New Ways.....

Due to many life changes this last year, things are going to start to look and operate a bit differently on my blog from here on out.  I do plan to continue reading, that is a given, but I will not be doing as detailed of reviews anymore.  I simply now do not have the extra time.  The new way I am going to try from here on out is this...I will use my Goodreads account to do a quick review on there when I finish a book.  Just a quick what was good or bad or what I liked or didn't like and just an overall of what I thought of the book.  This way all the book details and summary are right there for me and I don't have to retype them here.  I will do a post here at the end of every month with links to my reviews on Goodreads for the books I get read/reviewed.  So look for a post once a month here that will give a list of the books read with links to my reviews.  

As you will notice in my sidebar, I have dropped all but one of my 2016 challenges.  I just was too far behind to even try, but the Charity one is the perfect one to keep.  I also have all my perpetual challenges still up.  You can also find links to all of my reviews under the "2016 Book Reviews" tab in my sidebar.

I just am finding that my new life responsibilities are a bit more than I had expected and time is not always on my side.  I love reading and sharing what I think of books though, which is why I felt I should try things like this for awhile and see if that helps. 

Thanks for following and I hope the new changes I have made make it easier for me to provide the reviews I still love to give!

Book Review: Down the Rabbit Hole

Title:  Down the Rabbit Hole
Author:  Peter Abrahams
Pages:  407
Publication Date:  2006
Version:  Paperback
Genre:  Adult Fiction/Mystery

Summary Via Goodreads.com:
"Welcome to Echo Falls, home of a thousand secrets.

Ingrid is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or at least her shoes are. And getting them back will mean getting tangled up in a murder investigation as complicated as the mysteries solved by her idol, Sherlock Holmes. With soccer practice, schoolwork, and the lead role in her town's production of Alice in Wonderland, Ingrid is swamped. But as things in Echo Falls keep getting curiouser and curiouser, Ingrid realizes she must solve the murder on her own -- before it's too late!"

My Review:

All Ingrid wants is to be like her idol, Sherlock Holmes.  Soon she is thrown into a murder mystery of epic proportions.   She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and now she is in a real pickle.  She can't tell the police chief the truth, she was in the wrong and the chief is her new found boy crush's Dad.  How would that look?  Besides she has read every Sherlock Holmes book at least twice, she can figure this murder out on her own, she just knows it.  Teenager or not, she is sure she can do it.  Trouble is, solving mysteries is way harder than she read about in her books.  Can she really solve the murder she is hoping to solve?  Will it be her that is being investigated next...for murdering or being murdered.

This was a good book, but I have to admit, it wasn't one that was a fast read by any stretch of the imagination for me.  I didn't want to toss it aside to the "give up on" pile, but it wasn't one I was drawn to read on in either really.  I wanted to see what happened, but I thought it took a long time to get there.  The characters were pretty great though, which is why I kept on reading.  I also loved the unique spin to the book of the teen girl working to solve the murder and purely on guidance from her favorite mystery book set.  The descriptive words and writing was also a highlight of the book to me.  It was very easy to picture what was going on and where in this book.  So all in all a good read, but not a great great great read in my opinion.

3/5 Stars 

Book Review: A Deadly Game of Magic

Title:  A Deadly Game of Magic
Author:  Joan Lowery Nixon
Pages:  
Publication Date:  2004
Version:  Paperback 
Genre:  Young Adult Fiction/Mystery

Summary Via Goodreads.com:
"Seeking shelter from a fierce Texas storm, four teens are trapped inside a strange house as unwitting players in a magician's evil games. The phone goes dead. A plaster head suddenly appears. A disembodied hand taps the mantel. Then the magic turns even more sinister, leading inevitably toward murder."

My Review:

Bo, Teena, Julian, and Lisa are four teens who would never be together if it weren't for a project for school.  Things only get worse for them when Bo's car breaks down and they are forced to pull into an old home to use a phone for help.  They soon find that they are alone in the house waiting for the auto club, but a storm outside may delay their rescue.  Soon odd things start happening in the house, things that are making the four teens realize they need to help each other and stick together to make it to the rescue from the auto club.  Lisa discovers things in the house that shouldn't be scary, but are just down right terrifying when the setting is so dark and dreary.  All the teens want is to go home, preferably soon and even more preferably alive.  Someone seems to be in this spooky house, but they never really show themselves.  Who is in the house and do they mean the teens harm?  What about the little old lady that owns this house?  Is she really stuck in town because of the weather or did she come home and come to some harm by the mysterious someone in her home?  Is the someone in the home a hitchhiker or are they someone more mysterious than that....more other worldly?

This book had me from the first word on the first page all the way to the last word on the last page.  I was absolutely sucked into this book and story.  This author absolutely nailed the bullseye in the writing and flow of this book!  I was so into this book by the wonderful descriptions given that I found myself jumpy as I read because of how focused I was on what was going on in the book.  A noise would happen in my own home as I was reading and I jumped thinking I was in the story.  The characters were so realistic and fun and so well developed that I felt they were real people that I knew of.  They all were so different, yet all so much alike.  I loved the bonds they started to form as the book progressed.  This was a bit different than most mystery books I've read, but in a great way.  It wasn't this .... so and so was murdered and now we must find who done it.... it was a what is happening here and what is really going on in this house and with these teens mystery.  I loved every minute of it!  Nice change of pace in my reading.  The ending was a bit of a disappointment to me, as it left some things unanswered, but all in all my love of the rest of the book outweighed the way things ended.

If you like mysteries with a twist, this is the book for you.  This is a great book for young adults and adults and is a great easy breezy read.  I highly recommend this book!!!

5/5 Stars!!!!

