One Shot. Finished audio 3-19-14, rating 4.25/5, thriller, pub. 2005

Book 9 of the Jack Reacher series (Killing Floor) (Die Trying) (Tripwire) (Running Blind) (Echo Burning) (Without Fail) (Persuader) (The Enemy)

Unabridged audio 12 hours.  Read by Dick Hill.

Six shots. Five dead. One heartland city thrown into a state of terror. But within hours the cops have it solved: a slam-dunk case. Except for one thing. The accused man says: You got the wrong guy. Then he says: Get Reacher for me. And sure enough, from the world he lives in–no phone, no address, no commitments-ex-military investigator Jack Reacher is coming.  Reacher’s arrival will change everything–about a case that isn’t what it seems, about lives tangled in baffling ways, about a killer who missed one shot-and by doing so give Jack Reacher one shot at the truth…. 
from Goodreads

Oh Reacher, you wily devil you.  Reacher, ex-military, loner with a taste for justice, is only found when he wants to be.  He heads to the midwest from Florida so that he can make sure that the soldier who escaped punishment in the service gets his just rewards as a mass murdering civilian.  Only Reacher is also being sought for murder and he has to keep moving to stay one step ahead of those who are trying to kill him.

I always enjoy reading about Reacher’s antics and seeing where he’ll end up, since the world is his home.  This is one of the more solid thrillers and a good standalone for non Reacher readers.  I can see why they chose this one to base the first movie on (come back Friday for my comparison of the two).  The cast is good, lots of moving targets and bad guys, solid police work and Reacher only gets one short roll in the hay so it doesn’t take over the story.

I checked this audio out of the library and it is read by Dick Hill, who has read all of Lee Child’s books I’ve listened to, and he has become Reacher for me.  He almost makes me want to listen to them all instead of reading!

I’m curious.  With a show of hands, who has read a Reacher book OR seen the movie?  

The Innocent. Finished 3-10-13, rating 4/5, thriller, 331 pages, pub. 2011

Book 2 of the Vanessa Michael Munroe series (The Informationist)

Eight years ago, a man walked five-year-old Hannah out the front doors of her school and spirited her over the Mexican border, taking her into the world of a cult known as The Chosen. For eight years, followers of The Prophet have hidden the child, moving her from country to country, shielding the man who stole her. Now, those who’ve searched the longest know where to find her. They are childhood survivors of The Chosen, thirty-somethings born and raised inside the cult who’ve managed to make lives for themselves on the outside. They understand the mindset, the culture within that world, and turn to Vanessa Michael Munroe for help, knowing that the only possibility of stealing Hannah back and getting her safely out of Argentina is to trust someone who doesn’t trust them, and get Munroe on the inside.

from Goodreads

In this second Munroe novel, she is just as brutal and lethal, but she is also more damaged and vulnerable, and that made this book better than the first for me.  After some after-Africa downtime, Munroe’s best friend Logan finds her and begs her to help him find the daughter of a very good friend a fellow cult survivor.  Munroe needs to work and she loves Logan so she says yes and they head to Buenos Aires and she prepares to infiltrate The Chosen, a religious cult, and get the girl out.

In my review of the first book I said that I didn’t necessarily like Munroe and certainly wouldn’t want to grab a coffee together, but this book had me liking her more. Munroe has her own history of growing up on the streets and living through torturous experiences and so her task of getting close to The Chosen and the survivors felt right.  And her having Miles Bradford as her wingman for the operation was great since I already knew their history and was hoping for a little more heat.  I was not disappointed.

I thought this one took a little more time to get sucked into, but it was worth it because by halfway through I didn’t want to put it down (and only did so to do laundry!).  If you know about the author’s history then you know this book was close to her heart.  She knows about this culture and is living proof that people do break free and thrive.   Here’s a link to her website that gives you a little of her history.

Munroe is a great series heroine – there need to be more thrillers out there with kick-butt women leading the way.  I do think that this should be read only after reading the first one (The Informationist).  I bought this with my own money when I heard Taylor speak last year.

