Security by Gina Wohlsdorf

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Safety. Luxury. Manderley.

Manderley Resort is a gleaming, new twenty-story hotel on the California coast.  It's about to open its doors, and the world - at least those with the means to afford it - will be welcomed into a palace of opulence and unparalleled security.  But someone is determined that Manderley will never open.  The staff has no idea that their every move is being watched, and over the next twelve hours they will be killed off, one by one. 

I'm going to try and do this without spoilers, but I'm going to be honest upfront, and admit that I may not be able to do that. The simple truth is that I absolutely loved this book, and while I need to convince you guys to read it, I want to keep some of the book's secrets, secret.  My dilemma is this, in order to really get across why I loved this book so much, I'm going to have to talk about one particular aspect of the book, but if I do it too much, I'm going to be talking out of school, so please forgive me know if I spoil anything for you.  Now that I got that rambling out of the way, I'll continue one with my review, slash love letter to this book.

I'll be the first to admit that this book will not be for everyone.  Some of you will not want to read this, no matter how much I end up gushing about it.  In a nutshell it is a gory, violent slasher movie transferred to the page  The victims die brutal deaths, and there are a lot of bodies by the time the action is wrapped up.  Body parts are hacked off, copious amounts of blood get splashed about, and one poor sap is finished off in a clothes dryer.  The violence is not subtle, nor is the author shy in describing it.

If the violence doesn't work as an automatic turnoff for some of you, I think others may be annoyed by the storytelling technique used to relate the narrative.  Manderley, I will get to the name in a second, is a world class hotel, with world class security.  That security includes security cameras, including audio, both visible and hidden, and there isn't a square foot of the hotel they don't show.  All the action is narrated by someone who has access to those cameras, and at times the page splits into sections, as more than one camera is being spoken of at the same time.  It can be jarring at first, but as long as you pay attention to what's going on, and you notice that each chapter starts with the cameras being viewed, you will quickly catch on.

If you could see the blurb at the top of the cover, you would see that it ends with calling this book a wrenching love story.  The dust jacket calls it a multifaceted love story unlike any other.  I would call it one of the most heart breaking and, at the same time, life affirming love stories I've ever read.  It's in this aspect of the book where the spoilers are going to come into play, so I apologize once again, but I'm not going to be able to help it.  And I'm going to be rather wordy, so proceed with caution.

Part of the reason I wanted to read this book, was the reference made, not only in the title of the book, but on the dust jacket as well, to Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.  I've already mentioned the fact that the book is narrated by someone who has access to the surveillance monitors, and is able to see everything going on in the hotel.  In the beginning, you aren't sure what role he/she actually plays in the mayhem going on.  At first, I thought he/she was in on it, but that is disproved about a third of the way in.  It's in that nameless narration, in the secrets revealed, and in it's heartrending love story that du Maurier's influence is most heavily felt.

Our narrator is in fact the head of security for the hotel, all of  the security detail are ex special forces type individuals.  The security office on the 20th floor was actually the first spot hit by the killers, and they were all wiped out pretty quickly.  One of them escaped the office, only to be gutted like a fish not long after.  The narrator has a rather large knife nested in between two of the vertebrae in the neck, enough to paralyze, but not enough to kill.  It's through those eyes that we see what's going on, and learn about the hotel staff.  It's through those eyes that we get to see what kind of people the victims are, their back stories, their personalities, and their loves.  We get to hear the audio of their conversations, but only after it's filtered through the narrator's brain.  It's through the narrator's eyes that we see them cheat, love, and die.  It's because of the narrator that we feel anything for the victims at all.

The vast majority of the reviews I've seen, ignore the love story aspect of this book, and when they do mention it at all, it's dismissive of the relationship they are talking about.  Two of the people trapped in the hotel survive the night, and they have a long and complicated backstory. It's a story fraught with pain and regret, and when they come face to face with each other, for the first time in years, there is a lot to be worked out between them.  Their story, their love story to be precise, should not be ignored or dismissed as meaningless sex, or pushed aside because of their complicated past.  It's a powerful force for both of them, and it's what helps keep them alive.  For me though, it's not their love that drives the story.  Instead it's the love the narrator feels for one of those characters that is the core of this book, and it's the one aspect of the book I haven't seen any review touch upon.

The narrator, who truly does love the other character, is forced to watch them surrender to the love of someone else.  The narrator is given no choice but to watch them make love to someone else, and to hear their relationship described as merely physical, a way to pass the time, and one that was incapable of moving any further.  The narrator, who was thinking marriage, was confronted with the idea that they were only a placeholder.  By the end of the book, it's obvious that the character, I'm trying so hard to not name, cared for our narrator, but not in the same way.

So put yourself in our narrator's shoes.  You are paralyzed and playing possum, sitting in a room with one of the killers, who is also watching the video cameras, and you are not only watching your love slip through your fingers, but you are forced to watch the person you love, fight to stay alive.  You would rage at the unfairness of it all, you would probably shed a tear or two, and your heart would be breaking into a million pieces.  I think a lot of us would have given up, moved the distance needed to finish the job the killer started, and slip into oblivion.  Instead, our narrator does everything they can to help the other two characters out, not only helping them to survive the night, but to have the love and life together that the narrator once dreamed of.  By the end, the narrator has surrendered the life they once dreamed of, so another can have it.  I would like to think I would have done the same thing, that I wouldn't have given into my pain and rage at my world crumbling down, but I'm not sure I would have the strength of character to do it. The narrator is a true example of what a literary hero is supposed to be, and I'm so glad I met them. By the end of it all I was more than half in love with our nameless narrator.  This is a character that will always stay with me, they are snugly nestled in my heart and mind, and I'm more than okay with that.

The Broken Hours by Jacqueline Baker

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

In the cold spring of 1936, Arthor Crandle, down on his luck and desperate for work, accepts a position in Providence, Rhode Island, as a live-in secretary/assistant for an unnamed shut-it. 

He arrives at the gloomy colonial-style house to discover that his strange employer is an author of disturbing, bizarre fiction.  Health issues have confined him to his bedroom, where he is never to be disturbed.  But the writer, who Crandle knows only as "Ech-Pi," refuses to meet him, communicating only by letters left on a table outside his room.  Soon the home reveals other unnerving peculiarities.  There is an ominous presence Crandle feels on the main stairwell.  Light shines out underneath the door of the writer's room but is invisible from the street.  It becomes increasingly clear there is something not fight about the house or its occupant.

Haunting visions of a young girl in a white nightgown wandering the walled-in garden behind the house motivate Crandle to investigate the circumstance of his employer's dark family history.  Meanwhile the unsettling aura of the house pulls him into a world increasingly cut off from reality, into black depths, where an unspeakable secret lies waiting. 

