Tag: adult fiction

Cold Killing Giveaway

June 1, 2013 DoingDewey Uncategorized 8

Title: Cold Killing
Author: Luke Delaney
Source: from publisher for review
Review Summary: The fascinating premise and great reviews this debut novel already has are what drew me to it, but despite (or because of) the superb writing, I couldn’t make it past some of the more graphic scenes.

The bad guy in cold killing must be a true psychopath. He hunts his victims cleverly and with an unfortunate knowledge of forensics. He selects unrelated victims, kills them in different ways, and leaves no trace of himself behind. It will take someone like D.I. Sean Corrigan, with a dark past and a resulting affinity for the dark side of human nature to even identify the existence of such a killer. Then he’ll still need to find him… Read more »

The Time of My Life

April 23, 2013 DoingDewey Uncategorized 5

Title: The Time of My Life
Author: Cecelia Ahern
Source: from publisher for a TLC Book Tour
Rating: ★★★★★
Review Summary: Clever, unique, inspirational, with a main character I could definitely relate to – I loved this book!

When Lucy receives the following letter “Dear Lucy Silchester, You have an appointment for Monday 27th July 2011. Yours sincerely Life.” it is neither a metaphor nor a joke. In this wonderful alternate reality, every person has another person who is their life. Their life reflects how things are going for their paired person in their health, appearance, and happiness levels. Needless to say, Lucy’s life is not happy. Having let her relationships and herself go while focusing on a dead-end job she doesn’t like, it’s time for Lucy to make time for her life. Read more »

Bookends About Beautiful Ruins

April 13, 2013 DoingDewey Uncategorized 2

Title: Beautiful Ruins
Author: Jess Walters
Source: from publisher for review
Rating: ★★★★★
Review Summary: I was completely blown away by the reality of this novel, with its intense emotion; believable characters; and insights into human nature.

To explain all the things this book is about would require a long summary, such as that on goodreads, but here is my best attempt at a shorter description. Beautiful Ruins involves two main stories. One, set in 1962, describes a meeting between a young, Italian innkeeper named Pasquale and a beautiful American actress named Dee. The other story follows Pasquale as, fifty years later, he tries to find the actress he felt such a connection with. In between, we get to know the many people who become part of their story, including a young assistant producer becoming disenchanted with Hollywood and a young man struggling to find his place in life. Read more »

Bookends About And Then She Fell

March 30, 2013 DoingDewey Uncategorized 6

Title: And Then She Fell
Author: Stephanie Laurens
Source: from publisher for review
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Summary: The unique premise and appealing heroine made this both a great romance and an exciting mystery.

Henrietta Cynster doesn’t believe she’s meant to fall in love. Instead she’s devoted her time to helping other young women determine if their suitors are truly motivated by love. However, when she breaks up a match that was motivated by good intentions (but not love) she feels honor-bound to help James find another bride. This being a romance, Henrietta and James are immediately attracted to one another, but their own stubbornness and some societal constraints have to be overcome before they realize it. Once they do, the book becomes largely a mystery, although one intended mainly to highlight the depths of their feeling for each other. Read more »

Bookends About 1Q84

March 24, 2013 DoingDewey Uncategorized 9

Title: 1Q84
Author: Haruki Murakami
Source: library
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Summary: Although the book was long and the ending was abrupt, I loved the writing and can’t wait to read more books by Murakami.

This book was so long and so strange that I’m not even sure where to start telling you what it was about, but I’ll do my best. The story involves two main characters and we alternate between their view points. Aomame is an assassin and Tengo is a writer. As the story progresses, they get pulled closer and closer together by events that initially seemed unrelated but which turn out to have a deep connection. The book involves questions of destiny and pre-determination, parallel worlds and some surprising magical elements. Read more »

Bookends About Soulless

November 25, 2012 DoingDewey Uncategorized 6

Title: Soulless
Author: Gail Carriger
Source: library
Rating: ★★★★★
Review Summary: It was everything I hoped for – awesome integration of a steampunk society with supernatural elements plus hilarious characters.

“First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.” Alexia is afflicted with these and a variety of other social stigmas which she bravely soldiers through, all while dealing with suspicion that she is responsible for recent vampire disappearances. She handles even the most uncouth behavior with remarkable poise, a sharp wit, and a sense of humor. And somehow, in the midst of it all, she manages to begin a startlingly wonderful romance.

One for the Money – A Bookish Movie Review

November 12, 2012 DoingDewey Uncategorized 3

This isn’t something I say very often, but… I think this story was actually better as a movie than as a book! Like Eat, Pray, Love, the ending was changed a little for extra movie drama, but with that exception the book was followed pretty faithfully. I loved that the narration included direct quotes from the book! In my ideal world, every movie based on a book would be exactly like watching the book come to life and the direct quotes captured that feeling. I also have a soft spot for movies with funny narrators. The casting was great as well. Any characters that weren’t exactly as I pictured them, were even better then I imagined. Read more »

Bookends About One for the Money

November 11, 2012 DoingDewey Uncategorized 7

Title: One for the Money
Author: Janet Evanovich
Source: library
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review Summary: This book is like junk food for your mind. It’s fun and enjoyable, but it sucks you in with humor and sex appeal rather than good writing.

One for the Money is a surprisingly plausible story about Stephanie Plum, a pretty average woman who loses her job and ends up becoming a bounty hunter. Sounds crazy, right? What makes it work is that she’s not instantly good at it. Her bumbling mishaps and witty commentary throughout are both hilarious and believable. Her strong personality and sheer stubbornness – enhanced by the fact that one of her targets, Joe Morelli, is a guy who slept with her once and never looked back – gives her the perseverance she needs to make the job work. Read more »

Bookends About The Book of Tomorrow

August 11, 2012 DoingDewey Uncategorized 5

Title: The Book of Tomorrow
Author: Cecelia Ahern
Source: from publisher for a TLC Book Tour
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Summary: An intriguing and enjoyable mystery that raises a lot of interesting questions.

Here’s the plot as I knew it going into the story: Tamara’s dad dies, her mother withdraws deeply into her grief, and the previously wealthy mother and daughter most go live with poor relations to get by. While struggling to fit into her new life, Tamara finds a book, which every night reveals the events which will happen the next day.

Based on the description, I was nervous that this book would be very emotional, bordering on too angsty or too sad for me to enjoy. I’m not sure what drew me to read it any way, perhaps the intriguing premise and cover picture, but whatever it was, my instincts were good. Although there were certainly emotional and thought-provoking elements to the story, the story felt most like a really good mystery to me. Read more »

Bookends About Pardonable Lies

July 29, 2012 DoingDewey Uncategorized 2

Title: Pardonable Lies
Author: Jacqueline Winspear
Source: library
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Review Summary: A little more paranormal than I expected this series to get, which threw me, but also much more exciting and action-packed than previous books in the series.

Hello all! I’m currently recovering at my parents’ house in Ohio after the first leg of my move, before heading on to Ithaca on Tuesday, so it’s a great time to get this post up for the summer book club being hosted by Jessica of Quirky Bookworm. This is actually the third book in the Maisie Dobbs series (my review of the first is here) and like all of the books I’ve read so far (through the fourth in the series) it includes a case related to the aftermath of WWI as well as a case that makes Maisie think about her personal experiences in the war. Her first case is an odd one, as she is asked to prove that a man’s son did not survive the war. This leads to a more personal investigation, helping a friend learn about a brother lost in the war under mysterious circumstances. Read more »