Blackberry Winter. Finished audio 2-6-14, rating 3.75/5, fiction. pub. 2012

Unabridged audio 10 hours 6 minutes.  Read by Tara Sands

Seattle, 1933. Single mother Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son, Daniel, goodnight and departs to work the night-shift at a local hotel. She emerges to discover that a May-Day snow has blanketed the city, and that her son has vanished. Outside, she finds his beloved teddy bear lying face-down on an icy street, the snow covering up any trace of his tracks, or the perpetrator’s.
Seattle, 2010. Seattle Herald reporter Claire Aldridge, assigned to cover the May 1 “blackberry winter” storm and its twin, learns of the unsolved abduction and vows to unearth the truth. In the process, she finds that she and Vera may be linked in unexpected ways…

from Goodreads

I read The Violets of March a few years ago and loved it, so I was happy to see a quick return visit to our friends on Bainbridge Island in this book.  I still love Jio’s writing, but this one missed the mark of being great read for me.  Still good, still want to read her other books, but this one won’t be making my favorite list.

I like the alternating storylines, and that’s a good thing since everyone seems to be doing it these days, and Jio does it so well.  We start with Vera, a very poor single mom trying to raise her young son during the Depression-era.  She has to work at night and sometimes has to leave Daniel alone in their small apartment above a tavern.  As the story moves along we learn who Daniel’s father is and why he’s not in their lives anymore.  Claire is the modern-day storyline.  She is a reporter who has married into a very wealthy family, but has suffered a loss that is causing the crumbling of her marriage.

As with any alternating storyline plot there are always going to be coincidences that connect the two, you expect it and accept it, but there were just so many in this one, too many for my logical brain to accept.  And I did have a likeability problem with Claire. She was whiny for much of the book and I get that that was the place she was in at the time, but it didn’t make me all that invested in her story.  It was Vera and Daniel’s story that drew me in. I wanted to know what had happened to him!

A note about the audio production, I hated the voices the narrator used for the men.  She was fine otherwise, but the men in the story suffered.  I checked the audio out of the library.

I liked this one, didn’t love it, and can’t wait to read more from Jio.

Inferno. Finished 1-29-13, rating 4.25/5,  thriller, 462 pages, pub. 2013

Robert Langdon #4

In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces . . . Dante’s Inferno.

Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust . . . before the world is irrevocably altered.

from Goodreads

I read the reviews when this came out that it was just another recycled Dan Brown book, so I put it on the backburner, and picked it up at the library last week with low  expectations.  I’ll be honest and say I do think this does follow a formula, but for me it’s a formula that works.  As for it being recycled I disagree.  The bad guy in this one is more complex than some of his others (especially the tattooed Lost Symbol guy) and I loved that this book tackled a very real issue of today, overpopulation.  And our dear professor was not to be relied on since he was suffering from amnesia, which I personally found lame.

This book took us back to Italy, Florence and Venice, and I was happy to revisit both of these beautiful cities.  I did think that Brown used way too much description and I wanted to read about the cities I love, unfortunately, I did find myself skimming some paragraphs when Langdon was escaping capture in Florence.  Which leads right into the biggest issue, for me.  The book needed some editing.  If I had to read (and each time more dramatic than the last) how the woman in charge of WHO was a broken soulless woman because she couldn’t have children one more time I was sure I would start swearing (ok, maybe the fifth time I did).  The book needed to be tighter, especially for the thriller it was intended to be.

“Zobrist asked the following: If you could throw a switch and randomly kill half the population on earth, would you do it?”

“Of course not.”

“Okay. But what if you were told that if you didn’t throw that switch right now, the human race would be extinct in the next hundred years?” She paused.:  “Would you throw it then?  Even if it meant you might murder friends, family, and possibly even yourself?”

(page 218)

I thought that by tackling the overpopulation issue Brown moved from the past to the future well.  Frankly, it was scary.  I haven’t read Dante’s Inferno and I must remedy that soon now that I’ve had a primer, but even so I’m sure it was a stretch to connect the two.  But that didn’t stop me from enjoying the ride.