I haven't read a lot of H.P.  Lovecraft's writing, nor do I really know much about his personal life, so when I stumbled upon this book in the store, and was captivated by the cover, I knew I had to give it a shot.  Once I got it home, it stayed on my bedside table for a few days, but once I picked it up, I was lost in a world of Gothic madness and fear.

If you have seen the movies Thr3e or Dream House, you will quickly catch on to what's going on, and you will definitely get a good understanding for the title of this book.  If you haven't seen those movies, I'm not going to spoil the book, or the movies for that matter, by explaining what they all have in common.  Just know this, even though I was able to figure out the twist of this book about half way through, it didn't take away from my enjoyment of it, nor did it keep me from buying into the story of Arthor Crandle and his employer.  The clues are there for you to pick up on.  As long as you are paying attention to the side characters, and how they interact with Arthor as he encounters them, you won't stray too far into the woods.

This is one of those books where the atmosphere is everything.  This is a book that you feel enveloped in from the moment you first crack it open.  It's heavy and oppressive.  You feel like you are drowning underneath a layer of unease and tension.  From the moment Arthor appears on the page, you know he is not going to have a an easy time of it, and that he is hiding from his life  The tension and unease all stem from him, like a miasmatic fog wafting over a fetid swamp, you know he is the source of it all.

Of course, like any good Gothic story, the house plays a big role in the tone of the book.  It's falling apart, full of memories and ghosts, and presents the perfect backdrop for Arthor and his secrets.  It's a confusing labyrinth of secretes and misdirection, all built around the goal of playing games with Arthor's, and the reader's, mind.  It's hard to put a finger on what's real, and what's not.  But, as long as you follow the trail of bread crumbs the author leaves behind, I'm sure you will be able to figure it out for yourself.  If you can't, I'm sure Arthor will help you feel at home.

Italian Ice by EM Lynley (Password Clue)

Synopsis From Publisher:

Gay romance author Trent Copeland and former FBI agent Reed Acton head to Italy for a Roman holiday.  What should be a relaxing and romantic vacation is interrupted when Reed's not-so-former boss asks for his help with a case.  Trent's shocked to discover in the six months they've been living together in LA, Reed hasn't been completely honest about his "retirement."

Reed heads for Sicily on the trail of a suspect antiquities-smuggling rig and to find Peter Isett - a former FBI partner he also hasn't been completely truthful about.  Stung by Reed's dishonesty, Trent questions what else Reed might be hiding.  But when he overhears something that tells him Reed's life is in danger, Trent follows Reed to a remote chain of ancient volcanic islands of Sicily's northern coast.  Soon Trent is caught up in the smuggler's web, and Reed must decide between his heart and his mission - a decision complicated by his past with Peter.  Reed's position is perilous: unless he can learn to put the past behind him, he risks destroying everything he's built with Trent.

Italian Ice is the second book of a three part series, unless the author writes another one, which I would be all for, and it's just as good as the first.   There is love, hot sex, diamond smuggling, missing FBI agents, murders, femme fatales, kidnappings, and lots of adventure.  It's like watching a really good episode of Scarecrow & Mrs. King, if both leads were hot gay men.  And now that I think about it, they could even keep the young Bruce Boxleitner in it, they would just have to recast Kate Jackson.

Now this being the second book, you know there is bound to be drama between the two main characters, and boy is there ever.  Reed is having to fight with feelings he still has over his previous partner, and those are all tied together with memories of months of torture.  He is still wrestling with his feelings for Trent, who he does love, but isn't sure he should or does all the way.  You know he does, he is just trying to hold onto his lone wolf status, not needing anyone.  Trent on the other hand, is madly in love with Reed, but isn't sure he can fully trust him.  He has his doubts, especially when he finds out how many secrets Reed has been keeping, but like Kate Jackson always did, he quickly forgives and moves on.

I love these two guys together, and they complete each other in many ways.  I'm not sure it's a relationship where the two of them "need' the other in their lives. It's more of a case where the two of them truly want the other one around, and in my opinion, that's so much better.   They have to get through a lot of turmoil and real physical pain before they both really truly understand that, but in the end, they are more solid then ever, and are more than ready to take on drug dealers, diamond smugglers, lovers from the past, or errant agents; as long as they do it together.

Challenges: Password (Italian), Men In Uniform

Rarer Than Rubies by EM Lynley

Synopsis From Publisher:

When Trent Copeland runs into Reed Acton at a Bangkok airport, he thinks the handsome American is too good to be true.  Why would someone like Reed be interested in a quiet, introverted gay-romance writer?  After all, even an obvious tourist like Trent can see there is more to Reed's constant unexplained appearances in his path than meets the eye.

Reed Acton has one mission and one mission only - he need to get the map that was accidentally slipped into Trent's bag and keep the mobsters who want the priceless artifact from taking deadly revenge.  Trent Copeland is a delicious and damned near irresistible diversion, but Reed can't afford distractions right now, especially if he wants to keep Trent safe.

From Bangkok's seediest back alleys to the sacred north, the two men will fight to stay one step ahead of the bad guys and learn that the only treasure worth finding is... each other. 

Trent has been living a pretty dull life over the last two years.  His previous partner, who happened to be addicted to excitement and adrenaline, was killed feeding that addiction.  His death caused Trent to do the exact opposite, retreat in to himself and not allow and sort of excitement or adventure into his life.  When he is forced to take a vacation by some friends, not even being given a choice in the location, Trent is finally taking that first step out of his comfort zone.

Once he is in Bangkok, almost to the minute, his life is thrust into one long adventure, that is so far outside his comfort zone, it might as well have been on another planet.  In what sounds like a crazy plot, right out of a romance novel, he finds himself linked to a mysterious undercover FBI agent, Reed Acton, who just can't seem to stay out of trouble.  There are bus crashes, kidnappings, killings, hotel rescues, and even buried treasure to found.

Through it all, you see Trent become more comfortable with the craziness his life seems to heading in.  He lets himself fall for Reed, even if he's not sure Reed is telling the whole truth, or can be trusted.  For his part, Reed is changing too.  He's never really wanted anyone, or allowed himself to doubt his choices before this.  You know he has a secret past, which will be revealed in the second book, and you know there is deep pain and regret there, and it's that pain that has caused Reed to close himself off so much.  But in true romance book fashion, the two men seem to compliment each other in ways they never though possible.  And both of them find themselves charting new waters, unsure of their footing, but willing to see where the journey will take them.

