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Review – Monique and the Mango Rains – Kris Holloway

29 Aug

Monique and the Mango Rains
Author: Kris Holloway & John Bidwell

Book Description:
Monique and the Mango Rains is the compelling story of a rare friendship between a young Peace Corps volunteer and a midwife who became a legend. Monique Dembele saved lives and dispensed hope in a place where childbirth is a life-and-death matter. This book tells of her unquenchable passion to better the lives of women and children in the face of poverty, unhappy marriages, and endless backbreaking work. Monique’s buoyant humor and willingness to defy tradition were uniquely hers. In the course of this deeply personal narrative, as readers immerse themselves in the rhythms of West African village life, they come to know Monique as friend, mother, and inspired woman.

Review:
Over the last few months, I have discovered that various peace corps memoirs are a trove of information for various countries in my around the world challenge, because they are often set in countries that don’t have all that many book set in them, or written about them. Monique and the Mango Rains was no exception – through it we are told of the friendship that developed over the course of the 2 years that Kris Holloway was assigned to Mali for her Peace Corps job, working with Monique, who was one of the few midwives in the area, and the one who had the highest success rate in working with the women and children.

For me, it was a look at two lives that were so vastly different growing up, that merged for that two year period, and then remained merged over the next several years. They never truly diverged from each other. I felt myself want to cheer with Monique and Kris when they helped save a baby from dying of malnutrition, or when they were able to replace the birthing house with funds provided by the Peace Corps. There was just so much to be learned through-out the course of the book. Ultimately through, there was a sad ending which is disclosed in the opening to the book and I felt myself tearing up as I read that.

This book is a quick read, but I highly recommend it if people would like an incite into life in Western Africa in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.

Monique and Kris’s story can be purchased from Amazon here: Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali (paperback). And personally, I’ll be donating the copy that I bought to the library because who knows, maybe a teenager reading this book will be inspired to join the Peace Corps just like Kris and maybe they’ll meet their own Monique.

 
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Posted by on August 29, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – Cold Comfort – Quentin Bates (@graskeggur)

28 Aug

Cold Comfort
Author: Quentin Bates
Series: #2 in the Gunnhilder Mystery

Narrator: Davina Porter
Run Time: 12 hours, 12 min

Review Copy Provided by AudiobookJukebox Solid Gold Reviewer program

Book Description:
Officer Gunnhildur, recently promoted from her post in rural Iceland to Reykjavík’s Serious Crime Unit, is tasked with hunting down escaped convict Long Ommi, who has embarked on a spree of violent score-settling in and around the city. Meanwhile, she’s also investigating the murder of a fitness guru in her own city-center apartment. As Gunna delves into the cases, she unearths some unwelcome secrets and influential friends shared by both guru and convict. Set in an Iceland plagued by an ongoing financial crisis, Gunna has to take stock of the whirlwind changes that have swept through the country—and the fact that at the highest levels of power, the system’s endemic corruption still leads, inevitably, to murder.

Review:
I have to admit after reading the first book in the series, I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue. The author provided an interesting look into the world of financial crime, but for some reason it just didn’t really work for me. It wasn’t in the writing style, but rather the subject. However, I typically have a rule of trying at least 2 books in any series before deciding one way or another whether I’ll continue or not. So when the second book showed up as a review copy, I jumped on the chance to listen to it, and see if maybe that changed my level of enjoyment of the series (as it has been known to before – either for the good or the bad). And I was pleasantly surprised.

Cold Comfort pick up a few months after the events of Frozen Assets, and for me, it was like seeing into the lives of Gunnhildur and her family and friends. When it came to character development, I found that this installment had much more description and I felt like I got to know them. Having the narration of Davina Porter also helped, because I can only assume that she received training in how to say certain names and words in Icelandic – although since I don’t speak the language, i can’t say so for sure…The mystery is the story kept me guessing until the very end and the person who did it, wasn’t the one that I expected it to be.

