Book Review: The Perfect Game

Katie March 6, 2015 0 Comments

The Perfect Game has to be one of my favorite books that I’ve read lately. I couldn’t put it down and I absolutely loved it.  It kind of reminded me of Gone Girl – except that the ending gave me much, much more closure than Gone Girl’s did.  This book is about Lauren Rose, a medical intern who moved to Phoenix to do her residency.  Her sister already lives in Arizona, as she is married to the cute Arizona Diamondback pitcher, Jake Wakefield.  When she finds out that her sister, Liz, was found killed in her home, she is in shock.  She is in even more shock when she realizes that she and Jake seem to be the prime suspects.

Jake tells Lauren that Liz had asked that he take care of Lauren in the event anything happened to her – since all they had was each other and their grandmother, Rose-ma, since their parents were both killed in a drunk driving accident when they were kids.  The two begin spending a lot of time together – Lauren is a big baseball fan so she has been going to Jake’s games to cheer him on.  They begin to realize that the two of them hanging out may make people talk, so they decide to keep their “relationship” on the down low.

The murder ends up going to trial – which the book goes into great detail about. You feel like you are there and are on the edge of your seat to find out what the jury will end up deciding. I don’t want to give too much else away – but if you only have time to read ONE book – make THIS the one you read.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Lauren Rose has recently moved to Phoenix to begin a new life as she starts a prestigious emergency medicine residency, but she just may end up doing life in the Arizona State penitentiary instead. Lauren has always lived in the shadow of her more glamorous sister, the wife of baseball superstar Jake Wakefield. But when her sister is found viciously murdered, the spotlight turns on her: as prime suspect in the high-profile investigation. Having lost both parents at an early age, Liz’s death leaves Lauren all alone in a new city. Jake’s support proves invaluableas she navigates the nightmare her life has become. But as Lauren spends more time with Jake, they develop a closeness that she finds both comforting and confusing. Eventually, they find themselves succumbing to an intimacy forged by their shared grief. Before long, the detectives arrive at Lauren’s workplace with an arrest warrant. The ensuing trial leads the evening news every night as a rabid public just can’t get enough of the sordid proceedings, quickly dubbed The Trial of the Millennium. But is justice really blind or is it for sale to the highest bidder? The Perfect Game combines psychological suspenseand courtroom drama in this compelling debut novel.

Book Review: Due for Discard

Katie March 4, 2015 2 Comments

I have to say that I absolutely LOVED this book.  The main character is Aimee who is starting her job as a forensic library at a Hospital.  On her first day – she walks past a smelly dumpster and finds out that her new boss’s wife, Bonnie is MIA – and her corpse was the reason for the smelly dumpster.  There are a bunch of suspects that could have killed Bonnie and Aimee’s brother Harry is on the list.  Aimee knows that Harry is innocent – but there’s a bad cop who has it out for Aimee and her family and she isn’t sure if they will try to pin this murder on Harry as trying to get revenge.

So Aimee starts doing her own amateur sleuthing and trying to get to the bottom of what is going on.  Was it her boss, Bonnie’s husband? Or maybe the womanizing administrator at the hospital? The more she digs it seems like the longer her suspect list is!  But when messages start getting painted on her apartment door, she knows she is somehow on the right track – but with who!?

There are a lot of characters in this book, but I had no problem sorting them out in my head. I think with the descriptions you are given it made things easier to picture and therefore easier to follow.  I didn’t want to put the book down – even though I had to! (You know, eating and sleeping)  I am quite pleased that this is the first in a series and am looking forward to reading more!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to participate in this blog tour.
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Book Review: If You Give a Donkey the White House

Katie March 3, 2015 0 Comments

I thought this was going to be a cute kids book in the vein of “If you give a mouse a cookie” and it was not. Perhaps better suited for those who are fans of Elephants.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

When an arrogant donkey asks you to let him into the White House, you might get duped into thinking it’s a good idea. But once he gets there, he’ll want to expand the government. And then before you know it, he will take you on a misguided adventure that will ruin your life. In this timely parody, readers young and old will either laugh or cry as they follow the story of a boy, a donkey, and unintended consequences.