Challenges: Men In Uniform

77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

The Pendleton stands on the summit of Shadow Hill at the highest point of an old heartland city, a Golden Age palace built in the late 1800s as a tycoon's dream home.  Almost from the beginning, its grandeur has been scarred by episodes of madness, suicide, mass murder, and whispers of things far worse.  But since its rechristening in the 1970s as a luxury apartment building, the Pendleton has been at peace.  For it's fortunate residents - a successful songwriter and her young son, a disgraced ex-senator, a widowed attorney, and a driven money manager among them - the Pendleton's magnificent quarters are a sanctuary, it's dark past all but forgotten.

But now inexplicable shadows caper across walls, security cameras relay impossible images, phantom voices mutter in strange tongues, not-quite-human figures lurk in the basement, elevators plunge into unknown depths.  With each passing hour, a terrifying certainty grows: Whatever drove the Pendleton's past occupants to their unspeakable fates is at work again.  Soon, all those within it's boundaries will be engulfed by a deadly tide from which few have escaped. 

When do you give up on an author you used to love?  When do you finally say, enough is enough, their new stuff sucks, I'll stick to what I already love?  With Stephen King, it took reading Insomnia for me to get to that point.  The damn thing should have been marketed as a cure for the ailment.  I actually stopped reading Dean Koontz years ago.  I don't even remember which book(s) finally turned me off of his new stuff, but for whatever reason, I was never willing to totally give up.  I almost bought 77 Shadow Street when it first came out, but I kept putting it off.  It wasn't until the hardcover was less than $6 at Barnes & Noble, earlier last month, that I finally decided to give it a go.  I kinda want my money back.

I can never stress how much I wanted to love this book.  To start with, I'm a huge haunted house fan.  I want to like any book that can suck me into dark halls and claustrophobic rooms.  I can read The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, Hell House by Richard Matheson, Drawing Blood by Poppy Z. Brite, The Sentinel by Jeffrey Konvitz, Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco, or Bedbugs by Ben H. Winters a bazillion times, and never be bored.  It's the whole reason I watched 666 Park Avenue, it sure wasn't for the acting.  Whether it's a book, movie, TV show, or something else; if it involved a haunted house, I'm there.  Hell, I've even lived in a haunted house, though it wasn't as exciting as the movies make it out to be.

On top of that, I used to love Dean Koontz's books when I was younger.  I still love a few of them; Watchers, Strangers, Phantoms, and Lightning being the ones that come to mind.  So put the two together, and it should have been a slam dunk.  Instead, it was a foul ball that hit the catcher in the face.  It was such an odd mishmash of nanotechnology, time travel, temporal portals, mad scientists, and the meaning of life.  It was disguised to look like a haunted house story, but it wasn't.  The plot was so convoluted, I'm still not sure on some of the things that happened.  Nor do I really think I care.  It felt as if the story was constructed by picking themes and events out of a hat, and stringing them together. The only redeeming quality was some of the characters, but there were so many of them, that the ones I liked weren't on screen long enough. Nor do you really have enough time to spend with them, to truly care about what happens to them.  The hero of the piece, though he may have some of the characteristics of some of his earlier heroes, he's never developed enough, not like what I expect from Koontz.

To answer my own question, I think I'm finally willing to admit defeat.  I will not be picking up any more of his new work.  Instead, if I need a Koontz fix, I'll go back to the books that I know I love.

Lifeboat - 1944

Synopsis From Back Cover:

After their ship is sunk in the Atlantic by Germans, eight people are stranded in a lifeboat.  Their problems are further compounded when they pick up a ninth passenger - the Nazi captain from the U-boat that torpedoed them.

When someone asks me to name my favorite Hitchcock movie, there are a few that will run through my head, but every time I answer the same way, Lifeboat. Directed in 1944, two years after another favorite Suspicion, and one year before another, Spellbound, this is Hitchcock at his tension building best.

Putting these characters into a derelict lifeboat, in the middle of the Atlantic, it could have gone two ways.  The isolation could have been incredibly boring, Castaway anyone.  It could have been a bunch of people, bickering as they are waiting to be rescued.  Or the setting could have created such a closed in, claustrophobic feeling to the whole movie, keeping the tension ratcheted up the entire time.  And that is what Hitchcock managed to do.

There is nothing not perfect about this movie.  I even love Tallulah Bankhead in it, and I'm not normally a huge fan of hers.  She never seemed to take acting seriously, at least not in film.  Her performances always reminded me of someone going through the motions, not really into what they are doing.  It's how I imagine most fast food workers.  They don't like their jobs, maybe even hate them, but they need the money.  Acting seemed like a means to an end for her, not a real passion.  I'm not sure what changed for her in Lifeboat, but she knocks it out of the ballpark.  Her turn as Constance Porter, a rather jaded war correspondent, is her best work.  For the first time I was watching a woman who really enjoyed what she was doing, and she actually made me believe in the character.  It's like watching Madonna in Evita, some roles are made for a certain actress/actor, and Constance Porter was perfect for Tallulah Bankhead.

The real star of the movie, was the atmosphere and tension that Hitchcock built within that confined space.  It's the tension between the characters, the tension between the Allies and Germany, and even the tension among the Allies themselves, all at work, creating a powder keg situation.  The tension never lets up.  It has it's ebbs and flows, it's moments where calm seems to have descended, then Hitchcock ratchets it back up, culminating in a explosive ending.

World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters

Synopsis From Back Cover:

There are just 14 days until a deadly asteroid hits the planet, and America has fallen into chaos.  Citizens have barricaded themselves inside basements, emergency shelters, and big-box retail stores.  Cash is worthless; bottled water is valuable beyond measure.  All over the world, everyone is bracing for the end.

But detective Hank Palace sill has one last case to solve.  His beloved sister Nico was last seen in the company of suspicious radicals, armed with heavy artillery and a plan to save humanity.  Hank's search for Nico takes him from Massachusetts to Ohio, from abandoned zoos and fast food restaurants to a deserted police station where he uncovers evidence of a brutal crime.

I'm not even sure where to start this review, simply because I'm not sure I'm capable of producing a coherent one.  Or at least I'm not sure I'm capable of writing a reasonable, well thought out, unbiased review that will make me sound all smart and scholarly.  Not that I'm saying anyone reads my reviews, and comes away with the idea that I'm some sort of savant book whisperer.  I'm anything but, and trying to write a review for World of Trouble, just emphasizes that point.

Finishing this book, turning that last page, physically hurt.  It caused me to wince a bit, and I had a hard time even being able to put the book away, once I was done with it.  Leaving Hank behind, a character that I have grown to love and admire over three books, was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do when it comes to my reading life.  It ranks up there with the sadness I felt with Vanyel Ashkevron sacrificing himself in Magic's Price by Mercedes Lackey, the last book in the Last Herald Mage trilogy.  It made me feel that same way I did when I put down The Absolutist by John Boyne once I was done with it.  I felt a physical sense of loss, of something missing.  That something that had become a part of me, no longer was.

