Thursday, December 30, 2010

FADE TO MIDNIGHT by Shannon McKenna *

Sucks for me. First you get downloaded information like you're a computer. So much background material just thrown forcefully down your throat for like 15 pages. Too much information. Then the hot sleazy sex- pussy included, shaved and all pink. Or hard stiffie over sized blahblabh.....ICKICK

I could only read 50 pages or so. I can't stand it anymore. There's a guy named Kev who you first meet as part of some experiment, then he's burned, then he's falling off a cliff of water, then he's playing poker, then he's met some other girl from back during his experiment. I have no idea what time frame we're in anymore. I got no clue. Little girls, grown up girls, experiment patients being evil or good. I don't know and really to continue would just irritate me more so buh bye.

HUSH by Kate White ***

About someone named Lake who works for a fertility clinic screws a doctor who is then murdered and writers imagination drags you to hell and not back. Lake suspects something going on at the clinic such as switched eggs, doesn't turn out to be much of a story for example the way she finds out is a stupid "code" of hair and eye color on the paperwork...how fuckin mysterious THAT IS!! LOL Then Maggie put the victims keys in her desk drawer where anyone could have taken them because her purse is too small for a key? Srsly? BWAHA. Key. It's a KEY. How big is this key? Is her purse the size of a quarter?

Lake hears someone had 10 eggs extracted yet only 3 are told to the donor who is supposed to have them reimplanted, what is the point to the story? At the end of the novel this here red herring isn't dealt with at all. I don't understand why all her hopes about this huge secret lie in the hair and eye color. That's so stupid. Then her dumbass husband and new girlfriend are trying to what...scare her? No RED HERRING. They actually end up having done nothing of all the mysterious goings on in Lake's life. The Molly-girlfriend just asks a lot of questions and tries to be her friend, and you go HUH?

Why the fuck would a killer shave her cat after following her to the Catskills? WTF is that all about? I don't get it. So a lot of bizarre happenings with no answers. Like was the killer married or not? Pregnant by a husband or the dead guy? Why was she jealous of a one night stand when he was screwing everybody within reach for 6 months? Why am I supposed to connect with Lake the Liar? She lies about everything to her new boyfriend, her friends, cops. I mean...I don't like liars so I don't care if someone wants to kill her...have at it! :P

Monday, December 27, 2010

CURE by Robin Cook *****

Always a good book from Cook! Intense medical drama. The forensic pathologist Laurie Mongomery is back to work on her first case since the baby and has an unidentified corpse which the Mafia wants to stay un-ID'd so they kidnap her kid.

There are a lot of characters but once you assign 'good' or 'evil' you pretty much are set not having to memorize all of it, plus reading slow makes the book last longer here which is a good thing because it's well written, nice depth of character, good plot and once into it; a page turner.

In one place a doctor, Ben, involved in stem cell patent stuff iPS USA doesn't seem smart enough to have become a doctor when he's unable to connect the Mafia/a killing/a dead patent owner and goes to find the dead guy discovering his dead family. And when he goes to ID his employee a Japanese guy, why didn't they also present the other unidentified Asian guy.....which they did way later in the chapter. I'm thinking the pathologists shouldn't have assumed which one was the employee and which was the killer. Later on that's explained better but while reading it, it's distracting.

Definitely worth purchasing if you can afford it. I think maybe the characters could use a little more humility, some warmth, feelings, being hurt or happy etc. Not enough of that so they feel a little stiff. The nanny is killed and they really don't seem to have a depth of emotion going on there even tho they create a scholarship in her name there's not much crying, no numbness, no sincerity to her family. Maybe because there are so many people it's harder to express the few who are supposedly important. These characters move from book to book and it'd be nice to feel connected, which I don't really.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

STAY by Allie Larkin ***

Where to start. I'm a die hard German shepherd lover and wanted badly to like this. I appreciate the dog information to people unknowledgeable but it's a teeny bopper type romance (aaaachCHICKLIT) . We have the poor maid's daughter, Van (Savannah), grew up in a carriage house with mom who dies young and Van is still friends with the rich people mom/daughter from the BIG house. Tough life. The wealthy daughter (Janey) marries her (Van's) best male friend (Peter; think Freud) whom she was secretly romantically interested in. The rich mom pays her off with almost two hundred thousand to leave Peter alone (enter violins). After the wedding Van starts with the alcohol induced mewling shit, buys a dog online from Slovakia and after all the vomiting suddenly life is easy breezy.

