Missing You. Finished 8-1-14, rating 4/5, thriller, pub. 2014

Unabridged audio read by January Lavoy. 11 hours, 54 minutes

It’s a profile, like all the others on the online dating site. But as NYPD Detective Kat Donovan focuses on the accompanying picture, she feels her whole world explode, as emotions she’s ignored for decades come crashing down on her. Staring back at her is her ex-fiancé Jeff, the man who shattered her heart—and who she hasn’t seen in 18 years.

Kat feels a spark, wondering if this might be the moment when past tragedies recede and a new world opens up to her. But when she reaches out to the man in the profile, her reawakened hope quickly darkens into suspicion and then terror as an unspeakable conspiracy comes to light, in which monsters prey upon the most vulnerable. 

As the body count mounts and Kat’s hope for a second chance with Jeff grows more and more elusive, she is consumed by an investigation that challenges her feelings about everyone she ever loved—her former fiancé, her mother, and even her father, whose cruel murder so long ago has never been fully explained. With lives on the line, including her own, Kat must venture deeper into the darkness than she ever has before, and discover if she has the strength to survive what she finds there.

from Goodreads

I can count on Harlan Coben for solid thrillers, sometimes even stellar.  He always seems to have the latest cultural fad at the ready for his standalone books.  In this one it starts with online dating but goes much more up-to-date than that (I don’t want to spoil anything) and the results are very good.

I loved Kat as a heroine, what made her great as a detective also make her care about Brandon, who was concerned about his missing mother.  Everyone else had blown him off but Kat was willing to dig in and she already had a lot (too much?) on her plate since she was investigating her father’s death years before.  There were many storylines, but Kat was able to handle them and I liked her.

With that being said, I finished this a month ago and as I sat down to write this review I couldn’t remember a thing about it.  That says  a lot right? And not just that my memory isn’t what it should be!  After reading a few reviews I remembered but I admit that I expect more than that from Coben. I  can say with all honesty that I don’t think you can go wrong with any of his thrillers, but some are better than others.  This might not be one of the stellar ones (much like this review) but it was completely satisfying.

My mom bought this one and loaned it to me.

B is for Burglar.  Finished 7-21-14, rating 4/5, mystery, 209 pages, pub. 1985

Although business has been slow lately for P.I. Kinsey Millhone, she’s reluctant to take on the case of locating Beverly Danziger’s sister Elaine Boldt. It’s a small matter that Beverly should be able to handle herself. So why is she enlisting Kinsey’s services? Beverly claims she needs Elaine’s signature on some documents so that she can collect a small inheritance. But the whole affair doesn’t sit well with Kinsey. And if there’s something she’s learned in her line of work, it’s to always follow your instincts…

Kinsey’s hunch proves true when she begins her inquiries into Elaine’s whereabouts and discovers that the attractive widow was last seen in a flashy lynx coat boarding a plane for Boca Raton. But the more Kinsey searches for Elaine the more questions she encounters. Is Elaine’s disappearance tied in to the brutal murder several months ago of one of her bridge partners? And what happened to Elaine’s Persian cat who seems to have also vanished?

from Goodreads

 Second in the Kinsey Millhone series. (Book 1)

I need more of these short, satisfying books. With time as limited as it is these are perfect in size and scope (short and not too deep) and I really liked Kinsey in the debut novel and knew I’d continue on with her eventually.  I felt like I got to know the private detective more in the first mystery (feisty, relationship wary) so I’m glad I read it, but I think I liked this mystery better.  There were so many potential avenues and suspects to pursue that I found it hard to put this novel down.

I know I am way late to this series, I think she’s on W now, but I like the comfort of knowing I’m going to get a great mystery with a great woman heroine in as few pages as possible 😉  I’m not going to be reading these back to back, but I will be picking them up often!

What about you? Are you reading or have you read this series?  How well does it age?

I picked one up at a book sale and also picked up the next in the series.

That Night. Finished 7-22-14, rating 4.25, fiction, 384 pages, pub. 2014

As a teenager, Toni Murphy had a life full of typical adolescent complications: a boyfriend she adored, a younger sister she couldn’t relate to, a strained relationship with her parents, and classmates who seemed hell-bent on making her life miserable. Things weren’t easy, but Toni could never have predicted how horrific they would become until her younger sister was brutally murdered one summer night. 

Toni and her boyfriend, Ryan, were convicted of the murder and sent to prison.  Now thirty-four, Toni is out on parole and back in her hometown, struggling to adjust to a new life on the outside.

from Goodreads

It’s hard to put my thoughts on this one in a cohesive review.  If I hadn’t agreed to read this for She Reads (who has chosen some of my favorite books of the year), it would probably still be sitting on my nightstand with a bookmark that moved forward ten pages a week.  For me, it was the tale of two books.  The first half was so slow and, well, slow.  Toni seemed like your typical angst, chip-on-her shoulder teen who fell prey to the bitchy girls of high school.  She had the perfect relationship with her boyfriend, a most imperfect one with her clueless parents and she and her sister were never close.  I. Was. Bored.  I powered through because of She Reads and also because I remember reading another blogger say that it took a long while for the story to pick up.  And I am so glad that I continued reading because pick up it did and the second half of the book had me reading late into last night when I closed the book with a satisfied sigh.