I don't think I realized how attached I was to Hank Palace until he was no longer around, that I would not be able to find out how his story ends.  And I think that is the crux of my issue.  I think I know what will happen to him, but the idea of me never knowing for sure, of not being with him at the end, it's a loss I wasn't expecting to feel.  I never know when or how a fictional character will become something more to me, not quite real, but no longer someone I don't care about.  It's one of the mysteries of writing, and I'm pretty sure it can never be planned by the author, or even expected by the reader.  It's a connection that happens rarely, but it's one that I think most authors strive for, and most readers hope for every time they pick up a new book.

I think it's time to move on with the book itself, and I think that part of this review will probably make even less sense to you.  I can't really delve into the story or plot itself, because I'm not sure I can really talk about it without giving too much away.  Of the three books, this probably has the feel of a true mystery, despite the world coming to end.  It's has all the tenseness I love in a well written mystery, and it has more than enough urgency given the circumstance Hank finds himself in, and the search he is on.

What is unlike a lot of mysteries though, is the emotion and heartache threading it's way through the entire thing.  There is so much loss, on micro and macro levels.  How does anyone deal with the pain is beyond me.  Even Houdini, Hank's dog, who I love just about as much, is starting to feel it.

And sadly, this is where I need to end this review.  I would love to be able to tell you what happens, how Hank finds Nico, who he meets along the way, the shocking losses that seem to happen at an almost alarming rate for a while, and how the book ends, but I won't.  This is a story you need to read for yourself. Even if you don't get into mysteries or sci fi normally, I would even be willing to beg on hands and knees, if it would convince you to read this trilogy.

Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

Synopsis From Back Cover:

There are just 77 days before a deadly asteroid collides with Earth and Detective Hank Palace is out of a job.  With the Concord police force operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, Hank's days of solving crimes are over... until a woman from his past begs for help finding her missing husband.

Brett Cavatone disappeared without a trace - an easy feat in a world with no phones, no cars, and no way to tell whether someone's gone "bucket list" or just gone.  With society falling to shambles, Hank pieces together what few clues he can, on a search that leads him from a college-campus-turned-anarchist-encampment to a crumbling coastal landscape where anti-immigrant militia fend of "impact zone" refugees.

It's been over two years since I read the first book in this trilogy, The Last Policeman, and I'm really at a loss to explain why it's taken so long to read the second.  I can't even use the excuse that I didn't have the book, I can honestly say I've had this one laying around for far too long.  I'm actually a little embarrassed by it, and feeling just a tad bit of shame.

Obviously I loved The Last Policeman, and I loved Hank Palace.  That love hasn't diminished, it's only grown after reading Countdown City.  Hank Palace is an archetypal character who breaks the mold. He's the hero, but he's still an everyday man, doing the best he can in a world gone to hell.  He is a man of principal and character, and one who does his duty, when most of the world has given up.  He is who I would want to be in that sort of a situation, but I'm almost positive I could not live up to that ideal.  But even more, he's the man I would want at my side, in any capacity, should the world be close to ending.  And yes, he will have his very own FFC post at some point in time.

Even with a stellar character, and a plot that continues to move along at a steady pace, no book it guaranteed to be a winner.  When you factor in the author, Ben H. Winters, you are guaranteed a winner.  I'm in love with the way he writes, and the way he develops his worlds. I fell in love with him when I read Bedbugs for the first time, a book I still view as one of the best horror novels ever written.  In all three books of his that I've read, he has created a fully realized 4-D environment.  He used the simplest details and descriptions to create a truly believable world, given the parameters he is creating it in.  His prose has a lyrical simplicity, that allows the reader to truly get immersed in the writing, and in the world.

With only 77 days until a massive comet slams into the world, producing an event that will cause the extinction of the human race, the tension is ratcheted up from the previous book.  Everyone seems to be more on edge, and humanity is starting to give in to it's basest nature.  It's in that environment that Hank is at work, trying to find the missing husband of a former babysitter, and crush.  He is having to rely on, and work with those he may not have much in common with, or particularly like, but he's given his word, and a man like Hank does not go back on that.

I could ramble on for another twenty paragraphs or so, but I'm not going to subject you to that.  Instead I'll hit a few more points.  Brett is a lot like Hank, despite his running off on his wife.  He is another archetypal hero, and one that I was sorry to see not sticking around.  We get to see Hank with his sister again, probably the most important relationship in his life, and I was glad to see her.  I really want to stress that this isn't your typical mystery novel.  It explores themes that most authors shy away from, let alone genre writers.  This book is about our relationships with each other, and to society in general.  It's also about the strengths, and weaknesses, of the human condition.  It explores who we are in the face of adversity, and almost certain death.  But most of all, it's a book about love and hope in the face of hardship.

You will never hear me not recommend this series, or any book by Ben H. Winters.  So please go out and get The Last Policeman.  Then follow it up with Countdown City and the third book, World of Trouble.  I have a review of that one coming up next week.

The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Princeton.  Good Friday, 1999.  One the eve of graduation, two students are a hairsbreadth from solving the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a Renaissance text that has baffled scholars for centuries.  Famous for its hypnotic power over those who study it, the five-hundred-year-old Hypnerotomachia may finally reveal its secrets - to Tom Sullivan, whose father was obsessed with the book, and Paul Harris, whose futures depends on it.  But as the deadline looms, research has stalled - until an ancient diary surfaces  What Tom and Paul discover inside shocks even them:  proof that the location of a hidden crypt has been ciphered within the pages of the obscure Renaissance text.

Armed with this final clue, the two friends delve into the bizarre world of the Hypnerotomachia - a world of the forgotten erudition, strange sexual appetites, and terrible violence.  But just as they begin to realize the magnitude of their discovery, Princeton's snowy campus is rocked: a longtime student of the book is murdered, shot dead in the hushed halls of the history department. 

So begins a cycle of deaths and revelations that will force Tom and Paul, with their two roommates, into a fiery drama spun from a book whose power and meaning have long been misunderstood.

I first read this book right after it came out, back in 2004.  It was a year after Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, and it was a time in publishing where it seemed as if every other book that came out, was trying to go for the literary/intellectual thriller. I don't think they were possible to get away from that year, if you read books, you probably read at least one of them.  The Rule of Four was one of the few that grabbed my attention when I was pursuing the new release shelf at the library.  I checked it out, and had it read all in the same day.

