WWW Wednesdays (Nov. 19)

W... W... W... Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. To play along, just answer the following questions.

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll read next?

 What I am currently reading:

I am currently reading 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs.  I love the Bones books and need to get caught up!

 I am also reading Dark Witch (Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy #1) by Nora Roberts.  I really enjoy her books but I wanted to wait until all three in this trilogy were out.  I hate waiting long periods of time

between books.  Now I have them all!

What I just finished reading:
I just finished Shades of Earth (Across the Universe #3) by Beth Revis.  I was anxious to find out what happened to Amy and Elder after I read the first two books but this book got shoved to the bottom of my pile.  I'm so glad I moved it up and finished the trilogy.  




What I am reading next:

I am reading The Perfect Mother by Nina Darnton.  This book sounds like it is loosely based on the Amanda Knox case, which fascinated me.  I can't wait to get into this one!

Teaser Tuesday: 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs and Dark Witch (The Cousins O'Dwyer #1) by Nora Roberts

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 My teasers this week come from 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs and Dark Witch (The Cousins O'Dwyer #1) by Nora Roberts.

Sounds fill the stillness.  The clink of my pirated tools.  The tick of mortar falling on brick.  The wheeze of air in and out of my mouth.

I was sweat-soaked and panting when the door finally popped free and dropped with a clunk.

I inched to the edge and peered out. 

~page 197 of 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs 


 


Iona woke trembling.  Her right hand throbbing with pain, she groped for the  light with her left.  In its flash she saw the raw gashes, the run of blood.  On a shocked cry, she scrambled up, dashed toward the bath, snatching a towel as she lurched toward the sink.
~page 52 (on my Nook) of Dark Witch (The Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy #10 by Nora Roberts 

Giveaway Winners!

Congratulations to Susan K. and Tabitha W.!  They each won a copy of Gillian Anderson's A Vision of Fire from my giveaway.  Susan and Tabitha, I have emailed you guys with the information I need.  You have 48 hours to email me the information so I can pass it on to Simon & Schuster.  Simon & Schuster will then send you your copies of the book via UPS. 

Thank you all for entering my giveaway!  Stay tuned for another giveaway soon!

Book Review: Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs

 

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Following her most successful book to date, Kathy Reichs -- international number one bestselling author, forensic anthropologist, and producer of the Fox television hit "Bones" -- returns to Charlotte, North Carolina, where Temperance Brennan encounters a deadly mix of voodoo, Santeria, and devil worship in her quest to identify two young victims.In a house under renovation, a plumber uncovers a cellar no one knew about, and makes a rather grisly discovery -- a decapitated chicken, animal bones, and cauldrons containing beads, feathers, and other relics of religious ceremonies. In the center of the shrine, there is the skull of a teenage girl. Meanwhile, on a nearby lakeshore, the headless body of a teenage boy is found by a man walking his dog.

Nothing is clear -- neither when the deaths occurred, nor where. Was the skull brought to the cellar or was the girl murdered there? Why is the boy's body remarkably well preserved? Led by a preacher turned politician, citizen vigilantes blame devil worshippers and Wiccans. They begin a witch hunt, intent on seeking revenge.

Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan -- "five-five, feisty, and forty-plus" -- is called in to investigate, and a complex and gripping tale unfolds in this, Kathy Reichs's eleventh taut, always surprising, scientifically fascinating mystery.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit that I am very interested in Voodoo and witchcraft.  I don't believe in it but I find it fascinating.  So I was very excited to start this book.  I was so involved in this one (which was not the case with the last "Bones" book, even though it was good) and finished it within two days because I could not put it down.

Tempe gets called to investigate the findings an underground chamber of an old home.  She finds a cauldron, chicken bones and a human skull.  While Tempe is investigating the findings, a body is found with an inverted pentagram carved into the chest.  From there, Tempe and two other detectives are thrown in to learning about Voodoo, Wicca and Santeria.  They are also faced with an Evangelical preacher/politician that is creating fear in the people with talks of satanism.  Top that with Tempe's always confusing relationship with Ryan and now another man and Tempe has herself some problems that spiral out of control.  

