Jenn's Review: Made for You

Author: Melissa Marr
Series: none
Publication Date: September 15, 2014
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 368
Obtained: publisher
Genre:  YA thriller
Rating: 3.5
Bottom Line: Good page turner but lacking depth
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Just get it at the library...

Blurb:  When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she’s confused—who in her sleepy little North Carolina town could have hit her with their car? And why? But before she can consider the question, she finds that she’s awoken with a strange new skill: the ability to foresee people’s deaths when they touch her. While she is recovering from the hit-and-run, Nate, an old flame, reappears, and the two must traverse their rocky past as they figure out how to use Eva’s power to keep her friends—and themselves—alive. But while Eva and Nate grow closer, the killer grows increasingly frantic in his attempt to get to Eva.

For the first time, New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr has applied her extraordinary talent to contemporary realism. Chilling twists, unrequited obsession, and high-stakes romance drive this Gothic, racy thriller—a story of small-town oppression and salvation. Melissa’s fans, and every YA reader, will find its wild ride enthralling

Review:  I wanted to love this book but I just didn't. It was enjoyable with a real page turner of a mystery, but...  I didn't love it. Actually the more I wrote this review, the less I liked the book.

I would have to say one of the things that held me back was that I never identified with any of the characters. As a matter of fact they were all so flawed that there wasn't a single overly likeable character.  Eva was a little shallow and complacent which I suppose describes many teens, but none that I want to read about. Her friends Nate and Grace were interesting characters but we only get to know them on the surface. 

When it came to the whodunit of it all the reveal wasn't a great 'A-ha!' moment, more of an 'Oh'.  As a matter of fact it seemed a little unrealistic.  After Eva and Nick figured it out, their actions were unnecessarily risky to the point of ludicrous.  Maybe it's just the mom in me but I had a very hard time with the excessive amount of danger they placed themselves in at the end of the novel.

Honestly, I kept hoping for more.  I have read three books by Melissa Marr and that seems to be how I feel after all of them. While I enjoy them, I am always left wishing they were deeper. 

Julie's Review: Inferno

Author: Dan Brown
Series: Robert Langdon #4
Publication Date: May 14, 2013
Publisher: Random House Audio
Narrator:Paul Michael
Hours: 17 hours 12 minutes
Obtained: purchased via Audible
Genre:  Mystery, Thriller
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: Classic Langdon
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Summary: In his international blockbusters The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown masterfully fused history, art, codes, and symbols. In this riveting new thriller, Brown returns to his element and has crafted his highest-stakes novel to date. In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology, Robert Langdon, is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces: Dante’s Inferno. Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust...before the world is irrevocably altered. ~audible.com

Review: One thing that I love about Robert Langdon books is Robert Langdon. How can you not? He's smart, debonair and well traveled. I appreciate that each chapter is about 10-12 minutes in length, so it makes for easy listening at work. This format also lends itself to the pace of the book. As with all Robert Langdon books, there is action and a lot for Professor Langdon to figure out. Robert Langdon continues to know a lot of information about a lot of different subject matters. :) Regardless, he's still my favorite professor in modern literature.

No, I haven't read Dante's Inferno and I don't plan to but that doesn't make Inferno any less intriguing. You don't have to have an understanding of Dante's because Mr. Brown walks you through the gist of it.
I am always interested in how Mr. Brown weaves the history, literature and a moral implication into his story. Although, I'm not sure there were any truly "bad" guys in this one. Which of course begs it's own questions about the morality of someones actions. Can one person truly determine what is good for the entire human race?

As always, this novel is action packed but also intelligent. It kept me on my toes listening to it. There were a couple of times that I had to go back to ensure that I heard something correctly. There are a lot of characters in the beginning of the story and frankly you don't know who is on the side of Robert and who is against him. I always find the slow reveals in these kind of books to be great. I love it when authors can turn a novel on its head and as a reader you don't see it coming. Mr. Brown is a master at that.

