January's Reading Review

Didn't do too badly in January though I wish I had read more.

Witness In Death by J.D. Robb

Rating: 10 *'s

My Thoughts: This series just keeps getting better! Each story reveals a little bit more of the complex character of Eve Dallas. This one gives the reader a slight glimpse into the woman with the hard as rock exterior who reveals herself to have a very compassionate nature. A woman who is often faced with making very difficult decisions in very ugly situations, Eve continues to surprise and impress me.

I really enjoyed how this story plays out and the surprises continue even after the identity of the killer is revealed. The way Eve figures it out and then closes in for the arrest is very creative. Supporting characters Rourke, Peabody and Somerset provide their own special talent of enriching the story and rounding out Eve. I'm looking forward to the next installment to see what Eve gets into.

Bitter Is The New Black by Jen Lancaster

Rating: 10*'s

My Thoughts: I read the second book before reading this one so the sequence of events was a little bit out of order, but still enjoyed this book quite a lot. How Jen and Fletch manage to make it through all the adversity in their lives and come out of it still together provides many hours of entertaining and laugh out loud reading.

32AA by Michelle Cunnah

Rating: 8*'s

My Thoughts: Very enjoyable story with very likable characters. Emma is a woman you can easily relate to as she deals with the daily life issues of her job, love and friends. After she picks herself up from the indignity of being tossed aside by her bastard of a boyfriend, she relies on her friends to take her in and help her cope with the betrayal not only in her love life but also on the job as she is denied an opportunity she is perfect for. Add into the mix that her father is one of the top plastic surgeons in the area, Emma is continuously reminded of everytime she looks in the mirror and sees her completely inadequate 32AA chest.

Join Emma as she navigates through her life looking to fill her days (and hopefully a bikini) with the happiness she longs for.

L Is For Lawless by Sue Grafton

Rating: 8 *'s

My Thoughts: Very good story; this one features Kinsey doing a favor for free that takes her on a wild chase looking for money hidden from a 40+ year old bank heist. The intricate plot makes it challenging to figure out who Kinsey can trust. The ending came as a surprise...

Now Reading:

Prior Bad Acts by Tami Hoag

It was a crime so brutal, it changed the lives of even the most hardened homicide cops. The Haas family murders left a scar on the community nothing can erase, but everyone agrees that convicting the killer, Karl Dahl, is a start. Only Judge Carey Moore seems to be standing in the way. Her ruling that Dahl’s prior criminal record is inadmissible raises a public outcry–and puts the judge in grave danger.

When an unknown assailant attacks Judge Moore in a parking garage, two of Minneapolis’s top cops are called upon to solve the crime and keep the judge from further harm. Detective Sam Kovac is as hard-boiled as they come, and his wisecracking partner, Nikki Liska, isn’t far behind. Neither one wants to be on this case, but when Karl Dahl escapes from custody, everything changes, and a seemingly straightforward case cartwheels out of control.

The stakes go even higher when the judge is kidnapped–snatched out of her own bed even as the police sit outside, watching her house. Now Kovac and Liska must navigate through a maze of suspects that includes the stepson of a murder victim, a husband with a secret life, and a rogue cop looking for revenge where the justice system failed.

With no time to spare, the detectives are pulled down a strange dark trail of smoke and mirrors, where no one is who they seem and everyone is guilty of Prior Bad Acts.

Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore

He's given us lovelorn vampires, marooned love goddesses, and addled sea beasts.

Now discover his ingenious debut novel, in which we meet one of the most memorably mismatched pairs in the annals of literature.

The good-looking one is one-hundred-year-old ex-seminarian and "road" scholar Travis O'Hearn. The green one is Catch, a demon with a nasty habit of eating most of the people he meets. Behind the fake Tudor facade of Pine Cove, California, Catch sees a four-star buffet. Travis, on the other hand, thinks he sees a way of ridding himself of his toothy traveling companion. The winos, Neo-pagans, and deadbeat Lotharios of Pine Cove, meanwhile, have other ideas. And none of them is quite prepared when all hell breaks loose...