I’ll have to admit that i have a certain bias when it comes to Davina Porter’s narration – to me, she is the epitome of an audiobook narrator and I judge many of the other books that I listen to against my experiences listening to her. And her narration of Cold Comfort didn’t disappoint. For a non-Icelandic speaker, the pronunciation of certain names/words sounded authentic (although, I would love to hear the authors take on that) and it helped me be able to visualize in my head how to sound them out in the future. Although Icelandic, Finnish or another Scandinavian language is on my to-learn pile for sometime in the future. Although I have to admit that a few times while I was listening, I thought that I picked up on more of an English accent than what I assume an Icelandic one would be – but it wasn’t enough to distract me from the narration.

I have been impressed with previous audiobooks released by AudioGO in the past and this one was no exception. I’ll definitely continue to look to them for more audiobooks in the future. All in all, I have to say that I was glad I continued with the series and hope to see book 3 in the near future (the author has the title posted to his website, so I can only hope). I would recommend this series to people who like the slower pace of Henning Mankell, vice the faster Steig Larsson, as well as anyone who likes James Thompson, although Bates isn’t quite as dark.

You can purchase the book from Amazon Cold Comfort: An Officer Gunnhildur Mystery (Officer Gunnhildur Mysteries) (Hardcover), Cold Comfort: An Officer Gunnhildur Mystery (Officer Gunnhildur Mysteries) (Kindle) or Cold Comfort: An Officer Gunnhildur Mystery (Audiobook). If can also be purchased from audible.com (account required).

 
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Posted by on August 28, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – The Dirty Secrets Club – Meg Gardiner

16 Aug

The Dirty Secrets Club
Author:Meg Gardiner
Series: Book 1 in the Jo Beckett series

Narrator: Susan Erickson
Run Time: 12 hrs, 13 mins

This book can be purchased from Amazon using the following links: The Dirty Secrets Club (Paperback) or The Dirty Secrets Club (Jo Beckett) (Kindle)

Book Description:
An ongoing string of high-profile and very public murder-suicides has San Francisco even more rattled than a string of recent earthquakes: A flamboyant fashion designer burns to death, clutching the body of his murdered lover. A superstar 49er jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge. And most shocking of all, a U.S. attorney launches her BMW off a highway overpass, killing herself and three others.Enter forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett, hired by the SFPD to cut open not the victim’s body, but the victim’s life. Jo’s job is to complete the psychological autopsy, shedding light on the circumstances of any equivocal death. Soon she makes a shocking discovery: All the suicides belonged to something called the Dirty Secrets Club, a group of A-listers with nothing but money and plenty to hide. As the deaths continue, Jo delves into the disturbing motives behind this shadowy group – until she receives a letter that contains a dark secret Jo thought she’d left deep in her past, a secret that ends with the most chilling words of all: Welcome to the Dirty Secrets Club.

Review:
I had previously heard about Meg Gardiner’s books in a mystery group, but this was the first time that I had ever actually read or listened to one of her books. My biggest complaint with the book in general (and I have mused about this before), is that apparently in order to be a strong successful women in the field that she is in, there has to have been some sort of tragedy in their past that influences her life. Jo Beckett, in The Dirty Secrets Club, is exactly the same – although, unlike previous books where the tragedy is revealled early on, in TDSC, you don’t find out about what happened until about half-way through. There are flash-backs here and there, but the full-story is eventually devolved and you can see why Jo is how she is. It is just pet peeve of mine, that it seems there is this perception in many mystery/thriller/suspense books that the women has to be damaged in order to be successful…But moving on – I liked the idea of the Dirty Secrets Club, where the exposure of your secret could be hugely detrimental to your life/career if it were to be divulged.

When it came to the audiobook narration, normally I am a huge fan of Susan Erickson’s narration – I mean, she does the In Death series by JD Robb (a la Nora Roberts) that I adore. But I think, I have listened to some of them too recently, because as I was listened to TDSC, I kept hearing Rourke and Eve in my head, instead of Jo and the cast of characters in TDSC. I’m not saying that the narration was bad, in fact, I liked it – I just didn’t feel like I was getting the whole Meg Gardiner experience while listening because I had the preconceived notions of Erickson’s narration because of my previous experiences. If I hadn’t had those experiences with her, I might not have had any issues with the narration.

