"Blue Monday" by Nicci French~An Astoundingly Suspenseful Novel!

A psychiatrist works to unlock the mystery connecting a man to possible murder...

Published by:  Viking Press/Pamela Dorman Books

Pages:  336

Nicci French is a pseudonym for the well-known husband and wife cooperative writing team!

Please go to:

http://www.niccifrench.co.uk

Where you can find out more about "Blue Monday" and read an excerpt!

This is now a Top Bestseller!!

OVERVIEW:

The stunning first book in a new series of psychological thrillers introducing an unforgettable London psychotherapist

Frieda Klein is a solitary, incisive psychotherapist who spends her sleepless nights walking along the ancient rivers that have been forced underground in modern London. She believes that the world is a messy, uncontrollable place, but what we can control is what is inside our heads. This attitude is reflected in her own life, which is an austere one of refuge, personal integrity, and order.

The abduction of five-year-old Matthew Farraday provokes a national outcry and a desperate police hunt. And when his face is splashed over the newspapers, Frieda cannot ignore the coincidence: one of her patients has been having dreams in which he has a hunger for a child. A red-haired child he can describe in perfect detail, a child the spitting image of Matthew. She finds herself in the center of the investigation, serving as the reluctant sidekick of the chief inspector.

The Dame's Take:

Sometimes I'm timid about taking on an English novelist (or two in this case) when it comes to suspense and mystery.  I don't always "get" the nuances and I wonder if that causes me to lose something in the whole.  But, when I started reading "Blue Monday" I knew immediately this was going to be a book I could tuck between my fingers and rest assured I wouldn't miss a blink understanding!  This book is killer. I couldn't wait to get to the resolution of the story, but I didn't want it to end.  You know exactly the kind of book I mean!  A true suspense/thriller.

The character of Freida Klein, psychiatrist and eccentric, is just genius.  She's no ordinary blank- slate minded doctor.  She's involved and going outside the acceptable boundaries to help her patients.  It's enough to have me out of my apple green recliner applauding!!  What an amazingly humane and respectable creation she is. Hurray for women psychiatrists!!  I could tag along with this one in as many books as Nicci French wants to write.  Klein's friends and companions are equally entertaining and invested in helping others even when it makes them climb outside the box.  This is an entire crew of people to cheer for!  I adore them. Their grit, panache and absurdities are so familiar I want to jump on them!

The other, more mysterious characters developed in "Blue Monday" revolve around the kidnapping of two children of a close age, 20 years apart, within a similar circumstance.  It's very difficult to do more than tell you there are fascinating connections between odd and seemingly random people. This major plot will make your head spin. Each of these primary characters are so intricately drawn that it's as if they'd been specifically diagrammed on a page of their own.  They are perfection of person and psychology.  Rangey, ratty and raw of emotion, these are people from the darker side of life.  Scary even to read about them, even scarier to get a peek into their psychological make up.

You will find this a fantastic suspense novel with extraordinary plotting and conniving from Machiavellian minds. You'll be turned around and around in slammed doors of dead end resolutions, false turns and pot holes.  Mirror-like reflections will keep you in suspense.  A thrilling race for time will keep you on your toes as if you're the one hunting for the lost child. And a final drop in deep space will have you gasping.

I can't wait to read more books with Dr. Frieda Klein as the psychiatrist in charge.  This is a top-notch suspense/thriller.

4 stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame

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GIVEAWAY!!! "The Sister Queens" by Sophie Perinot~Eleanor of England & Marguerite of France

Two sisters from a glamorous political dynasty, two major kingdoms who desire them, and two kings with  different personalities.  These sisters start out with a close bond that seems unbreakable, and they will learn life's struggles to keep what's most important to them.

Published by:  NAL/Penguin

Pages:  498

Plus: Book Group Questions for Discussion

Find out more:  http://sophieperinot.com

Summary:

"The Sister Queens"  Like most sisters, Marguerite and Eleanor were rivals.  They were also queens. Raised at the court of their father, Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence, Marguerite and Eleanor are separated by royal marriages--but never truly parted.
Patient, perfect, and used to being first, Marguerite becomes Queen of France. But Louis IX is a religious zealot who denies himself the love and companionship his wife craves. Can she borrow enough of her sister's boldness to grasp her chance for happiness in a forbidden love?
Passionate, strong-willed, and stubborn, Eleanor becomes Queen of England. Henry III is a good man, but not a good king. Can Eleanor stop competing with her sister and value what she has, or will she let it slip away?
The Sister Queens is historical fiction at its most compelling, and is an unforgettable first novel.

 Sophie Perinot is a graduate of law school who decided to use her talents instead as an author of historical fiction.  She is a mother and wife, as well as a writer.  Growing up within a family of historians, she learned early to love history, and developed a special attachment to all things French.  You can find out more about her by visiting her very interesting website as linked above.  Sophie's sister played a supportive part in her writing "The Sister Queens."

The Dame's Review :

Right off the top, let me say I really liked this book. It's a fully engaging and thoroughly believable novel.  I was swept up in the stories and interactions of the sisters of the renowned Savoy family, Marguerite and Eleanor, from the first moments of introduction.  Their very different personalities are richly developed, and while they are different in temperament and life challenges, they are both so intriguing and lovable it's difficult to call one a favorite over the other.  I absorbed this book as if it were a story about Diana, Princess of Wales, and Katherine of England.  It's that enjoyable to read.  Before I knew it, I was half way through the novel!


