Beth's Books

Originally seen on my book blog!

My review: How do you even say that you like a book like this? How do you explain what you just read other than “what the hell did I just read and why was I addicted to it?” I read this book basically only between the hours 9 pm and 7 am. I had plenty of weird or creepy dreams while reading this book because that’s exactly what it was. But it was one of the best books I’ve read all year and now I’m impatiently waiting for Flynn to come out with the next extremely creepy book.

I can handle of gore and creepiness, but this was on a different level. This book not only had a lot of talk about murder but Satanic rituals as well. There were times when I was grossed out and wanted to quit reading but I just couldn’t put the book down. I had to know if Ben was the killer and was rightly in prison for the last 24 years or if someone else did it and he just took the blame. It was an intense battle between me wanting to stop reading the book and needing to keep reading the book. Thankfully the latter won out most times.

Flynn has been great at writing protagonists that the readers hate but kind of love at the same time. Libby is selfish and rude, but I found myself cheering for her and sticking up for her. When she was getting interrogated by the Kill Club, I was wanting to tell her to yell at them. When the members of the Kill Club were choosing her brother’s innocence over her testimony, I was seething with anger. I felt horrible for Libby during the Kill Club scenes but then I hated Libby at other times. It was a battle that went on the whole book, but in the end I found myself just cheering for something good to happen to her even if I didn’t like her.

There were three different perspectives in this book: Libby’s present day, Patty (the mother) in 1985, and Ben (the killer) back in 1985. Patty and Ben both started the morning before the killings and ending when the killings began. I like books with different perspectives and Flynn does this masterfully. I was never confused about the time period that they were in because she makes them seem like completely different worlds. In 1985, there is no mention of cell phones or even house phones that don’t have cords. In the present day, there was mention of e-mails and cell phones. Flynn makes us aware of how different the time periods were. I found that reading the 1985 perspectives, I learned more about the family that was killed which broke my heart at times. The family reminded me a little of the girls in The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. The Day girls, not unlike the Lisbon girls in The Virgin Suicides, are close-knit and look out for each other. They don’t have many friends outside of each other. They are also known as The Day Family (especially after the murders) even though each of them have their own personalities.

I loved learning things about the other sisters through Patty and Ben’s stories because Libby’s perspective didn’t show us much of before That Night because she doesn’t remember much about it. We also learn a lot about Libby between That Night up until present day 25 years later. We learn that she was troubled and rude and unlovable which personally made me love her even more. I loved her and I hated her.

I hated Ben and sometimes I liked Ben. Conflicting feelings came when I got to know him from before That Night because I just saw a kid that was trying to fit in anywhere and unfortunately found the wrong crowd. I hated Ben because even though he found the wrong crowd, he still was a rude kid to his family. I liked Ben because he was trying to be a better person and 25 years later, maybe he wasn’t such a bad person after all?

And then there was Patty. I didn’t know how I felt about her until the end of the book. I can’t say why because it was spoil everything but I didn’t know that I could like a character so much after being so indifferent towards them for the first 300 pages. When the book was in her perspective, I felt sad that she had to live the way she did but I also knew that she could have changed it had she tried hard enough to.

About Ben being the killer: I went back and forth on this for most of the book. There were things that he said the day before the killings that made me feel like he did it and I was so sure he did it. Then there were things that were said by other people that made me so sure that he didn’t and couldn’t do it. In the end, I was very surprised. I don’t know if I loved it or was just kinda meh about it, but I felt like it was the best ending possible. Sometimes the best ending isn’t what we all want, though. Either way, that definitely did not stop me from giving this book five stars. It also won’t stop me from reading this book a second, third, or fourth time.

This book really made me think about what I would do in her situation. If I had a brother that has been in prison for a quarter century who might not even be the killer, then would I actively try to find out myself? Would I go talk to the other people that were around in that time and see what they knew or thought? Or would I just keep it the way it was and try to live my life as normally as I possibly could? Would I even get so desperate for cash that I would risk my life to try to dig up old facts about the tragedy?

I would recommend this to anyone that likes thrillers, anyone that likes the other Flynn books, anyone that liked The Virgin Suicides, and anyone that doesn’t mind gore and a lot of talk about murder and blood.