I'm not going to decry The Da Vinci Code, because of all of Dan Brown's books, that one is my favorite, but lets face it, Dan Brown is great at one thing, writing fluffy, cotton candy books.  There is nothing wrong with that, sometimes you need something that is just pure entertainment, and he is great at it.  What I respect about Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, is that they wrote an entertaining book, but didn't populate it with one dimensional characters who don't evolve and have almost no true relationships with each other.  Their characters are fully functioning, three dimensional constructs, they could be any of us, if we were obsessed with obscure texts and had men being killed around us.

This is a smarter book than anything Dan Brown has written, and it has a lot more personality to it.  Instead of trying to write a clever book, that showed off their research skills, the author's chose to write a book that gave us an interesting mystery, but actually told a story.  The Rule of Four is not just about the search to unearth the truth about the Hypnerotomachia, it's the life story of the men who have devoted their lives to it.  It's the story of how obsession can quickly turn into something so dark and twisted, that it robs men of their sanity, and their lives.  It's the story of the interpersonal relationships and how fragile, or strong, they can be in the face of adversity and love.  At it's core, it's a story of friendship, and the ties that bind us together, even when we may not want to be tied to that person.

A Cold Season by Alison Littlewood

Synopsis From Back Cover:

After the battlefront death of her husband, a soldier, in the sands of the Middle East, a distraught Cass moves to the bucolic, picture-perfect village of Darnshaw with her young son.  Since Cass's website design business can be run from anywhere with an internet connection and Ben could benefit from a change of scenery, a move to the highlands village seems like just the thing.

But the locals aren't as friendly as she had hoped and the internet connection isn't a reliable as her business requires.  And when Ben begins to display a hostility that is completely unlike his usual gentle nature, Cass begins to despair.  Finally, the blizzards thunder through and Darnshaw is marooned in a sea of snow.

When things look their blackest, she finds on sympathetic ear in the person of her son's substitute teacher.  But his attentions can't put to rest her growing anxiety about her son and her business.  And soon, she finds herself pitted against dark forces she can barely comprehend.  The cold season has begun.

So I'm really to the point where I'm getting bummed out from my review books.  I go into every review book with so much hope and and promise, assuming that I'm going to love the book. Then for whatever reason, it just doesn't work for me.  So I guess it's official, I'm in a reading slump.

I will admit that part of it's my fault.  I'm second guessing myself when it comes to review books, which means I'm saying yes to books that I'm just not sure about.  They aren't what I would normally say yes to, but something about it makes me want to say yes, and despite my hesitation, I do.  It could be the setting of the book, the synopsis, or even the cover that makes me want to say yes, despite my misgivings.  If I had a resolution for the rest of the year, it's to go with my initial response, and say no more often than I say yes.

When is comes to A Cold Season, I knew better.  I'm a huge horror fan, but horror novels rarely work for me.  The plots tend to be predictable, the characters one dimensional, and the plot twists cliche.  But since I'm always on the lookout for the few that don't fall into the same old patterns, I'm constantly sticking my neck out when I shouldn't be.

This time around is no different the others.  We have a small, isolated town where the people act oddly, and the atmosphere is just off.  When our main characters move to town, the child starts to act weird, the mother finds solace in a new man, and that man turns out to the be the devil.  I couldn't tell if that is supposed to be with a small d or a big D, but I'm not sure I cared enough to find out.  It's something out of a Lifetime movie of the week, and it's just as silly.

I'm not going to give up on horror novels, because I know someday I will find another book that compares to The Haunting of Hill House, Drawing Blood, The Sentinel, Burnt Offerings, Bedbugs, or even Dead Sea.  I'm just hoping I don't have to go through ten more books as predictable as A Cold Season.

The Butterfly Sister by Amy Gail Hansen

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Twenty-two-year-old Ruby Rousseau is haunted by memories of Tarble, the women's college she fled from ten months earlier, and the painful love affair that pushed her to the brink of tragedy.

When a suitcase belonging to a former classmate named Beth arrives on her doorstep, Ruby is plunged into a dark mystery.  Beth has gone missing, and the suitcase is the only tangible evidence of her whereabouts.

Inside the bag, Ruby discovers a tattered copy of Virginia Woolf's A Room of Ones' Own, the book she believes was a harbinger of her madness.  Is someone trying to send her a message - and what does it mean?

The search for answers leads to Tarble.  As Ruby digs into Beth's past, she has no choice but to confront her own - an odyssey that will force her to reexamine her final days at school, including the married professor who broke her heart and the ghosts of illustrious writers, dead by their own hand, who beckoned her to join their tragic circle.

But will finding the truth finally set Ruby free... or send her over the edge of sanity?

I'm always a little leery of suspense novels that have a theme to them.  Miss Me When I'm Gone by Emily Arsenault used the country music of women who died too young and lived too hard to explore the life of one of it's characters.  With The Butterfly Sister by Amy Gail Hansen, we have a novel that uses the writings and lives of female authors who committed suicide to explore the main character's life.  Miss Me When I'm Gone, despite a promising plot, had issues with trying to weave the plot around the theme.  I'm afraid I had some of the same issues with this one as well.  Trying to tie in the various authors and their works, never felt organic to me.  It was a lot like Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children in that regard.  It was more like the author chose which writers she wanted to use, and tried to tie the story around them and certain works.  I wish she had allowed the the plot and character needs, to dictate the way in which the suicidal authors and their writings appeared in the book.

The story is there, I wanted to like it.  Actually, I wanted to love it.  Instead I'm left feeling a bit let down, because instead of having a young woman deal with the very real issues of suicide, depression, and delusions; we are left with an inconceivable plot device used to explain it all away.  The ending felt like a stab in my heart, and took all enjoyment I had had for Ruby and her struggles, or for the missing Beth and the fear I felt for her, and dashed it upon the rocks.  It turned a side character I really liked into someone I'm just baffled by and wishing it could have been different.  The entire thing left me shaking my head, closing the last page, and promptly forgetting the entire thing.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book.  Please visit the tour page to read other reviews.

Mystery Girl by David Gordon

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

When Sam Kornberg's wife, Lala, walks out on him, he's an unemployed used-book store clerk and failed experimental novelist with a broken heart.  Desperate to win her back, he takes a job as assistant detective to the enigmatic Solar Lonsky, a private eye who might be an eccentric and morbid genius or just morbidly obese madman.  

It's a simple tail job, following a beautiful and mysterious lady around L.A., but Sam soon finds himself helplessly falling for his quarry and hopelessly entangled in a murder case involving satanists, succubi, underground filmmakers, Hollywood bigshots, Mexican shootouts, video-store geekery, and sexy doppelgangers from beyond the grave.  A case that highlights the risk of hardcore reading and mourns the death of the novel - or perhaps just the decline of Western civilization.

