No Legality

I'll admit it; the cover of Emma Cole's Every Secret Thing put me off the book. It looks like a legal thriller, which is not my preferred reading, even if it is really by Susanna Kearsley writing under a pseudonym.

As I should've known, the cover has nothing really to do with the book. It's really just a mystery with lots of traveling.

Brief summary: "When an old man strikes up a conversation with Kate Murray and attempts to tell her the story of a murder that has not been brought to justice, journalist Kate Murray brushes him aside - until he mentions her beloved grandmother. Before she can reply, he walks away and she watches in horror as he is knocked down on the road and killed. That fateful moment unleashes a whirlwind of events that takes Kate back into her grandmother's war-time past and across the Atlantic, but every step she takes is tracked by an unknown and deadly enemy..."

The story is typical Kearsley with two timelines and two connected plots. With all of Kate's traveling around Europe and fear that she's being hunted, it reminded me of Mary Stewart (like Madam, Will You Talk?). That's not surprising, considering that Kearsley's work has often reminded me of Stewart.

As for the theme of the book, having grandfathers who served in WWII, I appreciated the focus on veterans and remembrance, as well as the idea that wrong is wrong and needs to be righted. All in all, not a bad read.

Rating: 7.5/10

Quick Reviews

I haven't read anything lately that I've felt compelled to blog about but here's a few brief reviews.

I did read The Magician's Ward by Patricia C. Wrede and it was decent. The "romance" felt rushed, as did the overall story. And I noticed that the back cover copy was very misleading as to what the book was actually about. Here's a brief (and accurate) summary from Amazon:

"This sequel to Mairelon the Magician finds Kim, an apprentice magician and ward of Richard Merrill (Mairelon), in Regency England society. When Mairelon's magic powers are stolen, Kim must trust her magician's abilities to uncover the thief."

Rating: 6/10


Awhile back I also finished The Devil in Music, the last of Kate Ross' Julian Kestrel series.

It was long and took me awhile to get into--but at the end, I was so impressed by the complex weaving that went into the story as well as the twists and reasonings behind people's actions. It was a long read but dived into all sorts of secrets. Also, the title is fabulous--I don't want to ruin it but when the connection was finally revealed, I had to smile in delight at how perfectly named the book is.

All in all, Julian Kestrel's mysteries are definitely a series that's worth reading.

Fluff

Every now and then I need a fluffy read--one that doesn't stretch my mind but is instead pure enjoyment. Hester Browne's The Finishing Touches is just that--enjoyable, light-hearted fluff.

Lovely cover! Browne does seem to luck out in her covers--they've been classy so far. Anyway, the story: Betsy was abandoned as a baby on the doorstep of a posh finishing school in London. (Quick side note: I really like the word posh--and of course, I'm a fan of Posh from Spice Girls--so I think I'm going to try and use that word in my vocabulary more.) It just happens that the couple that run the finishing couple don't have any children and are thrilled to adopt her. Betsy is very happy growing up at the finishing school, but after the death of her adopted mother, Betsy is asked to help run the school.

The school needs quite a bit of updating, so Betsy's got her work cut out for her. There may also be a bit of romance and who's-my-real-mother-searchin sprinkled in, too. There's also quite a few cute little tips on being a lady spread in throughout the book, which made it a charming read.

All in all, it was a light read and didn't make me mad like her last book.

Rating: 7.5/10

More Like Art Lectures

I didn't go into The Art Thief by Noah Charney with any sort of great expectation other than it'd be about art. And it certainly was.


The book is about three main works of art (I think? I've already forgotten)--all of which get stolen. It is also a story FULL of characters. So many that I was lost nearly immediately. The book is also full of theft. Several pieces of art are stolen in Europe; people work separately to find the art and at the end, everything pulls together--and actually in a way that rather surprised me. Looking back, I still don't really get how it all worked but whatever.

My first bit of advice, if you're going to read this book, is to not expect to read a "novel." Think of it as more like people lecturing about art. I enjoyed learning more about art but really, this isn't a true story. Characters aren't fleshed out at all and stuff just seems to happen to further along the plot. And the ending is so sudden, with no lead up to it, that I was taken aback and almost didn't want to accept it. In my mind, the title (The Art Thief) was more about art thieves in general and not a specific person. Any ending can be believable and acceptable to the reader--if there is enough preparation. Charney failed on that front.

