My new goal

I am seemingly forever behind in blogosphere and I have a new goal of trying to post the reviews of my books almost as soon as I finish them because although I don’t forget a lot about the books I tend to forget exactly how I feel about it if I write the review after starting another book.

I am currently reading GET A CLUE by Jill Shalvis which was recommended to me by someone in my  yahoo group BookLoversGroup
I am finding it slightly hard to get into and I think it’s because it might be classified as a straight romance, not my normal cup of tea. I can read romances as long as there is something more meaty to go along with the story. There have been very few true romances that I find I enjoy. Don’t get me wrong I live for the Happily Ever After, but as long as I feel it was earned. I am not a fan of instant gratification, which I think is why I prefer to read long running series as opposed to independent novels. Don’t get me wrong, I read everything however, I know where my heart lies and that is with the characters these amazing authors create.

Does anyone else ever try to create reading goals for themselves? I used to do it a lot, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside since I worked the Christmas season at Barnes & Noble last year. I love books, but I never had time to read and that just seemed to be ironical to me. Working at my own personal Disney World and I couldn’t even find the time to enjoy the many adventures the books could provide me.

So starting in November my goal is to try and blog about my reading at least every day in some way or another in the hopes that I will again be inspired by those very adventures I missed along the way.

44 Cranberry Point by Debbie Macomber

ISBN:  9780778320739

Publisher:  Harlequin

Series:  Cedar Cove #4

Rating:  B

Peggy and Bob Beldon have been living on the brink of insanity ever since the death of Max Russell, one of Bob’s war buddies in their B & B Thyme and Tide.  However, this isn’t the first death of one of Bob’s war buddies which has both Peggy and Bob trying to find some answers.

Macomber’s Cedar Cove series is definitely one of those series where you always feel like you belong.  There is no distinction between age/race or class, everyone in Cedar Cove feels like best friends or family.  The way she started this series with 16 LIGHTHOUSE ROAD and has built upon that first novel and it’s characters through each successive novel has been seamless.  Each new novel picks up where the last leaves off and as a reader you aren’t forced to a retelling of the previous events in the characters lives in painstaking detail.

In 44 CRANBERRY POINT, I can’t say that I was completely shocked by the events that transpired in Bob and Peggy’s story.  As a reader I pay attention to my authors and how they write because that is how I know their voice.  Macomber isn’t one I would consider to be transparent however she makes me wonder which allows me to think outside of what I would expect and to think about what/how I would like to see things play out.  However, with the victor comes the spoils and that is my only issue; that I am able to somewhat “see” where she is taking me before it happens.

Contemporary romance is not what I would normally consider a favorite genre of mine however being introduced to a few authors they have been added to my must read list with their ability to create characters I want to know more about.  Macomber has an amazing talent for creating these characters and only giving you a small piece of their stories in each novel keeps me coming back for more.

I can’t wait to visit with my friends in Cedar Cove again soon because I can’t wait to find out what happens with my favorite neighbors.

Sweet Trouble by Susan Mallery

ISBN:  9780373773053

Publisher:  Harlequin

Rating:  B

Jesse Keyes has spent the last 4 years learning how to be an adult.  She has spent almost 5 years away from Seattle and her life prior to giving birth to 4 year old Gabe.  It’s always a profound moment when the prodigal child returns home.  How will Nicole, Claire and Matt react to the new and hopefully improved Jesse?  Open the pages of SWEET TROUBLE and find out.

Susan Mallery has written some of the most amazing heroes, sadly Matt is not one of them.  I honestly don’t remember a time when I have despised a hero more.  In typical HEA fashion he does appear to have changed, however his character was too far gone for me to care or believe.  Since Mallery usually writes such inspired famliy sagas, however I feel that the Keyes family fell flat.  Her characters never seemed to become 3 dimensional with 2 notable exceptions, Claire and Hawk and they weren’t even a matched set.

If you are looking for some incredible characters and a strong romance, try her Buchanan series.  Mallery wrote some amazing characters in that series.

I also have to admit that I don’t feel like this story is over.  It didn’t seem to end cleanly.  As a huge series reader, I hope that when a series ends that I will feel closure.  I don’t feel that I was given closure in this series, so here’s to hoping there will be a #4 in this series.

Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini Singh

ISBN:  9780425223253

Publisher:  Penguin Group USA

Rating:  A

Ashaya Aleine appears to be the “perfect” psy in the minds of the Psy Council.  What they don’t know is that she was never one to be silenced physically or metaphysically.  Ashaya has heart, whether or not she can understand it.

I adore the way that Nalini Singh has written this series and part of me keeps waiting for that one character that just won’t work for me, fortunately for me it hasn’t happened yet.

Characters are important to me as a reader, which I think is why I tend to favor series writing rather than independent stories because I always want to know more after the book ends.    I tend to not appreciate “urban fantasy” as a genre, however the Psy series by Singh appears to be my one exception at least so far.  The world that she has created has held me captive and always anticipating my next travel into the net mind.

Nalini Singh has a fresh voice in a market flooded with authors trying to make it in the paranormal genre.  She has created her own place in that market and I thank her for having the blog challenge for the first book in this series, Slave to Sensation otherwise I fear I would have missed out on one of my favorite series ever written.  I’ve tried to find an author whom I can compare her to, and so far I have been completely unsuccessful because she truly is a unique talent and this series is one I will recommend to anyone who is looking for something new to read.

The Camel Club by David Baldacci

ISBN:  9780641781292

Publisher:  Grand Central Publishing

Rating:  B
The Camel Club is made up of 4 men on the outskirts of DC society who only seek the truth; however they tend to seek it in the most obscure places.  For those of you who have ever seen Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts will appreciate this series and it’s cast of nutty but honest characters.  Each member of The Camel Club comes with their own past and unique view on our politics and government and these men have been known to prevent catastrophes from occurring just by having a well placed spy and knowing who to listen to.

The Camel Club is unprepared for the events that unfold after they witness a brutally professional murder after one of their meetings.  However, their investigation into the murder of the man on Roosevelt Island is nothing in comparison to what has yet to occur.

I picked up The Camel Club expecting to be transported into a novel reminiscent of The Da Vinci Code; however I was truly not expecting to sucked into a book that is full of religion, politics, conspiracies, hope and a government that at it’s core is pure, but in operation is Evil.  The Camel Club takes the reader to a very real fiction post 9/11 world.  There were times that while listening to this in my car to work that I found myself lowering the volume because of some of the ideas and plots this book brought to the front and center.  I wasn’t ashamed of reading this book, but there are very powerful moments in it that if heard out of context would have seemed at the very least inappropriate.  The potential discomfort didn’t last long it was just a mark of how well I felt the story was being told that I was even able to think beyond the words I was hearing to a deeper place.

Although a lot of the plot was surreal and could not possibly happen in our world today, Baldacci still transported me from my reality and re planted me in his, so that is truly the mark a good story teller.  Because although I knew better, I was still taken away.

I will be visiting with The Camel Club again soon.