Pretty Little Liars (Pretty Little Liars # 1) by Sara Shepard

Publisher: HarperCollins
Publish Date: October 1, 2006
Format: Download Library
Pages: -
ISBN: -

Three Years ago, Alison disappeared after a slumber party, not to be seen since.  Her friends at the elite Pennsylvania school mourned her, but they also breathed secret sighs of relief.  Each of them guarded a secret that only Alison had known.  Now they have other dirty little secrets, secrets that could sink them in their gossip-hungry world.  When each of them begins receiving anonymous emails and text messages, panic sets in.  Are they being betrayed by someone in their circle?  Worse yet: Is Alison back?

My Thoughts:

I have to be honest - I love Young Adult novels.  Something about the writing, its quick and witty and just gets me hooked...I have a feeling this series will become a guilty pleasure of mine (I already have the second book in the series on hold at the library.)  I have to admit that I have watched the adapted TV series of the same name,  I believe they are season 5 (I own the first 3) and I absolutely love it!  The concept is similar to another guilty pleasure of mine Gossip Girl - although I have only ever watched the TV series, the books are on my to-read list.  I'm not sure which series of books came first, but I feel like they will be equal as fantastic.  I love the way the author alternates each chapter to be told from each girls perspective and always ends the chapter with a bit of a cliff hanger.

Although I am far from being a teen girl I found this book very enjoyable, a light fun and easy read.  I found the TV series stuck true to the first book and find them very similar which I love.  I hate when a TV show/movie changes the book drastically.

Over all I really enjoyed the first book in the series and will defiantly be reading many more in the series.  Oh and the ending is killer, love a good cliff hanger in a series!

  

My Rating: ««««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

Destined to Feel (Avalon Trilogy # 2) by Indigo Bloome

Publisher: HarperCollins
Publish Date: February 2013 
Pages: -
Format: Kobo
ISBN: 978-0062243591

Life was going well for psychologist Alexandra Blake.

Her career has taken off and she has been exploring her darkest sexual fantasies with her lover Jeremy Quinn.  But her bliss is rudely interrupted when she is abducted in London, caught up in a dangerous struggle between unscrupulous corporations.

Her captors want her to help them with their sexual experiments – pushing the boundaries of convention in the search for a drug to stimulate the female libido.  Bust at what cost?

How far will Alexandra be willing to go to satisfy her curiosity, both professional and personal?

What will she have to do to escape, and – more importantly – does she want to? 

My Thoughts

All I want to do is scream over and over at the main character, Alexandra, "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!?"  And then continue to yell at the other character, Jeremy, " YOU ARE AN IDIOT!"  And then I continue to keep reading.  Why?  Because my curiosity always gets the better for me.  I have this need to know what happens in the end.

Through out the entire novel the author continues to make movie and historical references....comparing her "situation" to the movie Taken and events that happened during WWII and comparing herself to Anne Frank. WTF?  That had NOTHING to do with to story line, which may I add is still just as bizarre as the first book in the series.  There seems to be a few different genres happening through, I would hardy classify this entire novel as Erotica   There is some drama mixed in with mystery and the whole story line seems to be based around thriller.  A little all over the place for me, and this time the story told from both the perspectives of Alexandra and Jeremy alternating.

Another cliff hanger ending...damn it!! 

My Rating: ««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

Son of Rosemary by Ira Levin

Publisher: Dutton Books
Publish Date: September 1, 1997
Pages: 272
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0525943747

Son of Rosemary opens at the dawn of the new millennium – a time when human hope is shadowed by growing fear and uncertainty, and the world is in greatest need of a saviour.  It is here – against a glittering backdrop of New York City in 1999 – that Rosemary is reunited with her son.  It is also here that the battle between good and evil will play out on a global scale – a struggle that will have frightening, far-reaching consequences, not only for Rosemary and her son but for all humanity. 

My Thoughts

Well this book wasn't near what Rosemary's Baby was, so much that I didn't finish it.  I tried, I really really did!  I struggled for weeks and only got 80 pages read before I finally gave up and returned it to the library.  After, I read some reviews about it because I was still interested in the outcome.  Goodreads reviewer didn't have anything good to say about it and a number of people seemed angry about the ending of this sequel because it ruined the first book.  Now I wish I had read the last 5 pages (as suggested by numerous reviewer) before I had returned it, as that seems to be where it all unraveled.  Since I didn't finish this book I can not give it an honest review.

My Rating: 0 Stars (Did Not Finish)

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

Destined to Play (Avalon Trilogy # 1) by Indigo Bloome

Published: HarperCollins
Date Published: July 2012
Pages: - 
Format: Kobo
ISBN: 978-0062243461

It’s simple.  No sight.  No questions.  48 hours.

