The Borgia Betrayal by Sara Poole

From the book cover:

Before the Tudors, there were the Borgias. More passionate. More dangerous. More deadly.

From the author of Poison, called “stunning”* and “a fascinating page-turner,” comes a new historical thriller, featuring the same intriguing and beautiful heroine: Borgia court poisoner, Francesca Giordano.

      In the summer of 1493, Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander VI, has been pope for almost a year. Having played a crucial role in helping him ascend the chair of Saint Peter, Francesca, haunted by the shadows of her own past, is now charged with keeping him there. As court poisoner to the most notorious and dangerous family in Italy, this mistress of death faces a web of peril, intrigue, and deceit that threatens to extinguish the light of the Renaissance.

      As dangers close in from every direction, Francesca conceives a desperate plan that puts her own life at risk and hurls her into a nightmare confrontation with a madman intent on destroying all she is pledged to protect. From the hidden crypts of fifteenth-century Rome to its teeming streets alive with sensuality, obsession, and treachery, Francesca must battle the demons of her own dark nature to unravel a plot to destroy the Borgias, seize control of Christendom, and plunge the world into eternal darkness.

A sequel to the novel, Poison

I normally do not like to read books that are a series out of order. I have not read the previous book , poison, but decided to ahead and read it. I am really glad that I gave this book a chance! The concept of the main character being a the “court poisoner” to the pope caught my attention. I love this unusual setting and character. All of the new books seem to feature vampires and zombies, this was a refreshing change of pace. No one single vampire in the entire novel!

This novel does stand alone , but I wonder how much more I might have gained, had I read the first book. The book, Poison. It is definitely on my “to read list”.

Now onto one of my pet peeves related to novels set in a specific time period... This novel is set in the year 1493. As I read several phrases and words struck me as inappropriate to the time period. Here's and example; at one point a reference is made to having your cake and eating it ,too. A phrase that is attributed to Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution. Another was the use of the word “drone”.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and  I plan to read "Poison" soon!

Sanctus by Simon Toyne

From GoodReads:  Toyne’s Sanctus is, quite simply, one of the most extraordinary conspiracy thriller debuts in many years. In this electrifying, nonstop adventure, a young newspaper reporter, driven by the memory of her lost brother, uncovers a dark secret nurtured for 3,000 years by blood and lies by adherents of an ancient, unknown religion in a Vatican-like citadel hidden away for millennia from unwelcomed prying eyes.

Simon Toyne has crafted a conspiracy tale of so real that I had to keep reminding myself that it was fiction! It has all the necessary elements of a great series: Secret religions (including scary fanatical monks), a Vatican like fortress and mysterious “Sacrament”. Of course, the identity of the Sacrament is not reveled until the final pages!

This is one of those books that I mourned at the ending. While I wanted to know the secret of the Sacrament, I was sad that this captivating tale was coming to an end. Again, I found myself wishing that this was a true story and was sad to realize that it was not. However, I will note that the author left room for a sequel with several threads of the story unresolved. Yeah!

I loved the main characters. Liv is a normal American girl tossed into the heart the conspiracy. She is immediately a heroine that I could identify with. In walks Gabriel, tall, dark and dangerous...Is he a good guy or a bad guy? Either way he's got my attention! My only complaint is that I needed to know more about them. I wanted more background information. Maybe in the sequel?

I loved the cover art. I would have gravitated toward this book based on the cover, if it had not appeared in my mailbox!

Thanks to William Morrow an imprint of HarperColins Publishers for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

Heat Wave by Nancy Thayer

Quoted from GoodReads;
"Unerringly perceptive, superbly written, every page packed with the warmth and compassionate wisdom that have become Nancy Thayer’s trademark, Heat Wave tells the moving story of a woman who, after her seemingly perfect life unravels, must find the strength to live and love again.

Making the startling discovery that her family finances are in dire straits is only the latest shock endured by Carley Winsted after her husband’s sudden death from a heart attack. Resisting her in-laws’ well-meaning overtures to take in Carley and her two daughters, the young widow instead devises a plan to keep her family in their beloved home, a grand historic house on the island of Nantucket.

The solution is right at Carley’s front door: transforming her expensive, expansive house into a bed-and-breakfast. Not everyone, however, thinks this plan prudent or quite respectable—especially not Carley’s mother-in-law. Further complicating a myriad of challenges, a friend forces Carley to keep a secret that, if revealed, will undo families and friendships.

When her late husband’s former law partner keeps showing up at the most unexpected times, Carley must cope with an array of mixed feelings. And then, during a late-summer heat wave, the lives of Carley and her friends and family will be forever changed in entirely unexpected ways.

Lyrical, emotional, dramatic, and ultimately wonderfully uplifting, Nancy Thayer’s latest novel is compelling from its first page to its last.

