Jenn's Bookshelves

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: The Chicken House (Scholastic); 1 edition (February 1, 2010)
• ISBN-10: 0545142997
• Source: Big Honcho Media

Jem is a fifteen-year-old British teen who has an unusual gift; she can predict the timing of an  individual’s death simply by looking them in the eye.  Their “date of death” is clearly displayed above them.  Jem has been virtually on her own after her mother died of an overdose. She was transported from one foster home to another.   For obvious reasons Jem is quite a recluse, until she meets Spider, another social outcast.  She reluctantly allows Spider a space in her life.  Suddenly, just as her life was beginning to feel relatively normal, things go very wrong.  While visiting the city with Spider, Jem predicts the death of dozens of people, deaths to occur all in the same place at the same time.  When she realizes what is about to take place, she grabs Spider and runs. A terrorist attack hits a tourist spot hard and heavy.  Witnesses report seeing two teens running from the scene.  Jem and Spider pack a few meager things and go on the run.

Numbers had a lot of great potential. The premise interested me immediately. Ward carried the suspense through the beginning, but midway through the “numbers” sort of fell by the wayside. Instead, it became a story of unlikely love despite unspeakable odds and living each day to its fullest. Once I got over this shift in storyline, I found the book to be quite the engaging read.

Numbers is geared toward teen girls, but given the language, sex, and mention of drug use, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone younger than fifteen years old.

I am looking forward to reading the sequel: Numbers 2-Chaos.  I think Ward’s writing has a lot of potential and I’m interested in reading more about how she plans on continuing the story.

To read more about Rachel Ward and read an excerpt from the book, visit: http://www.scholastic.com/numbers/

On to the giveaway!  Three lucky individuals will win a hardcopy of Numbers!  To enter, fill out the form below.

Winners will be announced on Monday, March 29th.  Residents of US and Canada only, no PO Boxes please.

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1 edition (March 2, 2010)
• ISBN-10: 006172680X
• Source: Publisher

Samantha Kingston has it all: the perfect boyfriend, the right friends, seemingly everything. It’s February 12, Cupid Day, and her only thoughts are of how many roses she’s going to receive by the end of the day.  But by the end of the day, Sam is dead.

Normally, a person only gets to relive their last day once.  Sam relives the last day of her life seven times.  She’s been given a week to see just how much power she has to influence the lives and futures of others. Each day, Sam struggles to understand the impact of decisions she used to take so lightly.  She’s given a gift that people normally don’t have: the chance to right the wrongs one has created in life.

Before I Fall is Lauren Oliver’s debut novel. It is a very blunt, no-holds-barred look at high school peer pressure and the impact of social circles. The characters Oliver creates are not likeable, not in the least bit.  Sam and her friends are a bunch of insensitive snobs who don’t think twice about verbally harassing and berating students  who are below them on the social food chain. I wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that Sam and her friends are a spoiled, vain bitches!

Each day Sam relives, she sees the impact of her actions literally affecting the lives of others. It is invigorating to see the transformation Sam takes from the first day to the seventh. Each day is a new step, a different action Sam takes in hopes of changing the futures of those around her.  She truly becomes a new person by the end of this journey. I don’t recall ever reading a transformation of a main character that is as extreme as Samantha’s.

To be honest, when I started reading Before I Fall I thought I was going to be the only person who didn’t enjoy it.  Reliving the same day, over and over again? How dull is that?  IT’S NOT!  Oliver does an outstanding job providing suspense through the entire book.  Not once did I wonder when the book was going to end or when something exciting was going to happen.  Her writing is so emotional, so heartbreaking, so powerful.  It left me with tears streaming down my cheecks and my body covered in goosebumps. At the beginning I was cursing Samantha, but by the end I was begging for her redemption. Before I Fall has earned a spot on my Top Reads of 2010! I can’t wait to read more from this author.

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire, March 2010
• ISBN-10: 781402239441
• Source: Publisher

Four teenagers from Ellerton High have died in the past year: Jonas, Summer, Arizona and Phoenix. All have died under mysterious circumstances. Darina, Phoenix’s girlfriend, is trying to deal with the loss of her boyfriend. She begins to hear the sound of wings beating in her head and then one day, Phoenix appears before her. He tells her about the Beautiful Dead: souls that are unable to pass on to the afterlife. Their bodies are in limbo until they can right the wrong that caused their deaths. They each have one year to solve the mysteries of their death before passing on. Each of the Beautiful Dead have superhuman powers, including the power to erase the memories of those that are living. They are also all marked by a tattoo of angel wings. Darina has been given the special privilege of helping each of them find the answers to the questions surrounding their deaths. But as Darina begins to investigate their deaths, she unveils information that might be best left undiscovered.

