I just started reading the Sookie Stackhouse series. These are the books that sparked the True Blood series and they are yet another vampire series so of course I had to read them. I’m still a bit up in the air on this series. They are a very quick read
(I’m already on to Club Dead), and the author writes Sookie as sort of a wise cracking southern belle. She’s telepathic which is pretty cool. I like her more than the ever complaining Miss Bella from the Twilight Series. I think what I don’t like is that in this series, the vampires are all kind of perverted and not all that great. In a way, the books are a lot more realistic because the vampires aren’t these perfect, shiny creatures who smell great all the time. While I don’t think I’ll be buying this series as mothers day gifts like I did the Twilight series for my mom, I do think I will finish the series and see what happens to the quirky Miss Stackhouse and her very odd world. I’ll give this one a B because it’s interesting, but the grammar and writing abilities of the author Charlaine Harris a C-.

The Awakening is the continuation of Chloe’s story in The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong. Here’s a summary from the author’s website:

If you had met me a few weeks ago, you probably would have described me as an average teenage girl—someone normal. Now my life has changed forever and I’m as far away from normal as it gets. I’m a living science experiment—not only can I see ghosts, but I can raise the dead without even trying. Trust me, that is not a power you want to have. Ever. I’m running for my life with three of my supernatural friends and we have to find someone who can help us gain our freedom back before the Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying.

So Chloe, Derek, Tori, and Simon are becoming professional fat burners as they’re on the run from the Edison Group. I wasn’t as impressed with The Awakening as I had been with The Summoning. I felt like the second book was a lot of filler, and not a lot of problem solving. There were only a few scenes that were really intense. One was where Chloe almost gets her face cut up by a street girl. Then later when a bullet grazes her as they run from the Edison Group. I found Tory even more annoying than she was in the first book, probably because she got a lot more dialogue. She basically whines and complains the entire time. I was hoping she’d get shot honestly. I’m hoping for more out of the third book. Even though this book felt like filler, it was still decent. I’m giving it a C grade. It still helps make my commute entertaining.

This book was so suspenseful! I was on the edge of my seat through the entire thing. I love Dean Koontz-his Odd Thomas series is great, so I knew this book wouldn’t disappoint. Here’s the basic storyline, taken from deankoontz.com:

What would you do for love? Would you die? Would you kill?

We have your wife. You can get her back for two million cash. Landscaper Mitchell Rafferty thinks it must be some kind of joke. He was in the middle of planting impatiens in the yard of one of his clients when his cell phone rang. Now he’s standing in a normal suburban neighborhood on a bright summer day, having a phone conversation out of his darkest nightmare.

Whoever is on the other end of the line is dead serious. He has Mitch’s wife and he’s named the price for her safe return. The caller doesn’t care that Mitch runs a small two-man landscaping operation and has no way of raising such a vast sum. He’s confident that Mitch will find a way. If he loves his wife enough. . . Mitch does love her enough. He loves her more than life itself. He’s got seventy-two hours to prove it. He has to find the two million by then. But he’ll pay a lot more. He’ll pay anything.

This is a book in which the reader really sinks into the character’s view point. In the final chapter my heart was literally pounding!! I won’t give away any of it. I will just say that it’s an incredible story about what one man will do when his wife’s life is on the line, and what she does as well. Mitch and Holly are the most courageous characters I’ve ever read about. An A+ goes out for this book, and I can’t wait to listen to my next Dean Koontz novel. I think his stories are almost better read because the voice actors really make the story come alive. I still have goosebumps!

This book gave me goosebumps from start to finish. Here’s what the back of the audio book case says about it:

My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.

All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don’t even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost—and the ghost saw me.

Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won’t leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a “special home” for troubled teens. Yet the home isn’t what it seems. Don’t tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? It’s up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House . . . before its skeletons come back to haunt me.

It’s the first book in the Darkest Power series, and I’m so happy there is more than one book! The first book leaves off on a cliffhanger that I won’t reveal. I will say that I can’t wait to ready what happens next.

The character development that Kelley Armstrong wrote helps you really visual each character. You can see Tori as the bratty teen who hates Chloe, when deep down it’s obvious she’s still jealous. You can almost see poor Derek’s  acne that Armstrong describes.
The scene that got to me the most was when Chloe gets trapped in the craw space. She’s tied up, with no lights, and all she can hear are the ghosts around her. Hopefully there is no asbestos in the crawl space either because on top of all her other problems, she’ll need a mesothelioma lawyer when she finally gets out. But the worst thing she does is in her panic, she accidentally summons two ghosts back into their human bodies. They crawl towards her and actually grab her legs. I think at one point I actually screamed out loud! It’s a vivid scene.

