Monthly summary

April Summary

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Oh what a reading month. Read some really good books this month. Have noticed that my reading mood has been a lot darker than previously months with dark titles like Beartown, Shutter, The Fixer, Vigilante, The Sandman and to some extent also Goodnight Mr Tom. I still feel a little dark so I think my choice of reading material will continue in the month of May. That doesn’t matter for me. I’m a mood reader and if i’m not in a mood for an genre, i wont read it. Its as simple as that. I’m also really happy that I did start and finish the book The Luminaries, which I had as a goal to do before my birthday this year.

How have your reading month been?

Favorite book this month: Beartown by Fredrik Backman.

Least favorite book this month: 
Shutter by Courtney Alameda.

Number of physical books:
4.
Number of e-books:
5.
Number of audiobooks:
3.
Total pages: 5222.
Female authors: 9.
Male authors: 3.

28187The lightning thief – Rick Riordan
Settings: All over USA Pages: 375 Published: 2005
Genres: Fantasy, young adult, fantasy, fiction.
My rating: 3/5
Links: Review
Book 1 in Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
33413128Beartown – Fredrik Backman
Settings:
 “Björnstad” Sweden. Pages: 470 Published: 2016
Genres: Fiction, contemporary, sports.
My rating: 5/5
Links: Review
Book 1 in Beartown series.
20757532Shutter – Courtney Alameda
Settings: 
– ? – Pages: 384 Published: 2015
Genres:
Paranormal, young adult, horror, fantasy.
My rating: 
1/5
Links:
Review
30212829Beating Ruby – Camilla Monk
Settings: USA / Switzerland Pages: 322 Published: 2016
Genres: Romantic, suspense, mystery, contemporary.
My rating: 4/5
Links: Review
Book 2 in The Spotless series.
17673307Neanderthal seeks human – Penny Reid
Settings: Chicago, Illinois, USA Pages: 403 Published: 2013
Genres: Chick lit, contemporary, romance, funny
My rating: 3/5
Links: Review
Book 1 in the Knitting in the city series.
27860847Serve and protect – Lori Ryan
Settings:
Evers, Texas, USA Pages: 240 Published: 2016
Genres:
Romantic, suspense
My rating:
 3/5
Links:
Review
Book 3 in 
The Heroes of Evers, Texas series.
23718102Goodnight Mister Tom – Michelle Magorian
Settings: United Kingdom Pages: 358 Published: 1981
Genres: Historical, classic, young adult, children, war
My rating: 5/5
Links: Review
10988Drums of autumn – Diana Gabaldon
Settings: America, England, Scotland Pages: 880 Published: 1996
Genres: Historical fiction, romantic, fantasy, fiction.
My rating: 5/5
Links: Review
Book 4 in The Outlander series.
34942302The Fixer – Jessica Gadziala
Settings: Navesink Bank (fictional), New Jersey (USA) Pages: 232 Published: 2017
Genres: Contemporary, romantic, suspense.
My rating: 4/5
Links: Review
Book 1 in the series about the Professionals.
18709559The Luminaries – Eleanor Catton
Settings: New Zealand Pages: 848 Published: 2013
Genres: Fiction, historical, mystery.
My rating: 3/5
Links: Review
35101098.jpgVigilante – Jessica Gadziala
Settings: Naveskink bank, USA / Brazil Pages: 246 Published: 2017
Genres: Romance, contemporary, suspense.
My rating: 4/5
Links: Review
35805854The Sandman – Lars Kepler
Settings: Sweden Pages: 464 Published: 2011
Genres: Mystery, thriller, suspense, crime.
My rating: 4/5
Links: Review
Book 4 in the series about Joona Linna.