Originally on my book blog

 

Book: Echo Park | Author: Michael Connelly | Started: 3/12/14 | Finished: 3/18/14 | Rating: 4 stars

 

Synopsis: In 1993 Marie Gesto disappeared after walking out of a supermarket. Harry Bosch worked the case but couldn’t crack it, and the twenty-two-year-old was never found. Now, more than a decade later, with the Gesto file still on his desk, Bosch gets a call from the District Attorney.A man accused of two heinous murders is willing to come clean about several others, including the killing of Marie Gesto. Taking the confession of the man he has sought-and hated-for thirteen years is bad enough. Discovering that he missed a clue back in 1993 that could have stopped nine other murders may just be the straw that breaks Harry Bosch.

 

My review: Harry Bosch once worked a case involving a kidnapped teenager. Thirteen years later, he’s still not sure what happened to her. Now he’s working in Open-Unsolved and has the opportunity to find out what happened to her.

This prologue started out thirteen years prior when he was first alerted of the case. The book then starts off more than a decade later and he’s still caught on the case. Only now, thirteen years later, he finds out that there was a clue he should have seen back then that could have solved the mystery.  So will he solve it now? Or will the guilt make it more difficult for him? I was not expecting this book to turn out the way it did but I loved it nonetheless.

I was trying to find a way to describe Harry and how he deals with cases like this, but then I found the quote in the book. Rachel Walling says “Knowing how I have seen you take a case straight to heart, Harry, I wonder, then, if it is wise for you to be dealing with this man now. ”. That describes Harry Bosch to a T. He gets emotionally invested in these cases and wants nothing more than to see justice being served.

And then someone else says “I don’t know you. I know your type. You have an addictive personality, Detective. Murder cases, cigarettes, maybe even the alcohol I can smell coming out of your pores. You’re not that hard to read.” Connelly writes in a way that other characters will explain the main character for us so we can identify better with the main character. Bosch does have an addictive personality and maybe I didn’t realize until I read this line.

I think this book really showed that side of Harry more than most because the whole book is centered around a case that has been eating at him for 10+ years. All the other books that I’ve read of his start and end in one book. We do get to see how serious he takes his job, but this one showed how emotional he gets about certain cases, especially ones he never solved.

This is my third Connelly book in a row and I’ve said it in every review: Connelly can write characters extremely well. This one was no different. The characters that I was supposed to hate, I hated. The characters I was supposed to love, I loved. The awesome thing about Connelly’s book is that he’s not only a fantastic character writer, but he’s also good at writing relationships between characters. Rachel Walling shows up in this book and I just love them being together. They’re great work partners but not so great at anything else.

The ending made me really sad for reasons that I’m not going to say because I don’t want to give anything away. I just felt that things didn’t end up in certain areas the way that I wanted them to. It’s still a great book and I would definitely read it again. I would recommend it to anyone that likes crime and mystery novels.

Things I got from this book: Rachel Walling needs her own book series. Bosch does take things to heart in a way that most detectives in other book series’ do. The Open-Unsolved Unit books are probably my favourite right now.

Originally seen on my book blog!


The characters. The characters. The characters. DEVELOPMENT. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Okay, I started this series with book 5, then skipped to 17 and 19 and then went back to the start. When I went back to book number one, I noticed that some characters were so different and some were still their witty hilarious self. Now that I’ve read the last 8 in a row, I can say that I’ve seen these characters come together, grow apart, change, grow, and some always seem to stay the same. Evanovich is a master at writing about a bounty hunter for 20+ books with all the same characters and still making every book different enough to not get boring. I read these books for the mystery, humor, and for the characters.

I love the romance in these books too and I love her relationship with both Ranger and Morelli. If you know anything about me, you know I hate love triangles, so why would I like this one? Well probably because these people are not teenagers and Stephanie isn’t shown as “needing” either guy. I also hate the “”perfect”" guy so why would I like either of these guys? Because they aren’t perfect even if they seem perfect. Ranger is dark and mysterious (and sexy) but he also has trust issues and doesn’t open up to people. Morelli is in love with Stephanie but wants her to quit her job. Both men have flaws but both care about Stephanie enough to let her do what she wants. Every book I end up wanting her to end up with one of the guys and then the next book I end up switching guys. This book was definitely a Ranger book. Their relationship grew a lot more in this book.

