Full Wolf Moon by Lincoln Child: Book Review

Has enigmologist Jeremy Logan finally met his match?

Full Wolf Moon by Lincoln Child is a book I picked up off the NEW shelf on my last library trip.

I've never read anything by Lincoln Child before, though the cover proclaims him to be a New York Times #1 bestselling author.  Speaing of the cover, it is the reason I picked up the book.  It boasts a spooky cabin in the middle of nowhere, similar to the cover of The Hexed.  I guess I had a theme going on during that trip.

Jeremy Logan is an enigmalogist --an investigator who specalizes in analyzing unnatural phenomena.

He travels to an isolated retreat deep in the Adirondacks in an attempt to finish his monograph.  However, he's approached by an old friend on his very first night at the retreat and finds himself investigating a series of deaths in the area, as a favor.

Every time he tries to tell himself he's finished with the investigation he finds some other small tidbit of information that draws him back in.  He has seen a lot of strange things in his investigations, but could there possibly be an actual werewolf hunting the Adirondack Mountains?

What I Liked about Full Wolf Moon

You don't see many werewolf novels.  At least not ones where the werewolf is a killer animal and not some hot guy for the female protag to fall in love with.  I'm a sucker for a good old fashioned monster story.

While most of the book is following the investigation and you don't know who/what the killer is until the climax, I like that you do get to see some of the action from the POV of the victims.  Again, I'm a sucker for a monster story and they are much more fun when you see the monster.

What I Didn't Like About Full Wolf Moon

Its part of a series.  AGAIN.  What is it with series these days?

Again, similar to The Hexed, the story seems to stand alone.  There is mention of  Jeremy's wife, and his losing her.  You don't get that whole story but none of it seems to pertain to the story in this novel.
Other than being book #5 follow Jeremy Logan on his adventures I can't think of much I didn't like about the tale.

Over all I give Full Wolf Moon a 4 out of 5 star rating.  It was a captivating read that kept me turning pages until the end.  Once the momentum kicked in it never slowed down enough to dull the story.  It's certainly not "keep you up at night" horror, but its a good story.  I'd recommend it to anyone who loves horror/thriller reads.

Full Wolf Moon is available on Amazon in Kindle, Hardcover, Paperback, audobook and Audio CD formats.

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If you don't want to start in book five, you can pick up any of the first 4 novels below:

The Hexed by Heather Graham

Available on amazon.

I picked up The Hexed by Heather Graham on one of my library trips.  I grabbed it off the shelf because of the cover (yes, I judge books by their covers) and tossed it in my take home bag because the back cover piqued my interest.

Devin Lyle inherited her great-aunts cabin, when suddenly a woman is murdered nearby.

Craig Rockwell is a new member of a special FBI team known as The Krewe of Hunters.  They are paranormal investigators.  The recently discovered body is very similar to one he found int he woods as a teen.
Devin and Agent Rockwell, of course, start to fall for each other as the case progresses. But will they get to the bottom of the case before Devin becomes the next victim?

It turns out that The Hexed is the 13th book in a series of 20.  Normally I hate picking up a book and finding out its part of a series.  This time it didn't bother me.  There was enough back-story of the characters that you didn't feel like you missed anything, and its not part of a continuous series where you have to have read everything before and everything after to get the complete story.

What I Liked About The Hexed

I liked that it was a stand alone novel instead of me having to worry about getting my hands on the whole series to know what I was reading about.

Of course I liked the paranormal aspect of The Hexed.  FBI agents who not only see but also can communicate with ghosts!  What's not to like?

I liked that the romance between Devin and "Rocky" didn't take over the whole book.  It was about them finding the killer, not about their mad love affair.

I liked "Crazy" great-aunt Mina, even though she didn't really add much to the story.

I liked that Devin inherited a raven from her Aunt to go along with the cottage instead of a cat.  Cats are so overdone.

What I Didn't Like

There are two main arguments throughout The Hexed that annoyed me.

One was the "It looks like this murder is connected to Wicca." vs "Wiccans don't kill!" argument.  This popped up many times throughout the novel.  Usually it came to light when two people, who are both open-minded and agree on the second point, kept talking in circles about it.  Certain aspects of the murders clearly pointed towards witchcraft, but any mention of it brought out a "Wiccan's don't kill" argument.

