Book Review: Lies Beneath

Katie June 12, 2012 0 Comments

Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown is about a family of mermaids (and a merman) who are on a mission to find Jason Hancock.  They believe Jason’s  father had something to do with why their mother died, so they are looking to kill Jason to get their revenge.

Calder White, the merman of the family, spends his winters in the Bahamas.  His sisters call him back home to Lake Superior telling him that they think they have found Jason.

Jason and the rest of the Hancock family are moving in to Jason’s father’s old home now that he has passed away.

Calder tries to befriend Jason’s daughter, Lily, in order to go through with the family’s plan to kill Jason.  However, despite his sisters warnings, he begins to fall for her.  While at a party with her new friends, Calder finds out all about the “legend” of the monsters of the sea.

I don’t want to give too much away with the story – but it is definitely a good one that will keep you wanting to read more to find out if Calder’s relationship with Lily spoils the family’s plan to kill her father or will they go through with killing Jason?  You’ll just have to check out Lies Beneath to find out all the answers!

I love stories that are wild and not based on real life.  Well, I guess to a certain extent this story is based on real life, but as far as I know – Mermaids aren’t real. I really like that aspect of stories where I can escape the real world and venture in to a new world that is different.

I received a free advanced e-copy of this book in order to write this review from the publisher through NetGalley.  I was not compensated nor was I asked to write a favorable review.  All opinions are my own.

About the Book

The lore of mermaids and mermen is real. Just wait until you meet Calder White in this addictive debut novel that is destined to make a splash!

Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive, Calder and his sisters must prey on humans and absorb their positive energy. Usually they select their victims at random, but this time around the underwater clan chooses its target for a reason: revenge. They want to kill Jason Hancock, the man they blame for their mother’s death.

It’s going to take the whole White family to lure the aquaphobic Hancock onto the water. Calder’s job is to gain Hancock’s trust by getting close to his family. Relying on his irresistible good looks and charm, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock’s daughter Lily. Easy enough, but Calder screws everything up by falling in love—just as Lily starts to suspect that there’s more to the monsters-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined, and just as the mermaids threaten to take matters into their own hands, forcing Calder to choose between family and the girl he loves. One thing’s for sure, whatever Calder decides, the outcome won’t be pretty.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ANNE GREENWOOD BROWN grew up sailing the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior, leaning over the rail and wondering, with a lake that big, that ancient, what amazing thing might flash by. Now she knows. Lies Beneath is her first novel.

Book Review: The Beauty Book

Katie June 10, 2012 0 Comments

The Beauty Book by Nancy Rue is one of the books in the Lily Series.  The book is geared towards young girls who are approaching puberty.  It covers a lot of tips on how to survive at school while changes are happening.  It relates all the issues to the bible in a section called “How is it a God thing?” and teaches girls to not compare themselves to others or put others down in order to make themselves feel better about themselves.  To God, everyone is beautiful and that is what we should remember.

There are questions from girls which are answered honestly and openly and I really wish there was a book like this floating around when I was in elementary / middle school to answer these questions for me. (Many can be embarassing to ask your parents about – but the book has tips on how to approach your parents about shaving your legs, getting piercings, etc which would have been very helpful to myself and my peers at this stage in our life)

I definitely recommend this for girls 7-11 who are approaching puberty – there are quizzes and exercises that I think will help girls feel better about themselves even though they may be approaching an awkward stage in their life.

Book Review: Adam Orser: The Chronicles of Evolution

Katie June 8, 2012 2 Comments

Adam Orser The Chronicles of Evolition by Daniel Armand is the most recent blog tour that I am participating in.  It is the first book in a trilogy. It took me a little bit to actually get in to the story, the first few chapters came off as confusing for me (but I guess that is what you get when you don’t give a book your undivided attention)  once I got in to it then I was able to fly through the rest of the chapters with no problem.

 As I mentioned, the book is a bit long. 40 chapters (although some are only a couple of pages each) and 343 pages total.  It does look a bit intimidating at first, but really if you stick it through the first 5-10 chapters then you should have all the background info you need to know to be able to follow the rest of the story all the way through.

