Book Club Friday: The Pawn

Today, I will be reviewing Steven James' The Pawn.

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Book Description, via Amazon:

Special Agent Patrick Bowers had only met one man who made him truly afraid. Until now. When he's called to North Carolina to consult on the case of an area serial killer, he finds himself in a deadly game. Cunning and lethal, the killer is always one step ahead of the law, and he's about to strike again. It will take all of Bowers's instincts and training to stop this man who calls himself the Illusionist. And just when the pieces start to come together, Bowers realizes they're not quite adding up. Can he unravel the pattern and save the next victim? Or will the Illusionist win the game by taking one of his opponent's pieces? Thrilling, chilling, and impossible to put down, The Pawn will hold suspense lovers in its iron grip until the very last page.



My Review:

Crime fiction is pretty much the only genre that I used to read.  I'm a sucker for shows like "Criminal Minds", "Dexter", and "NCIS".  With that, I'd like to say that I'm a pretty good judge for books like this, and Steven James is one of the best.  The Pawn is the first book in the "Patrick Bowers Files" and it will not disappoint.  The descriptive elements in the novel are phenomenal.  Upon researching to write my review, I learned that a fifth book was released in the series in September, and I cannot wait to download it!

Rating:

5 out of 5 stars!

Go read & link up!

Have a fabulous weekend =)

Book Club Friday: The Help

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The Help

Kathryn Stockett

Product Description: (via Amazon)

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

 

My Review:

It took me a couple of days to get into this book.  I had a hard time with the dialect in the beginning (most of it is written from a Southern black woman's perspective.)  However, once I got a fourth of the way through the book, I couldn't stop reading.  The Help opened my eyes to the past and how much things have changed.

 

5 out of 5 stars.

 

Read a book & link up!

Book Club Friday!

Book Club Friday,

I have missed you.

I am addicted to The Hunger Games.

I previously wondered what all the hype was about,

now I know.

[via amazon]

Book Description: 

"Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place. "

My Review:

READ IT.  NOW.  I can't believe that this series is marketed as teenage literature, but it is fantastic.  I fell in love with Katniss immediately.  I blasted through the first two books in a week, and am on the third now.

Book Review: Blood and Chocolate

Yay for Book Club Friday!

Link up & share your recent reads!

This week, I read Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause.

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Overview from bn.com:

Vivian Gandillon relishes the change, the sweet, fierce ache that carries her from girl to wolf. At sixteen, she is beautiful and strong, and all the young wolves are on her tail. But Vivian still grieves for her dead father; her pack remains leaderless and in disarray, and she feels lost in the suburbs of Maryland. She longs for a normal life. But what is normal for a werewolf?
Then Vivian falls in love with a human, a meat-boy. Aiden is kind and gentle, a welcome relief from the squabbling pack. He's fascinated by magic, and Vivian longs to reveal herself to him. Surely he would understand her and delight in the wonder of her dual nature, not fear her as an ordinary human would.
Vivian's divided loyalties are strained further when a brutal murder threatens to expose the pack. Moving between two worlds, she does not seem to belong in either. What is she really—human or beast? Which tastes sweeter—blood or chocolate?

Review:

It took me a few days to get into this book, however, once I reached the midway point, I couldn't get enough.  It seemed like a lot of characters get thrown at you in the beginning, but eventually I caught on.  When Vivian first met Aiden, I wasn't sure that I was going to like his character, but he grew on me.  He acted as if he would understand and love her no matter what.  There is also a male in the pack, Gabriel, that is somewhat involved with Vivian's mom and flirts with Vivian, and he becomes a major character.  The book has some crazy twists and turns and full of action about half way through.  It's not all about a love story, the pack also has to find a new leader when troubles develop in their neighborhood.

Overall, it was a very good book.  Annette Curtis Klause was very descriptive and made the story easy to imagine.

4 out of 5 stars

ps. while googling the title of the book, I found that a fellow blogger, "Books, Cats, Movies & Coffee" posted a review with a movie trailer for Blood &Chocolate!  The movie looks like a slightly different plot, but interesting nonetheless!

Book Review: When Darkness Falls

This week, I'm going to review "When Darkness Falls" by James Grippando.  I downloaded this book when it was free on my Nook, although I did not realize that it was in 3 parts, and I only downloaded the first 2.  Now, I'm too cheap to purchase the whole book to read the last 100 pages or so... so I need to head to B&N and finish the book in stores sometime.

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Review/Synopsis from Amazon user Greta L. Hudson:"Attorney Jack Swyteck agrees to represent Falcon, a homeless man who stops traffic for hours when he stands on a bridge and threatens to jump--his only demand, to speak to the Mayor's daughter, police officer Alicia Mendoza. Falcon comes to an agreement with hostage negotiator Vincent Paulo, but is soon captured. Jack's less than grateful client manages to make bail and is on the run after a dead woman is found in the trunk of a car he calls home. Jack soon finds himself in the middle of a hostile situation where Falcon has taken his best friend, Theo, and a woman hostage. Jack, with the help of Paulo, Alicia, and several law enforcement agencies jockeying for jurisdictional command, must race to meet the demands of an unstable man to save his friend. What's revealed are dark secrets that stretch from Argentina, the Bahamas, to Miami's political elite.

Miami's rich setting is a character of its own with diverse culture, rich cuisine and changing weather that sets the tone and raises the stakes in this adrenaline-charged thriller. The characters and scenes are made even more vivid through the experiences of a blind man, Sergeant Vincent Paulo, not because of the strength of his other senses, but because of his insight and skill as an experienced hostage negotiator. Even Falcon proves to be not your typical monster. He's likable despite his absurd demands and acerbic wit. There is also enough humor weaved throughout to ease the tension on the volatile situation.

This is one high-powered thrill ride. The more pages I turned, the more I craved. Grippando knows how to grab your attention and keep it. Be prepared to devour this in one sitting because once you turn the cover, Grippando has you! Excellent! "

I absolutely loved this book and had a very difficult time putting it down.  I'm very anxious to see how it ended.  Greta described it perfectly as a "high-powered thrill ride."

Oh, and this is apparently the 6th novel in a series... although this is the one I started with, I didn't feel too lost coming into the series late.

4 out of 5 stars

(only because I haven't finished yet)

Now go read a book & link up!

Book Review: Dead Until Dark

I am linking up for the first time today for Book Club Friday!  I absolutely love reading and when I saw this feature on quite a few blogs, I knew it would be perfect for me. :)

I clicked through the various books on my Nook and have decided on reviewing Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris.  This is the first Sookie Stackhouse novel and you should know that I have a very unhealthy obsession with True Blood.

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Product Description [via]:

Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. Until the vampire of her dreams walks into her life-and one of her coworkers checks out....

Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea.

Review:

When I read this book, I had just finished up season 2 of the HBO series, so I pretty much new where it was headed.  The book kept me hooked though and I had to force myself to put it down to actually draw it out over a few day span.

Charlaine Harris develops the characters to be very likable and entertaining.  There were subtle differences between the novel and the show to keep it original.  There is a serial killer on the loose which will appeal to people that enjoy mysteries.  I fell in love with Sookie's character through the show and I was glad to see that she is the narrator for the novel.  The supernatural aspects of the series are a refreshing change from other vampire novels that I have read.

Overall, this was a very easy read that I enjoyed, but didn't love.  I would place it in the categories of romance, supernatural, and mystery.

3 out of 5 stars