Since Toni was our narrator, it was easy to see that most conflict was skewed in her favor, and there was a lot of conflict. I viewed her as someone who wanted everyone to think she was tough and because of that she attracted trouble wherever she was – high school, prison, halfway house, going back home when no one really wanted her there.  I had sympathy for her but I also was hoping that she could somehow rise above it all.  You’ll have to read it and make up your own mind on whether that happens or not.

I thought the book really highlighted the problems of our prison and rehabilitation system here in the States.  Here was a girl who was innocent, sent to prison, and then expected to learn how to live in a world hostile and distrustful of her.  Maddening and saddening at the same time.

If you are willing to get past a slow beginning you will be in for a great thriller that will have you turning pages as quickly and as long as possible.  Like me, you might even give up some sleep for it.

I received this book from She Reads.  Go on over and see what other bloggers think about this one.   There’s still time to enter for a free copy here.  

A Discovery of Witches. Finished 6-28-14, rating 3.75/5, fantasy, pub.2011

Unabridged audio narrated by Jennifer Ikeda.  24 hours.

First in a trilogy

Deep in the stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

from Goodreads

I am not a vampire or witch lover.  I occasionally get intrigued by the hype and check out a book with these characters (Twilight) but haven’t really fallen in love with any.  I’m not sure what made me pick this big book up at the library sale (value by page count?) but I did and I also checked out the Playaway so most of my reading of this one was really listening.  It was good.  I might listen to the next one if it’s the same narrator because I liked her performance.

Some things I liked

• the concept of a lost book containing the origins of creatures (witches, vampires, daemons)
• the easy relationship between Diana and Matthew
• when Diana was trying to figure out what to make a vampire for a romantic dinner – totally made me giggle
• the setting of Oxford and France
• all of the well-known historical people who Matthew had known in his 1.500 years of existence
• Diana. I really liked Diana and her aunts

A few things I didn’t care for

• the story really slowed once in Wisconsin at the Bishop house
• too much dialogue and the addition of so many characters in the last third of the book made it peter out for me a bit at the end

I am really curious about the time-walking coming up for Diana and Matthew and I would like to know what happens.  Harkness has made a fun world and I would like to see how it all pans out.

I’ve heard not so great things about the second one, but maybe she redeems the trilogy with the third?  Anyone read them?

The Catch. Finished 7-8-14, rating 4/5, thriller, 368 pages, pub. 2014

Book 4 of the Vanessa Michael Monroe series  (1-Informationist) (2- The Innocent) (3- The Doll) (3.5- TheVessel)

In the wake of going head-to-head with international sex traffickers inThe Doll, Munroe has retreated to Djibouti, where, while passing as a man, she finds work as an interpreter for a small, private, maritime security company. Pressed into duty at sea by her boss, Leo, Munroe discovers she is part of a gunrunning operation and she wants no part in protecting the crew or cargo. When the ship is attacked by pirates off the Somali coast, Munroe escapes and takes the unconscious captain with her to get answers. Leo’s wife, Amber Marie, the only person Munroe has cared about since she arrived in Africa, is desperate when Leo goes missing along with the rest of the hijacked crew, so Munroe agrees to try to find him for Amber Marie’s sake. She soon realizes it’s not the cargo or the ship or the crew that the hijackers were after: they want the captain. On the run, wounded, without connections or resources, and with the life of the captain as bait and bartering chip, Munroe believes that the only way to save Leo, assuming he’s still alive, is to hijack the ship back.

from Goodreads

You can enter to win a copy on Goodreads but you have to hurry, winners are chosen tomorrow. Enter to win here.

Michael heads back to Africa in this fourth novel of the series and I liked that it felt almost like a return to the first book in setting and action.  She is just as damaged, even more so, and just as strong and lethal.  She also felt more lonely.  There was no interaction with Logan or Bradford, save for a few emails and they offered a glimpse of a future that could bring happiness for Michael.  And that’s one of the things I like so much about this character.  You never truly know what she’s going to do.  She may choose to stay away or she may choose happiness for a time, but there is always that restlessness that makes her unpredictable.

She was licking her mental and emotional wounds from her last job and loss and time at a small security company seemed like a good fit.  When a job goes bad and she comes as close to death as she ever has the story comes to life as it always does when Michael stalks her prey.  As I say in every review, she is a badass.  The hijacked ship made it seem like a very current story.  I loved the descriptions of the places and people of Africa and the blend of the setting action was perfect.  I admit I was a little confused about Michael’s motive in this one, it was more nuanced than in her previous books so that’s probably why.  I’m not nearly as smart as she is 🙂

This is a great thriller series with fresh characters, intriguing locales, and lots of action.

This was sent to me by the author.  Thank you, Taylor, for always appreciating your fans!