Paul Michael is a fine narrator for Inferno and captures Landgon well along with the other characters in the novel. His inflection and accents are well done and not overdone.

Inferno is a solid read/listen. If you are a fan of the Langdon books then you will want to continue the series with novel. My favorite is The Lost Symbol and if you haven't read it I highly recommend it.

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Julie's Review: Island of a Thousand Mirrors

Author: Nayomi Munaweera
Series: None
Publication Date: September 2, 2014
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 256
Obtained: publisher
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: A short but powerful book that everyone should read.
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!

Summary: Before violence tore apart the tapestry of Sri Lanka and turned its pristine beaches red, there were two families. Yasodhara tells the story of her own Sinhala family, rich in love, with everything they could ask for. As a child in idyllic Colombo, Yasodhara’s and her siblings’ lives are shaped by social hierarchies, their parents’ ambitions, teenage love and, subtly, the differences between Tamil and Sinhala people; but the peace is shattered by the tragedies of war. Yasodhara’s family escapes to Los Angeles.But Yasodhara’s life has already become intertwined with a young Tamil girl’s. Saraswathie is living in the active war zone of Sri Lanka, and hopes to become a teacher. But her dreams for the future are abruptly stamped out when she is arrested by a group of Sinhala soldiers and pulled into the very heart of the conflict that she has tried so hard to avoid – a conflict that, eventually, will connect her and Yasodhara in unexpected ways. Nayomi Munaweera's Island of a Thousand Mirrors is an emotionally resonant saga of cultural heritage, heartbreaking conflict and deep family bonds. Narrated in two unforgettably authentic voices and spanning the entirety of the decades-long civil war, it offers an unparalleled portrait of a beautiful land during its most difficult moment by a spellbinding new literary talent who promises tremendous things to come. ~amazon.com

Review: Island of a Thousand Mirrors is a coming of age in the time of war novel and it is so much more than that. It is about remember where you are from while trying to forget what you saw. It is about trying to keep your head down and still being pulled into a war that you did not cause and do not want.

I found myself in the midst of Yasodhara and Saraswathie stories so easily. It was like was I was transported via Ms. Munaweera's words to war torn Sri Lanka. Most of the first part of the story surrounded Yasodhara's family history and then her young life in Sri Lanka. I loved learning about her grandparents and then her parents.  Growing up Yasodhara plays with Shiva, a young Tamil boy who's family rents the upstairs of their house. As kids, they don't understand the differences between Tamils and Sinhala's but the country is starting to separate based on these ethnicities.

Yasodhara and her family flee the war torn country to Los Angeles, where they encounter a whole host of difficult situations. I can only imagine how hard it is to be ripped from the only home you've known and thrown into a different country and different culture.

The second part of the novel focuses on Saraswathie and her family's struggles during the civil war between the Tigers (Tamils) and the Sinhalas. Her life growing up is a stark contrast to Yasodhara, her daily life is affected by war. Children disappear off the street, young men go off to fight to give their people a land of their own. Saraswathie's own brothers have gone off and given their lives to the cause.

It is what happens to Saraswathie and drove her to the path she chooses that ripped my heart out. It is these stories of civil war that broke my heart. It is the story of the innocent trapped in a war that they don't fully understand or want.

Island of a Thousand Mirrors is a rare find in a novel and I don't think my review has done it the justice it deserves. It is a beautiful and heartbreaking story. The way that Ms. Munaweera weaves their two stories together is amazing. As a reader you see it coming and you can't do anything about it; it rips your heart apart.

Ms. Munaweera's prose is elegant and harsh all at once. She wants the reader to feel the pain that the girls are feeling, along with the joy. Her writing pulls you immediately into their lives. I can't wait to see what she writes about next.

If you read one book for the rest of 2014, make it Island of a Thousand Mirrors. You won't regret it.




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Alice's Review: The Good Sister

Author: Jamie Kain
Series: None
Publication Date: October 7, 2014
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 304
Obtained:  Publisher
Genre:   Young Adult, Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Beautifully dark and tragic novel about sisters.
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!