This is the first in a series of four books by Eden Maguire; each will focus on one of the Beautiful Dead. Overall, I enjoyed this book. It started off a little slow but the intensity picked up as I continued reading. While the focus of this book is Jonas, we learn a great deal about the relationship between Darina and Phoenix. The character of Hunter, the watcher of the Beautiful Dead, has a bit of mystery surrounding him. I look forward to learning more about his character and of the rest of the Beautiful Dead, in the subsequent books.  Maguire’s writing style is very readable and flows well.   I’d be remiss not to mention the gorgeous cover, it alone will make you want to pick up the book and read it! Beautiful Dead: Jonas Bk.1 (v. 1) is a short and quick read. I recommend it to fans of YA and the paranormal.

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Center Street (April 13, 2010)
• ISBN-10: 1599951967
• Source: Publisher

A serial killer has struck Denver and has already taken four victims. He’s called the Bride Collector by the FBI because of the bridal veil he leaves behind at the crime scene. FBI Special Agent Brad Raines has his work cut out for him, especially when one of the victims remind him of a former girlfriend who committed suicide.

After profiling the serial killer, the FBI determines that he is an extremely intelligent individual, but with severe mental illness. Raines gets help on the case from “patients” of the Center for Wellness and Intelligence, a private psychiatric institution for mentally ill individuals whose are extremely gifted intellectually. There he meets Paradise,  a young woman diagnosed as schizophrenic.  Paradise witnessed her father kill her family, barely escaping death herself.  It appears as she has special abilities which allows the FBI to see aspects of the victim never seemed before.

But when the Bride Collector picks up his pace and begins killing more frequently and becomes a bit more personal, Brad begins to wonder if they’ll ever be able to put an end to his vicious, sadistic killing.

Once again, Dekker does another outstanding job with The Bride Collector! He steps inside the killer and portrays him remarkably.  The reader is able to feel what the killer feels, see what the killer sees. The descriptions of the killings are so vivid they are terrifying, one of the many things I enjoy about Dekker’s writing. Dekker’s characters are also very complex and compelling. Finally, as he does in most of his novels, Dekker does insert a small bit of faith this story.

I read The Bride Collector on a red-eye flight.  I should have been sleeping but couldn’t bear to put this book down! I highly recommend this to fans for crime fiction and thrillers.

Want to connect with the author? Check out:

Ted’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/teddekker

Ted’s Twitter: www.twitter.com/teddekker

Ted’s website: www.teddekker.com

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (June 11, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1440133336
• Source: Author

It has been two years since the horrific accident that killed Brian Weller’s three-year-old son and left his wife in an irreversible  coma. He’s lost everything, including his will to write.  Brian is the author of best selling thrillers and has been in a writing slump since the accident.

One morning, he receives an email from Joanna, an artist from Boston he’d been in a “relationship” with fifteen years earlier.  His feelings are torn: guilt for the feelings he still has for Joanna and anger due to the way the relationship ended.  He ultimately decides to do a book tour in Boston so he can be reunited.

When he arrives in Boston his feelings for Joanna are instantly resurrected. The only thing standing between the love he has for Joanna is the same thing that prevented their relationship in the past: her husband.  Brian has been through a tremendous amount of loss in the past few years and he vows to stop at nothing to make up for the love lost.

I have to give Walker huge kudos for this one.  Long time readers of Jenn’s Bookshelves know that I do not read romances. However, when I read the synopsis, I felt drawn to this one. Imagine a love so strong that it stands the test of time!  Walker does an excellent job of providing background on the characters and how their lives become intertwined. He uses flashbacks to introduce the reader to the young Brian and Joanna in the 1990s, detailing how they met and the secret romance they shared. The story then returns to the present, to a love rekindled.