After Adam is in a serious car accident and ends up in a coma, he ends up in an alternate reality where he is assigned a mission involving a kidnapped girl.  So we really have 2 stories in one – one where Adam is in the coma and his poor girlfriend (who he was going to propose to before being called off for his alternate reality mission) doesn’t know what is going on with his situation and wants any sort of sign from him that he can hear her and then the alternate reality where he is on this crazy mission with some others trying to save this girl.

Remebering now that it is a trilogy, some of the things I was expecting to happen that didn’t – I’ll just have to hope that they end up being covered in the additional books to follow.

I would recommend this for adult readers (there is some strong language) who are interested in finding out about the action that is going on with interdimensional communication!  It definitely was a theory that made me think – what if this thing really does go on and there are other alternate realities where we are present as well? hmm…

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in order to be a part of this book tour.

About the Book

Adam Orser: The Chronicles of Evolution

The official blog tour website for this book is:
http://adam-orser-chronicles-of-evolution.blogspot.com/

Two Harbors Press website:
http://twoharborspress.com/

Tribute Books Blog Tours Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-Books-Blog-Tours/242431245775186

Adam Orser: The Chronicles of Evolution blog tour site:
http://adam-orser-chronicles-of-evolution.blogspot.com

Book Review: Game of Secrets

Katie June 6, 2012 0 Comments

Game of Secrets is a book by Dawn Tripp.  At first I thought that this was going to be a bit of a murder mystery to try and find out who killed Jane’s father Luce.  It was not.  The book is written from several points of views and from different time periods.  For the most part the book is in the point of view of Jane and her daughter Marne. They have a bit of a struggling relationship. Luce and Huck also have a couple of chapters.  (Huck is Ada’s son.) The chapters also take you through time in the 50s, 60s and present day (2004).  It is easy to track along who is the narrator of each chapter and time the time period as it is always mentioned at the beginning of the chapter.

An additional character in this book is the game of Scrabble.  I’ve never read a book where there was an additional character of a game – but the Scrabble game gave you a bit of insight to the characters of Jane and Ada.  Ada is the mistress of Luce and it is believed that she had something to do with his death – yet Ada and Jane continue to have their Friday scrabble games throughout the book.  It is through the games where most of the information about Luce’s disappearance is revealed.

The book is set in New England – which is where I live – so it was easy to relate to the characters and where they were from.  It makes me wonder what kind of secrets are hiding in my small town.

Dawn created a music playlist that relates to the book Game of Secrets.  You can find out the music playlist Dawn selected for this book here: http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2011/07/book_notes_dawn_2.html

I received a free copy of this book in order to write this review. All opinions are mine and I was not otherwise compensated.

More about GAME OF SECRETS
In 1957, Jane Weld was eleven years old when her father Luce, a petty thief, disappeared. His skiff was found drifting near the marsh, empty except for his hunting coat and a box of shot-gun shells. No one in his small New England town knew for sure what happened until, three years later, his skull rolled out of a gravel bank by the river, a bullet hole in the temple. There were rumors he had been murdered by the jealous husband of his mistress, Ada Varick. Now, half a century later, Jane is still searching for the truth of her father’s death, a mystery made more urgent by the unexpected romance that her willful daughter, Marne, has struck up with one of Ada’s sons. As their love affair intensifies, Jane and Ada meet for a casual Friday board game that soon transforms into a cat-and-mouse game of words long left unspoken, dark secrets best left untold.

Book Review: If You Like Metallica

Katie June 5, 2012 0 Comments

If You Like Metallica is a book by Mike McPadden. It is sub titled “Here Are Over 200 Bands, Films, CDs, and Other Oddities You Will Love”.  And the book lists just that. It is broken down in to 10 chapters, mostly listing other bands which are categorized in each chapter:

1. Battery: Channeling the Power of Old Gods

2. The Frayed End of Sanity: Crackposts and Iconoclasts

3. Metal Militia: Europe rises on the new wave of british heavy metal

4. Seek and Destroy: Punk, Hardcore and Industrial

5. Whiplash: Thrash Master Unlimited

6. Reload: Alternative Metal

7. (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth: Doom Metal and Stoner Rock

