The Memory of Water by Karen White - 5 Stars

The Memory of Water

by Karen White

On the night their mother drowns, sisters Marnie and Diana Maitland discover there is more than one kind of death. There is the death of innocence, of love, and of hope. Each sister harbors a secret about that night-secrets that will erode their lives as they grow into adulthood.

After ten years of silence between the sisters, Marnie is called back to the South Carolina Lowcountry by Diana's ex-husband, Quinn. His young son has returned from a sailing trip with his emotionally unstable mother, and he is refusing to speak. In order to help the traumatized boy, Marnie must reopen old wounds and bring the darkest memories of their past to the surface. And she must confront Diana, before they all go under.
My Review; 
This is a wonderful book, full of family secrets and strong well defined characters. It's such a beautifully written book, I was drawn into the story and I felt as if the characters were very real to me. Karen White has a lovely way of describing life in the lowlands that made me want to go and visit and walk along the beaches.

Pretty Little Devils by Nancy Holder - 4 Stars

Pretty Little Devils

by Nancy Holder (Goodreads Author)

Watch out! These babysitters will stab you in the back. Everything changes for Hazel Stone when she’s noticed by Sylvia, queen bee of their high school’s popular girls, the Pretty Little Devils. Sylvia invites Hazel to one of the group’s famous soirees—held at the site of one of their babysitting jobs. Hazel couldn’t be more thrilled! But what she doesn’t know is that popularity comes with a price. Some people can become jealous of a girl’s newfound status— deadly jealous. One of these babysitting babes is a killer! Hazel has to figure out which one, before they turn their backstabbing ways on her.

My Review;

This was a very good YA mystery, the characters were very believable and I loved the twists in this story, I was totally fooled by the ending. It was also a great portrayal of the influence our peers can have on us in high school. This was a very fast read and very difficult to put down once I started to read it.

Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson 5 Stars

Sundays at Tiffany's

by James Patterson (Goodreads Author), Gabrielle Charbonnet

 

As a little girl, Jane has no one. Her mother, the powerful head of a Broadway theater company, has no time for her. She does have one friend-a handsome, comforting, funny man named Michael-but only she can see him.

Years later, Jane is in her thirties and just as alone as ever. Then she meets Michael again-as handsome, smart and perfect as she remembers him to be. But not even Michael knows the reason they've really been reunited.

SUNDAYS AT TIFFANY'S is a love story with an irresistible twist, a novel about the child inside all of us-and the boundary-crossing power of love.

My Review;

This was a wonderful book, a lovely story about finding your true love, mothers and daughters and even a relationship with an imaginary friend. It made me a little misty eyed and I loved it. 

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting - 5 stars

The Body Finder (The Body Finder #1)

by Kimberly Derting (Goodreads Author)

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself.

My Review;

I loved this book. It was an excellent first book in a new YA series. I enjoyed all the characters, the romance is very sweet and the mystery had enough twists and excitement to keep me reading. This was one of those books that was very difficult for me to put down once I started to read it. I loved the way Violet can find dead bodies and how she uses the victims "echoes" to find their killer. The cover art on this book is just gorgeous as well! 

Altar of Eden by James Rollins - 5 stars

Altar of Eden

by James Rollins (Goodreads Author)

Louisiana state veterinarian Lorna Polk stumbles upon a shipwrecked fishing trawler carrying a caged group of exotic animals. Yet, something is wrong with these beasts: a parrot with no feathers, a pair of Capuchin monkeys conjoined at the hip, a jaguar cub with the dentition of a saber-tooth tiger. They also all share one uncanny trait—a disturbingly heightened intelligence. To uncover the truth, Lorna must team up with a man who shares a dark and bloody past with her, U.S. Border Patrol Agent, Jack Menard. Together, the two must hunt for a beast that escaped the shipwreck while uncovering a mystery tied to fractal science and genetic engineering, all to expose a horrifying secret that traces back to mankind’s earliest roots.
But can Lorna stop what is about to be born upon the altar of Eden before it threatens not only the world, but also the very foundation of what it means to be human?

My Review
This is an excellent thriller, at first I thought it was going to be a monster chasing story (I love monster books!), but about 1/3 of the way through it switched up to an even more exciting story. This is a stand alone for Mr. Rollins and I love his stand alone books every much as I love the books in the Sigma Force series!  Every time I read one of his books, though, I learn something new and have to go look something up, fractals!