She falls in love with the dog's vet, Alex who is friends with an old man, Louis, conveniently selling his house (for 40 thousand, true fantasy here) near the vet's so he can move to Florida and coincidently Van has to either move or get rid of the new dog. Suddenly it all falls neatly into place like IRL.

Recap: Before her two friends (Janey & Peter) get back from the honeymoon Van's ready to buy a house, has a new dog and falls in love with the vet. The vet is so busy taxiing and entertaining her I have no idea how anything gets done at his practice. He's so tall his head almost hits door frames. Who likes that? How's a nice stocky well built dude under 5'11"? Some women must believe HAHAHA that taller men have bigger dicks. Anyway loser, Maria Shriver wins your contest.

Anyway this dog rarely needs to be walked, is pre-trained and obedient at 8 months old and pretty much can do laundry, cook and take care of Van between vomiting as excuses to see the vet. He just runs around like a puppy should and she's so petrified he's got a disease she runs to the vet clinic with him. DRAMA QUEEN?

 It's good enough for entertainment but unbelievable enough to STAY in the romance category. People drink alcohol in their plain ol' milk? DISGUSTING! YUCKYUCK. I do believe I just got finished with a frickin chick lit book.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The GARDEN OF BETRAYAL by Lee Vance ***

It was a good read with a few drawbacks. Should have named the protagonist Mr. Secret instead of Mark because everything he thought or did was on the hushhush which did nothing for me connecting with him. His relationship with his wife was at first sort of distant but even at the end I didn't really "feel" anything different, and have no idea why she elected to stay with him. They never had a conversation about this issue at all. It didn't feel realistic to me.

So it's about his son dying 8 years or something ago and now he's just beginning to learn why as we follow along thru his hedge funds, stock buying and selling, short and long and what all that entails if you care. Since it's a large part of what you're reading you are forced to care somewhat to understand the story line. Big oil, politics blahblah.

His lies --almost never ending: Doesn't tell family their friend Alex dies, not tell he's on the hunt for the son's kidnapper, won't talk about moving elsewhere with the wife altho he decides to, won't tell anyone where his information comes from, won't tell boss his (bosses) son is depressed (Alex) and gave him secret information, a working cop lets this idiot Mark interview a witness alone, he also lies to the cops about Alex being depressed. So many secrets so little time. It draws you away from the character. Every lie makes me dislike him that much more. By the end I don't really care who killed his kid. I got no sympathy for liars who's wife/daughter relationship pops back into place without any work -like a dislocated shoulder.

Friday, December 17, 2010

BONE FIRE by Mark Spragg ***

I'm about half thru it and so far I think 3 people in the story have vomited. WTF? Aside from a lot of puking, injuries, disease and one murder it's a lot of relationship stuff. People speak and you sometimes have no idea who. Then you suddenly find yourself in a different place with different people and in a sort of disruptive manner. When that happens and it happens a lot you're stuck not knowing who the fuck is talking and to whom. It's very disruptive. Not a big fan of dropping me off someplace I have no idea where or why. That part pissed me off quite a bit. Otherwise it was fairly well written but I never connected with any one character. Didn't invest.

Other than that it's about the life of a few people from some dinky town in Wyoming. And their relationships, who's yer daddy type of stuff and who didn't go to college to care for her granpappy and then get the ranch. Some unrelated drug dealer guy in a trailer got shot and so far I don't know how it's related or if I care. It was sort of a red herring for me as a mystery reader and led to no fuckin place.

