Say Goodbye Review

Say Goodbye
by Lisa Gardner
From Goodreads:

 Lisa Gardner, the New York Times bestselling author of Hide and Gone, draws us into the venomous mind games of her most terrifying killer yet.

Come into my parlor . . .

For  Kimberly Quincy, FBI Special Agent, it all starts with a pregnant  hooker. The story Delilah Rose tells Kimberly about her johns is too  horrifying to be true—but prostitutes are disappearing, one by one, with  no explanation, and no one but Kimberly seems to care.

Said the spider to the fly . . .

As  a member of the Evidence Recovery Team, dead hookers aren’t exactly  Kimberly’s specialty. The young agent is five months pregnant—she has  other things to worry about than an alleged lunatic who uses spiders to  do his dirty work. But Kimberly’s own mother and sister were victims of a  serial killer. And now, without any bodies and with precious few clues,  it’s all too clear that a serial killer has found the key to the  perfect murder . . . or Kimberly is chasing a crime that never happened.

Kimberly’s  caught in a web more lethal than any spider’s, and the more she fights  for answers, the more tightly she’s trapped. What she doesn’t know is  that she’s close—too close—to a psychopath who makes women’s nightmares  come alive, and if he has his twisted way, it won’t be long before it’s  time for Kimberly to . . .

My Thoughts:  I've  pretty much only read the D.D. Warren books by Gardner, so this was my  first introduction to Kimberly and crew.  Normally I try my best to read  series in order, but last year I learned to unclench a bit and read  freely.  Say Goodbye is an excellent thriller, although the subject  matter might keep some of you away. 

FBI Special Agent Kimberly  is expecting a baby with her husband Mac, when she gets a call about a  pregnant hooker who claims to have information for her.  Soon Kimberly  is on the hunt for a suspected serial killer, unaware that she herself  is a target.  That alone would be pretty tame for a thriller, but  Gardner also throws in kidnapping and child molestation.  Although she's  not graphic, it's never easy to read about young children getting  abused in horrible ways.  Kimberly's story is interwoven with the  kidnapped teenage boy who lives with the serial killer, and Rita, a  tough elderly lady trying to help a young boy who she assumes is from a  bad home.  At almost 90, Rita is pretty amazing.  She works harder than I  do and keeps a much tighter budget than I ever could- plus the  interaction she has with the shop keeper is heart warming.

I  don't know much background on Kimberly other than she has a rough  relationship with her dad (think Sydney and Jack Bristow  from Alias), a tragic past  (mother and sister both killed), and while she has a wonderful husband  in Mac, their relationship is under the strain of her pregnancy.  When  she teams up with GBI agent Sal, there's also the added stress of  dealing with her attraction to him. 

Gardner's books are always  page turners, and this one was no exception.  Each chapter started off  with spider facts (the serial killer is obsessed with spiders) which was  pretty neat.  Say Goodbye had me alternating between feeling a lot less  creeped out by spiders and being a lot more terrified of some of them  (I don't foresee any future trips to South America any time soon).  I  really want to go back and start this series from the beginning.  I was  just in the mood for a thriller, and I'm so glad I finally picked this  one from my pile of tbr books.  I tend to crave thrillers when my life  feels a bit out of control... although I'd probably be better off  reading fairy tales and romance novels.
  
Say Goodbye gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

 The book gets a Midnight Cover Rating of:

The cover is okay, it fits a thriller book which for some reason always have women's eyes on the cover.  Hmm...

Grave Sight Review

Grave Sight 
by Charlaine Harris
From Goodreads:

 Harper Connelly has what you might call a strange job: she finds dead people. She can sense the final location of a person who's passed, and share their very last moment. The way Harper sees it, she's providing a service to the dead while bringing some closure to the living-but she's used to most people treating her like a blood-sucking leech. Traveling with her step-brother Tolliver as manager and sometime-bodyguard, she's become an expert at getting in, getting paid, and getting out fast. Because for the living it's always urgent-even if the dead can wait forever.

My Thoughts:  You know how you can read two different books by an author and be surprised that they came from the same mind?  I've read all the Sookie Stackhouse books, and just assumed Grave Sight would be similar, but it's not.  Harper Connelly is a much different character than Sookie.  She seems wise beyond her years and is, for the most part, very careful.