As I’ve said, there are some characters that stay the same. Lula and Grandma Mazur are those characters. Lula is still witty and hilarious. I really do think she’s my spirit animal. “I’m late for work on account of I go to night school now.” ”You go once a week.” “Yeah but I gotta study. It’s not like this shit comes easy. It’s not like my former occupation as a ho helps me out, you know. I don’t think my final exam’s gonna be about handjobs.” 20 page in and I’m already cracking up. Claps for you, Lula.

Then there’s Grandma who is described as “mid-seventies but doesn’t look a day over ninety.” She’s awkward and a little sexual but it’s hilarious and I’d love to be related to her.

This book was a tad bit different in the way that she wasn’t just picking up (and losing) FTA’s. [failure to appear] Stephanie was at her parents house when their neighbor stopped by and said she needed to talk to Stephanie about something. The neighbor told Stephanie that her daughter ran away and she wanted Stephanie to try to find her. Stephanie isn’t a private investigator but she took her on anyway. I thought Stephanie was a bad bounty hunter, but she’d be an even worse PI and that’s what made this book hilarious. Not only was she trying to find the woman, a few other people were as well. Stephanie had tough competition and it was awesome and sometimes scary watching her try to beat all of them.

100 pages in to the book, she lost a few different pairs of handcuffs, a stolen car, and had a few threats. How does she get into these situations? I kept track of how many times these things happened and it seems to get higher every book.

Things I took out of this book: I would love to job shadow her for a day and maybe life shadow her as well. Lula truly is my inspiration. Definitely Team Ranger.

Originally on my book blog

Book:Echo Park< | Author: Michael Connelly | Started: 3/12/14 | Finished: 3/18/14 | Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: In 1993 Marie Gesto disappeared after walking out of a supermarket. Harry Bosch worked the case but couldn’t crack it, and the twenty-two-year-old was never found. Now, more than a decade later, with the Gesto file still on his desk, Bosch gets a call from the District Attorney.A man accused of two heinous murders is willing to come clean about several others, including the killing of Marie Gesto. Taking the confession of the man he has sought-and hated-for thirteen years is bad enough. Discovering that he missed a clue back in 1993 that could have stopped nine other murders may just be the straw that breaks Harry Bosch.

My review: Harry Bosch once worked a case involving a kidnapped teenager. Thirteen years later, he’s still not sure what happened to her. Now he’s working in Open-Unsolved and has the opportunity to find out what happened to her.
This prologue started out thirteen years prior when he was first alerted of the case. The book then starts off more than a decade later and he’s still caught on the case. Only now, thirteen years later, he finds out that there was a clue he should have seen back then that could have solved the mystery. So will he solve it now? Or will the guilt make it more difficult for him? I was not expecting this book to turn out the way it did but I loved it nonetheless.
I was trying to find a way to describe Harry and how he deals with cases like this, but then I found the quote in the book. Rachel Walling says “Knowing how I have seen you take a case straight to heart, Harry, I wonder, then, if it is wise for you to be dealing with this man now. ”. That describes Harry Bosch to a T. He gets emotionally invested in these cases and wants nothing more than to see justice being served.
And then someone else says “I don’t know you. I know your type. You have an addictive personality, Detective. Murder cases, cigarettes, maybe even the alcohol I can smell coming out of your pores. You’re not that hard to read.” Connelly writes in a way that other characters will explain the main character for us so we can identify better with the main character. Bosch does have an addictive personality and maybe I didn’t realize until I read this line.
I think this book really showed that side of Harry more than most because the whole book is centered around a case that has been eating at him for 10+ years. All the other books that I’ve read of his start and end in one book. We do get to see how serious he takes his job, but this one showed how emotional he gets about certain cases, especially ones he never solved.
This is my third Connelly book in a row and I’ve said it in every review: Connelly can write characters extremely well. This one was no different. The characters that I was supposed to hate, I hated. The characters I was supposed to love, I loved. The awesome thing about Connelly’s book is that he’s not only a fantastic character writer, but he’s also good at writing relationships between characters. Rachel Walling shows up in this book and I just love them being together. They’re great work partners but not so great at anything else.
The ending made me really sad for reasons that I’m not going to say because I don’t want to give anything away. I just felt that things didn’t end up in certain areas the way that I wanted them to. It’s still a great book and I would definitely read it again. I would recommend it to anyone that likes crime and mystery novels.
Things I got from this book: Rachel Walling needs her own book series. Bosch does take things to heart in a way that most detectives in other book series’ do. The Open-Unsolved Unit books are probably my favourite right now.