Done: It's a dark fiction novel about relationships; how they work, don't work, people die and drink and crap like that. Wasn't exactly my type of book. I'd have to say "artsy" or "creative" and a few steps above a soap opera but not too far away.

If you're depressed find something else to read.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

LUCY by Laurence Gonzales ****

I'm half thru this and really enjoy it. A teenage half ape half human is now living in NY with her future adoptive mother when they are forced by a blood test to go public. Well at the airport some jerk won't let her on a plane because he says, she's an animal and belongs in a cage. GOT NEWS for the TSA agent and author. Guess what? WE ARE ALL ANIMALS. Ever play 20 questions? Animal, vegetable or mineral? LOL Humans=animals. Why do so many people think themselves better than an animal. We are no more or less and our behaviors prove it all the time. Macho? Dominance? Righteousness? Leaders and followers? Hint hint..

The adoptive mom Jenny is wondering what to say about the girl Lucy's mom who is a bonobo ape. Like in order to make up a story. The father was a scientist who bred with the ape. So since we're fabricating ID's and passports lets make up that the mom was a Congo native who gave birth in a mud hut and there's no paperwork. That work for ya? This author is making that part very convoluted. Lucy at one point leaps on top of a set of school lockers and shrieks like a gorilla and suddenly all the teenagers are chanting her name. I gotta tell ya. If that happened IRL most would be dumfounded and more scared of her. Since Jenny knows Lucy's an ape and won't fit in and it's now being discovered I need to know why bringing her back to the Congo where the wars are less intrusive hasn't entered her head.

Going back to the story...
I'm done, it was a good story, well written the characters had depth and aside from it seeming to be aimed at teenagers it was ok.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

AFTER the DARKNESS by Tilly Bagshawe ****

I have no idea who wrote this, the title says "Sidney Sheldon's" then the title then the Bagshawe so I'm thinking copy cat? Ummmm Helper? um...whatever. So the book is sort of reads like your typical romance novel but it's a little different. Has lots of characters related to our heroine Grace who starts off as a naive idiot and turns into a revengeful street smart killer in very little time but with lots of misadventures and her "Barbie-dreams" destroyed.

It was well written, entertaining and quick so I haven't got anything bad to say about reading it. I'm not generally a fan of Barbies and that's how this one starts out and all her sisters and friends are Barbies- unfortunately IRL most of them never want more than the next Dior something or Jimmy Choos or whatever all that designer crap is. So I really couldn't sympathize.
Funny 'bout that is author sort of took a Barbie and destroyed it so that was ok!

Friday, December 10, 2010

212 by Alafair Burke ***

So I'm reading this and the author keeps dragging you off the storyline to explain shit you don't want to know and I get to page 19 where it's written: blahblah...'a philosophy seminar with no prerequisites (who GAS?) would devolve into a series of free floating chat sessions' BINGO....like the author par exampe? HUH? Geez she wanders off course following that to discuss, "are all lives equally good?" and then we get Hitler references, and then we're in a typing class ...and these are paragraphs following each other...where's the story? ZZZZZZZZZZ what huh? Sorry I fell asleep there......

Well lets get jerked around some more before I call it quits....actually took me awhile to get into it due to the tons of characters, names, background uninformation but once involved at around chapter ten (guessing) it sort of moved along ok. Aside from the fodder, it's not bad. There are confusing and coincidental murders alongside each other with a surprise here and there but I don't think it was all bad. Good library find anyways.

NEVER LOOK AWAY by Linwood Barclay *****

Go ahead buy if you like it's a thrill a chapter. If you can believe; that while mom is tying a sneaker her kid disappears, a 4 yo says "What's going on?", a kid can fall asleep the first 5 minutes at an amusement park, someone has the most elaborate plan to disappear most all her life and fake her death but doesn't know the diamonds she's stealing are fake; and the owner of the diamonds suspects a robbery will take place yet is alone, cuffed to them with no backup, no help, no bodyguard, nothing -then this is a good read. Just get over all that crap and it's edge of your seat reading.

