It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (Sept 10)

What Are You Reading is a weekly Monday Meme that is hosted by Sheila from One Persons Journey: http://bookjourney.wordpress.com

Post the books you read last week, book currently being read and books you plan on finishing this week.

Last week I read:

http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-146 

1.  Criminal - Karin Slaughter
2.  In Close - Brenda Novak

I’m currently reading:

1.  If You See Her - Shiloh Walker

Books I’m planning on reading this week:

1.  One Wrong Move - Shannon McKenna
2.  Pies and Prejudice - Ellery Adams
3.  Sweet Revenge - Christy Reece

Here's the link:

http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-155 

Library Haul 2012 (Sept 9 - 15)

Here's the list of books I picked up from the library this week:

Hardcover:

1.  Against the Storm - Kat Martin

Softcover:

1.  The Unspoken - Heather Graham

What did you pick up from the library this week?

In Close [Mass Market Paperback]

I've finished "In Close" the 3rd book in her Bulletproof trilogy by Brenda Novak.

Product Description


Claire O'Toole's mother, Alana, went missing fifteen years ago. That was big news in Pineview, Montana, the kind of town where nothing much ever happens. Then, last year, Claire's husband, David, died in a freak accident — after launching his own investigation into Alana's disappearance.

Is Alana dead? Or did she simply abandon her husband and daughters? Claire is determined to find out — and her former boyfriend, Isaac Morgan, wants to help. Although their relationship didn't end well, he still has feelings for her. And yet it isn't until he starts to suspect David's death wasn't an accident that he's drawn back into her life.

Together, Claire and Isaac search for answers to the questions that have haunted Pineview all this time. But as they soon discover, someone's prepared to kill so those answers won't be found ….


About the Author

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Brenda Novak has penned over 40 novels. A two-time Rita nominee, she's won The National Reader's Choice, The Bookseller's Best, The Bookbuyer's Best and many other awards. She runs an annual on-line auction for diabetes research every May at www.brendanovak.com. To date, she’s raised over $1 million. Brenda considers herself lucky to be a mother of five and married to the love of her life.


Product Details
Mass Market Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: Mira; Original edition (October 25, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0778312666
ISBN-13: 978-0778312666

My Review:

Fifteen years ago in Pineview, Montana Claire O'Toole's mother, Alana, disappeared without a trace.  The case wasn't solved and it became a cold case.  Claire suffered a devastating lost last year when her husband David died in a car accident.

Claire needs to know what really happened to her mother and as a homage to her David she starts an investigation of her own.  While looking through her mother's attic she finds some files with articles about her mother's disappearance that David had.  Before she could read them she is suddenly attacked by someone. 

She screams for help and to her embarrassment her savior is non other then her ex-lover Issac Morgan.  Their relationship ended very badly and now she tries to avoid him.  Issac finds evidence that David's accident wasn't an accident and someone killed him because he was onto to them.  Issac and Claire agree to work together and in their investigation they find out what really happened to Alana and a big secret about her younger sister that no many people know about.

I didn't really connect with Claire because it seemed like she only cared what other people thought of her and she sacrificed her life to please undeserving people like her younger sister Leanne.  Her behavior was kind of childish especially when Issac rejected her love and she ran back to David and married him.

I connected with Issac and I felt like he totally regretted rejected Claire's love because he wasn't ready to deal with the way she made him feel.  He was going through a lot and had to deal with issues and he just lost the only dad he knew at the time before he could enter a real relationship.  He now knows he wants Claire in his life forever and would do anything to obtain his goal.

Leanne was a piece of work and a horrible person to boot.  I hate the way she treats Claire and I believe she blames her for her problems and insecurities.

This book had lots of twists and turns and was very fast paced and thrilling.

4/5

In the Mail Saturday 2012 (Sept 8)

In the Mail Saturday is hosted every Saturday at Mystery Thrillers and Romantic Suspense Reviews.

I received these in the mail this week.

 

One Wrong Move [Paperback]

Product Description

Alex Aaro just wants to keep his head down and earn a living. But now his crazy Aunt Tonya is dying. She's the sole family member he gives a damn about, enough to blow decades of hiding out from his Ukrainian mafia clan in order to say goodbye. Just as Alex lands in New York, his friend Bruno calls for a favour. He wants Alex to take a detour to a women's shelter in Brooklyn to help out his wife's friend Nina Moro. Social worker Nina is baffled by the sudden appearance and bizarre behaviour of her own aunt, and afraid she'll get herself killed if she makes a wrong move. But when the woman's attackers turn on Nina, only Alex's lean muscle and seething bad attitude stands between her and an ugly death. Now, holding the clues to a deadly secret, Alex and Nina must race against time and face their deepest fears to unveil it before it destroys them ...