This novel started out with an interesting  story about a woman who loses her husband and then has to pick up the pieces of her life and go on.  I liked the basic idea of the novel and I even enjoyed the first third of this book.  It was a nice change from the crime novels I had been reading recently.  

The last two thirds of the book were less enjoyable.  The plot seemed to drag and sometimes the motivation of the characters was not clear.    Carley, the main character did not appear to go through the grief process after her husbands' death.  She moved from one situation into the next without a lot of reflection and it made her character appear flat.  As a reader, I just didn't care about her as much as I might have if her personality was more developed. 

The last part of the book was the hardest for me to believe.  I was really disappointed by the plot.  I did finish reading it, but found myself distracted by my own disbelief as the plot became   more and more "soap opera-ish".   

I finished this book feeling a little  sad that it didn't live up to my initial expectations.  I also felt a little insulted by the predictability of the plot.  I expect much more  from a novel.  I want to feel something as I read.  I want to care about the characters.  I want to be challenged by the plot, either emotionally or mentally.  I want to be sad that the story is coming to end end.  In this case, I felt sad, but only because  the story did not live up to my expectations.  Heatwave should have been a bittersweet tale about life and love and families.  Instead, it just left me with the bitter.


Thanks to GoodReads for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Iron House by John Hart

From Goodreads: "An old man is dying.

When the old man is dead they will come for him.

And they will come for her, to make him hurt.

John Hart has written three New York Times bestsellers and won an unprecedented two back-to-back Edgar Awards. His books have been called “masterful” (Jeffery Deaver) and “gripping” (People) with “Grisham-style intrigue and Turow-style brooding” (The New York Times). Now he delivers his fourth novel—a gut-wrenching, heart-stopping thriller no reader will soon forget.

HE WOULD GO TO HELL

At the Iron Mountain Home for Boys, there was nothing but time. Time to burn and time to kill, time for two young orphans to learn that life isn’t won without a fight. Julian survives only because his older brother, Michael, is fearless and fiercely protective. When tensions boil over and a boy is brutally killed, there is only one sacrifice left for Michael to make: He flees the orphanage and takes the blame with him.

TO KEEP HER SAFE

For two decades, Michael has been an enforcer in New York’s world of organized crime, a prince of the streets so widely feared he rarely has to kill anymore. But the life he’s fought to build unravels when he meets Elena, a beautiful innocent who teaches him the meaning and power of love. He wants a fresh start with her, the chance to start a family like the one he and Julian never had. But someone else is holding the strings. And escape is not that easy. . . .

GO TO HELL, AND COME BACK BURNING

The mob boss who gave Michael his blessing to begin anew is dying, and his son is intent on making Michael pay for his betrayal. Determined to protect the ones he loves, Michael spirits Elena—who knows nothing of his past crimes, or the peril he’s laid at her door— back to North Carolina, to the place he was born and the brother he lost so long ago. There, he will encounter a whole new level of danger, a thicket of deceit and violence that leads inexorably to the one place he’s been running from his whole life: Iron House."

This is one of the best books I have read this summer!  It has a little something for every reader....  Romance, politics, mystery, an unpredictable plot line , suspense and lots of murder (warning: some scenes are very graphic)!  It has well written, interesting characters and did I mention an unpredictable plot?

Just when I was sure I had it all figured out, John Hart would throw me a curve ball and I would have to start all over.  I love to try to second guess the author and while I like the fact that I can figure out the whole plot before  the ending of the book, I REALLY enjoy being stumped! 

I addition to the exciting plot, this is a story about the importance of family, the scars that remain from an unstable childhood and the struggle to overcome the past.

It takes extraordinary skill to write a likable hero that is a professional killer who doesn't have remorse for the murders he has committed.  Hart managed this and more!  Michael is the James Bond of mafia hit men. You will fall for this bad boy with the tortured past.

Hart also captivates his audience with the character of Julian, Michael's mentally ill younger brother.  My only critisim is that Julian's illness  is described as schizophrenia, when in fact it is more likely another diagnosis.  I won't go into detail here because it is an essential part of the plot line.  I would have omitted any attempt to actually label Julian's illness, I found the error to be a distraction.


Overall, Iron House is a refreshing change of pace with an exciting original story.  It is so well written that reading it was effortless!  This book is on the top of my  "Must read list for 2011"!

Losing Addison by Marty Beaudet

From the book cover
Les McCubbin is an ordinary guy, but he doesn’t think much of himself. “I’m dull, mercurial, and often morose. Always Les,” he tells us. But he is passionate about his fraternal twin brother Addison who, he says, “is everything I’m not: tall, blond, athletic, outgoing.”

