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The Harrowing

By:  Alexandra Sokoloff

Published by:  St. Martin's Press

Mendenhall echoes with the footsteps of the last home-bound students heading off for Thanksgiving break, and Robin Stone swears she can feel the creepy, hundred-year old residence hall breathe a sigh of relief for its long-awaited solitude. Or perhaps it's only gathering itself for the coming weekend.

As a massive storm dumps rain on the isolated campus, four other lonely students reveal themselves: Patrick, a handsome jock; Lisa, a manipulative tease; Cain, a brooding musician; and finally Martin, a scholarly eccentric. Each has forsaken a long weekend at home for their own secret reasons.

The five unlikely companions establish a tentative rapport, but they soon become aware of a sixth presence disturbing the ominous silence that pervades the building. Are they victims of a simple college prank taken way too far, or is the unusual energy evidence of something genuine - and intent on using the five students for its own terrifying ends? It's only Thursday afternoon, and they have three long days and dark nights before the rest of the world returns to find out what's become of them. But for now it's just the darkness keeping company with five students nobody wants -- and no one will miss.

I picked up this book when I went down to New Orleans for the book signing over Labor Day weekend.  I got to meet Alexandra Sokoloff and she personalized my book for me.  She's a very nice lady! (and very elegant! oh la la) 

This was a great horror story.  I read almost the entire thing in one sitting (waiting for my grandmother to get done at the doctor's office which was a horror in itself).  It was creepy and spooky and perfect for Halloween reading!  In fact, I was reading the ending at home, alone, with the windows open and a dog barked in the back yard and it scared me SO bad.  My heart was pounding!

I think this could make a really good movie.  Thinking about that...have y'all see StoryCasting.com?  What a cool way to make a movie cast of all your favorite books!

Beyond Justice

By:  Joshua Graham

From Goodreads: THE DESCENT INTO HELL IS NOT ALWAYS VERTICAL…Sam Hudson, a reputable San Diego attorney, learns this when the authorities wrongfully convict him of the brutal rape and murder of his wife and daughter, and sends him to death row. There he awaits execution by lethal injection.If he survives that long.In prison, Sam fights for his life while his attorney works frantically on his appeal. It is then that he embraces the faith of his departed wife and begins to manifest supernatural abilities. Abilities which help him save lives– his own, those of his unlikely allies–and uncover the true killer’s identity, unlocking the door to his exoneration.Now a free man, Sam’s newfound faith confronts him with the most insurmountable challenge yet. A challenge beyond vengeance, beyond rage, beyond anything Sam believes himself capable of: to forgive the very man who murdered his family, according to his faith. But this endeavor reveals darker secrets than either Sam or the killer could ever have imagined. Secrets that hurtle them into a fateful collision course.BEYOND JUSTICE, a tale of loss, redemption, and the power of faith.

This blog is part of the Blog Tour for this book hosted by Pump Up Your Book Promotions.  I was pretty excited to read this book because I love a good legal thriller.  However, you might notice a little word up there in the summary that gave me a bit of pause...FAITH.  I was worried that this was going to be an overly religious preachy book.  No worries though, while religion was talk about a lot, I didn't feel like it was being forced on me as the reader and I don't think a religion of preference was ever specified now that I think about it.

I'm sure writers don't particularly like being compared to another, but this book felt like John Grisham had spent the afternoon at a tent revival and this was the story he came home and wrote.  It was mostly a great legal thriller with a drive-you-crazy mystery and a little Christian fiction sprinkled over it.  Mr. Graham has a wonderful, easy to read writing style.  This was a big book and I sat down and found myself halfway through it in one sitting.

I'll admit that I read a lot and most books are somewhat predictable.  Whodunit is usually fairly obvious about halfway through.  In this case, not so AT ALL.  I was completely surprised and I love that!  Gold Star for the ending on this one!

Terminal Care

by:  Christoper Stookey

Phil Pescoe, the 37-year-old emergency physician at Deaconess Hospital in San Francisco, becomes alarmed by a dramatic increase in the number of deaths on the East Annex (the Alzheimer’s Ward). The deaths coincide with the initiation of a new drug study on the annex where a team of neurologists have been administering “NAF”—an experimental and highly promising treatment for Alzheimer’s disease—to half of the patients on the ward.

