Book Review: Calculated Risk by Zoe M. McCarthy

Believing they're too opposite to attract, a jilted, vibrant marketing gal and a private numbers guy spend Thanksgiving with his family. She loves classical music; he listens to 70s tunes. She drives a red SUV; he owns a beige sedan. She orders a peppermint shake with extra chocolate bits; he prefers vanilla. What can change the improbable odds they'll fall in love?

 

When I first picked this book up, I had no idea that it was a Christian romance novel. Not that this genre is a bad but I just prefer to not read them. I enjoy a well placed f-word and based on the previous Christian romance books that I've read in the past, they are just very slow paced and everyone is sugary sweet and almost unrealistic. 

Unfortunately, that's what I found with this one as well. The characters were ... okay. I didn't find myself drawn to either character because I wasn't interested in them at all. They had these emotions about breakups that should have endeared Cisney and Nick to me but it didn't happen. I think it may have been because the conversations were dull and honestly, the characters were dull as well. I was just plain bored after the first chapter or so. 

There were these weird things that would happen ... this thing with the post-its ... Cisney would write basically every thought that she had, on a post-it. Nothing wrong with that and it doesn't seem weird to me ... I do it all the time. But the way this author wrote about her habit, she made it sound like Cisney was hiding dead cats in her bathtub and then reading them a bedtime story at night. McCarthy made  Cisney sound like a weirdo for writing on pieces of paper. I totally didn't get that.

I don't want to give anything away but in the beginning, Cisney is talking to someone about this piano and someone refers to the piano as "The Old Girl" and Cisney thinks that it's crass for them to call a piano that name. I guess it's just me but I don't see how calling an inanimate object The Old Girl is being insensitive. OR irreverent. If someone runs into the middle of a church service and starts heckling the pastor, THAT would be irreverent. I mean ... I guess you could say that the nickname is irreverent if you worship the piano or something ... I don't know. It was just weird. I didn't get those two things and that is where I started to pull away from the book. 

The rest of the novel was uneventful. The characters within the book are perfect - particularly Nick's family - and it made for a very bland read. Something was just missing and it was a healthy dose of umph. You know, the stuff that makes you think back on a book and be like, "WOW! THAT CHANGED MY LIFE". Unfortunately, this didn't change anything except my views on Christian romance novels ... I'll not be reading another one. Ever. I just need a tad bit more excitement to keep me interested, I guess. 

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

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Review: Trapped (Private Justice #2) by Irene Hannon

 

When librarian Laura Griffin's sixteen-year-old sister disappears on a frigid February day, leaving only a brief note behind, Laura resolves to do whatever it takes to track down the runaway teen. That includes recruiting ATF agent turned PI James "Dev" Devlin to help. But the deeper he digs, the more he begins to suspect that something sinister is at work in the girl's disappearance. And the closer he gets to uncovering the truth, the clearer it becomes that the situation isn't just dangerous--it's deadly.
 

Chilling and at times terrifying, "Trapped" is the latest thrilling read from Irene Hannon, the queen of romantic suspense. Hannon outdoes herself with this fast-paced tale of fear, deception, and just the right dose of romance.

This is the first novel that I've read by Irene Hannon and honestly, I received this book a long time ago. Somehow it just fell through the cracks in my TBR list. All in all, it was a great novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. I will definitely pick up another novel by her ... if my huge issue with this book is resolved!! More on that a bit later ...

Now, this is the second book in a series and while I usually don't start a series in the middle because you never know if there is pertinent information that you might have missed by not reading the prior books, I'm glad that I didn't shy away from it. I don't think that I missed anything pertaining to this story by not reading the previous novel. It really could be a stand alone, I believe. So if you're interested in this one and you haven't read the first one, go ahead. It's good and you won't be disappointed.

I really enjoyed the character development. I was able to get to know Laura and Dev quite easily and become attached to them really fast. The way that Hannon wrote Laura, I really felt for her in her current situation. I was able to kind of coast along on her emotional roller-coaster as if she was a friend of mine. Same with Dev. I loved both of these main characters and I enjoyed all of the secondary characters as well.

There was a real sense of fulfillment when I finished this novel. I didn't have any questions unanswered or sense anything was left unfinished. Like I said, all in all, it was a great novel.

But. BUUUUUT. As my grandfather would say, this really chapped my ass. The copy I received did not say that it was an ARC. If you aren't familiar with the term ARC, it means Advanced Reader Copy ... basically it means that there will be some editing issues, either grammar or otherwise, within the novel but that the publishing house wanted to get these complimentary copies out as quickly as possible to get reviews all set up before the novel actually drops. Anyway, reading an ARC doesn't bother me - I know that I'm in store for some editing issues and I'm okay with that. But when this novel didn't say that it was an ARC and EVERY SINGLE word that has "ff" or "ffi" missing ... this is a problem. A big problem. Because it pulls you away from the story every time you have to decipher what these words are: oense, oce, o-limits, o, puy, muns, oers, o-the-cu. In case you couldn't figure it out, those words are offense, office, off-limits, off, puffy, muffins, offers, off-the-cuff ... and that was just a few!! It was all over the book and on every single freaking page. To be honest, I wanted to give the book even lower ratings because of this but I just couldn't because the story line was so great. I'm betting that there are some people who just wouldn't read the damn thing after the 785th spelling issue. I don't know what donkey messed up and had all of the ff's and ffi's deleted but I would really like to poke them in the eye.

Now that I'm done with my long rant, this was really a good book. I'm hoping that the above F-issue was resolved for final e-book copy that is everywhere. Because if it isn't, I'm grabbing a torch and I'm going to storm the publishing company castle.