 

Fiction/Science Fiction · Mystery/Crime · Thriller/Horror

The Sandman – Lars Kepler

35805854| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Late one night, outside Stockholm, Mikael Kohler-Frost is found wandering. Thirteen years earlier, he went missing along with his younger sister. They were long thought to have been victims of Sweden’s most notorious serial killer, Jurek Walter, now serving a life sentence in a maximum security psychiatric hospital. Now Mikael tells the police that his sister is still alive and being held by someone he knows only as the Sandman. Years ago, Detective Inspector Joona Linna made an excruciating personal sacrifice to ensure Jurek’s capture. He is keenly aware of what this killer is capable of, and now he is certain that Jurek has an accomplice. He knows that any chance of rescuing Mikael’s sister depends on getting Jurek to talk, and that the only agent capable of this is Inspector Saga Bauer, a twenty-seven-year-old prodigy. She will have to go under deep cover in the psychiatric ward where Jurek is imprisoned, and she will have to find a way to get to the psychopath before it’s too late–and before he gets inside her head.

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My thoughts: Oh the plot thickens around Joona Linna. The ruggish, Finland/Swedish cop in a Harry Bosch, Harry Hole and Jack Reacher spirit.

The Lars Kepler couple (they are a married couple who writhes under that name, if you did’t know that) are geniuses. This is dark and twisted. It gives you the creeps and nothing feels okay. It seeps into your dreams at night and until you have read that one last page, you have this bad, tingling feeling. That is how well written these books really are. They embraces you, hides you and sucks you in and won’t let you go.

If you like authors like Jo Nesbø, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, David Baldacci,  Steig Larsson, Henning Mankell and so on, you will probably love Lars Kepler. Their story about Joona Linna is just so great and vivid and this series is always one I recommend when people asks.

This is the fourth book about Joona. Dark secrets from the past is revealed, Saga is getting a bigger part and really bad stuff is happening. It is sad, terrifying and oh, I cried at the end. The plot is really good and well thought out. It all feels realistic and true.

I will definitely continue this series.- That is how good it is.

Contemporary · Romance · Suspense

Vigilante – Jessica Gadziala

35101098| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: A new stand-alone dark romance from bestselling author Jessica Gadziala 

I’m a bad guy. I do bad things.
But I do them for the right reasons.
That’s why I can sleep easy at night even with the smell of fresh blood still in my nostrils. One more scumbag off the streets. One more righting of a wrong. That was all my life was about.
Until I came across her…

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My thoughts: Luce is probably one of my favorite characters of all time. Well, at least he is up at the top with Renny, Eli and Isaiah. I starting to see a pattern that I like Gadzialas darker characters more. Those with a history or a torment that makes my heart bleed. Those who have had it bad but got them self-through it and rising above it but still feel/thinks that they don’t deserve more. They have walls thicker than the one Trump wants to build between Mexico and USA. They are funny, lovable, kind and fiercely protective over those they call family. It is feel good books with feel good characters in a hot as sin story and afterwards I just feel this calm happiness in my chest.

This book is no different. Luce is wonderful, funny, sarcastic and insanely observant and at sometimes, obnoxious. But he is easy to love and if he was a real person, I would totally have a crush on him. Evan, however, I did not feel for at all. I mean, nothing! I found her a meek and lamblike kind of character, that just took it all a little too easy. I missed some feelings. Some hard , punch in the heart, angst feelings that put some depth to her character and the story it self’s. Since that had such a big part of it.

But still, this is a really good book. I loved how they ventured out of Navesink Bank. Normally all the books is in that city. Nothing wrong about that. But I just liked that for this story, they actually left the city. And not only that. They actually left the whole country. That was cool and really put a nice touch to the story overall.

Classic/Historical · Fiction/Science Fiction · Mystery/Crime

The Luminaries – Eleanor Catton

18709559| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: It is 1866, and young Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men who have met in secret to discuss a series of unexplained events: A wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely ornate as the night sky. Richly evoking a mid-nineteenth-century world of shipping, banking, and gold rush boom and bust, The Luminaries is a brilliantly constructed, fiendishly clever ghost story and a gripping page-turner.

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My thoughts: If you are looking for a fast paced book with an easy mystery and exciting suspense, this is not the book for you. But if you are looking for a slow burn, with a complex mystery, a lot of characters and fates, this is a choice for you. It is slow, but still in a good slow kind of way. There is a lot of characters to keep track on but Catton have written it really well so that it is not that confusing when you get into it. There is a lot of information and counter information so it can be hard at some points to remember who of the characters know who and what. Who did what, when, where and who knew about it? I would not say that the book is hard to understand, your mind just needs to be a 100% awake so you won’t miss some details. This is a lot of book and many pages but it is affordable and don’t let the many pages scare you off.

My biggest problem with it, however, is still that it is so slow, even tough it is a good kind of slow, and it didn’t really grab me. I have told you before that I have no patience when it comes to slow books. And I didn’t really feel anything for the book. It was the reason that my goal was to read this before I turn 30, that got me through it. And I feel like I missed something big. Maybe it was about the stars angle. Because all that did not quite make sense to me. And I really did not understand why the book is named Luminaries. I believe I missed something, but I’m not curious enough to find out what. My favorite thing about the book is all the characters and their fates. There is a lot of sad and happy events and a lot of history about how they came to New Zealand and all. And it is interesting how their lives changed and connects to each other in ways that I don’t think many of them understood. And how their lives changes just because of some stuff that’s happened to one character affects another character and then it just goes on and on in a kind of domino effect. I loved some characters and hated others. Some of them I did not understand and some of them felt overrated.

But all in all it was an great story to follow. I do believe that this book, with the right director, would be great as an movie. It is an mystery and quite well one to. Hard to anticipate how it all hangs together until the end. And quite confusing. I don’t feel that my review is any less confusing, this is an hard book to put in words.

Contemporary · Romance · Suspense

The Fixer – Jessica Gadziala

34942302.jpg| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: AVEN- There are a few things I don’t believe in. Like santa. An honest politician. And gut instincts. That was, of course, until I woke up with one. And I knew. This was the day I was going to die. The cops, thus far, have proven useless and uninterested in my issues. When you couldn’t get help from legal channels, what other choice did you have but to look elsewhere? That was how I came across Quinton Baird. A “fixer.” Whatever the hell that was. All I knew was, I had a problem that needed fixing. Hopefully, before it killed me.

QUIN- There were a few things I could put my faith to rest in. My team. People f*cking up, and needing my help. And my gut. So when my receptionist informed me that the woman in a case I decided wasn’t my kind of job was having a ‘gut feeling’ about being in desperate need of help, yeah, I dragged my a** across town to check things out.
Not only did I not bank on the fact that she was in trouble beyond what I could have anticipated, but she was not what I was expecting either. Beautiful, resilient, and one hell of a distraction I didn’t need. As the pieces of her case start falling together, I was left wondering if maybe this new, unfamiliar sensation in my gut was telling me that Aven was much more than just another name on a case file…

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My thoughts: What a cute story. Warm and fuzzy with a little suspense and angst. I felt I needed a break from the big chunk of book I currently reading and this was exactly what I needed. It is a nice story with a lot of nice characters in a new branch of the Navesink Bank universe. I pretty much knows what to expect from Gadziala so it always feels safe to read her books. They are not that long, I can easily read her books in one day, and I get pretty much everything I seek.

For you who are new to my blog, Jessica Gadziala is one of my favorite authors. She writes several series that intervene with each other throughout this fictive city, called Navesink Bank. Each series is about a different branch in the city. For an example, we got the MC club, the government hating military group, the hackers, the investigator, the loan sharks and now the fixers. This is the first book in her new series “The professionals”, who fix things. We meet Quin, who is the owner of this establishment of men and women. Then we meet Aven who are in trouble. No trouble of her own making but trouble still the same. She have tried the legal way to solve it but receives no help from the police and when the situation takes a turn for the worse, she turns to Quins team for help. With no money, no friends and no family her situation feels hopeless but Aven refuses to give up and does everything she can, to survive.

It is a really a nice story with a lot of new characters in the Navesink Bank universe. The side characters in this book, plays a big part, which is unusual for Gadziala. Normally the side characters are there and around but never so much involved like in this book and I really like it. That gives me some time to tie some feelings with them and now I can hardly wait to get my hands on their own books. But only Gunners book is written so far, so right not that is not as easy. Anyhow, good story, great characters and in the same Gadziala spirit as always. The only thing I didn’t like with the book is that I feel that Avens problem got solved a little too easy and quick. It went a little too fast and the suspense had no real time to build until it was gone and done. Which gave me an anticlimactic feeling. I would have wanted a little more.

Classic/Historical · Fantasy/Paranormal · Fiction/Science Fiction · Romance

Drums of autumn – Diana Gabaldon

10988.jpg| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: It began at an ancient Scottish stone circle. There, a doorway, open to a select few, leads into the past—or the grave. Dr. Claire Randall survived the extraordinary passage, not once but twice.

Her first trip swept her into the arms of Jamie Fraser, an eighteenth-century Scot whose love for her became a legend—a tale of tragic passion that ended with her return to the present to bear his child. Her second journey, two decades later, brought them together again in the American colonies. But Claire had left someone behind in the twentieth century—their daughter, Brianna….

Now Brianna has made a disturbing discovery that sends her to the circle of stones and a terrifying leap into the unknown. In search of her mother and the father she has never met, she is risking her own future to try to change history … and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past … or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong….

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My thoughts:

HAPPY ENDINGS?

 

There are no happy endings.

Endings are the saddest part.

So just give me a happy middle

and a very happy start.
-Unknown

I needed to take some time to think over the book before writhing this review. It is a lot of feelings floating around and it was a little hard to get it sorted out.

I am one of those few who have not yet seen the tv series. I wish to get further into the book series before starting to watch it. Right now I’m not even sure I will ever see it. Every time after ending one of these books, I feel mentally exhausted. My heart hurt and even though the story is so great and I do not wish that I ever started it, I feel so broken down for a while after that it is hard to start something else. I almost feel a little depressed.

I guess it is a great ability as an author to really effect your readers as this series affects me. That her written word can insinuate oneself so far in my mind and body is unbelievable. And rare. Even though I often feel so bad after her books, I also feel so good. And I still want to read more. Just need a break or two before I start the next one.

WARNING! This review contains spoilers to book one, two and three. No spoilers on this fourth book however so you are safe. You have to have read the three books in order and if you don’t have read them yet, I do recommend you do NOT read further. You have been warned. 🙂

So in this book Claire has found Jamie and is in America where we left of in the third book. They are trying to put some roots down among mountain, miles of forest, fields and Indians. If not Indians are trying to kill them, the white man is or if not, the nature is doing its best. It is a hard life but they have finally found peace. After years and years of misery, surviving and loneliness, they are finally at a great place. Claire left Brianna behind in the year 1969 in the third book, to live her life in her own time. Brianna however discover something that takes her back in time to find her mother and father. In 1969 she got to know Roger even better and when he discovers she is gone, he follows her.

After the third book (which so far is my least favorite) I was wondering if the series was worth to continue. It was still good but I was just not sure if it was good enough. Now i’m so glad that I choosed to continue. Because this fourth book is so, so good. It is up in the same favorite spot as the first book.

I love that in this book you get to follow both Claire and Jamie and Brianna and Roger. I love to see peace and love at one end and the relationship between Brianna and Roger at the other. It is a great story, hard sometimes and there is a couple of horrific events happening that made my heart race and I just could not stop. I needed to know how it would end. It totally surprised me but in a good way. A little unsatisfying however. I mean have you spent 800 pages building it up, you could spend another couple pages to end it satisfyingly. Some parts felt a little forced but overall I’m happy.

I will continue the series, but as I told you, I need some time. 😉

Everyday things

Giving a book it’s last chance!

Have you ever had that one book on your shelf, that you at some point really wanted to read, but something happened and suddenly years has gone by? You have started the book a couple of times before so you know beforehand how small the text is, how “proper” and a little hard the writing is. At least for a non native English speaker. Now every time you think on starting it, you feel a little intimidated. You are a little afraid. You are thinking “should I really spend my time on this one?”. You are wondering if it is worth the time. It has a lot of mixed reviews and you thinking what if it wont capture you and you do not finish, but in the end you misses some really great literature work of art? All those what if?

This 900 page monster of a book (The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton), is my nemesis. The book that have been on my shelf for years (since 2013) and laughing at me. Mocking me and making me feel a little guilty. Normally, big books, many pages or small print do not scare me. Come one, I read IT with its 1400 pages in just under a week. It was a work week to so time was not common and sleep had to pay for that. Anyway, I should not feel like it is a freaking two ton brick I want to start reading. But I do.

To solve this and to be able to give this book one last chance, I have parted it in sections. One tab indicating one chapter, until the end when there is like a chapter every page. There one tab indicating several. This is so it is more visual for me how far in the book I comes, and in the beginning where the chapters are pretty long, I’m thinking, One chapter a day! I should be able to manage that. Or in the end I will get bored and “DNF” the book. But at least I have tried and should not feel guilty for that.

What do you do, to overcome your intimidation before a book?
Do you have one of those books right now? Sitting on you shelf, mocking you to?

luminaries.PNG

Classic/Historical · War/Military · Young, New adult/College

Goodnight Mister Tom – Michelle Magorian

23718102| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: The gruff and surly Mr Thomas Oakley is less than pleased when he is landed with a scrawny little city boy as a guest, but because it is compulsory that each villager takes in an evacuee he reluctantly agrees. It soon becomes obvious to Mister Tom that young Willie Beech is hiding something, and as the pair begin to form an unlikely bond and Willie grows in stature and in confidence he begins to forget the past. But when he has to return to war-torn London to face his mother again he retreats into his shy and awkward ways once more.

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My thoughts: Goodnight Mister Tom is my all-time favorite book from when I was a child. I think I read it for the first time when I was around 10 years old, maybe younger and before my 18th birthday, I must have read it at least three times more. I loved it. But I have never read it on English. My copy of the book probably has been lost throughout the years or is at my mothers. So I though, since I’m going to by a new one, why not on English. And I’m really happy because the way it is originally written, certainly put some life in the story that me as an reader not could get from a translation. And it blew my mind how good it made it.

The book is a really sad story, but still a really happy one to. It takes place in the WW2 and for the most part you get to follow Will. He is an evacuee from London, who goes to live with this old and grumpy man who really do not want a kid in his house, but has to due to regulations. Mr Oakley is not as bad as everyone thinks. He just hit a ruff spot when young and never really got the help he needed to get out of it. He just found a way to survive through the years but never really live. Will and Mr Oakley finds a way to survive with each other and later on it turns to not only surviving but also living. There is a lot of characters in the book and they all have their own traits and personality’s. They are great described and funny to follow.

I don’t know why I loved this book so much as a kid. Maybe because it gave me the knowledge that in a bad situation, there is always hope. And even if they say blood is thicker than water, it has nothing to take too when it comes to friends and people who choose to be your family. Not are family just because you was born in to it. Wonderful, wonderful story!

I love Mr Tom so much and it is the book who really sparked my love for reading I even named my Kindle, Mr Tom, due to what that book has done for me. And this is such a cry story. Just saying. 😉

Do you have one of those story’s from your childhood that somehow changed you?

Romance · Suspense

Serve and protect – Lori Ryan

27860847| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: Ashley Walker was one of the lucky ones. Adopted when she was fourteen years old by a family willing to love her as their own, they stuck beside her through all the hell she put them through.

A kind of hell that would haunt her forever. But now she’s put her past behind her—or so she thought. Garret Hensley never imagined he’d be chasing the killer of the woman who’d set him on the path of law enforcement.

She’d given him reason to believe in himself, to believe he could make a difference. And he suspected her giving heart was the reason her life had been cut so short. When the evidence leads him to Ashley Walker, he knows he has to ignore the feelings she stirs in him, because getting her to reveal the truth of her past is the key to finding a killer.

