, and enjoyed the heck out of seeing her become the woman she had been hiding her whole life.

Backseat Saints was a book that I picked up to glance through for a minute, just to determine it’s position in my “teetering tower o’ to-be-read books” and before I knew it, I had read three chapters and it was time to get dinner started. (Yup…that’s a spaghetti sauce stain on page 84.)

(Review copy provided by Grand Central Publishing)

My rating:

Without Mercy by Lisa Jackson: Let the rant begin....

Synopsis (fantasticfiction.co.uk)

Julia 'Jules' Farentino knows that her teenaged half-sister, Shaylee, has been having problems lately. But when she learns of her mother's plan to send Shay to an elite boarding school in southern Oregon, she's skeptical. The Academy is a remote, secluded institution with a reputation for turning wayward kids around. With its emphasis on structure, discipline, and building self-reliance, it claims to succeed where other schools fail. But one of its students went missing six months ago and has never surfaced. And the further Jules digs into the school's history, the more concerned she becomes.

On impulse, Jules applies for a teaching job at the Academy, and once there, her suspicions grow. Another student disappears, and two more commit suicide in strange circumstances - or were they murdered? Something sinister is lurking beneath the Academy's serene façade. And uncovering the truth will mean confronting a powerful force of evil that's willing to kill, again and again.


When I received Lisa Jackson’s Without Mercy, I was looking forward to reading it. Now I realize that there are other popular authors with the first name of Lisa who are frequently classified as being mystery/suspense genre writers. I thought I had read lots of Jackson’s work, but partway through Without Mercy, I was stumped. This was not the writing of an author that I enjoyed. What the heck was going on? Upon reviewing my library at LibraryThing.com, I realized that it’s Lisa Gardner who I like. I’d only read one other book by Lisa Jackson. And Without Mercy will most likely be my last.

The book is chockfull of “Wow—what a coincidence moments.” Jules had a failed love affair with a rodeo rider turned cop turned private investigator who is posing as a teacher at the same school. (I’m not kidding….) Of course, when they meet up, sparks fly. The evil bad guy has the lamest evil plan since that guy in the last James Bond movie. (Remember him? The guy who’s evil plot involved raising the water rates in a third world nation? Oh for the days of bad guys who want to take over the world…) But hey, he’s the bad guy, ergo he's crazy, so he doesn’t have to make sense. But wait….ooohhh…bad guy is caught well before the book ends. Is that a surprise twist at the end? Who didn’t see that coming?

Jackson appears to be a romance writer who specializes in that genre known as “romantic suspense.” You may remember my opinion of the genre from a previous review, (Heather Grahams The Killing Edge). I’d also suggest that someone take Jackson’s thesaurus away from her, smack her editor upside the head with it and then burn that sucker. I don’t believe that this author has ever met an adjective she didn’t like.

…Jules wouldn’t allow a fate as brutal and macabre as Nona’s or Maeve’s to happen to her sister. Or anyone else. She had to stop the obscene killing spree…..

Or

…as sunlight began to stream over the mountains, the long-awaited dawn chasing away the night…

Or my personal favorite…

…to rescue her sister, to spirit Shaylee away from whatever dark presence was lurking here……

And. don’t get me started on the overuse of the exclamation point! It’s like reading a book written by a very excited teenager! Where every little thing must be emphasized! Because it’s so important and the reader must not miss it!

I’m hanging my head in shame; I have way too much fun smacking around yet another “romantic suspense novel.” In my defense, though, books of this particular genre NEVER call themselves romantic suspense. I wish I had picked a different read from the “teetering tower o’ to-be-read books”, but what’s done is done. Moving on to a different and (please Lord) better book.

Without Mercy by Lisa Jackson; read it if you’re a fan of hers and you feel you must. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

(Review copy provided by Joan Schulhafer Publishing and Media Consulting)

My rating :

Reviewing: Every Last One by Anna Quindlen

Mary Beth Latham is the mother of three kids, has a good marriage, and a small thriving landscaping business. Like most mom’s, if you were to ask Mary Beth which of these was the most important and defining role in her life, she’d say it was motherhood. Mary Beth is a good mom, and when one of her kids, Max, sinks into a deep depression, she focuses her concern on him, certain that her other children are doing well. When a horrific act of violence tears her life apart, Mary Beth has to discover a new way to make a life, and the strength, fortitude and love to make it possible.

