Tag: book blog

The Girl in Times Square by Paullina Simons

Title: The Girl in Times Square
Author: Paullina Simons
Pub. Date: 30-Jun-2004
Rating: 4.7 Stars

I am so in love with Paullina Simons’s writing. She captured me with The Bronze Horseman, and I have been a fan ever since. The Girl in Times Square just solidifies my admiration of her work.  It is one of the most heart wrenching stories I have read.

Lily Quinn is twenty-four and still in college since she lacks a few credits to graduate. Lily just can’t seem to get her life together. Her boyfriend has moved out of their tiny apartment she shares with her friend Amy and now she has to pay his portion of rent. She can barely afford her share. Feeling like she is drifting, she lets her grandmother talk her into visiting her mother in Hawaii. Continue reading “The Girl in Times Square by Paullina Simons”

Son of a Gun by Lee Ness

Title: Son of a Gun
Author: Lee Ness
Pub. Date: 4-Dec-2017
Rating: 4 Stars

When I was asked to review Son of a Gun, by Lee Ness, it was pitched to me as in the vain of the Jason Bourne books by Robert Ludlum. Since I loved that series, I was stoked to read this book and I was not disappointed. There was lots of action, plot twists, and characters to love and some to hate.

John King is a nobody, he does not exist and he likes it like that. In the world of espionage, he operates within, he is known simply as Eidolon, an apparition, and he is the best.  As an assassin for hire he uses this to his utmost advantage. He works alone, stays in the shadows and even his face is not known.  Continue reading “Son of a Gun by Lee Ness”

2018 Reading Goals and Resolutions

Read 70 books for the Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge. That equals 1.35 books a week. For me, that is a lot of books considering I work full time and writing reviews and maintaining this blog requires time that eats into my reading time.

Read at least one book a month from my TBR pile. You might not think this is not much of a goal, but there are so many great books released every year, I have a tendency to read the new ones first. It will be a real challenge to ignore the new ones and read from the TBR stacks that are overflowing onto the floor.

Read my Book of the Month, each month, before the end of the month. Here is another challenge that looks easier than it will be. I select my Book of the Month and when it gets here I set it in the TBR stack thinking I will get to it next. Then another book comes along and the BOM book remains in the TBR stack. No more. I will read my selected book each month. Right?!

Do more reviews of books by Indie and Debut authors. I am always surprised at how much new talent comes along each year. Therefore, I want to make a better effort to read more books by new authors and Indie authors. They especially need reviewers to read and write about their books.

I can’t buy new books unless I read books from my TBR stacks. In other words, if I read two books from my TBR stacks then I can buy two books to replace the two I have read. This way my stacks will not get any bigger than they already are. Books I get for gifts and gift cards for books do not count. This will be the hardest of all the goals/resolutions. It will be a miracle if I can make it to the end of January.

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

Title: The Sun is Also a Star
Author: Nicola Yoon
Pub. Date: 1-Nov-2016
Rating: 5 Stars

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon is another one of those books that has been on my to-be-read list since it first came out.  Why, oh why does it take over a year to get to such a good book? After reading books like this I almost always beat myself up for not getting to it sooner.

In this story, the author is asking the reader to believe in fate and love at first site. Daniel is in the right place at the right time to meet Natasha.  Only Natasha is scheduled to be deported back to Jamaica that very evening. Therefore, Daniel has only a few hours to convince Natasha that two people can fall in love in an initial meeting and he has the science to prove it. Natasha is very skeptical, and rightly so, especially since she is Jamaican and he is Korean and she knows her parents would never approve of a relationship with Daniel.  Continue reading “The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon”

Snow by Mikayla Elliot

Title: Snow
Author: Mikayla Elliot
Pub. Date: 31-Jul-2017
Rating: 4.5

As a lover of fantasy and paranormal I have read a lot of vampire stories some good, some bad. Snow by Mikayla Elliot most definitely falls into the good category. It is a different take on the standard vampire tale.

