tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-92420582024-03-14T04:04:21.098-05:00Under a Blood Red SkyUnder a Blood Red Sky: Ramblings and ReviewsTaminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.comBlogger690125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-6756434450032371792015-11-19T18:55:00.000-06:002015-11-19T18:55:11.567-06:00The Forgotten Room
Where to begin with this absolute gem of a book? It's a sweeping tale of love found, love lost, and mystery surrounding a room in a mansion in New York City. It's centered around families and blooming where you are planted, as it were. But it's soul stirring and well written and just beautiful. The fact that three different authors contributed seamlessly to the story is just the icing on the Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-73481250701990107722015-11-13T17:31:00.002-06:002015-11-13T17:31:28.202-06:00The Highest of Recommendations
Ruta Sepetys is one of the finest writers, young adult or otherwise, writing today. Her two previous novels, Between Shades of Gray and Out of the Easy, held me enthralled through every page. Now comes Salt to the Sea, and it is everything and more that the others are. But a word to the wise up front...have tissues close by.
There are four points of view telling the story of Salt to the Sea, Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-5202114116339351772015-11-08T19:33:00.001-06:002015-11-08T19:33:30.363-06:00Second in the Series
Where to start on The White Rose? It picks up almost precisely where The Jewel left off, with Violet in big trouble with her mistress over her affair with the companion, Ash. As he is sentenced to die, the Duchess visits unbelievable cruelty on Violet, and it's apparent that she and Ash must escape pronto. Luckily, there is Lucien and Garnet there to secret them, along with Raven, out of the Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-22248862137077719972015-11-01T20:25:00.001-06:002015-11-01T20:25:17.080-06:00Excellent Historical Fiction
Sisters of Treason is a delightful surprise; in a world that is glutted with Tudor fiction, this one is a cut above as it looks at two of the forgotten females of the tenuous succession: Katherine and Mary Grey, younger sisters of the tragic Lady Jane. I have to admit I was hopeful but skeptical that this novel would be something new and interesting, and was very pleasantly surprised whenTaminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-79873429008232171422015-10-11T19:11:00.000-05:002015-10-11T19:11:08.729-05:00An Historical Winner
Marguerite de Valois is one of history's shadowy figures who truly deserves to be brought into the light and given a voice of her own. In Sophie Perinot's new historical novel, we discover a young woman with a backbone as strong as her formidable mother's, and an ability to matter in a way females often couldn't during the 1500s.
Starting from her late childhood, we are introduced to Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-38810530730944045622015-10-03T20:44:00.000-05:002015-10-03T20:44:04.509-05:00Nine Lives: A Lily Dale Mystery
I admit that I hadn't read others in this Lily Dale series before picking up Nine Lives, but apparently that's not a necessity, luckily for me. The premise sounded good and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so I decided to give it a go. And all in all, I'm glad I did.
This is the story of Bella, whose husband Sam has passed away, leaving she and her young son at loose ends. When Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-2415366941947835092015-09-30T17:18:00.003-05:002015-09-30T17:18:12.064-05:00How Everyone is Feeling At Work This Week(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));When you walk in and see your shitty sectionPosted by Server_life on Sunday, 23 August 2015Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-30917392895100454202015-09-28T20:30:00.002-05:002015-09-28T20:30:28.727-05:00The Scorpion Rules
I just finished The Scorpion Rules, and I have to say I really enjoyed it! I wasn't sure going in, especially since I'd read some not flattering reviews ahead of time (I really need to stop doing that). But it pleases me to no end to be able to give this one two big thumbs up!