I give this book an A+ and I will definitely be checking out the next book in the series, The Awakening.

This was the best book I’ve read (listened to) in a long time. I once again found myself speeding up in traffic at the intense parts, and staying in my car after I arrived home, just to listen to another few minutes. Unwind by Neal Shusterman is a science fiction novel set after the second Civil War. Basically the second war was about pro lifers vs. prochoicers and ultimately it was decided that you couldn’t touch a pregnancy or a child until they were 12, and at that point you could have them “unwound” in which case all of their parts are harvested and used in organ donation. In this way, they stayed “alive” just in a divided state. How’s that for gruesome? So as children, you live in fear that if you don’t act right your parents will unwind you! Basically killing you but technically keeping you alive.

It’s a dark and twisty plot by far, but so riveting. Once again I had to watch myself in traffic because I would get so into the story I would accelerate during the suspenseful moments. I loved this book and I highly recommend reading or listening to the audio version. I won’t say more because that’s the beauty of this book. I knew absolutely nothing about it when I checked it out. I’m just glad we live in a world right now where Unwinding doesn’t occur. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it!

I have to say I was pretty disappointed in this book. I waited a long time to read The Davinci Code, and I was hoping for something more spectacular. Maybe it was the reader’s voice that just didn’t appeal to me. I’m going to take my friend’s advice and read (listen) to Angels and Demons. I was told that book is a lot more exciting.
For me, the Da Vinci Code was interesting, but the dialog was lacking. I liked the idea of this secret society holding onto an ancient secret, and these two people going all over Europe trying to solve the clues and uncover the secret of the Holy Grail. That part I liked. But the dialog about the clues, where Robert Langdon just keeps repeating the clues outloud over and over again, I wanted to throw the CD out the window! I guess it was author Dan Brown’s way of letting the reader know that Langdon was trying to work through the clues, but it could have been done in a less repetitive or drawn out fashion.
Spoiler alert!!!
I just have to say that what is uncovered about Sir Leigh Teabing just seemed weak at best. Leigh was this rich eccentric, who probably owned fancy orlando villas in addition to his many other homes in Europe. He did not fit the bill of an insane killer. I thought having the detective being the killer would have made for a much better climax to the story. But I guess that was the twist that Brown was trying to get through.

Then there is to controversy over what the Holy Grail represents. This I liked, this idea that history isn’t what so many people believe it to be. I might have to do some more research on the Holy Grail, and the Priory of Sion. Even if none of it is accurate, the idea of a secret is just plain cool.

Did anyone out there read The Da Vinci Code? What was your take on it? And, is the movie worth watching?

I’m a fan of Jodi Piccoult and her books about heavy issues and when life turns your world upside down. This one…while I liked it, I had my issues with it. It was definitely not my favorite Piccoult book.

The book is about a woman who spends her life helping to find missing persons. Then one day her father is arrested for kidnapping her as a little girl. It turns out that he took her away from her mother, then lied to her and said she had died.

Parts of the story were really good, and they had me hooked. Such as why her father did it, and whether or not he had good reason. The side story about the love triangle between her and her fiancee and their best friend was completely lame. I hated that the main character Delia cheats on her fiancee, and then has the nerve to justify it. Then there is Piccoult’s weird obsession with writing about molestation all the time. In the other book I read by her, I could see why it was necessary, but in this one it just made it disturbing. Maybe that’s also the intrigue of her books, and for me I just wasn’t in the mood for it. She isn’t afraid to write about the tough subjects, the things no one wants to talk about. But I think I just prefer a book with a happier quality to it.

This was a science fiction book that I wasn’t sure I was going to like, but from the first few lines, I was hooked. I love books set in the future, where crazy things have happened to the world.
In this particular book, Andrew Wiggins, or “Ender” has been a part of a government project from the day he was born. He has been living with a monitor connected to his body, that monitors every move he makes, every thought he has. The monitor is then removed, and he is watched to see how he’ll do when he thinks he’s entirely alone.