Harper has an edge that comes from living a rough childhood, and after getting struck by lightning, she can now find the dead.  She has an interesting relationship with her step-brother Tolliver.  I went in thinking that it'd be a Flowers in the Attic kind of relationship, but so far there's no hint of it.  Which was a bit disappointed, but she did have a worthy romantic hook up in this first book. 

I really liked the mystery and the way that Harper and Tolliver were drawn into the lies of a small town.  I figured some of the plot out early on, but it didn't take away from the tension and drama of some of the confrontations. 

I listened to Grave Sight on audio (downloaded from Audible) and it was a fairly good listen.  The narrator lends a maturity to Harper's story, although she sounds older than Harper is described as being.  She had a nice, soothing voice.  I will definitely be continuing this series! I'm looking forward to continuing the story, and seeing what's up with her brother Tolliver and the rest of her family (hopefully we learn Cameron's fate as some point).


Grave Sight gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

The cover gets a Midnight Book Cover Rating of:

Not really my favorite cover, but you can't always have both a good story and a good cover.

Do You Remember Your First Encounter With Hunger?

Do You Remember Your First Encounter With Hunger?  As in Hunger Games?

I still stumble upon book bloggers who are just now getting into the series by Suzanne Collins, or some that haven't read it yet.  Those bloggers normally say it doesn't seem like the book for them.  But you know what?  It is, it is, the book for you.  And you.  And you over there, with the messy desk and runny nose.

Hunger Games is amazing. 

So I want to know, how'd you hear about it?  When did you discover it?

I read Hunger Games when it first came out.  I'm am proud to say that I helped build the band wagon, jumped on it and have been driving it all over the world trying to get people to read it since.  I actually heard about Hunger Games long before I was a book blogger.  Stephenie Meyers, yes the author of Twilight, mentioned HG on her website before it came out.   It sounded like Battle Royale meets The Lottery, so I picked it up as soon as it was released.

Like in Battle Royale, kids must battle to the death, and only one can be the winner.  BR was made into a movie, and later a series of manga.  I'd definitely recommend it, although it's even more violent than Hunger Games.

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
From Goodreads:

 Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller is based on an irresistible premise: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan - where it then proceeded to become a runaway bestseller - Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young and (barely) alive in a dog-eat-dog world. Made into a controversial hit movie of the same name, Battle Royale is already a contemporary Japanese pulp classic, now available for the first time in the English language

Of course Stephen King has covered this ground too- in a couple novellas like The Running Man and The Long Walk. 

So even though I didn't think Hunger Games was a unique idea, I was impressed at the dystopian world that Collins created.  Katniss is a fantastic heroine, one that I believe will go down with the Scout's and Elizabeth Bennet's of literary history.  Yes, like in Twilight, there is a love triangle.  But it's not the main focus, and it adds to story and it's never really a full blown love triangle.  Katniss, Peeta and Gale have other things on their minds than just hooking up.  Like surviving.  And while there were Team Peeta and Team Gale people (for the record I was Team Gale), it was pretty tame.  It's possible to like both guys, for instance even though I liked Gale it was mostly because I thought Peeta could do better. ;)

I am so excited for the movie, the previews are amazing.  Tickets are already purchased for the 12:20 showing.  My friend Kim from On The Wings of Books, talked me out of wearing an evening gown, dousing it with gasoline and setting myself on fire to achieve Katniss' girl on fire look.  Most movie theaters have pesky fire codes.  And I'm not trying to die before the movie starts. 

Maybe I'll just wear gray clothes and skip dinner so that I arrive hungry.  Dressing up for Hunger Games isn't as easy as Harry Potter or Rocky Horror, that's for sure. 

The Duff Review

The DUFF
by Kody Keplinger
From Goodreads:

 Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him.
Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

My Thoughts: My good, good, good friend Courtney was sweet enough to send me the audio book of The DUFF to listen to, and I'm eternally grateful.  It might not seem like it, since it took me months to finally get around to listening to it (mostly because I misplaced it), but I am thankful.

The DUFF is funny, raunchy and sexy.  This books make me realize that I was a nun during my teenage years.  Where was my Wesley Rush?  For that matter, where was my Toby Tucker?  Of course I was a teenager in the early and mid 90's so I'm assuming all the hot smex revolution happened after I graduated in 1995.  Although, I don't know if I could handle a Wesley Rush now, and I'm sure the Hubs would have his objections.