Sophie Perinot is a solid writer with a good grasp of characterization.  Her two sisters, as well as their two kings, the wicked mother-in-law ~ White Queen Blanche of Castille, and the sisters' children are so magnificently drawn.  I could absolutely see them alive and feel their hearts' emotions and motivations.  Beautifully written.  Dialog was also appeared to be effortlessly rendered; it flowed and felt so natural.  The intimate communications between characters were meaningful and telling.


I've read many a historical novel, some about each of these queens and their families, so I don't think it's any small task to have compiled this book, joining both dynasties in what reads with such elegance and ease.  The book flows with intelligence and clarity.  I found that one of the most refreshing things about it.  I didn't have to be a scholar to understand the political "cookings" behind the thrones!  Thank God, Ms Perinot distilled that down for me!


This is a romantic and absorbing historical fiction, one I found myself virtually flowing through effortlessly.  It's a good read about two admirable women who birthed the foundations of world empires, and set the tones of historical manners and elegance for generations.  Their life-long devotion to each other was poignant and an example that united their countries in heart and blood for generations.


I loved the novel, and pass it on to you with a high recommendation.


4 stars


*This review is brought to you on tour with:

GIVEAWAY!!!!

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Thank you so much for taking time to visit my blog!     Deborah/TheBookishDame

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"Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life" by Natalie Dykstra~The Shattering Of A Brilliant Woman

Known for her quick wit, being widely read and having an envied grasp of literature and art, the independently-minded and gracious photographic artist Clover Adams took her life in 1885.  This is her story.

Published by:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Pages:  330

Genre:  Biography/Non-fiction

Find out more:  http://nataliedykstra.com/

Cover Rating:

This gorgeous cover which seems a take on a painting by John Singer Sargeant depicts the elegant lady of leisure of the late 1800's, just the time of Clover Adams.  Her near smile gives us the story in a nutshell...she's not exactly smiling, but she's not sour, either.  We're left to project what we will on her face.  I love this cover in all its fine details.  Perfect for drawing those who will most likely read it, women.  Rated:  A

Some Reviews :

“Natalie Dykstra writes of Clover Adams’s striking photographs that they ‘defeat distances between people and make time stand still.’ Dykstra’s biography achieves the same remarkable feat, bringing us close to an inspiring if ultimately tragic life, a celebrated marriage gone awry, a vanished world of privilege where the universally costly emotions of love, loss, and envy nevertheless hold sway. ‘I spare you the inside view of my heart,’ Clover Adams once wrote to her beloved father. Natalie Dykstra spares nothing in this eloquent and powerfully sympathetic portrait of the artist as a lady, a haunting hymn to women’s ways of seeing.” — Megan Marshall, author of The Peabody Sisters

“What happened to Clover Adams broke Henry Adams’s heart. And in Natalie Dykstra’s splendid retelling, it will break yours. This is a moving book, deeply researched, fast-paced, and profoundly engaging. It is not easy to write a book the family for so long did not want written. Dykstra has succeeded in doing so, and she has returned Clover Adams to us as a living figure.” — Robert D. Richardson, author of Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind, Emerson: The Mind on Fire, and William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism

“At last, Clover Adams has the biography she deserves. Long glimpsed only as the wife of a famous man or the dazzling hostess to Gilded Age luminaries, she emerges here as a complex and fascinating woman — a thinker, writer, and photographer, but also a deeply troubled soul. Natalie Dykstra follows her subject from the academic circles of mid-nineteenth-century Boston to the halls of power in Washington, D.C., giving us a broader portrait of late-nineteenth-century life. But she never loses her focus on Clover and the dark demons that haunted her throughout her life. This is a compelling read, so beautifully written and persuasively argued it’s hard to put down.” — Martha A. Sandweiss, author of Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line

Author Natalie Dykstra has received a

National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship for her work on Clover Adams. She is a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society and associate professor of English at Hope College in Holland, MI.

The Dame's Review :

The only picture of Clover Adams.  When she died, her husband, Henry Adams destroyed all of her photographs in their home and all of her letters.  There were no other known pictures of her than this one.  No close ups.

Nearly 20 years ago I read a novel based on truth (which name I can't remember now) about Clover Adams, her unhappy marriage to Henry Adams, her life and death.  I have never been able to forget it.  Not because the novel was so wonderful, although it was well written, but because the story was so haunting.  In this biography by Natalie Dykstra I was struck with that same feeling of a shattered mirror...a life so beautiful, a woman so gifted and admired who found herself broken like delicate glass fallen from a shelf.  It's instance is like the flash of a camera's bulb.  Yet, it seems to linger on in my mind like an after image.  I can't get the life of Clover Adams out of my mind.  In this biography "Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life"  more of the puzzle of her life came together for me.  This is a book I expect to return to several times over the years.

It is no surprise that a child of a mother who was herself abandoned at a young age by a morbidly depressed mother, should have some residual of that original trauma.  Family heartache and major losses seem to leave lasting scars that mar the DNA.  Clover herself was just a 5 year old when her mother died.  She was nothing if not a child and  young woman hampered by a delicate mind and heart.  In fact, the Hooper family was fraught with death and depression to suicide.

Brought up with the expectations of a Boston Brahmin, Transcendentalist family whose standard was undoubtedly putting a brave and beautiful face on all things, must have been nearly more than Clover could bear as she grew up and married. No surprise that she became a scholar and brilliant conversationalist.  How else could she escape the emotional landscape she must  have found herself in?  How else could she create a "lovable" self and an image of what a woman was supposed to be except to excel at all things? How could she fail to be emotionally stalwart, yet "eccentric?"  How fragile her life must have been when the love she so desperately needed fell just out of her reach, ultimately.