Ender goes through hell in this book, as he is chosen to be trained as a military fighter. They are training young children to fight in an impending war against aliens, whom they’ve nicknamed the “buggers”. There is a lot going on in this book, and far too much to write about. It breaks your heart to read about this little boy, who never gets the chance to be a kid. He never gets to sit with his family and open
holiday gifts , he never gets to just play. The “games” the children play in battle school are all training sessions for the real thing.

I was surprised to learn that this book was written in the 80s, before personal computers were all the rage. The book deals with laptops, called “desks” and the author’s insight into future technology was almost eerie. It’s a great book about morals, and nature versus nurture. While it is sad in parts, I definitely think it’s a book worth reading, or listening to in my case!

I listened to the audio book Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz  a long time ago and I loved it. I recently discovered that there are a bunch of other books in the series, Forever Odd and Brother Odd, Odd Hours and In Odd We Trust. How great is it when you love a character and then discover that there’s more books abou them?

So I’m currently listening to Forever Odd, and I thought I’d give you guys a review of Odd Thomas. Odd Thomas is the main character’s given name. His parents were cruel it seems. Or maybe they knew he would live up to that name, because Odd has some very strange gifts.

He has the ability to see ghosts. Now, let me just stop and say that I’m the world’s biggest scardy cat! I can’t stand scary movies and I am a total chicken. Books are even more scary because of the whole imagination thing, but for some reason I still love this book. I get spooked, but Kootz is great at getting you into the story, and it allows you to see past the creepiness.

The ghosts are actually good, they come to Odd because they know he can help them. Thes ghosts can’t talk, but otherwise they are as real to Odd as any other person. He can see them, and he can even touch them. Sometimes the ghosts come to him for justice, and other times they try to help prevent a crime.

In this first book, Odd Thomas, Odd introduces us to his world of the supernatural. Not only does he have the ability to see ghosts, but he also has a way of “sensing things” and this sense usually leads him to the killer. There are only a few people who know about his gift. One of these people is the police chief, who Odd helps solve crimes with his paranormal tips.

I won’t say much more about the book, just that you definitely have to check it out if you like books with suspense. Odd Thomas finds himself trying to prevent a crime of catastrophic proportions. Told in first person, and switching from present to the past, you find yourself suffering right along with Odd thoughout this ordeal. Odd’s world is mysterious and sad, and it will definitely haunt you long after you’ve finished reading.

Also, if you check out the author’s website, there is a web site directory with more information about Odd Thomas and the series. I wouldn’t look through it until after you’ve read the first book though, just so it doesn’t spoil anything for you. Half the thrill of these books is trying to figure out what will happen next.

The Killer’s Cousin by Nancy Werlin, is a MUST READ. I loved that I listened the audio books version because the reader had an excellent voice, and I felt more into the story than I may have just curled up on my couch. The audio version had the creepy music, the suspenseful pauses. It was downright chilling. The only problem I had was getting too excited and accidentally speeding when the climatic parts of the story were read.

First let me just say that I’m a complete chicken when it comes to anything remotely related to dying, death, murder, or anything of the sort. I didn’t think I’d be able to handle this book without throwing the CDs into the freezer (remember Joey on Friends?). But this book did a beautiful job of being suspenseful and creepy without being scary.

The Killer’s Cousin is about a 17 year old, David, who was acquitted for the murder of his girlfriend the year before. All through the story, David tells bits and pieces of what happened the day that his girlfriend died, but we never get the full picture. All we know is that it was an accident, but it was still done by his hand.
Because of all the bad press and publicity of his trial, David’s parents decide to have him move in with his Aunt, Uncle, and 11 year old cousin in Massechusetts. His Uncle sets him up in his own mini apartment that is a converted attic. When he comes to this house, it is revealed that this attic apartment once belonged to his older cousin, Kathy, who died under strange circumstances four years before. David starts seeing a mysterious shadow that he realizes is Kathy’s ghost.

Meanwhile, he is dealing with hostility from his aunt, and even more hostility from his young cousin Lily. Lily is a strange child, with obvious psychological problems, and an even more obvious hatred for David.

I could go into more detail, but I would just ruin the story for you. While I will say some of the plot was predictable, it wasn’t in a boring way. Even though I predicted some of the events, I couldn’t wait to hear what happened next. This was an edge of my seat, can’t wait to jump in my car and listen thriller. What are you waiting for? Go read it!!