Stormy Weather

Rating: 5/5

Review: What a wild ride this was! I absolutely loved this book. Admittedly, it did take me a couple of chapters before I was completely hooked, but once I was...wow! I loved the main character, Joanna, who is a powerful weather warden. She can control storms, water, and wind. There are plenty of other intriguing characters to enjoy too, however, such as the mysterious David. There are some wonderfully intense moments, a couple of very sensual moments, and a twist at the end that completely blew me away. I cannot wait to devour the next book in the series!

Book Description: Joanne Baldwin is a Weather Warden. Usually, all it takes is a wave of her hand to tame the most violent weather. But now, she's trying to outrun another kind of storm: accusations of corruption and murder. So, she's resorting to the very human tactic of running for her life... Her only hope is Lewis, the most powerful warden known. Unfortunately, he's stolen not one but three bottles of Djinn-making him the most wanted man on earth. Still, she's racing hard to find him-before the bad weather closes in fast...

Side Effects Suck

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: Another fast-paced novel by McMann, but this one has a little more depth. There are actual paragraphs for one thing. For another, there's more intensity and a lot more character interaction. Janie is getting better at controlling her ability, but there are some nasty side effects that she has to look forward to according to her mentor's journal. She going to go completely blind, which has already started to happen. She's going to lose the use of her hands. She can never drive again, unless she doesn't care about killing innocent people. The only way she can avoid the blindness and crippled hands would be to isolate herself completely. To top things off, she's working on a case with Cabel and Captain that could push her completely over the edge. There's a sexual predator at the high school, and it's Janie's uncomfortable job of fishing him out. She's definitely way in over her head here, and I was actually getting increasingly worried for her. I like Janie, she has a good head on her shoulders, and she's very spunky, but she needs to learn what she can and can't handle. McMann has a great ability to keep her readers hooked and begging for more.

Book Description: Janie and Cabel have a dangerous new assignment. At their high school, rumors are rampant that teachers are using date-rape drugs on students. Called in to investigate, the pair tap into the nightmares of a troubled female classmate. Alarmed by what they discover, they decide to probe deeper, using Janie as bait. This extreme strategy endangers Janie, but as they soon discover, that's only the half of it….

Dream Trespasser

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: This is a super fast read. I don't recall seeing this style of writing before, either. The author has written out the story in very clipped sentences, and I don't think there is a single paragraph in the whole book. It works very well, though, and has certainly made me crave for more. Janie is a teenager who unwillingly gets sucked into other people's dreams. Most of the time, it's just someone's embarassing fears or fantasies, but sometimes they are very scary nightmares. This story seemed more like a very long introduction or prologue, so I am very curious what will take place in the next book. Will Janie get control of her dream power? Will she develop new powers? Will she and Cabel have a lasting relationship? How will she handle college? What kind crime will she help bring to justice next? I can assure you that I am very anxious to find out.

Book Description:

Not all dreams are sweet.
For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.
She can't tell anybody about what she does — they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control.
Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant....

Vampirism in Small Town America

Rating: 5/5

Review: The small town of Jerusalem's Lot has an unwanted guest, they just don't know it. This was only King's second book, and it sure shows exactly why he is one of the greatest authors of all time. He puts you right there in the scene every time, and he is a master at causing chills to run down his readers' backs. The slow decent of this town into chaos drips with suspense and dreaded expectation. The lead character, Ben Mears, is a writer who has had serious tragedy in is life. He's also experienced something terrifying in his home town when he was a kid. The Marsten House, who could also be called a main character, is the source of this childhood terror and the new evil that has come to town. The real on the edge of your seat thrills don't really start until the last few chapters, but everything leading up to it is well worth the ride.

Book Description: 'Salem's Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in 'salem's Lot was a summer of homecoming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to 'salem's Lot hoping to cast out his own devils and found instead a new, unspeakable horror. A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved. All would be changed forever: Susan, whose love for Ben could not protect her; Father Callahan, the bad priest who put his eroded faith to one last test; and Mark, a young boy who sees his fantasy world become reality and ironically proves the best equipped to handle the relentless nightmare of 'Salem's Lot. This is a rare novel, almost hypnotic in its unyielding suspense, which builds to a climax of classic terror. You will not forget the town of 'salem's Lot nor any of the people who used to live there.

