Sunday, April 22, 2012


The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)

By Julie Kagawa (Goodreads Author)

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, #1)

Overview from Goodreads: 

In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood c...more
In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity .Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.
Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters. Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad. Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.
 

My Thoughts: 

Right up front I need to say I really enjoyed this book. 

I do not actively seek out vampire books, so no one was more surprised than me at how much I liked this story.  I have tried a few books from this genre in the past and just did not understand the attraction.  I am quite certain the problem is me!
But this book grabbed me right from the beginning.  I loved the main character Allie.  My goodness, if this girl didn’t have bad luck, she would have no luck at all.  She’s feisty, she perseveres and even as a vampire, she has ethics.
The author really makes this work.  I find myself cheering for Allie.  Each time she has a bout of bad luck, she picks herself up, dusts herself off and moves forward.  Perhaps I’m reading more into the book than what was intended – but isn’t this a life lesson we all need to learn?
This is book #1 in this new series by Ms. Kagawa.  I will be anxiously waiting to hear when book #2 will be published, as I really want to continue reading about Allie’s journey. 

The Immortal Rules is scheduled for release on April 24, 2012. 

I want to thank Netgalley and Harlequin Publishing for allowing me to read this ARC for my unbiased opinion.

My Rating: *****

Sunday, April 15, 2012


The Sandcastle Girls: A Novel


The Sandcastle Girls: A Novel

Overview from Goodreads:



Over the course of his career, New York Times bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian has taken readers on a spectacular array of journeys. Midwives brought us to an isolated Vermont farmhouse on an icy winter’s night and a home birth gone tragically wrong. The Double Bind perfectly conjured the Roaring Twenties on Long Island—and a young social worker’s descent into madness....moreOver the course of his career, New York Times bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian has taken readers on a spectacular array of journeys.
In his fifteenth book, The Sandcastle Girls, he brings us on a very different kind of journey. This spellbinding tale travels between Aleppo, Syria, in 1915 and Bronxville, New York, in 2012—a sweeping historical love story steeped in the author’s Armenian heritage, making it his most personal novel to date.
When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Syria, she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke College, a crash course in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language. The First World War is spreading across Europe, and she has volunteered on behalf of the Boston-based Friends of Armenia to deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian genocide. There, Elizabeth becomes friendly with Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife and infant daughter. When Armen leaves Aleppo to join the British Army in Egypt, he begins to write Elizabeth letters, and comes to realize that he has fallen in love with the wealthy, young American woman who is so different from the wife he lost.Flash forward to the present, where we meet Laura Petrosian, a novelist living in suburban New York. Although her grandparents’ ornate Pelham home was affectionately nicknamed the “Ottoman Annex,” Laura has never really given her Armenian heritage much thought. But when an old friend calls, claiming to have seen a newspaper photo of Laura’s grandmother promoting an exhibit at a Boston museum, Laura embarks on a journey back through her family’s history that reveals love, loss—and a wrenching secret that has been buried for generations.


My Thoughts: 

Whenever I hear that Chris Bohjalian has written a new book, I know that I must read it.  I do not care what the subject matter is about.  I don’t care what the title is, how many pages or what the book cover looks like.  I just know that if is written by this author, I must read it.
I now find myself at the end of The Sandcastle Girls.  I have only one thing to say: Good Golly Miss Molly!  Why do I say this?  The book was excellent.
I have mentioned before that history was never my thing in school.  Even with that, I do not recall ever hearing about the Armenian genocide. To quote from the book “How do a million and a half people die with nobody knowing?  You kill them in the middle of nowhere.”
Needless to say, this story is heartbreakingly sad.  There are a very few snippets of happiness toward the end.  In the hands of a different writer, I’m not sure I would have or could have read this book.  But Mr. Bohjalian writes such an eloquent story that I could not put it down.  When I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it.  And even now that I have finished, the story has stayed with me.  I have a feeling I will be thinking about it for a long time to come.
Thank you to Netgalley and Doubleday Publishing for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.
The publish date for the book is July 17, 2012.
My Rating: *****