The husband is pretty frickin stupid cuz he's married to a confabulous liar for 5 years and is clueless. I'm sorry I have to say this stuff because otherwise I liked how fast paced it was, easy to read; the only drags were when the grandparents slowed down the storyline.

Monday, December 6, 2010

MONEY TO BURN by James Grippando ****

Very good writing, good story but a little complicated and it would help to know something about stocks and the stock market cuz not everything in the story is easy to 'get' nor explained well.

The lead character is just stupid enough to get himself in more trouble than he would otherwise like running off with a tourists camera while someone screams he has a bomb; no clue his wife is cheating on him; for some reason he's invited to a meeting when he has no business at it since he's the one supposedly bringing down his own company.

There is never an answer in the book about who originally emptied all his finances in the start of the book. Never said the wife stole it, never said any of the crooks did, but all the savings, stocks, businesses and everything he owned gone along with his credit. WHO DID IT? Answer: NO ANSWER. And how did they do it? Where is it now? Eric blames everyone for his son's death except the person who was responsible. Never entered the highly intelligent multimillion dollar company owner/president's head. Not once. Um..it's someone kinda close to you.....

So our hero, Michael's first wife, Ivy "dies" and he keeps all her savings in her name with her secret password still intact after 4 years. What is up with that? SEE? Stupid.

It's entertaining but not all that realistic. Kind of trying to be a page turner but not all that compelling unless you have stock in his novels.

Friday, December 3, 2010

COOK the BOOKS by 2 Conants ***

Well easy little murder mystery with some recipes in the back you can cook.
Main character Chloe about 26yo is a flake who meets a guy on craigslist who's writing a cookbook she helps him with. Turns out to be a killer...so stay off CL.

The guy she meets, Kyle, first meets her at an expensive restaurant which is so NOT realistic then they dine but she brings her friend with her to the job interview..I know...right? Most of the chefs on here have pretty strange names, Digger something like Sneakers what ever....anyways turns out that her ex boyfriend Josh and all her chef friends know this CL guy and his famous daddy what a coincidence. His motivation for killing is pretty flimsy but I guess people kill each other over 10 bucks.

If you enjoy simple murder mysteries you'll like it. It was so-so for me. A little simplistic but I'm not 26 either. I don't know if a 26 yo would find it challenging either.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

SO COLD THE RIVER by Michael Koryta **

Story about magic water that gives the protag Eric hallucinations and we don't know if it's the water or his own ESP. In a town that used to have moonshiners is a creek of 'magic' water and Eric is trying to find it to stop his visions. Meanwhile we have an old town family 'Campbell' and somehow this old ghost of him is in possession of his last relative Josiah. Have no idea how that's happening cuz he didn't drink any funny water.

The writing is imitative of King but not as good at keeping definition of characters. They just aren't strong enough to be themselves, their ghosts, the future, now, the past, all intermingled and ongoing. It's so confusing by page 360 I have no idea why the hell Campbell wants to kill Lucas because he raised him? I have no real idea what their connection is and by this time I really should.

This Josiah keeps assuming people are whoever he wants them to be never checking. He checks paperwork he has and instead of the paperwork identifying the FAKE Lucas as really being Bradford he also is clueless that Alyssa isn't Eric's wife but is Bradfords. It's so friggin confusing right now with the ghosts, the real, the confused, the overtaken, the possessed, the mistaken ID's that I'm ready to toss the book and give up.

Bring a scorecard. Since the characters all lack strong definition and no little quirks or memorable things, the names are super important to remember and each family has too many members in it to keep them all fixed in position. The writing is ok, here and there I drift off getting lost in some details so it began as an ok story but about halfway thru it it's frustrating. Could have been much better it seems to have overwhelmed the writer and rightly so.