The reviewers on Amazon hated this book--out of 54 reviews, 26 of them are one star. Reviewers talked about ripping up the book after reading. Many mentioned laughing out loud at parts that weren't even supposed to be funny. While I don't think it was quite a one star read, it was actually pretty bad for a novel. But I did enjoy reading more about art!

Rating: 5/10

Scandinavian Thriller

Dang. Stieg Larsson knocked me over with The Girl Who Played With Fire.

The book left me in awe. Larsson tied his last book into this one and yet diverged it in a fabulous way. So good.

Lisbeth Salander ("the girl") is accused of murdering three people. Mikael Blomkvist doesn't believe she did it and starts investigating to find the truth. What actually happened--and what is being hidden--is much deeper and darker than he could know...

The pace starts out slower, with police procedural work becoming part of the story, yet Larsson manages to make it interesting and then bumps up the story to compelling. His commentary on Sweden's society is subtle yet condemning. The twists and turns in the plot were completely unexpected and surprising and made perfect sense. And Lisbeth Salander is one of the most interesting characters I've ever read about.

I dreamed about the first one and yes, dreamed about this one, too. Now I want to re-read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. And thank the Lord there's a third book, coming out sometime soon (I hope!).

Rating: 10/10

In which I make a mess of the series

I adore Susan Howatch's writing. Okay, so I haven't read any of her early works but from her Starbridge series on, I've been a fan.

Back in January 2008, I read The Wonder Worker (which utterly horrifies me; I literally thought I had just read within the last six or eight months....not 17 months ago). It is the first book in a three-part series about Nicholas Darrow's healing center, but back in 2006, I read the third book in the series, The Heart Breaker. So I guess it's fitting that I finally read the second book, The High Flyer. And dang, I wish I had read them in order. I'm going to have to re-read Heart Breaker to fully get the entire story because characters from the first two books have subplots in it.

So for this book, the plot is this: Carter Graham is a "high flyer" aka big business woman. She marries a guy named Kim (I think his real name is Joachim) and then is hit with a series of revelations from him. Basically, he's a liar and involved in some baaaaad stuff. But Carter gets involved with Nicholas Darrow and good things come about...

I enjoyed The High Flyer but it was certainly filled with dialogue and analyzing situations, people, etc. While it was good, it didn't blow me away like other of her works. All in all, not bad but I like some of her other writing better.

Rating: 7/10

A rather '20s weekend

This has been a rather 1920s-esque week for me. First, I read Paul Murray's An Evening of Long Goodbyes, which isn't actually set in the '20s. However, the main character seemed to want to live in that era and I honestly had a hard time remembering that the book was set in modern day Ireland. It was interesting in that aspect--Murray did a good job of creating a Roaring '20s feel to his modern work.

I don't think I'd recommend the book to anyone; it was a bit boring in parts and turned oddly serious at the end. Charles, the main character, lives in the old family manor, acting the part of a country gentleman. When he learns his family (just a younger sister and mother away at rehab) has lost all their money, he's forced to leave his home and--gasp--get a job. Throw in some interesting secondary characters and you've got yourself a romp...kind of. Oddly enough, there was a fair amount on immigration in Ireland and all the unrest that's caused. (Glad to see America's not alone in dealing with those issues.) But the ending...ok, here's the thing: part of the ending revolves around a play on words. However, I think the joke only works if you say the words in a British/Irish accent. Whatever; it was a different sort of read...not sure if I'd read it again if I knew what it was going to be like.

Rating: 7/10

So a friend and I went to the movies but our movie had been cancelled. As it was a local theater, they were sooo nice about it and gave us free pass into Easy Virtue instead. Here's my thoughts on that movie set in the '20s:

1. Jessica Biel is a bad actress. I'm a bit prejudiced against her since she's been whining about how hard it is to be beautiful and be taken seriously as an actress. Honey, that's because you're not a good actress. If you were, your beauty would only be an additional aspect (cf. Kate Winslet, Audrey Hepburn, etc.)
2. Colin Firth is wonderful. Too bad he wasn't in the movie that much.
3. The movie was boring and tortuous. Within the first five minutes, both my friend and I knew we had a long road ahead of us.
4. So, at one point, I was joking around about what the ending was going to be. I was kind of serious, but not really. BUT IT HAPPENED EXACTLY HOW I PREDICTED. (If you really want to know, it's this: Jessica Biel's character leaves her wimpy husband for her father-in-law (played by Colin Firth) and yeah, that's the ending. Wow.
5. I just can't get over how much I didn't enjoy this movie.

So there's my roaring weekend for you!

That shameful? Really?