I feel like Artax being sucked down in the Swamp of Sadness, unable to escape his fate.  Now forgive my hyperbolic language, but I'm not sure I have any other way to explain myself.  Before anyone gets too upset with me, I'm not comparing the book to the Swamps of Sadness.  Instead, I'm comparing my unwillingness and despair at having to write a review of this book, to being sucked down into the mud, never to raise again.

It's not because I didn't like the book, though I can honestly say it's not my favorite, but it has more to do with the fact that I really don't have anything to say about it.  If I had nothing but negatives to explore, it would be easier for me to sit my butt down and write something up.  Instead, I'm left with feeling rather panicked over the idea of writing this review.

I guess I could say that I enjoyed the characters and found them to be interesting, despite all the craziness going on around them.  There are even a few of that I would like to know personally.  I may even choose to comment on the fact that much like These Things Happen by Richard Kramer, the book felt too forced for me to really enjoy.  Everything, for me at least, read as if the author was trying too hard to be clever.  And that's all I really have to say, I don't even feel like going into a lot of explanation on why I feel this way.  Maybe I should just let the mud of the Swamp of Sadness swallow me up.

I would like to thank Lisa of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read/review this book.  Please visit the tour page to read other reviews, hopefully some that actually had something to say.

The Sleeping Bride by Dorothy Eden

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Aurora, beautiful, glamorous, immensely attractive to men; and her sister Lydia, whose beauty is of a quieter nature.  Although she could have had any man she wanted, Aurora impulsively chose Philip Nash, a young artist she had met only recently.  Then, on the very eve of her wedding, she disappeared without a trace!

In the frantic weeks that followed, Philip and Lydia were together constantly in their search for the missing bride, and it soon became evident to Philip that Aurora's plainer sister was the one he loved.  But could Lydia, aware of her own growing desire for her sister's fiance, dare take what he wanted, as Aurora had always done?  And where was Aurora?  Had she run away voluntarily, or was there something sinister about her life that no one - least of all her sister - had ever guessed.

 I don't know what's happening to me, but I'm rather starting to like my mystery/suspense with a little romance.  I'm not sure how this has happened, but between The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie, various Mary Roberts Rinehart books, and  Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, I'm starting to appreciate the mixture.  That's not counting all the other books I've read lately that seem to be blurring the boundaries between mystery and romance.  I do have a little caveat though, I seem to prefer older books, rather than the romantic suspense stuff that is written today.  I don't know if it's the settings or the writing style, but what annoys the hell out of me in a modern mystery novel, doesn't even phase me in a book written prior to 1960.  I'm sure that some would call this a double standard, and want to question me on it.  They are welcome to question away, because I doubt I have any answers they will like.  I'm not concerned enough over it to sit down and really analyze my feelings on the subject.  I like what I like, I don't what I don't.

The mystery itself was rather tangled, just the way I like them.  Aurora isn't the only one who is missing, it seems she was trying to help an elderly woman who's sister is missing as well.  Did she get too close to the truth, or is her disappearance another matter all together?  What about her boss, who seems to give her expensive presents, but when Lydia meets him, he just doesn't seem to be the type.  Is this who Aurora is supposed to been having an affair with?  And what is being hidden at his country home?  Why are there no servants, except for one man who seems to do it all, and is the bedridden, elderly woman the woman that is missing?  Lydia and Philip put their own lives on the line in order to find out the secrets of that house, and to find Aurora before it's too late.

Challenges:  A-Z, VM (Wicked Women)

The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Even as Dr. Dick Livingstone took Elizabeth in his powerful arms, she felt a shiver of doubt, of dread, run through her young body.

Was the man who pressed her to him the Dick Livingstone whom she thought she knew - kind, gentle, dedicated, loving?

Or was he the man who she had glimpsed when his make had seemed to drop - vicious, ruthless, savage, burdened with guilt, and fearful of discovery?

Elizabeth did not know.  She only knew that now she was in this man's total power - for God-given good or diabolical evil....

My last Mary Roberts Rinehart book of the year, and while it may not be what many would consider a true mystery, I couldn't be happier with ending the year on such a high note.  Much like The Street of Seven Stars, The Breaking Point is more of a Gothic like romance, with a tinge more mystery than would normally be suspected.  Once again, and I should have know better by now, I wasn't expecting the focus to be on the personal relationships so much, but I didn't care.  Mary Roberts Rinehart is so brilliant at creating characters and relationships between them, that I would be willing to read just about anything by her.  At this point in time, if I come across a straight out, full blown romance book that she wrote, I would jump right in, no doubts clouding my mind.

As usual, the synopsis from the back cover is a little misleading, both in tone and in point of view.  Instead of focusing on Elizabeth, the book mainly focuses on Dick, a young reporter trying to garner the truth, and various other characters as they come in and out of the story.  We do hear Elizabeth's voice from time to time, but most of the story is taken over by Dick as he tries to restore his past.  It's a past he doesn't remember, but one he feels he needs to know about in order to move on with his life, a life he wants with Elizabeth.

Now I don't want you to get the impression that there isn't a mystery here, because there is.  Dick Livingstone doesn't remember anything about his past.  Other than for the last ten or so years, in which he went to war, medical school, and now practicing medicine with his uncle and aunt in a small town, he knows nothing about his life.  He's been told a few things by David, the aforementioned uncle, but he doesn't really remember them.  It's that lack of knowledge that keeps him from moving on with his life, especially once he realizes Elizabeth feels the same way about him.

What he doesn't know is that he is about to open up a whole can of worms.  He doesn't know that his past includes a torrid affair with an up and coming actress, a vast inheritance which he drank and partied up, a murder, and a drunken escape into snow covered mountains.  From that moment on, every trace of who Dick Livingstone was before vanished, most thought he was dead.  It's only when he goes back to uncover the truth, that the horror of his past finally catches up with him.

Now it's up to Dick, David, the young reporter, and a few other friends to piece together the truth and finally put the past to rest.  Hopefully it won't be too late for Elizabeth or those left behind.  Of course, since this is a Gothic romance, I'm sure he can figure out what happens in the end.

Challenges:  VM (Cherchez le Homme)

Off the Grid by P.J. Tracy

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

On a sailboat ten miles off the Florida Keys, Grace MacBride, partner in Monkeewrench Software, thwarts an assassination attempt on retired FBI agent John Smith.  A few hours later, in Minneapolis, a fifteen-year-old girl is found in a vacant lot, her throat slashed.  Later that morning, two young men are found in their home a few blocks away, killed execution style.  The next morning, three more men are found savagely murdered in the same neighborhood.

