BEFORE CAIN STRIKES by Joshua Corin

Esme Stuart left the FBI eight years ago to have a family. 6 months ago they called her back to help catch Galileo, a serial killer who had killed almost 50 and almost killed her husband and daughter. Now Esme and her husband are on the outs because she stayed on with the FBI as a consultant. Their marriage counselor has given them two weeks to decide to stay together or get divorced. A high school friend of her husband is murdered and he asks Esme to help the local police. She does and that is when Cain42 is discovered. He is a serial killer online webmaster with thousands of followers learning how to kill and not be caught. Plus an obnoxious writer who is writing a book about Galileo keeps hounding Esme.

I like books with serial killers and the agents that are trying to catch them. But this one was a chore to get through. I liked Esme well enough but she didn't strike me as some kind of superagent the FBI would need to call in. Her husband is a jerk. Her father-n-law lives with them and berates her constantly. I just didn't connect with any of the characters. Part of the story is told through Cain, but he isn't developed very well. This appears to be the second book in the series but I don't think I needed to read it to enjoy this one better.
It wasn't very well-written and the ending left me unsatisfied.

my rating 2/5

MURDER ON THE MENU: A Cooking Class Mystery by Miranda Bliss

In this second book of the series, Annie Capshaw, along with her best friend Eve, is helping to run Bellywashers, a restaurant owned by her former cooking class instructor, Jim. Eve runs into an old friend, Sarah who works for a Senator with ambitions to be the next President. Annie and Eve go to Sarah's apartment to meet for dinner and find her dead in the bathtub, an apparent suicide. But Eve doesn't believe it and eventually persuades Annie to investigate with her.

This is a fun cozy series. I always love when they involve food and murder. Annie is very cautious and Eve is over-the-top so they make for a nice combo. One thing I especially like is that there are a lot of suspects to choose from. Some cozies only have a couple and it makes it too obvious who the killer is.

Cozies make for great summer reading, so check out this series.

my rating 3/5

BEL CANTO by Ann Patchett

In an unnamed South American country, a birthday party is being held for Japanese businessman, Mr. Hosokawa, in the hopes that he will bring business to this poor country. The only way he could be lured to this country was to see Roxane Coss, a famous opera singer revered by Hosokawa. The international party party is taking place at the home of the country's Vice-President, Ruben Iglesias. But after Roxane has finished singing, the party is interrupted by a terrorist group who plan to take the President hostage so they can get others in their group released from prison. The only problem...the President decided not to attend the party so he could watch his favorite soap opera. The terrorists now don't have the leverage they need but they can't just free the hostages, so the women are let go except for the famous opera star and the remaining hostages and terrorists spend months waiting for demands to be met. But relationships develop between captors and their prisoners, despite circumstances and the language barriers of the guests from around the world. The one thing that seems to bring them together is their love of Roxane and the beautiful music she provides until their time together must inevitably end.

I have had this book on my shelf for years. I don't know what took me so long to read it. I loved Run and The Magician's Assistant, titles also by Patchett. A discussion on twitter revealed many others loved Patchett but had not read this book. It also received mixed reviews, those that loved it and those that could not finish it.

I am definitely in the loved it group. Patchett is am amazing writer, very lyrical and beautiful. Opera and terrorism seem to be odd in the same book plot but Patchett made it work. This is not a fast read and is a novel to be savored. It isn't political but about relationships that develop in unusual circumstances. All become used to their situation. Roxane discovers one of the young captors has an amazing voice and wants to help him become an opera star. Gen, Mr. Hosokawa's interpreter becomes the interpreter for the group and learns many secrets and falls for a young woman in the terrorist group. Ruben wants to adopt another of the young captors, a boy who has become like a son to him. They stop thinking about what is happening in the outside world as I did. But a hostage situation can not go on forever. The ending comes suddenly and the very ending surprised me and I'm not sure whether it was believable or inevitable.
Regardless, this was a beautiful story and if it is sitting on your shelf, pick it up and read it already!

my rating 5/5

DON'T BREATHE A WORD by Jennifer McMahon

When Phoebe was twenty, she was passing through Harmony, Vermont living a wild life. She stops outside a housed where a young girl, Lisa has disappeared, amid rumors that she was taken by fairies.
Fifteen years later, Phoebe is living in Harmony with Sam, Lisa's younger brother. Phoebe is fascinated by Lisa's story that she ran away with the King of the Fairies. Sam believes none of it, just that she was abducted and he refuses to talk about it. Then Phoebe gets a call from a little girl telling her and Sam where to find Lisa's old book, The Book of Fairies. Sam gets a call from his cousin Evie, who lived with Sam and Lisa that summer along with her mother, Hazel. Sam and Phoebe go spend the weekend with Evie and her husband Elliot. Weird things start to happen. An old woman comes to the cabin singing a song Lisa used to sing. She then stabs Evie and Sam and Phoebe run after her. But nothing is what it seems and they have no idea what is happening. No one is who they seem to be and they wonder if Lisa is still alive.

