Dream Lover

The Last Victim

Karen Robards

Fiction

If I had known going into this book, it was going to be a series, I never would’ve bothered picking it up. But I adore Karen Robards from back in the day when she used to write great romances with a little bit of murder mystery sprinkled in. Now she writes murder mysteries with a little bit of romance sprinkled in. Oh, well.

Charlie Stone is a criminal pathology expert who is suddenly called in by the FBI to work on a familiar case. Years ago, Charlie saw a man murdering her best friend’s family. Now it seems he’s back and the police want her help in tracking him down. But that’s not all Charlie’s good at—she sees ghosts, too. The spirits of dead people, wandering around, looking for a way back. Charlie’s been okay with this but now she’s seeing the spirit of a killer at a prison she worked for and this killer is a sexy guy who gets under her skin. 

I have to stop right there, because I’m sure you’re going WTF, as I was. But yes, it’s true. The “couple” of this novel turns out to be Charlie and the spirit of the guy she treated in prison. They even have dream sex a few times. Good lord. Karen Robards is a great writer but I’m not sure I’m up for this.

If you’re a fan of Ms. Robards, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this book. If you can’t get past the ghost sex (TM Grey’s Anatomy), I would skip it.

Prince Charming

Between the Lines

Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer

Teen Fiction

Normally, I don’t read teen fiction. I just can’t seem to get into it. But I adore Jodi Picoult and she wrote this novel with her daughter so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised.

Delilah is a shy fifteen-year old loner who loves to read. Her favorite story is called Between the Lines and is about a cowardly prince who must save his princess. One day, the prince, Oliver, starts talking back to Delilah. She’s confused and scared at first, then as she starts to fall in love with Oliver, they plot to get him out of the book and into her life. But first she must find the book’s author and convince her to rewrite the ending.

Okay, there is a lot of fantasy stuff in this book and normally I hate fantasy. But it worked here. I also liked Delilah and Oliver. I was mainly curious to see how the story would end, considering we were talking about book characters coming alive. But Picoult and Van Leer manage to do the impossible and neatly tie-up the ending. Of course, I still had questions but not as many as I thought I would. The book flowed smoothly, and the descriptions and characters were all great.

Teenagers will love this book, and it might even make a believer out of some adults, too.

Bad Timing

Souvenir

Therese Fowler

Fiction

I read Therese Fowler’s most recent book, Reunion, awhile ago (in fact, I reviewed it on this blog) and I liked her writing style so I decided to check out her first novel. I’m sorry I did.

Souvenir is a clusterfuck of a book. So much goes on that it’s a little mind-boggling. The novel begins with main character Meg sneaking off to see her ex-boyfriend for one last roll of the dice before she gets married. Then we flash forward to present day where Meg’s a doctor, still married, and has a daughter who might be her ex’s or might be her husband’s (she’s never bothered to get a DNA test done). Meg notices that her arms have been feeling numb a lot and soon, she’s diagnosed with ALS. Then her ex comes back to town and Meg must decide how she wants to live the rest of her life.

I really had no problem with any of the characters, but no one pulled me in especially hard. Meg was kind of blah, Carson (the ex) was, too, and Savannah (the daughter)’s plot of meeting a guy online and becoming invovled with him was boring. Also, the end annoyed me. I knew there wouldn’t be a good ending, but it still sucked.

If you don’t mind all sorts of weird plot twists and WTF-ery, go ahead and pick up Souvenir. Otherwise, don’t bother.

Breaking Pointe

The Cranes Dance

Meg Howrey

Fiction

This was a weird one. When I started reading, I disliked it immediately. But then I kept going and by the time I got to the middle, I wanted to see how it ended.

The Cranes Dance is about Kate and Gwen Crane, two sisters who are dancers at a ballet company in NYC. Only Gwen’s back home in Michigan right now because she had a mental breakdown and tried to kill herself. Kate’s trying to keep it together and survive without her sister, dance, and navigate relationships. Except she’s starting to fall apart now, too, and she might hit rock bottom sooner than she realizes.

It’s to Ms. Howrey’s credit that I started out hating Kate then gradually grew to sort of like her by the end. Ms. Howrey is also a former dancer, which is totally obvious because she goes into great detail about the world of ballet and dance. Depending on how much you love ballet, this is either a good thing or a bad thing. It became a tedious thing for me: I quickly realized I would need to skim a lot of parts. Kate tends to talk to the reader, too, another quirk I dislike. And there was no big climactic moment, really. The story just kind of petered out.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, if you’re into dance. If not, skip it.

Doing It Well

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Charles Duhigg

Psychology

This book is great. It may seem like a boring subject matter, but once you start reading, you get sucked in so thoroughly you cannot put it down.

First Mr. Duhigg tells us why and how habits exist and then he gets into the nitty-gritty of how we can change them. I’ll admit, there are a few habits I have that I would like to alter and Mr. Duhigg gives very good advice on how to go about doing that. It’s kind of hard to explain this book without being too confusing, so I won’t bother. I’ll just tell you that Mr. Duhigg is a great writer and he expertly weaves human stories with science in such a way that you will be compelled to read this book in one or two sittings.

I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t be interested in reading The Power of Habit, as everyone has at least one habit they certainly would want to change.