Book Review: You Can’t Sit With Us

Katie March 3, 2015 0 Comments

You Can’t Sit With Us is an honest look at bullying from the victim. Which I found to be absolutely true. I actually had to stop reading a few times because the main character, Ginger, was about the same age as me as when I had to deal with being bullied – it hit a little too close to home so I had to take a break and a moment to realize it wasn’t happening to ME anymore and hoped that if I was able to overcome it, Ginger would too.

Ginger’s Mom died when she was in 1st grade and her Dad’s job has forced them to move many times in the past 12 years.  There is now a “Code” at the school where the students all agreed to not bully each other – except one mean girl who is great at acting and of course, has her minions. Of course they make Ginger their target and unlike my bully stories they have the internet, email and twitter to help try and make her life miserable.

Mean girl Kylie threatens to spill just HOW Ginger’s Mom died (in a car accident even Ginger doesn’t know the details of) if she doesn’t stop hanging out with Ginger’s clique.  Not knowing how to handle it she tries to listen to their demands – and fortunately gets an alternate english assignment which brings her to meet Colin to help be her support system while this is all going down.

Fortunately for Ginger this has a better ending than my bullying (but hey, my life isn’t a book that had a lesson at the end. At least not yet anyway) and it seems like her Dad has found a job that will have them sticking around for a bit longer.

I liked the tips that were given to the girls in this book in how to try and get the bullies to leave them alone without causing a scene and I think that if there are girls in the 12year old range getting bullied at school they should read this book to try and find a few ways to deal with it. Some of the tips were given to me as well – and I have to say they don’t always work – but another tip in the book was to keep trying and hope that eventually things would change.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

About the Book

Bullying doesn’t end in the hallway anymore-with a smartphone or tablet, it can happen anywhere.

According to the Ambassadors 4 Kids Club, one out of every four students is bullied-and 85% of these situations never receive intervention. Parents, students, and teachers alike have amped up discussions on how to solve the bullying problem for a networked generation of kids.

Written by bestselling author, Nancy Rue, each book in the Mean Girl Makeover trilogy focuses on a different character’s point of view: the bully, the victim, and the bystander. The books, based on Scripture, show solid biblical solutions to the bullying problem set in a story for tween girls.

You Can’t Sit With Us tells the story of Ginger Hollingberry, a new sixth grader at Gold Country Middle School. Ginger has been the brunt of teasing and taunting from the queen bee of GCMS, Kylie Steppe, and her so-called Wolf Pack. Kylie and the Pack favor a new and especially hurtful medium of taunting: social networking. What follows is a candid look into the growing world of cruel cyberbullying, showing kids that bullying doesn’t always end at school-it can now follow you even into your home and torture 24 hours a day.

Book Review: One Last Song

Katie February 27, 2015 0 Comments

One Last Song is about Saylor, who suffers from Munchausen Syndrome. The story starts where she recounts swallowing a needle at age 7 in order to get her mother’s attention.  Currently she is injecting herself with saliva in order to create abscesses on her body.  She is seeing a shrink who she tells she would like to work at the hospital. Mainly it’s to gain access to supplies she may need, but no one else needs to know that.  She ends up getting a volunteer position helping to set up and break down the chairs and snacks for support groups that meet there. There is a group, TIDD, meeting in a room she is in reading a book on MS – and one of the guys assumes she has it and she is new to the group.  While she does have an MS (Munchausen Syndrome) she tells them that she has multiple sclerosis.  She ends up becoming very close with the people in this groups, even gaining a boyfriend.  She loves the attention and has seemed to stop making herself sick even.  But what happens when they find out the truth?

*possible spoiler ahead*

Although she wanted to come clean on her own terms, she ends up getting found out before she has the chance to let anyone know. Will her new friends understand? Will they think she used them? Most of all – will they forgive her before she is forced to go away to college in another state?

I really liked this book – it was a bit different than anything else I had read and really drew me in. There are a lot of characters with a lot of things going on and it was interesting to see it all unfold how it did – learning about each other as it went along and seeing them all help each other and try to remain optimistic, even though they know that they are all very near to falling victim to their diseases.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

I was seven when I swallowed my first needle.