I am curious enough to want to know more about Jo in the future and will either likely listen to at least the next book in the series, or pick it up and read it.

 
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Posted by on August 16, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – Timeless Desire – Gwyn Cready

15 Aug

Timeless Desire
Author: Gwyn Cready

Review Copy Provided by Publicist, Blue Dot Literary

Book Description:
Two years after losing her husband, overworked librarian Panna Kennedy battles to distract herself from crushing Grief, even as she battles to deal with yet another library budget cut. During a routine search within the library’s lower levels, Panna opens an obscure, pad-locked door and finds herself transported to the magnificent, book-filled quarters of a handsome, eighteenth-century Englishman.

She soon recognizes the man as Colonel John Bridgewater, the historic English war hero whose larger-than-life statue loomed over her desk.However, the life of the dashing Bridgewater is not at all what she imagined. He’s under house arrest for betraying England, and now looks upon her a beautiful and unexpected half-dressed visitor as a possible spy.

Despite bad first impressions (on both sides), Bridgewater nonetheless warms to Panna, and pulls her into his escape while both their hearts pull the other headlong into their soul-stirring secrets.Very quickly Panna is thrown into a whirlwind of high-stakes intrigue that sweeps her from Hadrian’s Wall to a forbidding stone castle in Scotland. And somewhere in the outland, Panna must decide if her loyalties lie with her dead husband, or with the man whose life now depends on her

Review:
I have to say that I laughed out loud when I got the request from the publicist to review this book. Just the day prior, I had brought one of Gwyn’s other books, Aching for Always to read for a challenge (I needed a book that had a word that rhymed with Breaking in the title) and I had previously read and enjoyed Gwyn’s other books, so I jumped on the chance to read an ARC of her newest book and Timeless Desire didn’t disappoint.

The one thing that I liked about this book was the use of the library as the method of traveling back in time. I don’t know whether it was supposed to be an analogy to how books can transport us elsewhere, but for me that is what the library as part of the storyline represented (or maybe I am just thinking too deep into it – which is entirely possible). The way the conflict in the historical part was written also made in interested in reading some historical stuff about Hadrian’s Wall (which will have to be added to the ever-increasing Mt. To-Be-Read). If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.

But as I am writing this review, I realize that some of the stuff I want to say in completely spoiler-ish, so close your eyes if you don’t want to know what happens…just kidding!! I wouldn’t do that to you guys. All I can say, is that I recommend both Timeless Desire and Gwyn’s other books if you are looking for a lite paranormal with time travel for a read. It only took new a day and a bit to read it (probably would have taken less time, if I didn’t have this silly thing called work that I had to do during the day).

Links to purchase the book from all major booksellers can be found by clicking HERE

 
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Posted by on August 15, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – Death By Marriage – Jaden Skye

11 Aug

Death By Marriage
Author: Jaden Skye
Series: #3 in the Caribbean Murder series

Book Description:
A well-known criminal lawyer is found dead in a back alley in St. Thomas, and Cindy and Mattheus are called in to investigate by the grieving widow. The local police have pinned her for the murder, and Cindy and Mattheus are her last hope in vindication.

As Cindy and Mattheus dig deeper into the victim’s past, they learn that all was not as rosy as it seemed. They discover mistresses, gambling debts, vendettas, and a number of people who had motivation to want him dead. Most shocking of all, as they dig even deeper, they discover a whole secret life that he lead, one so lurid that the people who knew him best can hardly even conceive it.

As a hurricane closes in and the police are insistent, despite all evidence, to arrest the widow, Cindy and Mattheus find themselves in a race against time to find the killer. When another body turns up, all involved realize the stakes may be even higher than they seem. And as Cindy and Mattheus develop feelings for each other, each grieving from the death of their own spouse, Cindy comes to realize there is even more at stake than she thinks.

