Book: Kill for Me, Kill for You

 Book: Kill for Me, Kill for You

Author: Steve Cavanagh

Pages: 352

This is my 117th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

One dark evening on NYC's Upper West Side, 2 strangers meet by chance.  Over drinks, Amanda and Wendy realize they have much in common, including an intense desire for revenge against the men who destroyed their families.  As they talk into the night, they coe up wiht the perfect plan: if you kill for me, I'll kill for you.  In another part of the city, Ruth is home alone when the beautiful brownstone she shares with her husband, Scott, is invaded.  She's attacked by a man with piercing blue eyes, who disappears into the night.  Will she ever be able to feel safe again while the blue-eyed stranger is out there?

This was an interesting enough book.  It has been on my shelf for awhile, and I am determined to make a big dent in that thing this year.  It has an interesting enough mystery.  There was a twist I didn't see coming - bravo.  Two of them actually.  It was an easy read - a lot of short chapters.  I liked a lot of the characters.  The ending - even with a bit of a twist - was still just okay.

Stars: 3.5

Book: Theo of Golden

 Book: Theo of Golden

Author: Allen Levi

Pages: 400

This is my 116th book for the year.  

What Amazon Says:

One spring morning, a stranger named Theo arrives in the small Southern city of Golden.  He doesn't explain much about where he came from or why he's there - but when he visits the local coffeehouse, where pencil portraits of the people of Golden hang on the wlals, he begins purchasing them, one at a time, and giving each protrait to the person depicted. In exchange, he asks only for the person's story.  And so portrait by portrait, person by person, secrets are revealed, regrets are shared, and ordinary lives are profoundly altered.  A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is an unfortgettable novel about the power of generosity, the importance of connection, and the quiet miracles that happen when we choose kindness and wonder.

This book was excellent.  I have been seeing this book everwhere for months, and finally was able to get my hands on it.  It is very well written.  Great characters.  Theo is adorable and the epitome of someone who gives without wanting anything in return.  He keeps his last name anonymous the entire time he lives in Golden.  The story is sweet with humory and humility and will restore your faither in humanity.

Stars: 5

Book: Cradle and All

 Book: Cradle and All

Author: James Patterson

Pages: 286

This is my 115th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

In Boston, 17 year old Kathleen is pregnant, but she swears she's a virgin.  In Ireland, another teenage girl, Colleen, discovers she is in the same impossible condition.  Cities all around the world are sddently overwhelmed by epidemics, droughts, faminse, floods, and worse.  As terrifying forces of light and darkness begin to gather, Kathleen and Colleen find themselves at the center of the final battle for a very sould of humanity.  Each of the girls must convince a young detective that she is the true mother of God - and that the other is carrying the devil. 

This book was good enough.  It is a very easy, very fast read - I read it in a day.  Lots of short chapters and half pages of text made that easy.  James Patterson is a commercial success, but a great writer?  Not sure about that.  The story was interesting.  Got a bit drawn out, even in its few pages, and got a bit boring, but does circle back to redeem itself at the end.  Left on a bit of cliff hanger, but this is an older book, so I don't see a sequel appearing.

Stars: 3

Book: Chosen Ones

 Book: Chosen Ones

Author: Veronica Roth

Pages: 432

This is my 114th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

15 years ago, 5 ordinary teenagers were signled out by a prophecy to take down an impossibly powerful entity wreaking havor across North America.  He was known as the Dark One, and his weapon of choice - catastrophic events known as Drains - leveled cities and claimed 1000s of lives.  Chosen Ones, as the teens were known, gave everything they had to defeat him.  After the Dark One fell, the world went back to normal - for everyone but them.  After all, what do you do when you're the most famous people on Earth, your only education was in magical destruction, and your purpose in life is now fulfilled?  Of the 5, Sloan has had the hardest time adjusting.  Everyone else blames the PTSD - and her huge attitude problem - but really, she's hiding secrets from there - secrets that keep her tied ot the past and alienate her from the oly 4 people in the world who understand her.  On the 10th anniversary of the Dark One's defeat, something unthinkable happens: one of the Chosen Ones dies.  When the others gather for the funderal, they discover the Dark One's ultimate goal was much bigger than they, the government, or even prophecy could have foretold - bigger than the world itself.  And this time, fighting back might take more than Sloane has to give.  