My mom freaked out and rushed me to the emergency room.

She stayed by my side all night.

I never wanted it to end.

When you spend your whole life feeling invisible-when your parents care more about deals and deadlines than they do about you-you find ways of making people take notice. Little things at first. Then bigger. It’s scary how fast it grows. Then one day something happens that makes you want to stop. To get better. To be better. And for the first time, you understand what it’s like to feel whole, happy . . . loved. For the first time, you love someone back.

For me, that someone was Drew.

Book Review: Idiots and Children

Katie February 27, 2015 0 Comments

Idiots and Children is a book of essays about Diana Estill’s life. The book is fun and easy to read, with a lot of great stories. My personal favorite was the story about how her home was struck by lightning. Her husband’s garage door won’t open so he leaves it up to Diana to see what is going on.  After they think they have the phone lines and everything corrected, the phones ring at all hours of the night, so they end up unplugging them when they go to bed. Then one night they are woken by the doorbell ringing and 2 cops checking up on them. Repeated calls to 911 were coming from their house – but Diana assures the cops everything is ok and the phone lines were unplugged. They end up realizing that the alarm system also got fried during the lightning strike and the system was calling through numbers at night and eventually got the 9-1-1.  When the cops heard the repeated calls but didn’t get an answer when calling the house back, they had to go check things out!

If you are looking for a fast, fun read, then you should check this book out.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review.

About the Book

Award-winning author Diana Estill delivers twisted tales of past and present in this latest collection of humor essays. Having grown up with an absent-minded father and a mother who refused to wear—but nevertheless tried to sell—beauty products, Estill drolly recalls her childhood angst and confusion. Besides poking fun at herself and her kin, Estill unleashes tongue-in-cheek commentary on subjects such as populating Mars, finding the “fun” in funerals, cloning Neanderthals, and store gun policies. (“If you’re feeling unsafe enough to pack a shotgun for your trip to purchase pork rinds, then maybe you ought to stay home and shoot your own snacks.”) Travelogues about crossing the pond (“Looking for the Loo in London”) and commissioning a hot air balloon to fly across a desert (“Fatal Attractions”) offer witty vacation advice.

Book Review: Edgar Allan Poe The Dover Reader

Katie February 27, 2015 0 Comments

This Edgar Allan Poe book is separated by his Fiction, Poetry and Non Fiction.  The book is just under 600 pages, but that is to be expected when it contains so much content! This book is full of Poe’s finest works which includes his only completed novel – The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.  I only read a few of the smaller poems, several of his stories I had read in various classes over the years as well and I quite appreciate his works.  A great compilation of his works if you are looking to get all of the Poe that you can in just one place.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

(There are 17 included in Fiction, 43 poems and 3 non-fiction works included in this anthology.)

About the Book

The father of the detective novel and an innovator in American Gothic fiction, Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) made his living as America’s first great literary critic. Today he is best remembered for his short stories and poems, haunting works of horror and mystery that remain popular around the world.
This anthology presents Poe’s finest works in a rich selection of poetry and prose that features his only complete novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Short stories include “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Purloined Letter,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and more than a dozen others. In addition to a few selections of Poe’s nonfiction writing, the compilation offers “The Conqueror Worm,” “Annabel Lee,” “The Raven,” and many other memorable poems.

Book Review: Why Does My Book Not Sell? 20 Simple Fixes

Katie February 22, 2015 0 Comments

Rayne Hall has released “Why Does My Book Not Sell?” Which offers 20 simple fixes.  While I do not yet have a book to sell, I hope to one day, so I enjoy reading these types of books so that once I do decide to release something I’ll know a bit more of what to do to get it out there.

The book is broken down into different areas of your book and what might go wrong with them.  I liked that it had several different topics for each item which may be causing a lack of sales and interest in your book and that there is also a section called “Mistakes I Made and Learnt From” which the author mentions some of the real pitfalls that needed to be overcome to increase sales.

