Category: Book Review

Book Challenges, Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Gen Lit, Literary Criticism, Reading, Reading Challenges

Review: The Mischief of the Mistletoe (Pink Carnation #7) by Lauren Willig

by The Lit Bitch11 Comments on Review: The Mischief of the Mistletoe (Pink Carnation #7) by Lauren Willig

Tis the season for purloined pudding! Christmas pudding, bonnets, love, and mystery are all literary in the air in Lauren Willig’s book The Mischief of the Mistletoe. This book is #4.2 in Willig’s wildly popular Pink Carnation series.

I saw this book advertised on Goodreads a few weeks ago and fell in love with the cover and….suddenly I had to read it! So I picked up a copy and then I saw the Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge hosted by  the True Book Addict and suddenly I couldn’t wait for it to be Christmas season so I could read this book! Biding my time, I started the book the day the challenge started and finished the book like 2 days later!

I have never read any of these books but heard LOADS about them from friends and of course my sister. I have always wondered why I hadn’t read any of them because they seem like books I would devour! I supposed somewhere between all the epic series I have ben reading over the last couple of years….I guess I just missed this one, and that my friends is my biggest regret! This is a charming, enchanting, and above all….a captivating series. Continue reading “Review: The Mischief of the Mistletoe (Pink Carnation #7) by Lauren Willig” →

Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Gen Lit, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: The Devil’s Ribbon (Hatton and Roumonde Mystery #2) by D. E. Meredith

by The Lit Bitch2 Comments on Review: The Devil’s Ribbon (Hatton and Roumonde Mystery #2) by D. E. Meredith

Green, the symbol of Irish pride and a symbol of Irish rebellion–this is what forensic scientist and doctor Adolphus Hatton is thinking when he pulls a green ribbon from the mouth of cadaver.

In D.E. Meredith’s latest thriller, The Devil’s Ribbon, London is a pressure cooker….the searing July heat of 1858, the wretched stink of the Themes, deadly diseases lurking in every inch of filth from Highgate to the Rookeries of  the East End, and….feuding Irish and British tensions are at their breaking point. Hatton and his assistant Albert Roumande, are knee deep in a spike of cholera deaths when Inspector Grey of Scotland Yard approaches them with a curious case….a predominant leader in Irish/British relations is found dead and murder is suspected.

When Hatton and Roumande examine the body they find that is jaw just isn’t ‘quite right’ and once opened they pull out a silky green ribbon. Grey knows exactly what this means….its a message from the Fenian groups–a band of Irish revolutionary thugs and terrorists. If word of this kind of execution reaches the public, the London press will have a field day and it will only increase the mounting tensions between the Irish and Brits….these three unlikely companions join forces to try and catch the killer before it is too late.

Though Hatton and Roumande have the new forensic science on their side, the killer or killers are always one step a head of them. The body counts rise and with each victim comes a calling card–the green ribbon. Riots being raging in the slums as word of the murder spread and the pressure is on Grey and the two scientists to solve the crimes….after a strategic bomb rips through a popular London shopping district the Irish communities in London’s slum claim responsibility….Hatton must solve this one and quickly. Continue reading “Review: The Devil’s Ribbon (Hatton and Roumonde Mystery #2) by D. E. Meredith” →

Book Challenges, Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Gen Lit, Literary Criticism, Reading, Reading Challenges

The Christmas Spirit 2011 Reading Challenge

by The Lit Bitch3 Comments on The Christmas Spirit 2011 Reading Challenge

The holiday season is upon us! With the year coming to a close in a few weeks, I was not going to join anymore challenges but I just couldn’t resist!

The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge 2011 was just too cute to pass up! The challenge is being hosted by the True Book Addict on her special blog page devoted just for this challenge!

Since the challenge is only going on for a few weeks, I am only planning on reading one book (maybe two if I am lucky) so I will be going for the ‘Candy Cane’ level (1 book).

I might make Mistletoe level (2 books) since crossovers are ok, but I am sure I can do at least one.

I plan on reading The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig for the challenge, if I do get to a second book it will be the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol.

If anyone else is interested in signing up here is the challenge info, visit the True Book Addicts Christmas Spirit blog for more details, it also looks like there is a give-a-way as part of the challenge if that sort of thing also interests you :).

The Christmas Spirit 2011 Reading Challenge details: Continue reading “The Christmas Spirit 2011 Reading Challenge” →

Book Challenges, Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Gen Lit, Literary Criticism, Reading, Reading Challenges

Review: Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare

by The Lit Bitch8 Comments on Review: Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare

How strange it is to have the power to literally transform yourself into other people and yet be unable to put yourself in their place. This is the problem that plagues shapeshifting heroine Tessa Gray in Cassandra Clare’s steampunk novel, Clockwork Angel. Part of a trilogy The Infernal Devices, this first book blends romance, sci-fi/fantasy, steampunk, and adventure all together churning out 400+ pages of entertainment.

When I first started the Steampunk Reading Challenge, I considered reading this book as one of my five books but then I started the Parasol Protectorate series instead. But as the year is winding down I still needed one book for the challenge, Clockwork Angel was it!

One word…HOOKED! When I started reading the book, I knew it was more YA than adult fiction…so I was expecting Twilight with gears and steam.  While some of the romance was a little Twilight-ish, it was more action, less ‘obcessive’, and the love story involves a shapeshifter and a shadowhunter (Nephilim) rather than a human and a vampire….not to mention all the great Steampunk elements.

The novel opens with a great action sequence with best friends and fighting partners, Will and Jem, pursuing a demon through the dark underbelly of Victorian London. Continue reading “Review: Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare” →

Book Critic, Book Review, Books

Review: Feast Day of Fools (Hackberry Holland #3) by James Lee Burke

by The Lit Bitch2 Comments on Review: Feast Day of Fools (Hackberry Holland #3) by James Lee Burke

Sheriff Hackberry Holland is at it again! James Lee Burke’s third Hackberry Holland novel, Feast Day of Fools, is a tremendously complex and gritty mystery novel sure to make you stand up and pay attention. The fabulous ladies over at The Book Lady’s Blog were giving away this novel as part of their weekly Friday Reads give-a-way and I was the lucky winner.

I have never read anything by this author and was very excited to receive it after I read the description(not to mention I love the cover!). It sounded like a novel that I would not normally read which intrigued me. I am always enthusiastic about reading books that are out of my comfort zone and controversial. For me personally I would say this book was both of those things.

Set in a modern day Texas border town, a local indian by the name of Danny Boy witnesses a grizzly murder in the desert that sparks a richly thrilling story of murder, espionage, cartel activity, and terrorism with all the characters swimming in the ghosts of their past (some of them quite literally!). Sheriff Holland and his deputy, Pam, are in a race to catch the killers of the initial homicide, notorious mass murderer Jack Collins, and trying to locate the hottest thing on two feet….a national security threat…Noie Barnum. Continue reading “Review: Feast Day of Fools (Hackberry Holland #3) by James Lee Burke” →