Paperback Archives - Page 26 of 27

Truly, Madly by Heather Webber: Book Review

Lucy Valentine has lost the family ability to match people based on their auras, and can now only find lost objects. After some negative publicity, Lucy finds herself in charge of the family matchmaking business for a few weeks. Not realizing what she's getting herself into, she offers to try to find a new client's lost love, then asks the PI in the upstairs office to help her out. Sparks fly as soon as she walks in the door. I'll get my complaints out of the way first. Some of the situations Lucy finds herself in felt very contrived. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll leave it at that. I also saw a lot of the small surprises coming, and I definitely knew what the big surprise/solution at the end was going to be. Overall though, I had a lot of fun with this. It's been a while since I've read a chick lit kind of mystery, and I realized that I've missed it. Lucy was a lot of fun, as was her family, but I have to say that I'm glad Dovie isn't my grandmother. I would die of embarrassment! Sean was hot in all the right ways, but in a personal preference, I wish he wasn't a retired firefighter. I love a man in a uniform, but that doesn't extend to firefighters. Lots of stories there. The chemistry between Lucy and Sean was maybe a little too instant, but that was part of the fun. How many times have I used the word fun in this review? Too many! But that's the best way to describe this book, and I recommend it for a nice little break between heavier reads. I'll be looking for the next book in the series! Total disclosure: My aunt won…

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson: Book Review

Fisherman and WWII veteran Carl Meine is found dead and tangled up in his fishing net one morning. At first glance it appears to be an accident, but the sheriff looks a little closer and starts to wonder. He soon arrests another fisherman, Kabuo Miyamoto, for murder. Against the backdrop of the murder trial, Guterson explores the roots of the conflict that led to the accusation and the lives of the witnesses in a series of flashbacks. Gorgeous. That's really the best word to describe this book. It's just gorgeous. I normally tear through books pretty quickly, eager to know what happened, but this time I found myself reading slowly, savoring each elegant yet sparse turn of phrase. I still wanted to know what happened, but that was secondary to the beauty of the language. Within this story, San Piedro Island becomes almost as much a character as anyone. The isolation, beauty and harshness of island life has shaped the islanders to become a breed apart. They are often silent, self-reliant, and careful in their interactions with each other. It's hard to avoid someone who becomes an enemy when you both live on an island. Set in 1954, the islanders are still feeling the effects of WWII. A lot of the men are veterans and the Japanese residents were shipped off to an internment camp. Feelings between the communities can occasionally flare up, even nine years after the war's end. The flashbacks to the war and the internment camp were mostly what interested me. I don't know why I love WWII novels, but I do. I was surprised to realize that I had one in my hands with Snow Falling on Cedars. One of the main characters, Ishmael, is a WWII vet who lost his left arm in the war.…

Lament by Maggie Stiefvater: Book Review

Deirdre meets Luke at an audition one day. They play some amazing music together, and by the end of the day, Deirdre is more than a little infatuated. But Luke isn't the only stranger appearing in her life. All kinds of weird people and events start surrounding her, and it's obvious that Luke has something to do with it. First of all, can I just say that I don't read all that much YA, but I am sick to death of the inevitable love triangle. Sick of it! Lament was a little more low-key than others I've read but it was still there. I remember it being hard enough to get one guy in high school to like me. Now girls have to aim for two or feel like losers?!?! C'mon. Let's do something attainable here. Aside from that, I enjoyed this. I had a decent idea as to what Luke's story was going to be, and it frustrated me a little that super-smart Deirdre was being so clueless about it. But I did enjoy the give-and-take of Deirdre's relationships with Luke and her best friend James. Sure, they rode to her rescue a few times, but she rescued them too. Deirdre and Luke were pretty good characters, but I loved James! He's such a smartass, but underneath all that he's a very caring, understanding guy. Mostly he just cracked me up though. Deirdre and Luke enjoyed playing old ballads together, and I liked that this book had a similar feel to it. That said, the ending might leave some readers dissatisfied, but it stayed true to that ballad history. It also left room for the sequel, Ballad: The Gathering of Faerie. I have that waiting to be read too, and I have to admit that I'm more than ready…