I think this is better than the last one but not back on par with the first two Langdon books.  What did you think?

A Hundred Summers. Finished 1-7-14, rating 4/5, historical romantic fiction, 357 pages, pub. 2013

Memorial Day, 1938: New York socialite Lily Dane has just returned with her family to the idyllic oceanfront community of Seaview, Rhode Island, expecting another placid summer season among the familiar traditions and friendships that sustained her after heartbreak.

 That is, until Greenwalds decide to take up residence in Seaview.

from Goodreads

I fell in love with this story right away. The time period, Lily, the complicated friendships, Nick,  the mystery of how it all unraveled.  I was hooked.  I love reading about people who used to take whole summers off somewhere outside the city.  The rich and the idle are such interesting creatures and its fascinating to see how they spend their days.  Only in books though I find the rich and the idle in real life pretty boring.

The love story of Nick & Lily was beautifully written.  Nick was Jewish and while the world pre-WWII might have cared, Lily didn’t.  Lily saw him and fell hard and we find out that Nick fell hard too. I couldn’t understand what could break them apart and then when I did find out I was a little disappointed because it seemed small in comparison to how they felt.   But just like in real life, often misunderstandings or harsh words can cause more damage than they should.

I devoured this book faster than I expected (often books on my Nook only get read a few nights a week in bed) but it did fall apart for me toward the end. The soap opera like quality became too melodramatic for me and while I liked the end, it might have been nice to have more understanding of the characters than excitement over the weather.  I wanted a bit more from Budgie and Lily’s mom.

I loved most of this one but it ended up just a little less than that for me, but I consider myself a new fan and am really looking forward to her first book, Overseas.  It seems most bloggers who read both liked Overseas better.  I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to any romance lover.  Williams knows how to deliver romance for sure!

Question- If you got to spend every summer somewhere else where would you choose?  I’ll reveal my answer in the comments 🙂

Looking for Alaska. Finished audio 12-23-13, rating 4.25, YA, pub. 2005

Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter’s whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the “Great Perhaps” (François Rabelais, poet) even more. Then he heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

After. Nothing is ever the same.

I’d heard all of the hype surrounding John Green almost since I started blogging almost 6 years ago, but this was my first experience with him.  For the first half of the book I was entertained but a little confused about all the fuss, but then when the big event happened it made the book deeper and more poignant.  Lots of great discussion for teens and parents.  This is a great book for a young adult (15 or 16 and older?) and I have found a new YA author to check out and gift 🙂 

I checked the cds out of the library and was actually listening to it when I got into my car accident.  After some consideration I have decided not to hold this against the book or author.  Highly recommended.

The Gazebo. Finished 12-12-13, rating 4.25/5, romance, 275 pages, pub. 1999

Smalltown reporter Abby Reston is hungry for a good story when elderly, but still hale and handsome, Martin Rayfiel walks into her office. Martin tells the young newspaperwoman of his lifelong romance with Claire Swift, and how they have faithfully reunited once every year at the gazebo in the town square. When Abby goes to the gazebo to witness the annual meeting, she finds a briefcase filled with photographs, letters, tape recordings, and mementos. It is a poignant and haunting chronicle of love and devotion that will profoundly affect the life of Abby Reston and touch the heart of everyone who experiences it.

from Goodreads

Even though it didn’t have a Christmas theme it was a nice, easy story to help with December stress.  Martin and Claire were never meant to meet really, but a black eye turns into a chance meeting at the town gazebo and then an invitation home.  Martin is the son of the richest man in town and Claire’s family owns a humble landscaping business.  They must meet in secret, but eventually Martin goes off to college and their promise of meeting every year at ‘their’ gazebo is made and kept until it was no longer possible.  It is a bittersweet romance that extends to Europe and back.

I did have some problems with the story near the end but still really enjoyed it.  Recommended for romance lovers.

I read The Fountain by Grayson a few years ago and liked the easygoing writing style enough that I kept my eyes out for her books.  I thought this one was better than the first and as far as I can tell she’s only written five books but I hope to find them all.