Neva is a young woman who is working in her parents’ bakery until one day she is whisked away to the castle of a nearby Lord as a potential wife. Once at the castle she is turned into a vampire by Lord Thedryk. She is told she is the person that the vampire world has been waiting centuries for to be reborn.  She is the one that will change the course of all vampires forever.  Because of this, she is the target of the vampire Zachariah who wants to stop her fulfilling her destiny. Before she even has a chance to figure out what her destiny will be she must deal with Zachariah.  Continue reading “Snow by Mikayla Elliot”

A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne

Title: A Plague of Giants
Author: Kevin Hearne
Pub. Date: 3-Oct-2017
Rating: 5 Stars

A Plague of Giants is the first book I have read by Kevin Hearne and I fell in love with the story and the author.  It is high fantasy, and the first book of a proposed trilogy. The author used a unique way to tell the story, one you will either hate or love, and it worked so well.

The story is about two invading forces of Giants, one in the north and one in the south. They invade the land of Teldwen, made up of six nations.  This invasion has become known as the Giants’ War. The story is told by Fintan, a Raelech bard, who has been gifted with magical powers (called a keening) that allows him to project his voice across vast distances and gives him an eidetic memory to be able to recall all the details of an event so that he can accurately relate the event.  Continue reading “A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne”

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 edited by John Joseph Adams and Charles Yu

Title: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017
Author: John Joseph Adams
Pub. Date: 3-Oct-2017
Rating: 4 Stars

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 edited by John Joseph Adams and Charles Yu is an anthology of short stories that embraces all varieties of Sci-Fi and Fantasy.  It is an interesting and diverse compilation.

It opens with Head, Scales, Tongue and Tail by Leigh Bardugo a story about a young girl who falls in love with a boy that is not really human. It was probably my favorite and set my expectations high for this anthology. Another favorite of mine was Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home by Genevieve Valentine a story about the repercussions of a world in which everyone is plugged in and what are the rights of people in that type of world. Continue reading “The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 edited by John Joseph Adams and Charles Yu”

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

Title: Sometimes I Lie
Author: Alice Feeney
Pub. Date: 13-Mar-2018
Rating: 5 Stars

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney is a chilling debut novel that you will not put down until the last sentence is devoured. This psychological thriller is in the vain of Gone Girl and is sure to keep you awake long after you have finished reading. Definitely one of the best this year.

At this point I usually give a synopsis of the plot; however, this time it is impossible to without some sort of spoiler and I hate spoilers. Believe me, this book is too good and you will be thanking me after you read it. Instead I am just giving you the blurb from the book. Continue reading “Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney”

House of Shadows by Nicola Cornick

Title: House of Shadows
Author: Nicola Cornick
Pub. Date: 17-Oct-2017
Rating: 5 Stars

House of Shadows by Nicola Cornick is a wonderful, fictional story that has been skillfully woven into and around English history. The story line was rather complex as the reader is actually following three separate time lines, one in the 17th century, the 19th and the present.

The story opens on the death bed of Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen, as she implorers William Craven, the First Earl of Craven her faithful and devoted cavalier, to destroy a pearl and a jeweled mirror that she believed had wrought havoc in her family. The story then leaps forward to the present when Holly gets a call in the middle of the night from her niece saying her father, Holly’s brother, is missing. Continue reading “House of Shadows by Nicola Cornick”

The Scholar by J. J. Anders

Title: The Scholar
Author: J. J. Anders
Pub. Date: 21-Nov2017
Rating: 5 Stars

The Scholar by J. J. Anders is the first of two books in The Genoa Chronicles. It is a YA fantasy story about Anna a young girl who has never fit in on Earth. She knows she is different, all she has to do is look in the mirror and see her white hair and translucent skin to confirm this. She also has this unique magical gift where she can acquire all the knowledge in a book just by touching its cover.

Despite searching all her life, Anna has never found another like herself. She has absorbed knowledge from books in libraries all over the world and successfully avoided capture by the military in her quest to learn about herself.  It appears her luck has run out, or maybe she has become complacent, because she has been spotted in the library and must flee to avoid capture.  Just as the military surrounds her and Anna thinks all is lost, a young man, Leian, comes to her rescue. Continue reading “The Scholar by J. J. Anders”