Kari

There's always excitement in the Women's Murder Club books. There's so much going on and things are happening so quickly. The stories are believable and yet still crazy enough to keep you reading. I like that they take place in San Francisco because I can easily picture all the scenes in my head.

That being said, Lindsay and Yuki bother me. I don't know why, I can't quite put my finger on it, but they do. It all works out in the end, but they just seem to be completely obnoxious about everything throughout the book.

Oh, and Cindy's pretty much an idiot most of the time. Why is that?!

5/3/19
I cried again.

8/30/12
One of the best in the series.

You can read my full review here:http://knowitnotsomuch.blogspot.com/2012/08/buried-prey_30.html
no spoilers.

I liked this one. It was interesting. I liked the pictures that accompanied the story. The story was different, felt original. I loved Emma and Jacob. I wish Abe could have been a bit more of a presence in the book in the beginning, but I enjoyed the twists and turns. Even when I thought I knew what was going on, I was always not quite right!

Alexandria is close to one of the most annoying characters I have had the displeasure of reading. As I type this I'm about halfway through the book so I don't have high hopes for her changing any time soon.

**Finished the books, and no, she doesn't get any better.

At least twice in every chapter she says something like ‘At the RC we did...' or ‘they never did this at the RC' or something along those lines. And she's so forced granola crunchy it's painful. Sure I care about being socially conscience, but she takes it to the extreme and does not shut up about it. She reminds me of Zara from the Need trilogy by Carrie Jones with her letters Amnesty International letters. Well, Zara on steroids is more accurate. Zara was never this zealous or obnoxious about her causes. Alex doesn't have a cause, she just wants to bitch about everything that isn't the RC.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Katie Crouch's foray into YA fiction is so one dimensional and frustrating. Girls in Trucks was one of my least favorite books and while this is a completely different genre it still has the same dry tone.

Even after reading the book in the library about Hoodoo and how it's different than Voodoo when all is revealed to her she goes on and on about how they aren't ‘African' and Voodoo is crazy talk. Whenever anyone tells her something about magic or Hoodoo that doesn't fit into her idea of okay she dismisses it as untrue or impossible. Ummm, really?

I will say that The Magnolia League was a little more interesting than Girls in Trucks. Mostly, because it had a plot, but I'm not sure I'll be continuing with the series.

One of the most iconic Batman images for me, and for many others I would expect, is the four volume paperback cover with Batman on the floor cradling a broken and bloodied - and dead - Robin. So when Red Hood showed up it was a little confusing. Sure, there have been resurrections in the DC universe, but I had missed this one entirely.

Under the Red Hood is fantastic. Jason Todd is back (again as we ‘saw' him in Hush) and he is determined to clean up the streets of Gotham in a way that Batman was never capable of doing. He sees Batman's morality as a weakness and while he's working way at Black Mask's hold on Gotham he's actually setting the stage for his ultimate showdown with the man who he thought of as a father.

Gripping, tightly wound and emotional.

Another good read by Nora Roberts. You can read my full review (spoiler free) here: http://knowitnotsomuch.blogspot.com/2012/08/chasing-fire.html

I don't even know what happened in this book.

Seriously.

I felt like I was missing something the whole time. Like I was coming into the series on the second book. It's not mysterious, it's annoying.

I don't know. I just didn't see the point of the story. It has an interesting concept, but it's not told in a pleasing way.

When I saw that this was the last book in this series I was incredibly relieved. I know, I really should have stopped reading them 4 books ago, but I kept hoping they'd get better and then I just had to know how it ended.

This time Damen was the annoying one with his selfishness and hypocritical attitude. It was such a switch and still Ever is not my favorite book character by a long shot.

Alyson Noel's writing is borderline awful. The sentence structure is bizarre. Too many sentences beging with ‘Knowing'. Ever is constantly knowing something. It bugs me. I've said it before and it still holds true. I think because the book is told from Ever's perspective and Noel's writing is so bad that is why I can't stand Ever.

So glad that's over.

This book....even better than the previous two. Sam and Grace were amazing and Cole was even more than I thought anyone could be. Brilliant.

We started out good with a possible serial team and a corrupt cop case, but then there were 87 plot twists and Rhyme obviously figured them all out right on time with little explanation and I was done.

The book jumps back in forth in time to tell the story of before and during and then and while it should be confusing with a jumble of different characters it's not. You yearn to know how everyone is intertwined - because you know they must be - and you revel in each little step taken through their journey.

Sometimes when I'm reading a book where there is an ensemble of characters I get frustrated when the focus shifts from one character to the next. Inevitably there is always at least one character I don't care where their story take them. That is not so with The Night Circus.

I'm enthralled by Bailey, Poppet & Widget and their mysterious adventures. What Bailey's future holds for him and Poppet & Widget's easy acceptance and friendship. Isobel is at times seemingly bitter and cunning, but then maybe that's just what I expect her to be and not what she really is. Of course, Celia and Marco. Tsukiko, Chandresh, Tante, Lainie & Tara, Mr. Barris, Herr Thiessen....they're all incredibly fascinating and add bits and bits of revelation to the mystery at hand.