Natalie Dykstra takes us on a personal journey with Clover Adams as she walks this thin line of child to womanhood.  We learn of her development, her education, her family and her friends.  We see her through the eyes of others who knew and loved her, and we ultimately see her through her own eyes by way of her photo lens. 

There is so much that could be said about this book and Mrs. Adams, but as an artist, I want to share with you my focus on Clover's art work; her photography, and what I saw there for myself.  If you will go to Ms Dykstra's website, it will lead you to a link with the Massachusetts Historical Society which has a collection of Clover's photographs.  These pictures are discussed in Dykstra's book.   I want to discuss her photography with you because I think it gives us insight into her better than any words can. 

What I see is this:  a disconnect between people, an isolation in subjects and their surroundings, an assortment of unrelated and strangely juxtaposed natural settings with human beings or animals, depressed and mournful women, distant faces and grim faced family members, trees stark and strikingly lonely and barren in their setting.  In her collection of works, only the few pictures of very young children give some levity to her portraits; a little girl on a metal riding horse, and two children beside a tree.  

For the most part Clover Adam's photographs are not pretty pictures.  There are mostly portrait sorts of pictures, and even given the mode of the times to remain sober without smiling, these pictures still have the odd body language and physical placements that create a more off-centered and disconnected feel.  Psychologically, they scream for help.  In one picture, three women of different ages are on a rock.  Two older women are faced completely away from the camera and are dressed in heavy black. They stand on or sit on rocks just over a third young girl who is dressed in a light white dress, sitting on a rock below them and facing the camera with a smile on her face. This is no ordinary three family members portrait on a  hillside. It seems to depict death overlooking life; or the different ages of women.  But, when it's studied more, the disconnect comes stronger with the placement of the women's backs to the camera.  There's another message here altogether...a deeper meaning going on.  Perhaps it's the hopefulness of a young girl's mind and the virginity of her spirit vs the reality/awareness of the truth of her existence?  I'm not sure.  It could be many things in Clover's mind.  Either way, it shows a brittleness of heart from the eye of the camera...from the one who set up the composition and made the effort to bring the process through to a photograph.

Although the majority of her photographs convey this feeling of disconnect and isolation, I found it also beautiful to see how Clover set many of her "stages" and compositions.  In the portraits of women, their surroundings were open-aired, at least.  I liked this idea, as if she were breathing a freedom and release into their worlds.  There is a particularly striking photograph of an elderly woman sitting on a porch just outside of an open door.  She's in a dark dress all buttoned up, white cap on, stitching something small in her hands.  There's a small dog at her feet.  And there's the image of a lovely art panelled screen just inside the door behind her.  The shadows are beautiful in this photo, but what struck me most is this vision of freedom.  There's the sense that the woman is escaping the confines not only of the house, but also of her age...she's sitting like a girl on the floor of the porch!  And behind her, slightly hidden in the half dark hallway is a screen with artwork on it.  It hints at something exotic, another story.  Like another life, a more exciting life that may have been left behind or concealed in this woman's life in the past.  It's a beautiful photograph.  If it's a projection of what Clover feels "might have been" or if it's a message of what this woman has lost in life, it's a very telling piece of work coming from her camera to us. 

Natalie Dykstra has done much justice to the life and work of Clover Adams.  This is a beautiful book about a fleeting and lavishly imagined life.  As in any story of a young woman of promise who takes her own life, this one is shocking and harshly jarring.  We seem to know her somehow.  And in that "knowing" it's difficult to let her go so easily.  No matter how many books are written about Clover Adams, I will always wish I knew what made her decide to drink that horrible vial of poison...why she chose to end her life as if trashed upon the wasteland of her artwork.  I will never quite be able to forgive Henry Adams for his harshness and cruelties to her, for disallowing her to shine, and for dismissing her so quickly from his mouth and memoirs.

This is a very readable and extensive work by Ms Dykstra.  She's a capable and learned biographer who has treated the life and heart of Clover Adams with delicacy and honor.  I loved this book and highly recommend it.  Without regard to Henry Adams, although he does play a major part in Clover's life, obviously, I think it's a strong slice of American history from a woman's perspective.  And I think it's a great tribute to the heart of women during an age of repression.

5 stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame

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"Daddy's Home" by A.K. Alexander~Will Make You Scream With Fury!!

"A killer stalks his prey...a calculating and deadly killer is in search for what he terms as his perfect family.  Preying upon single mothers and their innocent children, the police have dubbed him "The Family Man."

A.K. Alexander is an author to be reckoned with!!

Find out more about her at: 

http://michelescott.com

Summary:

HE WATCHES THEM...HE TAKES THEM...
He plays out his role as the perfect father. When things don't go so perfect in his insane fantasy world, the family man kills.

HOLLY JENNINGS IS ON THE CASE...
Crime Scene Investigator Holly Jennings of the San Diego Police Department is determined to track him down and see that justice is served. With Holly being a single mother herself, this man's crimes are deeply personal to her, and turn more so when a friend and her daughter become the latest victims of "The Family Man."

Along with tracking an evil killer, Holly is dealing with her own internal demons. She is raising her daughter Chloe alone after the death of her husband--a death she feels guilty for.

To complicate her life further, Holly is doing her best to avoid possibly falling in love again with charming veterinarian Brendan O'Neil. As Holly delves deeper into solving the murders, she finds herself being sucked into a game of cat and mouse by "The Family Man," that may lead her down a dark path too horrible to bear. One that may cost her gravely-her family, her new found love, and even her life.

A.K. Alexander is the international bestselling author of Daddy's Home, "Mommy, May I?, The Cartel, and The Michaela Bancroft Suspense Series.

