Karebear Central

My mother loves to read and recently has started looking at rummage sales to find some books. She thought she was grabbing a book written by Mary Higgens Clark. It’s actually a book by Mary Jane Clark.
I didn’t know what to expect really. Basically the story is about a news television station and a missing vial of anthrax. I actually learned a lot about anthrax from this book–especially that it takes a few days to kill someone. The story starts with the killer leaving a card for Jerome Henning, the book producer for the news show. The story mostly is from the point of view of Jerome’s ex girlfriend who has moved on and had 2 kids with someone else. He gives her a manuscript to read and it become really apparent that something he wrote in the manuscript could be what killed him and more people to come. What would people kill for the world not to know–is someone a frequent traveler to a drug treatment center, could it be the office affairs, could it be the sexual harrasment going on? It is really hard for a normal sane person to understand how something like drug treatment would cause some to kill. 

I was pleasantly surprised by this book.  I usually catch onto the clues of who the killer is, but this book actually surprised me.  I never even guessed who the killer was.  I am hoping it was just that good of writing, not that I am losing my smartness.

Yes, that is a title of a book.  This book is by Gillian Roberts–an Amanda Pepper Mystery.  As stupid as the title was, it caught my attention.  The story is about Halloween at a private school in Philadelphia where Amanda Pepper teaches.  She starts to get a bad feeling the kids something strange is going on and that something bad is about to happen.  When the science instructor, Juan Reyes, starts getting small pranks and threatening messages, Amanda realizes that someone may be taking the pranks too far.  She finds out that high schoolers have a lot more to worry about than bad dates, bad grade or acne treatments. The book is no great American novel, but it keeps you entertained. If you like to read and like a little mystery. This is the book for you!

Anyone who knows me, knows I like to read.  Sunday night, I was up until 11 trying to finish a book I started earlier that day.   My husband turned out the light at 11 telling me to go to sleep.  Needless to say, I didn’t get into work at 5 like I planned the next morning.  Books are so addicting to me, I love them!  If I could get paid to read all day, I would.  But the book–

“Nameless” by Debra Webb is a book about a fallen hero Ryan McBride.  He was a legend at finding missing kids and three years earlier the FBI let him take the fall for a botched kidnapping rescue.  He turned to drinking and woman to forget the world.   But rookie Vivian Grace isn’t going to let that happen.  There is a new kidnapper out there wanting McBride back in the FBI.  The kidnapper looks at McBride as a man who needs to be put back on the pedestal he once was.  McBride doesn’t want to be a hero, he wants to stay hidden forever.  Vivian has her own dark secrets, for which the book is really named after.  She was kidnapped years before which is part of the reason she joined the FBI.  Together McBride and Grace race to save the victims, but do they end up being the victims?   Read the book to find out. 

I enjoyed the book as a romantic thriller.  It was hard to put down.  Growing up I always wanted to be a detective, so maybe that’s why I like these FBI thrillers so much!  I look forward to the next book “Faceless.”

Is it wrong that part of the reason my sister and I bought my mom books for Mother’s Day so I could read them? I don’t think so, I call it sharing!
“First You Run” is a book by Roxanne St. Claire, one of my new favorite authors right now. When I grabbed this book, I didn’t realize it was one of a series. The name probably should have tipped me off, but I’m slow. I did guess the second books title “Then You Hide”. I do like continuing themes in books, as long as I can get the next book right away!
But more about this book. The story is about a “Bullet Catcher” Adrien Fletcher who is trying to track down a baby given up 30 years in an illegal adoption. The best part for Adrien is that the babies that were put into this adoption scheme are tattooed. So its up to Adrien to search any woman he thinks are the adopted and has no clue where the tattoo may be located. He meets one lady, Miranda Lang, who he thinks could be the one woman in particular. Luckily for her that he finds her because it turns out someone is trying to kill her.
The book is an entertaining romance that really keeps you guessing. It revolves around just the right amount of people and subtley introuduces you to one of the next main characters in the next installment. I look forward to reading “Then You Hide.” I need to know the whole story!

I read this book “The Stupidest Angel” by Christopher Moore this month.  I have never been high, but I think I know what it is like to be on an acid trip.  This book is so strange.  Its so hard to even explain what it is about, but I will try.  Basically, this town is getting ready for Xmas and an unfortunate murder happens.  Someone dressed as Santa is killed and a little child sees.  They pray to God and God sends down an angel.  This angel is dumb and really strange.  But he’s not really the main character.  The characters that really catch your eye are the pot smoking town constable, his off her meds B-movie wife, a pilot with a pet fruit bat, a dumped scientist and so much more.  The fruit bat talks, the dead talk, the dead walk. 

The funny thing is, this book sucks you in.  You have to know what happens next.  This is not a serious book, its a book you read for a good time or if you just want to relax.   I probably would not have picked this book out for myself (it was a an Xmas gift), but I am glad someone did.  I feel actually more sane after reading this book! If that’s even possible!