The book certainly gave me a lot of things to keep in mind that I otherwise wouldn’t have thought of for when I am ready for writing my own books.  If you are an author and are not finding the sales that you would like with your book, I recommend you check out this book to see if you can figure out where your book is falling short and what you can do to try and remedy that.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Author
Rayne Hall has published more than fifty books in several languages under several pen names with several publishers in several genres, mostly fantasy, horror and non-fiction. She is the author of the bestselling Writer’s Craft series and editor of the Ten Tales anthologies. She is a trained publishing manager, holds a masters degree in Creative Writing, and has worked in the publishing industry for over thirty years. Having lived in Germany, China, Mongolia and Nepal, she has now settled in a small dilapidated town of former Victorian grandeur on the south coast of England where she enjoys reading, gardening and long walks along the seashore. She shares her home with a black cat adopted from the cat shelter. His name is Sulu and he likes to snuggle into Rayne’s arms with his paws wrapped around her wrist when she’s writing.

Book Review: Big Nate’s Greatest Hits

Katie February 20, 2015 0 Comments

Big Nate’s Greatest hits is a compilation of some of the best comic strips staring none other than big Nate!  The book is made up of 3 e-book collections: Big Nate Makes a Splash, Big Nate Dibs on This Chair and Big Nate pray for a Fire Drill.  Big Nate is an 11 year old boy – and I think he could give me a run for my money in Monopoly – he is the self proclaimed king and has beaten his friends 100 times in a row! (Monopoly is my favorite game but I can’t ever find anyone to play with me!)

These comic strips are a varied of black and white and colored and on a variety of topics that pass through the brain and life of an 11 year old that runs the gossip chatter column at school.  Lots of laughs and a lot of fun to read.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

The more Big Nate, the better! Readers will have their fill of Nate’s wisecracks and school day shenanigans in this giant collection of hilarious comic strips.

Big Nate’s Greatest Hits collects three bestselling e-book only collections–Big Nate Makes a Splash, Big Nate Dibs on This Chair, and Big Nate Pray for a Fire Drill–in this supersized paperback edition.

Eleven-year-old Nate Wright is no one-hit wonder. He’s the king of Monopoly, the Michelangelo of P.S. 38, and a Cheez Doodle poet extraordinaire. He’s a sixth-grade superstar—at least, that’s what he tells everyone—and he’s going all the way to Number One. Whether he’s having an imaginary near-death experience, creating another hilarious episode of “Doctor Cesspool,” or meeting the girl of his dreams at summer school, Nate’s always at the top of the charts. The hits just keep on coming in Big Nate’s Greatest Hits!

Book Review: Candy Experiments 2

Katie February 20, 2015 0 Comments

Candy Experiments 2 contains over 50 science experiments related to CANDY!  (And a note to never heat a jawbreaker!)  The book is a lot of fun and shows you how much time it will take for you to do each of the experiments and what skill level is needed.  It also lists what supplies you need, what you need to do to make the experiment work and what is actually happening related to science.  And of course, photos of what happens during the experiments in case you don’t want to try them yourself. (I didn’t try any myself but I totally want to have a Peep sword fight in the microwave next Easter!)  This book is a ton of fun to read and probably even more fun to try out!  I love science and anything that makes science fun is totally awesome in my book 🙂  A great way to get kids interested in Science and a lot of great ideas for potential science fair things!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Seventy new science experiments in Candy Experiments 2 will have kids happily pouring their candy down the drain and learning some basic science along the way. This fun, colorful book presents a brilliant use of Valentine’s, Easter, Halloween, and other holiday candy!

Following the success of the first Candy Experiments, this all-new collection presents more ways to destroy store-bought candy and learn some science in the process. Candy Experiments 2 delivers fun science facts from the perspective of a real mom in the kitchen doing crazy things with brand-name store-bought candy.

Marshmallows, cotton candy, Pixy Stix, Jawbreakers, Pop Rocks, gummi candy, chocolate, and even soda provide good excuses to get destructive in the kitchen. Do Peeps dissolve when you drop them into very hot water? Can you make gummi candy disappear in water? What happens to cotton candy when you dip it in oil?

Candy Experiments 2 is full of new ideas for learning science through candy.  Each experiment includes basic explanations of the relevant science. The book is written for children between the ages of 7 and 10, though older and younger ages will enjoy it as well.