Review: Another Man's Treasure by James O'Connor

Another Man's Treasure
by James O'Connor
Published by Post Mortem Press
Released August 2011
Print copy provide by author for review

From the promotional website:

The simple life of home organizer Ted McCormick is about to explode. He must deal with the ire of James Smith, a demanding client who is convinced his eccentric father died leaving something of great value hidden in his cluttered and mysterious Victorian mansion. What—or who—is in the house to prevent Ted from finding it?

As a devoted husband, Ted is struggling to resist the charm and seductive flirtations of another client, Janet Blake. His wife grows suspicious and Janet’s jealous ex-husband threatens him. Will passion overpower his principles? At what cost? 

Together, Janet and Ted interpret  clues that lead to two surprising discoveries—one that captures the imagination of the city, and one that determines their fate.

My Thoughts:

This was an engaging read. The author caught my interest from the beginning with the character of Ted McCormick. We learn pretty early on that Ted has chosen his modest profession as an escape from some corporate falling out in his past. There is obvious tension in his marriage and his work puts him in some pretty interesting situations.

There are several very intriguing characters in this novel. Mr. Smith, the aging and overbearing man who hires Ted to clean out his father's home is certainly distinct and seemingly paranoid. Henry, a older gentleman with a quirky disposition is a refreshing character, someone you'd like to encounter in your own life.

The plot of this novel is full of drama, and I personally was waiting to see what would happen between Ted, Janet and Mary. I struggled throughout with what I wanted to happen, while I felt Mary was possibly too hard on her husband, I felt that Ted should have more respect for his wife, and Janet was too smart to be playing with fire.

I would have never guessed that Mr. O'Connor could write a resolution that satisfied me without being cheesy or too contrived. I really enjoyed this book. I definitely recommend it for anyone who enjoys a little mystery with plenty of twists and turns.

This was Mr. O'Connor's first novel and I hope there will be more to come.

Review: New Girl by Paige Harbison

New Girl
by Paige Harbison
Published by Harlequin Teen
Expected Release January 31st 2012
NetGalley

From Goodreads:


They call me 'New Girl'... 

Ever since I arrived at exclusive, prestigious Manderly Academy, that’s who I am. New girl. Unknown. But not unnoticed—because of her. 

Becca Normandy—that’s the name on everyone’s lips. The girl whose picture I see everywhere. The girl I can’t compare to. I mean, her going missing is the only reason a spot opened up for me at the academy. And everyone stares at me like it’s my fault. 

Except for Max Holloway—the boy whose name shouldn’t be spoken. At least, not by me. Everyone thinks of him as Becca’s boyfriend but she’s gone, and here I am, replacing her. I wish it were that easy. Sometimes, when I think of Max, I can imagine how Becca’s life was so much better than mine could ever be. 

And maybe she’s still out there, waiting to take it back.

My Thoughts:

I enjoyed this novel. Although I had to pretend this was college and not boarding school. I hate thinking about  teens drinking and having sex. Probably because my sister is a teen and I want to think it's not really happening. But I digress.

This novel was full of drama in the style of CW or ABCFamily. I kept waiting to see what really happened to Becca. There was a lot of tension in the novel, I felt like I was holding my breath a lot. I had so many different suspicions while I was reading! Was Becca alive? Did one of the boys kill her? Did Dana have something to do the her untimely disappearance? The writer really allows your mind to explore all kinds of possibillities before we find the answers.

This is the kind of book that I would love to talk about with someone who has read it. My favorite part is at the end of the book when the main character finally comes into her own. I don't want to spoil anything and there was a definite, "oh my gosh" moment at the end when I realize that the writer did something incredibly difficult throughout the book and I didn't even notice!

I would definitely recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys the high-drama of a good YA novel.

Review: The Missing by Shiloh Walker

The Missing
by Shiloh Walker
Berkley Trade
Got through Bookswap


From Goodreads:


Her psychic gift drove away the man she loved and years later has drawn him back to her…

As a teenager, Taige Branch hated her psychic gift. No one could understand, except for Cullen Morgan, the boy who stole her heart. He did his best to accept her, until his mother was brutally murdered, and he couldn't forgive Taige for not preventing it.

Now a widowed father, Cullen Morgan has never forgotten Taige. But what brings her back into his life is another tragedy. His beloved little girl has been kidnapped, and Taige is his only hope of finding her. Working together against the clock, Cullen and Taige can't help but wonder whether, if they find his daughter in time, it isn't too late for the overpowering love that still burns between them….