There is a lot of forensic science talk and some of that always goes over my head.  I honestly don't think that the author needs to describe every little procedure in complete detail, mostly because those of us who have not studied forensic science will not understand it all.  So that part is a little slow and dry for me but I love the mystery, Tempe's snarky attitude and meeting the new characters.  I found this book to be much more fast paced than Ms. Reich's last book and for the most part, I enjoyed every bit of it.  

Book Review: Shades of Earth (Across the Universe #3) by Beth Revis

Synopsis (from Goodreads):  

Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn't the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed's former passengers aren't alone on this planet. And if they're going to stay, they'll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who--or what--else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed--friends, family, life on Earth--will have been for nothing.

My Thoughts:

It has been awhile since I read the first two books in this series so I was a little worried that I wasn't going to remember how they left off or all the characters.  As soon as I started reading, though, everything came back to me and I was instantly caught up in the story.

Shades of Earth begins with Amy and Elder and about 1500 of the people from Godspeed in the shuttle getting ready to land on Centauri-Earth.  Everyone is worried about what they will find on this new planet and if they will even be able to live there at all.  But first, Amy and Elder have to actually land the shuttle safely, which turns out to be more difficult than they thought.

After landing, all chaos ensues.  People are hurt and some are even dead, the Frozen are waking up and there are monsters outside the shuttle on a planet that no one has ever been on.  As Elder tries to maintain some control, Amy is excited to finally be able to see her parents again.  

As soon as Amy's dad and the rest of the military wake up, there is a fight for control.  The shipborns do not trust the military at all and the earthborns think the shipborns are strange and different and they don't really trust them either.  Amy's dad starts leading the people off the ship but the people soon find out that they are fighting against the unknowns of a new planet as well as monsters that they aren't able to see.  

I liked Elder a lot but sometimes he got really annoying and showed that he was really more of a child than a leader.  He demanded to be in control of his people but then he never really took any control.  Amy couldn't decide if she was going to stand behind Elder or stick with her parents.  She would think Elder was right in something but her father would disagree and instead of standing up for herself or Elder, Amy would just meekly follow her father.  I would get so frustrated with Amy and that disappointed me.

I am so glad that the people finally got off Godspeed and were on a planet with real air, sky and trees but there wasn't a lot of exploration of the planet.  The colony went from the ship, through the forest to the ruins where they stayed.  There was a lake and the compound and that was all.  I would have really liked to have seen more of the planet explored but with the ptero monsters out there,  I guess it wouldn't make sense for the people to go off exploring.  

I knew who the traitor was right away.  There are subtle clues throughout the book that I was able to pick up on.  I wasn't sure what the whole twist in the story was though, so it didn't detract in any way.  Once the twist was revealed, I actually felt sorry for the traitor.  I could totally understand what happened.  

I seriously could not put this book down!  It helped that we had our first snow of the year (which means everything shuts down here even though we get snow every year) so I was able to spend the days reading while my kids played.  This book was action packed and so full of questions that you couldn't stop reading until you got the answers.  

The Friday 56 (Nov. 14, 2014)

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice. 

Rules:
*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
(If you have to improvise, that's ok.)
 *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grab you.
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post below in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url. It's that simple.




For one second Maanik's eyes rolled to meet hers and Caitlin felt raw horror wash down her spine.  She had seen young people trapped in terrible circumstances - held hostage by a parent, pinned by a landslide -  but here she felt as if she were looking at someone who had wakened in a coffin and found herself buried alive.  The girl took an uncertain step and her eyes rolled to the ceiling.  She was still trying to scream.
 *This book was so fascinating!  Enter my giveaway to win it HERE. 



Noise swells from the cryo room, interrupting my dark thoughts.  At first I think it's just the natural volume of fifteen hundred people cramped together in one giant room, but then a voice screams in fury over the sound of all the others.
 

W...W...W...Wednesdays

W... W... W... Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. To play along, just answer the following questions.

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll read next? 

What I'm currently reading: 

I am currently reading Shades of Earth by Beth Revis.  It is the last book in the Across the Universe trilogy.  I read the first two awhile ago and then got so behind on my TBR pile.  I'm excited to see how this series ends.



What I recently finished:

I just finished A Vision of Fire by Gillian Anderson with Jeff Rovin.  I loved the X-Files when I was a kid and wanted to be Scully so I was really excited to read this one.  I could not put this book down.  It was so fascinating!  If you are interested in it, enter to win my giveaway for it HERE.