My only problem with the book is Joanna’s apparent indifference to the affair she had with Brian.  She didn’t appear to feel guilty at all.  Granted, her husband was a power-hungry business man, but it is very evident he loved her.  This one flaw doesn’t really change my opinion of the book.  Overall, the characters were well developed and obviously flawed. And while I didn’t completely agree with the decisions they made, I was able to connect with them as a reader.  Also, I’m a huge fan of the cover.  While the object don’t really mean anything in the beginning, by the end of the book they represent key aspects of the novel. In the end, I do highly recommend reading this one.

Henry Oades, his wife Margaret, and his children move to New Zealand temorarily after Henry obtains an esteemed accounting position there.  It’s the 19th century, so the sea-based journey there was long and arduous, but Henry assures Margaret that the stay will be temporary.  Their stay near a close when Margaret and the children are abducted by natives and their family home is set aflame.  After months and months of desperately searching for his family, Henry believes them to be dead.  Unable to continue living in New Zealand, he packs up what is left of his life and moves to California. 

He soon meets Nancy, a young pregnant widow.  They marry, and start a new life together on a dairy farm. Unbeknownst to Henry, his Margaret and his children are still alive.  Six years after their presumed death, they make the long journey to America and arrive on his doorstep.  Henry attempts to do the “right thing” and serves as husband to both women, and a father to his children. It doesn’t take long for the local Daughters of Decency to catch wind of this living situation, and the entire Oades family must face the consequences.

The Wives of Henry Oades is based on a true 19th century bigamy case. Moran does an outstanding job of describing the terror and emotion each of the characters went through at each stage of the novel.  My heart broke when it was assumed the family was dead and then soared when I realized they were still alive. I couldn’t help but feel for both wives.  I can’t imagine how it would feel to finally find the husband you’ve been separated from for several years, only to find that he had remarried.  I was angered when Henry realized Margaret was still alive.  In one sense, I felt he should have divorced Nancy and reclaim his original family.  But then I began to feel for Nancy as well, a completely innocent victim.  She’s already lost one husband and now she risked losing another.  

Moran has built extremely well-developed and strong characters, my favorite being Margaret.  She is completely selfless.  She leaves her parents to journey to New Zealand to be with her husband.  When she and the children are abducted she stops at nothing to insure their safety.  And when she is reunited with her husband, and his new wife, her feelings are once again pushed to the side. Her mission is to provide a home, and a father, to her children and she will give up nearly everything to accomplish this.

The Wives of Henry Oades is an outstanding piece of debut fiction and would make an excellent pick for a book group.  So many themes are covered, including love, loss, & loyalty. I can’t recommend this book enough; I enjoyed every aspect of it. It was definitely a page-turner, I couldn’t bare to step away from it for any extended period of time.  It’s a book that will stay with you long after you turn the last page.

Johanna’s website, which features the ’story behind the story’:  http://www.johannamoran.com/

Interview and Reader’s Guide:
http://www.johannamoran.com/ReadersGuide.html

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for giving me the opportunity to participate in this tour.  Be sure to check out some of the tour stops coming up:

Tuesday, February 23rd:  The 3 R’s Blog

Wednesday, February 24th:  Savvy Verse and Wit

Thursday, February 25th:  It’s All About Books

Friday, February 26th:  Thoughts of an Evil Overlord

Monday, March 1st:  Rundpinne

Tuesday, March 2nd:  Peeking Between the Pages

Wednesday, March 3rd:  A High and Hidden Place

Thursday, March 4th:  The Literate Housewife Review

Friday, March 5th:  Stephanie’s Confessions of a Book-aholic

Monday, March 8th:  Bibliofreak

Tuesday, March 9th: A Lifetime of Books

Wednesday, March 10th:  Starting Fresh

Thanks to the publisher, I have one copy of The Wives of Henry Oades to give away.  This contest is available to US/Canadian residents only.  The book will be sent directly by the publisher.  Winners will be announced Monday, March 1st.  To be entered, please fill out the form below.

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Harlequin Teen (February 1, 2010)
• ISBN-10: 0373210086
• Source: Publisher

One of Meghan Chase’s most vivid memories was of her father disappearing at the park.  She was six years old.  His shoes were found at the edge of a pond.  Searches by the authorities were fruitless.  He simply disappeared without a trace. Meghan is tortured by visions of her father walking into the pond.