*Over 300,000 copies sold world wide
*A.K. Alexander is the pen name for bestselling mystery author Michele Scott (The Nikki Sands Mystery Series now optioned for Television Rights).

*Daddy's Home was the #1 bestselling Kindle E-Book in the U.K. for 3 weeks during the summer of 2011. Mommy, May I? also remained on the top ten bestseller list for 4 weeks in the United Kingdom.

My 3 Question Interview :

Hi, A.K. (otherwise known as Michele Scott!), I have just three questions to ask you.  Your book just knocked the stuffing out of me!  I loved it, and I hope everyone I know will read it.  You're insights into the mind of this killer seem so real, I'd like to know more about it, so here are my questions:

1)   What specifically influenced your writing a serial killer story?

This particular story came about because of something that actually happened to me. I was a single mom at the time and one of my sons was playing soccer. I was watching him at a game and I noticed this kind of creepy guy watching me. I moved to another area of the field, and he sort of followed. He did not seem associated with any family or kid on the field. When my son scored a goal, I cheered. The guy had come up close to me at that point and asked me, "So, was it good for you, too?"

 I was repulsed and shocked. As soon as my son was done with his game, we hightailed it out of there. I was so upset. However, later on that event became a what if...for this book. I wrote all about this on my blog. Here is the link if you would like the full story. http://adventuresnwriting.blogspot.com/2011/07/stalker-on-prowl.html

OMGosh that creeps me out!!  I would just die on the spot... 

2)   When you finally held your finished copy of "Daddy's Home" in your hands, how did you feel?

DADDY'S HOME is my sixteenth novel, but I can tell you that when you do hold the final product in your hands, the feeling is always the same: Awe. It floors me that I actually did it and the book will get out there and hopefully entertain readers.

3)   In recent times, the Long Island serial killer has remained elusive to law enforcement officials.  If you were writing a book similar to that mystery, what would it be about?

This is a tough question. I think once I get started here I might wind up outlining an entire book.  But I think if I was going to write about an elusive serial killer, then I would likely tell it from the killer's p.o.v. and the main detective. In my book, the killer would get caught though. :)

The Dame's Review :

Gripping, sizzling with suspense, eerie, and heart-stabbing with emotion!  "Daddy's Home" is written like a runaway train heading right for you!  It was simply impossible to put down...and, OMG, I couldn't miss another night's sleep!

You cannot fail to understand from the moment you read her first sentence, that A. K. Alexander is the consummate suspense/thriller writter.  She's packed a riveting, punch to the solar plexis story into a mere 275 pages.  And, when I finished reading it, I felt like I'd just watched a fabulous movie!

Alexander's writing is fast-paced, and tight.  She's no user of frivolous words...she makes every one count, and she knows just how to put them in such context as to send chills down your arms.  Throughout the novel this economy of words with emphasis on what matters most, is like shining a beacon on the details.  It makes reading the book an even greater suspense.  It makes discovery of and understanding of the mind of the psychpath just like staring at a monster under glass....you can't get close enough and you can't get more creeped out!!

Twists and turns of plot keep things interesting, of course, but this isn't the greatest joy I found in reading "Daddy's Home."  To me, it was the character development.  That's what always makes a book really good for me.

I loved her protagonist, Holly Jennings, the Crime Scene Investigator and vulnerable single mother who becomes involved in tracking the serial killer in question.  Holly is a young woman we can relate to, but she's also one I could champion for strengths I could never have in some of her work and situations.  Look out, Nancy Grace!  This is a woman we can all be proud of!!

Am I hearing stories of movie rights????  This would be a fabulous movie.  Until then, I want to strongly suggest that you find a copy of "Daddy's Home" before you read anything else this month.  You won't believe how "cut from the headlines" some of it is...and you won't believe how quickly you'll be captured by the evil inside this psycho-killer.

I absolutely loved this book!  Highly recommended to all my readers without reservations!  I'm standing in line to read her newest book featured in the trailer below...

More About A. K. Alexander :

Writing under the pen name A.K. Alexander, Michele Scott explores the darker side of storytelling. With her daring, frightening and suspensful novels, A.K. Alexander writes for those readers who like to be thrilled and kept in the dark up until the very end…

*A.K. Alexander has parlayed her success on both continents by entering into an agreement with Los Angeles based publishing firm ZOVA Books for the film/television and foreign rights to her catalog of novels. ZOVA Books' film/television and foreign rights are managed by Hollywood management and production company Circle of Confusion, executive producers of the acclaimed series "Mad Men" and "The Walking Dead."

Purchase "Daddy's Home" now here:

http://www.amazon.com/Daddys-Home-ebook/dp/B004FN2B1/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1313436980&sr=1-1

ALSO

Look for A. K. Alexander's Newest Novel:

"Covert Reich"

As always, I thank you so much for stopping by!

Deborah/TheBookishDame

PS:  This book review was brought to you in connection with Pump Up Your Book! and is on a virtual tour stop.  See more of A. K. Alexander's reviews on this Tour by going to http://pumpupyourbook.com/  and searching for

"Daddy's Home"

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"Once Upon A Time Reading Challenge" ~ My "Quest on Screen" Pledge!

Carl at http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/ that is; Stainless Steel Droppings, is holding another Reading Challenge. This one called "Once Upon a Time" and having to do with fairy tales, fantasy, folklore and mythology! 


Go see Carl to find out all about it; although, the challenge (which I'm happy to say we don't have to call a "challenge") did start on March 21st, it runs until June 19th which gives us all plenty of time to participate.