The second was the "It can't be one of my friends, it must be one of your's!" argument.  Something they might have said once and gotten over, but not after every single interview.

The Verdict

3 out of 5 stars

I didn't hate the book, but I didn't love it either.  It took a couple of tries for me to get into the story, and the 2 annoying arguments above kept making me set it aside.  I may go on to read more of the series, but I may not and won't be telling ayone "You HAVE to read this!"

If you do want to give it a try The Hexed by Heather Graham is available on amazon in Kindle, Audio and Paperback forms.

Or, if you're rather start from the beginning you can check out Phantom Evil: Book 1 in the Krewe of Hunters series.

God Gave us Family

Little Pup is on his way to a family reuinion with his mom and dad.

On the way he asks why there is only one kid in his family but other families have lots of kids.  Papa says that God gives families and every family is different.

While rowing in a boat they pass different families.  The bear famiy has an adopted child.  Th goose family has a single mom most of the time.  One child lives with their grandparents.

Then Little Pup learns that the rest of their pack are family too, even if they are not related to us.  And he also learns that family is still family, even when they are annoying.

In the end they get to the reunion and Little Pup plays with his cousins and pack members.

It is a cute book, from the "God Gave Us...." series of books.  The most popular which I think as God Gave Us You.


The artwork was cute and it would make a great addition to any Christian family's book collection.

I will say that none of the families in the book have parents who are same sex.  Of course since this is a Christian book we couldn't really expect them to include that facet of life could we?

There are also no families without children, so you have to have a child to be a family?

I received my copy of God Gave us Family though Blogging for Books in exchange for an hontest review.  Any opinions expressed in this post are my own.

If you would like your on copy it is on Amazon in Kindle or Hardcover.

Home on the Range Book Review

Available on Amazon

Nick Stafford has been working on his family's ranch, trying to proove he is the "good son."  Despite a strong commitment to be a better husband, father and ranch manager than his father was, Nick has found himself a single father.  One of his daughters is having trouble in school and he has to think past his Stafford stuborness and do what is best for his girls.

Dr. Elsa Andreas has suffered her own tragedy.  One that caused her to abandon her family practice and hide in a dark corner of Gray's Glen.  Her sister, the school principal, convinced her to come out of hiding to help the Stafford girls.

Nick is smitten with Elsa, and she with he, but they both agree to put the girls first.  Can Nick put aside his stuborn side, or will Elsa's hidden secret keep them apart despite both of them wishing the best for the girls?

Home on the Range is the 2nd book in the Double S Ranch series.  (Books 1 and 3 follow the other two Stafford brothers.)  It is a Fictional Christian Romance.

Normally I don't read or enjoy romance novels, but I chose to read this one because of the cover art, of a little girl hanging on to her fathers leg.

Reading Home on the Range I was in love with the charactger of Dr. Elsa.  I loved her Hobbit hole in the woods.  I loved her eccentric parrot.  I loved how much she loved Nick's daughters.  Her fear and distrust in certain people felt right with me

This quote from another chacrater in the book stuck with me:

"We cannot blame God for the evils of people.  We are inclined to sin.  But if each of us maes her corner of the world as sweet and good as she can, she blesses many, unseen."

In a not entirley unexpeted twist, the girls mother shows up.  One that happened I kept expeting things to be done and said that never were.  I was happy that the book wasn't so predictible that I knew what would happen before it did.

If you like a light Romance with Christian undertones I would recommend you read Home on the Range. I enjoyed it enough to read it in a couple of days.  However I didn't enjoy it enough to be tempted to check out the other books in the series.  I guess its just not my genre.

If you are interested in checking it out, Home on the Range  is available in several formats on amazon, along with the rest of the series.


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I received my copy of Tell Me How This Ends Well for free from Blogging For Books. All opinions are my own.

The Fifth Petal

The Fifth Petal is a novel by Brunonia Barry.

On Halloween night a teenaged boy dies unexpected, and some town members blame Rose Whelan.
Rose Whelan also happened to have been involved in an unsolved murder case from 1989.

