Shadow Fires Written by: Dean Koontz

Why hello there readers, and here we are another new month and the possibilities endless. But, so long as you are still among the living correct? Granted, I have read a book where cadavers actually have quite a fascinating life after death, but those are our shells only correct? But, what if death was not the end? Readers, science is breaking new ground everyday and exploring possibilities that in the past were absolute works of fiction and devices and medical advancements we have today would seem wholly alien and impossible  to our ancestors... so, I picked up this book from a certain Father in Law's library (I mean c'mon Dean Koontz how could I resist?) So, we have our heroine Rachel Leben and her soon to be Ex husband Eric... but soon after a heated argument Eric ends up dead...and no readers Rachel did not kill Eric, if anything Rachel is perfect in her behavior and has quite the classy character. So, after seven years of marriage one of which included Rachel leaving her husband she is free, or is she? Rachel appears paranoid and not upset by Eric's death, and then his body vanishes from the morgue, and other bodies are discovered, murdered in quite a horrific manner. Just what is going on? That is what Ben Shadway, Rachel's beau wishes to know, but Rachel has a secret too terrible to share with anyone, and too terrible for anyone to believe. The couple soon find themselves being followed in a rather hostel manner by forces who wish to silence and kill them. Ben is a very classic kind of guy readers, at first I thought he was absolutely naive and delusional mostly because I cannot understand people who idealize eras in the world and act like they were perfect... but I get off track, Ben is quite the nut to crack and he is full of pleasant surprises. Can Rachel trust him though, and can she finally admit just how much she loves him? These are of course not the only cast of characters if you have read a Dean Koontz novel before readers, you will know this guy likes to have multiple plots that will converge with the main one perhaps even multiple times. This was an audio book and I had the pleasure of listening to Sandra Burr with her talented voice, I have listened to multiple books narrated by her and I absolutely love her male voices and the special effects she brings to the plot. She blends her voice perfectly with Koontz plot, building up the climactic moments at all the right times sheer brilliance. The plot is never slow, but keeps you guessing and making assumptions about just what the hell is going on? The way Koontz also scares and tortures his characters is oh so terrifying as he does not pull his punches on anyone be they small or large players in this game. Koontz also in what I have come to see as his classic fashion brings up some very disturbing topics and how those flaws and perpetrators of these disturbing behaviors can flourish. Even as these people terrorize those around them they are given passes it seems and Koontz reveals how they can be in positions of power with even more control over their victims. Quite fascinating indeed. When you come to the end readers ask yourself.... would you have done what he did? There is a lot here readers and it is indeed a horror novel,  do keep listening after the book is over as Koontz just might make an appearance that will have you laughing rather than cowering with a blanket after having experienced his creation.

Kicking It All New Tales of Murder, Magic, and Manolos Stories Written by: Rachel Caine, Chloe Neill, RobThurman and more...

Why hello there fellow book readers, my what a crazy time life can be eh? I must say I love shoes, love the fact that depending upon ones footwear ones entire persona can be changed and even enhanced, am I the only one here who feels this way? Now, pair an awesome kick ass pair of boots add them with an equally kick-ass soundtrack and book... And oh my, are we not ready to curl up kick some serious booty? The best part readers? You will not have to scruff up your perfect boots because you can just read the awesome adventure... so why are all my shoes scuffed and leather boots always in need of repair? Ha, okay so I was gifted with this latest book I read, and to receive this gift from this person was such a surprise and then to have so much fun reading said book was even more of a treat! So, I was not just rambling on about boots for nothing I assure you. It seems the general theme in all of these short stories was well... boots! Kick ass boots, witches, detectives, gods, magic, vampires, gargoyles, angels, pecs, curses....what more could a girl ask for? Nine amazing stories with nine amazingly kick ass heroines each tale similar and yet wholly different in such special ways. Seriously readers, if you are looking to just pick up a book of short stories and do not mind not understanding the universe that each tale is based in or the characters then this is so your book. I am tempted to pick up a couple, few, all of these series to give them a better chance. Each author had their own voice and distinct tale to tell. I will just list each tale and their author and not give anything away since each tale is short enough that me saying anything might give away the tale!
Rachel Caine: Forked tongues
Shannon K. Butcher: Stolen Goods
Chris Marie Green: The Girl with No Name
Faith Hunter: The Devil's Left Boot
Chloe Neill: High Stakes:
Lucienne Diver: The Parlor
Christina Henry: Red Isn't really my color
Rob Thurman: Snakeskin
Kalayna Price: Ruby Red

So, if you want to read 349 pages of awesome kick butt heroines then readers this is so the book for you. Granted, I have a feeling there are a few spoilers here, but I think that should be fine.

