First book reviews

Freefall by Traci Hunter Abramson

Lieutenant Brent Miller arrived in the Middle East with one objective--get seven hostages out of a hostile country. The plan almost worked. But now he has been left behind--with one of the hostages. It's up to Brent to get Amy Whitmore, a US Senator's daughter, across miles of desert to safety. What he doesn't know is that to survive, he needs her as much as she needs him.

This is a book that I have had for many years and just never got around to reading it, and now there are 7 books in the series. Needless to say I decide it’s about time I start reading them and picked up Freefall as my first book to read for the challenge.

This was book one of seven about a squad of Navy Seals called the Saint squad.  Amy is working in the Diplomatic Corps and was in Abolstan when a group of terrorist bombed her hotel room and took her and six others hostage.

LT Miller and his team where the ones sent in to rescue her and the others. During the rescue getting everyone onto the helicopter the helicopter had been hit and had the door blown off causing Amy to slide out. Lt Miller grabbed her arm just in time and held on to her while dangling out of the helicopter. They never where able to get her back in so Lt Miller made the decision to have Amy and himself stay behind and work their way out of the city by foot.

So it started out with enough action to grab my attention and kept a pretty reasonable amount in the book the whole time. It’s not a book that has a big mystery to it trying to get you guessing the whole time, but has enough in it to keep your attention, and not too much of a love story. It is a bit predictable and a little ‘too perfect’ having everything working out with not many complications.  But over all I enjoyed the book that I will be reading the other books in the series to find out about the other team member’s stories.

Challenge:

Book owned but never read

Book by Female author

Love Author never read

Marked by P.C Cast and Kristin Cast

Enter the dark, magical world of the House of Night, a world very much like our own, except here vampires have always existed.

Sixteen-year-old Zoey Redbird has just been Marked as a fledgling vampyre and joins the House of Night, a school where she will train to become an adult vampyre. That is, if she makes it through the Change - and not all of those who are Marked do.

It sucks to begin a new life, especially away from her friends, and on top of that, Zoey is no ordinary fledgling. She has been chosen as special by the vampyre Goddess Nyx. Zoey discovers she has amazing powers, but along with her powers come bloodlust and an unfortunate ability to Imprint her human ex-boyfriend. To add to her stress, she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers. When she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school's most elite group, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny - with a little help from her new vampire friends.

Wow! Where do I start? I probably should have read the back more carefully. THIS BOOK WAS AWFUL. It might just be able to list why:

1.      First of all if you are going to write a book about vampires, learn how to spell the word vampire. If you notice in the description of the book vampire is spelled vampyre and that is how it is printed on the back of the library audio book box, and also on goodreads. I’m curious to know if the paperback is also like that. Who knows maybe it’s a new type of creature.

2.      Even though this isn’t based off a movie I couldn’t decide what movie it was like, Mean Girls, Harry Potter, Twilight and even a little of Sydney White.

·         Mean girls- New girl comes to school popular girls ex-boyfriend likes new girl mean girls plot and plan evil ways to get rid of new girl

·         Harry Potter- A group of friends that has the really smart one, the reluctant chosen one, and the funny guy. Also Dividing into different classes depending on who you are, with a vampire, oh sorry, a vampyre Goddess over each class the struggle with choosing good or evil

·         Twilight- Imprinting, but at least it wasn’t an adult imprinting on a child this time.

·         Sydney White- New girl goes up against leader of the Dark Daughters in school and rallies up the ‘dorks and misfits’ of the fledglings to help her out

3.      When writing about vampires I understand some want to make them all cute and nice but to have them have nothing that resembles a vampire shouldn’t be allowed to be a vampire book.

·         So instead of being bitten and becoming a vampire, it is a scientific mutation that are in some peoples genes and as they get more hormones they can change, but they only start changing once they have been makred, which all for that is some vampire comes points to you and pretty much tells you to become a vampire, you then become really sick and will get worse until you get to the house of night and can be around others, and a tattoo of a blue moon appears on your forehead.

·         They don’t even have fangs

·         They eat normal food

·         Most of what they did reminded me of witches not vampires.

Maybe I was too harsh with this book but it was so hard to get through and if I want to know what happens I have to read the next book, and there are 15 books in the series. I guess the author was 16 when she wrote it, but she also had the help from her mom which I would like to think that would have helped it some but like I said there were just too many ideas, too many different movie stories put together and just badly written. It was hard to get through. Also it never really had a point or a buildup of something big coming just a bunch of everyday life teenage drama of girls being mean and plotting to get even. Even when it got to the point where you think something big might happen and actually make all the reading worth it, it just doesn't happen. I will have to be pretty desperate to read any more of this series.  And I wouldn't recommend it for anyone. One more thing that bugged me this claims to be a young adult book, well with the drinking, sexual innuendo, and drug usage I don't think I would want my 10-18 year reading it. But that's just me

Book Challenge:

Book with a one word title

Book about magic

Book set in High school

Book published by someone under 30

Book with a love triangle

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

I really reading this book, it was fun fast paced and had a good message. When starting this book I knew it was about cancer and would probably get emotional at times and I even knew how it ended. But I still really liked it. You always hear stories and see movies of cancer patients but I feel that this book really gave you an entire different outlook on how you may see cancer. I love how he developed the characters and how he kept humor in it the whole time. It was described as raw and emotional, I can see how those words fit. I don’t want to say much and spoil it for anyone who wants to read and hasn't yet, but I do recommend it. It will make you smile, make you mad make you laugh and if you are an emotional person you probably will cry and if not at least get emotional. I didn't end up crying myself but I did get a little choked up with it. Despite the ending, the last paragraph in the book will have you laughing and crying at the same time. After reading the book, it makes me want to go out and watch the movie, but I almost don't want to since a good portion of the books made into movies always end up making the movie bad.

Challenge:

Made you cry (almost did but not quite)

Book turned into a movie

Heat Wave by Richard Castle

A New York real estate tycoon plunges to his death on a Manhattan sidewalk. A trophy wife with a past survives a narrow escape from a brazen attack. Mobsters and moguls with no shortage of reasons to kill trot out their alibis. And then, in the suffocating grip of a record heat wave, comes another shocking murder and a sharp turn in a tense journey into the dirty little secrets of the wealthy. Secrets that prove to be fatal. Secrets that lay hidden in the dark until one NYPD detective shines a light.
Mystery sensation Richard Castle, blockbuster author of the wildly best-selling Derrick Storm novels, introduces his newest character, NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat. Tough, sexy, professional, Nikki Heat carries a passion for justice as she leads one of New York City's top homicide squads. She's hit with an unexpected challenge when the commissioner assigns superstar magazine journalist Jameson Rook to ride along with her to research an article on New York's Finest. PulitzerPrize-winning Rook is as much a handful as he is handsome. His wise-cracking and meddling aren't her only problems. As she works to unravel the secrets of the murdered real estate tycoon, she must also confront the spark between them. The one called heat.

This book was a good entertaining mystery book to read. If you have ever seen the TV show Castle, then you would be familiar with this book. Because of seeing the show, it helped me picture the characters better when reading which I think made it a bit more fun.

The story is pretty much just like a short TV show, a crime happens, detectives investigate throw some twist and turns, keep you guessing who did it and solves it by the end. I’m always up for a good mystery and this did keep me guessing. I also love the banter between Heat and Rook. It made the story and kept it from being too serious. I believe there are 6 books in a this series and I would read more of them. I would recommend this book if you just need a quick read without a lot of thinking, Just like a an hour long TV episode in writing.

Challenge:

Book based off a TV show