How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn - 5 stars

How Green Was My Valley

by Richard Llewellyn

Huw Morgan, about to leave home forever, reminisces about the golden days of his youth, when South Wales still prospered and coal dust had not yet blackened the valley. Llewellyn's characters fight, love, laugh, and cry, creating an indelible portrait of a people.

My Review;

I loved this book, I listened the audio book, 12 tapes, narrated by Patrick Tully and truly fell in love with all the characters, the prose in this book is rich and wonderful. After listening to it I can see the valley, the coal mine and all the people very clearly through the main character's (Huw Morgan) eyes.

This book is a classic and I can fully understand why,  the characters are so well developed and the trials and tribulations they endure as a family can be so exhilarating and also so tragic at times that they can break your heart!

I highly recommend this book, a visit to the Morgan family in Wales is time well spent!

The Swarm by Frank Schatzing - 2 stars

The Swarm: A Novel

by Frank Schätzing

Whales begin sinking ships. Toxic, eyeless crabs poison Long Island's water supply. The North Sea shelf collapses, killing thousands in Europe. Around the world, countries are beginning to feel the effects of the ocean's revenge as the seas and their inhabitants begin a violent revolution against mankind. In this novel, full of twists, turns, and cliffhangers, a team of scientists discovers a strange, intelligent life force called the Yrr that takes form in marine animals, using them to wreak havoc on humanity for our ecological abuses. Soon a struggle between good and evil is in full swing, with both human and suboceanic forces battling for control of the waters. At stake is the survival of the Earth's fragile ecology - and ultimately, the survival of the human race itself.
My Review; 

880 pages! This book had some fantastic action sequences and some interesting facts about the oceans and sea life. BUT it was bogged down with too much anti American, anti human, anti religion nonsense. And the characters, most were not very well developed at all, I didn't like any of them and if I had to hear one more reference to the movie "Contact" or Jodi Foster I was going to scream. I cannot in good conscience recommend this book to anyone. Like I said the action scenes were terrific and they are what kept me reading until a lame ending, that made almost no sense, but all the mishmash in between these scenes made the reading of this book a somewhat painful experience.

The Doomsday Key by James Rollins - 5 stars

The Doomsday Key (Sigma Force Series #6)

by James Rollins (Goodreads Author)

James Rollins, the New York Times bestselling master of nail-biting suspense and historical mystery, combines cutting-edge biotechnology with a centuries-old secret in an apocalyptic story that reveals where humankind is truly headed
The Doomsday Key
At Princeton University, a famed geneticist dies inside a biohazard lab. In Rome, a Vatican archaeologist is found dead in St. Peter's Basilica. In Africa, a U.S. senator's son is slain outside a Red Cross camp. The three murders on three continents bear a horrifying connection: all the victims are marked by a Druidic pagan cross burned into their flesh.
The bizarre murders thrust Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force into a race against time to solve a riddle going back centuries, to a ghastly crime against humanity hidden within a cryptic medieval codex. The first clue is discovered inside a mummified corpse buried in an English peat bog--a gruesome secret that threatens America and the world.
Aided by two women from his past--one his exlover, the other his new partner--Gray must piece together the horrifying truth. But the revelations come at a high cost, and to save the future, Gray will have to sacrifice one of the women at his side. That alone might not be enough, as the true path to salvation is revealed in a dark prophecy of doom.
Sigma Force confronts humankind's greatest threat in an adventure that races from the Roman Coliseum to the icy peaks of Norway, from the ruins of medieval abbeys to the lost tombs of Celtic kings. The ultimate nightmare is locked within a talisman buried by a dead saint--an ancient artifact known as the Doomsday Key.

My Review
This book was so exciting, I just loved it, I am loving the Sigma series more and more, I love the characters, the action is non stop and I usually learn some new things along the way. I was really interested in learning about seeds that have been genetically altered and I found a couple of good books on the subject, they were recommended by Mr. Rollins at the end of this book, and I have them on my wish list.

I especially like that Mr. Rollins doesn't just have guns, chase, explosions non stop, there is a story, you get a chance to catch your breath once in a while and the plot is very interesting.

5 Stars