I'm participating in this section:

Which means that I will watch one movie or tv program that fits into each of the 4 categories of fairy tale, fantasy, folklore and mythology.  I will then review them, and post a review and discussion on Carl's website, as well as here on A Bookish Libraria.

So far, I'm thinking I'll be watching and reviewing:

"A Midsummer Night's Dream"

"Harry Potter and the_______"

"Snow White" or  "Mirror, Mirror"

"Vampyre"

I'm not sure about those, there may be others or substitutions.  Obviously, I have no time to read another thing, although Carl is allowing for short story reads, and for simple fairy tale stories along with books in the 4 categories.  Which may not be impossible for me.

Such a fun reading time for the next 3 months, and I'm sure lots of enjoyable discussions and reviews!

Check out his blog every Sunday and Monday for what's going on in this "Once Upon A Time" venue!

Deborah/TheBookishDame

PS:  If you have any movie suggestions for me, would you please leave them in the comments?  I need help with this one!!

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"Starters" by Lissa Price ~ YA/Adult Post-Apocalyptic Novel Cross-over

A highly imaginative novel about children left in a post-apocalyptic world with aged adults who want their bodies!

Published by:  Random House Children's

Pages:  352

Author's website: http://www.lissaprice.com/

Summary :

By: Kirkus Reviews

In a future in which the elderly hold all of the power, the only things left for them to take are the bodies of the young. After a germ-warfare attack, America was only able to vaccinate high-risk groups--medically vulnerable children and senior citizens--in time, creating an age gulf and an orphaned generation. Those without guardians, like Callie and her baby brother, scavenge and sneak to survive, lest marshals catch and throw them in institutions much like prisons. Desperation leads Callie to Prime Destinations, a body-bank that circumvents laws that prohibit minors from working by allowing them to donate their bodies (to be controlled by an elderly renter through neurochips and a brain-to-computer connection) for a stipend. Only one rental away from having the money to care for her ailing brother, Callie finds her chip drastically malfunctioning during a rental, enabling her to take partial control of her body back from a renter who plans on using her for murder. In between living the high life as a socialite grandniece and ward of her wealthy renter, Callie learns of plots more dangerous than the renter's and that only she can stop them. Some exposition is clumsily dropped in through dialogue, and some plot aspects don't hold up to scrutiny, but the twists and turns come so fast that readers will stay hooked. Constantly rising stakes keep this debut intense. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

Where the Dame's Mind Went :

My mind went horrified as I thought of a world where senior citizens would turn on the young and use them for vehicles of personal gain.  Ugh!  What a jaded-eyed look at the elderly!!  This is a book that will scare the pants off everyone who reads it.  A world gone so desperate that the children left behind after a viral catastrophe wipes out their parents, are scuttling through the streets to survive like rats in broken down tenements and abandoned warehouses.  I couldn't stop being glued to the pages of the book. I took offense to being called away from it.  Horrified and hungry to know more!

The "haves" in this "have nots" world are the elderly over 60's who were able to receive a vaccine for the virus that wiped out the US because they were deemed most likely not to survive. Young people/children received the vaccine also, being considered too weak to survive. Since parents and middleagers died off, the wealthy elders that survived now have everything they want, except the beautiful, supple bodies they need to enjoy all the sports and activities of their past young lives.  Hence, they "rent" the bodies of teens through computer/science by the day, week and month.  The teen in question here, Callie, is caught in this web of transactions and terrors because she's desperate to keep her little brother alive.

Suspense and terror are built up masterfully by Lissa Price as she develops her world and her creepy elder-care characters.  Additionally, the young adult characters you'll come to love; Callie, her friend Michael, and Callie's 7 year old brother, Tyler tear at your heart while they struggle alone to cull out a way to survive in a hostile environment fraught with attacks such as military-like marshalls that seek out straggling children, and destroy tenement buildings in which they may be hiding.  When these squads burn out and block them from refuge in such a place, leaving Tyler without the only thing he has left of his before life; a toy and the picture of his mother and dad, I was really choked. 

Price knows how to bring out the emotions and cause us to champion these children.  Her ability to make us visualize is stellar.  Her ability to put terror in our hearts with the threat of an unknown is the sign of a very talented writer.  I was scared half the time! Price put me in the body of Callie!

I found this book engaging and suspenseful on a gut level.  I loved how the story developed, how Price used her characters to engender different emotions and careful messages; even warnings.  Not all of the elders were monsters, thankfully, and I liked that she made that evident from the start.  The concept of losing one's self to a mechanism/computer for a space and time seems plausible and; therefore, all the more frightening to me!  What a perfectly nightmarish theme! 

As a young adult novel, this book soars.  As a crossover into adult fiction; i.e., for lovers of YA fiction, I think it will be a satisfying and thought-provoking read.  Absolutely book group reading material; including mother/daughter book groups.  What the outcome of the novel is is neither here nor there, especially in light of the whole concept ... it should be enough to have you grabbing this one off the shelves!  Can't wait for Lissa Price's next book...

I had a great trip within the body of this book.  Please try it on for yourself!  And, for God's sake, get your flu shot!!

5 stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame

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"Wild Thing" by Josh Bazell~Stunning Novel of Suspense!

Published by:  Little, Brown and Co.

Pages:  400

Authors website:  http://www.joshbazell.com/

Summary:

Overview  (Taken from Barnes & Noble)

It's hard to find work as a doctor when using your real name will get you killed. So hard that when a reclusive billionaire offers Dr. Peter Brown, aka Pietro Brnwa, a job accompanying a sexy but self-destructive paleontologist on the world's worst field assignment, Brown has no real choice but to say yes. Even if it means that an army of murderers, mobsters, and international drug dealers-not to mention the occasional lake monster-are about to have a serious Pietro Brnwa problem.