Despite the psychic bond the brothers share with one another, Addison comes and goes as he pleases, in and out of Les’s life, often leaving a trail of trouble for his brother to clean up. His final act upon the stage, however, leaves both lives changed forever


 I owe Marty Beaudet an apology! This slim little book got lost in the "to read pile" and I came across it as I was trying to organize. I have had this book for some time. Sorry for the delay in the review, Marty! 

Losing Addison is a wonderful novella. It is well written and a fast read. I finished it in a few hours, which was good. Had it been any longer, I would not have done anything else until I finished it!

This is a psychological thriller. It has some surprises along the way. Some that you might see coming and others that are more unexpected. It was totally different than I was expecting, which is in my opinion part of what makes a good thriller!

I would love to read some more by Marty Beaudet!
Thank You to Marty and GoodReads for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Wraith

by Goodloe Byron

"Itching for freedom, Linus leaves home and moves into a trailer park with some of his friends. There they are free to live as carefree wastrels. But it is not what Linus expects. His best friend Rex abruptly vanishes, his roommate John begins to surround himself with criminals and his job at the local gas station becomes increasingly unstable. At the same time Linus is haunted by his neighbor Clyde, an elderly security guard who seems to appear at any place and anytime, often spending all evening at the window watching them and peering into their lives."

This book was not what I expected.  Unfortunately, that was a bad thing in this case.    The title suggested a paranormal tale.  Dictionary.com defines the word, "wraith" as " an apparition of a living person supposed to portend his death" or "a visible spirit".  I love the title and the cover art.  It was just a bit old fashioned and gave it a spooky feel right from the start.

I really wanted to like this book.  I put it on the top of my "to read" pile because it was mailed to me directly by the author.  Normally, books are mailed out by the publisher.  I really respect the efforts that authors make over and above what the publisher is doing to promote their book.  After writing my review and reading the reviews from others, it appears you either love this book or you don't.  I didn't.

The first two thirds of the book involve a detailed description of the life and times of Linus.  He spends most of his time drunk, stoned or both.  The rest of the time he is planning to get drunk or stoned.  A lot of time is given to sarcastic, immature conversations with his friends.  The 'wraith", Clyde, makes an occasional appearance in this part of the book, but he appears to be a lonely little man who entertains himself by spying on Linus and his friends as they proceed to get stoned. 

In the  last third of the book Clyde pops up in various locations during Linus's daily routine.  Clyde does nothing overtly scary or otherworldly.  This set Linus off on a paranoid, sleep deprived mission to follow Clyde.  He does this for days.   Again, this journey is described in minute detail.   The book ends suddenly with many issues left unresolved.  It appears as if the author got bored with his own story and decided to end it.  There just isn't much of a story here.

I think, with some work,  that this could be an interesting story.  The writing is good.  It is easy to read and very descriptive.   It has a nice flow to it.  It needs a lot of cutting and a better ending.  Tie up those loose ends! Such as what happened to Rex, who has the money and why did Linus move from the trailer into a basement apartment?  What is the purpose of the job at the shoe store?  Make this more clear to your reader, instead of appearing as random, unnecessary details.  Give the characters some more dimension, instead of just appearing to be stoned teenagers looking for the next party.

I'd skip this book for now, but I would definitely read a second effort by this author.  With a pen name like Goodloe Byron, how could you not give him a second chance?

Thanks to Goodloe and GoodReads  for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory

In 1968, after the first zombie outbreak, Wanda Mayhall and her three young daughters discover the body of a teenage mother during a snowstorm. Wrapped in the woman’s arms is a baby, stone-cold, not breathing, and without a pulse. But then his eyes open and look up at Wanda—and he begins to move.

The family hides the child—whom they name Stony—rather than turn him over to authorities that would destroy him. Against all scientific reason, the undead boy begins to grow. For years his adoptive mother and sisters manage to keep his existence a secret—until one terrifying night when Stony is forced to run and he learns that he is not the only living dead boy left in the world.

I had no idea that this book was about zombies when I started to read it.  If I had, I might not have read it.   I am really tired of the vampire, werewolf, zombie books that have been published since the Twilight series .  I avoid these kinds of books without hesitation.  None of them seem to have an original plot idea and feature the same type of characters.  Boring!

I am happy to report that this book has something new to offer!  

The character of Stony is well written with a unique quirkiness that endears him and his family to the reader.  The story follows Stony through a childhood and adolescence in seclusion with only a few close friends aware of his existence.  As he reaches adulthood, the plot gets a little weird, but I found that I was able to accept the strange twists in the plot because the character of Stony was so believable.

This book also includes some interesting social commentary and really made me think about some issues that I have not encounter in other books of this genre.

Stony is a character that stays with you long after you finish his story.

I would recommend this book for young adults as well as adult audiences.

The Beginners by Rebecca Wolff

The chilling, hypnotically beautiful story of a girl whose coming of age is darkened by the secret history of her small New England town. 


