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Showing posts from 2016

Book Review: The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia

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The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia is about two women from Madison who are completely different from one another and are on an airplane bound for Denver, Colorado. Jasmine is a waitress and is escaping an abusive relationship. Stephanie is a news director for a local news station headed to a news conference. Friends and family of both women receive texts that they've met a man named Trent. Then, both women disappear. Panic starts to set in with loved ones. Who is Trent, and what has he done to them? I'd like to thank NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) that they sent to me for free in exchange for my honest review. The synopsis of The Business Trip intrigued me, and I was excited to dive into the book. The story hooked me from the very beginning. I was rooting for Jasmine to escape her boyfriend and live happily ever after. I was also rooting for Stephanie to find the happiness she was looking for. Then, the book took a very disturbing turn, and I ended up loathing J...
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Book Review: Desperation by Stephen King

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Have you ever found a book so depressing that it took you over four years to read?  Desperation by Stephen King was that book for me. Don't get me wrong . . . it was very well written but depressing beyond on belief, so I kept putting it aside to read other novels.  At one point, I was making so much progress that I really wanted to finish it despite it being so depressing, so I kept pushing through. Then, the nightmares began . . . every night for a week. I guess having multiple nightmares attests to how well written it is. As a side note, I've been a huge fan of horror movies since elementary school. Poltergeist , Halloween , and Nightmare on Elm Street were popular choices for me, and not one time did I ever have a nightmare.  I'm not sure I can say there any redeeming qualities about the plot . . . a few lessons learned and a semi happy ending, but that's about it. King wrote a sequel, The Regulators , under his pen name Richard Bachman, but if it is as...
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Book Review: 11/22/63 by Stephen King

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Who hasn't thought about time travel . . . of going back into time or into the future. With so many books, and movies, on this subject matter, you'd think the subject of time travel would be overdone and predictable. But, Stephen King is anything but predictable and hit the nail on the head with his novel 11/22/63 . Does the date sound familiar to you? It should, but if you've lived under a rock the past fifty plus years, I'll go ahead and refresh your memory. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on this particular date in history leaving much of America in bewilderment and shock. In 1971, Stephen King wanted to explore a concept for a novel where a character went back into time to stop the assassination of JFK and the aftermath. However, he felt like he didn't have the time to properly research the subject matter and that it was too close to the actual event to do it justice, so he put it on the back burner. All I can say is that I am extremely ha...
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Location: United States
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Book Review: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

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It seems as though  The Girl on the Train  by Paula Hawkins was the smash hit in 2015. Everywhere I turned, someone was recommending it, and several book lists recommended it to those who enjoyed  Gone Girl  by Gillian Flynn. Much of  The Girl on the Train  takes place on a commuter train that goes into London and where we meet one of the main characters, Rachel, who is an unemployed, drunken mess who is concealing she is unemployed from her flatmate. While taking the train into London every day, Rachel passes her old townhouse, where her ex-husband, his wife, and their baby still live. A few doors down from Rachel's ex-husband reside a married couple, who are relatively new to the neighborhood. Rachel distracts herself on the train ride by making up stories of the seemingly happy couple, but when the wife of the happy couple Megan goes missing, Rachel is sure she has some clues to what may have happened but isn't taken seriously by the police. ...
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Location: London, UK
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Book Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1) by Ransom Riggs

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I am the type of person who will put down a book if it doesn't grab my attention within the first five pages or so, even when it comes to adult novels. The reason for this is that I just don't want to waste my time, or money, on something that isn't any good. And, yes, I'm one of those that has to own their copy. I've just now started borrowing books from the library, especially when it is a book that I am unsure of. The young adult novel  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children  by Ransom Riggs is a novel that I put off buying and reading for the longest time just because I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. I tried reading the first couple of pages while I was at my local Barnes and Noble store, and it just didn't grab my attention, even though the synopsis sounded intriguing. So, I saw that my local library branch had the electronic book version and electronic audio version available for downloading on my tablet.  (I have three diffe...
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Location: Wales, UK
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Book Review: The Spellman Files (The Spellmans, #1) by Lisa Lutz

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After joining the Goodreads.com website to keep track of what books I was reading and which ones I wanted to read, I discovered their giveaways section where members of the site can win free books from publishers. I entered numerous giveaways hoping I'd win just one book and didn't think of much more of it. Then, during one of my many trips to Barnes & Noble, I was looking at the books on the bargain bin shelves hoping to discover my next favorite author. Because who has just one favorite author, right? While browsing, I picked up  The Spellman Files  by Lisa Lutz.  The main character was described as part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry. I decided to buy the book since it was on sale for $4.98. I promptly went home, put the book on one of my book shelves, and promptly forgot about it. Approximately a month or two later, I received an email from Goodreads.com letting me know that I had won  Curse of the Spellmans  by Lisa Lutz, which was the sequel to...
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Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
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Book Review: Suspicion by Joseph Finder

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Joseph Finder's  Suspicion  is a fast paced thriller based in Boston, Massachusetts where a struggling author's life seems to be falling apart. Danny's ex-wife has passed away, and his daughter's private school tuition is past due. No thanks to a fellow parent's generosity of loaning him a large sum of money via a wire transfer, the DEA takes a sudden interest in Danny. Holy plot twists, Batman!  Suspicion  had one plot twist after another that made it hard to put down. However, some of them were a bit predictable, but it really didn't detract from the story line or the writing. The only real flaw I saw with the book is that it is doubtful a person would accept a personal loan from another person they've never met before . . . even if it was the father of their child's best friend. It would make more sense if there was some sort of scholarship fund that was available, but then, Finder wouldn't have had that connection he needed between Dann...
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Location: Boston, MA, USA
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