Facing new and old monsters alike, Dr. Brnwa's story continues in this darkly funny and lightning-paced follow up to

Josh Bazell's bestselling debut.

The Dame's Take :

Once I got my rather prudish self past the initial parts of the prologue...the whole section grabbed me by the jugular, and I was sunk.  There was no turning back, no matter what. A book that wouldn't let me off the hook. Freakish and fiendish as it was, I couldn't take my eyes off the pages.  This is strictly a compulsive read. 

 Warning:  if you give it to your husband/wife or friend, just don't expect to see or talk to them for the next day or so. 

The summary above does nothing but touch the surface of what this novel entails.  

It's a wild ride, not just a "wild thing" to be a part of! 

Not having read Bazell's previous novel which introduced Dr. Peter Brown/Pietro Brnwa, I was none the wiser to his background.  But, that was quickly remedied because the author catches us up with highlights so we understand a bit of who we're dealing with in the Doctor.

It's Bazell's richly whipped up dialog; snarky, stand-offish and sarcastic from the lips of Dr. Peter, and his inner dialog that made this book for me.  I found him priceless! 

"Wild Thing" is just slamming with irony and intrigue.  

There was social commentary, religious and political speculation and an international perspective that kept my head spinning and my brain firing off, all this combined with the other action.  Enjoyable...thought-provoking for a change...all the while entertaining!

Let's not leave out the creep factor, either.  The story on the surface is that a strange water monster is living and murdering people in a lake in Minnesota.  A group of fascinating, worldwide characters are brought together by invitation to explore whether such a monster actually exists, and then to figure out what to do about it.

The high stakes are millions of dollars.

Dr. Peter and a beautiful paleontologist are paired up by a billionaire sponsor to take on the initial exploration.

It's their investigation into the lake monster, the sleepy nearly extinct town near the Lake, the strange townspeople, and the eccentric, accompanying "explorers" and bodyguards that makes up the book's canvas. 

The sexual tension, the gun-toatin' and monster near-misses

 are enough to make you break out in hives.

And, you'll die when you find out who the "high profile government referee" is for the expedition!

This is solidly the best suspense and slam dunk mobster-involved novel I've had the pleasure of reading this year.  I know I won't soon forget this one.

The mystery of the lake monster and strange bed-fellows really had me going!

Dr. Peter's journalistic/footnotes are killer funny!

I highly recommend this book for a very entertaining walk on the wild side...

PS:  Let's just say Josh Bazell has some strong views on a lot of topics, as well !  LOL

5 stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame

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Free Kindle Finds!! "The Deliliah Complex: The Butterfield Institute" by M J Rose; "Exposed" by Ashley Weis, and "Ghost Ship" by Gerrie F. Finger

I found this book compelling enough to add

it to my Kindle today.  Great ratings on Amazon!

Here's why~

Summary:

As one of New York's top sex therapists, Dr. Morgan Snow sees everything from the abused to the depraved. The Butterfield Institute is the sanctuary where she tries to heal these battered souls.

The Scarlet Society is a secret club of twelve powerful and sexually adventurous women. But when a photograph of the body of one of the men they're recruited to dominate -- strapped to a gurney, the number 1 inked on the sole of his foot -- is sent to the New York Times, they are shocked and frightened. Unable to cope with the tragedy, the women turn to Dr. Morgan Snow. But what starts out as grief counseling quickly becomes a murder investigation, with any one of the twelve women a potential suspect.

The case leads Detective Noah Jordan -- a man with whom Morgan has shared a brief, intense connection -- to her office. He fears the number on the man's foot hints that the killings have just begun. With her hands tied by her professional duty, Morgan is dangerously close to the demons in her own mind -- and the flesh-and-blood killer.

I understand "Deliliah Complex" isn't the only book in this series,

so I'm going to track down the others for a read!

Another amazing find for my Kindle.  This ranked 6 to 1  perfect

5 star ratings

I love a book about ghostly ships...

Here's more about it:

Summary:

What if you could go back to 1921 and climb aboard a great five-masted schooner on her maiden voyage?
You’d be a witness to history; you’d be on her decks when her keel smashed into an Outer Banks shoal. You’d get to know the villains who caused the tragedy. Was it pirates, Russians, rumrunners? Or something else?
Would you dare?
Ann Gavrion did and her life was never the same.
The history:
One cold, foggy morning in January, 1921, a five-masted schooner in full sail plowed into Diamond Shoal in the infamous Graveyard of the Atlantic. Known to history as The Ghost Ship, her officers and crew were not on board and their bodies never washed ashore. The only living thing on board was a six-toed cat. Also, her anchors and lifeboats were missing. Six agencies investigated the mystery, but it was never solved.
The novel:
Ninety years later, Ann Gavrion travels to Cape Hatteras to get over the loss of her fiancé in an airplane crash. She meets the enigmatic, yet charming, Lawrence Curator on the beach.
Behind her she hears the cries of villagers. “Shipwreck!”
A surfman runs up and shouts that the missing schooner, her sails set, is aground on the shoal. Ann recognizes the enormous ship from a photograph she’d seen the night before.
So begins her journey back to 1921 with the man the Navy sent to investigate the grounding of the great ship.
When Lawrence and Ann solve the mystery, Ann must return to her world. On the very beach where she’d begun her voyage with Lawrence, she meets his great-grandson, Rod. Exhausted, wet, she spills an account of her fabulous sea adventure. He calls her a charlatan and accuses her of using his famous ancestor to write a first person account of the tragedy for her magazine.
How many times, how many ways, must she prove that her voyage was real to Rod and the unbelievers of the world?