A SEAL at Heart [Mass Market Paperback]

Product Description

Being a SEAL means everything to Petty Officer First Class John Roaker. So when a head injury coupled with a bout of amnesia takes him out of the action, he has to find a way to heal his wounds and recover his lost memories. Enlisting the help of beautiful physical therapist Laurie Smith, he heals his body and discovers that his unlocked memories hold a dangerous secret about his last mission that threatens his life, his country, and the woman he's starting to fall in love with.

Golden Dawn [Hardcover]

Product Description

Trailing his IRA bomber uncle, journalist Michael Shea stumbles onto the biggest story of his life: a plot to smuggle nuclear material into Iran. Discovered and marked for death, Shea flees the Iranian secret service. His only help comes from the beautiful mystic Neda Ghazali, a member of the ancient sect of the Golden Dawn. For centuries, the sect has guarded a secret prophecy of the End Times--a prophecy that international terrorists and Iran's president are exploiting for their own gain.

Shea leaves a trail of bodies behind as he rushes to reveal the truth -- before Neda's cataclysmic prophecy comes true.

Thanks to the publishers for sending me these books to review, greatly appreciated!

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is: 

Robert B. Parker's Fool Me Twice (A Jesse Stone Novel) [Hardcover]

Product Description

Summer in Paradise, Massachusetts, is usually an idyllic season — but not this time. A Hollywood movie company has come to town, and brought with it a huge cast, crew, and a troubled star. Marisol Hinton is very beautiful, reasonably talented, and scared out of her wits that her estranged husband's jealousy might take a dangerous turn. When she becomes the subject of a death threat, Jesse and the rest of the Paradise police department go on high alert.

And when Jesse witnesses a horrifying collision caused by a distracted teenage driver, the political repercussions of her arrest bring him into conflict with the local selectment, the DA, and some people with very deep pockets. There's murder in the air, and it's Jesse's reputation as an uncompromising defender of the law — and his life — on the line.

Product Details
Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult (September 11, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399159495
ISBN-13: 978-0399159497

A Wanted Man: A Jack Reacher Novel [Hardcover]

Product Description

Reacher is back! A Wanted Man is a new masterpiece of suspense — from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child.

Four people in a car, hoping to make Chicago by morning. One man driving, eyes on the road. Another man next to him, telling stories that don’t add up. A woman in the back, silent and worried. And next to her, a huge man with a broken nose, hitching a ride east to Virginia.

An hour behind them, a man lies stabbed to death in an old pumping station. He was seen going in with two others, but he never came out. He has been executed, the knife work professional, the killers vanished. Within minutes, the police are notified. Within hours, the FBI descends, laying claim to the victim without ever saying who he was or why he was there.

All Reacher wanted was a ride to Virginia. All he did was stick out his thumb. But he soon discovers he has hitched more than a ride. He has tied himself to a massive conspiracy that makes him a threat — to both sides at once.

In Lee Child’s white-hot thriller, nothing is what it seems, and nobody is telling the truth. As the tension rises, the twists come fast and furious, keeping readers guessing and gasping until the explosive finale.

Product Details
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press; First Edition edition (September 11, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385344333
ISBN-13: 978-0385344333

Delusion in Death [Hardcover]

Product Description

It was just another after-work happy-hour bar downtown, where business professionals unwound with a few drinks . . . until something went terribly wrong. And after twelve minutes of chaos and violence, eighty people lay dead.

Lieutenant Eve Dallas is trying to sort out the inexplicable events. Surviving witnesses talk about seeing things—monsters and swarms of bees. They describe sudden, overwhelming feelings of fear and rage and paranoia. When forensics gives its report, the mass delusions make more sense: It appears the bar patrons were exposed to a cocktail of chemicals and illegal drugs that could drive anyone to temporary insanity — if not kill them outright.

But that doesn’t explain who would unleash such horror — or why. And if Eve can’t figure it out fast, it could happen again, anytime, anywhere. Because it’s airborne . . . .


Product Details
Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult (September 11, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399158812
ISBN-13: 978-0399158810

Criminal: A Novel [Hardcover]

I've finished "Criminal" the book in her Will Trent series by Karin Slaughter.

Karin Slaughter’s new novel is an epic tale of love, loyalty, and murder that encompasses forty years, two chillingly similar murder cases, and a good man’s deepest secrets.

Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him. Then a local college student goes missing, and Will is inexplicably kept off the case by his supervisor and mentor, deputy director Amanda Wagner. Will cannot fathom Amanda’s motivation until the two of them literally collide in an abandoned orphanage they have both been drawn to for different reasons. Decades before — when Will’s father was imprisoned for murder — this was his home.

Flash back nearly forty years. In the summer Will Trent was born, Amanda Wagner is going to college, making Sunday dinners for her father, taking her first steps in the boys’ club that is the Atlanta Police Department. One of her first cases is to investigate a brutal crime in one of the city’s worst neighborhoods. Amanda and her partner, Evelyn, are the only ones who seem to care if an arrest is ever made.

Now the case that launched Amanda’s career has suddenly come back to life, intertwined with the long-held mystery of Will’s birth and parentage. And these two dauntless investigators will each need to face down demons from the past if they are to prevent an even greater terror from being unleashed.
About the Author

Karin Slaughter is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of twelve thrillers, including Fallen, Broken, Undone, Fractured, Beyond Reach, Triptych, and Faithless. She is a native of Georgia.


Product Details
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press; First Edition edition (July 3, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345528506
ISBN-13: 978-0345528506

My Review:

Will Trent is a brilliant investigator working for the Georgia Bureau of Investigations and has finally found true love.  He is dyslexic, scarred psychically and psychologically from living in the streets and orphanages.  His marriage to Angie a fellow orphan has caused Will terrible grief and misery.  He has fallen for Sara Linton a brilliant pediatrician even though he is still married to Angie.

This book alternates between the 1974 - 1975 to present day.  This book opens with a group of drug addicted prostitutes who are at the mercy of a brute pimp who keeps most of the money for himself.  Nineteen year old Lucy Bennett was once a very promising student but she started taking speed to lose weight.  Then she switched to amphetamine and her life spiraled downhill from there.  Her hair has been falling out and now she is another street walker with dead eyes.

The villain is a shadowy and humongous Christian who is obsessively to controlling the prostitutes he kidnaps. The way he tortures them is very graphically described and brutally scary.

In 174 - 1975 Amanda Wagner was on her first case with the honestly pushy opinionated Eve Mitchell (Faith's mother) trying to figure out who is killing prostitutes by brutal means.  We are treated to the sexism, racism and corruption that was present during the police department during this time period.

4/5

New Releases 2012 (Sept 4)

Zoo [Hardcover]

Once in a lifetime, a writer puts it all together. This is James Patterson's best book ever.

Total

For 36 years, James Patterson has written unputdownable, pulse-racing novels. Now, he has written a book that surpasses all of them. ZOO is the thriller he was born to write.

World

All over the world, brutal attacks are crippling entire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches the escalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When he witnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of the violence to come becomes terrifyingly clear.

Destruction

With the help of ecologist Chloe Tousignant, Oz races to warn world leaders before it's too late. The attacks are growing in ferocity, cunning, and planning, and soon there will be no place left for humans to hide.

Guardian (Berkley Sensation) [Mass Market Paperback]

THEY’D DO ANYTHING FOR COUNTRY.

AND EVERYTHING FOR EACH OTHER.

After a dark ops malfunction, Major David Berg finds himself dead center in a military trial. It’s a race against time to root out the truth, and Major Sophie Campbell isn’t making that any easier. The hot JAG wants to bring down David’s unit and fast. His testimony is crucial to winning a case that will make her career. All Sophie has to do is ignore this witness’s unflappable charm, his unnerving good looks, and a strong, solid presence that commands her attention.

It’s not easy for David, either. His attraction to this take-charge beauty is turning him inside out. But these adversaries have more in common than secret, mutual desire. There’s a traitor somewhere in the dark ops and
now, to find him, David and Sophie must work together — relentlessly, tirelessly, and so intimately it could be damn near fatal.

Product Details
Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Signet (September 4, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 045123782X
ISBN-13: 978-0451237828

New Release 2012 (Sept 3)

Zoo [Hardcover]

Once in a lifetime, a writer puts it all together. This is James Patterson's best book ever.

Total

For 36 years, James Patterson has written unputdownable, pulse-racing novels. Now, he has written a book that surpasses all of them. ZOO is the thriller he was born to write.

World

All over the world, brutal attacks are crippling entire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches the escalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When he witnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of the violence to come becomes terrifyingly clear.

Destruction

With the help of ecologist Chloe Tousignant, Oz races to warn world leaders before it's too late. The attacks are growing in ferocity, cunning, and planning, and soon there will be no place left for humans to hide.


Product Details
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (September 3, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316097446
ISBN-13: 978-0316097444