My Thoughts:


I really enjoyed this book. I was a little disappointed that the synopsis tells us why she and Cullen broke up to begin with. I think I would have liked not knowing from the beginning. The novel starts when the two meet in high school and works through the summers that they spent together until their break-up. Part Two, which is probably about 70% of the book, picks up just before they meet again. Finding Cullen's daughter is only the first obstacle to overcome.


I am so afraid of giving too much away in this review. I hate to include spoilers for a book that I recommend because I don't want to ruin it for anyone! Taige's personal struggles with her gift evolve and change throughout the book and the woman that we meet at the beginning of Part Two is an exhausted shell of a woman.

She continues to dream about Cullen but even in her dreams she can't let her guard down. She was so hurt by him, and yet she still loves him completely. Taige, like many romance heroines, has a hard exterior but it barely hides the vulnerability of a broken woman.

The connection between Cullen and Taige is so strong it's hard to ever believe that they won't end up together. It's hard to believe that Cullen was ever married to another woman. He even admits that he didn't love her as well because he was still in love with Taige.

This is a suspenseful read and I really enjoyed it. I give it four cups and highly recommend it!

Serial Review: The Hunger Games

I was late to the party reading the Hunger Games Trilogy, but I am soo glad I did!

The Hunger Games 

by Suzanne Collins

Scholastic Press

From Goodreads:

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

My Thoughts:

After reading the Hunger Games I felt like it was a really good book. It wasn't my normal read but I really enjoyed it. It could have ended there. Suzanne Collins didn't have to finish this series. If I understand correctly from the Acknowledgments at the end of Mockingjay, she didn't initially intend to keep going. But I am so very glad she did. The Hunger Games was good, but I had this feeling that there could have been more. I wasn't completely sure what I wanted that "more" to be, though. 

So I started reading Catching Fire and I knew. This was it, this was what I wanted when I had been reading the first book. Catching Fire had the backstory, the deeper connections between characters, and dynamics that were complicated and interesting. I loved Catching Fire so much that I more or less took a snack break and then picked up Mockingjay. I simply had to know how this ended.

If I thought Catching Fire "got better" as I told one friend, then Mockingjay simply knocked it out of the park for me. I loved every twist and turn that came about in Mockingjay. It was perfect. I couldn't have asked for anything more by the time I finished with this one.

I am not including the synopsis for Catching Fire and Mockingjay because I made the mistake of reading them before I finished the first book and I hate spoilers. I prefer to find things out for myself. So if you haven't read them yet, I don't want to be the one who spoils anything for you!

This series is a must read, and you simply have to read the whole thing! If I were rating the book individually then I would give 4 cups to The Hunger Games and Chasing Fire, and 5 cups to Mockingjay. I just can't do that though, I have to rate the series as a whole because now that I am done that is the only way to read it! I give it 5 cups!

I purchased The Hunger Games in Nook format and borrowed Catching Fire and Mockingjay from a friend. This review includes only my own opinions.

Review of The Surgeon

The Surgeon
by Tess Gerritsen
Published by Ballentine Books
Released June 2009


From Goodreads:


In her most masterful novel of medical suspense, New York Timesbestselling author Tess Gerritsen creates a villain of unforgettable evil--and the one woman who can catch him before he kills again.

He slips into their homes at night and walks silently into bedrooms where women lie sleeping, unaware of the horrors they soon will endure. The precision of the killer's methods suggests he is a deranged man of medicine, propelling the Boston newspapers and the frightened public to name him "The Surgeon."

The cops' only clue rests with another surgeon, the victim of a nearly identical crime. Two years ago, Dr. Catherine Cordell fought back and killed her attacker before he could complete his assault. Now she hides her fears of intimacy behind a cool and elegant exterior and a well-earned reputation as a top trauma surgeon.

Cordell's careful facade is about to crack as this new killer recreates, with chilling accuracy, the details of Cordell's own ordeal. With every new murder he seems to be taunting her, cutting ever closer, from her hospital to her home. Her only comfort comes from Thomas Moore, the detective assigned to the case. But even Moore cannot protect Cordell from a brilliant hunter who somehow understands--and savors--the secret fears of every woman he kills.

Filled with the authentic detail that is the trademark of this doctor turned author . . . and peopled with rich and complex characters--from the ER to the squad room to the city morgue--here is a thriller of unprecedented depth and suspense. Exposing the shocking link between those who kill and cure, punish and protect, The Surgeon is Tess Gerritsen's most exciting accomplishment yet.


My Thoughts:


I'm one of those, "Oh I love that show!" girls on this one. I had no idea that the TV show was based on a series of novels and I fell in love with it first. So of course I had to go back and see what the books were all about!