Greta is one of the Children of Peace: Rulers in the post-apocalyptic world must give their heirs to a Precepture, Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-30375459052733598172015-09-24T20:35:00.000-05:002015-09-24T20:35:07.490-05:00
For a while while I was reading Delia's Shadow, I didn't think I was enjoying the story. I mean, the idea of the story was great--young woman moves back to San Francisco a few years after her parents' deaths in the big quake, but that's not the big thing. No, Delia's biggest problem is that she sees ghosts, and now one has decided to attach itself to her until she solves the mystery of the Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-7764733531481733572015-09-16T19:15:00.001-05:002015-09-16T19:15:12.773-05:00
True to my word, I didn't wait long after finishing The Chaos to dive into Infinity, the third book in the series. I've got to say...it was almost as good as the other two, and definitely another page turner. If you haven't picked up this series yet, you need to. Let me tell you why.
Infinity picks up two years after The Chaos, and Sarah and Adam are living in a tent, roaming about after an Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-9499273767885898562015-09-13T18:57:00.001-05:002015-09-13T18:57:18.339-05:00Rat Pack Again
So, at first I was a little let down by It Was a Very Bad Year...The initial part of the story was redundant of an earlier story, and there seemed like there was no big mystery after all. But I should have known my Eddie G had way more up his sleeve than just finding some racy pictures of an actress. Eddie G and Big Jerry never let me down, and they certainly didn't in this Rat Pack Mystery.
Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-65004507565702363762015-09-07T12:32:00.000-05:002015-09-07T12:32:18.282-05:00
I read Numbers a few years ago and loved it. Went out and bought The Chaos, and put it in my To Be Read pile...where it languished, unread, for far longer than it should have. Recently the book began calling to me (true readers will understand that) so I picked it up and immediately got sucked in. I was thoroughly and totally reminded why I loved Numbers--the chill of impending doom and the Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-74909475025830377502015-08-31T20:42:00.000-05:002015-08-31T20:42:03.801-05:00Total Brain Candy (Just When I Needed It!)Be forewarned...if you are looking for deep, meaningful reading, The Bourbon Kings is not the book for you. But if you are interested in good escapist fiction that sucks you into the lives of privileged, spoiled rich people, you're going to be pleasantly surprised. I know I was.
First, let's be clear: There is nothing paranormal about The Bourbon Kings, unlike Ward's uber-successful Black DaggerTaminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-29255918511701962272015-08-24T20:58:00.000-05:002015-08-24T20:58:00.731-05:00Pros and Cons
I finished this book last night and admittedly spent too much time afterwards trying to decide how I was going to review it. I've finally decided that the best way to do this is a Pros/Cons list because I'm about equally divided in my thoughts right now.
Pro: Strong start. I roared right through the first 75 pages or so, needing to know what the big secrets were and how Nina fit into it.Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-55689635026695462852015-08-01T20:07:00.002-05:002015-08-01T20:07:30.107-05:00Fly Me to the Morgue
Love this series and love Eddie G.! In book 6 of the Rat Pack Mysteries, Fly Me to the Morgue, Eddie's newest life-threatening problem comes when he accompanies Bing Crosby to look at a possible race horse the celeb may want to buy. Having impressed Bing with his horse knowledge a year earlier, Big Jerry is asked along for the ride, but naturally it's far from a regular visit to look at a horseTaminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-84476616810834820892015-07-31T21:35:00.002-05:002015-07-31T21:35:45.481-05:00The Boy on the Wooden Box
Wow. Just wow. This is the true story of Leon Leyson, a young man whose family lost almost everything in Poland during the Holocaust, yet made it through alive thanks to Oskar Schindler and his famous list. This is a story of the survival of humans through the generosity of those who seem least likely to offer it, and it is a story of bold chances taken and grateful, hopeful people. Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-72570431018531526592015-07-26T16:46:00.002-05:002015-07-26T16:46:42.202-05:00The Sad Tale of Typhoid Mary
We've probably all heard someone use the term "Typhoid Mary", but many of us likely don't know the truth behind the words. Typhoid Mary was a real person, a cook in the early 1900s, who was accused of spreading typhoid to many through her skills as a cook; she was tracked down, harassed, and imprisoned until the end of her life, though others with similar issues were allowed to remain free. Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-32934449889225525222015-07-13T14:47:00.003-05:002015-07-13T14:47:37.569-05:00Rat Pack Mystery...Again!