So Bianca is a great character- she's flawed and normal and snarky. She's a bit oblivious at times, too wrapped up in the drama of her home life to realize what her friends are going through. But aren't we all guilty of that sometimes?  My main problem with it is that it doesn't seem normal for her not to have spilled her secrets to her bff's.  I tell Courtney everything, and when she won't answer the phone, I tell her voicemail everything.  Which works out better sometimes, since voicemail allows me to vent without pause.

The DUFF reminds me of an 80's movie, Wesley would be played by some hot actor, a perfect blend of Rob Lowe's hotness and James Spade's rich boy attitude.  Bianca could be Jennifer Gray or Mare Winningham (did you even know she was a brat packer?  Because she is in St. Elmo's Fire but she's already playing grandmother characters now.  I feel so old), or Ally Sheedy.  Bianca's friends would be played by Demi Moore and Mia Sara.  Soundtrack by OMD, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Cure, the Bangles and Rick Aster.  See how perfect it could be?  Yeah, there's an awful lot of sex for a 1980's movie, but it was the decade that brought up Porky's.

I listened to the audio, which was a bit off due to the long pauses between sentences and paragraphs, but overall it was enjoyable.  A few storylines, like the one with Bianca's dad, and Jessica finding out about her brother, were tied up a little too neatly, but that's really being picky on my part.  Because I love this book, and eventually I will purchase my own physical copy (or at least on Kindle) so I can get my Wesley fix when I need it.

The DUFF gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

The cover gets a Midnight Book Cover Rating of:

It's cute, but it doesn't look like my vision of Bianca, and a pic of a girl rolling her eyes or sipping Cherry Coke would have been more fitting.  Still, it's eye catching and I like it.

Tagged and Bagged

So the blogosphere has been buzzing with this tagging meme...

 Rules
1 You must post the rules.
2 Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and then create eleven new questions to ask the  people you’ve tagged.
3 Tag eleven people and link to them on your post.
4 Let them know you’ve tagged them!

I have to admit I was afraid I wasn't cool enough to get tagged.  So I whined about it on Twitter, and magically got an offer to be tagged by Trish at Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity. Now my self esteem is back to it's usual inflated levels.  Phew.


1. What app do you love above all others? Not an app person? What about website?
Honestly I love my Goodreads app.  Last year I really utilized Goodreads to keep a track of all the books I read in 2011, and I loved it.  Part of the reason I wanted a smart phone was just so I could have the Goodreads app.  I also like the Out of Milk app- it has a grocery list, a to-do list, and a pantry list.  You can just scan the barcodes of the food in your pantry in order to know what you already have.  Same thing for your grocery list.  Love it!

2. Describe your dream profession (sky is the limit).
My dream profession would be to run a huge, magical, eclectic bookstore, one that had a cafe and music section, a room full of roll top desks for writers, a stage for poetry slams and there would be used as well as new books for sale. 

3. Appetizers or dessert?
Dessert at home, but I love appetizers when I go out.  A lot of times I like to order one or two appetizers instead of a meal.  My favorites- potato skins and steak fajita nachos.

4. If you could be BFF with any fictional character, who would you choose?
Heather Wells from Size 12 is Not Fat series by Meg Cabot... or Lula from the Stephanie Plum series. :)

5. I say BLUE. What immediatley comes to mind?
Weirdly enough, Blue Hawaii... and I'm not much of an Elvis fan (Buddy Holly is my King!)

6. Favorite song to blast and sing in your car with the windows down?
I am a fan of music, so picking one is hard, but Open Road Song by Eve6 is the first to pop into my mind.


7. What fashion fad makes you hang your head in shame?
One that I went through?  Okay, in the early 90's I bought a bunch of tie-dyed jumpers whilst at the beach.  It was not a good look for me.  I liked them because they were loose even on my pudgy butt.  Such a bad, bad look for me though. Such a bad, bad look for anyone.