Callie Cahill had thought Rose to be dead, so she returns to Salem for the first time since she was taken away when she was 5.

While some people thought Rose killed the young man, and the "Goddesses" many years before, Callie loved Rose like a mother and insists she didn't kill the goddesses but rescued Callie from the person who did.

John Rafferty, Salem's sheriff, also thinks Rose is innocent.  He wants to help Callie find the missing piece of the puzzle or the "Fifth Petal" of the rose.  However, the town is beginning to think he is biased, and his time to solve the riddle is running short.

The Fifth Petal is the third in a series of books that circles around the same town and characters.  I have not read the first two books in the series, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the tale.

I felt for Callie and for Rose.  I with they could have both had a happier ending.

I was pretty sure I had figure out who the real killer was, and I turned out to be right.

There were a couple of side characters in the novel I wish I could have gotten to know better.  If there is ever another book featuring them I will probably read it.

I give this novel a 4 out of 5.
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I received a copy of this novel free from Blogging for Books, but all thoughts and opinions on it are my own.
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Dark Energy by Robison Wells

Warning: This review may contain MILD spoilers for the novel Dark Matter.

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A spaceship has crashed in the Midwest.  It fell first on Iowa, then skidded tow hundred and fifty miles north into Minnesota.  Thousands of human lives were ended.  Now the world is waiting for whatever is in the ship to come out.

This is why Alice had to move from Miami, Florida.  Her dad is the director of special projects for NASA.  He has to go to the site of the crash and Alice has to go to The Minnetonka School for the Gifted and Talented.

While she's trying to decide whether she falls into the Gifted or Talented portion of the school, the crash landed visitors finally make an appearance, and suddenly everything changes.

They call themselves the Guides, and they look very Human.

While the leader of the thousands housed inside the giant spaceship are talking with Government leaders, two of the younger aliens also end up at the Minnetonka School for the Gifted and Talented.

One of them becomes first roommates, then friends, with the young alien woman.

Then things get even stranger....

This novel had a couple of twists I didn't expect, and a couple of plot points that you could see coming from a mile away.  And some things that made you roll your eyes because they were a little TOO good to be true, even in a fictional novel.

I would recommend this one to anyone who enjoys YA Earthbound Sci-Fi.

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Dark Energy is available on Amazon in Kindle, Hardback and Paperback.

Dead Until Dark A Sookie Stackhouse Novel

Book 1/60
2017 Reading Challenge

Our heroine in Dead Until Dark is Sookie Stackhouse.  Too sweet and naive for her own good, Sookie lives in the small town of Bon Temps with her grandmother and works at a local bar.  Many of the bar's patrons call her Crazy Sookie because she's not exactly normal.

Sookie Stackhouse can read minds.

When a vampire walks into the bar one night, she is excited.  Most of the undead would rather go to New Orleans.

The vampire Bill, however, wants to mainstream, to live with humans.  And he finds Sookie Stackhouse very appealing.

When she realized she can't hear Bill's thoughts, even if she tries, then he becomes very appealing to her as well.

Unfortunately, young women in Bon Temps start turning up dead.  Young women with a lot in common with Sookie.  They worked menial jobs and they had affections for vampires.

Sookie wants to make sure nobody points a finger at HER vampire for these crimes.  Instead, people start looking at her brother.

While trying to navigate the rocky road of an interspecies relationship Sookie finds herself doing something she has never done before, opening her ability to read the minds of everyone around her, trying to save her brother from going to prison for crimes he didn't commit.

But if he didn't do it, then who did?

I was introduced to Charlaine Harris as an author through her Midnight, Texas trilogy.  I enjoyed the characters in that series very much.  Another reviewer mentioned that some of the characters crossed over with the Sookie Stackhouse novels (Sookie herself was mentioned in passing) and I decided I wanted to try to read those novels as well.

I asked for, and received, this novel as a Christmas gift.

I enjoyed Dead until Dark just as much as the first novels I read, and look forward to collecting and reading the rest of the series.

Dead Until Dark is the first book in a series of novels featuring Sookie Stackhouse.  It is available on Amazon in Kindle, Hardcover and Mass Market Paperback.