Theo and Raquel Motherwell are the only newcomers to the sleepy town of Wick in fifteen-year-old Ginger Pritt's memory. Hampered by a lingering innocence while her best friend, Cherry, grows more and more embroiled with boys, Ginger is instantly attracted to the worldliness and sophistication of this dashing couple.

But the Motherwells may be more than they seem. As Ginger's keen imagination takes up the seductive mystery of their past, she also draws closer to her town's darker history-back to the days of the Salem witch trials-and every new bit of information she thinks she understands leads only to more questions. Who-or what-exactly, are the Motherwells? And what is it they want with her?

Both a lyrical coming-of-age story and a spine-tingling tale of ghostly menace, The Beginners introduces Rebecca Wolff as an exciting new talent in fiction.

Initially I gave this book to my 15 year old daughter to read.   She returned it. Am I glad she did. She said she just didn't get it and I agree with her. 

This book is portrayed as a YA book that combines coming of age with the Salem witch trial/paranormal. Sounds like a great combination! It just never went anywhere. I kept reading, waiting for more information, more plot, more anything... It never materialized.

The 15 year old main character did not come across as a 15 year old, even a gifted one. Her thought were more adult than many adults I know. The Motherwell's, the new couple in town spoke as it they were paranormal philosophy majors. They weren't really all that paranormal. I'm not sure what they were meant to be, other than pedophiles.

Which brings me to the sex scenes. I am not opposed to graphic descriptions of sex in a novel if the sex enhances the plot, character motivation or in some way fits into the context of the story. The sex scenes in this book were none of the above. It includes descriptions of anal and oral sex that seem to be random and unrelated to the plot.

I am still disappointed in this novel. I really wanted to like it. I hate to write negative reviews. One positive: The cover art is beautiful. This is definitely not a YA book and I doubt that most adults would care for it. 
Thanks to LibraryThing for the opportunity to read and review this book

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives: A Novel by Lola Shoneyin

Meet Baba Segi . . .

A plump, vain, and prosperous middle-aged man of robust appetites, Baba Segi is the patriarch of a large household that includes a quartet of wives and seven children. But his desire to possess more just might be his undoing.

And his wives . . .

Iya Segi—the bride of Baba Segi's youth, a powerful, vindictive woman who will stop at nothing to protect her favored position as ruler of her husband's home.

Iya Tope—Baba Segi's second wife, a shy, timid woman whose decency and lust for life are overshadowed by fear.

Iya Femi—the third wife, a scheming woman with crimson lips and expensive tastes who is determined to attain all that she desires, no matter what the cost.

Bolanle—Babi Segi's fourth and youngest wife, an educated woman wise to life's misfortunes who inspires jealousy in her fellow wives . . . and who harbors a secret that will expose shocking truths about them all.

This book has been in my" to read" pile for sometime.    I am not sure what  made me less than excited to read it.  Possibly the cover art and title implied that it would be a tedious folk story.  I did pull it out of the pile because it was smaller than the rest and would fit in my luggage as I packed for an out of town job.  I am glad I packed it!

This book is not a folk story.  


 If you can read this book without judging the polygamist life style and making any assumptions you will find it to be a very enlightening, brutally truthful  story.  


This is a  story of life in Nigeria.  A place most Americans know little about.  It is the story of four Nigerian wives and their polygamous  husband.  It brings some a very different view points to light. 


The characters are will written and three dimensional.  The writing style retains some of the African flavor  of the Nigerian language with many proverbs and colorful sayings throughout the book.  

Each chapter of the book is told by a different character.  At times, it was a bit confusing, because the character that was speaking was not immediately  identified.  As you read it became apparent who the chapter was about.  It kept me from becoming a lazy reader.
If you are looking for a change of pace, put this one on the top of your "to read" pile!

Thank you to William Morrow Paperbacks for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Before I go to sleep by SJ watson

Before I Go to Sleep

by S.J. Watson 

'As I sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this morning. Thinking I'm still a child. Thinking I have a whole lifetime of choice ahead of me ...' Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love - all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story. Welcome to Christine's life.

Published June 14th 2011 by Harper

ISBN

0062060554 (ISBN13: 9780062060556)

I really didn't have any idea what to expect form this novel. I was very pleasantly surprised. The comparison between this story and the movie," 50 First dates” is inevitable. There is really no comparison, other than both main characters have amnesia and forget everything when they sleep. They awake each day with no memory. The similarities end there. This novel has believable characters and an interesting plot. The plot has some surprising twists that I did not anticipate. The confusion that is created in the main character related to her amnesia was very effective and totally believable. This book is set in the UK and many times I feel like the blond at the party when reading British novels, I just don't get it. I did not experience that “blond” feeling at all while reading this novel. This is easily one of the better books I have read recently. I highly recommend it!
Many thanks to GoodReads  and Harper Collins for the opportunity to read and review this book.