Summary:  The Kinsey sisters live in an unconventional world. Their parents are former flower-children who still dont believe in rules. Their small, Northern California town is filled with free spirits and damaged souls seeking refuge from the real world. Without the anchor of authority, the three girls are adrift and have only each other to rely on. Rachel is wild. Asha is lost. Sarah, the good sister, is the glue that holds them together. But the forces of a mysterious fate have taken Sarahs life in a sudden and puzzling accident, sending her already fractured family into a tailspin of grief and confusion. Asha has questions. Rachel has secrets. And Sarah, waking up in the afterlife, must piece together how she got there. ~powells.com

Review:  The Good Sister is a poignant story about three teenagers so different from each other you wouldn’t believe they were even related, let alone sisters. The novel begins with the aftermath of Sarah’s death. It carries us through her transition to the afterlife and the impact her death has on her two younger sisters. It may sound a little hokey but it is far from it.

Asha’s struggle with Sarah’s death is heartbreaking to read. Sarah was her idol, her confidant, her friend. The void she feels is overwhelming and with no one to turn to, you can imagine how desolate her life is.

I just loved Rachel. I am so drawn to a character that is completely flawed almost to the point of no redemption. Rachel is that character. I loved that she was all kinds of broken and imperfect and evil and wrong. She was so incredibly ugly and cringeworthy, yet she was the one character I wanted to know more. I find characters like her a classic example of the Shrek Onion philosophy...ogre’s have many layers and so does Rachel.

As I got to know Sarah, I questioned whether or not she really was the good sister. She wasn’s perfect, no one is.

There is a lot to take from this novel, the most important being jealousy is an loathsome thing. There are also many questions you will ask yourself as you read it. Can there be redemption to selfish acts? Who do you turn to when you have no one?

I know this novel is for young adults, but it reads far more mature than the genre suggests. It's worth buying, it's worth reading.  The Good Sister is tragic, yet tragedy carries a certain beauty. It’s the kind of beauty you can’t find in happy endings. The Good Sister is beautiful.

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Julie's Review: The Distance

Author: Helen Giltrow
Series: None
Publication Date: September 9, 2014
Publisher: Doubleday
Pages: 368
Obtained: publisher via SheReads.org
Genre:  Thriller
Rating: 3.5/5
Bottom Line: Those who love roller coaster rides will surely enjoy
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Library

Summary: Charlotte Alton is an elegant socialite. But behind the locked doors of her sleek, high-security apartment in London's Docklands, she becomes Karla. Karla's business is information. Specifically, making it disappear. She's the unseen figure who, for a commanding price, will cover a criminal's tracks. A perfectionist, she's only made one slip in her career—several years ago she revealed her face to a man named Simon Johanssen, an ex-special forces sniper turned killer-for-hire. After a mob hit went horrifically wrong, Johanssen needed to disappear, and Karla helped him. He became a regular client, and then, one day, she stepped out of the shadows for reasons unclear to even herself. Now, after a long absence, Johanssen has resurfaced with a job, and he needs Karla's help again. The job is to take out an inmate—a woman—inside an experimental prison colony. But there's no record the target ever existed. That's not the only problem: the criminal boss from whom Johanssen has been hiding is incarcerated there. That doesn't stop him. It's Karla's job to get him out alive, and to do that she must uncover the truth. Who is this woman? Who wants her dead? Is the job a trap for Johanssen or for her? But every door she opens is a false one, and she's getting desperate to protect a man—a killer—to whom she's inexplicably drawn. Written in stylish, sophisticated prose, The Distance is a tense and satisfying debut in which every character, both criminal and law-abiding, wears two faces, and everyone is playing a double game. ~amazon.com

Review: The Distance is an intriguing novel and totally up my alley but for the beginning of the novel, I was in a heavy London fog. There is a lot going on to establish the characters and the pace of the plot. This one pretty much shoots out of the gate and doesn't stop until you get to the finish line.