Dead Until Dark, and the Sookie Stackhouse novel's, were made into a series on HBO called True Blood.  You can purchase Seasons 1-7 in a complete box set.



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Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

Charlotte Davis is just seventeen.  She's already lost more than most people do in a lifetime.  She is a Girl in Pieces.

This novel by Kathleen Glasgow tells Charlie's story in 3 parts.

Part one opens with her in a hospital, surrounded by other girls and women like her. Girls and women who harm themselves.  The chapters are short and erratic, much like Charlie's thoughts.

She's covered and bandages and she doesn't talk.  Her thoughts often go back to the dark place she almost didn't get out of alive,  but she feels safe.  She never wants to leave.

The second part finds Charlie out of the hospital, much to her dismay.  She travels very far away searching for a new life, different from her old life.

She reconnects with an old friend, who seems good for her.  And finds a new friend, who seems very bad fo her.

Her life is different than before the hospital but threatens to fall into the same old patterns.  She fights her self-destructive thoughts and struggles to move onward and upward.

When someone from her past comes to visit her, things start to fall apart farther and faster.  He life is in pieces again.

Part 3 is all about healing.  The events in part two of the novel have her in a safe place again, with perhaps a kindred spirit.  But she'll have to leave again.  And what happens when she's back in the world.

I enjoyed this read.  I was easily sucked into Charlie's life.  You can feel her fear and her pain very clearly.  You go from cheering her on to hating her for not being able to see the bad decisions she's making.

Self-mutilation is the theme of this novel, so I would not recommend it for someone who might be triggered by reading it.

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Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow is available on Amazon in kindle, hardcover and paperback editions.

Don't have a Kindle?  Download the Free Kindle App available on most devices.



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I received a copy of this novel free from Blogging for Books, but all thoughts and opinions on it are my own.

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Black Feathers Dark Avian Tales: An Anthology

Black Feathers is a short story collection, each tale inside centering around birds.

As the collections editor, Ellen Datlow, says in her introduction: "Birds are usually loved for their beauty and their song." But that is not the case in this collection of avian tales.

There are 16 short tales in Black Feathers, each of them giving you a peek at the "dark side to the avian."  Most of the birds in the stories are corvids, which is the family of birds that include ravens, crows and even Jays.

In this collection, you will find people who can turn into birds.  There are birds who help solve crimes and birds who sneak their own young into a human family.

Admittedly a couple of the tales left me confused, but I did enjoy the majority of the collection.  Some of my favorite stories include  

The Mathematical Inevitability of Corvids by Seanan McGuire in which a young autistic girl must count crows each day because the number tells her important futures, and if the numbers are wrong bad things can happen.

Pigeon From Hell by Stephen Graham Jones, in which a young girl finds herself being haunted by a young boys pet pigeon after a horrible accident.

The Crow Palace by Priya Sharma, in which a young woman finds herself back home with her sister after her father passes.  She finds out after all these years that one of them does not really belong in the family.

I recommend this collection to anyone who likes a good scary story, and who is a fan of birds.  It might make you look at our feathered friends a little differently.

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Black Feathers Dark Avian Tales: An Anthology will be available in February of 2017.  You can pre-order your copy today from amazon in Kindle or Hardcover.

Don't have a Kindle?  Download the Free Kindle App available on most devices.


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I received an advance readers copy of Black Feathers from NetGally in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts on this item are my own.

Have a Lazy Crafternoon

Have you ever wanted to get together and do crafts with a group of friends?  You all like to craft and think it will be fun to do it together.

Perhaps you gather around Pinterest trying to find the perfect thing to do. Together you look for something that is not too hard, something that doesn't take too many fancy tools, something that crafters of any skill level can do.

Before you know it the afternoon is over and you haven't found a craft that is just right.  The party breaks up with no crafts having been done.

Then you should get a copy of Lazy Crafternoon by Stella Fields.

This book brings you a selection of over 50 crafts.  Each craft is simple enough for a beginning crafter to do with no problem, but they all leave room for a more experienced crafter to add their touch.

You will learn how to make accessories such as jewelry or decor for your electronics.  There is a section on home decorations, how to make your study supplies more fun and even a chapter on how to make foods.

