Beautiful Disaster

Entree ****of ****

This is a coming of age, Romeo and Juliet type of story. Abby  Abernathy is a pretty serious college freshman, who also enjoys a good party. Travis Maddox is a tattooed one night stand kind of guy who fights, drinks and smokes.

Abby spends a lot of time at the beginning of the novel ignoring Travis because she isn’t interested in being used and forgotten. But Travis is thunderbolted by by Abby. Of course, they end up together.

When they are happy and getting along, the relationship is great but they also fight, are controlling and occasionally desperate. That's what makes them a Beautiful Disaster.

Amanda's Eyes

Amanda “A.J.” Gregson’s is a reporter following a story when she witnesses an explosion that kills two agents of the Continental Intelligence and Investigative Service (CIIS), incinerated an entire block and does so much damage to her eyes they had to be surgically removed. Haunted by elusive nightmares, A.J. waits for her transplant and struggles to remember the events leading up to the explosion. Her memory does return. The explosion had been the work of the Ferrymen.

The transplant surgery goes off without a hitch but the new eyes have the power to see into the hidden dimensions of the human heart. An Special Agent tries to isolate A.J. to protect her but she holds the key to uncovering the seemingly unstoppable and diabolical Ferrymen.

An "explosive" read, quick, fascinating, and hard to put down!

The Age of Desire

Entree *****of *****
The Age of Desire is a beautifully written book that captures the essence of paris and the character of Edith Wharton. They say behind every great man is a woman. Behind Edith Wharton, there was Anna Bahlmann—her governess turned literary secretary, and her mothering, nurturing friend. When Wharton turns 45, she has an affair with a younger man that destroys her marriage and her husband (though they never divorce) and distances her from Bahlmann. Her choices are those of an infatuated teenager rather than those of a grown woman and her lover is unworthy of the sacrifices that Wharton makes to be his. If her writing had not been so beautiful, so evocative of the times in which she lived and if she had not been one of the earliest successful women novelists, it would be impossible to respect her. Yet, even as she writes so beautifully of the challenges of the women of her station in her day, she disobeys the strictures and chooses her own path.

The Nose Knows

Entree **** of ****
I'm an animal lover, so I am always a sucker for stories about the relationships between domesticated animals and us. The Nose Knows is a delightful story of a psychologist, Hannah Richards who is recovering from two traumas, an attack where she was held hostage and the later loss of her husband. Too frightened to practice her profession out of an office for fear of another attack,  Hannah cares for her patients through computer consultations while surrounding herself with the animal companionship of Spunky, 13 year old terrier mix, Fearless, a heavy breathing cat brutalized and left broken by an abuser, and feline brothers. Spunky narrates the tale of loss, another stalking of Hannah, new love and the deep and abiding relationships between humans and the loving animal companions. This is a charming story, well written and certain to delight anyone who understands how animals are loved by people and the many ways that our animals return that love with comfort, loyalty, and protection. I think that the author made have made a mistake in making Spunky so old because Spunky as the narrator is what really makes this book work!

Judgement of Souls

Entree **** of *****
Judgement of Souls is an interesting entry in the vampire genre. I found the book interesting and well written but there really wasn't anything deeply appealing or anything unique about the book but that may be because the genre has been so heavily inundated in the past several years. The main character, Rachel was born human from two parents who were both vampires. She was turned, by choice when she was 16, on the same day when he parents, guardians of the most valuable vampire text, The Book of Cain, disappeared. To protect them, Rachel put them to sleep, safely, deep in the Appalachian mountains and then started on her mission to prove them innocent of wrongdoing so that they could return to  Elysium, their paradise like home. Hundreds of years later, when Rachel returns to be of her favorite cities, Cardiff, things start to happen that are related to mysterious scrolls and The Book of Cain. Things become even more complicated when Rachel becomes incredibly attracted to a human club owner, Daniel. The pace is fast, the characters are interesting and the story line, while predictable is well developed and includes a bit of dark humor. Lovers of the genre may be interested in Judgement of Souls.

Light and Dark

Entree ****of *****
Light and Dark is the first book in a wonderful new fantasy series by D.M. Fife. I think that this series has the potential to be a major best selling series because it is very well written, appealing to middle schoolers and up, and has an interesting twist, suing human, elves and dragons bonded together to keep the Darkness from encroaching and taking over the world. Danny Firoth is an average kid starting his first day of school. He has some good friends, including his best friend Chris, but really isn’t the most popular kid in his class. On his first day of school, he develops a really serious crush on a new girl in his class, Sabrina Drake. Danny is pushed into a fight with one of the school bullies and finds that he has a weird ability to anticipate the actions of the guy a few seconds before he gets hit. Since his mom is really mad about the detention he gets for fighting in school, he doesn’t have time to really think much about it. He hates getting his mom upset because she’s all he has, having lost his Dad in a war a long time ago. A rumbling and shaking of the school during detention scares him but far less than the dragon that appears to fight a shadow that is causing the stumbling. Sabrina and her family take an interest in Danny and some of his friends that can see the Darkness, inviting them to interview to be trained as Knights of the Light. During the summer, they are initiated into a world that they never knew existed and start their training. The White Rock Academy of Illumination trains mortals, elves and the people like Sabrina who can transform to dragons to battle the Darkness while waiting and hoping for the foretold Mageknight, their salvation to finally appear. There are some minor grammar errors that slightly detract from the tale but it is a wonderful, exciting addition to the fantasy genre.

Humanity of Justice

Entree **** of *****
I enjoyed Humanity of Justice thoroughly and think that everyone should read this book! Humanity of Justice is a well written book about the United States Justice system, written by a well known, highly respected and successful prosecuting attorney, Burke E. Strunsky. Using case studies of some of his most interesting and often controversial cases he examines topics like eyewitness accounts, circumstantial evidence, reasonable doubt, the jury system, emotion vs logic, and language usage in presenting evidence and winning trials. There is a lot of annotation in the book so that you can investigate cases in more depth or check the veracity of what Strunsky presents. The cases that he presents are pretty gruesome, ranging from a man who tortures and murders a three-year-old but escapes the death penalty, the church going man who molests young girls at his daughter’s slumber party, a man who kills his wife for the insurance money and more. Strunsky is articulate, experienced and manages to relate even the most gruesome crimes in the context of how the American system of justice best  and least effectively deals with capital crimes.