Review
As an avid reader, and with the advent of Amazon’s KDP program, I am always on the look-out for new authors to check out. I discovered Jaden Skye’s first book in her Caribbean Murder series by accident when it showed up on my readers who purchased, also got this list one day (although for the life of me, I can’t remember the book that resulted in the recommendation). I read the first two books in the series, sometime in 2011, and then promptly forgot about it with all the other books that I had out there. Until I needed a book set in the Caribbean both for my Around the World challenge and another one that I was participating in, and then I was like, ohhh, must go back and take a look at this series.

Like the previous books, it focuses on Cindy, who becomes a widow in the first book, and through a series of events, ends up being a PI in the Caribbean solving various cases. This one, set on the island of St. Thomas, is the 3rd book in the series, and takes place in a period of about 6 months since the end of the first book (if I had to guess).

I liked the story in this one, but there seems to have been a decline in the editing from the first book in the series to this one, which was a bit distracted. It also seemed to take longer for me to get into it – I wasn’t immediately sucked in, like I was with the previous 2 books in the series. I also figured out the who done it prior to the final reveal, which was a bit disappointing. Either way, I have the next book in the series in the pile and am interested to see what happens to Cindy in the future.

The book can be purchased from Amazon by clicking on the following link: Death by Marriage (Book #3 in the Caribbean Murder Series)

 
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Posted by on August 11, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – Blood Brothers – Nora Roberts

05 Aug

Blood Brothers
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: Book 1 in the Sign of Seven Trilogy

Narrator: Phil Gigante
Run Time: 10hrs 4min

Book Description:
In the town of Hawkins Hollow, it’s called The Seven. Every seven years, on the seventh day of the seventh month, strange things happen. It began when three young boys-Caleb, Fox, and Gage-went on a camping trip to The Pagan Stone. And twenty-one years later, it will end in a showdown between evil and the boys who have become men-and the women who love them.

Review:
Nora Roberts has become a comfort read for me over the years, and with the 200+ books that she currently has available, I will have plenty of reading for a while yet. But recently, I have been going back to some of her older books and listening to them – they are a great way to kill the commute to work and Blood Brothers being no different. As with most of her other books, especially those in a trilogy, you can see who is going to be paired up with who early on in the books, so there really isn’t the surprise factor – but in return, you get to see more character development, the relationships develop over a longer period of time and the kind of conflict that you would expect to see in a long-term relationship show up.

One of the main complaints that I have with this book and the second one in the series (I haven’t listened to the 3rd was yet), is that Quinn, the main female character seems to be wayyy to focused on her weight and eating healthy and from the way she is described, it seems like she isn’t overweight…maybe it is part and parcel in the time period that the book was written – but it drove me nuts. In fact, it made me want to go out and eat a pint of ice cream just to counter-act her worrying about her weight.

When it comes to narration, no one tops Phil Gigante when it comes the narration. He is easily probably one of my top 5 narrators out there and I will definately opt to listen to a book narrated by him, than most other narrators. While at first, most listeners aren’t a fan of his female voices, I know I wasn’t, he definately grew on me. It is unfortunate that the other 2 books in the trilogy are narrated by other people. Phil is definately what I called a weak-knee’d narrator – in that when I listen to his narration, I get weak-knee’d in places because his voice just does it for me. But I think that is enough squee’ing over Phil 😉

 
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Posted by on August 5, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – Quarantine – John Smolens

02 Aug

Quarantine
Author: John Smolens

Review Copy Provided via Netgalley by the Publisher
Expected Publication: September 15, 2012

Book Description
The year is 1796, and a trading ship arrives in the vibrant trading town of Newburyport, Massachusetts. But it’s a ghost ship–her entire crew has been decimated by a virulent fever which sweeps through the harbor town, and Newburyport’s residents start to fall ill and die with alarming haste. Something has to be done to stop the virus from spreading further. When physician Giles Wiggins places the port under quarantine, he earns the ire of his shipbuilder half-brother, the wealthy and powerful Enoch Sumner, and their eccentric mother, Miranda. Defiantly, Giles sets up a pest-house, where the afflicted might be cared for and separated from the rest of the populace in an attempt to contain the epidemic.