Mysteriously, the hospital pushes forward with the study even though six patients have died since the start of the trial. Pescoe teams up with Clara Wong—a brilliant internist with a troubled past—to investigate the situation. Their inquiries lead them unwittingly into the cutthroat world of big-business pharmaceuticals, where they are threatened to be swept up and lost before they have the opportunity to discover the truth behind an elaborate cover-up.

With the death count mounting, Pescoe and Wong race against time to save the patients on the ward and to stop the drug manufacturer from unleashing a dangerous new drug on the general populace.

If you like medical thrillers, this one is definitely for you!  I found this to be a very good, solidly written book.  I kept trying to guess what was going to happen next and I was usually surprised.

As for the characters, I thought Phil was a pretty likeable guy.  Clara really stole the show for me.  I thought she was a lot of fun and exciting.  It made me wish Clara was my doctor!

This is one of those books that will make you think a lot and maybe make you a little bit uncomfortable about the medication that you take.  It spotlights the cozy relationship between the drug manufacturers and the testers and even the doctors.  The whole book is made more credible by the fact that the writer, Christopher Stookey, is a practicing ER (ED as we learn in the book!) physician.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

By:  Carrie Ryan

In Mary's world, there are simple truths:  The Sisterhood always knows best.  The Guardians will protect and serve.  The Unconsecrated will never relent.

And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village. The fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

But slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.

Now she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?

First off, does anyone else think "Jennifer Love Hewitt" when they see this version of the cover?  That's who immediately  comes to mind for me. 

I've developed such a love of YA dystopian.  I don't even know where it came from, probably Stephen King.  I think he's responsible for all us 30-somethings that love these books so much.  Back when we were little tykes we didn't have much in the way of YA so we were reading stuff like Stephen King at a very young age and had our impressionable minds warped and twisted (in such a delightful way).

I thought this book was fairly decent.  I tore through it in about a day so it must have been good.  I read it as part of my "It's my birthday I can read what I want to" weekend.  When I was done, I immediately returned it to the library and put a hold on The Dead Tossed Waves. 

My only issue with this book, was the relationship with Mary to the love interests.  The whole brother swapping thing and throwing her best friend in there was not complicated, but brow-furrowing maybe?  A head scratcher.  I guess it just added some drama to the story.

If you aren't familiar with this series, this is the first book.  The Dead Tossed Waves is next and the third book is called The Dark and Hollow Places and it'll be released March 2011.

A Book of Tongues

By: Gemma Files

4 Stars

The first thought I was able to put into words upon finishing this book was "LSD fueled coherent nightmare". And I'm going to stick with that impression.

The publisher's description:

Two years after the Civil War, Pinkerton agent Ed Morrow has gone undercover with one of the weird West's most dangerous outlaw gangs-the troop led by "Reverend" Asher Rook, ex-Confederate chaplain turned "hexslinger," and his notorious lieutenant (and lover) Chess Pargeter. Morrow's task: get close enough to map the extent of Rook's power, then bring that knowledge back to help Professor Joachim Asbury unlock the secrets of magic itself.

Magicians, cursed by their gift to a solitary and painful existence, have never been more than a footnote in history. But Rook, driven by desperation, has a plan to shatter the natural law that prevents hexes from cooperation, and change the face of the world-a plan sealed by an unholy marriage-oath with the goddess Ixchel, mother of all hanged men. To accomplish this, he must raise her bloodthirsty pantheon from its collective grave through sacrifice, destruction, and apotheosis

Caught between a passel of dead gods and monsters, hexes galore, Rook's witchery, and the ruthless calculations of his own masters, Morrow's only real hope of survival lies with the man without whom Rook cannot succeed: Chess Pargeter himself. But Morrow and Chess will have to literally ride through Hell before the truth of Chess's fate comes clear-the doom written for him, and the entire world.

The author drops us boots first into a slightly skewed West where the more you see the more you realize that something just isn't right. A Book of Tongues is not a fantastic tale of wizards in the old west. Oh no, this book is a tale of blood and horror.

Every single character is unlikeable. That's not to say the characterizations are bad, because no - they are brilliant. All of them are very believable hexslingers, whores, soldiers, outlaws, lawmen, preachers, gods, the people on the street; to a one they ring true. They're all just horrible.

Brilliant and compelling, but leaving me at a loss for words. I'm still not sure how I feel about this story, but I do know I'm eagerly awaiting the next book in the trilogy A Rope of Thorns.

A few quick bullet points, warnings for some. Intense sexual relationship between male characters, blood soaked and violent, with multiple gods - could be considered blasphemous. Basically do not pick this book if you do not wish to be challenged.

