Book Review: Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn

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Just Like Heaven

by Julia Quinn

genre: historical romance

I’m closing in on the end of my A-Z author challenge with only five letters to go. Looking through the thread for Q authors, I found historical romance novelist Julia Quinn. After two disappointing novels, Just Like Heaven had me laughing nearly every chapter and hitting the steering wheel crying, “Yes, yes, yes.” Completely cliche, guy falls on top of girl and they kiss moments, but I loved it. You don’t read romance novels for a surprise. Romance novels by definition have to have a happy ending.

Summary from Audible

Honoria Smythe-Smith is:
A) a really bad violinist
B) still miffed at being nicknamed “Bug” as a child
C) not in love with her her older brother’s best friend
D) all of the above

Marcus Holroyd is:
A) the Earl of Chatteris
B) regrettably prone to sprained ankles
C) not in love with his best friend’s younger sister
D) all of the above

Together they:
A) eat quite a bit of chocolate cake
B) survive a deadly fever
C) fall quite desperately in love

It’s Julia Quinn at her best, so you know the answer is…

D) all of the above

Book Review: The Walking Dead – The Road to Woodbury

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The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury (#2 in series)

by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga

genre: zombie-fiction, horror

Fans of The Walking Dead should give this book a miss. Find out why I gave it 1 out of 5 stars!

Summary

(Taken from Goodreads)

The zombie plague unleashes its horrors on the suburbs of Atlanta without warning, pitting the living against the dead. Caught in the mass exodus, Lilly Caul struggles to survive in a series of ragtag encampments and improvised shelters. But the Walkers are multiplying. Dogged by their feral hunger for flesh and crippled by fear, Lilly relies on the protection of good Samaritans by seeking refuge in a walled-in town once known as Woodbury, Georgia.

At first, Woodbury seems like a perfect sanctuary. Squatters barter services for food, people have roofs over their heads, and the barricade expands, growing stronger every day. Best of all, a mysterious self-proclaimed leader named Philip Blake keeps the citizens in line. But Lilly begins to suspect that all is not as it seems. . . . Blake, who has recently begun to call himself The Governor, has disturbing ideas about law and order.

Ultimately, Lilly and a band of rebels open up a Pandora’s box of mayhem and destruction when they challenge The Governor’s reign . . . and the road to Woodbury becomes the highway to hell in this riveting follow-up to Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga’s New York Times bestselling The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor.

Review

I love The Walking Dead television series and anything zombie related. I have been on the hunt for a good zombie fiction novel but this book was not what I was searching for.

First of all, the characters were too bland for my liking. The main girl Lily could have been really interesting to read but the writer kept her a little scared girl. Josh (always referred to as ‘big man’) repeatedly referred to Lily as ‘babygirl’. It was driving me insane and it didn’t feel sweet at all. The slut shaming in the book was terrible with how Megan was portrayed: a pot-head prostitute and little else. She was just a reason to have sex scenes in the book. It was shallow and stupid. They could have developed all these characters to something much much more.

Book Review: Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

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Can You Keep a Secret?

by Sophie Kinsella

genre: chick-lit, romance

Another great book by the author of The Undomestic Goddess. Not quite 5 stars though. Read on to find out why.

Synopsis from Goodreads

Meet Emma Corrigan, a young woman with a huge heart, an irrepressible spirit, and a few little secrets:

Secrets from her boyfriend: I’ve always thought Connor looks a bit like Ken. As in Barbie and Ken.

Secrets from her mother: I lost my virginity in the spare bedroom with Danny Nussbaum while Mum and Dad were downstairs watching Ben-Hur.

Secrets she wouldn’t share with anyone in the world: I have no idea what NATO stands for. Or even what it is.

Until she spills them all to a handsome stranger on a plane. At least, she thought he was a stranger… Until Emma comes face-to-face with Jack Harper, the company’s elusive CEO, a man who knows every single humiliating detail about her.

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Book Review: Dead Run by P. J. Tracy

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Dead Run

by P. J. Tracy

genre: crime, suspense

A classic race against time novel! Find out why I gave it 3 out of 5 stars!