Before I go any further, I have to admit that I absolutely adore the Rat Pack Mysteries: They sweep me away into the Vegas era of the 1960s, with the Rat Pack and various mobsters front and center. And Eddie G.! What a guy. Okay, I'm done now.
This installment features Ava Gardner, Frank Sinatra's ex-wife. Somehow, Ava turns up after a 40 hour drunken binge, covered in blood with Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-86445728205230267282015-07-13T14:32:00.000-05:002015-07-13T14:32:59.384-05:00A Little Bit of Nightfall
Fourteen years of Day, followed by fourteen years of Night...that's how the inhabitants of Martin's Island have lived for ages. They stay on the island in homes built by someone else, for fourteen years of Day, but as twilight falls, they prepare to leave to travel to the Desert Lands to live. Before they leave, however, they must go through some rather odd preparations, including "leaving the Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-66471733191326938112015-07-01T15:56:00.001-05:002015-07-01T15:56:26.025-05:00Fairest (The Lunar Chronicles)
Having finished Fairest, a novella of the Lunar Chronicles, I do feel as though I have more insight into Lunar Queen Levana's behavior as we see it in the other books. Fairest follows her from the time she's sixteen and has just lost her parents to assassins; her sister Channary has been named queen. That's less problematic to Levana than the fact that her crush, palace guard Evret Hayle, is Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-19139200659652106742015-06-30T14:52:00.000-05:002015-06-30T14:52:01.056-05:00Anya's Ghost--A Graphic Novel Adventure
Anya's Ghost is a good graphic novel that pulls the reader into the story quickly, and keeps you turning the pages to find out just what is up with this ghost...Is she really just a friendly ghost who wants out of the well where she's been stuck for nearly a hundred years? Or is there something slightly more sinister going on?
Built around Anya, a teenager whose mother emigrated from Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-64669847837326631772015-06-29T13:25:00.000-05:002015-06-29T13:25:04.855-05:00The 19th Wife
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff is really two stories, something I didn't realize when I initially began reading. Not that that turned out to be a bad thing, but going in I thought I was just getting the story of Ann Eliza Young and I ended up with that and more. I'm still not sure the present-day story was needed, or even all that good, really. But interesting? Yes, indeed.
So...This is the Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-64223487495954895562015-06-24T22:11:00.003-05:002015-06-24T22:11:54.748-05:00Another Day
I admit that I read and loved Every Day by David Levithan a couple of years ago, so when I learned there would be a companion book, I went on NetGalley and requested it. I was so excited when I was able to download it, but also a little wary...you know how it is when a book gets inside you and you're afraid the sequel won't live up to your expectations? Yep, I know you do. So let me set your Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-29808767637906703072015-06-24T21:32:00.004-05:002015-06-24T21:32:53.108-05:00The Rat Pack Mystery That Features Marilyn
Okay, yes, I admit it: I am addicted to these fun novels about the Rat Pack! This time, our Eddie G. is asked to help a friend of Dean's...one Marilyn Monroe. What red-blooded male of the early 60s would turn down such a gig? Not our favorite pit boss. Marilyn feels someone has been following her, so Eddie agrees to look into it. Unfortunately, he receives word of the passing of his Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9242058.post-47646181751322797862015-06-24T16:47:00.001-05:002015-06-24T16:47:25.738-05:00Back With Mia
I love Princess Mia, and I've loved all the Princess Diaries books. Yes, I even love the movies though the changes didn't make me very happy. So, after years of having read all about Mia's insecurities and foibles, I was a little apprehensive to dive into this one. Was the magic still there? Could she possibly come across well as an adult? I'm very relieved to say YES, this is just as much fun Taminatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12375642888613084170noreply@blogger.com0