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen is a notable novel. Initially, I thought the introduction of Mary Beth’s life “before” was a bit drawn out. I kept silently urging the author to get to the point of the story. Then I realized that this was the point. This is a portrait of a loving family, warts and all, with moody kids, tired parents, sniping siblings, loyalty and love. The finely drawn portrayal of this ordinary family when shown in juxtaposition to the “after” is heartbreaking. It’s almost impossible to read this novel without occasionally feeling a twinge of fear, a cold frightened feeling that this is plausible. This terrible thing could happen to almost any family. From there, it isn’t a stretch for the reader to wonder how anyone, including themselves, could endure and begin to live again.

Mary Beth is an interesting character. It's easy to point a finger at her and say, “It was right there…how could you NOT see it?” But then we stop and think, “Oh wait, I think I’d probably do the same exact thing. If my son was that depressed and on the surface the other kids seemed great, I’d most likely focus myself on the one that appeared to be in the most trouble.” Who wouldn’t? In retrospect, the reader can easily see that clues that lead to the tragedy, but hindsight is always 20/20. Quindlen doesn’t sugar coat Mary Beth and her reactions. We are shown a woman who is devastated by loss, and yet trying to survive and interact in a world where social conventions are observed. She is self-aware and realizes that her pain is not something others are comfortable with, and she manages to develop a persona of healing long before she begins to heal. Her interactions with the other characters, major and minor unfold in a realistic and affirming fashion.

Every Last One was a difficult book to read, mostly because of the uncomfortable nature of the subject. But it was ultimately it was time well spent.

(Review copy provided by Random House)

My rating:

Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth: A bloody good read! (Excuse the pun....)

In Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth, we meet Zach Barrows, an ambitious go-getter working in the White House. He anticipates a career in public service and expects an almost meteoric rise. But his career takes an unexpected detour when he is assigned to assist a Secret Service agent, Nathaniel Cade. Like all Secret Service agents, Cade is sworn to protect the president. However Cade is unlike any other agent in the service. Bound by a blood oath 140 years ago, Cade is a vampire, who protects the president and the country from enemies far stranger and more dangerous than we could ever imagine.

I think I might just remember 2010 as the Year of the Zombie/Vampire. It seems like every other book I read features at least one of these creatures. And I’m not talking about wimpy sparkly baseball playing vampires. Nope, I keep finding books with the rip-your-heart out, drain-your-carotid, toss your carcass aside and proceed with the mayhem types. (In other words, the good old fashioned kind of scary kinds of vamps and zombies.)

Nathaniel Cade is pretty much along those lines, but like the wussy vamps in popular modern fiction (..you know what books I’m talking about), he has learned to control his baser instincts. But, since he is, after all the last line of defense for our President and the country against really Scary Things, he gets to come out and play frequently. And my, does he get the job done when he comes out to play!

Blood Oath is the beginning of a series, and it’s a bang-up start. Farnsworth mixes the supernatural with modern day conspiracy. Throw in a bit of jihad, a freakishly un-aging Nazi, some living dead Frankenstein monster types, and you’ve got quite a tale. I’ll be looking for the next book in the series, which I really hope the author is holed up somewhere writing. I’m not a patient woman…

(Review copy provided by Putnam)

My rating:

Two reviews in one: Hush by Kate White and Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd

Isn’t it odd, how similar things often appear simultaneously? Remember that "disaster summer" at the movies, Deep Impact and Armageddon? It seems like I inadvertently read similar books near the same time too. Two such books, which I probably should review individually, (but heck..it’s my blog and I’ll double up is I want to) were Hush by Kate White and Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd.


In both of these books, the protagonists were placed in unlikely situations and then behaved in an idiotic manner. In Ordinary Thunderstorms, the hero, Adam Kindred, is in London for a job interview. Feeling good about his future, he’s having dinner alone when he strikes up a conversation with a fellow diner. Based on this chance encounter, Adam is soon on the run from the police; the primary suspect in a murder.

The main character in Hush, Lake Warren is feeling pretty low. She has just discovered that her husband, who she has only been separated from for a few months, is suing for full custody of her kids. With her kids away at camp, she is the marketing consultant at an infertility clinic. One evening, after an office get-together, she goes home with a clinic doctor who had been flirting with her. Upon waking in the morning, in a strange apartment, she is horrified to discover her one-night-stand has been murdered; his throat slashed. Based on this encounter, Lake is immersed in a game of cat and mouse with the unknown killer, and fearing she will come under suspicion by the police.

Okay, I know, it sounds like I’m really stretching to compare these two books. But they just felt similar to me. Both protagonists were, in a word, idiots. Both authors justified the characters moronic choices. I’ll admit, I’ve never woke up in an apartment with a man whose throat has been slashed while my soon-to-be ex is threatening to take my kids. And I’ve never visited London, attempted to return a forgotten file to a fellow customer from a diner, walked into his hotel room through door left ajar and found him murdered. Perhaps if these situations occurred to me, I’d be an idiot too. But I’d like to think I’d call the police in the first instance, and leave the damn file at the reception desk in the second. Supposing I was momentarily flummoxed and made all the wrong choices, and now thought I was in deep trouble. I’d still like to think I’d be smart enough to find a lawyer and talk to the police. Boyd's scenario in Ordinary Thunderstorms was a bit more plausible, but was still pretty darned surreal.