The one that intrigued me most...
Would you believe this book has a 6 star rating from 38 people,
4 stars from 5 people ~ nothing lower than that!
This is a widely championed book!!

Here's the summary:

Honest, raw, redemptive, surprising, fearless EXPOSED is storytelling at its finest. Ashley Weis has woven two compelling stories into one, highlighting the devastation of both sides of the porn screen. --Mary DeMuth, author of Thin Places and Life in Defiance

Ashley Weis takes us where few in fiction dare to tread. She addresses every woman's nightmare with devastating frankness. Her style is clean and efficient, her story line, powerful. Weis shows that hope can shine just as brilliantly among the neon of the sex industry as it does through a stained glass church window. Anyone who claims that Christian fiction is pat and irrelevant hasn't read Ashley Weis. --Gina Holmes, author of Crossing Oceans and founder of Novel Journey

Product Description

Allyson Graham, marriage counselor and lover of love, lived a life of romance few could imagine. Until her husband's secret addiction stared at her from the computer screen. Will she be able to forgive the man who lied to her all of those precious years?

Follow her painful story alongside the heartbreaking story of Taylor Adams, a young girl searching for her worth in the world. As Allyson struggles to forgive her husband for lying about his addiction, Taylor naively falls into the same self-destructive industry and discovers that the attention and fun is nothing like she thought it would be.

Discover the hearts of these two women as they search for beauty after the rain.

*Note:  The above summaries were taken from Amazon.com and are not my own.

These are my Kindle picks this week.  It's hard to believe they are free. What did you find?  Share!!! :]

Deborah/TheBookishDame

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"So Damn Lucky" by Deborah Coonts~Lucky's a Hellbentforleather, Sassy Las Vegas Detective!

Any time spent with Lucky is unimaginatively hilarious!

She's the kickin' female friend you'd love to have

drinks with at girl's night outs!! 

Published by:  Forge

Pages:  385

Author's website:  http://deborahcoonts.com/

I encourage you strongly to go there!!

The Book Summary from Kirkus Reviews:

If Houdini were going to send a message from the great beyond, what are the odds it would land in Vegas? Lucky O'Toole, Head of Customer Relations at Vegas' glitziest hotel, the Babylon, is not having a good day. A visiting couple from the Midwest has gotten tangled up in a sex sling. Her boyfriend Teddie has opted out of their relationship in favor of groupies and rock-star fame. And when the curtains are opened during a performance, Dimitri Fortunoff, a magician trussed up in a replica of Houdini's Chinese Water Torture Cell, has vanished.

 Did one of the many other magicians attending the annual gathering of prestidigitators waylay him? Are they responsible for the threatening note he received? Who will replace him as the Masked Houdini at Halloween night's performance? Or did Dimitri himself plan his disappearance in search of much-needed publicity?

 In between flirting with a handsome gaming control board member, swooning over the hotel's delicious new French chef and witnessing the wedding of her parents at a drive-through chapel, Lucky (Lucky Stiff, 2011, etc.) tries to find Dimitri. The search takes her from subterranean storm drains to Area 51, the Air Force's secure facility, which has become a mecca for UFO seekers, as she sorts through lies and puzzles set up to fool her by Dimitri's assistant Molly and four members of the Magic Ring. Mentalists have their say. Kooks congregate to stare at the sky. Lucky, alas, becomes vulnerable to head whacks and the effects of serious liquor and coffee consumption. Like everything in Vegas, the plot is saturated with sex, booze and backgrounds that don't bear scrutiny. But the Houdini code is intriguing, and Lucky's the kind of gal who will make any heart beat faster.

Let's Get To Know The Author:

Hi, Deborah, I've been dying to interview you!  Here goes!!

1. First of all, please tell us a special something about what makes you "tick." When you aren't writing, what are you doing?

Mainly getting into trouble. You have no idea how hazardous my research in Las Vegas can be. Take male stripping (Yes, this really was research. My visit to this world ended up as a really fun scene in the new book, SO DAMN LUCKY.) Anyway, I had no idea this sort of thing was a contact sport! For some reason, I couldn't stop laughing, which didn't make the "scenery" very happy. I think I lasted about 45 minutes, but I'm glad I went. No way could I have imagined the whole stripping thing as over-the-top as it really is. My version would have been much more... dignified, to the extent that that adjective should ever be appropriate when talking about men taking their clothes off to a thumping beat for the entertainment of inebriated, pawing women. Then there was the trip to Shark Reef with my son. I asked one of the attendants at the shark tank if I threw a dead body in there would the Tiger Shark eat it. Yes, I have the number of a good attorney on speed-dial. And my son won't go on research expeditions with me anymore. Go figure.   OMGosh, I can only imagine you doing these things!!!  I've often embarrassed my children, but never over dead bodies, Deb!! LOL

2. You chose a specific genre, a place and time to write about, what made you choose it?

Years ago I discovered that trying to do anything even remotely serious was not within my skill set. So, I played up my ability to get a laugh, cutting my humorist's teeth on a column I wrote for a national magazine. Gradually I expanded my repertoire until I felt delusional enough to handle novel-length silliness. I throw in a bit of mystery and some romance because I like those things -- and a story sort of needs a purpose:)

Vegas: need I say more? Talk about a place ripe with stories! Nowhere else is the human condition more fully or lushly displayed. I've lived there for over a decade and I never tire of the endless parade. Where else does Elvis bag your groceries? Or the guy behind the counter at the gym moonlight as a unicyclist? Or the pretty pre-school teacher is also a scarf performer at a Cirque show? Or the University professor is a showgirl at night? You get my drift. And this doesn't even include the 45 million stories the visitors bring to town every year . . . The most difficult task for me is to pick which stories I want to tell.

