Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Summer Giveaway Hop (Aug 1 - Aug 7)


Hello and welcome to the Summer Giveaway Hop (hosted by Kathy at I am a Reader, Not a Writer and Mary from Bookhounds and Forever Young (adult)).  I am giving away 3 books to one winner for this hop - Unfortunately I cannot afford to send internationally, so this will be a U.S. only hop.  The books are Summerland by Elin Hilderbrand, Banana Split by Josi Kilpack and The Director's Cut by Janice Thompson


After you enter my giveaway - be sure to enter all the other giveaways by following the linky list at the bottom! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, July 30, 2012

It's Monday! What are you reading? (July 30, 2012)



What are you reading on Mondays is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey - You can hook up with the Mr. Linky there with your own post - but be sure and let me know what you are reading too! 


Currently reading this week: 

Upcoming books:
Beach Season by Lisa Jackson



















Books read and needing to be reviewed:
Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Kristina McMorris
Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog by Lisa Scottoline
Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce
The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter
Permanence by Vincent Zandri




Until next week ----  Ready - Set - Read!


Sunday, July 29, 2012

Mailbox Monday (July 30, 2012)







Welcome to Mailbox Monday, the weekly meme created by Marcia from A girl and her books.  This is where I share the titles I have received for review or purchased during the past week.  Mailbox Monday will be hosted in July by Mrs Q Book Addict.


Gone
by Cathi Hanauer


For the past fourteen years, Eve Adams has worked part-time while raising her two children and emotionally supporting her sculptor husband, Eric, through his early fame and success.  Now, at forty-two, she suddenly finds herself with a growing career of her own -- a private nutritionist practice and a book deal -- even as Eric's career sinks deeper into the slump it slipped into a few years ago.


After a dinner at a local restaurant to celebrate Eve's success, Eric drives the babysitter home and, simply, doesn't come back.  Eve must now shift the family in possibly irreparable ways, forcing her to realize that competence in one area of life doesn't always keep things from unraveling in another.


Gone is an outstanding novel about change and about redefining, in middle age, everything from one's marriage to one's career to tone's role as a best friend, parent, and spouse.  It is a novel about passon and forgiveness and knowing when to let something go and when to fight to hold on to it, about learning to say goodbye -- but, if you're lucky, not forever. 


Some Remarks
by Neal Stephenson


One of the most talented and creative authors working today, Neal Stephenson is renowned for his exceptional novels -- works colossal in vision and mind-boggling in complexity. Exploring and blending a diversity of topics, including technology, economics, history, science, op culture, and philosophy, his books are the products of a keen and adventurous intellect.  Not surprisingly, Stephenson is regularly asked to contribute articles, lectures, and essays to numerous outlets, from major newspapers and cutting-edge magazines to college symposia. This remarkable collection brings together previously published short writings, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as a new essay (and an extremely short story) created specifically for this volume.


Stephenson ponders a wealth of subjects, from movies and politics to David Foster Wallace and the Midwestern American College Town; video games to classics-based sci-fi; how geekdom has become cool and how science fiction has become mainstream (whether people admit it or not); the future of publishing and the origins of his novels.  Playful and provocative, Some Remarks displays Stephenson's opinions and ideas on:

  • The Internet, our dwindling national attention span and the cultural importance of books and bookishness
  • Waco, religion, and the cluelessness of secular society
  • Metaphysics and the battle between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
  • The laying of the longest wire on Earth -- and why it matters to you
  • Technology, freedom, commerce, and the Chinese
  • How Star Wars and 300 mirror who we are today -- and what that spells for our future
  • Modern Jedi knights, a.k.a. scientists and echnologists, and why they are admired and feared by both the left and the right
By turns amusing and profound, critical and celebratory, yet always entertaining, Some Remarks offers a fascinating look into the prismatic mind of this extraordinary writer. 

Saturday, July 28, 2012

The Line Between Here and Gone by Andrea Kane (Blog Tour and Giveaway)

Title: The Line Between Here and Gone
Author: Andrea Kane
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA


About the Book: "The man she loved is gone forever. The child she lives for could be next."Each day is a struggle for Amanda Gleason's newborn son as he battles a rare immune deficiency. Justin's best chance for a cure lies with his father, who was brutally murdered before Amanda even realized she carried his child.

Or was he?

One emailed photo changes everything, planting a seed of doubt that Amanda latches on to for dear life: a recent photo of a man who looks exactly like Paul. Could Justin's father be alive? The mother in her is desperate to find out. But tracking down a ghost when every second counts is not for amateurs.