It would be easy to make your own party refreshments from the fun projects in Lazy Crafternoon.

Each project has a colorful example and simply written easy to follow instructions.

The whole book is full of bright and fun images.  It is as fun to look at as it is to do the crafts inside!  The Faux stained glass to the left, and the confetti balloon below are just two examples of the colorful images, and a couple of the crafts that Lazy Crafternoon can teach you to make.

The front of the book is helpful in that it gives you a list of the supplies most commonly used in the projects so you can be sure to have them on hand before your crafternoon starts.  You are also given the prices of some of the items, most of which you can get for less than $10!

Some of the crafts, while also being inexpensive, can be made quickly so you can do several crafts in one Crafternoon.

For example, I made a an envelope using the easy instructions in the book, and it took maybe 15 minutes at the most and that counts finding the paper to make the project with.

I give this craft book a 5-star rating for being fun to look at, having simple projects and easy to read and follow directions.

I recommend getting a copy and hosting your own Lazy Crafternoon.

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Lazy Crafternoon is available on Amazon in both Kindle or Paperback.

Don't have a Kindle?  Download the Free Kindle App available on most devices.


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I received a copy of Lazy Crafternoon from NetGally in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts on this item are my own.

The Haunting of Josie

Josie Douglas wanted to isolate herself in a country cottage.  She had her research, and her alibi (taking time off of her teaching job to write a book) and was ready to unravel the truth behind the tragedy that tore her life apart as a child.

She didn't expect the cottage to come with a cat.  She also didn't expcet the property owner, the stunningly handsome Marc Westbrook, to live within shouting distance of her "isolated" cabin.  She is already distracted, and wondering how she is ever going to get the work done that she came to do when the unthinkable happened.

Turns out that along with the cat, and the romance, her cabin comes equipped with a ghost as well (though Marc assures her it has NEVER been haunted before.)

Now instead of unraveling her tragic past, Josie is working with Marc to find out why the ghost appeared now, and to her.  And she also has to decide if she is willing to let Mar Westbrook close enough to her to share with him her deepest, darkest secrets.

The Haunting of Josie by Kay Hooper is a Paranormal Romance, but is a little light on the paranormal in my opinion.

I also wish the cat, Pendragon, who bookends this story had played a bigger part in the action of the tale.  Mysteries are just better with a cat (or dog) helping out.

Overall it was an interesting read.  At first I read mostly to know what Josie's secret was (because we as readers don't even know!) and kept reading to find out why Josie was being haunted.

I didn't like the usual "I'm in love with him but I don't want to be in love with him so I'm going to pretend I don't love him" repetitiveness that all romance novels seem to have.

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The Haunting of Josie is available on amazon in Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover, and Audible.

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Notes From the Concierge Desk

How May We Help Hate You? 

In many hotels you will find a Concierge.  The Concierge is there to help you do important things in the city you are visiting.  They help you call cabs, tell you where to find the best meals and even help get you tickets to local tours and shows.

The Concierge is there to help.  However, like many people who work in the customer service industry, the Concierge is also sometimes overused and abused, or simply amused by the people the help on a daily basis.

Anna Drezen and Todd Dakotah Briscoe, the co-authors of How May We Help Hate You started first as bloggers on tumblr.  After the tumblr receive some press and some love, and some hate, they decided to make a book out of the same source matrial.  That material, of course, being their jobs as hotel concierges.

The book itself is NICE.  It has a heavy faux leather and gold gilded cover.  It i reminiscent of the per-computer aged hotel guestbooks.  The golden "Help" has been crossed out and graffiti-ed over with a white "HATE" on the cover.

Inside is a mixture of content.  Some helpful, but mostly humorous, it gives you a look at what life is like on the other side of the Concierge desk.

They have odd customer dialog.  Give character descriptions of certain types of guests, and even have a couple of fun pictures such as one where you are supposed to find all the ghosts hiding in a photo of a hotel room.

But its not all guest related.  Towards the end they have shared some snark about co-workers as well.

I started off giggling at the customer conversations.  Since I also work in a customer service job I know how hard it can be to do your job right and properly with some people being very difficult.

