Book Critic
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Review: On the Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves
Is age really just a number? Does true love transcend all things? Even through extreme, desperate situations? Even through a large age gap? Does wanting different things or being in a different spot matter when love is involved? Thirty year old Anna is an English teach. She needs time to think about her life. She has been with her boyfriend of eight years and they still aren’t married. She feels like she is just waiting and waiting for a life that isn’t going t happen. So when the opportunity to get away comes….she takes it. TJ is a sixteen and recovering from cancer. His parents want to take a celebratory…
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Review: The Hangman’s Daughter (Hangman’s Daughter #1) by Oliver Pötzsch
A scream rips through the early morning fog of the small Bavarian town known as Schongau. The body of a young boy washes ashore, tattooed with a suspecious mark…..a witches mark to be precise. The people are in a frenzy when the local hangman, Jakob Kuisl, arrives to investigate the body and determine if witchcraft was indeed involved. Before Kuisl can make a final decision, the townspeople jump to their own conclusions and go after the only person who could be capable of witchcraft….the midwife. With the dark memories of witch trials and stake burnings stil fresh in their minds, the townspeople arrive at the midwifes house demanding answers. Kuisl…
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Review: Mine to Take (Matrix of Destiny #3) by Dara Joy
Mystical galaxies, wizards, shapeshifters, aliens, adventure, and sizzling romance lurk in the pages of the para-romance novel, Mine to Take by Dara Joy. The beautiful Jenise is more or less a prisoner in her own home. The evil Karpon desires her and yet also wants to kill her. Jenise longs to be free of him before he can conquer her making her his wife. As luck would have it, Karpon holds a fierce Familiar (shapeshifter) in his dungeons. If Jenise can some how free the Familiar, she too might be free of Karpon. The Familiars are a wild and sexual people, therefore Jenise bargains with the captive using the only thing she…
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Review: Fire (Graceling Realm #2) by Kristin Cashore
Before gracelings came monsters. Fire has vibrant, flaming red hair. She is able to influence, control, and read peoples minds. Everyone who comes near her is attracted to her in a savage way. Monsters crave her blood. But she too is a monster….a special human monster….the only one left in the Dells. Outside of the Seven Kingdoms are the Dells, a wild countryside full of monsters. Monsters are variations of a regular animals but their fur, claws, feathers etc, come in a unique pallet of colors (magenta, gold, silver etc). But above all, they are savage creatures motivated by blood and they all posses the ability to control the minds of…
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Review: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
When you enter the ‘big top’, you enter into a world full of illusion and intrigue and here you will find a dark, gritty love story. Jacob Jankowski is grieving the loss of his parents when he jumps a train bound for anywhere that isn’t his current location. He has boarded a train full of freaks, drunkards, performers, sparkling costumes, and illusion–he has ran away with the circus–literally. Jacob is able to gain employment as the circus veterinarian where he works closely with the charismatic August, the menagerie superintendent/trainer. August’s wife, Marlene, works as a circus performer as well…..Jacob is infatuated with her the moment he sets eyes on her. August…
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Review: Graceling (Graceling Realm #1) by Kristin Cashore
Some people are just born with a little something extra. Sometimes that something special is obvious, other times it’s not. But when you are a Graceling, there is no hiding what you are. Special. Different. Dangerous. Katsa’s mismatched eyes mark her as a Graceling. Being a Graceling means you have different powers. Some graces are useless, like predicting the weather, while others have more useful graces like reading minds. For Katsa, her grace is killing. But is being a Graceling the same as being a monster? As soon as her uncle, King Randa, realizes what her grace is, he uses her as a hired thug, punishing other realms for their…
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Review: The Tale of Hill Top Farm (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter #1) by Susan Wittig Albert
England’s charming Lake District is the home to the quaint village of Sawrey. Here in this cozy country village, life is different. It is far removed from the hustle and bustle of London which is precisely why Beatrix Potter means to make Sawrey home. The beloved children’s book author has recently lot her fiance and with the success of her books, she finally has the means to afford a quiet country home: Hill Top Farm. Instead of the welcome they expect from a country village, Potter and her four legged friends are met with trepidation and pessimism. In 1905, it was almost unheard of for a women to purchase anything…
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Review: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess)
Be still my heart….finally someone who understands, finds humor in, and can articulate life’s little f-ed up moments that happen to us all…..well to some of us more than others! The Bloggess is known for her sardonic quick wit and dark situational humor. She compiled a list of “Things Most People Have Never Experiences of Could Have Ever Possibly Imagined, But That Totally Happened to Me” and woven these special little stories together creating a brilliant and hilarious novel. This is a difficult novel to review, mostly because it is the kind of book you just have to read to understand how truly awesome this book is. It is truly…
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Review: Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd
The name of the game is deception. Real or fake? Truth or lie? This gritty war time novel takes us all over Europe on an adventure unraveling espionage and flushing out spies. The novel opens in pre-WWI Vienna where London based actor Lysander Rief is taking a ‘holiday’ to resolve a ‘personal issue’ with a local psychiatrist. Must of Lysander’s “treatment’ and “cure” involves the psychological term Parallelism. This concept plays a large role in the themes/plot of the novel and with it’s characters. At his first appointment with the doctor, Lysander meets the frazzled, yet beautiful, Hettie Bull. He is immediately drawn to her but, since he is engaged…
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Review: Shadow and Bone (The Grisha Trilogy #1) by Leigh Bardugo
Sinister monsters lurk in the endless darkness of the Shadow Fold….a condemned fragment within the land of Ravka. On the Fold, Alina Starkov and her army regiment (which includes her best friend, Mal) are attacked by these evil beasts. In the face of certain death and desperation, Alina reveals an ancient power that has been dormant inside her, which saves Mal’s life. But once she reveals what she is, others conspire to steal her power but one intends to foster it–the Darkling. The Darkling takes Alina under his wing, seducing her with promises of power and peace. Alina is captivated by him, like calls to like.