She's Gotta Be Mine A Cottonmouth Novel Book 1Written by: Jennifer Skully

Why hello there readers, okay, I needed a fun book, a let’s not think too hard book, but I didn’t feel like reading an erotic tale, at least not the kind I’ve been reading…so what’s a gal to do? Well, I read the description of this book and knew this was going to be a hilarious read, even though it’s a tad dark. Roberta Jones Spivey has just been…dumped? Yes, that’s it dumped, her husband has dumped her for his high school sweetheart that he hasn’t seen in twenty years. And, Roberta is not going to lay down and just except this. Instead, Roberta decided she’s going to reinvent herself and becomes Bobbie Jones with a new haircut and dye job, new name, new attitude; Bobbie Jones is now equipped to follow her soon to be ex to the small northern California town of Cottonmouth. Now readers, what could possibly be a better way to show the man you’ve been married to for fifteen plus years what he’s missing then by finding the sexiest and dangerous local guy and make him swoon. Of course said local bad boy is also reputed with being a serial killer and you’ve moved in right across the street from him… But, Nick Angel is devilishly handsome and oh so sexy, basically readers he’s perfect, oh and he’s an artist…. Who can resist the tall dark, handsome, brooding artist who also does yard work? It seems it is all going exactly to plan too readers, Bobbie is just a delight, she gave up her life of luxury and high figured job to just let go and be…granted she’s on a mission but, she seems like she’s enjoying herself a lot more at least. There’s some great comedic moments in this tale that had me laughing out loud quite a few times and shaking my head at Bobbie’s, Nick’s and the town’s antics… I especially loved Bobbie making two statements that I just have to share. “Only a confident, self assured woman would dress up in a skimpy cocktail dress and ask for a table for one. And that same woman would buy birth control without embarrassment, because it was her God-given right as a woman.” Lady needs to pump herself up and gives herself a few pep talks that are very I am woman roar! And then there’s the statement that just made me love this book, “Nobody is an accountant, it’s just a profession.” This readers, makes me so happy, I’m in the finance field and went to college (only thing work would pay for) for accounting, and honestly I may have a bankers lamp, but there’s no way in hell I’m my profession. I hate when people assume being in this field you’re automatically a certain way, nope so… yay Bobbie for saying that! Right, everything is going to plan readers, there’s a bit of flirting, a bit of revenge, a lot of tight clothing, and a whole lot of sexual tension, but then… well a real murder rocks the town of Cottonmouth, and of course Nick didn’t do it, did he? An absolute curl up and laugh kind of book with quite a few steamy and romantic scenes. Absolutely adored this book.

The Hour I First Believed Written by: Wally Lamb

I don’t have a past readers, at least not an ancestral past, maybe that’s why I’ve always caught myself since I was a little girl trying to find out people’s stories to find out their history and their families history…because I don’t have one. Sure, I have a family now, but prior to my adoption as an infant I really have nothing. I was given a name by those who took me in, but later that was changed, and I come from a country that’s rich in history, but I’ve never been back and I don’t speak my native language so I am without a past. All of us at some point wonder where we’re from or what our ancestors were like especially as we grow older and wonder “whose nose do I have? Will I lose my mind? Could I have heart disease? Does cancer run in my family? Do I get my temper from my grandmother?” All of those questions to me and many like me readers are completely foreign…they simply do not exist, and I’ve tried to find out, I have, but it’s simply not there. I’ve always kind of felt sorry for myself and been bitter at people who don’t give a shit about their pasts, I’ve felt they take the fact they have a history for granted… that is until I read stories like this one. Caelum Quirk...is a high school teacher, and his wife, Maureen, a school nurse. They are a couple who have faced many hardships in their lives readers, and quite a few of them are because of their families and their families decisions, but that's getting a head of myself. Let us focus upon the present. It seems that plagued by some of their own past mistakes the Quirk couple decide to move to Littleton Colorado, and both of them obtain employment at Columbine High School. Then in April of the year 1999, while Caelum is away dealing with one tragic event, Maureen finds herself in the library at columbine facing another, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed. This I warn you readers is very hard to listen to and the book in general is extremely graphic and can be quite real in its harshness at times. Once again Caelum and Maureen flee to an illusion of safety on the Quirk family's Connecticut farm, but there they discover that the effects of chaos are not easily put right, and further tragedy ensues. This book I listened to readers, and at times had to just stop listening the narrator George Guidall does a well enough job reading especially with giving Caleum his own voice... I loathed this main character on so many levels at times, but I'll let you make up your own mind concerning Caleum and his plight. Maureen is also quite complicated, these two people are very real and very damaged, it is really quite tragic. Columbine, the victims of the massacre, the reverberations from that day and going forward, and just how those two boys actions can keep hurting people. Quite the profound read readers. Once again Lamb gut punches we the readers and keeps us wondering just what the heck do all of these plot threads have to do with one another and then the reveal, again quite profound.

Friend Zone I: A Wild Night's Encounter C.J. McLane

Why hello there fellow readers, I hope you're all ready for more snow here in America, the Olympics in Sochi, and of course valentine's day, which single or not can prove to be quite the interesting event. So much going on and I decided I needed a light read. So I picked up this little novella... and well it is certainly something. Beautiful, smart, and young, Laila is dragged to a frat party by her friend whom I'd determined to get laid. Laila just wants to go home and curl up with a good book and just relax. So, her plan is to just sit back and enjoy a few beers and...watch an orgy? Seems that even Laila isn't immune to the heated atmosphere of this particular party, and so she has decided to partake in the festivities as privately as possible, but it seems she isn't quite careful enough. Eric, a daredevil who is extremely handsome opens the party up with a big stunt and is clearly bored with his current life, but is a major flirt who sees Laila and just can't resit her, but from what was hot and steamy quickly turns embarrassing. Upon catching Laila in her very compromising position Eric has a proposition for Laila. This was an okay read, nothing entirely special about it, the scenes that were mean to be erotic and steamy kinda came off as creepy and quite invasive especially when it came to people filming other people..not exactly what previous generations had to worry about when they let their hormones run wild. 

Apart from Love Written by: Uvi Poznansky

Why hello there readers, phew been a few days, but I finally managed to read and finish a book…particularly this book. I usually don’t say this, but reading this book was quite the chore. I have been reading this book since early December, but I had such a tough time getting into it, that can happen from time to time, like a piece of clothing you buy that you think is right for you, but after several times trying to wear it, the article of clothing just doesn’t feel right or fit you. Well, this book was highly recommended by Book Bub and had wonderful reviews, and I suppose since it’s almost Valentine’s day that a tale of love for this week works out timing wise… so the plot of this book is told by two characters Ben who is a twenty seven year old ex student whom is trying to find something perhaps a place in this world? Then we have Anita 26 years old, a plain spoken (Painfully plain spoken her dialogue and how it is written gave me chills from how raw and poor it was), uneducated, spunky in spirit, and recently married to Lenny, Ben’s, aging father. Lenny is an odd character a once devoted husband and father he at some point becomes a tom cat and skirt chaser… and not just any skirts but young women….more like teenagers. But, Lenny is lost torn between his past, present life, and future. Now, the synopsis claims the two narrators find themselves drawn together trying to fight perhaps…love? However, Lenny is also fighting to keep a secret from both Ben and Anita… which goes back quite a few years and has affected each character at some point in their lives and is still affecting them. It sounded like quite the interesting book, the taboo where father fights son for a ladies hand and affection, alpha vs. omega, but I was rather disappointed. The story itself is very disjointed and the time frame is all screwed up causing me to go back a few pages every now and then or flip through pages to figure out if I had missed something? Maybe I had fallen asleep, and somehow kept reading? But, no, that was just the way the book was written, also it felt like the author didn’t know what kind of voice she wanted to give her male characters at times they came across more like petulant children and then they were lost poets who spout about music and love… it was just odd. This book also felt grubby, as if I really were peaking into the private affairs of people, and though that was kind of cool it made me feel like a peeping tom. There’s a lot here too that just didn’t jive quite right as if it was a collaboration of many pieces of a tale that didn’t equal one full story, but it seems readers that this was actually done intentionally. Now, I’ve seen other books written similarly to this book, particularly for this purpose, but where I’ve seen it done successfully in the past this book just came off as poorly written and jumbled. There’s some very interesting concepts, but mostly I was not impressed. This book felt more like a first or second draft, but a final draft that was published? Not quite… perhaps others would love and fall into this book but I just couldn’t get into this tale.

