Review: Princess Elizabeth’s Spy (Maggie Hope Mystery #2) by Susan Elia MacNeal

Being a spy sounds so much cooler and glamorous without all the physical training doesn’t it? That’s exactly what’s running through Maggie Hope’s mind while she’s at Camp Spook.

After helping uncover a terrorist cell and cracking some difficult codes is the first book, Maggie has been recruited to work for MI5….an opportunity she simply can’t pass up there’s only one problem….the biggest muscle in Maggie’s body is her brain.

But when she arrives at Camp Spook, she wasn’t counting on all the drills and exercises. It is quickly apparent that she is not cut out for MI5’s spy academy. After only a couple of weeks, her supervisor calls her in and tells her he is pulling her from Camp Spook.

At first Maggie is crushed, but there is still some Hope to be had….MI5 is going to reassign her.

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Review: Stone of Tears (Sword of Truth #2) by Terry Goodkind

After defeating his nemesis, Darken Rahl, Richard Cypher expects his life will regain some amount of normalcy. After all, things are looking up in Richard’s world: he has the woman he loves and he plans to marry her. Though he doesn’t have a concrete plan for his post nuptial life he certainly doesn’t expect to continue further into the magical world.

Richard and his beloved Kahlan, return to the Mud People where they will be married. But when they arrive they are met with a series of revelations….Richard finds out he is Darken Rahl’s bastard and Zed is really his grandfather. In the midst of all this, Richard is plagued with violent and debilitating headaches. His appetite and sleeping patterns begin to change and suddenly three women appear….The Sisters of Light….and tell him his is actually a wizard.

Richard hates magic. He doesn’t trust it. He is the Seeker….his job is to find the truth. To him magic is all false illusion, nothing more than lies. He wants no part of it. But Richard might not have a choice. The headaches are so intense that they could kill him. Kahlan pleads with Richard to take the help the Sisters are offering. But Richard refuses, he will not wear a collar or be a slave.

Richard soon discovers a more imminent problem though.

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Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Nerds around the world unite! This is your book!

If you love video games, 70’s and 80′ pop culture, fantasy, cyberpunk, dystopian lit….then this is the book for you and even if you don’t love those things, you will still find something to love in this book.

18 year old Wade Watts live in the year 2044. The world is a wasteland. The earth’s resources are diminished and society is spiraling out of control, the only thing positive in this dismal world is the OASIS.

The OASIS is the internet to the 10th power! It’s a virtual utopian world where you can be anyone or anything you want to be. Each person has their own avatar and you can create your own planets and worlds where you live, play, meet friends, and even fall in love.

When the creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, dies he leaves his vast, multibillion dollar fortune to anyone who can find his ‘Easter Egg’ by playing the ultimate video game in the OASIS. Halliday leaves on clue to get people started, a riddle. OASIS users around the world work to solve the riddle.

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Review: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Trapped in a love less marriage to a man with good social standing, Anna Karenina does the unthinkable–she enters into a doomed, passionate love affair with another man.

Society will torment her, her husband will ridicule her, but her own guilt will drive her to the breaking point.

With one of the most memorable opening scenes in western literature, Anna Karenina is a literary masterpiece about life, passion, and love.

This lengthy novel is spread over eight parts featuring two alternating protagonists, Konstantin Levin and Anna Karenina.

The elegant and proper Anna, is married to a high-ranking government official, Alexei Karenin. For the past eight years they have maintained a fragile facade. On the outside their marriage appears amiable but in the absence of love, there is nothing but respect and understanding to fill the missing pieces.

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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 vacation in the Maldives where he can both recover and study. TJ’s parents hired Anna as his tutor for the summer.

Anna and TJ board a seaplane bound for a remote island in the Maldives when suddenly their pilot has a heart attack and dies. The plane goes down somewhere in the ocean. When they wash ashore on a deserted island, they think it’s only a matter of time before a search party discovers them.

Three and a half years go by.

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