"Forensic Instincts is the one team up for the challenge."

A behaviorist. A former navy SEAL. A techno-wizard. An intuitive. A retired FBI agent. A human-scent-evidence dog. Together they achieve the impossible, pushing ethical and legal boundaries whenever the ends justify the means.

The manhunt is on for the elusive father. Yet the further FI digs into his past, the more questions are raised about whether the man Amanda fell in love with ever really existed at all.

Dark secrets. Carefully crafted lies. From the congressional halls of Washington, D.C., to exclusive Hamptons manors, there are ruthless people who would stop at nothing to make Forensic Instincts forget about the man Amanda desperately needs to find.

Little do "they" realize that once Forensic Instincts takes the case, nothing will stop them from uncovering the shocking truth that transcends "The Line Between Here and Gone."



EXCERPT:  It was well past business hours but she didn’t care.
She knew they worked around the clock when necessary. She wouldn’t call; she wouldn’t give them a chance to turn her away.


To read the excerpts from the beginning and follow along with the tour - please visit Book Trib!

My thoughts: Although this is the second book in the Forensic Instincts series, it read very well as a stand alone.  (The first book is The Girl Who Disappeared Twice).  They did a good job of introducing you to the Forensic Instincts team, Casey, Claire, Marc, Patrick, Ryan and Hero.  These five people (and dog) work well together and all bring their specific talents/areas of expertise to the table.  There are a couple of ex-FBI agents, a techno-geek and an "intuitive" or clairvoyant to the rest of us, but she doesn't like to be called that.  Their current case is to locate the missing, presumed dead, father of an infant, Justin, who is fighting for his life.  Amanda, his mother, had heard about this team due to their recent involvement in a kidnapping case (the first book) and when a friend snaps a picture of a man that resembles her "dead" boyfriend she follows her own instincts and hires them.

They quickly get immersed in the case and find that it involves much more than just saving a baby's life - but it doesn't stop them in pursuing any leads -- regardless of any danger or who will be brought down in the process.  They are all in when it comes to doing whatever they can to save Justin's life.

I loved this book and because of the diversity of the team, the speed at which they were able to come up with leads and evidence is believable.  The author allows you to see some of the things going on behind the scenes, but doesn't let you know who the players are until the very end.  Ms. Kane is going to be an author that I watch for, and I am going to have to go back and read the first book in the series - The Girl Who Disappeared Twice.  

Thanks to Meryl Moss Media, I have one copy of this book to give away to one of my US/Canada readers.  Please fill out the rafflecopter form below to enter!



~I received a complimentary copy of this book from Meryl Moss Media in exchange for my review.~





a Rafflecopter giveaway




The Line Between Here and Gone
Publisher/Publication Date: MIRA, July 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1337-3
400 pages

Friday, July 27, 2012

Overdue winner announcement!

WOW!  I am really late picking and notifying winners!  For whatever reason I have not been able to get much accomplished this summer, but hope as it nears the end that I will be able to "get my groove back!"  

Here are the winners of the last couple of months giveaways!

Splash Into Summer Giveaway Winner - Jeannette W.

Love is Murder Giveaway Winner - Ashley M.

Summer Reads Giveaway Winner - Beth D.

Summerland by Elin Hilderbrand Giveaway Winner - Bonnie Y.

One Breath Away Giveaway Winner - Delilah V.


All winners have been notified by email!   I am hoping to get some more giveaways going in August so stay tuned!

Knee Deep by Jolene Perry (Book Review)




Title: Knee Deep
Author: Jolene Perry
Publisher: Tribute Books


About the Book: You’re a girl, he says, and are probably seeing things that aren’t there.


Shawn is the guy Ronnie Bird promised her life to at the age of fourteen. He's her soul mate. He's more uptight every day, but it's not his fault. His family life is stressful, and she's adding to it. She just needs to be more understanding, and he'll start to be the boy she fell in love with. She won’t give up on someone she’s loved for so long.

Luke is her best friend, and the guy she hangs with to watch girlie movies in her large blanketopias. He's the guy she can confide in before she even goes to her girlfriends, and the guy who she's playing opposite in Romeo and Juliet. Now her chest flutters every time he gets too close. This is new. Is Ronnie falling for him? Or is Juliet? The lines are getting blurry, but leaving one guy for another is not something that a girl like Ronnie does.