Book Review: An Uninvited Ghost

Title:  An Uninvited Ghost
Author:  E.J. Cooperman
Pages:  293
Publication Date:  2011
Version:  Paperback
Genre:  Adult Fiction/Mystery/Paranormal

Summary Via Goodreads.com:
"Alison and her resident gumshoe ghost are on their next case when the deceased Scott MacFarlane floats in worried that he accidentally killed a prominent local woman. Turns out she's still alive...that is, of course, until she's murdered-in Alison's house. Now, between the demands of her guests and the arrival of a reality television crew, Alison must find the killer before she sees reality from the other side."

My Review:
Alison, her daughter, and her ghostly friends/roommates are finally getting the business of their home becoming a guesthouse off the ground.  Alison is excited to have her first guests arriving for a week long stay.  She couldn't be happier, things seem to be looking up!  That is until a prominent local woman drops dead in her living room.  Now Alison has to put her newly acquired PI license to use and try to solve the whole mystery behind how this woman came to die in her house.  She soon is trying to balance a murder investigation, being a good Mom, and being a great host to her guests.  Her ghostly housemate, who happens to be a PI also, is great help to her, but he is limited on his help as he is unable to leave her property.  Soon Alison finds that there is much she never knew about the small town she is living in again.  To top it all off a popular TV show has set up shop in and around her home for filming.  Good money and good for getting word out about her guesthouse, but also a pain in her rear end.  Especially now that one of the cast has gone missing and they want to hire her to find her.  Can she find a lost cast member and a murderer?  Are they in any way connected?  How will people like hearing things they don't understand?  Can Alison really solve a murder without becoming a ghost herself?

I simply could not pass up reading this book!  I simply loved the first book in this series, so I had to continue on when I saw this book.  I read them in order, but they would make great stand alone books also.  The second one gives enough insight when needed, that you would never be left confused.  It may make you want to read the first book out of curiosity, but it wouldn't be a case of having to read it to understand this second book.  This author did not disappoint me at all.  I went into this book with high hopes and expectations because of how much I loved and enjoyed the first book I read in this series.  I was not disappointed at all.  The same wonderful descriptions, writing, and characters were in this book as with the first one.  The characters grow more in this book and you get to learn a bit more about some of them, which was wonderful.  This book had me hooked from page one all the way to the last word on the last page!  Never a dull moment!  If you love mysteries with a paranormal twist to them then this is the book for you by far.  It has a wonderful balance of the paranormal side and the living people side and how they all work together.  Alison is one of my favorite characters I have read about in a long time.  She is a super independent woman who knows what she wants out of life now and will do anything to get it for herself and for her family and ghostly friends too.  Highly recommend this read!!!

5/5 Stars!

Book Review: Night of The Living Deed

Title:  Night of The Living Deed
Author:  E.J. Cooperman
Pages:  325
Publication Date:  2010
Version:  Paperback
Genre:  Adult Fiction/Mystery/Paranormal

Summary Via Goodreads.com:
"Welcome to the first Haunted Guest House mystery-the getaway every reader can afford. 

Newly divorced Alison Kerby wants a second chance for herself and her nine-year-old daughter. She's returned to her hometown on the Jersey Shore to transform a Victorian fixer-upper into a charming-and profitable-guest house. One small problem: the house is haunted, and the two ghosts insist Alison must find out who killed them."

My Review:
All Alison really wants to do is be successful at her new endeavor of turning a beautiful historic house into a beautiful guesthouse she can live in with her daughter and rent out the extra rooms to tourists to.  She got the house for a steal of a price, but maybe there is good reason for that...as Alison soon learns.  There is a lot of work to be done before it is even live in ready, much less ready to be rented out to tourists.  Alison is not put off by this though because she is a wiz at handyman, or handywoman, work thanks to her father teaching her from little up.  Soon she discovers that she may not be alone in the house, and she's not referring to her daughter either.  After a run in with a bucket and a ladder, she discovers she can see ghosts....not from her meds either, real ghosts....in her house.  Soon she is mixed up in an investigation to help these ghosts find out who killed them.  She's no detective, but she did take acting courses in college, so that must come in helpful some how when she's digging around for answers.  This is an old crime though, so can she possibly keep digging around without the killer noticing or caring that she is snooping?  Won't this put her and her daughter in danger?  What secrets does this small town and its people in it really have?  Even her own Mother and her own daughter seem to have secrets!  Can she find a killer before the killer snaps and "takes care of her"?

Oh my gosh!  I simply LOVED this book!  The paranormal end with the ghosts was very well written and the mystery end of it was edge of my seat amazing!  The descriptions in this book had me looking around my own home in wonder because they seemed so real and so intimately described.  The writing just flowed right along throughout the whole book.  I never had a moment that I wanted to put down the book.  I wanted to keep reading until the end, but alas life just doesn't always allow that.  When I was reading this book, it was as if my own world stopped and I was transported into the one that I was reading about.  I could see the house, the people, the cracks in the walls....I could smell the paint, the dust, the fresh air....I could feel the warm breeze.  I have never had a book that was so intense for me and so real to me before.  This is due to amazing writing on the author's part that's for sure.  The characters were nothing to sneeze at either.  They were simply amazing!  I felt like I was able to become friends with some of them and others know enough that I didn't want to be friends with them.  They were so well developed and so complex, yet easy to relate to or get to know.  There is so much I want to say about this book, but I am not one to give spoilers, so instead I will leave it at the point of this....you just need to read this book!  I mean it, don't let this book go unread!  If you love mysteries and you are also a fan of some paranormal twists, this is definitely the book for you!

5/5 Stars and then some!!!!