Theme Thursday (20)

Theme Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Reading Between Pages.

This week's theme is MOVEMENT.

My entry comes from pg. 1 of Money Never Sleeps by Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker:

The ladies' hips swayed as they passed paparazzi, and millions of dollars in rare jewels, ultrachic sheath dresses, and diamond-encrusted Stewart Weizman dream stilettos graced their bodies.

Series Sunday Review (6)-Treachery in Death

Series Sunday is a meme hosted by Literary Marie. My Series Sunday pick for this week comes from my favorite series, the In Death series by JD Robb:

Treachery in Death by J.D. Robb

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This series just keeps getting better and better. This one has Eve trying to put away some corrupt cops, right in her own Cop Central, and you know she's not going to take too kindly to anyone making a mockery of the uniform. We get to see Eve in all her glory going toe-to-toe with the female lieutenant of the Illegals department, who has done many shady dealings in her run as lieutenant. Even worse, she is the daughter of the former police chief.

Unlike the Stephanie Plum series (which I started reading the same time I started reading the In Death series) where I've grown tired of the characters and their same old stupid shenanigans, I still enjoy reading about the In Death cast of characters, especially Peabody and McNab, and I still adore Eve and Roarke's relationship. The only parts that I've grown a bit tired of are anything involving Dr. Mira, whenever Eve goes to her for her psych profiles, it turns into a snooze fest. Thankfully those were few and far between in this one.

Can't wait to read the next in the series!



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Source: Library
Challenges: Outdo Yourself Challenge, Support Your Local Library Challenge, Mystery and Suspense Challenge

Theme Thursday (19)

Haven't done one of these in quite awhile...

Theme Thursday is a weekly event hosted by Reading Between Pages. This week's theme is the first snippet of FOOD.

My entry comes from pg. 1 (the very first sentences) of Treachery in Death by JD Robb:

The old man lay dead on a scattered pile of candy bars and bubblegum.

Review Roundup

A couple of quick reviews of two books I finished in the past couple of weeks.


Silenced by Kia DuPree

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I enjoyed this story about a young girl (Tinka) growing up in a bad neighborhood. Her mother struggles with trying to keep Tinka on the straight path, along with keep her older sons out of trouble and the family from living on the streets. To complicate things is mom's live-in boyfriend whom Tinka doesn't like. I didn't care too much for the mom (and I cannot remember her name at all right now), but I did enjoy reading about the other characters.



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Source: Library
Challenge: Outdo Yourself Challenge, Support Your Local Library


A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I don't typically read memoirs or any non-fiction, but ever since I saw some fellow teachers recommending this book, I wanted to check it out. It did not even seem like a non-fiction book, due to the horrific things Jaycee Dugard had to go through, it made me wish it were fiction.

Jaycee relays all the terrible things that occurred during her 18 year abduction that began at the age of 11. She wrote in a very straight-forward manner that was easy to follow for the most part. She did have a tendency to ramble at points, especially the parts about her animals, but I probably only think that because I dislike animals and don't want to read about them in any way, shape, or form.



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Source: Library
Challenges: Outdo Yourself, Support Your Local Library

Did Not Finish:
The Eternal Engagement by Mary B. Morrison-I got through 55 pages and just couldn't read anymore. I didn't like or care about any of the characters and had not desire to find out the outcome of the "eternal engagement." Huge snore.

Review-Off the Chain

Off the Chain by Candice Dow

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


London is a young woman who just wants to love fashionably and take care of animals. Unfortunately, she flunks out of veterinarian school and is living on her best friend's couch. Things start to look a bit better for her when her friend helps her start a dog walking business and her mother gets her a job as an administrative assistant. That success is short-lived, though, when her friend kicks her out. Londod doesn't know what she will do, until her boss offers her an opportunity she can't pass up: become a call girl for his escort service. AKA a prostitute.

I really liked London as a character and thought the author did a good job of making her relatable, even though one would think a prostitute isn't really someone the average person can relate to. There were plenty of twists and turns in the book to keep me hooked. I always enjoy Candice Dow's books and this one was no exception.



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Source: Library
Challenges: Outdo Yourself, Support Your Local Library

Review-Say Amen, Again

Say Amen, Again by ReShonda Tate Billingsley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Say Amen, Again is apparently a sequel to some other books written by Reshonda Tate Billingsley, although you don't really need to read them in order to follow this book. This one is the typical two-women-fighting-over-one-man novel, only the twist here is that the man is the pastor of a prominent church, and plus both women are pregnant with his baby. His wife, Rachel, does her best to get this mistress Mary, out of their lives.

Their story really was of no interest to me, I was really more interested in the subplot, which involved Rachel's brother Jonathan. In the previous books, he had come out as a gay man, and is now living with the ramifications of that, mainly his meddling aunt who thinks he should "pray the gay away." He is also a high school counselor and is currently counseling a confused young man whose father bullies him around about being a sissy.

While I liked Jonathan's story, as a whole I wasn't too impressed with the other story lines or characters and really have no desire to read any of the other books in this series.



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Source: Library
Challenges: Outdo Yourself Challenge, Support Your Local Library Challenge

Review-Fade Away

Fade Away by Harlan Coben

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in the Myron Bolitar series, so I knew I would like this one also. It started off promisingly: Myron is hired by an NBA team to not only find their missing star player, but to also join the team as a player to help him get the inside info from his other teammates. The missing player, Greg, was once an old friend/playing rival of Myron's, until of course Myron's playing career was ended when he was injured during a game.

I'm not a sports fan at all, but the only sport I can tolerate watching is basketball (and Tiger Woods playing golf) so I was glad to see this one center on basketball. I really felt for Myron as he struggled with getting back into the playing groove again.

I do have to admit the story did drag a bit in the middle and I honestly wasn't too interested in the mystery aspect, simply because I was more interested in how Myron would deal with playing ball again. But the ending was really good and shocking and kept me on the edge of my seat. I definitely recommend.





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Source: Library
Challenges: Outdo Yourself, Support Your Local Library, 2012 Mystery and Suspense