As the seaport descends into panic, religious fervor, and mob rule, bizarre occurrences ensue: the harbormaster ‘s family falls victim to the fever, except for his son, Leander Hatch, who is taken in at the Sumner mansion and a young woman, Marie Montpelier, is fished out of the Merrimac River barely clinging to life, causing Giles and Enoch who is convinced she ‘s the expatriate daughter of the French king to vie for her attentions–all while medical supplies are pillaged by a black marketer from Boston. As the epidemic grows, fear, greed, and unhinged obsession threaten the Sumner family and the future of Newburyport itself.

Review
I had previously listened to and reviewed Smolen’s book, The Schoolmaster’s Daughter, so when Quarantine showed up on Netgalley I jumped on the opportunity to read and review it. Having grown up outside of the US, I never really studied US history until college and then it was limited to very specific classes – so my knowledge of the fever that struck the east coast of the US in the late 1700’s is relatively little – most of what I know, I gained from reading Laurie Halsie Anderson’s Fever 1793

There were a variety of things that I enjoyed about the book – specifically the details about how the various medical practices from the time were incorporated into trying to save the town from the fever. I actually felt that if the focus had been solely on the struggle of the town and the quarantine, then the book would have been much better than it was. Unfortunately, it was the other story lines – the town surgeon and his fractured relationship with his family, the relationship between the women who could be construed as the town matriarch and her son and their scheming ways. I also have to admit, when I reached the last page of the book, I was confused with the outcome – yes, they managed to survive the fever and the town moved on, but all the other various plot lines, it was almost like the author had reached a page limit and decided to end it – I just felt like there wasn’t much resolution…

Overall, I don’t think I could give this book more than about 2.5 stars and while I don’t know of any fiction books similar to the subject, aside from the YA by Laurie Halsie Anderson, I would have a hard time recommending this book to many people, unless they were looking for this very specific event. That being said, I am more curious about the time period after reading this, so I am going to see about maybe picking up a non-fiction that discusses the period to read some more.

 
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Posted by on August 2, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – The Missing – Chris Mooney

31 Jul

The Missing
Author: Chris Mooney
Series: Book 1 in the Darby McCormick series

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne
Run Time: 8hrs 23 minutes

Book Description:
Darby McCormack was in high school when she first encountered the killer: someone murdered a woman in the woods where Darby and her two best friends were partying. His race to silence the witnesses was sure-footed and violent – but somehow Darby survived.
Twenty-five years later, Darby is a crime-scene investigator for the Boston Police Department, and a chilling case – a woman’s late-night abduction – has her uncovering strange leads to missing women, past and present. As forensic clues lead her closer to a psychopath called the Traveler, Darby must finally resolve the nightmare of her past and come face-to-face with a killer who is determined to keep the missing – and the horrors they endured at his hands – from ever coming to light.

Review
I likely never would have picked up this book if I hadn’t been playing around with a book recommendation book online. The Missing showed up as a book that readers who enjoyed Shadow Man by Cody MacFayden and since I enjoyed that one, I figured that I would try it. It also worked well because I am making it a goal of mine to try a wider range of audiobook narrators rather than sticking to my tried and true favorites and I had never listened to the narrator before.

Similar to Shadow Man, The Missing focuses on a female mc who has suffered a tragedy in her life – this one when she was a teenager. (But as a random thought, why is it that so many female main characters in these mystery/thriller/suspense books have suffered some kind of massive tragedy that makes them a crusader for good, why can’t they just choose to do that…but that is a thought for another time). Anyways, back to the book – Darby is now a crime scene investigator and solving current crimes as well as the one from her past.