Lamb by Christopher Moore: Book Review

There are roughly 30 years of Jesus's life that are unaccounted for. Oh, there's the one story about him teaching in the temple when he was 12, but other than that, he was born and then he started his ministry around the age of 30. Christopher Moore has fun imagining what exactly Jesus--or Joshua, as Moore chooses to use the Hebrew name--might have gotten up to in the in-between years. I know what I'm thinking but I'm having trouble finding the right words. I think if you're going to be offended by this book, the title will turn you off right away. And that's obviously okay. But there might be a few people out there like me, who are thinking, "I'm pretty open-minded. I think I can handle it. But I do have lines that I don't want to have crossed, and Moore could cross them easily." I was okay with what he wrote here. Joshua is still absolutely the Son of God, without sin, sent to save mankind from our sins. That is never questioned. If it had been, I would have had to put the book down. But he does have fun, love, and learn from people from many countries and religions. That's the best I can do as far as the is-it-offensive-to-Christians thing. On to the good parts! I loved Biff! I wanted to reach into the pages and smack him upside the head a few times, but usually when that happened another character stepped in and smacked him for me. He was a horny, cheerful smartass who could teach dogs a thing or two about loyalty. He spends his entire life following Joshua around and trying to make sure that he stays out of trouble. He can always get Joshua laughing when he falls into a…

The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory: Book Review

The Boleyn Inheritance is the story of Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's fourth wife; Jane Boleyn, her lady-in-waiting and Anne Boleyn's former sister-in-law; and Katherine Howard, a beautiful young maid-in-waiting. By now, Henry is a hugely fat, sick, stinking, paranoid tyrant. These three women try their best to keep him happy and stay safe. I went into this knowing only a tiny bit of these ladies' stories. Sovereign, by C.J. Sansom, is set around this time and the tempestuous life at court was discussed a little bit. Even knowing how this turned out generally, I found myself getting nervous along with the women as Henry's moods turned for the worse. I was sitting there thinking, "Okay, I know this happened. Right? So it's okay. But what if I'm wrong? I could be wrong. I'm so glad I didn't live in this time." And it was an emotional roller coaster all the way through. I was cautiously optimistic when Henry was happy. I got nervous when he got sick or grumpy. When he was bed-ridden or in a foul mood, I would have bitten my nails with anxiety if I were a nail biter. Aside from that, the women came to life for me in these pages. Little Kitty especially. She reminded me of Eartha Kitt singing "Santa Baby." "Slip a sable under the tree--for me. I've been an awful good girl." That was pretty little Kitty. Another character compared her to a magpie, collecting shiny things. That fit too. She was vain and couldn't think of anyone or anything outside herself and her wants, but I couldn't help but like her. There was no true malice in her. Every one of her chapters started off with, "Let me see, what do I have?" and then she enumerated her possessions. It…

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George: Book Review

The lass is the last child in a family of nine and the fourth unwanted girl. She is so unwanted that her mother doesn’t even bother to name her. When a polar bear comes crashing through the door one night and asks her to live with him in his castle for a while, she agrees on the condition that her family will be provided for. And her adventures begin. I really don’t think I’ve ever read East of the Sun, West of the Moon (the fairy tale that this is based on), but I truly enjoyed the book. Retold fairy tales obviously come in many shapes and sizes, and this book stayed very true to the feel of the old fairy tales. The characters were developed a bit more, but I still wouldn't say that they're well-developed. The story was more about "what happened next," and I kept turning pages to find out exactly that. I liked that the lass could talk to animals. It added an extra element to the story when her pet Rollo could tell her what the castle walls smelled like. There were some lessons to be learned here, such as not giving up and avoiding trying to be something you're not. I was going to give this four stars, because I really did enjoy it while I was reading it, but now that I'm trying to write my review a week later, I find that the book has already faded in my memory, so I'm going to bump it down to three and a half stars. I'll still recommend it, but I'll probably find myself searching out a different re-telling of this fairy tale to see how they compare. I just found and read the original fairytale, and Jessica Day George did stay remarkably true to…

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King: Book Review

"I should have thought it obvious," I said impatiently, though even at that age I was aware that such things were not obvious to the majority of people. "I see paint on your pocket-handkerchief, and traces on your fingers where you wiped it away. The only reason to mark bees that I can think of is to enable one to follow them to their hive. You are either interested in gathering honey or in the bees themselves, and it is not the time of year to harvest honey. Three months ago we had an unusual cold spell that killed many hives. Therefore I assume that you are tracking these in order to replenish your own stock." Retired, fifty-four-year-old Sherlock Holmes is left speechless at this speech from fifteen-year-old Mary Russell. He realizes immediately that he has finally met a mind to match his own, and his retirement might not be quite as boring as he expected. I haven't read any of Conan Doyle's work recently enough to be able to comment meaningfully on how well the Sherlock in The Beekeeper's Apprentice matches up to the "real" Sherlock. All I can say is that I enjoyed the originals and I enjoyed this one. Mary is a rare heroine. She's ultra-intelligent, fiercely independent, funny, sharp-spoken, unafraid to get her hands dirty, and ultimately vulnerable. Sherlock finds himself losing interest in everything around him until Mary comes into his life to both test his wits and learn from him. The pair, who, from the outside would appear to be aloof from everyone else, ultimately save each other. There were several mysteries the two investigate throughout the book, from Mary's first attempt to solve a small local crime on her own, to the infinitely-bigger plot that almost proves to be the team's undoing. I…