Summary

(Taken from Goodreads)

Something terrible has happened in Four Corners, and the complete absence of life and severed phone lines in every building make it impossible to get help. Grace, her senses honed by a lifetime of justifiable paranoia, sees the sinister in every detail, and her intuition barely saves all three of them when they witness a horrifying double murder. Grace, Annie, and Sharon are suddenly running for their lives, while the rest of the Monkeewrench crew, along with Minneapolis cops Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth, strike out on a blind search to find them.

Review

I picked this novel up for $1 from a second-hand book sale. I took it with me to read on the plan to Europe. I read it a month or two ago but forgot to review it. There’s a reason why…

Book Review: Kate by Anne Schilde

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Kate

by Anne Schilde

genre: drama, historical

An online story that weaved itself into my heart and refused to let go. Find out why I gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars!

Summary

(Taken from Anne Schilde’s blog)

A late-19th-century prostitute talks about her childhood, her life at a brothel in an imaginary town called Willow Bend, Louisiana, and her struggle to change her life.

Review

Those of you who participate in Picture it & write may recognise Anne Schilde’s name. She’s been contributing for months and always has a fascinating story to tell. Kate is an online, 39-chapter story that is available to all: here.

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Book Review: Temptation by Nora Roberts

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 Temptation

 by Nora Roberts
Language of Love #43

genre: romance

Synopsis from Goodreads
Socialite Eden Carlbough didn’t expect running a girls’ camp to be easy, but she never thought she’d literally be run up an apple tree by the little monsters…nor did she think she’d come crashing down into the capable arms of orchard owner Chase Elliot. Chase knew he’d caught a windfall when he looked at the woman in his arms. He didn’t like being cast as the serpent, but how could he resist when she’d just offered him such forbidden fruit?

Review

This is the first Nora Roberts book I’ve read and I don’t know why it took so long!  She’s an absolutely brilliant writer with vivid and believable characters.  Chase is neither a bad boy nor Prince Charming, but an amalgam of contradictions.  He’s sweet and gently but strong and brooding.  He’s both patient and incredibly impatient.  Eden is a woman to admire; she’s determined to make the best of what the world has dealt her.  Quick witted and amusing, her antics had me smiling as I listed to the audio book.  Great to listen to in the car, it’s not a heavy story that requires focus.

Book Review: Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich

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Two for the Dough

Stephanie Plum, #2
by Janet Evanovich

genre: mystery

The sequel to One for the Money, Two for the Dough can be read without book one.  It’s easy enough to follow the plot and the relationships at this point in the series without feeling as though you’re dropped back into high school and you’re not sure who has slept with whom and who has seen whom naked.  This is not a YA book, though it is not as graphic as other Stephanie Plum novels, it’s descriptive enough that parents should screen it before letting their kids read it.

Synopsis from Goodreads

Bounty hunter Stephanie Pum is still learning the ropes at her cousin Vinnie’s bail bond office, so when she sets out on the trail of Kenny Mancuso – a suspiciously weatlhy, working class Trenton boy who has just shot his best friend – the stakes are higher than ever. That Mancuso is distantly related to vice cop Joe Morelli – who is trying to beat Stephanie to the punch – only makes the hunt more thrilling…

Taking pointers from her bounty hunter pal, Ranger, and using her pistol packing Grandma Mazur as a decoy, Stephanie is soon closing in on her mark. But Morelli and his libido are worthy foes. And a more sinister kind of enemy has made his first move… and his next move might be Stephanie’s last.

New Year, New Galleries – Contest

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Once again, Happy New Year!  We’re inviting artists, photographers, and anyone else to post images of one of our Blind Sight characters to go in a gallery on the blog and on Facebook. The prize this time?  Both volumes of our debut novel, Blind Sight.

One volume is told through the eyes of Leocardo Reyes and the other through the eyes of Aniela Dawson so the first galleries of 2012 will feature them.  Entries for the contest are open through February 29.  Winners will be announced on the day of Blind Sight‘s release: March 1.  Submissions to the gallery will remain open after February 29, but will not be eligible for the contest.

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