Dr. Alexandra Blake is about to give a series of prestigious lectures, but the butterflies in her stomach are for a far more exciting reason…

After the lecture she is meeting with Jeremy Quinn, esteemed doctor and dangerous ex-lover – the only person with whom she has ever let her guard down completely.  After a few glasses of champagne in his luxurious penthouse suite, Jeremy presents her with an intriguing offer: stay with him for the next forty-eight hours and accept two extraordinary conditions, the first of which leaves her utterly at his mercy, and he will give her an experience more sensual and extreme than any game that have ever played before. 

My Thoughts

I have read a ton of novels of this genre but I have to say this one of the more bizarre plots I have ever read.  To me, this isn't your typical erotica "love story."  I never like giving away plots so I won't say too much about it, but it was left me down right dumbfounded.  The author did an excellent job describing every detain the main character Alexandra felt, since she had no sight to rely on.  It is hard to to decide which character I dislike to most - Alexandra or Jeremy, there is a lot of deceitfulness and selfish acts that take place.  I thoroughly enjoyed the flashbacks throughout the novel, it kept the "spice" alive. 

The cliffhanger at the end intrigued me enough to want to read the next book in the series.  It astounds me the creativity that writers can dream up.  All in all it was an easy read, the writing style was good for a first time author.

My Rating: «««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

The Shack by Wm Paul Young

Publisher: Windblown Media
Publish Date: June 2008
Pages: -
Format: Kobo
ISBN: 978- 0964729292

Mackenzie Allen Phillips’ youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness.  Four years later in the midst of his “Great Sadness,” Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to the shack for a weekend.

Against his better judgement he arrives at the shack on a wintery afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare.  What he finds there will change Mack’s world forever.

My Thoughts

This was a very challenging book to read, so much that I read half in May and the other half today.  You have to break it into two stories: the actual novel and the theological.

I had a tough time rating this one; first it was a 4, then a 2 then settled on 3.  There were parts that I really liked, parts that were ok and some parts left me thinking wtf? (Can I say that about a spiritual novel?)  I've been very back and forth about my feelings towards this book.  In my opinion it was not a well written novel, and seemed to be a little over the place and in a sense just sloppy.  I had very high hopes for this one and it fell a bit short.

The other aspect that I didn't like, and again this is just my personal opinion and preference, is I like closure at the end.  I'm not one of these people likes a storyline left "open for interpretation."  I prefer to have a  "pull me in" beginning, climactical middle and a drawing conclusion and delivered to me on beautiful crisp pages (or in this case neatly on my ereader.)  I'm not one to sit and have discussions on what I think happened in the end...although this is what I'm finding myself doing with a colleague.  I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it.  

My Rating: «««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group

Publish Date: June 2012

Pages: - 

Format: Kobo

ISBN: 978-0307588388

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary.  Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River.  Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favours with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge.  Under mounting pressure from the police and the media – as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents – the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behaviour.  Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter – but is he really a killer?

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love.  With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence.  Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is the beautiful wife?  And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back bedroom closet?

My Thoughts

What can I say other than wow!! I don't think I've ever encountered a novel with such brilliantly written characters that you love to hate and hate that you love them.  I'm pretty sure throughout the entire book I changed my theory of the outcome 10 times...it was literally one of those novels that "kept you guessing until the very last page."  Gillian Flynn dished out just enough info to keep you strung alone and then you have the outcome figured out and the BAM! It really is a gripping story that I couldn't put down (many hours of sleep were sacrificed) I just loved the twistedness of the whole thing.    

The only downfall, I want more!  I haven't fell in love with a character (Amy) like this is such a long time and I just want their story to continue.  This truly is a novel that will be stuck in my head for a long time.  Rumor has it that it's becoming a movie, I hope it does the book justice!

My Rating: «««««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

Publisher: Random House

Publish Date: 1967

Pages: 245

Format: Hardcover (2003 Stephen King Edition)

ISBN: 978-0965723176

Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling actor husband Guy move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and mostly elderly residents.  Neighbours Roman and Minnie Castavet soon come nosing around to welcome the Woodhouses to the building, and despite Rosemary’s reservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that she keeps hearing, her husband takes a special shine to them.  Shortly after Guy lands a plum Broadway role, Rosemary becomes pregnant, and the Castavets start taking a special interest in her welfare.  As the sickened Rosemary becomes increasingly isolated, she begins to suspect that the Castavet’s circle is not what it seems. 

My Thoughts

First things first, this was my first classic horror novel and I wasn't going to review it but I can't get it out of my head!  There are so many things about this book that are still lingering with me and it's been a week since I finished it.  So much that I had to go out and pick up the sequel, Son of Rosemary.

The story line does develop somewhat slowly, but Levins'  masterful writing style develops characters that keep your attention and you want to keep reading.  Instead of building a huge amount of suspense it slowly unfolds into a deliciously creepy and a great fast read.  Although I never found the novel to be scary it has a very dark plot.  No spoilers...read it for yourself.  If you don't want to read it, watch the movie.

My Rating: ««««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.