The narration alternates between Phoebe today and Lisa fifteen years ago. Lisa is fascinated with the stories that her family is descended from the last remaining man of Reliance, a village that used to be in the woods near Harmony, a village where everyone just disappeared. Phoebe has her own issues as she had a bad childhood and has nightmares of a shadow man that would come through a trap door under her bed.

This story was captivating, dark, and very mysterious. There were so many twists and turns that I didn't know who to trust and what to believe. This was less a supernatural novel than a thriller yet a disturbing fairy-tale like story. It was almost like following a treasure map and even when I got to the end, I'm not sure what I found but I did have the shivers.
This is the second McMahon novel I read, after Promise Not to Tell. While I enjoyed that one, this one really went up a couple of notches. I could not put this down and it stayed with me even after I was done.
I highly recommend this one!
my rating 5/5

IT'S MONDAY, WHAT ARE YOU READING?

What are you reading Monday is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey

LAST WEEK: I finished- Murder on the Menu by Miranda Bliss,  Faery Tale: One Woman's Search for Enchantment in the Modern World by Signe Pike
I am half-way though Bel Canto by Ann Patchett and Miss Entropia and the Adam Bomb by George Rabasa (still on this one, sometimes it doesn't fit my mood)

I started Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer Mcmahon- I just saw so many great reviews, I couldn't wait to finish my other books before starting this one

THIS WEEK: again the plan is to finish my already started books before starting anything new. I'm not sure what is next up on the list. I have Marcy Dermansky's TWINS waiting, I've been eager to read this one.

Happy Reading!

THE PEACH KEEPER by Sarah Addison Allen

Willa Jackson moved back to Walls of Water, North Carolina after her father died. She doesn't have great memories of her time growing up there and doesn't interact much with the residents. She is fascinated by the restoration of the Blue Ridge Madam Mansion as it used to belong to her family.
Paxton Osgood is a former schoolmate of Willa's. She is in charge of the restoration of the mansion and Willa and Paxton can't help but cross paths, especially as Willa gets involved with Paxton's brother Colin who has returned to town to oversee the landscaping. But when an old peach tree is removed, a body is found buried there.

I really enjoyed Garden Spells and always meant to read more of Allen's work. However, I was disappointed by The Peach Keeper. Willa is carrying around guilt about her antics in high school that she thinks ended up getting her science teacher father fired. Paxton lives with her parents even though she wants to live on her own. I found that annoying that she didn't just move out. Also, the novel focuses on her friendship with an old friend Sebastion, who may or may not be gay but Paxton is in love with him.
Willa's focus on her high school pranks and trying to forget them also seemed irrelevant. There wasn't as much focus on the dead body and that seemed more of a back story, which is too bad because it was far more interesting.

The novel just seemed to be missing the magic I had been expecting. The plot left me unsatisfied and the characters just didn't capture me.

This won't keep me from eventually reading The Sugar Queen, but I'm not sure about future books by Allen. My review is in the minority but I also believe people have loyalty to favorite authors and may not have loved this as much as they proclaimed. If you must read this, borrow from the library.

my rating 2/5

THE GHOST OF GREENWICH VILLAGE by Lorna Graham

 Eve Weldon moved to Manhattan years after her mother's death. Eve used to sit by her bedside when she was ill, her mother would tell her about her life in Greenwich Village and they would read all her mother's favorite New York authors. But it isn't until a college reunion that Eve gets the courage to change her life and move.
Eve is able to find a great, affordable apartment in the heart of the Village, affordable only because the landlord has problems keeping a tenant in that apartment. Eve soon finds out why. Donald. A very annoying ghost that used to live there when he was alive. Donald was an aspiring writer during the '60's but never came into his own. He wants to rectify that through Eve, dictating stories to her that he thinks are brilliant. Eve, however, does not and she doesn't have time for Donald. Eve needs to find a job. She has one friend in the city who gets her an interview as a writer on a morning news/talk show. Eve has a rough start of it but then begins to love her job. She has a knack for getting people to talk to her. But she isn't getting the Manhattan experience she was looking for. She wants a close, tight knit group of friends, an exciting romance- the life her mother lived.

