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Category Archives: Book Review

Review: Larkstorm

07 May

Larkstorm
Larkstorm by Dawn Rae Miller
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

**Review Copy Provided by Author**

I am always on the lookout for interesting books, so when this one popped up as an author provided book in one of my goodreads groups, I jumped on the chance to read it. this was back in December…and then for some reason I kept finding reasons to not read it, or getting distracted (although that is actually not that hard to really accomplish…), but this past week, I finally sat down and read it.

The premise was intriguing, 2 teens who are going to be mated when they grow up in a world that has essentially been frozen, where “sensitives” out the bad people out to hurt everyone. Upon reading it, it started to feel like a mish-mash of various different YA dystopia fiction out there today – the matings similar to those that occur in Matched (although admittedly, we know that the couple is going to be paired together at the beginning of the book); the sensitives who are outcast/ being hunted (similar to the faction-less in divergent, but being hunted rather than just ignored) and I could go on. And words can’t even describe the ending of the book, except for holy cliff-hanger…and even in that instance, I don’t know if I will pick up the second book to find out what happened. Maybe if I see it get some good reviews from people I trust, but other than that, probably not.

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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review: Portrait in Death

20 Apr


Portrait in Death

Portrait in Death by J.D. Robb 

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: In Death (Book 16)

Normally by the time a book series reaches number sixteen, you would expect for the plot to start becoming a bit iffy, and mistakes to possibly occur with the characters and their personalities. Yet, with Portrait in Death, none of these things occurred. In fact, looking back, I think that this is potentially my favorite one of the series so far. I was kept guessing until the very end…in fact, I had wondered about who the person was and then discarded them as a probable…i guess I would be an epic fail in Eve’s place 😉

Not only was the crime interesting, a guy that poses his victims in photographs at their death, but all the continued development of the cast of characters. Anyone who has read the previous books has likely come to love the pairing of Eve and Rourke…I mean, hello its Rourke! But the development of Officer Delia Peabody and Ian McNabb; the reoccurring characters of Feeney and Dr Mira; and now Detective Baxter and Officer Truehart (who is growing on me more and more each day). I also can’t help by love Summerset and all the shit that he continually gives Eve. A relationship that is built on snide remarks, with an undertone of respect (in a round about way).

Once again narrated by the brilliant Susan Erickson, who the remarkable ability to not only distinguish each character’s voice, but also maintain those voices through the series of books. Ms Erickson is one narrator I know who is going to give me a guaranteed great performance whenever I pick up a book done by her.

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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review: The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove

14 Apr

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

About the Book
I’ll have to admit that I enjoy Christopher Moore’s writing and ever since listening to Lamb a couple of years ago, I’ve been trying to find another book by him that was as funny. Unfortunately, with the exception of Fluke, none of his others have really lived up to it. Maybe it is the fact that this one and others were earlier in his writing career, I’m not sure. Granted it was funny, but not the laugh out loud kind of funny that I was expecting and I really had no problems putting it down and listening to something else. But it was good for a light read and i have no doubt I’ll continue to listen to his work in the future

About the Narration
This is the first time I’ve run into the name Oliver Wyman as a narrator and while he did a good job, I don’t think he was a stand-out narrator to me. All the voices were done well and I could easily distinguish between them, but I couldn’t get completely involved in the narration, which to me in the sign of someone I want to seek out in the future. While I won’t disregard his narration in the future, should I run into it, I don’t know if I will seek him out.

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Posted by on April 14, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review: Vanish

14 Apr

Vanish
Vanish by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review of the Book
Every once in a while a book comes along that touches on a significant topic and as a reader you are just blown away by not only the events that transpire, but that the fact that events like this happen in world. For me, Vanish, is just one of those books. In the past eight years since I have been in the military, every year I had had to complete a mandatory training called Trafficking in Persons – but like with most of the required trainings, I didn’t really take it seriously, clicked through the slides, in order to get the check in the box for having completed it. Now, looking back on that and after reading Vanish, I’m amazed by my ignorance of such a topic.

The book begins with the line, My name is Mila and this is my story and told in Gerritsen’s normal alternating perspective between Boston Homicide Detective Jane Rizzoli and Medical Examiner Maura Isle, as well as the perspective of Mila. There were times I was on the edge of my seat waiting to hear what happened and I didn’t want to stop listening to the book (unfortunately, since I was doing it on my commute to and from work I had to). The only thing holding me back from giving this a 5-star rating is the fact that I don’t know if I could see myself re-reading it in the future and those are the books I tend to give 5-stars to. Not because it wasn’t well-written, but because it was so disturbing.

Review of the Narration
So far I have listened to four books in this series, and gone through 3 different narrators. In this one, Susan Denaker, took over the reins from Kathe Mazur, who narrated book 4 and did a good job of it. All the voices had good inflection and I think she did a good job with Rizzoli’s Boston Irish accent. I think she did a slightly better job that Mazur with the male voices, and I was able to distinguish each character, but they didn’t quite live up the narration of the first 2 books by Anna Fields. I will however look for more narrations by her in the future.