The Bright Forever by Lee Martin: Book Review

On a beautiful July evening, nine-year-old Katie Mackey disappears on her way to the library. And our hearts break. I just don't know where to start. It's hard not to compare this to Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, but there's a huge difference. As I remember it, The Lovely Bones dealt with the family's grieving process through the years following Susie's death. The Bright Forever follows the immediate aftermath of Katie's disappearance. All the rage, despair, hope, shame, suspicions, and "what if"s are examined in this book. And then it goes a step farther. At the very end is something of a call to action. The last narrator (there are several) says, "And what about the ones that evening who saw us come and go...and never for an instant thought there might be something wrong? The problem is this: how many of us were there who could have done something to stop what was going to happen? Where does responsibility start and end?" "We thought we were all free: free from work, from chores, from one another." "'He always looked like he was carrying the world on his back. I'd see him around town, and my heart would break.' 'Did you ever tell him that?' I asked her. 'Tell him that you saw him, that you felt something about what it was to have his kind of life?' 'I can't recall ever saying a word.' 'He might have liked to have heard it.'" What could be prevented if we just noticed each other? Not even just crimes. Maybe the neglected little boy wouldn't grow up to be the twisted man if someone had noticed his pain when he was younger. Just noticing. How hard is it, really? And yet we seldom do it. I can't say that the characters were…

Black Mountain Breakdown by Lee Smith: Book Review

We first meet Crystal Spangler when she’s a dreamy twelve-year-old Virginia mountain girl, in the summer before she begins high school. We follow her as her dreaminess leads her to look for meaning, or for herself, in all the wrong places. I adore Lee Smith’s work. She writes about the mountains of Virginia. I’m in North Carolina, but reading a book by Lee Smith feels like coming home. She captures the spirit of these mountains and these people perfectly. Just read this opening paragraph: ”Now the lightning bugs come up from the mossy ground along the river bank, first one, then two together, more, hesitant at first, from the darkness gathered there already in the brush beneath the trees. Crystal sits and watches, holds her breath, the Mason jar beside her knee; if she looks down, she can’t even see it now. She touches it with her finger and feels the glass with the letters raised and indecipherable in the dimness so that they could be anything, any words at all. They could be French. Suddenly out of the scrub grass at her knees comes rising a small pale flickering light, sickly unearthly yellowish green, fairy light. It is so close she can breathe on it and see the whirring, tiny wings. Crystal doesn’t move. She could catch it, but she doesn’t. Only her eyes move to follow the flight, erratic at first as if blown by wind although there is no wind in the hot still damp of early June on the river bank, then into the dark branches, away and gone. Crystal can barely see the river on down the bank, barely hear it. She looks across the river bed now to the railroad track cut into the mountain which goes straight up on the other side, almost…

Un Lun Dun by China Miéville: Book Review

Strange things start happening around best friends Zanna and Deeba. A fox appears on the edge of the playground, watching Zanna. They come across graffiti saying “Zanna For Ever!” A woman they don’t know approaches Zanna in a café and tells her what an honor it is to meet her. It all culminates one night when the girls are having a sleepover and notice a broken umbrella hanging off a window, spying on them. They follow the umbrella and eventually find themselves in a place…not London. UnLondon, in fact. I loved this! Loved it. The author acknowledgments should give you an idea as to what to expect. China Miéville writes, “As always, I’m indebted to too many writers to list, but particularly important to this book are Joan Aiken, Clive Barker, Lewis Carroll, Michael De Larrabeiti, Tanith Lee, Walter Moers, and Beatrix Potter. Particular thanks are due Neil Gaiman, for generous encouragement and for his indispensable contributions to London phantasmagoria, especially Neverwhere.” Miéville chose some big footsteps to follow and he absolutely pulled it off. This mostly reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, with a little side of Neverwhere. The sense of totally unpredictable fun that pervades Alice was alive and well in Un Lun Dun. There was crazy word play (Binjas! Gotta love ‘em!), fantastical creatures, and a world where the impossible has become the everyday. But underneath all the fun, there were subtle messages about loyalty, friendship, doing your best, having faith in yourself, standing up for what’s right, and even a little dash of environmentalism. None of this is at all heavy-handed though, so it really can be read as a fun adventure story. Miéville illustrated the book himself, and I loved the illustrations. They added a perfect note of whimsy to an already-whimsical book. My favorite…