At first I thought I had figured out who the bad guy was going to be, but I completely discounted the person who it turned out to be – you know, one of these days, i’ll start listening to the little voice on my shoulder. I am kind of tempted to re-listen in the future and see if I feel differently.

This was the first time that I had listened to Bernadette Dunne as a narrator and it likely won’t be the last. I felt that she had a good range of vocal inflections for the various voices – but at the same time – the cast of the book was rather limited as compared to other ones I have listened to, so I don’t know how she would have done with a wider range of characters, but I’ll be looking out for more done narrated by her in the future.

 
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Posted by on July 31, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – A Secret Affair – Mary Balogh

23 Jul

A Secret Affair
Author: Mary Balogh
Series: #5 in the Huxtable series

Narrator: Anne Flosnik
Running Time: 11 hrs 22 minutes

Book Description:
“The Devil was about to be tamed.” Her name is Hannah Reid. Born a commoner, she has been Duchess of Dunbarton ever since she was nineteen years old, the wife of an elderly duke to whom she has been rumored to be consistently and flagrantly unfaithful. Now the old duke is dead and, more womanly and beautiful than ever at thirty, Hannah has her freedom at last.

And she knows just what she wants to do with it. To the shock of a conventional friend, she announces her intention to take a lover—and not just any lover, but the most dangerous and delicious man in all of upper-class England: Constantine Huxtable.

Constantine’s illegitimacy has denied him the title of Earl, so now he denies himself nothing . . . or so the ton would have it. Rumored to be living the free and easy life of a sensualist in his country estate, he always chooses recent widows for his short-lived affairs. Hannah will fit the bill nicely.

But once these two passionate and scandalous figures find each other, they discover that it isn’t so easy to extricate oneself from the fires of desire—without getting singed. For the duchess and the dark lord each have startling secrets to reveal, and when all is said and done, neither will be able to say which one fell in love first, who tamed whom, and who has emerged from this game of hearts with the stronger hand.

Review
When we were first introduced to Con in the earlier books in the series, I couldn’t wait for his book to come out – or at least, hoped that his book was one day going to be released. I eagerly read the books about his 3 female cousins, and his male cousin – although, the book prior to this was a huge let-down and I very nearly didn’t pick up this last book in the series, for fear of the same – that the author would take a character I had waited patiently to see get his HEA and have it all go to hell…thankfully, she didn’t…so i am just going to pretend that book 4 was never written and wipe it from my memory 😉

I loved Con as a character, he was so damaged – the illegitimate son who missed out on being legitimate by all of 2 days (silly man, actually arriving early instead of late like most)…and then living in the shadow of his brother all his life until his death and the arrival of unknown cousins. If i was put in his situation I don’t know what I would have done. And then, there is Hannah – married at a young age to an old codger…ewww, but who is now a widower, rich and still young enough to start over…it was for me a perfect pairing. I really enjoyed the dynamics between them, as well as seeing Hannah integrated into Con’s family – his female cousins (with the exception of Vanessa) taking her in and accepting her. But it was also refreshing to see that she wasn’t the meek, mild woman that seems so often to be portrayed in regency romances. Seeing Con make up with the estranged side of his family – of course, which resulted from stupid actions taken by him – was also a bonus in the book. I was honestly starting to think that the author was going to end the series with them still not talking to each other.

When it came to the narration, I was really leery at first when I saw who the narrator was. In fact, I had been known in the past, to bypass any books done by Ms Flosnik because of a previous bad experience. But then I was reading a Speaking of Audiobooks column and saw how she had taken various critiques and criticism to heart and was trying to adapt her narration, so I figured I would give her a chance. I was pleasantly surprised. I liked the tone and intonation of her narration, as well as the various voices for the different characters. In fact, I really don’t have a lot of bad things to say about the narration in general – which is surprising for me – I really enjoyed it. I don’t know if I will go back and re-listen to any of her older stuff in the future, but at the same time, I won’t shy away from her newer stuff either.

 
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Posted by on July 23, 2012 in Book Review

 

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