Blue Nude

by:  Elizabeth Rosner

Published by:  Gallery Books

Born in the shadow of post-war Germany, Danzig is a once prominent painter who now teaches at an art institute in San Francisco. But while Danzig shares wisdom and technique with students, his own canvasses remain empty, for reasons he doesn’t understand. One day, he and his class begin sketching a new model, a young woman named Merav, the Israeli-born granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. Danzig is immediately taken with her exceptional beauty, sensing that she may be the muse he has been missing. Challenged by Danzig’s German accent, Merav must decide how to overcome her fears. Before they can create anything new together, both artist and model are forced to examine the history that they carry.

Blue Nude recounts the events that bring Danzig and Merav together, including their disparate upbringings, their respective creative awakenings, and their similarly painful, often catastrophic, love lives. Using words to paint the landscapes of body and soul, Rosner conveys the art of survival, the complexity of history, the form of exile, the shape of desire, and the color of intimacy, all the while underscoring the lasting impact of the Holocaust on post-war generations in a literary yet accessible way.

First off, I will NEVER ever ever read a book in my house with the word NUDE on the cover again until my kids grow up.  My 6 year old, looked at it and screeched "NUDE? You're reading a NUDE book?"  I sat there trying to calmly explain to her that it wasn't a nude book that it was about an artist and a model.  Her screeching and of course, the word nude drew the attention of the other two who came in to laugh at Mama reading the nude book.  Kids!

Other than that, it was a beautifully written book.  It was sad and haunting and you felt so bad for the characters.  It was written in a style that I was a bit unused to.  There were no quotation marks around the dialogue, so at first I found that a little odd, but then I realized it was less distracting.  Everything just flowed. 

I didn't really like Danzig much personally, I thought he was rude and arrogant, but I guess he grew into that personality because of his accomplishment.  He felt like he deserved whatever he wanted and that annoyed me.  I didn't like the way he treated the women around him, his models, his students, etc.

I did find this book quite interesting.  I had never really thought too much about what it takes to be an artists' model, apparently it's a lot more than just taking off your clothes and standing there.  The relationship of artist to model can be so very complex.

**I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review which I have provided.  I was in no other way compensated.**

The False Friend: Review and Giveaway

By:  Myla Goldberg
Publisher:  Doubleday

Leaders of a mercurial clique of girls, Celia and Djuna reigned mercilessly over their three followers. One after­noon, they decided to walk home along a forbidden road. Djuna disappeared, and for twenty years Celia blocked out how it happened.



The lie Celia told to conceal her misdeed became the accepted truth: everyone assumed Djuna had been abducted, though neither she nor her abductor was ever found. Celia’s unconscious avoidance of this has meant that while she and her longtime boyfriend, Huck, are professionally successful, they’ve been unable to move forward, their relationship falling into a rut that threatens to bury them both.


Celia returns to her hometown to confess the truth, but her family and childhood friends don’t believe her. Huck wants to be supportive, but his love can’t blind him to all that contra­dicts Celia’s version of the past.


Celia’s desperate search to understand what happened to Djuna has powerful consequences. A deeply resonant and emotionally charged story, The False Friend explores the adults that children become—leading us to question the truths that we accept or reject, as well as the lies to which we succumb.

My initial reaction was "WOW"!  The end was a surprise.  I don't even know what to say about it without giving away the whole book.  There was another interesting development with one of the characters, Leanne  I thought Leanne's character was fascinating and I felt so, so bad for her during the flashbacks.

This book deals with "mean girls".  This group of girls were the ones that tormented and terrorized the other ones around them.  I found it interesting the way the various characters viewed their behavior, particularly Djuna's mother. 

Overall, I really liked this book.  I wasn't super long, and it was easy to read.  I thought the cover was very cool.  It works so well with the story.

This book will be available on October 5th.  Thanks to the fantastic people at DoubleDay, I have 2 copies to giveaway.  This will be shipping from the publisher so there are a few rules:  US addresses only and NO P.O. Boxes. 

To enter just leave a comment below with your email address.  If you would like an additional entry you can tweet about this contest and leave the link to your tweet in a separate comment.  I'll randomly pick a winner on October 4.