What I liked about this novel was that as a reader you were never truly sure who was good and who was bad. They are all pretty much different shades of grey. I think that makes the situations throughout this one that much more intriguing. The most mysterious of them all is Charlotte/Karla. We learn things about her but pretty much only that she wants to reveal. I have a feeling there is much more to her than we learn. Who is Johanssen? What is this connection that he has to and with Karla?

What is The Program? Why is the man running it, Quinlan, after Johanssen? Who is the mysterious client that has hired Johanssen to go after someone in the program? Will Johanssen be able to complete the task? Is Karla going to be able to manage him from the "outside"?

These are all things that make you keep turning the pages. How do the pieces of the puzzle all work together? How does Powell fit into all of this?

The Distance would make a great television series. It would be the kind that would hook you and then leave you with a cliffhanger wanting more. It's definitely the type of thing that I would definitely tune into.  I also think that there is definitely a series in here as well.

For those who like thrillers and those with a spy bent, then this one is for you.


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Julie's Review: The Innocent Sleep

Author: Karen Perry
Series: None
Publication Date: February 18, 2014
Publisher: MacMillian Audio
Hours: 9 Hours 53 Minutes
Narrator: Aaron Abano, Michelle Ferguson
Obtained: purchased
Genre:  Psychological Thriller
Rating: 3/5
Bottom Line: Takes too long to get to the point
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Library

Summary: When a couple's lost child resurfaces they are forced to embark on a journey into their shared past - one rife with dark secrets and lies. Tangiers. Harry is preparing his wife's birthday dinner while she is still at work and their son, Dillon, is upstairs asleep in bed. Harry suddenly remembers that he's left Robin's gift at the café in town. It's only a five minute walk away and Dillon's so tricky to put down for the night, so Harry decides to run out on his own and fetch the present. Disaster strikes. An earthquake hits, buildings crumble, people scream and run. Harry fights his way through the crowd to his house, only to find it razed to the ground. Dillon is presumed dead, though his body is never found. Five years later, Harry and Robin have settled into a new kind of life after relocating to their native Dublin. Their grief will always be with them, but lately it feels as if they're ready for a new beginning. Harry's career as an artist is taking off and Robin has just realized that she's pregnant. But when Harry gets a glimpse of Dillon on the crowded streets of Dublin, the past comes rushing back at both of them. Has Dillon been alive all these years? Or was what Harry saw just a figment of his guilt-ridden imagination? With razor-sharp writing, Karen Perry's The Innocent Sleep delivers a fast-paced, ingeniously plotted thriller brimming with deception, doubt, and betrayal. ~amazon.com

Review: The Innocent Sleep is a book that slowly unwinds and reveals itself. It drags at times and takes a long time to get to the point. Frankly, after the reveal I could have done without the rest of the book. The ending didn't really add to the story for me.

Besides Robin's parents, none of these characters are likable, at all. Sometimes I don't have difficulty with this when I read a book but this time it made it almost unbearable. Harry is so selfish and self-absorbed it's pitiful. He's so consumed with his life and his art that it's hard to believe he's a father.  He stays with Dylan while Robin works her job and also works on his art.

The story unfolds by telling us both Robin and Harry's point of views, which definitely helps you to understand both sides but both sides are ugly. At first I felt for Robin but as her story unfolds, I didn't care or feel sorry for either of them. The true victim in their relationship is their son Dillon. Due to a split second decision their lives are forever changed.

The questions you constantly ask yourself during the novel, is Harry crazy? Should Robin believe him when it comes to seeing Dillon? Can they start over? Should they even start over? Is it really Dillon or just a doppelganger?

I pretty much finished the book just to find out if it was Dillon or not. The fact that I had another chapter or two to resolve the whole thing upset me. By the end, I just wanted to be done with these people. I didn't totally dislike it. I was kept on the edge of my seat towards the end of the novel and that has to count for something.





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