2010 Books

1. Lover Unbound
2. Final Arrangements
3. Hot Six
4. Murder List

Book Review: A Million Little Pieces

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Personally I don't care that this turned out to be a work of fiction; it is still a good read. I'm actually more impressed with him not actually going through all that and doing research on it than if it would have been a true story. The part about when he went to the dentist actually made my mouth hurt. It was tough to read at times, and certain characters pissed me off, but it was well worth it.

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Book Review: Lover Revealed

Lover Revealed by J.R. Ward


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is a good news/bad news kind of thing. The good news is that I have found another series to read, The Black Dagger Brotherhood. The bad news is Lover Revealed is the fourth book in the series, so I've read the wrong one first. Will that stop me from reading books one through three? No way. If the series is anything like this book (and all I have heard are raves about it), then the lack of suspense for how they end won't really be a detriment to me.
This is a book about a small group of powerful vampires that call themselves the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Each has their own unique strength; all are huge, muscular and gorgeous. Lover Revealed is the story of Butch O'Neal, former police officer and the only human ever allowed within the inner circle of the Brotherhood. One night, Butch is caught between a civilian vampire (a weaker class of vampire than the Brotherhood) and a group of lessers (vampire hunters) and is taken to a place where he is tortured and introduced to the most evil thing of this world or any other world, known simply as the Omega. Taken out to the woods and left for dead he is eventually found by one of the Brotherhood, Vishous. Things look pretty bleak for our hero, so Vishous calls in the only one he can think of that will give Butch the will to live.
A part of the vampire aristocracy, Marissa is nonetheless shunned from the governing body of vampires. She comes to Butch's side when Vishous calls her and stays with him until he does recover. Along the way, they discover the tricks used to keep them apart in an earlier novel and confess their undying love for each other. There's only one problem...Butch is human while Marissa is immortal. Is there any way that Butch can become a part of the Brotherhood? And if he can, how will he be as a vampire? Will he still feel the same way about Marissa, or will he turn away from her like he did before? And what's with Butch being able to "inhale" the lessers during a fight, turning them to dust? What exactly did the Omega do to him while he was in that place to cause this black goo to ooze out of him?

This was an excellent book and I could not read it fast enough. I am looking forward to reading all the other books in the series.

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Book Review: Murdering Mr. Monti

Murdering Mr. Monti by Judith Viorst


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Murdering Mr. Monti turned out to be a better book than I thought it would be. For an eavesdropping, murder-plotting, adulteress like Brenda Kovner to be someone the reader actually LIKES is quite an accomplishment for an author. It all starts when Brenda's son announces his engagement to Josephine Monti, the painfully shy youngest daughter of overbearing Joseph Monti. It's bad enough that he is going to lose his daughter, but when she decides to convert to Judaism, Mr. Monti declares war on the Kovner clan. He bankrolls a shady land development deal with Brenda's other son then demands a balloon payment that he cannot possibly repay, he is behind two couples who are suing Brenda's pediatric surgeon husband Jake, and now threats keep coming to the house via crazy singing clowns, maniac van drivers and faxes. What can a mother do but protect her child? And the only way Brenda sees to protect not only her son, but save her whole family, is to murder Mr. Monti before he can destroy their lives.
As you can imagine, chaos ensues.
This was a fast read, a kind of out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire type of book and more than once I found myself chuckling. And I was pulling for Brenda all the way.
3 stars out of 5

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Book Review: Islands

Islands by Anne Rivers Siddons


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book started out slow for about the first half, but by the end I wasn't able to put it down. It's the story of four couples who call themselves the scrubs because they are all involved in the medical community of Charleston, South Carolina in some way. The main character is Anny who marries Lewis and is welcomed wholeheartedly to the group. The unquestioned heart of the group is warm and gracious Camilla; she is the one that is credited for holding the group together through a hurricane, deaths, fire and change.
Towards the end of the book there is a mystery to be solved and I was surprised at the conclusion of it, but the book itself is an excellent one and I would recommend it for reading when it's cold outside.
3.5 stars out of 5

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Book Review

Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
MacKayla Lane, Mac for short, is a 22 year old Southern belle whose idyllic existance comes to a crashing halt when she learns her sister Alina has been murdered in Dublin, Ireland. The police don't have many clues to follow and soon the case gets relegated to the cold case files. Everyone seems to have given up on finding Alina's killer, even Mac's parents, so she flies to Dublin herself to see if she can find anything out. Almost immediately strange things start to happen to her - hallucinations mostly - and when she has one in a local pub, she finds out about something called a Sinsar Dubh. Mac has no idea what that is, but every time she mentions it, people get mighty peculiar.

Eventually she meets Jericho Barrons, wealthy and mysterious owner of Barrons Books and Baubles, who at first tries to warn her away from Dublin, telling her she has no idea what she is getting herself into. Turns out that Mac is a Sidhe-Seer, someone who can see beneath the glamour of the mystical Fae and see them for what they truly are underneath...horribly disfigured monsters. She also meets V'lane, an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women. V'lane is a seelie Fae, the lighter or fairer of the two classes, and therefore completely irresistible. The ugly Fae are called the unseelies.(I know...I rolled my eyes too, but it's really a good book.)

The Sinsar Dubh is a centuries old book of the most powerful magic ever known and everyone is after it including Fae, mobsters, vampires and Barrons himself. When he discovers Mac is not only a Sidhe-Seer, but a Null (one who can freeze the Fae for an instant and who gets nauseous every time she is near anything to do with the Sinsar Dubh or the Fae) he teams up with Mac to find the book.

This is the first book in a series and there is a cliffhanger at the end, so they are best read in order.

5 stars out of 5

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Book Review: Rose Madder

Rose Madder by Stephen King


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
90% of Rose Madder is a departure for Stephen King in my opinion. There is only a small part in the middle of the book which is more his typical style, and of course the ending is what you would expect it to be. The cover of the book, which made me wonder how in the world a bull skull with flowers on its horns fits in with the story, but eventually it does get explained. It's just too bizarre for me to explain it in a few words so I won't even attempt to.
This is a story about Rose Daniels, the classic battered woman. The batterer in this case is her husband, police officer Norman Daniels. Norman is a psychotic, sadistic, controlling, sexist, racist piece of work. A spot of blood on the bedsheet is the catalyst for Rose to leave him after 14 years of hell. Rose Madder tells how Rose Daniels became Rosie McClendon, independent woman. Of course she meets a new man, falls in love, gets a good job and her own place, and of course Norman is going to follow her to teach her a lesson or, as he puts it "talk to her up close", all because she dared to steal his bank ATM card and take $350 (or so he tells himself). By the end of the novel he is a stark raving lunatic. A strange painting Rosie buys at a pawn shop figures prominently in the story, and this is where the King-ness comes into play.
When Rosie's fear turns to anger, you almost sit up and cheer because you want so badly for her to be free of Norman. When Norman finally gets his comeuppance, fittingly it is at the hands of women who are stronger than him.
Overall, this was a very good read. 4 stars out of 5

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