Shawn’s outbursts are starting to give her bruises, and Luke’s heart breaks as Ronnie remains torn. While her thoughts and feelings swirl around the lines between friendship and forever, she’s about to lose them both.

My thoughts:  For me, this book started out slow, but I was quickly immersed in Ronnie's story.  I think that every young girl thinks her first love will be her only love, and the author does a great job of capturing those feelings for the reader. But there is more than just first love going on here. Shawn has started to change and Ronnie is convinced that if she just gives him more time, he will be the boy she fell in love with again - regardless of the consequences. 

And then there is Luke.  Who remembers all those feelings you get when the boy of your dreams walks in the room?  Ronnie begins to have those feelings for Luke, but she convinces herself that these are not her feelings, but those of Juliet for her Romeo - the characters the two of them are playing in the school play.  She is sure that once the play is over she will be able to let those feelings go and that the problems Shawn is having will have begun to ease by then and that relationship will get back on track.  

Jolene Perry does a great job of dealing with the sensitive issue of abusive relationships and how women, especially teens, can make exceptions to excuse the behavior in the one they love - and who loves them.  I have already told my daughter that I want her to read this book - because I want her to see how no abuse is okay, and there is no reason good enough to make it okay.   

~I received a complimentary ecopy of this book from Tribute Books in exchange for my unbiased review.~

About the author: Jolene grew up in Wasilla, Alaska. She graduated from Southern Utah University with a degree in political science and French, which she used to teach math to middle schoolers.

After living in Washington, Utah and Las Vegas, she now resides in Alaska with her husband, and two children. Aside from writing, Jolene sews, plays the guitar, sings when forced, and spends as much time outside as possible.

She is also the author of Night Sky and The Next Door Boys.



You can find out more about the book and connect with the author at the following locations: 

Knee Deep web site:
http://knee-deep-book.blogspot.com/
  
Knee Deep Twitter hashtag:
#KneeDeep
Knee Deep GoodReads page:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12987551-knee-deep
Jolene Perry's Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002038196677

Jolene Perry's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/JoleneBPerry

Jolene Perry's Website:
http://www.jolenebperry.com/

Jolene Perry's Blog:
http://www.jolenesbeenwriting.blogspot.com/

Jolene Perry's GoodReads:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4944599.Jolene_B_Perry


Tribute Books website:
http://www.tribute-books.com


Tribute Books Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Archbald-PA/Tribute-Books/171628704176


Tribute Books Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/TributeBooks


Tribute Books Blog Tours Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-Books-Blog-Tours/242431245775186


Publisher/Publication Date: Tribute Books, May 2012
ISBN: 9780983741886
ISBN: 9781476060316
240 pages

Monday, July 23, 2012

It's Monday! What are you reading? (July 23, 2012)



What are you reading on Mondays is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey - You can hook up with the Mr. Linky there with your own post - but be sure and let me know what you are reading too! 


Currently reading this week: 

Upcoming books:
Beach Season by Lisa Jackson
The Line Between Here and Gone by Andrea Kane


















Books read and needing to be reviewed:
Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Kristina McMorris
Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog by Lisa Scottoline
Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce
The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter




Until next week ----  Ready - Set - Read!


Mailbox Monday (July 23, 2012)







Welcome to Mailbox Monday, the weekly meme created by Marcia from A girl and her books.  This is where I share the titles I have received for review or purchased during the past week.  Mailbox Monday will be hosted in July by Mrs Q Book Addict.

I have been in email hell for the last week!  We changed internet providers so I had to change email addresses - it feels like I have been updating all the newsletters that I get for a month!  And don't get me started on what I had to do to get my files transferred!  My new provider doesn't have files within files *yet* so I hope I can find things when I need them.  But, at least I got some good books last week!


Pushing the Limits
by Katie McGarry


So wrong for each other. . . and yet so right.


No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms.  Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night.  All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.


But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined.  They should have nothing in common.  And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.


Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away.  And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.




The Last Letter from your Lover
by Jojo Moyes


In 1960, Jennifer Stirling wakes in the hospital and remembers nothing -- not the car accident that put her there, not her wealthy husband, not even her own name.  Searching for clues, she finds an impassioned letter, signed simply "B," from a man for whom she seemed willing to risk everything.


In 2003, journalist Ellie Haworth stumbles upon an old letter containing a man's ardent plea to his married lover.  She becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to the lovers.  Perhaps if they lived happily ever after, her own complicated afair could have a happy ending, too.  A Brief Encounter for our time, this is a novel for romantics of every age. 