Review first seen on my blog!

My review: This book series is different for me than other ones I am currently reading. I do not read this series in order. I’ve read random books like the 3rd, 6th, 10th, 11th, 15th, and now this one (14th in the series.) I go about this series in a different way. I can’t judge his character development because I’ve seen him in three different jobs with four different partners and completely different ages. I just around with him and I’m fine with that, but it does make it hard to know what I’m getting into when I start one of these books. I was not expecting what I got with this book but I highly enjoyed this one.

The Overlook is different from any other Harry Bosch book (I’d expect a book like this in the Alex Cross series.) “[Harry Bosch] was used to chasing killers motivated by greed or lust or any of the seven deadly sins. Religious extremism wasn’t often on the list.” This quote from the book perfectly explains why this book was so different from most of his. Bosch has had a few books that I’ve read that had to involve the feds, but this one was different than all of those. It was nice to get a different type of story.

The execution style murder sets the scene right away making the readers wonder if it was a terrorist attack or something different. I was completely taken aback by how this book formed and ended. I was ready to give it three stars at one point and then I found out who the killer was and I very quickly bumped it up to four stars. I read a lot of books where I am surprised by the killer, but this one was especially surprising.

As I mentioned, the FBI showed up in this book and I’ve noticed that every Bosch book that involves the feds has an emotion that I physically feel while reading: distrust. I can just feel Bosch’s anger and distrust for the FBI and it makes the book that much more gripping. I love seeing if he’ll go along with them or fight them the whole book. I like seeing how he sticks with the FBI and the investigation even if they try to push him out. When I got done reading this book, I found a Q&A with Connelly in the back. I love Q&A’s so obviously I was very excited o see it. There was a question that caught my attention:

Question: “A recurring theme in your novels is the lack of trust between the FBI and the LAPD. Is this a realistic assessment of these two organizations? “

Connelly: “On some levels there is no doubt that there is a lack of trust and I am not sure there should be. They are two huge organizations that deal with sensitive, sometimes life-and-death investigations. I don’t think in some of these situations it would be very smart for one organization to share vital or dangerous information with the other when it could be disseminated through thousands of people you don’t even know?”

For a while, I wasn’t sure if this distrust was just in fictional books or why they even wrote it in a way that makes it seem like hatred between the two organizations. After seeing this answer and really thinking about, it really makes sense and I think I’m going to enjoy seeing these two departments and others like it when they are joined together on a case.

Since the FBI showed up, it’s obvious that Rachel Walling is going to show up right along with them and be an important character in the book. I love when Rachel is in the books. She has been in two Harry Bosch novels that I’ve read and two Jack McEvoy novels. I really really hope she continues to be in more. She’s an important FBI agent that puts works ahead of everything else. She’s independent and basically just a really awesome badass.

Harry also has a new partner (although I don’t know why because I didn’t read the book before this one, so I was a little confused by this but oh well.) His new partner is Ignacio Ferras, a rookie cop looking to get some tips from the veteran. Harry has problems with his new partner at first and one of my favourite things in the book is when he finally treats him like a partner. I probably squealed a little and looked like an idiot but whatever.

Memorable quote: I don’t have a memorable quote; I just really enjoyed when Harry treated Ignacio like a partner. I hope he sticks along with him for a little while.

Things I got from this book: LAPD and FBI don’t get along, even in real life! I still totally ship Harry and Rachel even if they don’t like each other. Even though Harry is getting older, he’s still awesome.

My review can be found here.

Seriously every baseball fan needs to go out and buy these books the day they come out every year.

My review can be found on my blog, here.

My review can be found here

Full review here

While this book wasn’t as good as the others in my opinion, it was still very good. The plot had the ability to be extremely intense and emotional pull on some people, but it just didn’t quite get there. I worked in a nursing home, so I took something away from the book that others may not. The story was about a set of murders that were happening in a hospital in San Francisco. All of the patients went in with something that probably shouldn’t kill them, so why did they end up dying? It had everything to be a great mystery and I guess it was a great novel, it just didn’t pull me in the way that all of the others in this series did.
I feel like the more the series goes on, the less they are a “Women’s Murder Club” and the more they are just a group of friends that talk about whatever is going on. I suppose that’s what they’ve been doing from the start, but the other three don’t really help Lindsay solve the crimes like they did in the first book. Other than that, this was a great novel and I can’t wait to start the 6th one. I hope it’s a little better than this book.