I will say this book is best read in little bites here or there.  A coffee table or bathroom buddy book.  If you sit and try to read it cover to cover the humor begins to fall flat.

You should read this book if you've ever worked customer service.
You should NOT read this book if you don't understand why customer service employees need to vent for time to time.

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How May We Hate You? is available on amazon in Kindle, Hardcover, and Audible.

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I received a copy of this novel free from Blogging for Books, but all thoughts and opinions on it are my own. 

Aftertime by Sophie Littlefield

When Cass Dollar wakes up, she knows it is summer.  But she doesn't remember exactly what happened to her, how she got where she was.  Most imporantly she knew that Ruthie was missing, and she had to get back to Ruthie.

Cass lives in "Aftertime" which is a post-apocalyptic world.  This is a zombie novel, but the zombies are called "beaters" in this one, and we get a small peek into their origin.

Unlike most stories of this type that drop you in the story with little to no explanation, as the novel unfolds and Cass journeys to find her missing daughter, we find out more and more about how the world became the way it is.

Cass ends up getting help from various  groups of survivors, despite having been a loner all of her life.  She finds herself traveling with a man named Smoke, who is one of the few people in Aftertime who knows the secret that Cass is trying to keep from everyone.

Smoke sticks with Cass despite her dangerous secret, and her nearly kamikaze need to get to Ruthie.  This gets them both in serious trouble when they run into the Rebuilders, who know Smoke and have no love for him.

I enjoyed this novel.  I liked the characters and the setting, the civilization that has come to pass after the downfall.  I would have preferred more action with the Beaters, but most Zombie novels focus on the human element more than the "monsters."

However, I was disappointed to find out this was the first book in a series of books.  It was followed by Rebirth then Horizon.

I will see if my library has the next two books, but I would have preferred it to be a stand alone novel.

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Aftertime was the 12th book I read in 2016.  See the rest of my 2016 book list here.

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You can purchse Aftertime on Amazon in Kindle, Paperback, Mass Market Paperback or MP3 CD

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Bad Monkey

Andrew Yancy has lost his appetite for resturant food, and would really like to be rescued from his job on "Roach Patrol."  Being a Health Inspector is not a lush gig, which explains why Yancy has a human arm in his freezer.

Sort of.

Yancy thinks that if he can prove this "boating accident" was really a murder, then he would be forgiven a random act of violence and reinstated to the Monroe County sheriffs office.

Unfortunately for Andrew Yancy things, as usual for a Hiaasen novel, begin to go amusingly wrong for him.

This story takes you from Miami to the Bahamas and includes a cast of characters including a voodoo witch, a kinky coroner and, yes, even a Bad Monkey that is the novels namesake.

My favorite part of this novel was actually the sub-plot.  A real-estate agent has optimistically built an eyesore of a building beside Yancy's home.  Driving off the deer that used to feed there and blocking his sunset.

And for some reason that agent is having the devils own time finding a buyer for that home.  It seems to be cursed with bad luck.

Wreck and Order

After I had been reading Wreck and Order for many, many days I realized I was only about a third of the way thought it.

I also realized I would not make it all the way through this novel.

First, I loathed the main character.  She was the dictionary definition of the "poor little rich girl."  She doesn't have to work because her dad casually drops her checks for thousands of dollars at a time.  She's not happy in the relationship she's in, so she travels to places like Sri Lanka in hopes to "get over" a man.

I think the point was that she was looking for, and unable to find, emotional fulfillment, but all I got from it is "the sex isn't good enough."

And there is quite a bit of sex in this novel.  Elsie, (our main character) is very casual with sex, even though she seems to be looking for some emotional meaning.  Most of her sexual encounters seems to end with her being annoyed or angry that she didn't climax.

When she found herself becoming too comfortable in a relationship she did things to sabotage it, and then threw herself a little pitty party when it came (seemingly) to an end.

That  is when I decided to give up on this book.  (somewhere around page 107 of a 290 page novel)

I didn't hate this novel the same way I did A Girl is a Half Formed Thing.  I could possibly pick it up again in the future, picking up where I left off, or starting fresh from the beginning.  But for now, I've just got to move on to the next book in my to be read pile.

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Wreck and Order is available on amazon in Kindle, Hardcover, Audible and MP3 CD.