**I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review which I have provided.  I was in no other way compensated.**

The Wrong Blood

By:  Manuel de Lope

In the Basque Country in northern Spain, just before the Civil War, three men in dinner suits stop for a drink at a bar before continuing on their way to a wedding. Their trip is interrupted when their leader, the wealthy Don Leopoldo, has a stroke in the restroom.This event, bizarre and undignified though it is, begins to weave together the lives of two remarkable women: the bride, the beautiful and distinguished Isabel Cruces, and María Antonia Etxarri, the bar owner's adolescent daughter. Shortly after the outbreak of the war, María Antonia is raped and Isabel's newlywed husband, Captain Julen Herraiz, is shot. Both women find themselves violently altered, alone, and pregnant. A crippled but wise local doctor is the only witness to the mysterious, silent agreement these women conclude in the loneliness and desperation of their mutual suffering. Many years later, a young student, grandson to Isabel, returns to the scene of the events to spend an innocent summer studying for law exams. As he goes about his work, he unwittingly awakens the ghosts haunting both María Antonia and the doctor, and through their memories the passionate stories of the past unfurl before the reader.

As an American I had a little bit of trouble with this book.  I wasn't too familiar with the Spanish Civil War.  Apparently, my parents weren't either.  Before I started reading the book I asked them when it was.  They look at each other and decided on 1903.  In the very beginning of the book it has a little bit of backstory about the Spanish Civil War which took place from 1936-1939.   I thought that was really nice to include that, it was very informative.

This book was originally published in Spanish and has been recently translated to English.  It's beautifully written.  The words and descriptions are beautiful and lyrical.  The only problem I had was I kept trying to sound out all the people and place names and I wasn't doing to well with that.  I'm sure it would have been really amusing to someone eavesdropping.

I thought it was exquisitely written and I found myself really drawn into the story.  It's told in snippets and flashbacks that all start coming together to tell the whole story.  I like that storytelling style a lot.  I like to see how it starts tying together.

Go check it out.  It goes on sale Sept. 28.

**I received a copy of this book free through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review which I have provided**

The Iron Duke

By: Meljean Brook

4.5 Stars

First and foremost the world building here is absolutely brilliant. I highly recommend popping over to Meljean's site and read the FAQ on The Iron Seas' history. http://meljeanbrook.com/faq#10

There isn't a single solitary flaw in the world that she built for this story. Meljean also took the time to look at the larger philosophical issues that are created by the tech in her Steampunk world, not what you'd expect from a "romance". Make no mistake this story is a romance, but by paying attention to the issues and the conflicts that are part of this world she raises the bar.

The supporting cast of characters are amazing. Every word made me want to know about them; I'm officially beginning my campaign for Yasmeen, Lady Corsair's book now. The people and world they inhabit are rich with detail and believability.

The Iron Duke himself, Rhys Trahaearn was not my favorite person. He's honorable, but very selfish. All that he's ever done has been for himself and him empire. Yes, he has helped others and done good works - but never for their own sake. It has always been because of his wants. Rhys is very much the king of all he surveys and that includes people. Not exactly a warm and fuzzy guy.

This brings me to Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth. Mina makes Rhys see something beyond himself and how he can manipulate others to his benefit. She makes him see how he is part of the larger world, and how he can effect positive change, and not just change in his favor. By making him look outside Rhys Trahaearn she makes him capable of loving someone besides himself. Mina has spent her life in service to others, she has dedicated her life to making the world a better place and through her eyes Rhys sees that he can be more than he is - that simply it's not all about him.

When you come down to it, Meljean is doing one of the oldest romance story lines - the love of a good woman makes him a better man. And she does it very well.

The romance was good, the sex was hot, and the connection between the characters very believable. What pushes this book into the must read category is Meljean's world building. Fantastically done, you will finish this book hungry for more stories from The Iron Seas.

I received this book via a giveaway by Dear Author. Thank you Jane!

Follow Friday

This week's question is:  When you write reviews, do you write them as you are reading or wait until you have read the entire book?

I wait until I'm done with the book, because the ending always makes a big impact on me on how I feel about the book overall.  I don't want to start singing the praises of a book only to be severely let down by the ending and have to start all over.  Sometimes, I'll keep notes of things that I want to remember to touch upon when I write my review, but that's about it.

I'll join with Follow Friday at Parajunkee when that gets posted.  She asks:  My question for you guys, what is your high fashion book? --- translation --- best book cover ever.  I have a lot of favorite book covers but when I read the question the first one that came to mind was The Starlet.  I LOVE the cover but I haven't read it yet...it's on the list!  Doesn't she look super cool?  I love the sprinkle of tattoos on her arm.  I thought it was really clever the way the smoke makes the S.  Great cover!