While I haven't seen the movie, The Reader seemed to have a fairly interesting plot, so I picked it up. Am I glad I did? Meh.

To preface, the story is set in 1950s Germany. Michael Berg is 15 years old and has hepatitis. He meets Hanna, a woman in her mid-30s, who finds him sick outside her apartment one day. Michael, once he feels better, goes to visit her...and ends up sort of being seduced? And they end up having an affair for months and months. Hanna requests that Michael reads to her; he does and that becomes a major part of their relationship.

The story is broken into three parts: Michael's teen years, his 20s and then 30s-ish. Hanna saturates his entire life, preventing him from really moving on in his life (at least in my opinion). Hanna has deep secrets of her own, which set up the theme for the book.

Overall, the book was okay but I didn't really sympathize with Hanna or Michael. I can understand the effect she had on him but I couldn't comprehend her one secret (the non-fire related one) and why she wouldn't try to correct it until it was too late. She was that ashamed of it? Really? I'm such a doer that I can't handle not fixing her situation. Ah well.

Rating: 6.5/10

Too attached to reality?

Maureen Johnson is funny; her blog makes his point quite, quite clear. However, 13 Little Blue Envelopes wasn't actually that hilarious, sadly. Some dialogue made me smile but overall, not as funny as some of her other works.

I'm not a huge fan of the cover; it kind of gives off a trashy feel to the book. And 13 Little Blue Envelopes not trashy in the least. Unrealistic, yes, but not unclassy.

My biggest issue with the book is its sheer lack of unrealism. Here's the plot: 17-year-old Ginny receives a letter from her aunt, complete with cash and instructions to buy a ticket and fly to Europe. The kicker is that Ginny's aunt died earlier that year.

So Ginny--a MINOR--packs up BY HERSELF and goes to Europe, where she doesn't know what she'll be doing, where she'll be going or who she'll stay with until she opens each letter at its appointed time. She travels across Europe, meeting people and

Conceptually, I like the book. It's good plot for a coming-of-age story and the European locations are fabulous. But what kind of parents would'nt require their TEENAGE daughter to at least call once while she's over there? Most of the time, she travelled alone and no one knew where she was.

It's not that I am a devout fan of realism (I watch Dollhouse so obviously realism isn't always key for me)--but if I'm going to be handed a big dose of fantasy, I want to be able to accept it whole-heartedly (cf. Twilight). Aspects of the plot's mechanisms bugged me--simple things like.

Regardless, this wasn't my favorite book by Johnson but still not a bad read.

Rating: 7/10

A book and a TV show that make me talk out loud

First up, Chuck's season finale made me laugh out loud and say "WHAT???" To quote my sister, it was awesome. Here's hoping NBC renews it for next season.


Swedish author Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was truly an interesting, engrossing read--one that will stick with me. I even dreamed about it (a high compliment, indeed!).


From the start, it's apparent that this is going to be a different sort of book. The protagonist, Mikael Blomkvist, is sentenced to jail within the first chapter, guilty of libeling a very powerful financial guru. (And no, he doesn't get off. He serves his time.) When a wealthy man offers to help Mikael take down the guru in return for solving a murder that's haunted him for almost 40 years, Mikael accepts.

As a separate plot line that becomes entangled with Mikael's is Lisbeth Salander--a truly fascinating character who dresses like a punk rocker but is a brilliant investigator. Mikael and Lisbeth don't interact until at least midway through the book but their first scene is wonderful. Larsson does a fabulous job of creating characters--everyone is distinct.

The book is dark, however, and had a fascinating interweaving of violence against women and people's reactions to it. It wasn't exactly subtle, but the theme was so well-done that Larsson deserves props.

The very last page, though, made me say "WHAT?!?!?" and not exactly in a good way. It was understandable but not what I wanted for the ending--until I found out Dragon Tattoo is the first book in a trilogy. Phew! And from what I've read of book two, it's even better than this one.

Rating: 9.5/10

What I've been reading

I have been a reading roll, checking off my TBR list. First, it was Snow Angel by Jamie Carie and then The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt (which I bought at a library book sale either this summer or last year? I'm sad that I have no idea).

Snow Angel is Carie's first book and isn't it a pretty cover? Gorgeous colors. Anyway, the story follows Elizabeth, who is determined to mine for gold in Alaska. After being caught in a freak snow blizzard, she's about to freeze to death when she sees a lighted cabin. The cabin belongs to Noah, a hardy (and attractive) farmer/but-how-can-you-be-a-farmer-in-Alaska-so-yeah-I-don't-really-remember-but-he's-not-a-miner. Noah ends up falling in love with her but Elizabeth's secrets and her past hold her back.

The story had a nice faith aspect woven in, too. Connected with Elizabeth's struggle to trust Noah is her struggle to trust in God.

I didn't like it as much as Wind Dancer but Carie has restored some of my enjoyment in the Christian fiction department. I'll definitely read more of her books.

Rating: 7.5/10

I was randomly in the mood for nonfiction, which never happens, but I didn't have any checked out from the library. Thankfully I remembered I had The City of Falling Angels, which I bought because I loved Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Seriously Midnight was one of the first for-fun nonfiction books I ever read and it changed my thinking--nonfiction could be interesting, I realized.

I didn't love City like I did Midnight. It had one problem that I've noticed in nonfiction: a lack of a unifying theme. (And no, I didn't count "Venice" as a theme.) It rambled, examining different incidents and characters of Venice. There was a sort of "theme" in that he followed an arson case but that was truly scattered throughout. Anyway, it's an interesting look at a European city and unlike Savannah, I have no desire to visit it.

Rating: 7/10

I now know where Kiev is

The last geography class I remember taking was in fourth grade. Scary. Well, thanks to Conspiracy in Kiev by Noel Hynd, I now know where Kiev is (Ukraine!).

I picked up this book because it was about Russia and Ukraine. It's a thriller--think Robert Ludlum or someone along those lines. As such, the characters tend to be a little flat, with more telling than showing. Sure, there's action, but I think I'm more of a character girl. The book is also a bit long and since I wasn't in love with like Rites of Spring (Break), it took me several days to finish off.

Alex is an agent with the Treasury...but somehow gets involved with the CIA. Anyway, she's sent over to Kiev to act as an emissary/bodyguard to a major Ukrainian mobster, because the U.S. president is coming over for a visit and the CIA doesn't want any trouble. Well, there's trouble and people die and Alex's mobster disappears. Everyone thinks he's behind the shootings.

So...about that mobster...Alex is repeatedly told to STICK LIKE GLUE to the mobster, Yuri FedersomethingRussian. It's repeated numerous times; one CIA guy basically tells her to seduce him so she can spend even more time with him. So what does she do? She spends like three hours a day with the mobster, if that. How is that like GLUE, Alex??? And why did no one call her out on that?

Anyway, fast forward a few months and Alex is randomly off to South America for a totally different job. SUPPOSEDLY these two jobs end up tying together but I literally was thinking "what is this? this plotline is weak!" while reading it. Yeah, more shootings happen and then she's taken back to Europe where more shootings occur because she's a target or something. People want her dead. And since there's more books in the series (yet to come out), my guess is that they'll keep after her.

***Spoiler alert***
Can I just say that I knew her fiance was going to be knocked off? I knew it! I kept on waiting for him to die at any moment. And why did Alex almost die at the end? The bullet evidently didn't even really penetrate that far.
****

Rating: 6.5/10

Entertaining enough

Perhaps Ally Carter has ruined me for other teen spy series. That could be why I found Shannon Greenland's Model Spy entertaining but not that plausible. (Which I fully accept as a ridiculous statement. Any book about a 15- or 16-year-old person being a spy is going to be somewhat hard to swallow. Still, Carter did such a good job of making me believe in her world.)

Here's the basic gist: Little orphan Kelly is a computer genius but don't worry, she's not geeky--she's so beautiful she could be a model (which may come in handy later on...). She's about to finish college, having skipped years and years of schooling. A cute boy asks her to break into a government site and Kelly, like a sap, does it for him. And then she winds up arrested and forced to make a decision: join an elite group of teenage spies or go to jail. She becomes a spy--and surprise, surprise, that cute boy who asked her to break the law is also a spy, too! Basically, he set up her up to be recruited. I do have some issues with that, since they didn't really give her a choice (be a spy or die!!! ok, just kidding), but whatever.

So Kelly thinks she's going to be a a stay-at-home spy, tapping away at a keyboard but suddenly she has to pose as a model in order to complete this mission that I don't feel like going into detail about. Oh, and one of her partners is the cute boy.

It's not like this was a bad book. It was short and tiny. (Seriously, the book was oddly small-sized.) I just didn't love it. I'm sure there's some teen girls out there who love, love, love this book. But I just like Ally Carter's spy series better.

In a positive note, deleting this book off of my TBR list on Amazon now means I only have 25 books on the list! And six of those books haven't even been released yet.

Rating: 6/10

No sympathy

You know how there's certain books you just think you should read? Well, after watching The Talented Mr. Ripley, with my boy Matt Damon in it, I told myself that I should read the book. After all, generally the book is much better than the movie and since I had liked the movie, I'd like the book, too. Yeah, not so much.


Patricia Highsmith wrote The Talented Mr. Ripley and numerous sequels. According to the book's description, Tom Ripley is a sociopath. After looking up the description of a sociopath, yeah, he is one. Manipulative, parasitic, a liar...again, I just didn't like him.

***Spoilers ahead****
The movie actually is pretty true to the plot, but if anything, the movie is better. It's more suspenseful, believeable and convincing. You kind of like/empathize with Tom Ripley of the movie--in the book, Tom isn't as likeable. He's never fully understood.

Most of the book I can believe; Tom is a murderer and gets away with two murders, including his friend Dickie Greenleaf. What I couldn't swallow was the ending--he fakes a will, leaving EVERYTHING of Dickie's to himself, and presents it to Dickie's father, WHO BELIEVES IT. For me, that will just screamed "I murdered Dickie for his money. I'M GUILTY." I wanted him to get nailed for the murder, too, but no luck.
***

I didn't really like the book at all and struggled to finish it. Honestly, the movie was richer and more interesting. This is the very rare occasion where I say see the movie and skip the book.

Rating: 5/10

Russia!

I have a fascination with Russia. It's somewhere I'd never want to live--I'd be miserably cold 90% of the time, I imagine--and yet, the people and culture intrigue me. That could be one reason why I loved David Benioff's City of Thieves but really, it's probably just because it's a good book.

So when I went to the library the other day, I had three books in mind that I wanted to check out. And of course, all three were already checked out. In my desperate search for enough books to tide me over to my next visit, I stumbled across City of Thieves and vaguely remembered hearing excellent reviews about it. I love, love, love the cover, so I was sold. (Seriously, I could see it as a poster. I'd buy it.)

Here's the basic plot: It's WWII. Lev is a 17-year-old Russian who has been jailed as a looter after stealing a flask off a dead German paratrooper. He think he's going to die but the colonel in charge gives him and another prisoner (a deserter), Kolya, a task to accomplish in exchange for their lives: find a dozen eggs. Oh, and by the way, this is during the siege of Leningrad, which is so bad that some people are turning into cannibals. The story follows their journey to find a dozen eggs.

Benioff's writing is funny, engaging, bittersweet and captures the spirit of Russia during that era. I loved the way the book was framed, which made the ending perfect. It's a short read and totally captivated me. I'm happy I read this book.

Rating: 9.5/10

From serious to fabulous

I've heard of Carol Goodman before, namely her The Lake of Dead Languages. However, I've picked up The Night Villa, also by Goodman, at my library several times before deciding to just go ahead and read it already.

Lovely cover, yes? It suits the mood of the book perfectly--Italy, the sea, history, beauty.

Here's a brief plot summary, mostly courtesy of Amazon: University of Texas classics professor Sophie Chase, after barely surviving a gunman with ties to a sinister cult, joins an expedition to Capri. A donor has funded both the exact reconstruction of a Roman villa destroyed when Mount Vesuvius buried nearby Herculaneum in A.D. 79, and a computer system that can decipher the charred scrolls being excavated from the villa's ruins. Her trip takes a different spiral when she starts seeing ghosts of her ex-boyfriend--one who fell prey to that same cult...

I was actually surprised by how much I really, really like this book. Goodman is a literary writer; her prose is gorgeous. Her settings were vivid and I often felt like I was reading a Mary Stewart novel. (It was so bizarre; the authors' styles are so different, but I kept on thinking "this book is Mary Stewart-esque; wait, no it's not, why am I thinking this?") I was worried it was going to be a super serious, "I AM A LITERARY WORK" sort of book but it's not--it's a perfect example of what a quality modern novel can be.

The different threads of the story pulled together beautifully and although I'm not a huge fan of dual story/timelines, even in small doses, it worked for this story. I found myself actually interested in and wanting to know more about the characters from 79 A.D.

Basically, Carol Goodman has a new fan and I want to read more of her work. The Chicago Tribune quote on the cover sums her style up: "light enough for a weekend on the beach but literary enough for a weekend in the Hamptons."

Rating: 9.5/10

From existential to serious

After reading The Moviegoer, I couldn't just switch to a light, happy novel. My follow-up read was The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham.

To start, this is a weird cover, isn't it? It's a potrait of some woman, and from her apparel, I would guess the 1920s, which is when The Painted Veil was written. It mesmorized me; those eyes, her haircut, that bird...I couldn't look away.

Yet I evidently broke the spell and actually opened the book and was surprised by how easy it was to read and that I actually enjoyed it.

Bred with one goal in mind, marriage, Kitty is a bit startled to realize that she's reached her mid-20s, is unmarried and her sister is about to marry a titled lord. She hurriedly chooses one of her suitors, Walter Fane, to marry because he adores her, will be going to the Orient for his job thus sparing her the pain of staying in England to watch her sister's grand wedding...and yeah, those are her reasons.

The marriage is a disaster and Kitty has an affair. Walter figures it out and forces her go with him to a cholera-infested area of China--in hopes that she'll die (or so Kitty believes). Kitty must reckon with herself and who she has become--and what she will do in the future.

This is not a romance, but rather a story of flawed people who make poor decisions--yet they struggle for redemption and hope. I wasn't sure if I would like the story but I did. It's deep without being painful (eg., The Moviegoer) and still manages to present an interesting story.

Rating: 9/10

I had a Barnes & Noble giftcard left over from my birthday, which was six months ago, and I hate having unused giftcards lying around. So I ordered the incredibly cheesy and yet strangely addictive Holiday in Handcuffs (and yes, I know ABC Family is playing this movie all the time this month but I no longer have cable, so that doesn't help me) and They Came to Baghdad.

This is a re-read for me. It's one of Agatha Christie's stand-alone novels and for some reason, reminds me of Mary Stewart and M. M. Kaye (which is probably why I like it so much).

Victoria Jones is a liar--but at the same time, an incredibly likeable character. (For some reason, I really like Victoria. I don't know if I'd ever trust her to tell the truth if she was my friend, but she's still so cheerful and quick and clever.)

Fired from her secretary job for doing a spot-on imitation of her boss' wife (she thought the boss was gone for the day; he wasn't...and got to see part of her imitation), she cheerfully looks for a new job. While eating her lunch in the park, she meets her Romeo, aka Edward. She's convinced he's her destiny...but he's leaving the next day for Baghdad.

Never one to let a little thing like thousands of miles separate her from her destiny, Victoria lies and finangles her way to Baghdad, where she meets up with Edward. At the same time as all this is going on, there's a whole other plot about spies and Communism. Christie delightfully works the two together and creates a solid mystery that just oozes with 1950s flavor.

If you're a Stewart or Kaye fan, definitely give this one a try.

Rating: 9/10 (some of the Communist aspects were a little boring...and I even like Communist plots)

Not so much

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you may have picked up that I like Elizabeth Peters. When I heard that she was writing another Vicky Bliss book, obviously I had to read it.

The Laughter of Dead Kings is the final book for the series--and written only 14 YEARS AFTER the last book in the series, which to my mind, felt like a series finale.

What can I say about Laughter? It was okay--by far not my favorite of Peters' work--and just didn't capture my fancy. The series has spanned years and years; the first book technically in the series was written in the '60s. But this newest book just felt too rooted in the modern era. Cell phones, texts and email abounded. While that's obviously accurate, it's just not what I want from a book by Peters. She does note this incongruity in the introduction but whatever, I still didn't like it.

The plot is similar to any other Vicky Bliss plot; however, characters from all the books are brought back. And at the end, Peters inserts herself, which was mildly amusing.

Basically, I have to admit I skim read it. Oh well, c'est la vie. On a positive note, I made absolutely delicious scones tonight, which is going to brighten up my morning.

Rating: 5.5/10

Weekend did not equal reading

Sadly, my reading time this weekend was too short--I've been apartment searching. Someday, when I finally find a place I like, I'll be able to sit on my wonderfully-comfortable-sleep-inducing couch and read. I just hope it's sometime soon--I really don't enjoy the process of finding an apartment. The bargain hunter in me is determined to find the perfect place: utilities included, free parking and a dishwater. I just hope I can find that place at a reasonable rate...

In book talk, I'm re-reading Mary Stewart's The Gabriel Hounds.

It's a fun adventure set in the Middle East. Parts of it are a bit slow moving but the atmosphere is fabulous. It's one of those books where I can easily imagine whole scenes in my head, thanks to the descriptions.

The plot is a bit light on the romance, heavy on drugs (personally I find it fascinating to read other era's views of drug use and abuse and how they've changed--for example, one novel I read from the 1950s featured a pregnant woman smoking) and overall an enjoyable read.

Rating: 7.5/10