that nerd

I went into this book thinking it would just be an all-out gore fest, people eating people, let's see how much we can shock the reader extravaganza. Yes, there were shocking parts. Parts that were so descriptive and gory and cruel I could barely read through them (the descriptions of how the meat is processed and especially the parts where the author talked about the calves.) But, there was a story here, too. There were characters you liked, characters you hated. You wanted to keep reading to see if the characters you hated were going to get just what they deserved. The story itself is pretty predictable. It's no big secret what the “meat” everyone eats is. I figured out too the secret about Shanti, but that still took nothing away from this book. The story itself and especially the afterword will make you think twice about where your food comes from. I can definitely say that when I started reading this book, I didn't think it would be one that I would end up giving 5 stars to. I am pleasantly surprised at that. D'Lacey definitely writes a good story.

“Horrible” is all I can think of to describe this book. Even the one or two stories that were halfway decent couldn't save this travesty of a collection. Apparently, just thinking about zombies or being dressed up like zombies in the story made it qualify as a zombie tale, and therefore made it eligible for inclusion in this book. I have The Living Dead 2, and here's to hoping that it's better than this (when I can bring myself to read it, that is.)

This book was great. I admit, I never would have read it had Barnes and Noble not offered it up as one of their Free Fridays selections, though. They did, and I read it and it was quite enjoyable to read about that era. Godbersen, IMO, writes about that era quite well. The only reason I didn't give the book 5 stars is that it just seems things come TOO easily for the 3 girls. Sure, Cordelia's father gets killed, Astrid catches Charlie in bed with another girl, and Letty gets taken to a bachelor, expected to strip, and then kicked out of her home by her roomies, but still, in spite of these things, things still seem to have worked out for the girls. Not that I wanted bad things to happen to the girls, it's just that the author resolved their conflicts WAY too easily. But, it's a good book and I will definitely get around to reading the second one in the series.

I LOVED this book. I can't believe that I waited so long to read it. It's sat on my nook since back around April and I'm just kicking myself for waiting so long to read it. I love the character Jacob. The story itself was fabulous. When a book sucks you in from the first page, you know you have a winner.

I couldn't decide between two or three stars for this book. I decided on three because the book did hold my attention enough that I read it quickly, in spite of how frustrated I was.

Birdie Kimble has to be one of the most annoying characters I have encountered in all my reading. I'm not sure if Haigh meant for her to come across this way or if she wanted the readers to feel sorry for Birdie because her husband has abandoned her and she just can't cope. I had trouble feeling sorry for the alcoholic mother that neglects her children all because her husband has jumped ship. It happens. You still have to be a mother. Put on your big girl panties and get on with your life.

I liked Joan quite a bit more, but was still amazed by how easily she fell in with Ken. Seems she shouldn't have been taken so easily by him after her past relationships and all that she had been through in her life. It's not as if he was some otherworldly creature capable of hypnotizing these women and making them fall in love with them. He was only a man.

Dinah, I felt sorry for as a wife and a mother. Realizing what her husband was made me feel sorry for her, but ultimately she found her happiness.

All of Ken's children, especially Charlie, I did like and found them all to be well-written characters. The book could've been better, especially if Haigh had given us a reason WHY Ken Kimble did the things he did. Not a great book, not a bad book, but a book that's okay to read if you want to kill some time.

I loved, loved, loved this book. Good characters & good story. I enjoyed reading about this period in history.

I wanted so badly to LOVE this book. I wanted it to take up residence on my “favorites” shelf. The subject matter of this book, I just knew, as soon as I saw it, this was right up my alley. I promptly put it on my wish list over at barnes and noble, high priority, even. When I saw that the nookbook had one day dropped in price to $3.99 from $14+, I got that tingly feeling that only getting a much-wanted book at a bargain price can give.

The story started okay, explaining who the character was, her predicament and the hows and whys of how she got there. After that, the story pretty much dropped off and it just felt like it was all over the place and NOTHING was resolved. What happened to her sister and Cole? What happened to the people that ran the home she spent those six weeks at? There was mention that the Novembrists might do something to them, but nothing ever happened. Her situation with Aidan, I felt there was no resolution there either. I was sorely disappointed with the story and felt like the author just hurried up and finished. It's almost as if Hillary Jordan got tired of writing and said “screw it, I'm done, let's wrap it up and put a bow on it.” I give the book three stars because the idea behind the book is a good one and I did enjoy reading about that. This is just another one of those books that I feel the author could've done so much more with.

I remember a time when I would tear through an Ann Rule like nobody's business. I don't know what has happened to her writing. This book felt like a chore to me and I was glad to see it end. Also, I don't care for her needlessly inserting herself into a story. In one of the stories, she mentions REPEATEDLY that her children attended school with the missing woman's children. This is NOT relevant, IMO, especially since she didn't know the missing woman, the children weren't friends, and she didn't even know anything about the missing woman's case until years later. I guess I just became less of a fan after reading The Stranger Beside Me and saw how hard she tried to make a story where there really wasn't one. I want to like her books, I do. But, she needs to write the stories and not insert herself into them.

This was a good, quick read. I like the author's writing style. She wrote her characters well and the story flowed nicely. I wouldn't mind reading more by her.

I don't want to say anything bad about this book, but I can't say anything great about it either. It wasn't easy to read for me. It didn't flow well, but that can be because she translated the book herself. I found myself skimming over parts because, I hate to say it, I was bored silly. This is one of those books you just feel like you're supposed to like it, rate it 5 stars, but you feel guilty because you can't.

