Summary:
The third tie-in book to the hit TV series, Castle. Nikki Heat is faced with the murder of a priest. He was killed in an S&M club. And her squad captain might be involved. Rook, her journalist boyfriend, is on assignment, deeply undercover, and completely radio silent. Or at least she thought he was, until he shows up on Page Six with his sexy agent coming out of a swanky restaurant. As an added bonus, Rook's ex writes a tell-all piece about what's going down within the precinct using Rook's notes on the case. And to top it off, Nikki is up for a promotion to Lieutenant, but instead gets slapped in the face instead. How will she clear the case, and her good name?
Thoughts:
Once again, the book reads like an episode of the show. It feels like reading what the character Richard Castle would actually write, were he a real writer. The true author of the books is still unknown, and honestly, I don't think I want to know. The books have allusions to former projects the actors from the show were involved in. (Firefly and Quantum of Solace, to name a few.) It's a fun look into the mind of a fictional character of one of my favorite shows. But the books are now feeling like they could be good, stand-alone books, independent from the show they're spun from.
Book 38 of 40
Pages: 301
Genre: mystery, romance
Grade: A-
Would I Recommend?: Yes, most especially if you watch the show Castle on ABC.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Alfred Kropp: The Seal of Solomon (Rick Yancey)
Summary:
Alfred Kropp is a teenaged boy with no mom, living in the foster system. His father was the descendant of Lancelot of the round table. In the previous book, Alfred died and was brought back to life. Now he's got to help get the Seals of Solomon so the world doesn't get overrun by a bunch of demons. The trouble is, he's seen what the Seal does, and what demons can do to a person. He's told to never look into their eyes... So what does he do? Yep. He looked. Now he's got to deal with his worst fears while he fights to save the world. Again.
Thoughts:
A good book. The first was really cool, delving into the mythos behind the Knights of the Round Table. In this one, Kropp finds out that there are, in fact, such things as demons, and not just the mistakes that come back to haunt you later. Kropp has to deal with his inner demons as well as the physical ones, and find a way to best the demons that can't be bested. It's an interesting take on "the end of the world." It's good enough to keep you wondering how Kropp's going to make it through, but light enough that you can put it down for a week, then pick it back up and still remember what had been happening. Not bad for teen lit.
Book 37 of 40
Pages: 327
Genre: Fantasy, teen lit
Grade: B
Would I Recommend?: Eh. You've got to read the first one before this, and this is very definitely a fantasy book.
Alfred Kropp is a teenaged boy with no mom, living in the foster system. His father was the descendant of Lancelot of the round table. In the previous book, Alfred died and was brought back to life. Now he's got to help get the Seals of Solomon so the world doesn't get overrun by a bunch of demons. The trouble is, he's seen what the Seal does, and what demons can do to a person. He's told to never look into their eyes... So what does he do? Yep. He looked. Now he's got to deal with his worst fears while he fights to save the world. Again.
Thoughts:
A good book. The first was really cool, delving into the mythos behind the Knights of the Round Table. In this one, Kropp finds out that there are, in fact, such things as demons, and not just the mistakes that come back to haunt you later. Kropp has to deal with his inner demons as well as the physical ones, and find a way to best the demons that can't be bested. It's an interesting take on "the end of the world." It's good enough to keep you wondering how Kropp's going to make it through, but light enough that you can put it down for a week, then pick it back up and still remember what had been happening. Not bad for teen lit.
Book 37 of 40
Pages: 327
Genre: Fantasy, teen lit
Grade: B
Would I Recommend?: Eh. You've got to read the first one before this, and this is very definitely a fantasy book.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Murder of a Real Bad Boy (Denise Swanson)
Summary:
Skye's gone and broken up with Simon (yeeeeeeeees!) and is trying to figure out how she wants life to continue from now on. Oh, and she's now an heiress with a house in serious need for TLC. That's where Beau the contractor comes in... and then gets murdered. Skye spends the book trying to decide what and who she wants out of Life, while trying to figure out who killed her contractor. Also, her brother has a secret, so her mother forces her to be nosy and find out what's up. Scumble River is turning into a regular soap opera town!
Thoughts:
Another nice step along the Skye Denison path. The fact that Simon is mostly out of the picture for Skye thrills me, which is no surprise to anyone who's ever read one of my reviews about this series. The plot is fairly well laid out, and I didn't figure out the murderer until late in the game, which is a plus. An added bonus was that Swanson got right down to the murder in this installment, whereas the previous few books have taken a while to get to the murder mystery part. (Swanson has relied on more mystery than murder in previous installments, which annoyed me. Who picks up a murder mystery, fully expecting murder, only to get to the murder 100 pages into the 250 page book? The early death of Beau pleased me, as awful as that sounds!)