3. Bronte or Austen? Hemingway or Hawthorne? Why?

If I had to pick, Austen, because the stories can be a bit more lighthearted. And Hemingway for the adventure, the joie de vivre . . . at least most of the time. But, frankly, I'd rather have Dr. Seuss, Will Rogers and Mark Twain, if I could.  LOL  I can totally see that!

4. In your opinion, what makes a book a great one?

Something about it touches your soul and becomes a part of you.

5. Which author(s) most influenced your love of books from childhood?

All of them. What courage it takes to tell a story! The things people say, the comments they make! Thank Heavens I started writing when I was a bit older--not only do I have more to say, a better perspective, hopefully, but my skin is also much thicker.

Anyway, as a child I loved the Marguerite Henry books (I was nuts about horses) and I also liked Mary Stewart, Alistair Maclean, Arthur Hailey -- I was a pretty precocious reader:)

6. Read any good books in the past 6 months?

With writing taking up so much time, I don't get to read as much as I would like. That being said, I try to read enough. And I try to read outside my genre. A book that I didn't expect to like, but enjoyed immensely was The Discovery of Witches. I'm reading books by thriller writers now such as Allison Brennan, Carla Neggers, and Lisa Gardner and also enjoying them very much.  I love Lisa Gardner, too.  She writes a great thriller.

7. Choose 4 guests from any era for dinner. Who would they be and what would you choose for a topic of conversation?

Winston Churchill, Ayn Rand, Abraham Lincoln, and the Dalai Lama. I'd love to sit back and let them argue about how to get the human race working together. And just for kicks and grins, I would love to bring Dorothy Parker as my side-kick. Truly, was there ever a funnier woman?  OMGosh, Ayn Rand with that group!!!  She'd have them all in a tither!  Three pacifists and a radical, and two of you to laugh at them!!!  :P

8. Which of your characters is most like you?

Well, my aunt told me that Lucky is the woman I always wanted to be. Does that count?

9. If you could cast your book for a movie, who would you choose?

I hesitate to answer that because a trip through a story is such a personal experience. One of the wonderful things about reading is that we, as readers, get to participate in our entertainment. The writer may set the stage and propel the action, but the vision of the place and the actors is unique to each reader.

10. Worst habit you have?

Talking before thinking. For a woman who is fluent in sarcasm and innuendo and trying, at the moment, to navigate Dallas, the Buckle of the Bible Belt, a mute button would be a good thing -- or at least a filter.    Oh, God, I know the feeling!!

11. How much research did you do before and during writing?

I live in Vegas, so my "research" surrounds me. However, sometimes I do get a wild hair . . . see Number 1 above:) I'm always poking into interesting places whether it's behind the scenes at Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden, or backstage at a Cirque show, or in the tunnels under Las Vegas. Who knows where my wanderings will take me next?

12. Tell us a secret about your book we wouldn't otherwise know, please!

If you flip the pages real fast, there's a subliminal message. Kidding. A secret? I don't have any secrets. Let me think . . . Okay, I really did meet the French chef . . . although he was a vintner:) Oooh, la, la! No, I won't tell you his name. That's my secret.

Deborah, you are a hot mess, as they say in the South!!  Just this interview can do nothing but give insights into your writing!  LOL

Something Else About Deborah Coonts: 

My mother tells me I was born a long time ago, but I'm not so sure--my mother can't be trusted. I do know that I was raised in Texas on barbeque, Mexican food and beer. I currently live in Las Vegas where family and friends tell me I can't get into too much trouble. Silly people. I have owned my own business, been a tax lawyer and a flight instructor, and have survived a teenager. And now, I make stuff up for a living.

Each day I sit in the front window at my favorite Panera and play with my imaginary friends. My SO is a psychologist and he tells me that many of his colleagues would consider me an annuity. I can live with that. Thankfully, he can too.

I write a mystery series set in Las Vegas--funny, sexy and romantic. I've been told they are comedic thrillers--sounds like an oxymoron to me, but you get the drift. The first in the series, WANNA GET LUCKY?, came out May 2010. The second, LUCKY STIFF, and the third, SO DAMN LUCKY.

Look who I found in Vegas!  Robin Williams....my lucky star...

The Dame's Wrap-Up :
Deborah Coonts's book is hysterically funny, strange, light-hearted and a mystery in so many ways!  Deborah is a nut-case, she's so funny! I had a great adventure reading "Lucky."  Here's the thing about Coonts; she's a wonderful mix of a good writer, a satirist and a student of people.  She's also a comedian. 


"So Damn Lucky" is the best trip you'll ever take to Las Vegas!  If you've never been there, you only have to pick up this book to experience it.  I laughed myself off the chair in the first chapter visualizing the exact characters she portrays that I'd seen there myself!  This is a side-buster of a book, and a great mystery, too.  Viva Las Vegas, absolutely captured and delivered in the hands of "Lucky" and Deborah Coonts...Elvis is definitely still alive there, so are aliens and missing persons!

If you're looking for a book to make you laugh and read like a bandit, and that will keep you wide-eyed with the joy of finding out about crazies and cons, this is the one for you.  I found it a refreshing oasis from the books I've been reading lately.  It's not always good to have a steady stream of the serious and fantasy world...once in a while it's so nice to have a sorbet between courses.   "So Damn Lucky" is the raspberry sorbet of a book that will have your literary palate tingling!!

4 stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame          Thank you for stopping by to see me!

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