Finding Emma
by Steena Holmes


Megan sees her daughter Emma everywhere.  She's the little girl standing in the supermarket, the child waiting for the swings at the playground, the girl with ice cream dripping down her face.  But it's never Emma.


Emma's been missing for two years.


Unable to handle the constant heartache of all the false sightings, Megan's husband threatens to walk away unless Megan can agree to accept Emma is gone.  Megan's life and marriage is crumbling all around her and she realizes she may have to do the thing she dreads most:  move on.

When Megan takes a photo of a little girl with an elderly couple at the town fair, she believes it to be her missing daughter.  Unable to let go, she sets in motion a sequence of events that could destroy both families lives. 




and when she was good
by Laura Lippman


When Hector Lewis told his daughter that she had a nothing face, it was just another bit of tossed-off cruelty from a man who specialized in harsh words and harsher deeds.  But twenty years later, Heloise considers it a blessing to be a person who knows how to avoid attention.  In the comfortable suburb where she lives, she's just a mom, the youngish widow with a forgettable job who somehow never misses a soccer game or a school play.  In the state capitol, she's the redheaded lobbyist with a good cause and a mediocre track record.


But in discreet hotel rooms throughout the area, she's the woman of your dreams -- if you can afford her hourly fee.


For more than a decade, Heloise has believed she is safe.  She has created a rigidly compartmentalized life, maintaining no real friendships, trusting few confidantes.  Only now her secret life, a life she was forced to build after the legitimate world turned its back on her, is under siege.  Her once oblivious accountant is aksing loaded questions.  Her longtime protector is hinting at new, mysterious dangers.  Her employees can't be trusted.  One county over, another so-called suburban madam has been found dead in her car, a suicide.  Or is it?


Nothing is as it seems as Heloise faces a midlife crisis with much higher stakes than most will ever know.


And then she learns that her son's father might be released from prison, which is problematic because he doesn't know he has a son.  The killer and former pimp also doesn't realize that he's serving a life sentence because Heloise betrayed him.  but he's clearly beginning to suspect that Heloise has been holding something back all these years.


With no formal education, no real family, and no friends, Heloise has to remake her life -- again.  Disappearing will be the easy part.  She's done it before and she can do it again.  A new name and a new place aren't hard to come by if you know the right people.  The trick will be living long enough to start a new life. 



Outpost
by Ann Aguirre


Salvation isn't as safe as it seems. . .


Deuce's whole world has changed.  Currently living topside in a community called Salvation, she has a new set of problems.  Down below, she was considered an adult, and she contributed to the enclave.  Now above ground, she's a brat in need of training in the eyes of the Salvation residents.  She doesn't fit in with the other girls:  She hates cooking, sewing, and school.  Deuce only knows how to fight.


To make matters worse, her feelings for her Hunter partner Fade haven't changed, but he seems not to want her around anymore.  Confused and lonely, she starts looking for a way out.


Deuce pursues a chance to serve in the summer patrols -- those responsible for making sure the growers and planters can work the fields without danger of Freak attack.  It should be routine, but the Freaks have grown smarter.  They're watching.  Waiting.  Planning.  The monsters don't intend to let Salvation survive, and it may take a girl like Deuce to turn back the tide. 


Not Much of a Crime
by Steven W. Johnson


Allison King finds herself embroiled in a fight for her life when she decides to run for a vacant seat on the town council of Charleston, Nevada.  Does she have what it takes to overcome the political corruption, intrigue, and murder that permeates the town and still save the adult video empire she has created in Los Angeles?


What books came home to you last week?

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Forgive Me, Alex by Lane Diamond (Book Review)

Title: Forgive Me, Alex
Author: Lane Diamond
Publisher: Evolved Publishing

About the Book: Tony Hooper stands in shadow across the street, one amongst many in the crowd of curiosity-hounds gathered to watch a monster’s release. Seventeen years after Mitchell Norton, “the devil,” terrorized Algonquin, Illinois on a spree of kidnapping, torture and murder, the authorities release the butcher from psychiatric prison.

Tony longs to charge across the street to destroy Norton—no remorse—as if stepping on a cockroach. Only sheer force of will prevents his doing so.

“The devil” walks the world again. What shall Tony do about it? Aye, what indeed.

After all, this is what he does. It’s who he is. “The devil” himself long ago made Tony into this hunter of monsters. What a sweet twist of fate this is, that he may still, finally, administer justice.

Will FBI Special Agent Linda Monroe stop him? She owes him her life, so how can she possibly put an end to his?