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Review: Unlimited: A Novel by Davis Bunn

Simon Orwell is a brilliant student whose life has taken a series of wrong turns. At the point of giving up on his dreams, he gets a call from an old professor who has discovered a breakthrough in a device that would create unlimited energy, and he needs Simon's help.

But once he crosses the border, nothing goes as the young man planned. The professor has been killed and Simon is assaulted and nearly killed by members of a powerful drug cartel.

Now he must take refuge in the only place that will help him, a local orphanage. There, Simon meets Harold Finch, the orphanage proprietor who walked away from a lucrative career with NASA and consulting Fortune 500 companies to serve a higher cause.

With Harold's help, Simon sets out on a quest to uncover who killed the professor and why. In due time, he will discover secrets to both the worldchanging device and his own unlimited potential.

This is the first novel that I've read from Davis Bunn and unfortunately, as excited as I was to read this, it just didn't really work for me. Man, I read the first few chapters and I was really enjoying getting to know the characters, the action was awesome and the storyline was great. But then it just fizzled out. 

I'm not totally for sure where it actually went wrong. I really connected with the main character, Simon. I thought that he was intriguing and I couldn't wait to get to know him more. But then he became one of those characters that was great at everything and knew everything ABOUT everything and it became tiresome. Even with the intrigue about his past, I was just bored with him. It almost felt like a cop out ... having the character perfect except for one thing in his past. I don't want to read about a perfect person ... I want someone who is flawed and struggling and that is what I thought that Unlimited had in store for me because of the beginning of the novel.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just sensitive to that because the constant preaching. Well, it wasn't preaching but it was too much. I know that this is a Christian Fiction novel. But this felt like it was being force-fed to the reader. If I wanted to read the Bible, I would have picked it up instead of this book. I found myself rolling my eyes at the, "What God has in store" comments that happened frequently. Maybe I'm not the Christian that this book was made for. I don't know that I could ever really enjoy a book that made me question my faith - i.e. Am I not Christian enough because I find this annoying?!? All I know is, after I was about halfway through the book, I just kept picturing Elaine from Seinfeld and the whole Jesus fish thing.

I wish that the excitement hadn't tapered off. I think it would have kept my attention more if the action had kept at the same pace it was in the beginning. I'm obviously in the minority with this one because there are only a hand-full of negative ratings, most everyone loves it so if you are on the fence, go ahead and get it ... statistically speaking, you'll probably like it. Good luck!

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Review: Thy Kingdom Fall (After Eden #1) by Austin Dragon

Thy Kingdom Fall is the provocative, debut thriller of author Austin Dragon--a dramatic mix of politics, religion, and intrigue set over 75 years in the future. In 2089, a former skin-runner-turned-star-reporter investigates the Washington DC daylight murder of the most powerful political king-maker in the nation. It is just the tip of a wider conspiracy and the start of a chain of events leading to the explosion of World War III. It is the first in the epic After Eden series.

I am one of those people that think DNF statuses for books is a cop out. For those of you who don't know what DNF means, it's short for Did Not Finish. Now, sure, there are books that are hard to get into but 99.998% of the time, I'll push through. That way, I can at least give a full, informed evaluation of the book in question. But then I came across this book.

I first received Thy Kingdom Fall over a year ago from the publisher and I was super excited to dive into it. I thought that the premise was interesting and I was so glad that I was chosen to give it a read. That first day of reading, it was almost painful. I was forcing myself to read just one more sentence. Reading should be enjoyable. Reading became torture. So I put the book down. I do this every once in a while because sometimes, I'm just not in the right mindset. I picked it back up a few weeks later but had the same results again. And then again. And again. Over and over. I was on a nightmarish ferris wheel that no one would let me off of.

Finally, I put the book down for 3 months. I didn't think about it, didn't even glance at the cover. That was at the beginning of August. And now it's the 26th and finally, I'm going to stop beating a dead horse. I can't go any further with this novel. 

Now keep in mind, there are tons of people who really enjoyed this book and you might be one of them. If it sounds awesome, check it out and let me know how it goes. I hope it goes better for you than it did for me. 

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Save the Date

Title: Save the Date

Author: Jenny B. Jones

Date Published: January 2011

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Pages: 312

★★★★★

You are cordially invited to the wedding of the year with the most unlikely bride and groom. Save the date . . . and say your prayers.

When funding for Lucy's non-profit job is pulled, she is determined to find out why. Enter Alex Sinclair, former professional football star and heir to Sinclair Enterprises--the primary donor to Lucy's non-profit organization.

Both Lucy and Alex have something the other desperately wants.

Alex has it all . . . except for the votes he needs to win his bid for Congress. Despite their mutual dislike, Alex makes Lucy a proposition: pose as his fiancee in return for the money she desperately needs. Bound to a man who isn't quite what he seems, Lucy finds her heart--and her future--on the line.

 

 

 

Save the Date was so much fun to read! It was witty, sassy, full of humor and romance. It's not your traditional romance novel. I think that it was better. I haven't read a book that really made me laugh in a long time.

Jones made her characters completely real. The way that the characters interacted with each other was almost like a look into my family. There were a few different plots that were going on in this book but it didn't feel like it. The story flowed so well that I read it in a day and a half and I was wishing that it was a little longer so that I could get more of the back and forth that went between the two main characters.

I have other books that I need to read and review and I don't want to. I want to sit down and read this one over and over and over. It will never be one that I loan to anyone because I couldn't bear it if I didn't get it back. I just can't say enough good things about this book. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!