Meghan and her mother ultimately move away from the life she had known.  The wind up in a small “hick” town and her mother remarries.  Fast forward ten years.  Meghan is about to turn sixteen, an important age for a young girl.  Yet her mother and step-father barely acknowledge this monumental event. The only one who seems to remember is her half-brother Ethan, who, at four years old, has fears of the boogeyman hiding in his closet. What if the boogeyman was real…

When Meghan returns home from school to find her mother unconscious on the floor with Ethan standing over her with an evil, mischievous grin, she knows something has gone awry.  She soon learns that her life isn’t what it seems.  Her brother has been abducted and replaced with a Faery changeling.  Her best friend Robbie is more than he seems as well.  Turns out his real name is Puck and he’s not your typical teenager.  With Puck’s help, Meghan must travel to the world of Never Never to rescue her brother.

Fans of Fae will be enthralled by this book.  Yes, every other book released lately seems to be about the Fae, but Kagawa puts a completely different spin on it.  The author also impressed me with the cast of strong main characters.  Typically when a book has too many main characters it can get overwhelming.  In this case, it did not.  Each character was developed very well and I was surprised at how much I liked each of them.  One of my favorites was Grimalkin, a talking cat who reminded me of The Cheshire Cat from The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland.

The Iron King has it all:  a lot of action and a little romance.  I’m anxiously awaiting the second book in the series, The Iron Daughter, due out in August.

Walden is your average small town. That is, until residents awoke to complete and total darkness, darkness that only covered the town itself. People who attempt to leave do not return and are presumed dead.  Once they enter the darkness they fall victims to whatever evil is residing inside. The narrator of the book is Robbie, a pizza delivery guy, who is detailing everything in a journal which may serve as the only witness of what occurs in Walden. The other key characters are Robbie’s girlfriend and a few of his neighbors.  Dez, a rambling homeless man, plays an integral role in the novel.  He seems to be the only citizen able to explain the darkness, and it’s source.  Unfortunately, Dez is known to be a bit “eccentric”, so his knowledge of the Darkness almost implicates his involvement in the catastrophe. The Darkness itself is also a very active character within the story.  It overtakes the people of Walden.  It tricks them by manifesting into their loved ones, calling them into the darkness.

 People have compared it to King’s The Mist, and while I thought that too in the beginning, the overall theme is completely different. Keene does an outstanding job of portraying what happens to people when catastrophe hits. And in typical Keene style, he leaves you guessing at the end.  Highly recommended, especially to existing Keene fans.

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (February 9, 2010)
• ISBN-10: 038551638X
• Source: Publisher

The year is 1966 in Madison, WI.  Four high school students Hootie Bly, Dilly Olson, Jason Boatman, and Eel Truax, become enamored by Spencer Mallon, a charismatic guru who promises to introduce them to a “higher reality.”  During an occult ritual, something goes horribly wrong, killing one teen.  The four friends are forever changed, each dealt with this horrid day in a different way.  Hootie was taken to a mental institution.  His only means of communication is quoting lines from Hawthorne’s A Scarlet Letter. Eel marries Lee Hayward, her high school sweetheart, but she eventually loses her sight. Boatman, once a shoplifter, now runs his own theft prevention company. Dilly Olson never really got over the entire situation.  Decades later the group comes back together when Hayward decides to write a non-fictional account of that afternoon.  Each learns that their own personal account wasn’t as accurate as they believed. This reunion is the first time they have had the opportunity to share their experiences with one another. Pieces of the puzzle are finally starting to come together to form a large, broad picture.

Once again, Straub does an outstanding job.   A Dark Matter is purely character-driven; the book is broken up into several parts, each devoted to detailing the account of each of the main characters. Readers are transported thirty years in a matter of pages. I was impressed at how smoothly this transformation flowed. There is potential for the novels with character-driven storylines, specifically ones with as many characters as A Dark Matter, to seem drawn-out and exaggerated.  I did not feel that in this case, for I do not think the overall “feel” of the novel would have carried through had it not been for the varying and differing accounts of each of the characters.

Those demanding a defined and definite resolution might be disappointed, however I think this aspect is what makes this such an amazing book. I takes an extremely talented writer to do what Straub has done with this one: giving detailed explanations of one situation from various standpoints, yet still leaving the actual event quite vague. Highly, highly recommended book.