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My thoughts: I feel like Ryan’s style of writing is very up and down. There is really no stability you can trust and lean on. Which is too bad because the plots are usually great and exciting. The first book in this standalone series I gave two stars. I don’t have a public review and on top of my mind I can’t remember exactly what my problem with it was. But I think it was the writing and the way the story was built. The second book I gave four stars. No public review here either, but this one I do remember. The plot was great, exciting and the characters fantastic. The book felt more alive and I really liked it. Made me think Ryan maybe was an author for me and after this one I felt that I wanted to continue the series.

This third one I give a three star rating. It started out great but it kind of flatted out in the middle and the end was just predictable and cliché. The writing got worse and it lost me and my attention. The book in its entirety is good. I liked it. I liked that it was somewhat darker and that the love/sex not was the big focus here. Not a WOW book but it is not as bad to give reason for a lower rating either.

I don’t think Ryan is an author for me. It doesn’t mean necessary that she is a bad writer. She just doesn’t do it for me and my standards. And I’m quite happy that this one was the last one in the series. Well there is one 0,5 book but I don’t like to read half books and often ignores them. So I do not feel an compelling to continue reading.

Don’t know if I will read anything more buy Ryan. Time will tell.

Chick Lit · Contemporary · Humor/Funny · Romance

Neanderthal seeks human – Penny Reid

17673307| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: There are three things you need to know about Janie Morris: 1) She is incapable of engaging in a conversation without volunteering TMTI (Too Much Trivial Information), especially when she is unnerved, 2) No one unnerves her more than Quinn Sullivan, and 3) She doesn’t know how to knit.

After losing her boyfriend, apartment, and job in the same day, Janie Morris can’t help wondering what new torment fate has in store. To her utter mortification, Quinn Sullivan- aka Sir McHotpants- witnesses it all then keeps turning up like a pair of shoes you lust after but can’t afford. The last thing she expects is for Quinn- the focus of her slightly, albeit harmless, stalkerish tendencies- to make her an offer she can’t refuse.

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My thoughts: Sometime I wish that GoodReads had the function to choose half stars when it comes to rating. Because this is one of those books that are more a 4 star in rating than a 2 but did not quite reach all the way. So more like 3,5. It is a good book, I liked it, but the 300 + pages of self esteem rant totally destroyed it for me.

Janie is a great character. She is a little naive, stuck in her own head and do not have the best ways to handle feelings. She is witty, a lot insecure and a lot more “girl” than what you first would think. And by that I mean, that constant rant about how “big” she is, tall, big feet, big hands, big ass, big hair and so on. Everything is big with her. She is according to herself not beautiful, and definitely not in a league for a good looking man like Quinn. And when she is done ranting about her body, she goes on to her mind and personality. She is freaky, she talks to much, she can’t flirt, she know too much uninteresting trivia, she is uncontrollably gabby, and on and on and on. And when she is done with that, she starts to rant about events, what she did that particular event and what the persons there did, reacted and so on. I do understand low self esteem. Been there, done that and at some ways still are fighting with it. Everybody does! But there is a limit of how big part of a book it should take. I’m not a big fan of mental insecurity and angst. Some can be great. Too much I just feel I want to punch the character in question and say “there is more to life than this”. It should not take over. And here it takes it all.

If we scaled it back like 50% but kept the rest of the story, I would probable be a five star, freaking loved the book, book. So that’s too bad. Reid did however do a great job with not including Quinn in this rant. He did not confirm or deny her verbal rants. (The most of them was mental though). I loved that he didn’t try to change her toughs through words, but by action. And he kept asking her, pushing her out of her shell and genuinely was intrigued by her mind and personality. So the rants did ease up a bit towards the end. It is a great love story where there is more than a female with hot sexy body and a alpha caveman, with psychotic tendency. Besides, I did learn a lot of facts since Janie is a trivia nut and talk about a lot I didn’t know but now do.

Great story. Funny. Loved the way it started. The whole situation with family and friends was funny and awesome. Was some angst, but not much and it was quickly over. Loved that there was several bad situations but they had not much to do with each other. There is no cliff-hanger, nicely tided together in the end! Can be a great series to follow. Not every girl in this series is like Janie I hope. One is enough.