Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Title: Catching fire

Author: Suzanne Collins

Publisher:  Scholastic Press

Version:  Kindle

Size:  479KB

ASIN:  B003086FMW

Source:  Borrowed from amazon Prime

This book was every bit as good as the first one. Like the first one, you will not be able to put it down until you are finished. I read this one in a day too, just like the first one! And, thank goodness, there is one more book after this one. If you read the first one, The Hunger Games, then you absolutley have to read this one too! It takes you even deeper into this world of turmoil, survival, and love. This book is just as spellbinding as the first! And, If they do a movie of this book as well, I think Adele's song, "Set Fire to the Rain" should be used in the sound track!

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The Hunger Games by Syzanne Collins

Title:  The Hunger Games

Author:  Suzanne Collins

Publisher:  Scholastic Paperback

Publication date:  9-1-2009

Version: Kindle

Size:  482kb

ASIN: B002M9YFW

Source:  Purchased from Amazon

Well with 469,300 ratings, I doubt there is anything new that I can say about this wonderful book.  I will say that it was absolutely awesome!  This book has action on every single page, and it took me only one day to finish it, because every page leads into the next action packed page, and I just could not stop until it was finished.  Then, of course I immediately started on the next one.  I am looking forward to the movie on March 23 because from the trailors that I have seen, it is going to be a huge hit!  It is so well written that it takes you off the page and into this post apocalyptic world, where you feel that you are part of the story!  Read it, you won't be sorry!  In fact, if you don't read it, you will wish you had!

 **Amazon Prime has all thre of the HungerGames books for borrowing for 0.00 right now!

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Until Next Time by Kevin fox

Title:  Until Next Time

Author:  Kevin Fox

Publisher:  Alonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Publication Date:  2012

Pages:  388

ISBN:  9781565129931

Source:  book Browse

This is a story about an Irish family that seems to be living in a cycle similar to celtic knot.  The story is written as journal entries by Sean Michael corigan and Michael sean Corigan. One is living in 1972 and the other is living in 1996.  even though the story constantly flipsbetween the two time lines and sometimes can be a little confusing, overall the story is a good one.  It is full of suspense and drama and little romance that keepsyou glued to the pages.  It takes you from New York to Ireland and into two different, but at the same timei similar worlds.

"Even as I dreamed it, I knew I was dreaming, I even turned back to the schoolhouse and it wasn't there.  This dream came before the schoolhouse.  I wasn't scared anymore, even though I was sweating with fear and my heart was beating wildly.  I'd had this dream before, it seemed, because I knew how it ended, I knew what happened next."  Page 161-Sean 1996

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Dangerous Lies by Lisa April Smith

Title:  Dangerous Lies

Author:  Lisa Smith

Publisher:  Wingate Publishing

Publication Date:  2001

Pages:  254

Source:  Received from Lisa Smith

ISBN:  978-0970598301

This book is wonderful and it will keep you glued to every page.  The heroine is Bettina Berenson, but,  Bettina is not just an ordinary woman.  Bettina is not only drop dead gorgeous, but gutsy and intelligent.  Even though she is smart,  she still  manages to get involved with some dangerous characters, and every time it seems that her life is finally on the right track, she gets thrown a curve ball that takes her down a different path. She eventually gets herself involved with some mafia types and has to testify against them which puts her life in danger. The characters in this story are very well developed and the story is written so well that you cannot help but get drawn into the action.  This is the type of story that you can't stop thinking about when your not reading. When your not reading it, all you want to do is stop what your doing and get right back to the story.  After the first few chapters, you can't seem to turn the pages fast enough to find out what is going to happen next.  I just can't stress enough that the depth of the characters is so profound that you cannot help but get caught up in the action.

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The Alienist by Caleb Carr

Title:  The Alienist
Author:  Caleb Carr
Publisher:  Bantam Books
Date:  1994
Pages:  597
Source:  Purchased
ISBN: 0533572997

The Alienist takes you into the dark, sleezy life of New York City during the late 1800's.  This dark world was kept secret in the 1800's and you rarely hear about it today.  But, there is no doubt that it existed and that life was scary and difficult for the people that lived in this dark world.  In The Alienist, there is a serial killer wandering through this dark world and he is targeting young boys.  But, not just any boys, he is focused on boys that are selling their bodies to survive.  The government and the police are ignoring the killings.  They do not want the public to know this part of NYC even exists, so they just sit back and hope that it will go away.
But, not everyone is content to just sit back and ignore these killings.  After all the victims are children. No matter what type of life they are living, they deserve protection from this evil killer. There is an Alienist in the city that wants the killer stopped.  His name is Kreizler and he is what today is known as a Psychologist.  Kreizler forms a group  of friends to try and stop this killer.  The group initially consists of Moore who is a New York Times Reporter and Sarah who is a Secretary at the Police Department.  The little group eventually expands to include Kreizlers servants and a couple of ex Police Officers. This group will take you into the belly of this dark world and it is sometimes very graphic because when this killer kills a victim, it is very gruesome and even worse because his victims are children.
Kriezler feels sure that the killer is not insane. But, he needs to meet the killer and talk with him before deciding if he is insane or not. He believes that something occured in the killers childhood that made him this way.  Therefore, Kreizler is driven to find him so that he can make an effort to answer this age old question.  Is this killer insane or just evil?