I really enjoyed this book. It was a great crime novel. Ms. Gerritsen does a really good job with the character development and the dynamics between all of the different players. It is very suspenseful, I enjoy the excerpts that come from the POV of the killer. 


It was interesting as someone who watches the TV show to see the things that they changed to make it easier for a series. I love Rizzoli though. I keep picturing Angie Harmon only shorter and a little rounder. 


I was disappointed that Maura Isles wasn't in this book. I'm gathering from other reviews that she is introduced later. I really enjoyed this book though. I can't wait to move through the rest of the series! 


I give it 4 cups!

Review of Precious and Fragile Things by Megan Hart

Precious and Fragile Things
By Megan Hart
Published by MIRA
Released December 21, 2010

My Summary:

Gilly thought it was just one more errand, one last things to do before going home. She didn't know that a trip to the ATM would put her world in a tailspin. When Todd gets into her car brandishing a knife Gilly's life turns upside down.

Tucked away in a hunting cabin with her captor, Gilly struggles emotionally, second guessing the decisions that brought her here. As time passes Gilly and Todd are held captive by the snow on the ground. For three months they develop a tenuous connection, but Gilly's ultimate goal is to get home to her children, and Todd's is to stay out of jail.

Todd has a dark past, and as the months drag on he confides in Gilly and her world shifts. Can she peacefully co-exist with her captor without betraying the family that she so desperately wants to get back to?

My Thoughts:

I remember adding this to my TBR list when it first came out and Megan Hart was posting all over her blog and social media sites that this was not a romance novel. I've always loved her writing style and I was excited to try out something a little different.

This was a different kind of book, and I really enjoyed it.

In the early pages of the book we meet Gilly, frazzled and annoyed, trying to placate her children into letting her get through just one more errand before they go home. Her inner dialogue while dealing with her two whining children in understandable and relateable.

She is constantly questioning herself as a mother. She feels guilty for ever having wanted time to herself, she feels bad because there is a small part of her that is relieved that the crying voices of her children aren't a constant background noise for the first days of her captivity. It seems to me that she is holding herself to an unreachable standard as a mother. I can't imagine that a mother of two young children wouldn't get exhausted and frazzled at times.

We learn more about Gilly during her time in the cabin. We learn about her alcoholic mother, the father that abandoned her, and her driving desire to be a good mother.

Todd, for all his maniacal actions in the beginning starts to appear fragile and childlike. He doesn't seem to actually want to hurt Gilly, he just can't bring himself to release her either. It's as though he is still a kid and she is his new friend that he doesn't want to release. Plenty of times I would be frustrated thinking, why won't he just let her go? Of course anytime this was brought up in the book it seemed to send Todd into a panic.

There are some tense moments in the book, and plenty of times when you think that they might actually become friends. It's during those moments that Gilly reminds them both how she came to be there. Todd desperately tries to convince Gilly to just stay with him, to be content to never go home.

This is a gripping story. I got caught up in the characters's lives, constantly wondering how this was going to play out.. It reminds us that we are all capable of things we didn't know we could do, be them good or bad. Megan Hart builds a dynamic, and fragile relationship between Gilly and Todd. All the way up to the end I was trying to figure out how she was going to resolve this to my personal satisfaction.

I struggle with books that are great through-out and then have less-than-desired endings. I was pleased though, that the ending she wrote left no sour taste in my mouth. Throughout the book the situation that unfolds becomes an impossible situation, with no clear-cut resolutions. I was satisfied with the ending.

I really enjoyed it. I give it 4 out of 5 cups.

WoW: If you hear her by Shiloh Walker

Linking up with Jill over at Breaking the Spine for Waiting on Wednesday!

Title: If You Hear Her
Author: Shiloh Walker
Publisher: Random House
Expected Release Date: October 25, 2011


A CRY IN THE WOODS

The scream Lena Riddle hears in the woods behind her house is enough to curdle her blood—she has no doubt that a woman is in real danger. Unfortunately, with no physical evidence, the local law officers in small-town Ash, Kentucky, dismiss her claim. But Lena knows what she heard—and it leaves her filled with fear and frustration.

Ezra King is on leave from the state police, but he can’t escape the guilty memories that haunt his dreams. When he sees Lena, he is immediately drawn to her. He aches to touch her—to be touched by her—but is he too burdened by his tragic past to get close? When Ezra hears her story of an unknown woman’s screams, his instincts tell him that Lena’s life is also at risk—and his desire to protect her is as fierce as his need to possess her.

What are you waiting for?