8. What are your thoughts on 80s Hair Bands--specifically Monster Ballads?
I am not a fan of hair bands, although I did go through a very big Bon Jovi phase, Slippery When Wet was my first cassette tape purchased and the first concert I went to.  I just associate hair bands and monster ballads with the tiny town in PA where I was forced to move to in high school.  The rest of the world was going alternative/grunge.  But not in Nicktown, PA!  Nope, they liked their boys with perms and unnaturally high screaming vocals.  Leather pants were a must.  But don't get me wrong, I can belt out More Than Words or Every Rose Has It's Thorns with the best of them, and I'll even throw in a Living on a Prayer for free.

9. What is a book you wanted to throw across the room? What is one you wanted to hug?
Recently, Shatter Me, but since it was on my iPod and I listened to it in the car, I was able to resist the urge.  Hug?  I think I did hug Liesl & Po and The Night Circus.  Loved both of them.

10. Imagine you are an aerobics instructor--what song must be on your playlist?
Anthem by Superchick.  Now, I am so not a kick ass chick (unless we're beating each other up with words, and then I'm like a vocab ninja), but this song makes me feel like I can do anything.  My favorite line is:

We don't have time for your games
We have our own goals to score
There are trophies to win
Instead of being one of yours

11. What's for dinner tonight?
Coconut Shrimp- Kroger's had buy one get one free deal going on. 

Bonus: What's your favorite go-to lipstick (including color)
I'm not much of a lipstick girl, but I am addicted to chap stick and lip gloss.  My go to lip gloss is Covergirl's Wetslicks is Sassy.


Now here are the questions for the bloggers I'm picking (and feel free to tag yourself if I haven't tagged you, or just answer in the comments section):

1. What song would you pick for the soundtrack of the book you're currently reading?
2. What drink do you order most at Starbucks?
3. What literary character would you kiss, which one would you marry and which one would you push off a cliff?
4. Forget Zombies vs. Unicorns.  Are you Team Robots or Team Mermaid?
5.  What's the last movie you saw in the theater?
6.  If they were to make a movie out of your life, who would you want play your love interest?
7.  If you could kidnap an author, which one would it be and what book would you have them write and/or re-write?
8. How many books are in your TBR pile?
9. What's the worst job you've ever had?

10.  I want to paint an accent wall in my bedroom Peacock Blue, what color would you recommend for the other 3 walls? :)
11.  What is your favorite board game?


Bonus Question: Are you planning on attending BEA this year?  If yes, are you in need of a hotel room?  Because my friend Kim and I are looking for two other bloggers to share.  :)

So now's my turn to tag!

Courtney 

Kim

Steph

Andrea

Jac

Kai

Lily Bear

Midnyte Reader

And you!

The Friend Request Review

The Friend Request
by Alex Ford
From Goodreads:

 Alex Ford’s Dark Comedy. Have you accepted a 'friend request' when you should have clicked ignore? Do you really know all the people listed as 'friends' on your Facebook page? What if somebody from your past assumed the identity of someone from your present, so they could get close to you? What if they wanted to get close to you, just to hurt you - again.

David Andrews’ life is going well. With an imminent promotion at work he’s content in his job. His girlfriend is gorgeous and looking at the amount of friends on his Facebook page he’s very popular too. So, when he sees a friend request from a Barry Taylor, he doesn’t understand why it makes him so nervous, he’s not sure he even recognizes the name.

Eventually he forgets all about it, until the day he is forced to remember a past that was erased from his memory by a terrible accident. Little does he realize that all the information on his Facebook page might make him a little too vulnerable, especially to a sociopath like Barry Taylor, who is intent on destroying David’s life – for a second time. This leads David, with a little help from his friendly shopkeeper, on a journey of revenge and self-discovery.

My Thoughts:  Do you know how many free books I've downloaded for my Kindle since I got it?  Probably dozens upon dozens upon dozens.  How many have I actually read?  Like, three.  I'm happy to say The Friend Request is one of them.  No, it's not a spectacular book, but it wasn't bad.  It was like watching a dark comedy on BBC.  I quite enjoyed how Barry was able to manipulate so many people just through the powers of Facebook.

It gives me hope for when I go all Revenge on someone someday.  Seriously, are ya'll watching Revenge?  Because it's awesome!

Not that Barry has a good reason for revenge, in fact his motivations are as shallow and full of flatulence as he is.  But it is nice to know that I can conquer England and be named Queen if I simply learn to make a good cup of tea, because that's all it takes for Barry to ingratiate himself with David's friends and co-workers.