Tony Hooper and Mitchell Norton battle for supremacy, with law enforcement always a step away, in this story of justice and vengeance, evil and redemption, fear and courage, love and loss.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE GIVEAWAY ON GOODREADS UNTIL AUG 31

My thoughts:  This book kept me riveted!  It is told through the eyes of both Tony Hooper and MItchell Norton.  It starts in 1995 as Mitchell is being released from prison and goes back and forth from that time frame to 1978, when all the tragedy occurs.  

I loved the way that the author draws you in to the story right away, and then slowly dishes you out the details.  You know the outcome, because Mitchell was in prison for 17 years - but you don't know everything that happens in 1978 and those are the details that you are spoon-fed through out the rest of the book.  

At the same time you struggle along with Tony as he wades through his memories as well as what he has become because of Mitchell.  Along with Linda, the FBI agent who cut her teeth on the Norton case, and has crossed paths with Tony over the years, you hope that he is able to overcome the wall he has put up to keep people from getting too close.  

I thought this was a great thriller and am looking forward to reading more by this author.  Please enjoy the excerpt below from Forgive Me, Alex

~I received a complimentary ecopy of this book from Novel Publicity in exchange for my review.~

About the author:   I write fiction, long and short. My writings cross over many genres and focus on diverse subjects, ranging from the mysteries of the human mind, with its fragile psychological and emotional states, to the everyday joy and anguish of life on Earth. Ultimately, characters move me – as both a reader and an author. It’s all about the people. When not writing, I’m Publisher and Executive Editor at Evolved Publishing. Connect with me on my website, Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads, or via Evolved Publishing.

Forgive Me, Alex: An Excerpt
Mitchell Norton, the man I've long considered the devil, smiles atop the courthouse steps and waves to the simmering crowd. He tilts his head back to soak in the sunshine and cool breeze of the late spring day, the tranquility of which stands in stark contrast to the circumstances of this event.
The mere sight of him pushes me to the dark edge of my mind, where sanity hangs like... like... like a balloon in a tornado!
I stand in shadow across the street, one amongst many in the crowd of curiosity-hounds gathered to watch a monster's release. As my face blazes, fists clench and teeth grind, I can easily imagine the onset of a stroke, an aneurism, a pulmonary embolism, a raging scream—
Control yourself, Tony!
I long to charge across the street to destroy him—no remorse—as if stepping on a cockroach. Only sheer force of will prevents my doing so.
For seventeen years, I assumed this day would never come. How could they even consider releasing this vile creature, this very personification of evil?
In 1978, Norton murdered innocent kids who'd barely tasted of life. He tortured two of them beyond the limits of rational imagination, for to imagine such deeds was to summon a devilry that we dared not face. Yet the jury held him not responsible, a victim himself to the ravages of an illness that drove him to insanity beyond our reckoning.
He thus resides forever in the darkest pit of my psyche, chained to me in perpetuity. Now only two choices remain: I must cast off those chains, or yank them tight around his neck. Yes, I must obtain satisfaction. The idiotic jury seventeen years ago, and today's flawed court system, has left little recourse. No one else seems willing to deliver him to justice.
I am willing. After all, this is what I do. It's who I am. Indeed, the devil himself made me into this hunter of monsters. What a sweet twist of fate this is, that I may still, finally, administer justice.
He descends the stairs toward his waiting car with an arrogant swagger, watching the small group of protestors, the news reporters, and the police officers here to ensure a peaceful transition, as if to challenge them. His wicked grin never waivers.
Oh, that grin. For seventeen years it has taunted me, punished me for my indecision, my incompetence. I missed my chance to kill him in 1978, to remove his damned head—simple, as if cutting a sheet of paper. It would have been a fitting end for a monster.
Why did I let him live?
Like whispers in a storm, those memories only tease at me now, here at this obscene and maddening event. I'm trying not to relive every moment of 1978. Every time I do, I feel as if swimming in quicksand, anchored by my constant companions—sorrow and guilt. I'm too damned tired; can't shake the confusion, the dread. I fear surrendering to fear.
My life teems with just such wretched ironies.
As Norton vanishes inside a black sedan—looks like standard-issue law enforcement—I dash through the crowds to my van. Despite this call to action, my mind again zeroes-in on memories of 1978. I recall the court proceedings, particularly the devil's own twisted testimony, as though it were yesterday. I've only relived it ten thousand times.
Then twenty-six, Norton was a man-child who'd never quite grasped the nuance of adulthood. He continued to wash dishes at a restaurant, ten years into the only job he'd ever held. He found it comfortable and unchallenging—perfect. He harbored no great yearnings, nor imagined exciting possibilities, nor sought lucrative rewards.
Then everything changed. He said that was when his new life emerged, when he became more aware, even more intelligent. He better understood the world around him. He discovered what he called "The Purpose" in the spring of 1978, and it guided his every deed. He claimed he became a man that year.
I remember it quite clearly as the year he became the devil.
The words I wrote in my diary at the time return to me, a personal anthem more relevant than ever: Rage flows like lava through my veins. My soul slowly roasts upon the flames. How did I ever let it come to this?
Now mortality, as it did seventeen years ago, lingers above me like the hangman's noose. Yet it looms more ominous than ever, as if it will drop down around my neck at any moment. After all, I know the true Mitchell Norton. And whom shall I fear if not the devil, the grim torturer who conquered my aspirations and left me without a recognizable world of my own?
Or is it me that I fear? The man I've become? The man Norton made me?
Some fancy maneuvering is required to escape the crowds and the police at the courthouse. I manage to keep Norton in sight, zigzagging between lanes and keeping several vehicles between us, hanging back far enough to avoid detection without losing him. Uncertain emotions bubble up, some indecipherable combination of dread and anticipation, fear and excitement, vengeance and sorrow. I must know where he'll make his home, information that has been difficult to obtain, as the authorities are concerned with Norton's security.
Give me a break! They should express their security concerns not for the devil himself, but for his next victims.
Oh yes, I know Norton too well. He will torture, murder and dismember again. The temptation will be too great to resist.
I saw him up close in 1978, looked into the soul of the devil, as we waded through the blood and gore he'd spilled. I couldn't fathom his unrepentant pleasure, the sick thrill, his gleeful anticipation.
Now he's out of prison, again free to call up his demons, to torture the innocent, to waltz to what he once called his "symphony of screams."
The devil walks the world again.
What shall I do about it? Aye, what indeed.
Publisher/Publication Date: Evolved Publishing, March 2012 (1st published Nov 2011)
ISBN: 9781622539000
242 pages