Be sure to check back later for my interview with Peter Straub, the Master of Horror! Until then, check out the book trailer:

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: HCI; Original edition (February 1, 2010)
• ISBN-10: 075731368X
• Source: Publisher

In her debut, Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair, Laurie Perry gave people an inside look at her quirky life as a recently divorced woman.  Now in Home Is Where the Wine Is, it’s the beginning of a new year and Laurie is ready to move on with her life.  She comes up with a list of resolutions for the following year:

1. Explore New Paths to Enlightenment
2. Take an Adventurous Trip
3. Knit Something that Isn’t Square
4. Go On a Real, Live Date
5. Grow A Garden.
6. Deal with My Issues
7. Try Something New (and not just new foods)
8. Do some other form of exercise other than knitting.

Each chapter of the book is then broken down into each of her resolutions. Her lessons on life that she uncovers while completing her resolutions are laugh-out-loud funny!

One of Laurie’s resolutions is to exercise. Following is an excerpt of a scene in which Laurie “responds” to a body’s natural “reaction” to yoga:

I laughed the loud, spontaneous way you do without first wondering if it is appropriate to be laughing.  And as soon as I realized that no, it was really NOT ok to these people (who take yoga very seriously) that I was laughing at  a perfectly natural bodily function, I tried to stop laughing, but I couldn’t.  I was too far gone.  I had become that horrible girl who keeps on trying to be quiet in a serious situation but ends up laughing so hard she’s crying, tears streaming down her cheeks and sides hurting from laughing so hard.  I was that awful, disrespectful girl…I was asked to leave the fancy yoga studio.

Several times throughout the book, I actually forgot I was reading a book!  Laurie’s tone is very conversational, like she’s talking to you directly. You get to experience her true feelings, no some second-hand narrative of her life. And, yes, while the book is absolutely hilarious, it’s also good for the soul. Laurie shows us all how to live our lives at their fullest, and how to have a good time while doing so!

We wake up each day and make it as good as it can be by deciding to see our lives as a continuum, not as a goal or a resolution on a piece of paper. Meet a goal and it’s over, on to the next goal!But a life lived for harmony, for balance, for goofiness, for jokes…that is living. It’s the tiny spaces in between the big goals that let me live…It’s so simple.  It’s not the resolutions, the tidy endings.  It’s all the tangles that make up a life.

As a special bonus, the book is full  of recipes (fried zucchini!) and knitting patterns, including:

* Personal Massager Cozy

* Quick Knit Date-Night Bag

* Felted Wine Bottle Cozy

* Wine Glass Flip-Flop Coaster

* Knitted Swiffer Cover

And, in case you haven’t guessed it by now, I highly recommend this book!  I recommend this book for every woman: a young twenty-something just really entering the dating world as well as a forty-something woman having to face the dating world for the first time in over a decade.  Perry’s writing will speak to every woman.

About Laurie Perry

Laurie Perry knits and writes in Los Angeles, California, where she chronicles her daily life on her online diary, Crazy Aunt Purl. She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, MSN.com, Vogue Knitting, the Boston Herald, and The Palm Beach Post. Perry has written for the Los Angeles Daily News and the Winter Haven News Chief in Winter Haven, Florida. She is the author of Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair.

Follow Laurie on Twitter and check out her blog Crazy Aunt Purl.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for giving me the opportunity to participate in this tour!  Please be sure to check out the other tour stops this month:

Monday, February 1st:  She Just Walks Around With It

Tuesday, February 2nd:  Jenn’s Bookshelf

Wednesday, February 3rd:  One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books

Thursday, February 4th:  Diary of an Eccentric

Monday, February 8th:  Knit and Tonic

Tuesday, February 9th:  You’ve GOTTA Read This

Wednesday, February 10th:  A Novel Menagerie

Thursday, February 11th:  Wendy Knits

Tuesday, February 16th:  Luxury Reading

Wednesday, February 17th:  Rundpinne

Thursday, February 18th:  Knitting Knot

Friday, February 19th:  Knit Read Cats Hockey

Monday, February 22nd:  Bookfoolery and Babble

Tuesday, February 23rd:  Booking Mama

Wednesday, February 24th:  Gaysknits…

Thursday, February 25th:  Stumbling Over Chaos

Friday, February 26th:  Tripping Towards Lucidity

On to the giveaway! I have five copies of Home is Where the Wine Is to give away!

This giveaway is open to residents of the US & Canada only.  To be entered, you must complete the form below.  Winner will be announced Monday, February 15th.