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I received a copy of this novel free from Blogging for Books, but all thoughts and opinions on it are my own.

Summer Secrets

A compelling story of a woman
struggling with addiction
and seeking forgiveness"
--Booklist

To an outsider it would appear that Cat Coombs is living a glamorous life as a journalist.  But she has a problem.  She feels like she doesn't fit in, and since she was a teen has been turning to alcohol to make her feel like he belongs.

Cat is an alcoholic.

One morning she feels she has had enough, and tells her mother she wants/needs help.

That is when her mother drops a bombshell on her that will change her life forever, in more ways than one.

Summer Secrets by Jane Green takes place in London, where Cat lives, and during summers in Nantucket.

While everyone in Summer Secrets loves the American island, it also harbors many secrets.

This novel follows Cat from her 20s, as a party girl, to her 40s, as a divorced mom of one, still trying to find her place in life.  There are flashback to her teens and childhood, and even a flashback or two before she was born.

This novel centers around Cat's alcoholism, and how it effects her life.  How she battles it and how it continues to affect her life even once she is sober.

This novel is also about family, and about love. It is about the bonds of family, about love found and lost.  Its about distrust and grudges, but it is also about friendship and forgiveness.

 I did enjoy this novel and finished it in just a few days.

There were a couple of jumps in time that threw me off.  There were parts of Cat's life I would like to have seen more detail of, but I guess that wasn't what this book was really about.

I would like to see a second book with the characters who LIVE in Nantucket as the central characters.  I think that would be interesting.

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You can purchase Summer Secrets by Jane Green at Amazon in hardcover, paperback, kindle and audio versions.


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365 Inspirational Quotes - Review

Available on Amazon as a paperback
or a kindle book.

This 5x7 collection of quotes is a hefty little paperback book, and it should be since it is packed with 366 quotes. (The cover says 365, but they did include one for Feb. 29th, making it 366)  It is over an inch thick.

The title, 365 Inspirational Quotes: A Year of Daily Wisdom from Great Thinkers, Books, Humorists, and More   promises inspirational quotes, and it starts off with a bang on Jan. 1. "This is where it all begins.  Everything starts here, today."

I have not read all of the quotes in this book, but I did read through January to catch up.  I have opened a page here and a page there as well (because you KNOW I had to go see what my birthday quote would be)

Not all of them are "inspirational" to me for example, January 3rd was "If life is a bowl of cherries, what's inside of it?"  I don't see inspiration in that one (because there is nothing but pits in a cherry, so life is the pits? but I guess they must have all inspired the collector to some degree.

The book itself is fun to flip through though.  The quotes are not just black font on white pages.  They have different fonts, different colors.  Each month has its own main color (red, purple, green, blue, orange)

The only negative thing I have to say about this book involves the cover.  It feels waxy and is somewhat unpleasant to hold in my hands for a long time.

Other than that, this book gives you what it promises on the front, 365 (366) quotes to (hopefully) inspire you.

(I received this book free in exchange for my honest review)

Instant Happy Journal Review

 The Instant Happy Journal came into my life at a very inopportune time.

It arrived on January 7th, shorty after our elderly cat had been mauled to death in the street by a stray dog.

So, when I un-boxed my "Instant Happy Journal" I felt a bit of life's cruel irony, and set it aside for several days without even cracking the cover.

When enough time had passed I picked up the small book (its just short of being a 5x7 tome).

A page at the front of the journal says the book's mission is "to help you to live your happiest life"

The creator, Karen Salmansohn, calls her prompts "happiness prompters" and they are a mixture of motivational quotes, thought provoking questions, philosophical thoughts and more.  They are meant to inspire you to focus on where the most joy can be found in your life.

The book is colorful.  Many of the pages have a colored border.  Red, orange, blue, green, stripes, polkadots.  Each page is a colorful splash of joy in itself.  At the top of each page is a date line for you to fill in the date you answer the question.  (we all know the frustration of buying a 365 journal with pre-printed dates, forcing you to start at the front, on January 1st and work straight to the back.)