"Whilst part of what we perceive comes through our senses from the object before us, another part  (and it may be the larger part) always comes out of our mind." William James, The Principles of Psychology

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This Bird Flew Away by Lynda M. Martin Book Tour

Lynda M. Martin, author of This Bird Flew Away

Lynda was born in Dunfirmline, Scotland in 1953, emigrated to Canada with her parents as a young girl. She grew up on the vast prairies of Western Canada, and loved the open wide spaces of that wild land. She was educated in Medicine Hat, Alberta, a town in the southeast corner of that province, and spent most of her time riding horses, barrel racing and hanging around rodeos and cowboys.

In 1968, the product of a troubled youth and a dysfunctional family, she found herself on her own at the age of fifteen, two thousand miles from her home, and knows first hand the dangers facing girls on our streets and the predators that prey on them. She was one of the lucky ones. She survived.

Later in life, she went east to Montreal for her education, graduating from the University of Montreal with a degree in Business Administration, which provided a fine income, but little in the way of personal satisfaction. Still in her twenties, she became a volunteer with social services to work with troubled teen-aged girls, and took every course the social agencies offered.

Title: The Bird flew Away
Author:  Lynda M. Martin
Publisher:  Black Rose Writing
Date:  27 January 2011
Pages:  312
Source:  Nurture Book Team
Pages:  312

My Review:
I was interested in reading this book because I am a Psychology student with a huge interest in Child Psychology.  I felt like this book might depict real life situations that so many children are living with everyday.  I was right about that, as it is very realistic with such real characters that you are likely to  forget that it is just a story and the characters are ficticious. Lynda martin has written a wonderful story that will knock your socks off!

This book was awesome!! Seriously, it was hard to put down.  Bria, the main character, will take you on a journey that is so full of emotion that it reaches out and grabs you and does  not let go until the very end. Unfortunately, there are way too many Bria's in this world and sadly that makes this story all the more compelling.  She is confronted with things that no child should ever have to face and at times the things she has to deal with are just gut wrenching.  Thank goodness for Jack! He is her saviour! I only wish there were more like him in the world. 

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Called Home: Two Hearts Answer by Gloria Shuman

Title:  Called Home

Author:  Gloria Shuman

Publisher:Savant Books and Publications LLC

Publication Date:  8 May 2010

Pages:  342

ISBN:  0984117571 (ISBN13: 9780984117574

My Review:

This story starts off with a bang! It actually starts off with a tornado.  And from there, it is a tornado of emotions.  Emma has recently moved back home to help her Mom with the family farm.  David is a well known author that has recently fled the busy life of New York City.  They have known each other in the past but have not seen each other in a long time.  But when they meet again, the sparks begin to fly.  Emma is a very independent, stubborn girl and it is hard for David to get past her tough exterior.  But there is something about her and he cannot stop thinking about her. 

Despite the fact that she keeps blowing him off, he continues to make sure that he has reasons to be in her company.  It is not an easy task to get to know her.  But,  he keeps at it until finally she seems to relax a little.  This book is a wonderful, clean story.  There are some passionate kissing, but no graphic sex scenes.  I think the reason I liked this book so much is because Emma reminds me of my Grandmother( in her younger days).  Like Emma, she was a self sufficient, strong willed, stubborn, independent, beautiful woman.  It was interesting to see a woman with these personality traits being pursued by a successfull, Handsome man.  I kept thinking, Girl what is your problem!  Go for it!

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Review: 'The Fairy Godmother' by Mercedes Lackey

Welcome to my book review blog!  I am so pleased you are here and I hope that you will come back soon!  The first book I am going to review is 'The Fairy Godmother' by Mercedes Lackey.  I just finished it about 10 minutes ago.

Title: 'The Fairy Godmother'
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Publisher: Luna

Publication date: reprint edition July 2010
Kindle version: 496pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Fantasy
Source: Bought

Amazon Description:

In the land of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, if you can't carry out your legendary role, life is no fairy tale....

Elena Klovis was supposed to be her kingdom's Cinderella--until fate left her with a completely inappropriate prince! So she set out to make a new life for herself. But breaking with "The Tradition" was no easy matter--until she got a little help from her own fairy godmother. Who promptly offered Elena a most unexpected job....

Now, instead of sleeping in the chimney, she has to deal with arrogant, stuffed-shirt princes who keep trying to rise above their place in the tale. And there's one in particular who needs to be dealt with....

Sometimes a fairy godmother's work is never done....

My Review:

This is the third book that I have read by Mercedes Lackey.  I seem to be drawn to fairytales.  I believe it is because in most fairytales, the good guy usually wins and the bad one gets what he deserved.  Since this is not the usual real life way of things, I like to get lost in a good story where it does turn out this way.  This is a spin on the fairytale, Cinderella.  It is unlike any Cinderella story that I Have ever read and that makes it more enjoyable.  The story takes you on a young girl's journey of trying to find her way in the world.  In a world full of magic, this journey 

is filled with adventure.  The story is good from the beginning, but once you get to the halfway point, it is even better.  The second half is one exciting moment after another.  I will read the next one in the series soon!

So as for my rating:

 And when she thought about how the flowers from her mother’s grave had been crushed, the few things she could call her own left in ruins, her eyes burned and new sobs choked her—
      “Ahem.”
      She squeaked and jumped, and cast startled eyes on the open doorway.
      There was a man standing there. He stepped into the light, and she saw that it was Monsieur Rabellet. He carried a bundle under one arm, and his face was suffused with guilt.


The other books in this series in order are:
'One Good Knight'
'Fortunes Fool'
'The Snow Queen'
'The Sleeping Beauty'
'Beauty and the Werewolf'
and the link to Mercedes Lackey's website ishttp://www.mercedeslackey.com

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