As you can tell, I wasn’t too impressed with either book. I wanted to smack Lake Warren upside her privileged spoiled head for the stupid things she did. And by the time the book concluded, I just didn’t really care who the crazy killer was. Yep, it was a little bit of a surprise, I didn’t peg the killer early on, but I didn’t really try. I just didn’t care all that much. And although Adam Kindred was a more interesting character, I didn’t have much patience with his choice to become a homeless bum in London instead of talking to the police. Both of their choices just made me think, “Really? Seriously? What the hell is wrong with these people??”

(Review copies provided by Harper Collins)

My rating (for both books) :

The Passage by Justin Cronin: You've Gotta Read This Book!!

From Fantastic Fiction website

'It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.'

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear - of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he's done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey - spanning miles and decades - towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

The Passage by Justin Cronin is, in a word, WOW!! I know, I know, this is the book really getting all the buzz this summer. But there is a good reason for that. IT’S REALLY GOOD!! So good, in fact, that I had a hard time writing a synopsis of it, and I don’t think the blurb I swiped from the website does a very good job of it either. This book just grabs you in the first couple of pages, pulls you in and doesn’t let go. It’s sort of The Stand meets Patient Zero meets The Postman. (Hey…no laughing, I LIKED that movie.)

The book takes place over almost a hundred years, the first part is pretty straightforward, and then it takes a giant step forward ninety-two years. It’s a little disconcerting, how the manner of living has changed, slang used in everyday speech is a bit different, and the author doesn’t waste any time explaining these changes. But these differences are to be expected. We certainly don’t live or speak the same as our counterparts did in 1920. I really liked the expectation that we readers could figure out these changes on our own. I realized pretty early that I’d better pay attention, or I was going to miss something important. This might be a long book, but that’s not because it’s crammed with unnecessary filler, but because it’s an epic novel, and worth every single word. Even though The Passage is book one of a planned trilogy, Cronin manages a terrific ending. The conclusion leaves us with a great starting point for book two, and yet still has a sense of finality to it.

If I were pressed to come up with a complaint about the book, it would be twofold. My Sony Reader has spoiled me, and The Passage was a regular book. It’s heavy. And I would have loved to be able to have it on my Reader instead. I took it everywhere with me, so I could read while waiting in line, or for the gas pump to fill, the movie to start, etc. and did I mention? It’s heavy. I would have loved to have it on my Reader. My other complaint is that I have to wait until 2012 for the next book. 2012?? And then two more years for the last one? Arrrggghhh!!! I almost wish I’d waited until 2014 when I could read all three consecutively. Sigh…..I guess it’s a good thing that I’ve got myself a hardcover copy to go with the advance reader copy I already had. And okay, I put an e-copy on my Sony Reader as well. I’m just being prepared. This way, when I read it again, I can have a copy upstairs next to the bed, a copy downstairs next to my chair and a copy for my purse when I’m out of the house. (Did I mention…it’s heavy??) Oh yeah….I’ll be reading this one more than once…

The Passage by Justin Cronin is a hundred different kinds of awesomeness. The best book I’ve read this year. Beg, borrow or buy a copy, but dang it…get going…it’s worth every single page it’s written on and every single penny it’ll cost you. A new addition to my favorite books and favorite authors list, Justin Cronin and The Passage, WOW!!

(Review copy provided by Ballantine Books)

My rating:

Reviewing Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen

While on a medical conference trip in Wyoming, Maura Isles, a medical examiner from Boston, meets up with an old friend from med school. On the spur of the moment, she joins him, his daughter and two other friends on a ski trip. On the way to the ski lodge, they take a wrong turn and end up stuck on a little used road in the mountains just as a blizzard begins. On foot, they find a small road and follow it to a snug little village, nestled in a valley, high among the peaks. Named Kingdom Come, the twelve identical little houses are cold and empty, places set at the table, with congealed food on the stoves, cars in the garage, as if the residents have merely stepped outside for a moment and will be right back. One of the group is badly injured in an accident and when Maura’s friend disappears on his attempt to get help, she has no choice but to brave the elements herself.

Soon after, Jane Rizzoli, a Boston homicide detective and good friend of Maura is stunned by the news that Maura’s charred body has been found in the mountains of Wyoming. Jane is compelled to discover how Maura died, and her investigation uncovers the secrets of Kingdom Come and the powerful and charismatic leader behind the group.