I found this novel to be entertaining and enjoyable. It is mostly a light read but it has some poignant moments as Eve discovers who she is and who she wants to be. I enjoyed the reminiscing of the earlier years in the Village and the time when the Beat art community was revered, a community that Donald was once part of, a time in history that fascinates Eve and makes her feel closer to her mother. Eve seems a bit naive but she grew on my by the end.

I definitely recommend this, it is quick and fun and I think it has great appeal.
my rating 3.5/5

What Are You Reading Monday?

What are you reading Monday is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

I've been reading a few different books, going back and forth depending upon my mood the last couple of weeks.

I read KILLER MOVE by Michael Marshall, a really great psychological suspense novel.
I finally finished THE PEACH KEEPER by Sarah Addison Allen and THE WHITE DEVIL by Justin Evans
I also read THE GHOST OF GREENWICH VILLAGE by Lorna Graham

I've been working on MURDER ON THE MENU (a cooking class mystery) by Miranda Bliss; a fun cozy, MISS ENTROPIA AND THE ADAM BOMB by George Rabasa,
FAERY TALE: One Woman's Search for Enchantment in the Modern World by Signe Pike,
and I finally started BEL CANTO by Ann Patchett.

My goal for the next week is to finish up the ones I've started. After that, it depends on my mood!

Happy Reading!

Blogger Blog Frustrations

About 6 posts ago, my blog started showing only one post on main page, not the 7 I have it set to. I looked on blogger help forums and found out that back in 2/2010 there were some issues as blogger started this this called autopagination, which means if you have too much stuff, they cut down your posts to make your main page load faster. Nothing happened to my blog, nor did I notice any changes in the blogs I follow. I'm being told that my source code shows base64 for my last post which mean the image is too large or something and that can "trigger" autopagination. But I have made no changes to my blog and I use all images copied from LT. And my posts are hardly War and Peace long.
I've seen lots of blogs with longer posts and lots of  images added and their blogs look the same.

The help I'm getting from the blogger forums is in some other language of computer code. I've googled to see if others have this problem but keep getting linked back to same computer speak i don't understand.
If anyone knows why this is happening and can explain or help like I am a 5 year old, that would be terrific.

update; ok now it shows 2 but only because I don't have a picture in this post I think. Going to add one and see if it changes anything.


okay it didn't. So now I'm very confused . 2 posts is better but I'd like a couple more


update: ok, now things are getting back to normal. I must have copied and pasted a review that triggered this autopagination and I had copied images directly from LT instead of downloading to computer first then to my post. Now all my posts are staying on the main page and I should be back to my regular 7 posts per page as I have in the settings. If anyone else has this problem, these are things you can look for.

Thanks for all the support!

KILLER MOVE by Michael Marshall

John Hunter has been released from prison after serving time for a murder he did not commit. He is intent on revenge.


Bill Moore has a nice life. He has a nice house, a good job as a Realtor, a wife he loves, and plans to become more successful.
One day he receives a card at work that just says MODIFIED. He thinks nothing of it. But then small things start to happen. A reservation he thought he forgot to make for his wedding anniversary has been made. He receives a book from Amazon of soft porn that he never ordered. An off color joke is sent out to his email address book, an email he never sent. Then things get more serious. His wife finds pictures on his computer of half-naked photos of a co-worker taken through her window, photos Bill knows he didn't take. He can't figure out how his computer has been hacked, how he was set up to not have an alibi for when the pictures were taken. Then his wife goes missing and a client Bill met once is missing also and he is a suspect. Things start going downhill fast and Bill tries to find out who is messing with his life.

I loved this book! I started it at bedtime and quickly put it down after a couple chapters or I knew I would be up for the rest of the night reading. It is a great psychological suspense because you don't know if Bill is a victim or getting payback for something he did. No one is who they seem to be. More characters keep popping up, adding more and more complexity to the story.
This was very well written with a plot that kept me on my toes and unable to guess the ending. I was reluctant whenever I had to put this book down. I highly recommend this novel and I will be looking to read the author's previous works.

my rating 5/5

I received this book from the Amazon Vine Program. It will be released on June 28th