Over the course of his career, New York Times bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian has taken readers on a spectacular array of journeys. Midwives brought us to an isolated Vermont farmhouse on an icy winter’s night and a home birth gone tragically wrong. The Double Bind perfectly conjured the Roaring Twenties on Long Island—and a young social worker’s descent into madness....more
Over the course of his career, New York Times bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian has taken readers on a spectacular array of journeys. Midwives brought us to an isolated Vermont farmhouse on an icy winter’s night and a home birth gone tragically wrong. The Double Bind perfectly conjured the Roaring Twenties on Long Island—and a young social worker’s descent into madness....more

Wednesday, April 11, 2012


Afterwards: A Novel


Afterwards: A Novel

Fans of SISTER, read Rosamund Lupton's next novel, AFTERWARDS.

There is a fire and they are in there. They are in there...

Black smoke stains a summer blue sky. A school is on fire. And one mother, Grace, sees the smoke and rush. She knows her teenage daughter Jenny is inside. She runs into the burning building to rescue her.

Afterwards Gr...more
.Overview from Goodreads:

There is a fire and they are in there. They are in there...
Black smoke stains a summer blue sky. A school is on fire. And one mother, Grace, sees the smoke and rush. She knows her teenage daughter Jenny is inside. She runs into the burning building to rescue her.
Afterwards Grace must find the identity of the arsonist and protect her children from the person who's still intent on destroying them. Afterwards, she must fight the limits of her physical strength and discover the limitlessness of love.
 

My Thoughts: 

This was a good book.  It was interesting in that the story is told mostly through the eyes of the spirit of Mom, Grace.  She has been badly injured in a school fire after she ran in to save her daughter Jenny, who was also seriously hurt.  While their physical bodies are being taken care of in a hospital burn unit, the “spirits” of Grace and Jenny follow family members around as they try to piece together evidence to determine who set the fire and why.  The main investigating is done by Grace’s sister-in-law, Sarah, who is a police officer. 

This really came down to a story about the love we have for our families – Sarah trying to solve the murder mystery out of love for her brother and his family.  The Dad – working hard to keep his family protected.  And finally, Grace’s spirit, with a decision she makes out of love for Jenny.

While the story was occasionally wordy and just a little lengthy, I did enjoy it. 

This is the second book that I have read by Rosamund Lupton and I would not hesitate to read any future books she may write. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Crown Publishing Group for allowing me to read this book for my unbiased review.

The publish date is April 24, 2012.

My Rating: ***

Monday, April 2, 2012


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Nevermore





Overview from Goodreads:
Age heralds the dawn of swinging music, sexy flappers, bathtub gin and gruesome murder...

Though vaudeville is dying, Houdini still dazzles audiences -- and wages war with corrupt mediums. At the same time, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle arrives in America to lecture on the occult, only to face frequent visits from what appears to be the restless spirit of Edgar

The Jazz Age heralds the dawn of swinging music, sexy flappers, bathtub gin and gruesome murder...
Though vaudeville is dying, Houdini still dazzles audiences -- and wages war with corrupt mediums. At the same time, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle arrives in America to lecture on the occult, only to face frequent visits from what appears to be the restless spirit of Edgar Allen Poe. But soon Houdini and Doyle find their lives irrevocably linked by dark, earthly forces.
When mutilated bodies begin turning up around New York City, a shocking pattern emerges: the killings mirror the grisly murders found in Poe's chilling stories. Now Houdini and Doyle must outwit a clever killer, before they themselves become history.

My Thoughts:

I have mixed feelings about this book.  It never really “hooked” me and I was probably 2/3 of the way through before it pulled together and become somewhat intriguing.   I thought the author wrote eloquently, but there were parts of the story that just didn’t seem to add any value to the overall plot.
It seemed like Houdini and Conan Doyle spent a large part of the story going down separate paths.  It wasn’t until that last 1/3 or so that the storyline really brought them together, and that is when things really picked up.  At this point, I continued to read because I was interested enough to see who the killer was and how the author would end it all.
This is the first book I have read by Mr. Hjortsberg.  His writing was good enough that I would be interested in checking out some of his other books.
Thank you to Netgalley and Open Road Books for allowing me to read this in exchange for my unbiased review.
This publish date for this book is March 13, 2012.
My Rating:  ***