8. Hero of the Day: Metallica Movies

9. Disposable Heroes: Roots, Branches and Side Projects

10. Read the Lightning: The Best Books to Crack Open… If You Like Metallica

Now I know what you are thinking – you’re thinking – but Katie, you don’t like Metallica so why would you read this? And the answer is – you’re right, I don’t like Metallica but you’d be surprised at just how many of the other bands listed in this book I do listen to (perhaps it is only a handful, but considering the music I do listen to I was surprised just how many bands from my iPod were in this book.)  And I thought it would be interesting to read up a bit on Metallica.

Mike does a great job with talking about Metallica in relation to the other bands, but still gives a short bio on many, many other bands.  Some longer than others, of course, but the book was interesting enough that I didn’t feel the need to wait until the next day to finish it or give up on it completely (which I try NOT to do, but there are a few books that I have just been unable to finish)

I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in order to write this review.

About the Book

Book Review: Christian Bale

Katie June 3, 2012 0 Comments

I have to admit, that I didn’t know much about Christian Bale before reading his biography.  I know my brother was going on about how he lost a lot of weight for a role once and I obviously knew that he was Batman in the more recent movies, but that’s about where my knowledge ended.

Now, I think I know more than I ever wanted to know about Christian and his family.  The book is written by Harrison Cheung who started out as a fan of Christian and when the internet was first starting out, he promoted Christian on AOL and Compuserve forums. (The talk about how these boards worked was giving me flash backs to my teen years and talking about Hanson.)  Harrison wrote letters to Christian, and when he got responses he figured that he could come up with some way to help promote Christian. He proposed that he start a website for Christian to keep fans updated with what movies he was working on and when they were coming out as well as to get fans to help promote him on the internet.  Christian agreed (hating doing publicity tours, this was an easy way for him to not really have to deal with interviewers) and eventually Harrison ended up becoming an assistant to Christian – so who better to write the biography?

It talks about how Christian’s father moved him and his sister to LA which resulted in his wife getting a divorce for him.  His father had no job and ended up living on an expired visa for quite some time.  He was in charge of Christian’s finances and grossly mismanaged them, which put Christian in some trouble at times.

For a while he thought he was Box Office Poison when a lot of his movies were not fairing too well on the big screen.  But his fans kept up their promotions of him on the internet and helped make him one of the most popular internet stars.

Now Christian Bale is a household name, having played Batman in the blockbuster movies, however, he’d much rather be able to still go around town and not get recognized and have to deal with fans and interviews.

I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in order to write this review.

The darkest Batman is unmasked.

During the London press junket for The Dark Knight in the summer of 2008, Christian Bale was infamously accused of assaulting his mother and sister at the five-star Dorchester Hotel. Six months later, a recording of Bale’s rant on the set of Terminator Salvation was leaked, and the star’s anger began to define him.

But beyond his notorious temper, Bale, an Academy Award-winning actor for his role in The Fighter, is known for his ability to physically transform himself for roles in American Psycho, The Machinist, and as one of Hollywood’s most revered and bankable characters-Batman.

In Christian Bale: The Inside Story of the Darkest Batman, Bale’s former publicist and assistant Harrison Cheung-his real-life Alfred-shares an inside look into the little-known personal life of the intensely private and reclusive actor. In the first biography of the Batman star, Cheung, who lived and worked with Christian and his father for 10 years, shares firsthand accounts of the Bales’ familial dysfunction, Christian’s morbid fascinations and dark humor, and his extreme dedication to his craft.

Aware that Bale hated his traditional publicity duties, Cheung launched an extensive Internet marketing campaign for the actor, built the first official actor website for him, and cultivated the Baleheads, an online fan community that was used to garner editorial coverage and ultimately help Bale secure the role of the Caped Crusader.

Written with veteran Hollywood and entertainment reporter Nicola Pittam, Christian Bale: The Inside Story of the Darkest Batman uncovers Bale’s transformation from shy, Welsh child actor to Internet sensation to Hollywood bad boy.