My boyfriend bought this book for him to read, but I decided that I would read it as well. I recently got into soccer (less than a year) and I am still learning so much about it. I dabble in sabermetrics in baseball so wanted to see what a numbers type of book would be like for soccer. Some of this book was very confusing for me because I'm still getting started with soccer, but I did learn a lot. I'm glad I read the book all the way through because I learned that not only was it a good sit down and read book, but it's one that I can go back to when I want to look up a certain stat or graph that I saw in the book. I am excited to pick up more soccer books and learn more about the game.

I found out about this after reading Something Borrowed and Something Blue. This prequel set up those two books perfectly. I really didn't like Darcy in either of the books, but I happened to like her in high school. Maybe it's because I know how hard high school is, especially for pretty girls like her. Obviously I know that she is shallow, but for some reason it didn't bother me as much in this. Short, easy read but a cute fun one as well.

When I first learned about this series, I heard that Kiss The Girls was the best in the series, possibly the best Patterson book. I went into it thinking it would be good, but didn’t know that it would have the effect that it had. I could not stop reading it and spent most of the last two days reading. I seriously could not put it down. I felt like I was addicted to Alex Cross and the story the way he was addicted to Casanova and the disappearances.
Some people criticize Patterson’s character development through books, but I happen to think it’s a strong point. I love that Cross is a huge guy that seems to scare people but is really just a loving single father in the ghetto. I love that the more I read these books, the more I learn about Alex, Sampson, Nana, and Alex’s kids. I enjoy the chapters that are dedicated to Alex sitting with his family and listening to his kids talk about whatever they can think of. I love his kids like they are my little cousins and I think Patterson writes about them really well.
The plot was intense from the first page down to the last sentence. There were so many twist and turns that I could never get too comfortable thinking one way for too long because I changed how I thought so often. Some people may not like that, but I love books that I am confused all the way until the end because that makes the end that much more intense. The plot never got boring for me.
All of the books come from Alex’s POV, but there are chapters where you are with other characters. In this book, there were chapters with the killer’s thoughts on display, Naomi’s thoughts of display, and some chapters on Gentleman’s thoughts. Not many authors can pull this off so well, but Patterson does a great way of putting different characters front and center for a chapter or two and not confusing the readers or making it annoying.
His writing is superb as well. I like that Patterson has the killer’s thoughts on display right up until Cross is onto something in the case and then we are left in the dark along with Cross. It makes the book exciting and nerve-wracking. I can’t wait to pick up the next book in this series and see what happens with Alex Cross next.

I’ve been reading this series for a few months and I love it. I love starting a new Kinsey Millhone novel because I know it’s going to be great. Some of them are harder to pick up and some are gripping from the first page. This one was slower to get into. It took about 50 pages before I really was into it, but then I was sucked in. The plot didn’t come out until about 25 pages in and even then I didn’t really know where or how it was going to go. I didn’t think it would be a great story and was worried this would be the first that I didn’t really like. But it ended up being in top 3 by the end. There were twists and turns along the way but the biggest blow came in a huge plot twist at the end that caused me to actually set the book down so I could process it. Grafton brought in a new type of mystery. Kinsey, for the first time in her career, did undercover work. Because of that, it was a different flow to the story and didn’t writing because she had to be someone else. Once I got used to the differences, it was a great book. I would recommend it to every mystery lover.

Harry Bosch is one of my favourite fictional characters. I know that as soon as I pick up on of Connelly’s books that I will be sucked into a great mystery novel. I also know that I usually won’t find out what really happened until the last 50 pages or so and this one was no different. Harry Bosch is 3 years retired from the police force and has the opportunity to go back to work in the Open-Unsolved Unit (usually called Cold Cases), so he takes it. A case that was never solved 17 years prior is what lands before him and from the beginning I was sucked into the story. I was extremely surprised by the ending but I loved the book nonetheless. A+ job by Connelly again.