This was an okay book.  I have read most of Veronica Roth's books, because I did like her Divergent series years ago.  However this one wasn't great.  It was a cool idea, but I felt like I was walking into a sequel instead of a stand alone.  We are past this big battle with a world ending deamon, and we are supposed to care about it?  I just could not get sucked in.  I walked away from the book a few times because it just did not hold my interest.  This is supposed to be an adult fantasy, but it is written as YA in my opinion.  Hard to like any of the characters - especially Sloane.  

Stars: 3

Book: End of Ever After: A Cinderella Retelling

 Book: End of Ever After: A Cinderella Retelling

Author: EL Tenenbaum

Pages: 310

This is my 113th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

When the invitation to the prince's ball was put in her hands, Ella imagined a single night of wonder, a single night to escape her wretched life and be anyone else for awhile.  She never expected to turn the prince's head, she certainly never expected to run off with his heart.  Five years later, Ella looks back on her faerytale rise from soot stained cinderwench to the queen the people call CinderElla.  Ignored and humiliated much of her life, she could hardy believe her sudden good fortune.  Nor could she aniticpate what was to follow, not the lies, not the betrayal, not the truthof her handsome Prince Charming.  Ella is desperate to figure out how, despite her best intentions, everything went so horribly wrong.  And what, if anything, she can do to get back her ever after.  End of Ever After is the first in a five part companion series that rewrites the classic tales of happily ever after.

Terrible book.  Poorly written.   Read it because I had it in my kindle as a free book and it fit a challenge caterory I was trying to fill.

Stars: 2

Book: The Bielski Brothers

 Book: The Bielski Brothers

Author: Peter Duffy

Pages: 336

This is the 112th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

In 1941, 3 brothers witnessed their parents and 2 other silbings being led away to their eventual murders.  It was a grim scene that would, of course, be repeated endlessly throughout the war.  Instead of running or giving in to despair, these brothers - Tuvia, Zus and Asael Bielski - foughtback, waging a guerrilla war of wits against the Nazis.  By suing their intimate knowledge of the dense forest surrounding the Belarusan towns of Novogrudek and Lida, the Bielskis evaded the Nazis and established a hidden base camp, then set about convincing other Jews to join their ranks.  As more and more Jes arrived each day, a robust community began to merge, a "Jerusalem in the woods".  After 2 1/2 years in the woods, in July 1944, the Bielskis learned that the Germans, overrung by the Red Army, were retreating back toward Berlin.  More than 1000 Bielski Jews emerged - alive - on that final, triumphant exit from the woods.  

This was a good book.  It was a bit dry, but otherwise well written.  This book is on the Rory Gilmore endless reading challenge, so that is why I picked it up.  I like a good non-fiction book, and what these brothers were able to do was miraculous.  I also enjoyed that the author included pictures of the brothers and other key players in this story.  Love putting faces to names.

Stars: 3.5 

Book: Pursued: The Story of Stalking, Memory and Madness

 Book: Pursued: The Story of Stalking, Memory, and Madness

Author: Corey Mead

Pages: 283

This is my 111th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

From 1977 to 1981, Ruth Finley, an ordinary wife and mother from Kansas, was tormented by an elusive maniac known as the Poet. The police, already on edge from BTK's reign of terror, spent years searching for the stalker.  Meanwhile, his cryptic letters in rhymed verse grew more disturbing and violent, spilling into deeds like stabbing and kidnapping.  In this propulsive nonfiction account, as Ruth is surveilled from all sides, her nightmare takes a chiling turn: The Stalkier is no stranger at all.  It's someone the police have been close to for years, someone nearer to home than Ruth dared to admit.  The revelation recasts what seemed like a cruel twistof fate as something far more disturbing. 

This book was okay.  It is one of my Kindle free reads I am trying to work through.  It is non-fiction - on of my favorite genres - but this one was a bit dry.  I kind of figured it out right before the "twist" was revealed, but it was a bit of a surprise and I was curious to figure out how it took the police so long to figure it out.  Glad I read it because I do love true crime, but I wish it was just a little bit better written.

Stars: 3