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Posted by on April 14, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review: Body Double

01 Apr

Body Double
Body Double by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

About the Book
Tess Gerritsen did it again with Body Double – originally when I read the blurb I thought it was going to be similar to a book by Lisa Scottaline, but TG blew that book out of the water. It was so quickly enveloped in what was happening to Maura and loved how there was so much a focus on her, and not split between Jane and her as in the previous books. But at the same time, the cameo’s of Jane and the solving of the crime were great – especially due to her condition (but you won’t get any spoilers from me) 😉

About the Narration
I’ll have to admit, I was a bit worried when I picked up this audiobook to listen to, because I had been spoiled by the awesome narration that is Anna Fields in the previous 2 books, and to switch a narrator, part of the way through a series, I was concerned, but Kathe Mazur did a good job. I won’t say it was great, and I wasn’t necessarily a fan of how some of the male voices turned out, but I think she did a good job on the variety of female ones. Unfortunately, as I looked at the next book in the series, I realized that it once again had a different narrator, so I can’t even see how she develops. That being said, I will potentially be looking for more narrations by her in the future.

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Posted by on April 1, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review: The Woman Who Fell from the Sky

24 Mar

The Woman Who Fell from the Sky
The Woman Who Fell from the Sky by Jennifer Steil
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another book that is hard to rate because of the content – it was a good read, intriguing and kind of made me want to visit Yemen (although I doubt I ever will). It was interesting seeing her assimilation into the Yemenese culture as she started working with them, as well as being a woman in a male-orientated society

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Posted by on March 24, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review: There’s a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble

23 Mar

There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble
There’s a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble by Laurie Notaro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review of the Book
I have often seen books by Ms Notaro reviewed both here on GR and on Amazon, as well as in the library, but I had never actually picked one up. But all I can say now is what the heck have I been missing by not reading her. Since this is her first novel and the rest of her writing is non-fiction humor, I don’t know if that will change my perception of the writing, but I hope not. This book focuses on Mae, who moves to a small town following her husband getting a new job and a small college and her search to find new friends. There were definately many laugh out loud moments, but if you don’t have a dirty/ slightly corrupt sense of humor, I don’t know if you will enjoy it as much.

Review of Narration
Not only was this my first book by Notaro, this is the first time i’ve listened to a narration by Susan Denaker, but it def. won’t be the last. She had an ability to accent the funny parts in a way that i’m sure had my co-workers looking at me like I was nuts when I started laughing in my cubical.

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Posted by on March 23, 2012 in Book Review

 

Review: The Blade Itself

20 Mar

The Blade Itself
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review of the Book
i’ll be the firs to admit that I am not normally a fantasy fan – in fact, I can probably count the number of fantasy books I have read on one hand. So when I picked this book up (on the recommendation of a GR friend), I wasn’t sure what to expect. Listening to the audiobook, that went for a 22 hour period, I was sucked into the story of Jezel, of Logan and their merry cast of characters. While towards the end it had a bit of a Lord of the Rings feel (based on my experience with the movie, not the books), with the forming of a group to solve a mystery, I still enjoying it and I have already bought the second one to listen to in the near future.

Review of the Narration
Steven Pacey is probably one of the best narrators I have come across in the last few years while listening to audiobooks on my commute to work. He was able to convey a wide range of different accents for the various characters and parts of the world where they came from and I had no problem immediately being able to identify who was speaking. My only comment would be that through-out this whole book, there were only 2 females with speaking roles and then they weren’t all that significant, so it was kind of hard to judge how well his female voices are. Overall looking forward to the rest of the books in the series and i’ll be checking out more narrations by him in the future.

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Posted by on March 20, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review: East of the West

20 Jan

East of the West
East of the West by Miroslav Penkov

While I am normally a fan of short stories, I really struggled with this book. I don’t know what it was, the writing style was good, but the stories just weren’t that intriguing. I felt like, as I was reading, that for the most part the stories could have been easily transplanted and take place in America, with the exception of the first and second to last ones, because they were focused on Bulgaria politics and international relations. That being said, I think the author has some definate talent and I’ll be checking out more by him in the future, maybe a full-size novel will work better.

I’m not going to give this book a rating because its really hard to assign a star rating to a book like this.

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Posted by on January 20, 2012 in Book Review

 

Review: When She Woke

20 Jan

When She Woke
When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Set in the futuristic America (primarily Texas) – When She Woke tells the story of Hannah. A woman found guilty of the crime of murder, the only thing, her victim was her unborn child. In a country, where Roe vs. Wade has been overturned and abortion is now a crime. A country, where individuals found guilty of crimes have their skin color genetically altered to suit the color of their crime, in Hannah’s case, she is now a red.

I’ll admit to being on a bit of a dystopia kick recently and When She Woke fit right into this kick perfectly. For me, the biggest issue highlighted is what could potentially happen, if our separation of church and state, disappears and religion becomes and integral part of our lives. where the people who rebel again religion are essentially seen as terrorists and are even identified as such.

One of my main issues with the book was the ending, while this review is spoiler free, the ending just seemed to fizzle out and I was left wondering what happened…

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Posted by on January 20, 2012 in Book Review

 
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