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Foreign Identity by Becca Camptell (Book Review)

Title: Foreign Identity
Author: Becca J. Campbell
Publisher: Consortium Books


About the Book: Two nameless strangers, a man and a woman, find themselves imprisoned together. With no memories of their own identities, let alone their captor and tormentor, escape is the only option. The pair faces a bizarre labyrinth of rooms and clues that confuse more than they explain. Every discovery only brings more questions.

Who captured them? Why were they taken? What does their captor want from them? What can the riddles mean?

Who are they?

Lacking allies and options, the duo must learn to trust one another. Mazes, puzzles, and even strange, lurking creatures force them to rely on their wits--and each other--for survival. But survival isn’t enough. They need answers.

Will the answers be enough? Will the truth bring them closer together, or drive them forever apart? Will discovering their identities finally bring them home?


My thoughts: This book was definitely different from anything that I have previously read.   You have to read the entire book to figure out what is going on, why, and who is behind it - so I can't really tell you much about the book without giving away some of the secrets.  It was a very quick moving book though. 

Jax and Kel (what they think their names are) are the only two characters through out much of the book.  To me, their dialogue seemed forced and I didn't feel the connection between the two of them.  I understand that they couldn't be "fleshed out" better, as they have both lost their memory.  The ending wrapped up this story but at the same time left the option for another book.  

If you are into Science Fiction, then this one would probably be something you would enjoy - it was just a little too far out there for me though. It has some great reviews Goodreads so please check those out as well - I just think it wasn't my cup of tea. 

~I received a complimentary ebook from the author in exchange for my review.~   



Foreign Identity
Publisher/Publication Date: Consortium Books, May 2012
ISBN: 9781475217
244 pages

Sunday, July 15, 2012

It's Monday! What are you reading? (July 16, 2012)



What are you reading on Mondays is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey - You can hook up with the Mr. Linky there with your own post - but be sure and let me know what you are reading too! 


Currently reading this week: 

Upcoming books:
Beach Season by Lisa Jackson
Forgive Me, Alex by Lane Diamond
Knee Deep by Jolene Perry







Bathroom Book:


Books reviewed last week: 
Listening to Africa by Diana Raab




Books read and needing to be reviewed:
Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Kristina McMorris
Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog by Lisa Scottoline
Foreign Identity by Becca Campbell
Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce




Until next week ----  Ready - Set - Read!


LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...