What I plan to read next:

 I love Nora Roberts paranormal stories (well...I guess I love any of her books).  This is the first in her Cousins O'Dwyer trilogy.  I wanted to wait until all three books were out so I didn't have to wait a long time for the next book to be published.






So, what are you reading right now? 

Giveaway Time! Win A Vison of Fire (Earthend Saga) by Gillian Anderson with Jeff Rovin

I am giving away two copies of A Vision of Fire (Earthend Saga) by Gillian Anderson with Jeff Rovin. 

The first novel from iconic X-Files star Gillian Anderson and New York Times bestselling author Jeff Rovin: a science fiction thriller of epic proportions.

Renowned child psychologist Caitlin O’Hara is a single mom trying to juggle her job, her son, and a lackluster dating life. Her world is suddenly upturned when Maanik, the daughter of India’s ambassador to the United Nations, starts speaking in tongues and having violent visions. Caitlin is sure that her fits have something to do with the recent assassination attempt on her father—a shooting that has escalated nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan to dangerous levels—but when teenagers around the world start having similar outbursts, Caitlin begins to think that there’s a more sinister force at work.

In Haiti, a student claws at her throat, drowning on dry land. In Iran, a boy suddenly and inexplicably sets himself on fire. Animals, too, are acting irrationally, from rats in New York City to birds in South America to ordinary house pets. With Asia on the cusp of nuclear war, Caitlin must race across the globe to uncover the mystical links among these seemingly unrelated incidents in order to save her patient—and perhaps the world.

To enter to win this book, go to my giveaway HERE.   Right now, the giveaway has very low entries (only 2) so your chances of winner are pretty good!  The giveaway ends on Sunday night so get your entries in.  This was a great book full of mystery and suspense.  I don't usually read science fiction but found this story to be fascinating!  So hurry, go enter for a chance to win a free book!

Book Review: Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

 

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Jodi Picoult, bestselling author of My Sister's Keeper and The Tenth Circle, pens her most riveting book yet, with a startling and poignant story about the devastating aftermath of a small-town tragedy.

Sterling is an ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens--until the day its complacency is shattered by an act of violence. Josie Cormier, the daughter of the judge sitting on the case, should be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened before her very own eyes--or can she? As the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show--destroying the closest of friendships and families.

Nineteen Minutes asks what it means to be different in our society, who has the right to judge someone else, and whether anyone is ever really who they seem to be.

My Thoughts:

I have only read two other Jodi Picoult books (Salem Falls and My Sister's Keeper).  I liked both books but they weren't books that made me want to read everything she ever wrote.  I happened to pick this book up from our Little Free Library (a community box of books that you can swap).  I could not put this book down because I had to find out what really happened. 

Peter Houghton is the boy that everyone picks on in school.  He has been teased and bullied mercilessly since the first day of Kindergarten.  The book begins with him entering his high school and shooting students and staff.  From there, you begin to get an insight into who Peter was and why he did what he did.  Is bullying ever an excuse to murder?  Absolutely not!  However, with that being said, I can honestly say that this book made me THINK.  It made me think about how awful high school can be for some kids.  How judgmental the kids there can be and how kids so desperately want to just fit in.  It was heartbreaking to me, as a mother of two boys and one girl,  to read what Peter went through on a daily basis.  

I enjoyed how we saw the story through Peter's eyes as well as Josie's, the parents of Peter and the mother of Josie, the defense attorney and the detective.  I think that it helped to understand everything that happened and not just that Peter was bullied.  I felt like I really got to know the characters as well as their history in this book.

I did not like Josie one bit.  She was friends with Peter up to a point and didn't care what others thought of her.  Then she gets popular and she just turns into a horrible person, in my opinion.  She knows that the things her boyfriend and his friends are doing to Peter are wrong on so many levels and yet she won't do anything at all about it because she is so scared of losing her popularity.   She stays with a boy who abuses her because he is one of the most popular boys in school.  Then there is the twist at the end that I can't tell you but that clinched it for me.  I did not like her.