Ice Cold is Tess Gerritsen’s eighth book in the Rizzoli and Isles series. Again…huh? Who knew? I mean, I love Tess Gerritsen, and I’ve read at least half of her novels, and a couple of the Rizzoli and Isles books. But when I looked her up on my favorite website, fantasticfiction, I found out I had missed five of the series. Oh great, even more books to add to the ever expanding teetering tower of books to be read. (Alliteration can be fun.) It sort of defeats the purpose of reading a book from the stack if I end up adding five more when I finish it. I figure the last two books I’ve read have actually added nineteen more books to the pile. Sigh..I’m going to have to live to be 150 and keep my eyesight to get all these books read that I want to read.

But, I digress. (Shocker, huh?)

With a new tv show based on the Rizzoli/Isles books, coming on the heels of Ice Cold’s publication, I was skeptical about this book. It seems to me that some authors frequently stop writing novels when they find a bit of success on screen. (i.e. John Grisham, whose books The Firm and A Time to Kill were terrific, and then he cranks out screenplays pretending to be novels in The Pelican Brief and The Client.)

Oops, I digress again.

Focusing here, as I said before I rudely interrupted myself, I was skeptical. Luckily for us readers, Gerritsen hasn’t decided it would be easier to adapt her book to the screen if she simple wrote it that way from the beginning. Ice Cold is a good read, timely and with enough attention to detail to give the reader the certainty that the author has researched her subject. The author succeeded in surprising me in the “whodunit” portion of the book, which is something I always appreciate. This book will work fine as a stand-alone novel and new readers won’t have any problem getting up to speed with the characters. The author manages to let us know the back-stories in a few succinct lines, and doesn’t waste our time with long drawn out histories.

I really liked how the author isn’t the least bit squeamish about offing characters. I find it a bit annoying when, at the end of the book, people who really shouldn’t have survived are still alive and kicking, sometimes with the most fantastical explanation as to how they survived. Realism sometimes demands that the author know when the cute puppy, or the kid, or the hero/heroine really can’t survive this one. (Going for obscure references here, because I don’t want to write a spoiler.) I’m sure it gives the writer a twinge to see to someone’s demise, especially when convention would require said person/critters survival, but it’s good to see an author with enough intestinal fortitude to croak when necessary.

Would I recommend? Absolutely. If you like the genre, and I do, Ice Cold is a good read. Now..on to the rest of the pile……

My rating:

(Review copy provided by LibraryThings Early Reviewer Program)

My review of Think Twice by Lisa Scottoline

When Bennie Rosato is invited to her identical twins for a housewarming dinner, she never suspects the true motive behind the invitation. Alice Connelly, Bennie’s twin is in big trouble; her drug-dealing partners are trying to find and kill her. Alice has decided the only way out of her trouble is to kill her twin and assume her identity. She believes her plan as worked and she fools everyone. Sleeping with Bennie’s boyfriend, stealing all of Bennie’s money and moving it offshore, and fooling everyone who works for Bennie. The plan is moving along very smoothly, even when Bennie shows up, Alice convinces everyone that Bennie is Alice and that Alice is Bennie. Everything Bennie has worked for and loved is threatened. The only questions that remain, in Lisa Scottoline's Think Twice, are how far can someone go to protect themselves and can a good person be driven to do evil things?

I think I must be the last person on earth who’s never read a book by Lisa Scottoline. This is the 13th…yep…I said THIRTEENTH book in the Bennie Rosato series. Huh…who knew?? Not me, obviously. I’m a big fan of series, and a really big fan of mystery suspense series. I have no idea how I missed out on this author. I liked that the author treads the fine line of introducing a new reader to the series, without repeating everything that’s been written in the past. My interest is piqued and I plan on picking up book number one, Everywhere That Mary Went, and working my way through the series.

My only real complaint with the story was the attention paid to seemingly minor characters. One of Bennie’s employees, Mary, is featured way too much for my liking. Perhaps Mary plays an integral part in the other books, but I didn’t see the point of including Mary, her parents, her sexy, witchy, widowed cousin, who may or may not be seducing Mary’s father, in the story. I thought it was an unnecessary side trip, and it didn’t add much to the storyline, except pages of text. I’ll reserve judgment on the whole Mary/Bennie/Mary’s family storyline until after I read a few more of the series.

Complaints aside, Think Twice was a pretty good read, I suspect it moves the whole series along and I’m guessing it’s not the last Lisa Scottoline’s readers have seen of the Bennie and Alice conflict.

Review copy provided by LibraryThing and the Early Reviewer program.

My rating: