Review: The Sara Chronicles Book 2 - Evolution of Us by L. Hughes

Thanks to Reader Spoils and the author L. Hughes for letting me review this one!



About the Book

What Happens When Magical Powers Can't Be Turned Off?
A year after restoring the balance of good and evil to the magical Land of the Keepers, young Sara, James and Thomas are laying low -- living separately to protect them from the vanquished members of Garren that they helped defeat. But it's not the only danger they face. Suddenly, the magical powers they possess begin to possess them. Sara's the first to notice: her powers now include the ability to control weather. But as she begins to use them, the powers run amok, leaving a trail of freak snowstorms and record heat waves. Meanwhile, people around them are mysteriously disappearing; simply vanishing into thin air.
Now, the three of them must reunite in the Land of the Keepers to learn to control their awesome powers and fix whatever is stealing people away. It is there they discover there is much more to their enemy, the hate-filled Garren, than they realized. The battle is just beginning; and before it is over, someone will have to pay a very high price to keep several worlds safe.
Packed with adventure, this second entry in The Sara Chronicles is a fast-paced and savvy fantasy thriller that will keep you guessing right up until the shocking finale.

You can purchase a copy of The Sara Chronicles Book 2- Evolution of Us from my Amazon store.

My Review


I'm not sure how to approach this review. I liked the book. It had a good plot, there were some twists that made it very interesting. The characters were well developed, I liked Sara - she was compassionate and reminded me of myself. The dialog was a bit off for me. I had a hard time of keeping track of who was saying what and had to keep going back and re-reading to figure out who was talking.

I really did like Sara, she was a good person. I would have liked to have read the first book so that I had a more complete picture of Sara, but Hughes did a good job of keeping the reader informed about the background that was missed from the first book. I didn't get a great sense of understanding of the rest of the characters, but I wasn't turned off by it. I think with all that was going on in this one that it would have deterred way too much from the story to go into much detail about the other characters. But I could tell that there was a great connection between the characters, which was central to the story.

I liked the setting of the book. It was neat to see the characters interact with the environment they were in. Olie seemed to have the most control, but being that he was the elder of the group and (if I'm perciving the story right) the leader that brought them all together. Hughes does a great job of describing the wonderful world of the keepers. I could picture beautiful landscapes and buildings, even when the Garren were part of the picture the world around them still seemed so beautiful.

The story itself is very fast paced. It reads quick and moves quick. There's not really any "lulls" to the story. Once it gets going, it keeps moving till the end. And it takes off pretty close to the beginning of the book. It jumps through most of the parts that would have slowed the story down. These times aren't just gone, there is an explanation as to what is going on during the "jumps". So I didn't feel like I was missing anything. The story is full of adventure. There's so many battles with evil and within themselves that I was on the edge of my seat through most of the book.

My only issue was the dialogue, but there was so much more to this one that made up for that. I will be reading the next two in the series for sure, and I'll probably get my hands on the first one so that I can get a fuller picture of the wonderful world Hughes has created.

Review: The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich

Thanks to Melissa at Simon and Schuster for sending me this one to review.



About the Book

Hannah Levi is renowned throughout Venice for her gift at coaxing reluctant babies from their mothers—a gift aided by the secret “birthing spoons” she designed. But when a count implores her to attend to his wife, who has been laboring for days to give birth to their firstborn son, Hannah is torn. A Papal edict forbids Jews from rendering medical treatment to Christians, but the payment he offers is enough to ransom her beloved husband, Isaac, who has been captured at sea. Can Hannah refuse her duty to a suffering woman? Hannah’s choice entangles her in a treacherous family rivalry that endangers the baby and threatens her voyage to Malta, where Isaac, believing her dead in the plague, is preparing to buy his passage to a new life. Not since The Red Tent orPeople of the Book has a novel transported readers so intimately into the complex lives of women centuries ago or so richly into a story of intrigue that transcends the boundaries of history.

For more information about The Midwife of Venice you can visit her website. You can also like her Facebook page and follow her on Twitter.

You can purchase a copy of The Midwife of Venice from my Amazon Store.

My Review

This was a good book. It had it all: love, romance, excitement, and fear. But I just didn't "click" with it. I liked the characters well enough, and the plot was pretty interesting. However there was just something in this one that I couldn't connect with.

Hanna was a brave fierce woman who takes every chance she can get to get her husband back. She's a midwife who uses "unorthodox" (and she's Jewish, so excuse the pun) actions to help babies and mothers who are struggling during childbirth. But she's got her mind set on saving her husband from captivity so against her Rabbi's suggestion, and against the law she goes to deliver a baby that will earn her enough money to save her husband. She was a very strong woman and knows what she wants.

There's some twists and turns in the story that are unexpected, but for me the story seemed predictable, and the pace was slow. Even the tense scenes seemed to move slowly.

Overall it was ok. Rich does a good job at describing the scenes and explaining the character's emotions. But I just didn't connect with the story. It was readable and even enjoyable, but I just can't say that I loved it.

Review: Life After Genius by M. Ann Jacoby

I bought this one at the dollar store. Can't beat a good book for a buck!



About the Book

Theodore Mead Fegley has always been the smartest person he knows. By age 12, he was in high school, and by 15 he was attending a top-ranking university. And now, at the tender age of 18, he's on the verge of proving the Riemann Hypothesis, a mathematical equation that has mystified academics for almost 150 years. But only days before graduation, Mead suddenly packs his bags and flees home to rural Illinois. What has caused him to flee remains a mystery to all but Mead and a classmate whose quest for success has turned into a dangerous obession.

At home, Mead finds little solace. His past ghosts haunt him; his parents don't understand the agony his genius has caused him, nor his desire to be a normal kid, and his dreams seem crushed forever. He embarks on a new life's journey -- learning the family business of selling furniture and embalming the dead--that disappoints and surprises all who knew him as "the young Fegley genius."

Equal parts academic thriller and poignant coming-of-age story, LIFE AFTER GENIUS follows the remarkable journey of a young man who must discover that the heart may know what the head hasn't yet learned.

For more information about Life After Genius please visit Hachette Book Group.
My Review

This was a weird one for me. I liked the story, even though it was a bit odd, but I didn't really connect with the main character. But the mystery of why Mead came home was pretty engaging. I just wanted to know why. The story jumps around through different times in Mead's life. It got to be a bit confusing at times, as Mead also seems to be having a bit of a nervous breakdown throughout the story. But the jumping around really adds to the mystery of what happened and if Mead really is starting to loose his mind.

Mead appears to have had a rough social life growing up. Being so smart and so much younger than the kids he's in school with made him a bit of a target for bullies and such. So it's really no surprise that once Mead goes to college young he's still an outcast. Herman, Mead's best friend/mortal enemy tries to befriend Mead for a while and has to take a HUGE step to get Mead to really open up. But as the story progresses we learn that while Herman seems to have been born with the silver spoon his life wasn't really all that easy.

Even though I didn't particularly care for either of the main characters there was something about this story that I couldn't walk away from. It was so out there at times and yet so "normal". It's so hard to describe. Even the ending was a bit odd, and it left more questions than it answered. But at the same time most of the really important stuff is cleared up before we get to the end. Like I said it's hard to describe... Overall I have to say I enjoyed it.

Review: Death's Door: The Truth Behind Michigan's Largest Mass Murder by Steve Lehto

Thanks to my sister for letting me borrow this. And yes you would have enjoyed it had it not been required reading for school.



About the Book

On Christmas Eve 1913, more than six dozen people were crushed to death as they scrambled to flee the Italian Hall in Calumet, Mich. Someone had cried "Fire" at the top of the stairs that led to the meeting hall on the building's second floor. There was no fire. The entire event was over in a flash, but the tragedy would scar the psyche of the region for decades. Was the call of "fire" a tragic error or a calculated action designed to cause chaos?

In Death's Door: The Truth Behind Michigan's Largest Mass Murder, author and attorney Steve Lehto wades through the conflicting news reports, transcripts, and other documentation to set the record straight.

For more information about this book please visit Momentum Books' website.

My Review

This was a pretty interesting story. Having lived in Michigan my entire life I was surprised that I'd never heard of this incident before. It seems that with all the lore surrounding these murders that it would still be something that people would bring up, at least occasionally.

Since I've never heard of the incident at the Italian Hall before I do not know how well the information presented in this book meshes with popular opinion. However, Lehto does mentions many times where his findings do not support popular belief.

The book was very informational and I think it was fairly unbiased. However the only complaint I have is that once I got towards the end of the book I felt like I was just rereading the same information over and over again. It became somewhat monotonous. But it was still interesting, and I liked that it gave quite a bit of the back story to the Italian Hall Tragedy. I felt that having the back story gave the tragedy a bit more depth than if the book had just covered what happened the day of the tragedy.

While this was interesting I wouldn't say it read like fiction. For you to enjoy this one I think you'd really have to be interested in real-life stories. There were a lot of facts in the book, things that you wouldn't normally see in a fiction book. But overall I have to say it was worth the read.

Death's Door: The Truth Behind Michigan's Largest Mass Murder

Review: Audiobook: The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace

Thank you to Anna at Hachette for letting me review this one.



About the Book

The "dazzling, exhilarating" (San Francisco Chronicle) debut novel from the bestselling author of Infinite Jest, available for the first time as an audiobook.

At the center of The Broom of the System is the betwitching (and also bewildered) heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio, which sits on the edge of a suburban wasteland-the Great Ohio Desert. Lenore works as a switchboard attendant at a publishing firm, and in addition to her mind-numbing job, she has a few other problems. Her great-grandmother, a one-time student of Wittgenstein, has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home. Her beau (and boss), editor-in-chief Rick Vigorous, is insanely jealous. And her cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler, has suddenly started spouting a mixture of psychobabble, Auden, and the King James Bible, which may propel him to stardom on a Christian fundamentalist television program.

Fiercely intelligent and entertaining, this debut novel from one of the most innovative writers of our generation explores the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality.

For more information about The Broom of the System please visit Hachette's website.

You can also "Like" David Foster Wallace on Facebook.

My Review

This was another odd one, and I really don't know what to say about it. It was pretty good, but at times it made no sense whatsoever.

Lenore seemed to be a bit dense at times. She just didn't seem to grasp what was going on most of the time. Her boyfriend Rick was teetering on crazy! Her therapist was nuts himself. Her brother and Wang Dang Lang were the most down-to-earth people in the story. And with one being a genius and the other with the name Wang Dang Lang... how down-to-earth can they really be?

I don't know if my lack of connection with this one was because it was an audiobook or if it was because it was just a little to out there for me. I understood the basic theme to the book, but even with the "broom" sweeping the system the story was just plain odd. The characters were really not believable, and the short stories interlaced throughout were distracting. They did serve a purpose in giving insight into how Rick was thinking/feeling, but I think it could have been done much more effectively.

The narrator was ok in this one. A few of the voices he did were off as to how I had them in my head, but he wasn't monotonous to listen to and he did use voices to help differentiate who was talking.

The Broom of the System: A Novel

Review: No Hope for Gomez! by Graham Parke

I had been wanting to read this one for a while so I went ahead and bought this one for myself.



About the Book

It's the age-old tale:
Boy meets girl.
Boy stalks girl.
Girl already has a stalker.
Boy becomes her stalker-stalker.

We've seen it all before, many times, but this time it's different. If only slightly. When Gomez Porter becomes a test subject in an experimental drug trial, he is asked to keep track of any strange experiences through a blog. What Gomez isn't ready for, is so many of his experiences suddenly seeming strange; the antiques dealer trying to buy his old tax papers, his neighbor boiling salamanders on his balcony at midnight, the super sexy lab assistant who falls for him but is unable to express herself in terms outside the realm of science. But when one of the trial participants turns up dead and another goes missing, Gomez begins to fear for his life. No longer sure who he can trust and which of his experiences are real and which merely drug induced illusions, he decides it%u2019s time to go underground and work out a devious plan.

Now, years later, his blogs have been recovered from a defunct server. For the first time we can find out firsthand what happened to Gomez as he takes us on a wild ride of discovery.

For more information about No Hope for Gomez! please visit Graham Parke's website.

My Review

I was intrigued by this book from the first time I'd heard of it. It sounded as if it would be an interesting read to say the least. It was interesting, but it was also weird. I've read this twice now because I felt like I'd lost something along the way. And while the second reading did help me figure it out a little more I was still kind of confused with the whole thing.

Gomez was an odd character. His downstairs neighbor was odd, the employee that worked for him at the antiques store was odd, the guy that was shopping at the store was odd. His doctor/girlfriend was the most "normal" person in the book, and even she was a bit odd at times.

The things that happen in Gomez's life aren't really all that odd, but the way in which he deals with them is odd. Falling in love with the researcher, perfectly normal. Becoming her stalker stalker, odd... I can't really give anymore examples without giving some of the story away.

The writing was humorous, I laughed quite a few times throughout the book. And like I said the things that happened to Gomez weren't all that abnormal, but the way he deals with life was a bit strange. It was an entertaining read, and it didn't take me long to read it. I actually read it twice within a few days.

No Hope for Gomez!

Wild Legacy by Fern Cook

Thanks to the author for letting me review her book.



About the Book

In book III, Dan Tucker's passion for the wildlife runs through the veins of his offspring, but 'his curse' also courses through the veins of his child. Only he knows why his child is different from all the other children.

Like every parent, Dan is challenged with teaching his child how to fit into this world. In Dan's case the dilemma is taken up a notch.

But like every new soul that arrives on this planet, they must make their own way, no one else can do it for them.

For more information about Wild Legacy please visit Fern Cook's website.

My Review

This is the third in the Wild Series. I've had the fortune of reading the first two in the series and again had high hopes for this one. I wasn't disappointed, I just wished for a little more.

This story still follows Dan for a bit, but the majority of the story focuses on Dan's daughter Lizzy. Dan had hidden the fact that he is a werewolf from everyone, including his wife. So when Dan's twins are born he is worried to see if his curse is passed along to them. Lizzy happens to the be one afflicted. And despite Dan's guidance Lizzy is a teenager, and one with a special ability, so she learns about her abilities in her own way.

I really like Dan and his wife from the first two books. I just wasn't that crazy about Lizzy. The story was good and it kept me reading, but I really just didn't like Lizzy. She's hard-headed and strong-willed, which does lead to some good story lines, however her stubbornness to not see things in a different way made her some one I loved to loathe. I didn't hate her, but there was something about her that just didn't sit well with me. I felt she means well, but didn't agree with her means.

I did however like her boyfriend. Stephen is very level-headed and tries to keep Lizzy on the "straight-and-narrow". His family, who Lizzy gets to know very well were all fairly level-headed and at times pose a bit of a problem for Lizzy and her plans.

While I did like the story and the writing was good I would say this is not my favorite from the series. I just didn't care too much for Lizzy, although she did bring quite a bit of "drama" to the story. She just wasn't for me.

Wild Legacy: Book III of the Wild Series (Volume 3)

Review: A Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart

Thanks to Barnes & Nobles's First Look Book Club for letting me review this one.



About the Book

One moonless night in February 1895, a young landowner in Texas cow country loses his wife in childbirth. In the lonely years that follow, his new son, his fourth, grows to become a skillful, aggressive jockey and his father, with equal fervor, stakes his land and fortunes on his success. In 1910, father and son, distant, yet strangely joined in this venture, race to a point of no return for the entire family. What happens to the son beyond that juncture will not reconfigure his past, but it will burnish him into unexpected maturity. (Hand-selling tip: Of this first novel, one early reader wrote, "If Evan S. Connell, William Faulkner, and Norman Maclean had been born as one person, he might possess the extraordinary gifts of Bruce Machart.")

My Review

This one took me a while to get into it. The writing was very "slow". Since I read this as part of a book group I didn't want to get to far ahead. So I'd read and get into the story, then when I got to the stopping point I found I had a hard time getting back into it. Had I read it straight through without stopping I probably would have liked it much more.

I loved how the author gave everything a feeling. The landscape, the animals, everything was described to have a sens of feeling. It was a nice change, but I think it became a little to much, as it just seemed to drag the story down some.

I didn't really get to connect with any of the characters. In fact there were some places in the book where I was confused as to who was talking, who was doing what, what was being done to who. I was just so lost at some points that it really frustrated me.

The story, if you take out the "extra" was pretty good. And it was an endeering story about lost love, in many forms, and how that can affect a person their whole life. The relationships between the characters was sad, and that sad feeling was the tone of the entire book. Everything was just sad.