The Angel of Darkness Written by: Caleb Carr

Why do we do what we do? Seriously readers, why do some of us live lives in which we will never take another human life, a life which perhaps would seem dull dare I say even boring compared to our historic counterparts, and yet we the people of today at times romanticize murder. So, why is it that some of us in the world of today (And by some I mean quite a few) find it simple enough to snuff out the life of others? Caleb Carr once again tries to tackle that question, but not in the time of today no, Carr decides to once more take us to the time of yesterday precisely to an era which is indeed romanticized by the world of today even though it was a hard time in America's history. Carr transports us and transplants us to 1897 in New York City a city filled with unparalleled corruption and a city filled with well to do's and grand splendor...funny it hasn't really changed then has it? Oh, but the world has indeed changed readers, where the people of today particularly those who are not well read or have their heads so far up their asses and find themselves in denial say America was so much simpler back in the world of yesterday. I would ask those same people, politicians, relatives, friends, etc... to really read just what America was like a little over a hundred years ago. Carr weaves history, psychology, murder, forensics, fact, and fiction all into one suspenseful tale daring to expose us to the secret sins of American society. Even today readers, as I have said before it is much easier to call a person a "monster" "Not right" "abnormal" rather than face the fact that America or any modern society would birth such a person whom would take the life or lives of so many whom we dared claim to be someone we considered normal and one of "us."  But, Carr won't let that slide now will he? A sequel so to speak to Carr's previous book The Alienist Carr has gathered his previous books core group of characters. Dr. Kriezler tough still a bit battered from the first book and under investigation due to a patients suicide is what the group needs in order to tackle this current case which it seems is more horrifying that the first book, because readers this particular tale of murder according to the world of Miss Howard, Mr. Moore, Stevie, The Isaacson brothers, and of course Cyrus. This tale is told by not Moore this time, but the grown Stevie, and he tells such a tale that it will cause you great anger, horror, and a whole slew of other emotions and give you such thoughts that perhaps you have to ask yourselves, are you ready for such a tale my fellow readers? Are you ready to question the "American family, and their home?" There is a child, a little girl, whom has been kidnapped....and though all children are precious this little girl it seems is a bit special as she is the daughter of a Spanish dignitary. During this time there is tension between Spain and the United States, and a war in Cuba seems inevitable. So, no official investigation will be opened concerning this missing child, but the mother of little Ana Linares is desperate and turns to Sara Howard, and so we're back to the investigation. This investigation forces the team to ask and face many ethical questions... could the acts of a woman murdering her own child be seen as her trying to gain control over her life and her world? What happens readers, when someone is told their entire life that they are alive for one purpose and only one purpose and then are told they are no good at their purpose, and worse prove they are no good? What happens to that person? We live in a world much more advanced no? Then again, even today women are told they can have it "all" but what is it "all" readers? Why in today's world is a woman still defined by so many aspects? Why must we define a woman at all? Why can a woman simply like a man, just be? Why do the titles virgin, wife, spinster, whore, crone, and mother still an acceptable way to define a woman? This question and so many more arise in this tale readers. I had to read this book slowly and found myself growing angry, anxious, and fully absorbed in this penetrating tale. I will close with this concerning this book "It is not ahving been in the dark house, but having left it, that count." Theodore Roosevelt.