As Minneapolis homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth struggle to link the crime scenes, they discover that there have been similar murders in other cities across the United States.  Piece by piece, evidence accumulates, pointing them to a suspect whose identity shocks them to the core, uncovering a motive that puts the entire Midwest on high alert and Monkeewrench in the direct line of fire.  Before it's all over, Grace and her partners, Annie, Roadrunner, and Harley Davidson, find themselves in the middle of a shocking collision of violence on a remote northern Minnesota Indian reservation, fighting for their lives.

This won't be the first time that I whine I cry about my decision to start a series well after the first book had already seized the imagination of a legion of readers, nor do I think it will be my last.  For the most part, I've been pretty lucky in the fact that no matter where I start a series, I tend to be able to find my bearings pretty quickly.  I don't know if it's because this is book six, if it was the nature of the series, or the simple fact that there is a huge cast of characters to get to know; whatever the reason, I felt a little lost the entire time I was reading this book.

My inability to find my bearings has nothing to do with the storyline itself or the authors' natural ability to create a level of anxiety that ebbs and flows organically.  From the opening scene of a terrified young girl running down a city street, hoping against hope, to reach a safe haven to the violent showdown in a north Minnesota wood, the story built in the only way it could.

Oftentimes, especially while I'm reading a story of suspense, I have a hard time buying into the series of events as they unfold.  Now I can't say that this book doesn't ask for that all important suspension of disbelief, but it does it in a why that doesn't make a reader flinch away from the idea.  While the exact nature of the plot is a bit far fetched, the authors are able to meld a patchwork of over the top action, extreme violence, and desperate characters into a cohesive story that not only held my interest, but kept me in enraptured the entire time.  No small feat since I still couldn't tell you all the chracters' names or how they are all related to each other.

I haven't decided if I'm going to go back and read the series from the beginning, but even if I don't, I'm glad I was given the opportunity to read and discover this series for myself.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Cornelia Van Gorder

I'm still having a huge issue with coming up with a continuous theme for the month of September.  After doing Bumblelion last week, I though I may stick with cartoon characters.  Then I remembered I have already done that this year, plus I'm thinking of doing a Saturday Morning Cartoon post every Saturday, though I'm not sure when I would start doing it.  So for this week, I'm going with someone completely different.  Because the weather has finally cooled off a bit, we actually had a few days that were just high of chilly, my mind has already started heading in a Halloween frame of mind.  I've already pulled out a few of my favorite movies, one of which is The Bat starring Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead.  The movie is based off the book, The Bat, by Mary Roberts Rinehart.  A movie I discovered years before I did the books.  I adore Agnes Moorehead, despite her politics, and she is never more regal than she is here.  So with no further ado, I present to you, Cornelia Van Gorder.

Wishing to escape a summer spent in the city, famed mystery writer, Cornelia Van Gorder, decides to rent a house in the country.  She moves into The Oaks with her maid, Lizzie Allen, and quickly discovers that something just isn't right with the house or the town.  It seems that the notorious burglar, occasional killer, knows as The Bat has resurfaced after a year off.  And for some strange reason, all his attention seems to be focused on The Oaks.  The servants are reporting strange sightings on the back staircases and ominous shadows appear in the darkened halls.

At first, our plucky heroine, doesn't put much stock into the worries of her servants.  If they want to leave, they can leave, she has better things to do with her time.  It's only after a clawed hand reaches through a broken window that Miss Cornelia begins to think something may be horribly wrong.  Are the rumors behind the death of the former bank president, who happens to own The Oaks, behind the strange happenings?  Is the fact that the bank is missing thousands of dollars in bonds, causing The Bat to look into The Oaks?  It doesn't take long for Miss Cornelia to put her sleuthing skills to task and get to the bottom of it all.

Through sheer will, courage, and a bit of luck, Miss Cornelia starts to piece together the truth of The Bat and that missing money.  As she delves into the mystery a bit more, the bodies start to pile up, and Miss Cornelia escapes a few close calls of her own.  She never backs down, though I think most of that is stubbornness and curiosity more than any sense of justice.  She puts herself at risk in order to find out the truth and unmask The Bat for all to know.  Of course the idea of writing her newest book based off the happenings never crossed her mind at all.

I believe this is the full movie, so for anyone who hasn't seen it, stick around and find out for yourself what a wonderful character Cornelia Van Gorder is.

The People From the Sea by Velda Johnston

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Diana Garson had liked the shabby old farmhouse from the moment she crossed its threshold.  The atmosphere seemed friendly and homelike, almost as if it were welcoming her.  David Conway, her friend and neighbor in Manhattan, had heard about the house and persuaded her to rent it for the summer.  Here, in this quiet place on the Long Island shore, she hoped to recover from the emotional blows that had brought her to the brink of a breakdown.   And for a while she did find a soothing peace.  But she also encountered the people from the sea.

Whether they were real in any sense of "real," Diana did not know.  Only one thing we certain:  the evil in which she became enmeshed because of them was very real, as real as the hands that wrapped themselves around her throat one fog-shrouded afternoon on the beach.

There are the moments when you need a certain type of book to get you out of a mood or reading pattern that developed without you knowing it.  Somehow, and I don't really mind it, I've found myself reading a lot of nonfiction lately.  After about the 4th one in a row, I needed something to refresh my palate.  Like most of you, I have hugs stacks of unread books just sitting around waiting for me to pick one of them up.  On a whim, I picked up The People Form the Sea, and a little over 4 hours later, I was turning the last page.

When Diana is talked into renting the seaside cottage, she thinks she's finally in a space she can heal in.  Newly divorced, Diana has been floundering a bit, not sure of what she wanted or where she was heading.  She thinks she is starting to fall for David, but is a little unsure of his intentions.  She is at a turning point in her life, she just has no clue which road to take.

From the moment she is left alone in the cottage, she feels at home and safe, a feeling she hasn't had in a long time.  As she settles in, she finds an old photo album, and quickly gets enmeshed in the lives of the family that used to own the cottage.  A mother and her two grown children, were brutally murdered on board their yacht.  The scars of that tragedy lay deep on the small coastal town, scars that Diana feels she needs to start poling at.

She has seen all three of them in the cottage.  She has danced with the son, and listened as the daughter played the piano late into the night.  She isn't sure if what she is seeing is real, but it's changing her, and not always for the better.  What starts off as a question here and there around town, quickly turns into a full blown investigation into what happened on the boat.  It's a search that will threaten Diana's life, her future with David, and the tranquility of a town she has grown to love.

