To The Nines by Janet Evanovich

To the Nines by Janet Evanovich
Mystery
Stephanie Plum, a mediocre bounty hunter in New Jersey, is trying to find a recent bond skipper when she happens across a killer. As she is questioning a potential lead with curvaceous ex-ho Lula, the lead gets shot right in the head. Plum's on-again-off-again boyfriend and cop Morelli is concerned for her and between him and fellow bounty hunter Ranger the vow to bodyguard her while trying to find who the killer is. Hunting the killer takes Stephanie to Vegas with Lula and Connie, which is a bunch of laughs.

As usual, this book is a lot of fun. The characters are great and the banter between them even better. You can't help but smile as you read the books in this series.

First Line: "My name is Stephanie Plum and I was born and raised in the Chambersburg section of Trenton, where the top male activities are scarfing pastries and pork rinds and growing love handles."
Rating:
(4/5)

Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Children's
This is a children's book about a mole, a rat, a toad, and a badger. They all live close to the river and are very good friends. Toad is rich and is easily obsessed with ideas. When he sees a motor car, he desperately wants one but can't handle the car and gets in a variety of accidents. Mole, rate, and badger try to stage an intervention but it just doesn't work.

This is a classic but I just couldn't get in to it. While the story of Toad and his need for speed was the dominant one, there were times where that story line wasn't being followed at all and it felt like there was no point to what was going on. Overall the book seemed pretty random to me. The dominant theme being friendship, which was nice, otherwise I could have left it. Perhaps the problem is that the book was written in the 1930s and what appeals to people now is quite different to what appealed to people then.

An additional bonus was that the illustrations in this book were quite cute.
First Line: "The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring cleaning his little home."
Rating:
(2.5/5)

Origin in Death by J.D. Robb

Origin in Death by J.D. Robb
Mystery

Lieutenant Eve Dallas is in the same building as a murder, when it happens, so she arrives on scene quickly to find Dr. Icove Sr. with a scalpel in his heart. On the surface, Dr. Icove looks like a squeeky clean plastic surgeon. But Eve knows no one can be that clean and starts to dig deeper. While she wonders where Icove is spending his free time, she finds some encrypted patient files on his computer. All of the patients are female, in the same age range, and labelled by a letter and number rather than a name. As Eve begins to investigate this even further, Dr. Icove's son is killed in a similar manner. Eve knows that the two were working on something illegal and needs to figure it out quickly before more people are killed.

This is one of the more futuristic books of the 'In Death' series. I'm not sure I liked it as much as some of the others. It was too out there for me. That being said, the ending surprised me. I didn't think Eve could let something go even if it was morally right but criminally wrong. When the whole series harps on how Eve holds the criminal law in such high regard it's a bit unbelievable that she can put morals and what's right above that for one book. I'm not too sure what to think.

First Line: "Death smiled at her, and kissed her gently on the cheek."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

The Virgin's Lover by Philipa Gregory

The Virgin's Lover by Philipa Gregory
Historical Fiction

Queen Elizabeth came to the throne after her sister's passing. It seemed that all anyone was concerned about once she came to the throne was finding her a husband so that a King could rule alongside her. There were offers from the Spanish and the Scottish, along with many other noble men. Elizabeth is smitten with her childhood friend Robert Dudley though, and Dudley is a very ambitious man. There's just one problem, he's married.

As the French threaten war, Dudley pushes Elizabeth more to marry him while her advisors push her to marry someone that will help stop a war with the French. The problem is that Dudley is married to Amy Robsart and not available to marry the queen. He tries to convince Elizabeth to give him a divorce but people aren't sure if he truly loves Elizabeth or if he is just ambitious.

This novel paints Dudley as a power-seeking jerk and Elizabeth as a weak female. I'm not sure how true these portraits are. I doesn't make sense that Elizabeth is a weak person when she ruled England for such a long time and with so much success. The true victim here was Amy Robsart. I felt very sorry for her, no one deserves to be treated like that.