This book hit me emotionally on many levels.  There has recently been a school shooting at a school in my state (Marysville-Pilchuck High School) and I immediately thought of this book and the emotions I felt while reading it.  It's so heartbreaking on so many different levels and for every single person involved.  I think this book made me open my eyes a little and look at things in a slightly different way.  Before I would always just say what a sick individual it was that shot up a school (and I still think that...because anyone who would do that has serious mental health issues and it is not excusable for any reason) but now I think a little more about the shooter and why he or she would do it.  Again, not saying that it is acceptable for any reason but it makes you really wonder what went on behind the scenes.  It makes you THINK and I believe that that makes the book worth reading.

 

Teaser Tuesday (Nov. 11): A Vision of Fire by Gillian Anderson with Jeff Rovin & Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

     "Even as Maanik began to breathe somewhat normally, Caitlin was still on high alert.  She was afraid to look around, to give credence to something she was feeling:  that something had come back with the girl." ~page 188 of A Vision of Fire by Gillian Anderson (check out my giveaway for this book here)


    






     "Something - a rocket failing? a computer malfunction? -  knocks the shuttle off course again.  I can see features of the planet's surface now:  mountains and lakes and cliffs.
     And we're going to crash into them.  ~page 16 of Shades of Earth by Beth Revis




What are you reading today? 

Book Review & Giveaway: A Vision of Fire (Earthend Saga) by Gillian Anderson & Jeff Rovin

 

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

The first novel from iconic X-Files star Gillian Anderson and New York Times bestselling author Jeff Rovin: a science fiction thriller of epic proportions.

Renowned child psychologist Caitlin O’Hara is a single mom trying to juggle her job, her son, and a lackluster dating life. Her world is suddenly upturned when Maanik, the daughter of India’s ambassador to the United Nations, starts speaking in tongues and having violent visions. Caitlin is sure that her fits have something to do with the recent assassination attempt on her father—a shooting that has escalated nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan to dangerous levels—but when teenagers around the world start having similar outbursts, Caitlin begins to think that there’s a more sinister force at work.

In Haiti, a student claws at her throat, drowning on dry land. In Iran, a boy suddenly and inexplicably sets himself on fire. Animals, too, are acting irrationally, from rats in New York City to birds in South America to ordinary house pets. With Asia on the cusp of nuclear war, Caitlin must race across the globe to uncover the mystical links among these seemingly unrelated incidents in order to save her patient—and perhaps the world.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive when I was asked to review this book.  I mean, I loved the X-Files when I was growing up so I certainly knew who Gillian Anderson was but I am not a huge science fiction fan.  However, I found this book to be more of a thriller than science fiction.  I was happy to find out that not only did I enjoy this book but I really didn't want to put it down.

The book starts off with Maanik, a young girl who's father is the Indian Ambassador to the United Nations.  Maanik and her father experience a harrowing event and, although Maanik is shaken up, she appears to be fine.  That is, she if fine until she ends up in strange fits in the middle of her class.  She is scratching herself, talking in tongues and not responding to her parents.  Ben, who works with Maanik's father as a translator at the UN, calls in Caitlin to help.  Caitlin is a psychiatrist but even she has not seen anything quite like this.  

Caitlin travels from Haiti to Iraq, talking to other people who have experienced the same kind of episodes.  She meets and receives (some) answers from a High Priestess and a Hindu Priest.  As Caitlin and Ben dig deeper, the discover that Maanik and the other two people are experiencing something from another time and place.  

This book completely surprised me by gripping me at page one and keeping me wanting more until the very end.  I was caught up in the tensions between Pakistan and India and stress that Maanik's father, as well as Ben, were dealing with and the helplessness of Maanik's mother and even Caitlin at points.  The mystery surrounding Maanik's "episodes" kept me reading to try to figure out what was going on with her.  Now I am anxiously looking forward to reading the next book in the Earthend Saga!

 Now for the fun part...If you would like to win a copy of this book, please fill out the rafflecopter below.  A winner will be chosen on Saturday, November 15, 2014 and Simon & Schuster will send a copy straight to the winner.

A huge thank you to Simon & Schuster for allowing me to review this book in exchange for an honest review! If you want to join Simon & Schuster Insiders, where you can share your love of books, get special access to new books and earn rewards, sign up HERE.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
#simoninsiders: I'm required to disclose a relationship between my blog and Simon & Schuster. This could include Simon & Schuster providing me with content, books, access or other forms of payment.
Vision of Fire on Simon & Schuster's Website