Miss Me When I'm Gone by Emily Arsenault (Giveaway Included)

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Gretchen Waters is most famous for her book Tammyland - a "honky-tonk Eat, Pray, Love," a memoir about her divorce and her admiration for Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton.  When Gretchen dies falling on a set of stone steps outside of a library, everyone thinks it was an accident or a botched mugging.  Jamie, Gretchen's best friend from college, certainly has no reason to suspect foul play.  That is, until she becomes Gretchen's literary executor.  Gretchen's latest manuscript is much darker than Tammyland - ostensibly about her favorite classic male country singers, it's really about a murder in her family that haunted her childhood.  From beyond the grave, Gretchen opens up a sinister new world through her writing, and suddenly, her death seems suspicious.  And then Jamie finds herself in danger as well...

When I'm at a loss to how to start a review, I find it's easier if I just admit it up front.  The few times I try and get around that fact, the review just doesn't seem to come out well, and I end up redoing it anyway.  So let me start by saying I'm so stuck on this one that I feel as if my fingers are encased in molasses.  I have no idea  what I want to say, because I have no idea on what I feel towards this book.  I don't want anyone to think that ambivalence means I didn't like it, because if you have read this blog for any length of time, you know I'm not shy about telling you that I didn't like something.  I think I just had no reaction to it.

I really did want to like this book.  As most of you know, I'm a huge mystery fan, which should mean that I end up liking books that fall into the "suspense" category as well.  For the most part, that's proved true, but too often I end up not enjoying the book as much as I wanted.  If that was my only interest in reading this one, I would just chalk it up to trying something knew that didn't work out.  I would move on and let it go at that.  But the other factor that hooked me on giving this one a go, was the country music angle.  I adore classic country stars like Dolly Parton so I said yes before I really thought about it.

I'm afraid that it's the country sections of the book that almost killed this one for me.  The story is told in the first person by Jamie as she reacts to her friends death and tries to fulfill the obligations she feels toward Gretchen.  Over time I got to like Jamie and enjoyed the time I spent in her company.  What threw me off was the way the author chose to insert Gretchen's voice into the narrative.  From the beginning, we get glimpses of Gretchen through excerpts of Tammyland and from her new manuscript.  I almost closed the book for good after the first two chapters because of it.  I'm not normally patient with books that use journal entries, newspaper clippings, book pages, or letters to tell the story.  I think Dracula is about the only book that I ever liked that uses that storytelling device.  So when it's mixed in with first person narrative, it tends to really get on my nerves.  It's hard to concentrate on the story when it's being told in such a jumpy manner.  Dolly, Tammy, and Loretta where the only thing that saved those sections for me.

Where the book worked for me was in the present, and Jamie's attempt to finish Gretchen's book.  What starts off as an attempt to fulfill an obligations she feels toward Gretchen, quickly turns into something more.  By reading the manuscript and notes, listening to interview tapes, and talking to the interviewees themselves, Jamie begins to piece something together.  Gretchen stumbled upon something she wasn't looking for, at least not right away.  Jamie becomes immersed in Gretchen's search for her biological father and what happened to her mother all those years before.  It's a journey that may have ended Gretchen's life and could possibly end Jamie's.

So while I may have liked the underlying story, I'm not a huge fan of the way it was told.  I know I'll be in the minority on that one, and I'm okay with it.  There are plenty of books out there that I love, but other's just don't connect with for one reason or another.  After typing away for a good while, I wish I could tell you what I couldn't say in the first paragraph.  I'm still not sure what I think of this book, I didn't like it, but I didn't dislike it either.  I think it's a wash for me, and I'm okay with that too.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book.  Please visit the tour page to read other reviews.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment with an email address so I can contact you if you are the winner.  The giveaway is open to US/Canada residents only and will run until 11:59 pm on August 23rd, 2012.  I will use random.org to pick the winner.

Challenges: A-Z

Rhonda's Favorite Fictional Character --- Spencer Reid

Have I ever told you guys how much I adore Oregon and just about anything that comes from there, especially filberts.  I used to live in that wonderful state as a kid, though only for a few short years, but it reminded me so much of where I'm from in Minnesota, that I felt as if I was home still.  I think that's part of the reason why I like Rhonda from My Life In Not So Many Words... so much.  For those of you who don't know her, Rhonda is a fabulous book blogger from the Pacific Northwest.  I don't remember who found who first, but I do know that I love talking with her on twitter or visiting her blog to find out what she's been reading.  I even love hearing her camping stories and seeing the pictures, though I do get just a bit jealous of all the fun.  So please go by her blog and say hello.  I know that if you do, you will find a new blogging friend to hang out with.

When Ryan asked me to do a guest Favorite Fictional Character post, I jumped at the chance and I knew right away who I wanted to do one on.  It’s on a character from one of my favorite TV shows, Criminal Minds.

The actor is Matthew Gray Gubler and he plays Dr. Spencer Reid.

He’s is a FBI behavioral analyst that is so smart that you want to throttle him at times but can’t because he’s right and too dang adorable to throttle. He literally knows everything and has no problem telling you as much. It’s amazing the brain they gave this character.  I got to say, Matthew is genius in the way he pulls the character off.  He plays the character so well in fact, that I sometimes wonder if the actor and character personalities are similar in nature.


I think the most favorite aspect of this character is how the group will be talking about one thing or another and he’ll just pipe up with some off the wall random fact regarding whatever subject they’re currently discussing. You’re never quite sure what you’ll hear when he starts to talk but you can be sure you won’t understand half of it, heh. I’ll post a couple of examples of his quips.


Here’s a quote from one of the shows that us bookies will know from Season 5 Episode 7:

JENNIFER "JJ" JAREAU

What was the password?

GARCIA

Cullen.

JENNIFER "JJ" JAREAU

Ah, of course. Thanks Garcia.

DR. SPENCER REID

Who's Cullen?

JENNIFER "JJ" JAREAU

The family from the Twilight books.

DR. SPENCER REID

What's Twilight?

Another example from Season 1 Episode 10:

DR. SPENCER REID

Melted wax?

JENNIFER "JJ" JAREAU

Candle wax?

DR. SPENCER REID

Candles are used in rituals.

JASON GIDEON

They're also used on birthday cakes.

DR. SPENCER REID

Actually, they were originally used to protect the birthday celebrant

from demons for the coming year. As a matter of fact, down to the

fourth century, Christianity rejected the birthday celebration as a

Pagan ritual.

SHERIFF BRIDGES

What kind of a doctor are you?

It’s the quirky little quips like the ones in the quotes I posted that he does and the ways he portrays them that having me adoring this character. He’s that geeky, dorky guy you just can’t help but love and secretly wish you knew even a fraction of what he does and at the same
time thank God you don’t, heh.


I leave you with a YouTube video of funny moments: