Book Review: The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen

Another review of a book from Tess Gerritsen! I know, I know, variation is important and all that but I wanted to finish reading all the books in the Rizzoli and Isles series before my summer vacation was over and I did so there will be some more of these coming!

The Sinner is the third book in the series and by now I have started to expect how the book is set up. The two previous books The Surgeon and The Apprentice are set during the summer and throughout the book they talk about how hot it is. In comparison, The Sinner is set during the winter and on almost every page there will be a mention of how cold it is.

I always like to add what is written on the back of the book (or as it is usually with the Kindle, on the first few pages of the book).

They want us to know why they died...  

Within the walls of a cloistered convent, a scene of unspeakable carnage is discovered. On the snow lie two nuns, one dead, one critically injured – victims of a seemingly motiveless, brutally savage attack. 

Doctor Maura Isles’ autopsy of the murder victim yields a shocking surprise, but the case takes a disturbing twist. The body of another woman has been found. And someone has gone to a lot trouble to remove her face, hands and feet.  

As long buried secrets are revealed Dr. Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli find themselves part of a terrifying investigation that leads to a shocking realization of the killer’s identity..

Sounds interesting, and let me tell you, it really was! After reading The Surgeon and The Apprentice right after each other I was a bit sick of the story, it was just so repetitive. The Sinner however, kicks everything back into action.

As I mentioned earlier, the story is set in the winter and there is a lot of description of the cold and just the weather in general. The change in season in comparative to the first two books is not the only change that we get to experience in this book, the first two books were focused on Jane Rizzoli but The Sinner is focused on Dr. Maura Isles' life instead, it is a nice change and we get a better look into Maura's life. That doesn't mean that we don't get to follow Jane around as well.

And to some quotes from the book, in these quotes, she is always Dr. Maura Isles.

The morning’s snowfall had turned into a treacherous mix of both snow and sleet, and the city plows were nowhere in sight.

The wind blew, rattling the windows, and the door creaked as though invisible hands were tugging at it, desperate to get in. Rizzoli's lips had chilled to blue, and her face had taken on a corpse like pallor, but she showed no intention of seeking a warmer room. That was Rizzoli, too stubborn to be the first to capitulate. To admit she had reached her limit.

For an instant, their gazes met through the window. She saw a lean and striking face, a head of black hair, ruffled by the wind. And she caught a glimpse of white, tucked beneath the raised collar of his black coat.

She heard a creak, and felt the whisper of movement, of another presence in the room. The hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stood up and she gave a laugh. ‘God, Jane, don't sneak up on me like...’ Turning, her voice died in mid-sentence. No one was there. For a moment she didn't move, didn't breathe, just stared at empty space. Vacant air, polished floor.

She had chosen this suburb of Brookline, just west of Boston, because of the sense of security she felt in its quiet, treelined streets.

As before in Tess Gerritsen novels, the murder cases and the lives of the main characters are somehow connected. In The Sinner it is quite visible both with Jane Rizzoli and with Maura Isles.

I really liked this book and found that it actually showed that Tess Gerritsen talent really grew between the books. I would as well definitely recommend for you to read The Sinner, especially if you have read the first two books and were quite bored when reading the second book (The Apprentice) since The Sinner doesn't dwell on the past as much as The Apprentice.

Bisous

Book Review: The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen

The Apprentice is the second book in the Rizzoli and Isles series and if you have watched the Rizzoli and Isles tv-show reading The Apprentice is just like watching the pilot of the tv-show. At certain times when I was reading the book I wasn't sure if I had read the book before or not because of the similarities between the book and the tv-show.

The first book The Surgeon (reviewed here) does not include Dr. Maura Isles but she is introduced in The Apprentice. 

I am not the only one of my kind who walks this earth. Somewhere, there is another. And he waits for me… The Surgeon has been locked up for a year but his chilling legacy still haunts the city, and especially Boston detective Jane Rizzoli. But now a new killer is at work and Rizzoli senses something horrifyingly familiar about him.

Then the FBI starts taking an interest in the investigation and Rizzoli begins to wonder just what makes this case so different and so dangerous?

But then the unthinkable happens: the Surgeon escapes. And suddenly there are two twisted killers on the loose – master and apprentice… 

While I was reading the book I wasn't really sure if I liked it or not, and even now I am still not sure. I think it was because how similar it was to the Pilot of Rizzoli and Isles that I somehow didn't get to enjoy the book as much as I probably would have if I hadn't known the plot.

There are several new important characters introduced in The Apprentice, as I mentioned previously Dr. Maura Isles is introduced as well as the FBI agent Gabriel Dean. 

The book is set up as Tess Gerritsen usually sets up her books, there main story is written in third person and then there are couple of chapters written in first person that are from some outsiders part of the story.

And of course some quotes, I love quotes to see how the book is written. 

"Today I watched a man die." 

"The blood pours from his chest like holy water from a sacred spring. I press my palm to the wound, bathing my skin in that liquid warmth, and blood coats my hand like a scarlet glove."

"But this is not his work. Warren Hoyt is safely locked away in a place he can’t escape. I know, because I put the bastard there myself."

"Rizzoli brought home a pizza from the deli around the corner and excavated an ancient head of lettuce from the bottom of her refrigerator vegetable bin. She peeled off brown leaves until she reached the barely edible core. It was a pale and unappetizing salad, which she ate out of duty and not for pleasure."

"Happy people are self-contained; they breathe different air and are subject to different laws of gravity."

"The question, asked so softly, made her fall silent. She resented his probing. Resented, most of all, that he’d recognized a truth she could not admit. Warren Hoyt had left scars. All she had to do was look down at her hands to be reminded of the damage he’d inflicted. But the worst damage was not physical. What she had lost, in that dark basement last summer, was her sense of invincibility. Her sense of confidence. Warren Hoyt had taught her how vulnerable she really was."

"‘It’s just like last summer,’ murmured Marquette, still staring at the trees. ‘The Surgeon started killing around this time, too.’ ‘It’s the heat,’ said Rizzoli as she reached for her cell phone. ‘It brings the monsters out.’"

Even if I am not sure if I love this book or not I still would recommend it, mostly because the Rizzoli and Isles book series is great and this book is important for the flow of the rest of the series.

Bisous

Book Review: The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

I knew when I had the time to start reading novels again I needed to pick one up from Tess Gerritsen! I decided to start from the beginning of the Rizzoli and Isles series and therefore chose The Surgeon. I was not at all disappointed! I inhaled the book in an afternoon and wanted more (and thus downloaded on my kindle The Apprentice)! Right there and then, I decided that I was going to read all of the Rizzoli and Isles books this summer! A summer of crime novels! At the moment there are ten books in the series, the eleventh book will come out late 2014/early 2015. I have already reviewed Body Double (the fourth novel) and I plan on reviewing the rest of the books as well!

Back to The Surgeon, the back of the book (or well, the front of the kindle book) the plot of the book is described this way:

In Boston, there’s a killer on the loose…
A killer who targets lone women and performs terrifying ritualistic acts of torture on them before finishing them off. His surgical skills lead police to suspect he is a physician who, instead of saving lives, takes them. But as homicide detective Thomas Moore and his partner Jane Rizzoli begin their investigation, they make a startling discovery. Closely linked to these killings is Catherine Cordell, a beautiful doctor with a mysterious past. Two years ago she was subjected to a horrifying rape, and shot her attacker dead.
Now, the man she believes she killed seems to be stalking her once again. And this time he knows exactly where to find her…

The Surgeon introduces some of the main characters that are in the Rizzoli and Isles series, we get introduced to Jane Rizzoli and her family and some of the detectives (Frost, Crow, Moore). Dr. Isles isn't introduced until in the second novel The Apprentice.

The plot is great, if you have watched the Rizzoli and Isles tv-series you might recognize it since the first episode (in season one) is based on The Surgeon and The Apprentice.

The book is a mixture of first person narrative and third person narrative. The first person narrative is only from the killer perspective and the rest is in third person. I do prefer reading a novel when it is in third narrative but the first narrative wasn't bad at all. Firstly, there wasn't too much of it and secondly it wasn't a long worded ramble.

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Today they will find her body"

That was the first sentence of the book, it was a part of the first narrative section and set the voice to the rest of the novel.

"Elena Ortiz had lived long enough to see her own blood spurt from her neck and hit the wall in a machine-gun spray of red. She had lived long enough to aspirate blood into her severed trachea, to hear it gurgle in her lungs, to cough it out in explosive bursts of crimson phlegm."

I found that this book had a lot of gore and blood talk, and if I hear/read the word vein couple of times I start to become a little light headed and that is how I felt during some parts of the novel.

"This was now a high-profile case. Two days ago, the headline hit the front page of the local tabloid: ‘The Surgeon Cuts Again.’ Thanks to the Boston Herald, their unsub had his own moniker, and even the cops were using it. The Surgeon."

I just really like when the mention the title of the book in the novel and I notice it!

"She'd been deprived of love so long that she’d lost all sense of hunger. Only now, as every part of her came alive, did she remember what desire felt like, and her lips sought his with the eagerness of a starved woman."

And a cliché quote that I found to be a bit too much and awkward!

All in all I loved this book, and I can't wait to read the rest of the Rizzoli and Isles series that Tess Gerritsen has written.

Bisous

Book Review: No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

I haven't written a book review in a long time and the pile of books that I need to write about is just getting bigger and bigger!

Today I want to talk about No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay. I had never hear of Linwood Barclay before but I probably will check out some of his other books!

The house was silent. No sound of her parents getting ready for work, or her brother late for school. Were they punishing her for last night? She'd been out on a date when she should have been studying, and had a huge fight with her father. So where was everyone now? Why had her family disappeared?Twenty-five years later the mystery is no nearer to being solved and Cynthia is still haunted by unanswered questions. Where her family murdered? Abducted? If so, why was she spared? And if they're alive, why did they abandon her?Then a letter arrives, a letter which makes no sense. Soon Cynthia begins to realise that stirring up the past could be the worst mistake she has ever made...

The book is written in 1st person, which is something I usually cannot stand but with this book it wasn't a problem. What I found a unique touch to the book is that the speaker of the book isn't Cynthia (the main character) but her husband Terry. It gives the book such a strange (in a good way) vibe, you feel like an audience to the events that are happening since you are not reading them from the view of the main character.

The story line was as well good, not great since it was very predictable but I enjoyed it (even though I knew exactly how it would end). The characters were great, and I liked how Linwood added some extra character for some suspense. There weren't too many character, which is good because it can be come confusing, but just the right amount of them.


There are couple of chapters that are about two mysterious people that aren't named until the last chapters of the book, those chapter still give so much away so only the first chapter is mysterious and the rest obvious. I think that that part is the only thing I don't really like about the book, I felt they were more of a page filler than important for the story line. I even felt like they destroyed the suspense of the story!

At last, my favorite part about writing book reviews the quotes.

"I'd never been to a shrink before. About all I knew came from watching The Sopranos' Dr Melfi help Tony work through his problems. I couldn't decide whether ours were more or less serious than his. Tony had people disappearing around him all the time, but he was often the one who'd arranged it. He had the advantage of knowing what had happened to these people." Page 71  

"I acted on impulse. I opened the closet, picked up the typewriter - God those old machines were heavy - and put it inside, on the floor. Then I draped some other things over it, an old pair of pants I'd used to paint in, a stack of old newspaper." Page 229

"If I could have brought myself  to call Detective Wedmore I could have asked her outright where I might find Vince Fleming and saved myself some time. She'd already said she knew the name. Abagnall had told us he had a record for a variety of offences." Page 271

What kind of name is Abagnall? I think that is the only name were I was dumbfounded by, I mean, how do you even pronounce it Ab-a-gnall? Ab-gnall? Who knows!

All in all I did like this book! Which I feel sometimes is a rare occurrence!

Have you read this book or any other book by Linwood Barclay?

Bisous

Book Review: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

I have so many books that I need to review but I somehow can't get into the right mood to write them! But I shall change that by forcing myself to actually write them. 

I wanted to start by reviewing The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I picked up this book because it was recommended to me by so many people. I wasn't really sure because I'm not a big fan of needy women books, and especially not when they are written by women that should know better than to write a book that is just horribly demeaning towards women! 

With that kind of intro you might have figured out what I actually think about this book but I am still going to review it like I review (almost) every book I read! Let's start with the synopsis on the back of the book.

A most untraditional love story, this is the celebrated tale of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who involuntary travels through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate affair endures across sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap that tests the strength of fate and basks in the bonds of love. 

I should have known with that kind of synopsis that this wasn't a book for me! Henry is dashing, adventuresome and Clare is an artist who has a natural sequenced life. Why can't Clare be the adventuresome character? Why does she have to be the stay at home and worry character? Why does Clare have to be the weak character, why can't she be the hero? Why is Clare only life goal to be with Henry? These are the questions that constantly jumped at me during the whole book.

It isn't that the story isn't a great story, it has potential. But instead of working on these potentials the story just goes into the "weak woman strong man" road and doesn't even once derive from that.

Anyways, the book is written in 1st person and is from the viewpoint of Clare and Henry, most of the chapters have couple of sections that are about the time-travel. For example chapter one is called First Date, One and the first section is called Saturday, October 26, 1991 (Henry is 28, Clare is 20) and part of that section is from Clare's point of view and part from Henry's point of view. The second sections is called Later that evening and it is only from Henry's point of view. The third section is called The next morning and that section is from Clare's point of view.

CLARE: It's a humid sticky hot Sunday afternoon, and Henry, Gomez, and I are at large in Evanston. We spent the morning at Lighthouse Beach, playing in Lake Michigan and roasting ourselves. Gomez wanted to be buried in the sand, so Henry and I obliged. We ate our picnic, and napped. Now we are walking down the shady side of Church Street, licking Orangsicles, groggy with sun. (Page 295)

HENRY: Today was Moving Day. All day it was hot; the movers' shirts stuck to them as they walked up the stairs of our apartment this morning, smiling because they figured a two-bedroom apartment would be no big deal and they'd be done before lunch time. (Page 294)

Only two quotes this time, since there wasn't anything that I found amazing about the book. No words stood out to me, I wasn't inspired about anything in the book.

And at last, would I recommend this book to anyone? No, I am sick of weak female characters in literature and I definitely wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.

Bisous

Book Review: Ghost Child By Caroline Overington

This week I decided that my weekly book review should be a video!



Bisous

Book Review: Timeless by Gail Carriger

Another Gail Carriger book? Yes, I love her books! I have written about Souless and Heartless before and now it is time for Timeless. I really want to read Changeless, Blameless but they aren't available on kindle format, yet. I hope they will be one day and hopefully soon!

One funny thing, even when I am in full force with my 25 things before my 25th birthday list I keep on thinking about what will be on my 26 things before my 26th birthday. One of the things is I might only buy kindle book for that year. 

Back to Timeless, this is the last book that has been published in The Parasol Protectorate series. I don't know if there will be more books published in this series or if I should try to read some of her other novels. The book description is quite intriguing, which they usually are for these books.

Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, has settled into domestic bliss. Of course, being Alexia, such bliss involves integrating werewolves into London High society, living in a vampire's second best closet, and coping with a precocious toddler who is prone to turning supernatural willy-nilly. Even Ivy Tunstell's acting troupe's latest play, disastrous to say the least, cannot put a damper on Alexia's enjoyment of her new London lifestyle. 

Until, that is, she receives a summons from Alexandria that cannot be ignored. With husband, child, and Tunstells in tow, Alexia boards a steamer to cross the Mediterranean. But Egypt may hold more mysteries than even the indomitable Lady Maccon can handle. What does the vampire Queen of the Alexandria Hive really want from her? Why is the God-Breaker Plague suddenly expanding? And how has Ivy Tunstell suddenly become the most popular actress in all the British Empire?

The story is hilarious (as always), and since I read Heartless shortly before I read Timeless the sheer amount of character wasn't as big of a problem as when you just start reading her books. I really liked how Alexia's daughter, Prudence, fitted well into the story and even had her own story line.

"It's bath night. You don't have a choice. Real ladies are clean ladies," explained her mother, rather sensibly, she thought."  Page 7

"If Alexia had not interfered, Lord Akeldama would have remained mortal, and Prudence a fanged toddler, until sunrise." Page 10

"Foo Foo," replied Prudence with equal gravitas. Then, after giving the lady dressed as a gentleman a very assessing look, she added, "Btttpttbtpt."  Page 108 

"There was a wastrel in black Alexia  first thought might be a statesman, until he whipped out a notebook, which made her thing he was that lowest of the low: a travel journalist." Page 130

I would say that Timeless is as good if not even a bit better than Soulless and Heartless, the only thing I find annoying is how expensive the kindle books are for this series.

Bisous

In other book news, I gave up on Timebomb by Gerald Seymour. This is a rare occurrence since I always try to finish every book I start on. Timebomb was just so extremely bad that I just couldn't carry on.

Book Review: Body Double by Tess Gerritsen

I always love reviewing books that I loved reading! Body Double by Tess Gerritsen is a great book. It is a great crime novel and it is just thrilling. I completely recommend this book to anyone that would like to read a crime novel! I picked it up because the tv-show Rizzoli and Isles is based on these books, I LOVE Rizzoli and Isles and I will definitely read some more of these books!

But back to Body Double, the synopsis of the book (as written on the back cover):

"As the scalpel begins to cut my blood runs cold. I look like her. Exactly like her..."  

Maura Isles deals with death. As a pathologist in downtown Boston, she has seen more then her share of corpses. But never before has the body on the medical examiner's table been her own.
There can be no denying the evidence though. The dead woman is her mirror image right down to the most intimate physical details. Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type.
Then a DNA test confirms that Maura's mysterious double is indeed her twin sister, and suddenly an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing journey into a past full of dark and deadly secrets...

Isn't that just so intriguing! The novel has so much suspense in it without being over the top! Just amazing. The characters are well written and even the smallest character have enough back-story to be believable.

I highlighted tons of quotes on my kindle, there were just so many sentences that I loved! But to narrow it down I chose five that I believe gives and insight into the story and demonstrates how it is written!

That's not healthy, she thought as she sat at an outdoor café, savoring one last cup of espresso and a strawberry tart. Page 18

That's three hours I could have spent walking alone the Seine, she thought as she sat disgruntled in Charles de Gaulle. Three hours I could have wandered the Marais or poked around in Les Halles. Page 18

Even from across the lawn, Maura could recognize homicide detective Jane Rizzoli. Now eight months pregnant, the petite Rizzoli looked like a ripe pear in a pantsuit. Page 20

She had seen her share of horrors in this lab, had gazed at flesh in every stage of decay, at bodies so damaged by fire or trauma that the remains could scarcely be categorized as human. The woman on the table was, in the scope of her experience, remarkably intact. The blood had been washed away, and the bullet's entry wound, in the left scalp, was obscured by her dark hair. Page 39  

There were no pictures taken in the hospital, none of her mother in pregnancy. Just this sudden, sharp image of Ginny smiling in the sunshine, holding her instant baby. She thought of another dark-haired baby, held in another mother's arms. Perhaps, on that very same day, a proud father in another town had snapped off a photo of his new daughter. A girl named Anna. Page 86

The book is mostly written in third person but has some sentences in first person, those sentences are inner monologue but they aren't preachy or at all annoying and I usually HATE inner monologue and first person yapping.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this book and it is highly likely that I will pick up another one of Tess Gerritsen novels soon!

Bisous

Book Review: Exit Music by Ian Rankin

I have been reading this book for such a long time! The problem is that this is such a slow book, I am not asking for a action thriller I am just asking for a book that isn't in such a horrible snail pace!

It's late autumn in Edinburgh and late autumn in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he tries to tie up some loose ends before retirement, a murder case intrudes. A dissident Russian poet has been found dead in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. By apparent coincidence, a high-level delegation of Russian businessmen is in town - and everyone is determined that the case should be closed quickly and clinically. 

But the further they dig, the more Rebus and DS Siobhan Clarke become convinced that they are dealing with something more than a random attack - especially after a particularly nasty second killing. Meanwhile, a brutal and premeditated assault on a local gangster sees Rebus in the frame ...

Not even half way through the book I just wanted to quit reading it! It was just dreadfully slow and horribly boring.

"Rebus had dropped her home and then driven through the silent pre-dawn streets to Marchmont, an eventual parking space, and his second-floor tenement flat. The living room had a bay window, and that was where his chair was." Page 15

I wondered if the story might be more interesting if I had read the other 17 books written about Inspector Rebus but somehow I highly doubt it.

The book spans nine days and an extra day epilogue which can be what makes the story develop so slowly. To be fair, there is almost no movement in this book! It is just a repetition from day to day with just little bit of new information and just page-loads of nothing.

"He turned his attention to the windscreen and the bleak car park beyond. Clarke could see that he wanted to wind down the window so he could smoke. But the smell was out there, lying in wait just above the level of tarmac." Page 64

I wonder if Ian Rankin wanted just to stop writing about Inspector Rebus, since he is supposed to retire in this novel, and the publisher made him write another book with this is the result, an awful book! But in reality there is an eighteenth Inspector Rebus novel that came out after this one.

"The moment the flashing blue light was plugged in, it began working. Goodyear reached out of the window and attached it to the roof. The light ahead was still red. Clarke sounded her horn and watched the driver examine her in his rearview mirror." Page 396

I think Ian Rankin will go into my "do not read" author list, along with Kathy Reichs (see review here). Life is just too short to keep on reading bad books!

What should I put on my reading list?

Bisous

Book Review: Déjà Dead by Kathy Reichs

I had some high hopes for this book, I really thought it would be a great book. I have heard so many amazing thing about the Temperance Brennan books but I had never read one. I decided to go for it and I regret it.  

Déjà Dead is Kathy Reichs first novel and for me most likely the last that I will read by her. 

The bones of a woman are discovered in the grounds of an abandoned monastery and the case is given to Dr Temperance Brennan, Director of Forensic Anthropology for the province of Quebec. 'Too decomposed for standard autopsy. Request anthropologic expertise. My case.'

Researching recent disappearances in the city convinces Brennan that a serial killer is at work, despite the deep cynicism of Detective Claudel who heads the investigation. Dr Brennan's forensic expertise and contacts at Quantico finally convince him otherwise, but only after the body count has grown... 

Tempe takes matters into her own hands, re-examining remains from past, unsolved murders. She is driven to unravel shocking acts of violence by reading the bones of the dead. But even before Tempe makes her crucial breakthrough, the killer closes in...

I think main problem I have with the book is that it is written in first person, I find that just way way to annoying. There is too much of inner conversations that are just useless and make Temperance character simply annoying. I really wouldn't want to know her in real life.

The second problem was just too much detail, for me the only thing it did for the story was to fill pages and was just plain and simple boring. I threw the book down almost at every other page because reading this book is super frustrating!

The only character I could relate to was Temperance daughter, Katy. She really just wanted her mom to stop annoying her so much.

"What I saw made my blood race even faster, as if the thumb had been slipped from the shaken soda bottle in my chest and a geyser of fear allowed to erupt." Page 71

"Back in the imaging program, I called up Tang.tif and double-clicked it open. Tanguay's impression filled the screen. I retrieved the bite mark in the Rue Berger cheese, and tilted the two images side by side. Next I converted both images to an RGB scale, to maximize the amount of information in the pictures" Page 464 

The description on how she is editing pictures goes on for 7 pages! 7!!! Horrible. The same happens earlier in the book when she starts describing different types of saws.

I am only including two quotes since I just can't make myself type more of horrible written words.  I will never reach for another Kathy Reichs book and I wish I hadn't forced myself to finish this one!

Bisous

Book Review: Heartless by Gail Carriger

I have written a review about Gail Carriger book before, it was called Soulless (see here). I really enjoyed that book and it was no different with this one!

On the back cover it says:

Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband's past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux's latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines and Alexia barley has time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant.
Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf's clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldam's second best closet?

As I mentioned in my review for Soulless, Gail Carriger has written several other books with the same characters. They are Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless and Timeless. There are as well two volumes of manga that are based on these books. 