Do you want to sit down to a good book and cry?  That’s what I did last night.  I poured myself a drink and delved right into “P.S. I Love You” by Cecelia Ahern.  Right now, there is a movie out based on this book.  I originally wanted to the see the movie, but I figured I may want to read the book to really love it.  (Case in Point:  “A Walk to Remember” by Nicholas Sparks, much better book than movie.  I did like the movie, but the book more) 

This is a story of Holly and Gerry, a married young couple who learn devastating news.  Gerry has a brain tumor and is not going to make it.  The book opens with Holly, alone a couple months after Gerry’s death.  She is barely functioning without her soul-mate.   The author makes you feel what Holly feels, the loneliness, the anger, the regret. 

But one day, she gets a call from her mother saying there is a package that came for her at her parents house.  There is a note on the box that says “The List.”  Years before, Gerry and Holly had jokingly made up a list of things that Holly would need to live if he were to be gone.  Like “Get a bedside lamp” or “Never wear an expensive white dress.”  She rushes to her parents and finds that for each month until the end of the year, Gerry has left her a note for each month of tasks she must perform. 

You laugh with Holly on her 30th birthday party, you cry with her on her first Xmas without Gerry, you get angry with her at all the people who judge her.  I love a book I am just transported into.  It is a long book, about 470 pages.  But if you like a good book and don’t mind a bit of a cry, this book is for you.  Now I am just waiting for the movie to go into budget so I can compare. 

Karen Rose just keeps pumping out these books.  I love her for it, because her books are entertaining, and I am amazed.  I love to write myself and wish I could be like that too.  Anyway, this book is about Vito Ciccotelli, who was introduced in I think the book Don’t Tellwith Tess and Aidan. This continues the story with Vito (with an appearance from his sister Tess) and Sophie Johannesn.  Sophie is an archaeologist who is brought in by the police department (Vito and company) to determine how many bodies are buried in a filed outside of New York.  Because she becomes entangled up in the mystery and murder, she herself becomes the hunted. 

This book had its ups and downs. Again, Karen introduces the killer in the beginning of book which I love.  Andy is always complaining about watching shows and not really having that guessing game to figure out who it is, like Without a Trace.  But Karen keeps you guessing.  The love story between Sophie and Vito is believable.  The attraction they feel for one another seeps off the page.  The only thing I didn’t like was Sophie’s character.  She was too bullheaded and kind of snobbish at times.  I like to associate with the main character and up until the middle half of the book, I really didn’t like her that much. 

This book was pretty good. I’d give it a 7.  I would say if you are looking for suspense and love, this is the book for you.

This is a normal romance novel.  The title pretty much sums up this book by Rachel Gibson.  I liked the book as an airplane read.  It had no real stress or that hard of a storyline to follow.  Its about a girl who left a town when she was 4 because her mother was the other woman in a relationship and it had tragic consequences.  She is a writer and is writing a book on her mothers life.  She meets the son of her mother’s lover, wanting to hate him.  He actually has the opposite effect on her and the story unfolds.  If you don’t expect too much out of this book, then you will have an enjoyable read. 

Okay, I have to admit , it is probably a good idea to read books in the order intended.  This book is before Count to Ten.  This is the story of how Kristen and Abe meet.  This story involves a lot of vigilante killing.  Kristen is an overworked A.D.A. who really cares about her clients.  Someone has gone to the trouble  of killing those criminals who the system let go or with minimal penalty.  This in turn causes a crime boss whose son is one of the murdered to come after Kristen.  Abe becomes her knight in shining armor, the person she calls first. 

This book did focus on the love story and killings.  I’m really wondering how many people in these series of books have been killed off.  The thing is, its not really the vigilante killer that you learn to hate.  The killer actually is quite likable and its understandable why he kills.  The crime boss is the one you learn to hate, the one you want dead.  But in the end, you really feel bad for him too. 

The book ends well, with a little surprise at the very tail end.  Again, Karen Rose introduces the true killer in the beginning of the book. So you have plenty of time to play the guessing game of who done it.  I loved this book.  It had about the same amount of love story as mystery.  I would recommend this book above all the other ones I have read recently by Karen Rose. 

This book by Kay Hooper Always a Thief is the second installment of the Morgan and Quinn/Alex love story.  Who is Alex may you ask?  Alex is actually Quinn, or maybe its Quinn whose actually Alex, but they are one in the same.  Quinn’s story is more deeply introduced and the blossoming love of Morgan and Alex come to a head.  There still is mystery and intrigue in the book.  It kept me riveted on the edge of my seat.  Wolfe and Storm are not central characters in this book, but they are very good supporting characters.  But just when you think its the end of the story, they introduce the beginning of the third book.  The love story continues. . . .