I found Hector/Prospero to be completely horrid. Alexander showed more love for Marco than Hector ever did for Celia. Everything Hector ever did was done to Celia, not for her. The affection he showed her was merely a fake face. Alexander was the genuine one. Though that doesn't make him exempt from his choices it does make him more human.

I did get a little confused during October 21-November 1, 1901 & 1902. Because it was switching back and forth so quickly I would have to double back and see what year I was in. There were questions and mysteries I felt were never answered, but for some reason I wasn't disappointed. Some mysterious are better left as mysteries.

Ohmygod worst graphic novel EVER.

You can read my full review here: http://knowitnotsomuch.blogspot.com/2012/02/true-blood-all-together-now.html

This took awhile for me to get into it, but I liked the characters a lot. I'm curious to see how Gabriel is lured into coming back to work in the second novel!

Sooooo good! Creeped me out better than any movie could! Loved it!

Part of my lukewarm reception to this book was the mistake of watching the series first. This book was an episode from the second or third season so it was pretty familiar to me. But Wallander was not a likable character here in the books. Sure, he has his faults on the show, but here he's just a plain jerk who (of course) drinks too much and has driven all his family away.

Definitely the writing of a newcomer, but the story is well told nonetheless. It reminds me of Stephenie Meyer. She's not a fantastic writer, but she could certainly tell a story and that's what Colleen Houck has done. Her descriptions of sites and feelings were perfect, you felt like you could see, smell and hear everything. There were times however, where it felt like she was unnecessarily explaining something. It's hard to describe and it's such a minor thing really. One example was the two times she described how Kelsey boiled water, added it to the dehydrated food and waited for it to become edible. Little things, but they added length to a book that already seemed long enough and it's the first in a ‘multi-book saga'. My other thing is completely a publishing decision, but this book in hardcover was barely over 400 pages but it was by far the heaviest book I've had to hold onto! I highly recommend waiting for paperback!

I felt like this was a volume full of background. There wasn't much of a specific plot going around, but certain things were revisited and we get more background on Tony. There's the rooster from International Flavor, Mason shows up for a second, we meet his previous partner and Tony's family (he has a lot of siblings!). There's not a specific case in this volume, just either wrapping things up or connecting the dots to other cases.

I've become quite attached to Tony at this point nonetheless so I'll read on and anyway, with a cliffhanger like that how can I not read the next volume!?

A good, short read. You can read my full review on my blog at http://knowitnotsomuch.blogspot.com/2013/01/darkness-under-sun.html

Not doubt, this was a sad a read. I couldn't cry though. I was too stunned by the beauty of the compassion. When Eve and Nyetta meet at Lark's house and Nyetta tells Eve about what she's seen, what she is unable to do Eve want to make it better for the younger girl and I loved that.

This one took me a little time to get into, but once I did I was into it! There were moments I wanted to jeer or cheer out loud. Great story, I loved Dixie!

I'm not a fan of this teenage Carrie Bradshaw, but I guess that's the point, right? To see how much New York changed her from this wide-eyed, naive girl to the Carrie Bradshaw we loved. But it is fun to see Samantha and Miranda in the early days too.

Slightly more entertaining than Kathy Reichs's Tempe series it's still along those same lines. Very clinical at times, yet interesting and engaging. There were times though where I felt like the author was going on a tangent that had nothing to do with the story at all. Nonetheless I was entertained (though I wish there was more Body Farm interaction).

I pride myself on following the clues in the books I read to their logical conclusion and for the second time Penny's killer took me by surprised. To my credit this was a shorter story so there wasn't a lot of story to go on, but still while I was reading I was questioning things and for some reason the killer's true identity alluded me!

I love her writing. I love Three Pines. Armand is a wonderful character and his supporting cast are just as delightful. The only thing I didn't love is the cover art. All of her other books have gorgeous covers and this one, while it fits the story it was kind of out of place. The story itself was too short to really get into, but a fun time filler.

Smiley is not a dumb as we might have originally thought!

My review of the entire series is on my blog at http://knowitnotsomuch.blogspot.com/2013/01/bone.html

This review is for all four volumes of 7 Billion Needles.

This was on the border of being really interesting and making absolutely no sense to me. Everything was good until volume three when the subspecies and the Moderator were the focal point and things got very science-fictiony. It was intense.

I think that ultimately the series was about friendship. It seems so simple and almost cheesy after all that, but when it all came down to it there seemed to be the overriding theme of loneliness. Once Hikaru was taken in by Nao and Saya she wasn't so lonely and was able to open up more. Which then prompted her to help Chika who she saw as herself before Nao and Saya. Hikaru became a spectator (who actually mostly just ignored everyone) to an active human. She participated in life which ended up allowing her to save the world.

More sci-fi than I usually read, but I enjoyed it thoroughly!