Under the date line is the prompt of the  day.  It might be a simple question such as "What made you laugh today?"  Or, it could be the results of a scientific study, followed by a prompt or related question.  There are prompts that are simple quotes and no more such as "Before a brilliant person does something great they must be willing to look foolish in the crowd." And there are even prompts asking you to draw/doodle something.

Under each prompt is a few lines for you to answer the prompt.  Depending on how long the prompt is you might have 8 to 12 lines to answer it on.

There is also an attached ribbon bookmark.  It will help you keep up with where you left off if you work front to back, or mark the spot of the prompt you'd like to answer next.

If you are a wordy writer, such as myself, you might want to pair your Instant Happy Journal with a second lined journal or notebook to answer your prompts in.  Such as this bright and happy (and customizable) pocket journal from zazzle.

Happy White Daisies Pattern Journal by LisaMarieDesign
Browse Flower pattern Journals

If you use your Instant Happy Journal consistently for 365 days and can see it helping you.  I don't think there is a such thing as "Instant" happiness, but the prompts inside this journal will help you learn how to look at the brighter side of things

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You can purchase Instant Happy Journal: 365 Days of Inspiration, Gratitude, and Joy, from Amazon.

 
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If you like to read, come talk about books with us at the facebook group Lets Talk About Books.

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I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

They All Fall Down

Girls will do anything to be on this list.
Even Die.

There is a tradition at Vienna High that has reached its thirtieth year.  It is"The List."

Each year "The Hottie List" comes out, and this year Kenzie Summerall is shocked to find that she is on the list.  She is number 5.

Her best friend, Holly, is excited.  She says being on the list will change her life, and that they will BOTH be more popular.

This year things are a little different though.  This year the girls on the list all seem to be having accidents.  Even Kenzie, who manages to survive a few close calls.

But one by one the girls on the list are dying, in order.  And Kenzie is NUMBER FIVE!

While the rest of the List Sisters are sure that there is a curse on the list, Kenzie doesn't beleive in curses.  She starts her own investigation, despite the other girls telling her that will only lead to her death happening even quicker.

Who really creates this list?  What is its real purpose?  Can Kenzie stop the deaths before it is her turn?

They All Fall Down is a Teen thriller, and was quite a page turner.

While some of the elements of the story are cliche (Such as Kenzie suddently having to choose between two guys who had never spoken to her before The List came out) it was still a good story.

The ending was a surprise that I had never seen coming, and once I hit the climax I could not put the book down until I finished it.

I give this one 5 out of 5 stars.
I recommend this one to anyone who likes to read YA fiction, YA thrillers, or stories about girls suddenly rising in popularity.

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You can purchase They All Fall Down from Amazon, in hardcover or kindle.

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The Marauders by Tom Cooper

The Louisiana town of Jeanette has been devastated by a oil spill.  The shrimpers in particular are having a rough time.  Not even the locals want to eat the tained shrimp.

Brady Grimes, who grew up in the town, has returned to try to gloss over the situation for BP.

Wes Trench, who only wants his own shrimp boat, finds himself teaming up with Gus Lindquist in search of a lost treasure.

The treasure hunt brings them unknowingly too close to the hidden dope fields of Reginald and Victor Toup, twin drug lords who are not above killing to protect their territory.

Then there is Cosgrove and Hanson who are looking for the Toup's magical Marajauna for themselves.

As you can tell there are A LOT of characters in this novel, though Wes is probably the most central character, as the story begins and ends with them.

This novel changes POV throughout the whole book, bouncing from character to character and back again.  I don't really like this style of writing.  

Of all the characters, the BP middle man seemed to serve no point to further the plot.

I was more interested in Lindquist and his search for Jean Lafitte's treasure than any of the other stories in this novel.  It was his search that kept me reading through the whole thing.

I would give this novel 3 out of 5 stars.  I didn't hate it, but I doubt I'll read it again.

This is the authors first novel, but Tom Cooper has been published in dozens of literary magazines and journals, most recently in Oxford American, Mid-American Review, Gulf Coast, Boulevard, and Willow Springs. His stories have been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize. He lives in New Orleans.

You can purchase The Marauders: A Novel from Amazon, in paperback, hardcover or kindle, or you can listen to it FREE with audible.

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About the Author

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I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.