Still Life With Crows – D. Preston & L. Child

August 29, 2017August 28, 2017 Book ChickLeave a comment

39033 | GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: A small Kansas town has turned into a killing ground. Is it a serial killer, a man with the need to destroy?
Or is it a darker force, a curse upon the land?
Amid golden cornfields, FBI Special Agent Pendergast discovers evil in the blood of America’s heartland.
No one is safe.

My thoughts: This is the fourth book about Aloysius X.L. Pendergast. Yeah I know, what a name! And this is so far the least good book out of them I have read. Loved the first and second one. The third was great because it gave you the ability to learn more about Pendergast. This one however was not that exciting. It is good, absolutely. Its just kind of slow and predictable and not the greatest work.

But i´m still a little bit in love with Pendergast that i´m definitely gonna read more books in the series. And I hope i´m not gonna have more of these bad experiences. 😉

Fantasy/Paranormal · Fiction/Science Fiction · Suspense · Thriller/Horror

Odd Hours – Dean Koontz

August 28, 2017August 28, 2017 Book Chick2 Comments

| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: The legend began in the obscure little town of Pico Mundo. A fry cook named Odd was rumored to have the extraordinary ability to communicate with the dead. Through tragedy and triumph, exhilaration and heartbreak, word of Odd Thomas’ gifts filtered far beyond Pico Mundo, attracting unforgettable new friends – and enemies of implacable evil. With great gifts comes the responsibility to meet great challenges. But no mere human being was ever meant to face the darkness that now stalks the world – not even one as oddly special as Odd Thomas.

After grappling with the very essence of reality itself, after finding the veil separating him from his soul mate, Stormy Llewellyn, tantalizingly thin yet impenetrable, Odd longed only to return to a life of quiet anonymity with his two otherworldly sidekicks – his dog, Boo, and a new companion, one of the few who might rival his old pal Elvis. But a true hero, however humble, must persevere.

Haunted by dreams of an all-encompassing red tide, Odd is pulled inexorably to the sea, to a small California coastal town where nothing is as it seems. Now the forces arrayed against him have both official sanction and an infinitely more sinister authority…and in this dark night of the soul, dawn will come only after the most shattering revelations of all.

My thoughts: Fourth book about the strange but lovable Odd Thomas. Non of the earlier books has been a wow, love and need to read more, and now after this one i´m starting to ask myself, “why do I keep throwing away time?”

Well the answer on that question is “Come on, its Dean Koontz!”. Well, I do really like Koontz and his books and I did really like the first books about Odd and to follow his life. Its just that I don´t really like the writing in this one, and the story is just weird and a complete train wreck. To many page fillers and stuff that sidetrack the story and don´t makes any sense in the end.

No black monsters this time, just weird visions and dreams. More ghosts and completely strange side characters who makes the story even more confusing. No, not one of the greatest books. Time will tell if I ever will complete the story about Odd Thomas.

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

Sinister – Jana DeLeon

August 24, 2017August 24, 2017 Book Chick2 Comments

28603811 | GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: From New York Times bestselling author Jana DeLeon, the second book in the Shaye Archer thriller series.

Street kids are disappearing, but how do you report that to the police when, from their standpoint, the missing people didn’t exist to begin with? Hustle is certain that something bad has happened to his friend Jinx, and the only person he can turn to for help is private investigator Shaye Archer.

Because Hustle helped the young PI while she was investigating her first case, Shaye has already formed an opinion as to his character and believes he’s telling the truth. As she digs deeper into Jinx’s disappearance, she discovers that Hustle’s friend isn’t the only one missing. As a frightening pattern emerges, Shaye wonders if she can find the missing kids…before it’s too late.

My thoughts: Oh my! After I read and rated the first book 5 stars in this series about Shaye Archer, I thought “this cant get any better!”. So wrong I had. It could and it did get better. So good that adrenaline is still pumping out trough my veins. I absolutely love this woman. She is ice cold cool, but still hot and emotional, with an earth crust thick wall around her self. She is compassionate, honest and trough out a really good person. Minus all her history, I want to be her. But her history, I do not want.

The first book was great, the second even greater. You get to meet some of the characters from the first book again and get to know them better. DeLeon is an terrific writer who makes you as an reader in there in the story with the characters. This is the second book I have read by Deleon but if she always writhes like this, she have a strong ability to be one of my favorite writers.

The book is not in the romantic genre, but I have my suspisions that it could be in the future. And even tho I mostly read books with some kind of romantic plot, this is refreshing and oh so great.

Have you read anything by Jana Deleon?

Everyday things

Squealing with happiness!

August 23, 2017August 23, 2017 Book ChickLeave a comment

Oh my G, oh my G, oh my G! In September it is happening. Gadzialas forth and last book about the Mallick brothers will finally be published. I can hardly wait. After the ending in the third book (it still was a happy ending) I have been a really impatient and can hardly wait to get my hands on the file as soon as it will be available on Amazon.

Chick Lit · Contemporary · Fiction/Science Fiction

The Rosie Effect – Graeme Simsion

August 21, 2017August 21, 2017 Book Chick2 Comments

23492671 | GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman are back. If you were swept away by Graeme Simsion’s international smash hit The Rosie Project, you will love The Rosie Effect. The Wife Project is complete, and Don and Rosie are happily married and living in New York. But they’re about to face a new challenge. Rosie is pregnant.

Don sets about learning the protocols of becoming a father, but his unusual research style gets him into trouble with the law. Fortunately his best friend Gene is on hand to offer advice: he’s left Claudia and moved in with Don and Rosie.

As Don tries to schedule time for pregnancy research, getting Gene and Claudia back together, servicing the industrial refrigeration unit that occupies half his apartment, helping Dave the Baseball Fan save his business and staying on the right side of Lydia the social worker, he almost misses the biggest problem of all: he might lose Rosie when she needs him most.

Get ready to fall in love all over again.

My thoughts: I absolutely loved the first book. I loved Don and Rosie and even disgusting Gene. I connected with Don in a way that I rarely do in books and I think that it is because I have more knowledge than the general person about these types of people. Growing up with a mother with Asperger, a sister who is high functioning Autistic/ADD, a brother with Asperger/autism and another brother with ADHD. And I have been diagnosed OCD. It is so much that Don says, thinks and do´s that are so familiar to me.

So I loved the first book, this one however I did not love. I liked it, but no love here. My heart breaks for Don. He is just trying so hard to be what Rosie needs and when one thing fails, he tries something ells. Rosie who choose to not communicate does not make it easier and I actually gets a little mad on here for her selfish ways. Yes Don has secrets and even tho i´m all for communication and honesty, I think it would not have made a difference at all if he would have been honest or not, and as a result by being dishonest, he meet new people, gets new experiences that in the end will be god for them all. Even his friends who have there own secrets and problems gets to experience new things with Don that has a positive impact on there own life.

BUT, there is no red thread or a clear plot. Rosie is pregnant, we hardly see her rest of the book except to ignore Don, do it harder on him or do something bad. Gene has a really big part of the story but he really don´t do anything. Its kind of weird. Then we have Dons friends who are there with Don trough it all. Rosies reasons for everything does not make sense to me and i cant really say anything more without giving you spoilers and we definitely don´t want that.

So no, i´m so sad. But I cant like this book as much as the first one because there is nothing besides Don him self who is touching my heart and that is just not enough. Certainly when I was bored for like 70% of the story.

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

A Merciful Death – Kendra Elliot

August 20, 2017August 20, 2017 Book ChickLeave a comment

29986740 | GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: FBI special agent Mercy Kilpatrick has been waiting her whole life for disaster to strike. A prepper since childhood, Mercy grew up living off the land—and off the grid—in rural Eagle’s Nest, Oregon. Until a shocking tragedy tore her family apart and forced her to leave home. Now a predator known as the cave man is targeting the survivalists in her hometown, murdering them in their homes, stealing huge numbers of weapons, and creating federal suspicion of a possible domestic terrorism event. But the crime scene details are eerily familiar to an unsolved mystery from Mercy’s past.

Sent by the FBI to assist local law enforcement, Mercy returns to Eagle’s Nest to face the family who shunned her while maintaining the facade of a law-abiding citizen. There, she meets police chief Truman Daly, whose uncle was the cave man’s latest victim. He sees the survivalist side of her that she desperately tries to hide, but if she lets him get close enough to learn her secret, she might not survive the fallout…

My thoughts: I really liked the story. I liked that preppers had a big part of the story. I know what a prepper is but the complete meaning of it was new to me until I read Fan the flames by Katie Ruggle where the female lead character had grown up as an extreme prepper. The culture intrigued me and that is mostly why I wanted to read this book.

However I wasn’t that happy about the characters. They felt kind of detached at times and some of the history never was told to you as an reader, which would have made somethings a little clearer. And I totally dont agree with the ending of the book. Tho no cliffhanger.

Overall it is an great book with some mistakes. After my experience, the first book in a series are often not that good as it could be and i´m still interested to read more about Mercy, and perhaps get some answers on stuff that you didn’t get in the first book. I do not like to end a book with questions but here it do not do anything since they are minor and just my own curiosity. Another reader would probably not even have those questions when the book ends.

Everyday things

Happy Birthday To Me

August 18, 2017August 17, 2017 Book ChickLeave a comment

Today it is exactly one year until I’m turning 30 years old. :O Soooo! I have made myself an list with 30 books i want to read before turning 30. There where 3 reasons for a book to end up on the list and those reasons are, 1. Been in my library to long (we are talking years), 2. Books I feel for one or another reason i need to read, 3. I want to read it but never get my self to do it.

So here is my list with 30 books I want to read. In one year from today we will see if I really read all 30 books or not. I´m not gonna make myself read something I don´t want to read or are yet not ready for, but I hope it will help me read some of the stuff that have been in my “to read” list a little to long.

The books are listed in no special order.

The Luminaries – Eleanor Cotton
And the Mountains Echoed – Khaled Hosseini
The Redbreast – Jo Nesbø
War´s Unwomanly Face – Svetlana Alexievich
Long Walk to Freedom – Nelson Mandela
Blood Honor – Russell Blake
Dissent – Jessica Gadziala
After the Dark – Cynthia Eden
Adam – Kris Michaels
Deadly Silence – Rebecca Zanetti
Four Letter Word – J. Daniels
The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year – Joanna Bolouri
Salt to the Sea – Ruta Sepetys
Blue Smoke – Nora Roberts
The Boat Man – Dustin Stevens
A Dark Lure – Loreth Anne White
Departure – A.G. Riddle
Fall of Giants – Ken Follett
For You – Kristen Ashley
The Collector – Nora Roberts
Dark Lover – J.R. Ward
The Good Daughter – Karin Slaughter
Twisted – Mandi Beck
Rot & Ruin – Jonathan Maberry
The Hitchhiker´s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Three Wishes – Kristen Ashley
Ransom – Callie Hart
Spotless – Camilla Monk
Seven for A Secret – Lyndsay Faye
The Doll´s House – M.J. Arlidge

Fiction/Science Fiction · Romance

Fluency – Jennifer Foehner Wells

August 18, 2017August 18, 2017 Book Chick1 Comment

22566044 | GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: NASA discovered the alien ship lurking in the asteroid belt in the 1960s. They kept the Target under intense surveillance for decades, letting the public believe they were exploring the solar system, while they worked feverishly to refine the technology needed to reach it. The ship itself remained silent, drifting.

Dr. Jane Holloway is content documenting nearly-extinct languages and had never contemplated becoming an astronaut. But when NASA recruits her to join a team of military scientists for an expedition to the Target, it’s an adventure she can’t refuse. The ship isn’t vacant, as they presumed. A disembodied voice rumbles inside Jane’s head, “You are home.”

Jane fights the growing doubts of her colleagues as she attempts to decipher what the alien wants from her. As the derelict ship devolves into chaos and the crew gets cut off from their escape route, Jane must decide if she can trust the alien’s help to survive.

My thoughts: First off, I want to say that i really dont like cliffhangers. If you do need to break up a book in two, do it at least a little more satisfying. It was like just hit pause in an movie and wait a year before you will see the rest. I´m not even sure that I will read the second book. Mostly because I feel such an dissatisfaction.

So the book earns its two hearts for the writing. I like the writing because its easy to read and most of the times it is also easy to understand. It can sometimes be hard to understand all the technology in Science fiction. But in the book I only had like two or three times that I had hard to understand or make myself an mental picture. I also do like the red thread throughout the book. It feels consist and are quite exiting. And it did have some really exciting chapters.

What i do not like is the characters. They feel kind of superficial and I think the author could have done a better job to make an connection between reader and character. I do not like the romance bit either. I would be a lot more satisfied if i could get closure there, since it never had a big part though out the book but still was a meaningful subject that really never happen anything with.

So overall, a book that can be great for the right person. I´m just not that person.

Contemporary · Humor/Funny · Romance

Double Dare – R.L Mathewson

August 17, 2017August 17, 2017 Book Chick1 Comment

| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: Marybeth still couldn’t believe that she’d survived this long with a friend like Darrin, but somehow she’d managed to beat the odds and not give in to temptation and smother him with a pillow while he slept.

Of course some days were more difficult than others…

For twenty years he’s been biding his time, waiting for the right moment to make his move and now that it was here…
He couldn’t seem to stop screwing up.

My thoughts:I Love the neighbor from hell series. I stumbled over the first book as an freebie at Amazon last year when I just had bought my kindle. Didn’t know what to expect but I laughed, cried and loved the first book and off course had to read more. This is the sixth book in the series and the journey have been great. It’s sad to think that is soon over. If I’m remember correctly there only gonna be 10 books.

This book however was not my favorite but it still was really good. Hadn’t it been for the great emotional story line, I would probably not have liked it that much. Because it was a little to much drama and deceiving. Darrin is an great character. A little to chicken for his own good. That’s the same for Marybeth to actually.

Then we have the family Bradford. Haha. You can’t do anything other than laugh. They are just so fantastic and if I ever would meet a family like that I would be terrified since I know how to cook, cook pretty well and actually likes to cook.

Mathewson says that you can read the books in the series as a stand alone, except for this one. Because Darren and Marybeth are also in the fifth book (not with a big part) and the main characters from the fifth book have a big part in the this one (makes sense?), so for your own peace of mind I do recommend that you start with the fifth book if you not want to read the others. Me however has big problem with not reading series in orders even if they are stand alone or not. But that’s just me.

One more thing, don´t let the books cover fool you. Every book in the series has something like that. I think the cover is kind of cheesy and not that appealing, but the books are so great. To bad how a cover can be destroying.