Original Sin-Beth McMullen

Fast-Paced Fun

Lucy Hamilton is your typical stay at home mom, although this mom used to be a spy. She’s kept her secret from her husband and friends but now the past is catching up with her. Her nemesis has resurfaced from the dead, and the agency is calling on her for help, and dragging her family in danger. The story jumps back and forth between her life as a mom and her past as a spy. I love mix of the funny mom stories and the sexy spy stories. 

I loved this book. It was both fast-paced and funny. I did not want to put it down and read the whole book in only one day. It reminds me of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, except this heroine knows what she’s doing. It’s a quick, fun book, so don’t expect any explanations or very much attention to detail. I hope this book does well because I can’t wait to read more books from this series. 

        This book was sent to me from the publisher as an advanced copy. The book is expected to be released in July 2011. I was not paid by the publisher for a positive review.

House of Prayer No. 2- Mark Richard

44 pages in and I'm out...

Unfortunately, I was unable to finish this book. I started it several weeks ago and after struggling to finish the first 44 pages I just couldn’t do it anymore. The author’s use of 2nd person narrative is distracting from the story. I didn’t like reading “you” when I couldn’t relate to his story. He talks about tragic events and terrible things in such a nonchalant way that it feels so impersonal. I read a book for insight into the way things make other people feel and the author mentions these things in passing like they are inconsequential when to me they seem so tragic. So I found it very unrelatable. I think the writing is great and the author’s story is one worth hearing, but the style of the book bothered me too much. I would like to give this book another try later, especially after reading some other reviews that say it’s worth finishing, but right now I’m ready to move on to something else. This was an advanced copy sent to me from the publisher and LIbrarything.com.    

The Host- Stephanie Meyer

Slow Starting....but worth the wait.

Fans of Twilight will still like the host and so will female sci-fi fans who aren’t into vampires. I will warn you, it took me about 100 pages to really get into this book, but it was worth toughing it out. The story takes place in a future Earth where “peace-loving body snatchers” have taken over our planet. They have been here long enough to be the majority and the last remaining humans are in hiding. The aliens called “souls” are implanted into human bodies and then they take over still sometimes keeping the human’s memories and some personality traits. Wanderer, a old soul who has lived on more planets than most other souls, is implanted into Melanie’s body. Unfortunately for her, Melanie is letting go easily and the two of them are stuck in a power struggle. Melanie’s memories of her love, Jared, are haunting Wanderer and making her long for a man she has never met. Eventually they set off to find Jared and her brother, Jamie, who she was separated from when she was kidnapped. 

I liked the book mainly because Stephanie Meyer is such a good storyteller. I’m not usually into science fiction type stories but this is a great story about love and humanity. The issue I did have with this book is that occasionally when a new chapter started I felt like I’d missed something. The story would move ahead in time, skipping ahead quickly, but it would mention things that happened that were left out. It felt like some of things we miss should not have been skipped over and mentioned so briefly. It’s like your racing to the end at some points. I would recommend this book to all Stephanie Meyer fans but don’t expect another Twilight; it will not measure up. The story is far from the world of Forks and the love story is a much more confusing. Don’t judge the book until you’ve read at least 100 pages, then if you still aren’t into it you can put it down. But the slow start, leads to a surprisingly good story.

The Forgotten Garden- Kate Morton

Don't miss out, read this fairy tale.

One of the best books I’ve read in a long time. I was engrossed in Nell’s story from page one and could not read this 592 page book fast enough. A four year old girl, Nell, is found on the docks after making the long voyage to Australia, she does not remember who she is and no one on the boat claims to know where she came from. She is taken in by a good family who raises her as their own. On her 18th birthday she is told, by her father, the story of how he found her. What do you do when you find out you aren’t who you thought you were? After having her world turned upside down, Nell goes on a journey to discover who she is and how she got on that boat that fateful day. Thirty years later, after Nell passes away, her granddaughter Cassandra embarks on the same journey to finish solving the mystery. This book weaves together stories of Nell’s true parents, her granddaughter, and her own saga so that you get all the pieces to the puzzle deliciously slow. The book is intertwined with the fairy tales from  Nell’s book, one of her few possessions from her mysterious past. And her story reads like a fairy tale itself. I could hardly stand to put this book down. I wanted to go and buy a copy for everyone I know so they could have the same wonderful experience I did. I highly recommend this to everyone. Don’t let the length of this book intimidate you because at the end you’ll see that it still wasn’t enough. It’s a sweetly sad story of family and what people give up for those they love.

Extraordinary- Nancy Werlin

Too Teenage Faerie for Me

Extraordinary is a book with a good message about friendship and believing in your self, if you pretend it’s not about faeries. I can’t really say I enjoyed this book. It’s a good book for young adults but not one that translates well for adults. 

Phoebe, the protagnist, is a young Jewish-American girl whose becomes best friends with a fairy, Mallory, who is sent by the faerie queen to bring Phoebe to them to repay an ancestor’s debt. When they become friends and Mallory is not completing the task, her brother, Ryland, is sent in to finish it. 

The message is great, never let anyone make you feel bad about who you are, never let a guy emotionally abuse you (even if he is a faerie), and friendship is true. Alas, I still could not find enjoyment in this book. The faerie aspect of the story distracted me from the plot and the teenager talk made me feel like I couldn’t relate. 

Great House by Nicole Krauss

Great writing, heavy reading....

          So I've read a few books since my first blog. The first was Great House by Nicole Krauss. I really enjoyed this book but would not recommend this for any light readers. It tells the story of four separate people who all have owned a particular desk. The story is told in two parts each four chapters long. The book opens with a reclusive writer, Nadia. She was given the desk by Daniel Varsky, a Chilean poet, who was murdered before he was able to retrieve it. She receives a call from someone claiming to be his daughter and gives up the desk to later regret it. There are also the stories of a old man reflecting on his two sons and their differences, a student who falls in love with a socially awkward boy whose father is an antique furniture dealer, and a man whose wife's past is still a mystery to him. The desk itself is not really as important in the story as you would think. It's the connection between all the characters and it looms in the background of all the stories. Krauss refers to it once as a "lone physical representation of all that was otherwise weightless and intangible." That to me describes what the desk means to the troubled characters in this book.

           If you like a book with a complex storyline and twists and turns this book is not for you. The beauty of this book is Krauss's way of describing her complex characters and their emotions. She puts it perfectly. It took me longer to read this book than normal because I had to absorb every word and pause to reflect on how right on she is in her descriptions. I would recommend this book but not to everyone. Decide for yourself if you're willing to take it on and if you do, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

First Blog Ever

"What are you reading now?" I hear that question all the time. If I've not got my nose in a book then you can assume there is a book somewhere on my person. People are always asking, "What's the book about?", "Is it any good?", "Would I like it?". Well I finally decided maybe I could actually do this. I tell people all the time about what I'm reading, why not write about it? Probably nobody cares, but at least I'm going to enjoy this process. I've also set my 2010 goal to read 75 books. A good feat for a new mom. January has already passed and I've read 10 books (Stephanie Plum Series 1-10), but they were "rereads" so I breezed through them. I started the 11th book in the series February 1st and now it's the 15th and I am still stuck. I think I need to get out of Trenton, NJ for awhile and get some fresh air. I live in Tennessee by the way...Stephanie Plum lives in New Jersey. I'm going to browse my oversized books collection tomorrow morning and pick out my new endeavor. I'm gonna shelve this book for awhile I just can't do the whole series right now. I'll to let you know the first blog victim tomorrow cause I'm lights out tonight.