First Line: "All the bells in Norfolk were ringing for Elizabeth, pounding the peal into Amy's head, first the trebel bell screaming out like a mad woman, and then the whole agonizing, jangling sob till the great bell boomed a warning that the whole discordant carillon was about to shriek out again."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Teen

Thomas wakes up with no memories but his name, as he's lifted up to an area where other teenage boys help him out of a lift. Welcome to the glade. The other boys all have similar stories to him. They've been there for up to two years and every month a new boy is lifted to the glade. Outside of the glade is a very long maze where the walls close off at night, to help ward off miserable creatures that try to kill you. There are runners that go out every day to navigate and plot the maze, trying to find an exit. These boys try to do everything they can to escape the maze, get back their memories, and figure out who put them in this place.

The day after Thomas arrives, another person arrives to the glade. It's unheard of that two people arrive within the same month, and even more unheard of that it's a girl. She brings a message, and it's not good.

Like The Hunger Games, and Divergent, this book involves teens dealing with an end-of-world type of scenario. This is the same, except the main character is a male. Despite that, I enjoyed the characters in this book as much as its similar novels. The premise is quite interesting as well. What would you do if you were trapped in a maze and couldn't figure out how to escape? And you couldn't remember much? I'm sure it would be quite frustrating.

The only part of this book that I felt left down by was the ending. I didn't like the explanation of why they ended up in the maze and what had happened to the world. Despite that, I would still read the next book in the series.

First Line: "He began his new lift standing up, surrounding by cold darkness and stale, dusty air."

Rating:
(4/5)

No Second Chance by Harlan Coben

No Second Chance by Harlan Coben
Mystery

Dr. Marc Seidman only remembers eating a granola bar before waking up in the hospital after weeks because he was shot twice. His wife is dead and his six month old daughter is missing. When the ransom note comes to his father-in-law, Marc has lots of decisions to make. He goes to the authorities, which already suspect him of having something to do with the murder and kidnapping, and it results in a botched attempt to get his child back. Something doesn't feel right to Seidman though. Was one person responsible for everything or were there multiple crimes taking place?

This is my least favourite Harlan Coben book. It is completely unbelievable and the problem is that there isn't just one item that is unbelievable, there are many. For example, you visit a home in the country and try to sneak up on it with weapons. The home owner finds you and then after some talking, agrees to help you. Yeah I'm sure that would happen. This book was layer upon layer of farfetched plot lines.

My advice would be to save your time and find another book to read.

First Line: "When the first bullet hit my chest, I thought of my daughter."

Rating:
(2/5)

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
Biography

Louis Zamperini was an Olympic runner in 1936, competing in long distance, and thought to be the first man that would be able to break the four minute mile. Then WWII started, and Zamperini joined the Air Force, becoming a bombardier. Training in Hawaii, he became very close to his crew including pilot Russell Allen Phillips (Phil). As the crew worked together, learning the ins and outs of flying B-24 bombers, many men were dying from non-combat accidents. Louis and his crew went out to try and find a assumed plane that had gone down over the ocean when their own plane experienced troubles and also went down. The only men that survived the impact were Louis, Phil, and another crew member Mac.

Floating in the ocean, with only sharks and the odd bird as their companions, the three wonder when search planes will try to come and find them or if they'll die in their raft. After 47 days at sea, they finally see land only to be captured by the Japanese. They are taken as POWs and are treated without dignity, moved from camp to camp.

This book is a true story of survival. Physically being able to survive 47 days at sea with very little to drink and eat is unbelievable itself. Then captured as POWs, they must mentally be able to survive when they are constantly humiliated and degraded.

Like most biographies or autobiographies, I always find the first few chapters slow and rather dull because there's so much to explain about the character of the person. Once the story moved to the war, this story captured me. You know that Louis survives but you pull for him and hope that he goes through the least amount of hardship.

What I was very surprised at was the facts on the number of people that died from non-combat flights, significantly so. It makes you wonder what could have been done during the war if fewer men had died from accidents. Could it have ended sooner? It also makes me grateful that my grandfather, a navigator during WWII, came home without incident.

It's really no surprise that this book took 7 years to research and write. The amount of detail is extraordinary. There are accounts of POW life from a variety of sources. Interesting fact: Hillenbrand and Zamperini never met in person during the writing and publishing of this book!

First Line: "All he could see, in every direction, was water."

