Thursday, May 07, 2015

Book Review: The Shadows - J.R. Ward

The Shadows (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #13)
Two brothers bound by more than blood fight to change a brutal destiny in the heart-wrenching new novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by #1 New York Times bestselling author J.R. Ward.

Trez "Latimer" doesn't really exist.  And not just because the identity was create so that a Shadow could function in the underbelly of the human world.  Sold by his parents to the Queen of the S'Hsibe as a child, Trez escaped the Territory and has been a pimp and an enforcer in Cadwell, NY for years - all the while on the run form a destiny of sexual servitude.  He's never had anyone he could totally rely on...except for his brother, iAm.

iAm's sole goal has always been to keep his brother from self-destructing-and he knows he's failed.  It's not until the Chosen Serena enters Trez's life that the male begins to turn things around...but by then it's too late.  The pledge to mate the Queen's daughter comes due and there is nowhere to run,  nowhere to hide. and no negotiating.

Trapped between his heart and a fate he never volunteered for, Trez must decide whether to endanger himself and others-or forever leave behind the female he's in love with.  But then an unimaginable tragedy strikes and changes everything.  Staring out over an emotional abyss, Trez must find a reason to go on or risk losing himself and his soul forever.  And iAm, in the name of brotherly love, is faced with making the ultimate sacrifice...

3/5 stars (liked it)
It was nice to see a book that focused on the shadows, Trez and iAm as they have been in a few books but we didn't know much about that.  I would have like to have seen more of Lassiter and I hope in other books he is featured more.  Rhage was having emotional issues and that was never really resolved.  There is the story with Trez and Selena and that took up most of the book.  iAm finds love but we don't see too much of that.  Also a new character, a young female named Paradise which was just put in to set up her story in the spin-off series Black Dagger Legacy.  Overall a typical book by J.R. Ward and enjoyable to read.

Book Review: Inferno - Dan Brown

Inferno (Robert Langdon, #4)
In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history's most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces...Dante's Inferno.

Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science.  Drawing from Dante's dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust...before the world is irrevocably altered.

3/5 stars (liked it)
This book follows the typical Langdon book formula.  Landgdon is caught in something, he is running from someone, he is searching for clues and a woman is involved.  I was not very familiar with Dante's Inferno before I read this book and I think the book did a good job explaining things so I was not lost.  This books makes me want to visit Italy and all the sites they visited.  The ending was surprising and I really like how it ended.

Book Review: Size 12 is Not Fat - Meg Cabot

Size 12 is Not Fat - Meg Cabot
Size 12 Is Not Fat (Heather Wells, #1)
Heather Wells Rocks!

Or, at least, she did.  That was before she left the pop-idol life behind after she gained a dress size or two--and lost a boyfriend, a recording contract, and her life savings (when Mom took the money and ran off to Argentina).  Now that the glamour and glory days of endless mall appearances are in the past, Heather's perfectly happy with her new size 12 shape (the average for the American woman!) and her new job as an assistant dorm director at one of New York's top colleges.  That is, until the dead body of a female student from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

The cops and the college president are ready to chalk the death off as an accident, the resulf of reckless youthful mischief.  But heather knows teenage girls...and girls do not elevator surf.  Yet no one wants to listen -- not the police, her colleagues, or the P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives -- even when more students start turning up dead in equally ordinary and subtly sinister ways.  So Heather makes the decision to take on yet another new career: as spunky girl detective!

But he new job comes with few benefits, no cheering crowds, and lots of liabilities, some of them potentially fatal.  And nothing ticks off a killer more than a portly ex-pop star who's sticking her nose where it doesn't belong...

2/5 stars (it was ok)
I actually did not like Heather very much and it really got old her says she was a size 12 and it wasn't fat.  I really liked Cooper and think a book about him and how he became a P.I. would have been more interesting.  The killer was surprising and not who I thought it would be.  I'm not sure I would read more books in this series.

Book Review: Overbite - Meg Cabot

Overbite - Meg Cabot Meena Harper has a special gift, but i's only now that anyone's ever appreciated it.  The Palatine Guard--...