This was a good, quick read. It made me laugh out loud a few times and while I found the characters likeable, I didn't find myself getting attached to any of them. I felt the story could have moved at a much quicker pace than what it did, too. I'm not sure what that says, considering this book was less than 300 pages (on my nook.) I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, but I can say it made for good “filler” reading or “fluff” - whichever one you'd want to call it.

This was a quick read, I managed to get through it in a few hours. The book was good, the main character likable, but the story was almost painfully predictable. That being said, the author was just 17 when she wrote this, 19 when it was published. So, I would call that an impressive feat, especially since I have no complaints about the writing itself. I couldn't recommend this to younger teens simply because of the language (I can't count the number of f-bombs dropped in the book) and the subject matter of the book.

This book started out decent. It could've been a good ghost story, even if it was predictable. But then, all of a sudden, there's a zombie? What the..? The only reason I give the book two stars is because it started out decent and it did have the potential to be good. Why the author switched it up and brought out the zombie, I don't know.

This was an okay book at best. Vaught did take a sensitive subject and write about it from an interesting perspective. I felt bad for every single character in this book and Vaught was able to explain the whys and hows of the emotions these characters were feeling. All in all, I think this was a good read, but not something for just light, pass-the-time reading, by any means.

I can't do it. I can't read this book. When I reached the part about 20-25 pages in where the author starts describing a just released convict invading a home, murdering the parents, and molesting the daughter, I could not continue. Disgusting and unnecessary as it was implied earlier that this person was a child molester. This was just unnecessary graphic detail that was NOT needed. Based on THAT alone, I will never pick up another book by this author.

This book was worth the $0.99 I paid for it, but there's no way I'd ever pay full price for it. I can't say I'll continue with this series OR read another book by this author, though. I didn't care for the characters, even though I thought the storyline was okay. I found the heroine VERY annoying. She gets angry when her love interest doesn't just take what she says at face value (“you don't believe me” blah blah), and it feels like one minute the author is trying to write her as a strong female lead, then the next as a weakling. Is she anti-relationship or does she want a relationship? Why is she so weak and naive when it comes to the woman she is so hellbent on helping? Felt like the author adjusted the character for that particular point of the story. I also found it annoying that there was practically NO character development for the villain of the story. I could have done without the sex scenes and romantic subplot, but I guess as this is a “romantic suspense” book, I shouldn't complain about that.

I read maybe 1/3 of this book before I gave up. I don't care for the writing, the characters (the mom is a TOTAL bitch), anything about this book. I will say that I skipped through and read the last several pages to see what happened, to see if the book had the same ending as the movie (it doesn't.) I read this one in paperback, but I have another book by Jodi Picoult (Plain Truth) on my e-reader, and if it's anything like this one, I won't be reading it all the way through, either.

I picked this up without knowing it was the second book in a series. Even still, I read it and enjoyed the book. Being just the second book, I don't feel like I missed much, but I wouldn't mind going back and reading the first one. I liked the way this written; the short chapters are nice when you have just a few minutes at a time to read. To be fair, I was torn between 3 and 4 stars for this book. I think it would be fair to say this book is worthy of 3.5 stars. It wasn't “OMG WOW” good, but it definitely kept me guessing throughout. My only complaint is that the ending felt a little bit rushed.

I couldn't decide between 4 and 5 stars for this book, but ultimately, I decided it is worth 5. It's well written and extremely detailed in Sean Vincent Gillis's life, crimes, and his trial. The book also tells about the lives of his victims. Anyone that lives in south Louisiana will be thoroughly terrified after reading this book and realizing how many serial killers were operating in Baton Rouge at the same time. The authors also touch on details of those killers as well as other well-known crimes. All in all, this was a great read, even if reading the gruesome details of this cold-blooded monster's crimes did make my stomach turn more than once when the author described them.

Great book. I grabbed this when it was offered as a Free Fridays selection for my nook at barnes and noble. Partway through reading it, I picked up the next two books in the series for 99c each. I like the author and the main character. I also like how the story played out. It kept me guessing up until the end.

I decided to push aside my other reading and buy this book and read it. While this book is very good, it is VERY hard to read. Jaycee Dugard is VERY graphic in describing the abuse she suffered at the hands of Garrido. I had to stop reading and just take a break from it. If not for that, this book can easily be read in one sitting. This is a quick read, but she really gets the point across how miserable her life was with the Garridos, how sick her kidnapper was and how badly she wanted to go home. She also gets across just how strong her spirit is. She truly is a remarkable woman and it's nothing short of amazing that she survived this ordeal along with her daughters.

Quick read. Three stars for the story and another one for the fact that the author managed to wrap it all up in one book instead of dragging it out into a three or four book series like you see so often now. This was my first read by Melissa Marr and I enjoyed her writing. I'll be reading more by her.

This book took me way longer than it should've to finish. (It was only 206 pages on my nook. It wasn't the book itself that kept me from finishing, just didn't have time to read lately.) It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't great either. It just felt like it took forever to get anywhere. All in all, a decent read, but I'm in no hurry to read the second book.

The only reason it took me so long to read this book is I took a break from reading and didn't pick it up for over a month. Otherwise, this could've been read in one or two sittings. This book is absolutely hilarious and made me laugh out loud more times than I can count. This is definitely one of the funniest books I've read in a while and is a must-read, even if you don't care for reading books written by celebrities.

Awful, terrible, horrible. Yeah, that about sums it up. All I can say is thank goodness I only paid $1.99 for this e-book (and the second one in the series was a freebie from b&n.) The entire story felt like the author just threw together as many different story lines as he could, tried to tie them together, failed miserably, so at the end, just said screw it and gave a couple pages where he threw all the characters together and said “this is what happened.”