Rating:
(4.5/5)

In the Shadow of the Banyan

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
Fiction
Seven-year old Raami is a privileged daughter of a Cambodia prince. When the Khmer Rouge comes to power in 1975 her family is uprooted from the capital Phnom Penh and go to live in their summer home with relatives. Soon they are again moved out and what follows is a constant moving around.

Raami's story is heart-breaking as her relatives fall victim to the regime. Over the next four years she endures starvation, brutality and forced labour. She meets both the good and bad side of the human race. Raami clings to her father by remembering his legends and fables.

This is both a horrific book and an awesome book. Horrific in the fact that the story mirrors the author's true experiences and awesome in the beautiful writing. The reader can not help but fight along side of Raami and cheer her on at every awful turn in her young life. This is a beautifully wrought tale of human resilience.

First Line: "War entered my childhood  world not with the blasts of rockets and bombs but with my father's footsteps as he walked through the hallway, passing my bedroom toward his."
Rating:
(4.5/5)

The Geneva Option by Adam LeBor

The Geneva Option by Adam LeBor
Mystery/Thriller

Yael Azoulay's star has risen quickly at the United Nations. She is responsible for negotiating deals with some of the worst people you could imagine. Her back-room dealing never sees the light of day until she starts dealing with Jean-Pierre Hakizimani, a Hutu that massacred Tutsi during the Rwandan genocide. Yael despises the deal that Hakizimani is being given and writes a memo to the Secretary General of the UN stating as much. The memo finds its way to the press where Sami Boustani, a New York Times reporter, runs with the story. There's more at stake than just the Hakizimani deal though. The UN seems to be planning something in Africa that could result in another war breaking out.

Years ago, strong female leads would be hard to find in books. These days it seems to be the latest fad to write main characters that are female and kick ass. Yael is one of those, yet in no way fits in to the stereotype. She is a very exciting character. She's intellectual and can hold her own in a fight. She reaches out for help when she needs it, though that's rare. She also isn't predictable, which made for an even more exciting read.

I really enjoyed reading about the back rooms of the UN. LeBor did not portray the organization in a very positive light and I'm sure there is some truth to the corruption that exists at all levels. The extent to which LeBor knew the subject of the book was impressive. It's obvious that he has covered news stories in his journalism career that he brought in to the book. Having read books about both the Rwandan genocide (and specifically fellow Canadian UN peacekeeper Romeo Dellaire) and Bosnian war, I feel like I was a step ahead while reading this book. As much as I appreciated LeBor providing the back story, at times I felt it distracting. Just as I was turning pages quicker in anticipation of the story line it was broken up with a piece of back story history. Further to that, the number of acronyms used in this book was staggering. I found myself flipping back a few times to remember what SG, EGS, ECLF, DPA, etc. stood for.

This is one of the more exciting mystery thriller books I've read in a while. I'd love to read another Yael Azoulay book and see her kick some more ass. I recommend you go get the book and as I wait for the next Azoulay book to come out, I'll read this free short story from her!

Thanks to TLC Book Tours for letting me be part of this book tour.

First Line: "The wind rose and fell through the airshaft, roaring so loudly it seemed the building was breathing."

Rating:
(4/5)

The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis

The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
Political Satire

Daniel Addison leaves Parliament Hill after having been a speech writer for the Leader of the Opposition to pursue a career in academia. He feels a bit jaded from his time in the Canadian political system and is looking forward to a somewhat more normal existence. The only thing he needs to do before he completely transition is find a Liberal candidate for one of the biggest Tory strongholds in the country, his new home, Cumberland. The incumbent of Cumberland is the current Finance Minister and very popular. It takes Addison a very long time to find a candidate before he happens on his new landlord, Angus McLintock. Angus is a Scot who teaches Engineering at the university and despises teaching English to Engineers because they don't get it. In exchange for not teaching English to Engineers, Angus agrees to become a for-sure loser of the Liberal party in his riding. Hilarity ensues!

It's not typical that you get to read a comedic book about Canadian politics. Usually most Canadian books are sub-par. This one, however, was very enjoyable. The characters were entertaining and the story line more so. Some things didn't make a whole lot of sense, such as why the Liberals would ask Addison to find them a candidate and then do nothing but ridicule his decision when they wouldn't have been able to find better themselves. But putting aside the small issues, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

First Line: "I am Daniel Addison"

Rating:
(4.5/5)