I almost didn't finish with this book.  I'm not even sure why I started reading it other than the fact that the premise sounded good even I take for granted that no one is all that interested enough in me to Facebook stalk me.  But I'm glad I stuck with it.  It's not the most brilliantly written book in the world, but it's entertaining.  The obsession with Facebook is brought to light (seriously, how many of you have checked your Facebook today before reading this blog?), and it's handled with humor.

It also made me realize that I post some dumb status updates on my page.  And nothing is sadder than when I post something wonderfully witty or snarky and people can't be bothered to even click "like".  It messes with a person's self esteem.

So, The Friend Request gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

Shatter Me Review

Shatter Me
by Tahereh Mafi
From Goodreads:

 Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.

My Thoughts:  I listened to Shatter Me on audio, which might be why it was hard for me to enjoy this book.  The narrator, in what I'm assuming was an attempt to capture Juliette's character, was over the top and emotional, to the point of shrill at times.  The constant crossing out of lines (which you hear but obviously don't see since it's audio) grated on my nerves.

You know that line in the Harry Potter movie when Hermione is explaining all the things Cho Chang felt whilst snogging Harry, and Ron says it's not possible for one person to feel all those things at once?  Well, he could have been talking about Juliette.  She feels for everyone, she wants to care for everyone, save everyone, and recycle.  Al Gore would probably be happy to adopt her, which would work because he doesn't seem like the hugging type anyway.

Fortunately either the narrator calmed down, or Juliette did, because about halfway through things got a little better.  I really enjoyed Warner, except Juliette's constant "I'm nothing like you" arguments got kind of old.  I'm kind of rooting for Warner, not to win Juliette from Adam, but just to turn her to the dark side.  Darth Vader Juliet would be much more interesting. We get a lot of anti-heros in YA fiction, but we're thin on the ground with anti-heroines. 

So, plot wise, Juliette is locked up because her touch kills.  She spends her days and nights in her cell alone, and I kept picturing the video for Melissa Etheridge's Come to My Window when the actress Juliette Lewis is going crazy, drawing on the walls and, like Shatter Me's Juliette, scribbling and crossing out, scribbling and crossing out, scribbling and crossing out.  See, I can do it too!

Anyways hottie Adam shows up, and Juliette is all crossing out over him.  Turns out he's from her past, and why he's drawn to her is just as mysterious to me as it is to Juliette.  Yeah, I get it, she's extremely unselfish and bent over backwards to help the same school mates who shunned her.  But honestly, I just felt that all of those instances of unselfishness (she misses a field trip to let some other snotty girl go, she claims to be cheating on a test in order to save yet another classmate even though her parents punish her severely, etc) just made Juliette seem a bit pathetic.  Holding doors open for people, that's a nice gesture, taking a beating for a class mate that would just as soon spit on you is over the top disturbing.  But once more it show's how caring Juliette is!

 I know I've made it sound like I hated the book, but I did think it had it's interesting points.  I was intrigued by Warner, and adored Adam and his little brother.  The ending went places I wasn't expecting, and I found it quite compelling.  I don't think I'll continue with the series just because I really don't like Juliette.  I can guarantee I won't listen to the next book in the series on audio (seriously the narration reminds me too much of my own drama club rehearsals back in high school).

A lot of the writing was truly beautiful, it was just too much.  And Juliette never just walks across a room, she is flung, she is propelled, she is shot out of a cannon by a demented circus monkey on a long journey to revenge across the room.  She doesn't just love Adam, she is shattered by him, she is thrust into the heat of a thousand burning suns at the mere thought of his touch, she is broken and then pieced together with drippy hot love glue.  Did I mention that the word shatter is way overused? 

There is a certain amount of hotness in the fact that Juliette's touch kills but she can touch Adam and their smexy scenes were pretty intense.  The author (and the characters) don't go too far, but at least there is chemistry between Adam and Juliette.

Lots of people/bloggers love Shatter Me, but if you're looking for the next Hunger Games, I can't recommend this book.  It does have a touch of X-Men in it though, so it might interest you super power lovers out there.

Shatter Me gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

The cover gets a Midnight Book Cover Rating of:

It's an okay cover, but in the world of amazing YA covers this one just doesn't stand out to me.  I do give it props for being mostly white, which is a nice change from a lot of the others out there.