Saturday, June 30, 2012

Between the Covers - Book Review #14

There's been a lot of reading going on lately in my house and sadly, not much writing while I recover from my many stays at the hospital recently! :(

I have five selections for you, my faithful demon hunters.

1) The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern proved to be an envious debut novel. I don't really know what so many of the "critics" were talking about on Goodreads and other review sites; this book wasn't all description without plot. If you read enough reviews yourself, you will find that people either loved or hated the book because of her descriptions, which some readers found too lengthy and distracting. I found her writing to be wonderful. This is a beautiful fantasy love story involving two dueling magicians at a circus I wish to attend! (And that's saying something for me, since I don't approve of circuses because of their use of animals.) Do not miss this series and if you're a writer, have tissues handy, for you will probably be crying with envy!

2) Sherrilyn Kenyon's Bad Moon Rising is a pleasing addition to her Dark-Hunter series, but don't expect a very complicated plot. Do expect a light, entertaining love story between two different Were species and some action/fight scenes. No big plot twists here, but it's a good escape, though I could have done without the detailed sex scenes. At least, they were mostly plot oriented and not gratuitous.

3) Dean Koontz's 77th Shadow Street left me with a sour taste in my mouth. What promised to be a unique story about an apartment building with a dark history fell flat. The characters are interesting and unique, but Koontz's delivery falls apart in the last few chapters, in which I finally learned the origin of the malevolent being targeting tenants and was disappointed. It's a great explanation, but too little and too late.

4) Patricia Cornwell's The Scarpetta Factor is another great addition to the Scarpetta forensic series, with a few good turns. However, towards the end, a few chapters cut would speed things up nicely. Dr. Kay Scarpetta is one of my all-time favorite female characters from a crime/suspense series. In this story, the suspects include an actor accused of a sex crime and a former, secret billionairess lover of Lucy's.

5) In Kathy Reichs's 206 Bones, Temperance Brenan is kidnapped and trapped in an underground tomb. The story works backwards in time, which is refreshing, though if you watch the TV series, Bones, like most beasts, the books are an entirely different animal from the TV series, of which, I actually enjoy both. In this novel, Brenan solves the murders of a few elderly women and discovers someone in her forensic lab is sabotaging her work and her reputation. This is a quick read, but worth it.

2 comments:

Erin O'Riordan said...

Done without the detailed sex scenes? Blasphemy! Detailed sex scenes are to reading what the cherry is to the top of the ice cream sundae.

Nora B. Peevy said...

LOL Erin, I don't mind when they are plot oriented, but truthfully, I'd rather be spending that type of time with my husband than reading it in a book. ;)