I had the same problem with this book as I had with the first one, there are endless amount of characters that have first and last names and the names are used at random! However, that is the only thing that I didn't like about the book! 

The story line is fantastic! The character are amazing! I even laughed out loud frequently when I was reading the book! Just marvelous! 

"Struck with a sudden inspiration, Lady Maccon yelled to her lupine spouse, "My love, lead them off. Go for the lime pit." She remembered Conall complaining to her about running into the pit by accident only a few nights previous, singeing all the hair of his forefeet." Page 23

"Even prior to her marriage, Miss Ivy Hisselpenny's social position had prevented her from attending events of high standing, while Miss Alexia Tarabotti had suffered under the yoke of such events. As far as Ivy was concerned, this yielded up a poor quality and quantity of gossip." Page 89

In these two quotes Alexia, the main character, is mentioned as Lady Maccon and as Miss Alexia Tarabotti! It is quite annoying if you haven't read the previous books and don't really know that Lady Maccon maiden name was Miss Tarabotti.

"She was confined to her bed with a splint and barley water and told that on no account was she to move for an entire week. Worse, she was also told that she was to lay off tea for the next twenty-four hours, as imbibing any hot liquid was bound to increase the swelling. Alexia called the doctor a quack and threw her bad cap at him. He retreated, but she knew perfectly well that Cornall and the rest at Woolsey would see that his instructions were obeyed to the letter" Page 167

All in all this book is great, it has a good story, it is well written and it is funny! I would definitely recommend it and I am thinking about reading her other books in this series!

Bisous!

P.S. Check out how I am doing with my A-Z list here.

Book Review: After Mary By Katharine McMahon

I can't really remember why I decided to read this book but I do not regret it! This is the first book on my a-z list that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I think it must have been the book summary at the back cover that made me want to read it, on the back it says:

Seventeenth-century England is a turbulent country, rife with treachery and violence, where persecuted Catholics flee for their lives, mass is said secretly in attic rooms and a plot is hatched to kill the King.

In London, young Isabel Stanhope leads a double life. Her father, a favoured courtier of James I, expects her to marry a distant cousin, the gloriously elusive Francis Bourne. But during the tense summer of 1605, Isabel is sent to stay with her devoutly Catholic grandmother. One morning, she witnesses the arrival of a stranger, the charismatic priest Peter Carisbroke, and falls immediately under his spell.

Isabel - torn between duty and a young woman's passionate, but forbidden, longing - struggles to make her choice. Eager for experience and love, she sets out on a journey which takes her from the temptations of Jacobean London to a Europe torn apart by war. But has Isabel made the right decision? Has she really followed her heart?

In this sumptuous, enthralling novel, Katharine McMahon portrays a fascinating world of self-sacrifice, betrayal and intrigue, where the consequences of love turn life upside-down.

The story is amazing, it is split into four parts, Powder (1605), Mary Mary (1609), Galloping Girls (1617) and Praxedes (1621). It follows the journey of Isabel, through her struggles with faith and other struggles. It has historical accurate characters which give the story the reality it need and Katherine McMahon managed to grab my mind and I actually looked up a lot of the characters just so I could know more about them.

"Men's heads. From ragged skin waved hair and beards, in place of lips were gaping grins and tatty lumps of flesh dangled from severed necks. People stared up, fascinated." Page 74

This quote demonstrates the only thing that annoyed me with this book, Isabel father is always mentioned as Sir William, but all of a sudden just in this quote he is mentioned as Stanhope, it took me awhile to realize that Sir William was Stanhope.  

"Her attention had drifted away from him but she awoke abruptly to the realization that she was in danger. Stanhope's hatred for Thomasina was shocking. Crossing the carriage with a spring he sat beside Isabel so that his weight on her huge skirt pinned her to the seat. His hand came up and plucked at her face, pinching the flesh of her cheek between thumb and finger. 'Where did you go yesterday?'" Page 96 

"Praxedes was easy to read. She had a way of making herself significant by assuming insignificance. Her smiles were rare and she skimmed from place to place like a shadow. To make time for more prayer, she slept only two hours a night and the flaming hair that always escaped just a little from her cap was a poignant and beautiful contrast to her huge green eyes and fragile white skin" Page 195 

As I said before, I really liked this book. The characters grabbed me and I got to see how they grew and evolved before my eyes! Amazing!

Have you read any good books lately?

Book Review: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

It took me such a long time to get into this book! It just starts in a such an awfully slow way! I really don't remember why I decided to pick up this book but I did! As mentioned before the book starts really slow and the book itself is really slow it isn't a complicated read it is written in a simple manner but the story just goes on in such a slow way!

Every time I picked up the book I read couple of pages until I just gave up, it was such a boring book! The concept is great! But the writing is just tedious! But when I was traveling back to Geneva and had nothing else to read for 12 hours I managed to finish it (with some naps in between)

On the back of the book it says:

Families have secrets they hide
even from themselves...
It should have been an ordinary birth, the start of an ordinary happy family. But the night Dr. David Henry delivers his wife's twins is a night that will haunt five lives forever.

For though David's son is a healthy boy, his daughter has Down's syndrome. And, in a shocking act of betrayal whose consequences only time will reveal, he tells his wife their daughter died while secretly entrusting  her care to a nurse.

As grief quietly tears apart David's family, so a little girl must make her own way in the world as best she can.

I find the blurb isn't at all accurate for what is happening in the book, yes, David does give the nurse the baby but it is the nurse that decides to take care of the baby. Furthermore, when I was reading the book it didn't feel like it was grief tearing the family apart it was selfishness of them all. The little girl didn't have to make her own way in the world since she was very well taken care of by the nurse and the nurses husband.

The book starts in March 1964 and the last chapter takes part on 1st of September 1989. The story starts with Norah going into labor and her husband David, eleven years older than her, delivers the babies. The story starts slowly and the delivery takes about 20 pages of horribly written back-story that really doesn't give anything towards the plot.

I never felt any sympathy towards any of the characters, they were all selfish in their own ways and didn't evolve throughout the 401 pages, yes 401 pages of complaining. The book wasn't about grief, it was about how families can't stick together without having faith in each other. It felt like it was supposed all to be David's fault and he could just never catch a break. 

At last, some quotes from the book itself.

"Despite herself, Norah felt a surge of pleasure. She had given up on hope of such an invitation years ago, after Bree's scandalous marriage and divorce." Page 129

"He saw Paul a block before the party, walking down the sidewalk with his hands shoved into his pockets, his shoulder hunched. There were cars parked all along the road, no place to pull over, so David slowed and tapped the horn. Paul looked up, and for a moment David was afraid he might run." Page 199

"Caroline caught the corner of the Polaroid between her thumb and first finger as it slipped from the camera, the image already emerging. The table with its white cloth appeared to float on a sea of dark grass. Moonflowers, white and faintly luminous, climbed the hillside. Phoebe was a pale blur in her confirmation dress. Caroline waved the photo dry in the fragrant air." Page 221

All in all, I would say that it is a bad book, but the concept is great.


Bisous

P.S. Check out my other book reviews here 

Book Review: City of The Beasts by Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende was one of my favorite author when I was a teenager so I jumped at the opportunity to buy City of The Beasts when I saw it.  The book was published in 2002 and is the first part of a trilogy

On the back of the book it says.

With his mother in hospital, Alex Cold is sent to his fierce, wonderful grandmother Kate - a pipe-smoking, vodka-drinking old reporter with blue eyes "as sharp as daggers' points". Kate is about to embark on an expedition to the dangerous, remote world of the Amazon rainforest, but rather than change her plans, she  simply takes Alex along wit her... In a novel rich in adventure, magic and spirit, internationally-celebrated novelist Isabel Allende takes us on a voyage of discovery and wonder, deep into the heart of the Amazon.

The plot of the story starts well, it is believable and tragic. However, as the story goes on you start to wonder what kind of drugs she was taking when writing the book! I know that the book is a fiction book but it is just too much of a fiction. I'm not sure why I feel this way but I do think it has something to do with my experience with Allende's other novels. I was expecting the novel to walk the line between reality and fiction better but instead it just jumped into the fictional side and drowned.

I felt as well the fact that Alex was feeling attracted to a girl that was much younger than he (he was fifteen) and still comparing that girl to his younger sister quite disturbing. Just the fact that her boyish body is described in one place and in the other how grown up she seems and how Alex has started to look at her in a different way and you know she is the same age as his sister that is around 12 years old. For me that really damaged the book a lot.

"One day the crew shot a couple of monkeys, and that night when the boat was tied up along the riverbank they were roasted. They looked like couple of burned infants, and Alex felt queasy just seeing them." Page 59-60 

"The rain was warm as soup, and it turned the narrow little streets into steaming mud pits." Page 70 

""I set him free," César Santos replied with awesome serenity" Page 107 

"In a movie or a novel, this would be the moment that the helicopters arrived to rescue him and he looked toward the sky, but without hope; in real life, helicopters never come in time." Page 218 

"They had to brush away from their eyes the delicate spiderwebs embroidered with mosquitoes and dewdrops suspended like lace among the leaves." Page 253

I don't think I'll read the rest of the trilogy and I think I will stick with her books that are aimed at adults. I can't deny that Isabel Allende is a great author but this book just didn't do it for me!

Book Review: Prey by Michael Crichton

I am not big fan of books written in first person, there is just too much rambling and I find it, to be honest, annoying as hell. I was happily surprised by this book! Even though it is written in first person the rambling is not that bad.

Michael Crichton is probably best known for writing Jurassic Park, which was the reason for Mr. Handsome to bring this book home.

Prey isn't about dinosaurs but about about micro-robots. The main character is a software programmer that is a stay at home dad named Jack Forman. He is married to Julia and they have three children (Nicole, Eric and Amanda)

The book covers seven days of their lives. It is in two parts called HOME and DESERT. The home part is more mental thriller, since Jack doesn't know what is happening whilst in the latter part it is all pure physical thriller.

The main problem for Jack in the first part of the book is the fact he believes that Julia is cheating on him, she stays at work all the time and he believes she is acting differently. 

In the second part Jack is working in Julia's company and is staying at the laboratory in the middle of the desert. He finds a swarm of micro-robots that he needs to destroy and find out the mysteries of the laboratory. 

I turned to see two additional swarms coming around the shed. They immediately swirled over our car, front and back. I felt like we were in a dust storm. I looked at Mae. She was sitting very still, stony-faced, just watching. (Page 318)

There is this one thing I didn't like about the novel. It might be because Michael is a man or it might be just how he writes or it even might be just this book since it is the first one I have read from him. But the problem I am having is how he projects the female characters of this story, they are nagging, bitchy, cheating, weak, easily manipulated and a tad stupid. On the other hand they are pretty, gorgeous and otherwise objectified. I am not sure if he uses such a stereotypical prejudice in ever book that he writes but I don't think I will read another one to find out. 

The baby cried louder, tried to turn away. One of the adhesive tabs pulled off. The diaper slid down. Amanda was now rolling toward the edge of the dresser. Julia pulled her back roughly. Amanda never stopped kicking. 'God damn it, I said stop!' Julia said, and smacked the baby on the leg. The baby just cried harder, kicked harder. 'Amanda! Stop it! Stop it!' She slapped her again. 'Stop it! Stop it!' (Page 21)

Even early in the book when everything is supposedly fine he shows Julia in a bad light. Just because she is a working mother makes her a bad parent? Smacking her 18 month old baby on the thigh. If you have read the book you might think it has something to do with the ending. I don't think so. There is nothing about the ending that would explain that kind of behavior. 

Prey can be bought from amazon for $9.99 

P.S. I just joined this Kindle Book Club, check it out if you have a Kindle :)

Book Review: Foe by J.M. Coetzee

I can't believe I haven't done a "Book of the Month" since July! I have been reading books but I just haven't been writing about them.

I had to read Foe for school, I don't think I would have picked it up otherwise. It's not that I dislike this book it is just that I can't stand books written in 1st person and this one is written that way. There is just too much of rambling and Foe is just rambling!

Foe is J.M Coetzee's answer to Robinson Crusoe (by Daniel Defoe) it is written around a woman named Susan Barton and her endeavors. In the beginning of the books she arrives to the same island Robinson and Friday are living on. They all embark on a journey to London, Robinson doesn't survive the trip.

In London Susan meets Mr. Foe (supposedly Daniel Defoe) and starts writing him letters, he never answers those letters. Susan goes to Mr. Foe's house and notices he has gone in hiding and starts living in his house and pretending she is his housekeeper.

The story isn't over then but I don't wanna ruin the surprises that are on the way.

Whilst reading the story I pitied Susan, she was just such a whiny little bastard! To add on everything she pretty much stalked Mr. Foe since he was supposed to make her famous.

A part of the book made me quite sick, that is the parts when Susan is (what I can only assume) being raped, first by Robinson and then later by Mr. Foe.

In this quote Susan woke up and realized Robinson was fondling her:

"I pushed his hand away and made to rise, but he held me. No doubt I might have freed myself, for I was stronger than he. But I thought, He has not known a woman for fifteen years, why should he not have his desire? So I resisted no more but let him do as he wished" (page 30)

Similar thing happened when she was with Mr. Foe

"Then he was up on me, and I might have thought myself in Cruso's arms again; for they were men of the same time of life, and heavy in the lower body, though neither was stout; and their way with a woman too was much the same. I closed my eyes, trying to find my way back to the island, to the wind and wave-roar; but no, the island was lost, cut off from me by a thousand leagues of watery waste." (page 139)

I find these quotes describe Susan's character quite well, she just doesn't really care things just seem to happen to her.

I would recommend to read this book, it's sadly not available for kindle but it can be bought at Amazon.com   for $10.44

Book Review: Soulless by Gail Carriger

I finally finished Soulless by Gail Carriger, I say finally because I've been talking about it for a while now! I bought it when I was in Helsinki  and just never finished reading it! The golden opportunity came when I was stuck in London over a night for a layover. There in the underground I finally finished it! FINALLY! 


The strange thing is, that this book is quite good. It's interesting and funny and the story line is not that bad! For me that rarely happens these days! The main protagonist of the story is Alexia Tarabotti. Alexia is preternatural, being preternatural means that she doesn't have any soul (in the books), whenever she touches someone that is supernatural they  some of the other characters in the book are Lord Conall Maccon a werewolf and the alpha of the BUR (Bureau of Unnatural Registry). Lord Akeldama a gay vampire that knows all the things that are happening. 


There are a lot of characters in this book and I got sometimes confused by the massive amount of names. Another thing I didn't like was the ending, well the way the ending was written, all mashed down into couple of pages.


The story itself was quite intriguing, there was some steampunkness but not too much, there was decent amount of romance but it wasn't too mushy. Most of the characters were likeable and the story had a good flow! 


And now for my favourite part of writing about the books: quotes!

   Page 65: Miss Tarabotti stood, marched over, and grabbed Lord Maccon's wrist. His teeth retracted instantly. The earl's yellow eyes went back to amber-brown. It was the color they must have been years ago before he yielded to the bite that made him supernatural.

     Page 112: The kiss itself was quite gentle: slow and soft. Alexia found it surprising given the violence of his embrace. She also found it faintly unsatisfying. She gave a little  murmur of frustration and leaned in toward him. Then the kiss changed. It became harder, rougher, parting her lips with purpose. There was even, shockingly, tongue involved in the proceed. 

    Page 191:  One of the other men broke away from the fighting group and sprinted after her attacker. Alexia doubted he would arrive in time. The waxed faced man moved with utter efficiency and economy of motion, less a man running than a water snake slithering. 

   Page 232: Lord Akeldama and Alexia both stood. Alexia grabbed her brass parasol, gripping it firmly in both hands. Lord Akeldama reached for the gold pipe art piece from the mantel. He pressed hard at a hidden button in the midpoint, and a curved, hooklike blade sprang out each end of the pipe and clicked into place. One was sharpened ironwood, the other solid silver. Not art, as it turned out.

Gail Carriger has written three other books with the same character, the forth one is supposed to be published in March 2012. I'm planning on ordering at least Changeless for my kindle this summer.  

   
                                                                                                                                 

Right now I'm reading The Name of the Wind - Kingkiller Chronicles, Day one  by Patrick Rothfuss. I've read 11% of it and like it so far. Check out my other Book of the Month posts.

Lots of Love

Book Review: Hanna's Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson

I haven’t been writing since I’ve been travelling. I’m actually writing this in the airplane and watching What Happens in Vegas with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher.

I finished reading one more book, this is the 6th book that I read this year, maybe I’ll manage to read 52 books this year.

The book I read this time is called Hanna’s Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson. Sadly this book was absolutely awful. It’s seriously the worst book of all the books I’ve read this year! Horrendous! I had to strain myself to finish reading this book! It went from 3rd person to 1st person in the same sentence! All the names were the same and there wasn’t much of a thread in the story.

The basic story was quite good, the thing this book needed was a very very very good editor and being rewritten almost completely! I’ll try to explain what this book was all about but it’s hard since I really didn’t understand it all.

There are three main story characters. There is Anna, Johanna (Anna’s mother) and Hanna (Johanna’s mother). The story is the story of their life. It starts with Anna and her life where she wonders about the life story of her mother and grandmother. She starts writing down the stories of her female ancestors.
Here are some quotes from the book:

Page 48: Hanna walked home through the forest with a dizzy sense of being too much. She’d be mistress in her own house, a house as big and fine as at Lyckan.

- Hanna the grandmother, just got the news that she would marry a miller.

Page 93: Eighteen months after Little John was born, the next boy arrived and, as expected, was like the Eriksson family, large brown eyes, straight nose and dark brown hair. Maja-Lisa was proud as if the herself had given birth to him and decided that he was to be called Erik after her father.

- Maja-Lisa is Hanna’s mother, this quote is about Hanna’s third born son.

Page 180: Right from the beginning Anna had had an inkling that Rickard had little self-confidence. An autocratic mother? A weak father? But when she was young she hadn’t wanted to understand. Constantly understanding was a danger to yourself. Her mother’s life had taught her that. Johanna was one of those who always understood, so had had to endure a great deal.

- Anna talking about her husband Rickard and her mother Johanna.

Page 207: My life has been divided into two halves. The first half lasted for eight years of childhood, so was the same length as the remaining seventy. When I look back on the second half, I find four stages that changed me.

- Johanna talking about her life stages.

Page 245: That night I found it hard to sleep. I lay there, twisting and turning, trying to get the pictures of Arne to fit together. The young man who’d bravely stood up at the meeting and been mocked for agreeing with justice for women. The sailor who was so bold at sea. Politically clear-sighted, intelligent and knowledgeable. Foreman. And then this feeble creature sneaking away from his mother.

-Johanna talking about her husband Arne.

I really do not recommend reading this book. I do recommend Marianne Fredriksson to maybe rewrite this book and republish it! Because the basic story is good!

The book that I just started reading is called Soulless by Gail Carriger, it hasn’t started well so I hope it get’s better, I’m always very hopeful that the books do get better! I might need to start reevaluating the books that I pick to read!

What should I read after Soulless?

Book Review: My Last Duchess by Daisy Goodwin

The last book of the month is My Last Duchess by Daisy Goodwin. Daisy Goodwin is born in December so we are month buddies (I count all people that are Sagittariuses to be my month buddies!). This is her second book. Her first book, Silver River, was published in 2007 and is a memoir of her own life.

My Last Duchess was published in August 2010, it's a romantic story about a girl named Cora Cash and her journey into adulthood and life in general. Cora is a wealthy heiress in 1890 in America. Her mother biggest dream is for Cora to marry someone with a title so they move to England. In England Cora falls in love with a Duke and the story doesn't end there!

I did quite enjoy the book. Cora is a lovely character and you can feel for her. You can sense her loneliness and the bitterness between her and her mother without getting to annoyed at them.

What I didn't like was the supposedly twist that wasn't much of a twist for me, it jumped out on the first page when she met the Duke for the first time! Otherwise the book was good.

Some memorable quotes:

     Page 35: She smiled when she saw Lincoln waiting for her in the stable yard, twitching his head impatiently. A sixteen-hand grey stallion, Lincoln was the finest product of her father's stables. Core was not ready to admit that she might find a British horse to suit her, so she had brought her favourite hunters with her, walking them every day on the deck the SS Aspen, her father's steam yacht.

Cora about her horse Lincoln, I can just so easily imagine this scene happening.

     Page 57: Mrs Cash had wanted to leave Sutton Veney as soon as she had received her daughters note, but Lord Bridport had persuaded her that it would be better to go in the morning. As she sat down to dinner, Mrs Cash was grateful for the opportunity to find out something more about the man she now thought of as Cora's duke.

Mrs Cash can see a glimpse into her long lasting dream of Cora getting married to someone with a title.

     Page 89: So she had come fully prepared for the brief moment of disappointment when she would see the Duke shaping himself around the bulk of her inheritance. She was almost looking forward to seeing him moulded by its weight. It had not occurred to her that he could be indifferent.

Cora about the Duke.

      Page 128: The staff of Lulworth  were lined up on the grey stone steps as the carriage drew up, the male servants on the left. the female servants on the right, from the butler and housekeeper right down to the scullery maid and knife boy.

 When the Duchess (the Dukes mother) came for  visit.

All in all I quite liked this book and would recommend it. It has quite the charm and it flows very well. It is well written and that can save any type of bad twists.

Book Review: The Belle / The Brothel by Lesley Pearse

This is the second book for February! The Belle (or apparently The Brothel) by Lesley Pearse. Lesley doesn't have her own Wikipedia page! But I found something interesting on her own page.

Number One bestseller Lesley Pearse has created in Belle a heroine for our times: a strong woman who stands up for right in a world turned bad.

 Well I'm sorry to say, that's just wrong. The book is 574 pages and usually I prefer long books because the description is most of the time better. This book consists of 574 pages of copy-paste and you get so tired of it. I somehow assume that Lesley Pearse was paid by the word count!

Anyway, the book is about Belle who is sold into prostitution. Her family and friends search for her endlessly but she decides she likes selling her body for 2 dollars a night and that she is good at it so she does it but hates herself for liking it. Meanwhile a boy that fell in love with her before she was sold still loves her but she doesn't even write home because she is a prostitute. 574 pages later you want to slap some sense into her or burn the damn book!


Quotes from the book (no freaking favorite!)

  Page 99: It was bad enough that they were taking her to France, but Sly was sickened when Kent wanted her put in the trunk. Waiting so long at Dover had been one of the most agonizing times he'd ever known. If she'd woken up and started hammering on the trunk and alerted people, Sly knew he'd be facing a very long stretch in prison.

The kidnapper of Belle having some doubts.

  Page 211: The young man was growling more and more exited as Betty stripped off her clothes, and as she climbed up on to the bed and knelt beside him, she lifted her chemise to show him her private parts. Belle could see that she had a very luxuriant mount of dark curly hair there, and as the young man reached out to touch it, Betty groaned and arched her back, inviting him to take liberties with her.

Bella watching Betty (another prostitute) do her job.

  Page 246: It was she who had to put up with the men groping her, gawping at her, saying crude things, pawing her, fucking her and finally maybe even giving her the pox or making her pregnant. All Martha did was sit on her fat backside and watch the money flow in.

 Bella not happy about her pimp (Martha) getting all the money.

  Page 306: Almost daily she wished she were back with the other girls in Martha's kitchen over long, leisurely breakfasts, sitting around in their nightdresses with tangled hair, everyone talking at once about the night before and shrieking with laughter as one of them described a particularly odd experience. Then there were those lazy afternoons wandering the French Quarter or lying around in the back yard chatting and sipping cold drinks. She'd even give anything to hear the front-door bell tinkling, although that meant a gentleman was coming in and suddenly they all had to turn on seductive smiles and brace themselves for what was to come.

Bella being all sad when she didn't have to be a prostitute anymore.

  Page 551: Her eyes were growing used to the gloom now and she saw him pick up a lenght of cord to tie her hands behind her and round her ankles in much the same way he had the first time he captured her.

 Bella being kidnapped by the same guy again (she got kidnapped about 4-5 times in this book!)

I think these are enough quotes mostly because I really don't want to copy more of them!