Book 36 of 40
Pages: 252
Genre: Mystery, romance
Grade: B+
Would I Recommend?: Yup! Swanson does a good job of bringing a new reader up to speed with Skye's previous adventures while still keeping the loyal readers happy. While I always recommend picking up from the beginning, most of Swanson's work is okay to jump into somewhere in the middle.
Skye's gone and broken up with Simon (yeeeeeeeees!) and is trying to figure out how she wants life to continue from now on. Oh, and she's now an heiress with a house in serious need for TLC. That's where Beau the contractor comes in... and then gets murdered. Skye spends the book trying to decide what and who she wants out of Life, while trying to figure out who killed her contractor. Also, her brother has a secret, so her mother forces her to be nosy and find out what's up. Scumble River is turning into a regular soap opera town!
Thoughts:
Another nice step along the Skye Denison path. The fact that Simon is mostly out of the picture for Skye thrills me, which is no surprise to anyone who's ever read one of my reviews about this series. The plot is fairly well laid out, and I didn't figure out the murderer until late in the game, which is a plus. An added bonus was that Swanson got right down to the murder in this installment, whereas the previous few books have taken a while to get to the murder mystery part. (Swanson has relied on more mystery than murder in previous installments, which annoyed me. Who picks up a murder mystery, fully expecting murder, only to get to the murder 100 pages into the 250 page book? The early death of Beau pleased me, as awful as that sounds!)
Book 36 of 40
Pages: 252
Genre: Mystery, romance
Grade: B+
Would I Recommend?: Yup! Swanson does a good job of bringing a new reader up to speed with Skye's previous adventures while still keeping the loyal readers happy. While I always recommend picking up from the beginning, most of Swanson's work is okay to jump into somewhere in the middle.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Murder of a Smart Cookie (Denise Swanson)
Summary:
Our friend, Skye, gets her fourth summer job of the summer (after having lost the previous three) as the director of the Route 66 100-Mile Yard Sale, or at least the Scumble River portion. She works for Scumble River's new mayor, her Uncle Dante. Dante's a crazy jerk with a penchant for screaming at the top of his lungs at everyone. One of Skye's ex-bosses, Cookie, winds up dead, and Dante thunders at Skye that she had better figure out who killed Cookie before it ruins the yard sale. There are TV cameras in town, following the star of an "Antiques Roadshow" wannabe show as the bitchy woman wreaks havoc with the sellers along the yard sale route. Plus, Simon, Skye's boyfriend, is out in California while she's dealing with all the crazy, her parents and her best friend and her husband are dealing with couple-y issues that Skye wants to help fix, and one of her favorite students goes missing. Just another calm week in Scumble River!
Thoughts:
I like the separation thing for Skye and Simon. It gets him out of the picture for a while, and lets Skye be Skye. Of course, that means that Skye gets into a little more trouble than usual, but she has Wally the police chief to help her out of her scrapes. They need to just get together already! But I digress. (As usual.) The book was a good one, though I did know exactly who did it about halfway through the book, and was not at all surprised by the reveal. But it was fun and quick, and during the holiday season, that's kind of what a girl needs, isn't it?
Book 35 of 40
(I don't think I'm going to make it to 50 this year. What a year!)
Pages: 260
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B-
Would I Recommend?: For a light read, yup! Enjoy!
Our friend, Skye, gets her fourth summer job of the summer (after having lost the previous three) as the director of the Route 66 100-Mile Yard Sale, or at least the Scumble River portion. She works for Scumble River's new mayor, her Uncle Dante. Dante's a crazy jerk with a penchant for screaming at the top of his lungs at everyone. One of Skye's ex-bosses, Cookie, winds up dead, and Dante thunders at Skye that she had better figure out who killed Cookie before it ruins the yard sale. There are TV cameras in town, following the star of an "Antiques Roadshow" wannabe show as the bitchy woman wreaks havoc with the sellers along the yard sale route. Plus, Simon, Skye's boyfriend, is out in California while she's dealing with all the crazy, her parents and her best friend and her husband are dealing with couple-y issues that Skye wants to help fix, and one of her favorite students goes missing. Just another calm week in Scumble River!
Thoughts:
I like the separation thing for Skye and Simon. It gets him out of the picture for a while, and lets Skye be Skye. Of course, that means that Skye gets into a little more trouble than usual, but she has Wally the police chief to help her out of her scrapes. They need to just get together already! But I digress. (As usual.) The book was a good one, though I did know exactly who did it about halfway through the book, and was not at all surprised by the reveal. But it was fun and quick, and during the holiday season, that's kind of what a girl needs, isn't it?
Book 35 of 40
(I don't think I'm going to make it to 50 this year. What a year!)
Pages: 260
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B-
Would I Recommend?: For a light read, yup! Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)