Glass Magic

Rating: 5/5

Review: Maria V. Snyder has created a wonderful new trilogy, and I can't wait to devour the next book. I loved the glass magic featured, as well as, the magic of the Storm Dancers. I enjoyed reading about Opal's growing powers and self-discovery. The little love triangle that has started between her, Kade, and Ulrick made for an interesting twist. I'm rooting for Kade, myself. Of course, the characters from the Study books are featured here, as well, and it was fun reading about Yelena from a different perspective. There was great action and suspense throughout the book, and the story moved along at a brisk pace.

Book Description:
As a glass maker and a magician-in-training, Opal Cowen understands trial by fire. Now it's time to test her mettle. Someone has sabotaged the Stormdancer clan's glass orbs, killing their most powerful magicians. The Stormdancers--particularly the mysterious and mercurial Kade--require Opal's unique talents to prevent it happening again. But when the mission goes awry, Opal must tap in to a new kind of magic as stunningly potent as it is frightening. And the further she delves into the intrigue behind the glass and magic, the more distorted things appear. With lives hanging in the balance--including her own--Opal must control powers she hadn't known she possessed...powers that might lead to disaster beyond anything she's ever known.

Georgia Goodness

Rating: 4/5

Review: This was a great light read. It also made me want to fix up an old house in a place where traditons are strongly followed, and everbody knows everybody. Dempsey was a fun character that I could relate to, and I actually had a great-grandmother like Ella Kate. I didn't like how naive Dempsey was where her boss was concerned. I'd like to think that I would not have been quite as stupid in her situation, but she was influenced by her infatuation, so I can see how a person might not see what's really going on in that case. Love and infatuation does make us do stupid things, I suppose. I enjoyed the tidbits about house restoration, and how Dempsey was doing most of the work herself. The ending was good, but not very realistic. Still, I do like the idea of getting something you really need right when you need it.

Book Description: After her boss in a high-powered Washington public relations firm is caught in a political scandal, fledgling lobbyist Dempsey Jo Killebrew is left almost broke, unemployed, and homeless. Out of options, she reluctantly accepts her father's offer to help refurbish Birdsong, the old family place he recently inherited in Guthrie, Georgia. All it will take, he tells her, is a little paint and some TLC to turn the fading Victorian mansion into a real-estate cash cow.
But, oh, is Dempsey in for a surprise when she arrives in Guthrie. "Bird Droppings" would more aptly describe the moldering Pepto Bismol–pink dump with duct-taped windows and a driveway full of junk. There's also a murderously grumpy old lady, one of Dempsey's distant relations, who has claimed squatter's rights and isn't moving out. Ever.
Furthermore, everyone in Guthrie seems to know Dempsey's business, from a smooth-talking real-estate agent to a cute lawyer who owns the local newspaper. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the pesky FBI agents who show up on Dempsey's doorstep, hoping to pry information about her ex-boss from her.
All Dempsey can do is roll up her sleeves and get to work. And before long, what started as a job of necessity somehow becomes a labor of love and, ultimately, a journey that takes her to a place she never expected—back home again.

Books and Barcelona

Rating: 4/5

Review: Well, this book seemed to take forever, but it was worth the effort. The descriptions throughout were so beautifully done, and I was completely transported into each scene. I'm not exactly sure what made the book so slow for me. Perhaps it was do to the translation from Spanish to English? Or maybe it was the thick paragraphs and lack of any strong action, although there was a great action scene towards the endof the book. I loved the Cemetary of Forgotten books, and found myself wishing that I could go there. I know that if there were such a place, and perhaps there are such places for all I know, I would be able to spend days within the aisles just taking in each every "orphan". The endless devotion of Daniel's father was quite touching, and was very clearly felt during a certain birthday moment. The mystery surrounding the author, Julian Carax, was very intriguing, and had a few twists and turns that kept the story alive. The romance between Daniel and Bea was wonderfully done, and reminded me of other great romances such as The Notebook. I also loved the beautiful analolgies that Zafon places here and there, like; "...the sky was melting into slow tears of light that seemed to lie on my breath before fading away." (page 448) So, overall, while a very slow read, it was also very rewarding and quite memorable.

Book Description:
Barcelona, 1945-just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his eleventh birthday to find that he can no longer remember his mother's face. To console his only child, Daniel's widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona's guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again. Daniel's father coaxes him to choose a volume from the spiraling labyrinth of shelves, one that, it is said, will have a special meaning for him. And Daniel so loves the novel he selects, The Shadow of the Wind by one Julian Carax, that he sets out to find the rest of Carax's work. To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact, he may have the last one in existence. Before Daniel knows it his seemingly innocent quest has opened a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets, an epic story of murder, magic, madness and doomed love. And before long he realizes that if he doesn't find out the truth about Julian Carax, he and those closest to him will suffer horribly.