I think if I had sat with this and read it straight through without taking breaks I would have liked it more. But as I said each time I picked it up I had to "get back into the story" and I think that took so much away from it for me.

The Wake of Forgiveness

Review: Audiobook: The Postcard Killers by James Patterson and Liza Marklund

Thank you to Hachette Book for sending me a copy to review.



About the Book

NYPD detective Jack Kanon is on a tour of Europe's most gorgeous cities. But the sights aren't what draw him--he sees each museum, each cathedral, and each restaurant through a killer's eyes.

Kanon's daughter, Kimmy, and her boyfriend were murdered while on vacation in Rome. Since then, young couples in Paris, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, and Stockholm have become victims of the same sadistic killers. Now Kanon teams up with the Swedish reporter, Dessie Larsson. Every killing is preceded by a postcard to the local newspaper--and Kanon and Larsson think they know where the next victims will be. With relentless logic and unstoppable action, THE POSTCARD KILLERS may be James Patterson's most vivid and compelling thriller yet.

For more information about The Postcard Killers please visit Hachette's website.

My Review

I've only read a few James Patterson novels. I've always heard great things about his writing and I really wanted to start reading some of his stuff. My only problem thus far is that everything of his I've read has been so predictable. I've had such high expectations for each of his books and I've been let down with each one.

Having said that I don't hate his books. I think that the sheer number of books that he has released, with co-authors, has lead to a bit of overkill. I like the story lines, I like the characters, but it's so easy to predict the end of the book.

This one was no different. While it did have a bit more of an emotional connection than I've felt with the other Patterson novels it was still predictable. I liked the characters. Dessi was a great character. She was very well rounded, she had such a great back story, and as her past starts popping up she becomes even more likable. For her to come from where she came from and be able to do what she's done it was very touching. Jack wasn't an unlikable character, but I didn't really connect with him. I did feel sympathy for him, but that was about the extent of my connection.

The story was pretty fast-paced. Things happened pretty quickly in this one. It didn't take long for the killers to get going, actually that's how the book opens. As the reasoning behind the killings come out, it is pretty shallow. But I guess a killer doesn't really have to have a good reason to kill (killers are crazy after all).

Since this was an audiobook I have to talk about the narrators. There were actually three of them in this story. I liked the differences in the narrators. It helped me to keep track of when the story changed. When I'm listening to an audiobook I find it easy to get lost as far as what's going on, and who's doing what but the three different narrators would at least keep me on track as to who the story was following. I have to say that I wish more audiobooks were read like this, I really liked it.

The Postcard Killers

3 Star Books

Always in My Heart by Catherine Anderson
Audiobook: The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
Boots and Pieces by Emily Ecton
Captured by Desire by Kira Morgan
The Chameleon Conspiracy by Haggi Carmon
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
Cult Fiction by Chancery Stone
Death's Door: The Truth Behind Michigan's Largest Mass Murder by Steve Lehto
Donkeys Can't Sleep in Bathtubs by Susan Dach
Eternal Craving by Nina Bangs
Faithful Heart by Al Lacy
The Forgotten Man by William Graham Sumner
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Hope of Refuge by Cindy Woodsmall
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer
Knitting Under the Influence by Claire LaZebnik
The Kidnapping of Kenzie Thorn by Liz Johnson
Knight of Passion by Margaret Mallory
The Liberation Diet by Kevin Brown and Annette Presley
Life After Genius by M. Ann Jacoby
Audiobook Live Long, Finish Strong by Gloria Copeland
The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich
No Hope for Gomez! by Graham Parke
Obama's Blackberry by Kasper Hauser
Audiobook: The Postcard Killers by James Patterson and Liza Marklund
Audiobook: Private by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Rachel's Tears by Beth Nimmo and Darrell Scott
The Sara Chronicles: Book 2 Evolution of Us by L. Hughes
Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives by Josie Brown
Shooting and Albatross by Steven R. Lundin
Sir Dalton and the Shadow Heart by Chuck Black
Stray Affections by Charlene Ann Baumbich
To Surrender To A Rogue by Cara Elliot
Unfaithfully Yours by Anthony C. Patton
The Vanishing Sculptor by Donita K. Paul
The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart
The Web of Deciet by Darlene Cox
Wild Legacy by C. Fern Cook