Teaser Tuesday: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books And A Beat.


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!

They all watched the screen in satisfaction.  The boat was definitely heading away from the shore. 
     "I guess the hard part's finished," Gennaro said.
     Grant shook his head.  "The hard part," he said, "is just beginning."
~page 364 of Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Book Review: Perfect (Pretty Little Liars #3) by Sara Shepard

 

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

In Rosewood, Pennsylvania, four perfect-looking girls aren't nearly as perfect as they seem.

Aria can't resist her forbidden ex. Hanna is on the verge of losing her BFF. Emily is freaking out over a simple kiss. And Spencer can't keep her hands off anything that belongs to her sister.

Lucky me. I know these pretty little liars better than they know themselves. But it's hard keeping all of their secrets to myself. They better do as I say . . . or else!  

My Thoughts:

My daughter and I watch the TV show and my daughter just recently devoured all 16 books so I decided I better read them too.  I read the first two last fall and just remembered I should actually finish the series.

I love that these books are on the shorter side, easy to read and so entertaining.  They don't require a lot of thought but it's easy to read one in a day or two and for both my daughter and me, they keep our attention through the whole book.

In the third book of the series, Aria is living with her boyfriend, Sean, because her mom has kicked her out after a little incident she had with her father's new girlfriend.  Aria still has feelings for Ezra though so things are quite complicated for her.

Spencer has started seeing her sister's psychiatrist and is remembering events from the last night that she saw Ali alive.  Spence also gets nominated for the Golden Orchid, a very prestigious award based on an economics report that she wrote....or did she?  Poor Spencer has to try to decide if she comes clean about the report but she is enjoying the attention so much.

Hanna and Mona have a little tiff and now Hanna is worried that Mona is going to move on without her.  She is trying her hardest to keep Mona in her good graces but finds it so stressful that she starts to eat a lot of junk food again.  When she starts chatting with Lucas, things get even harder for poor Hanna.

Emily is in all sorts of trouble after her parents find out that she has kissed a girl.  Now Emily has to decide is she can try to change for her parents or stand firm in who she is.

While these books are fun and easy to read, I find that they are sometimes a little over dramatic.   As a mother, I find it hard to believe that Aria's mother would kick her out of the house over something so dumb.  What Aria did was wrong but there is no way I would tell my teen to leave my house over it.  I would make her call and apologize but really...leave the house and not even worry about her or give her a call or anything?  Yeah, I'm not buying it.  

Emily's parents were over the top as well.  Okay, so you are shocked that your daughter is kissing another girl but to threaten her with reform or send her to her ultra religious aunt and uncle in Iowa?  These relatives supposedly make their sons run in the morning to get out any sexual tensions and keeping a list of sins daily is ridiculous...although I am sure there are those people out there.  

I am excited that we have all the books so I can finish up the series.  I haven't figured out who A is right now but my daughter says I won't be surprised so we will see!

 

Book Review: Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

It's Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives. But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations.

As Anna sets out to find her friend's killer; she discovers hard truths about her friendships, the slippery nature of truth, and the ache of young love.

As she awaits the judge's decree, it becomes clear that everyone around her thinks she is not just guilty, but dangerous. When the truth comes out, it is more shocking than one could ever imagine...

My Thoughts:

I devoured this book in one sitting!  It reminded me a little of the Amanda Knox case...teens out of the country, someone dies, dealing with a trial in a foreign country, etc.  Even though I predicted the "twist" at the end, it kept me second guessing myself the whole time.  

Anna and her friends are finishing up their senior year of high school.  They head to Aruba for Spring Break and party hard.  When they find that their leader, Elise, has been murdered, they are shocked.  When Anna is targeted as the suspect and has to fight to regain her freedom.  

The book is told from Anna's point of view.  She goes back and forth between the present, with her being in jail and the trial, to the past, where you get a look at how Elise and Anna became such good friends.  You also get to see how Tate and Anna become a couple and the twisted relationship between the three.  There are other friends in the group that add to the plot but the main story is between Anna, Elise and Tate.

Once Elise has been found and Anna is arrested, it really seems as if the prosecutor (I can't remember his title in Aruba but essentially, he would be the prosecutor) has it out for Anna.  I really ended up hating him and wanting him to fail because it appeared as if he concentrated all his focus on Anna and dismissed any other leads.  I also was disgusted with Tate and Anna's other friends at first because they appeared to only be looking out for themselves and they kind threw Anna under the bus.  Then I decided, if faced with a murder accusation and life in prison in a foreign country, I would probably do the same.  

The ending did not shock me at all as I thought I knew who the killer was the whole time but like I said, it had me doubting myself the whole time.  I was pretty sure but there were always a couple questions that made me pause.  

If you liked Gone Girl or Girl on a Train then you will definitely like this one.  It says it is a YA book but I think it is a mature YA book.  There is a lot of sex, drugs and alcohol in the book so I would definitely say ages 16 and up.