Full Moon Over Cedar Hill by Edward Lorn

Full Moon Over Cedar Hill by Edward Lorn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Image lying in a bed, unable to move after a stroke, abandoned by your family...suddenly there are noises in the corridor; something is happening...something bad...

This is what happens to Peter, and to find out what happens to him…you will have to read the story for yourself.

The ending was perfect, All I could think of in the end is "Revenge is a dish best served cold".

Firelight by Kristen Callihan

Firelight by Kristen Callihan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Once the flames are ignited . . .

Miranda Ellis is a woman tormented. Plagued since birth by a strange and powerful gift, she has spent her entire life struggling to control her exceptional abilities. Yet one innocent but irreversible mistake has left her family's fortune decimated and forced her to wed London's most nefarious nobleman.

They will burn for eternity . . .

Lord Benjamin Archer is no ordinary man. Doomed to hide his disfigured face behind masks, Archer knows it's selfish to take Miranda as his bride. Yet he can't help being drawn to the flame-haired beauty whose touch sparks a passion he hasn't felt in a lifetime. When Archer is accused of a series of gruesome murders, he gives in to the beastly nature he has fought so hard to hide from the world. But the curse that haunts him cannot be denied. Now, to save his soul, Miranda will enter a world of dark magic and darker intrigue. For only she can see the man hiding behind the mask.

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Firelight is a historical fiction with a touch of paranormal. What really got me intrigued was the blurb describing a man in a mask and since I have been enchanted with The Phantom of the Opera since I was a young girl was this something I just had to read.

Miranda has a powerful gift that for her is much more of a curse since her ability destroyed her father's fortune and because of their situation, she has to marry a man or get cast out on the street. What she doesn't know is that the man, the Lord Benjamin Archer is the same man that saved her when she was younger. He is also a man that is hiding his face, but why?

First and most, this isn't the kind of book I usually go for when it comes to paranormal, I prefer horror instead of romance. But I liked the book's cover on NetGalley and I as I stated above liked the blurb so I thought I would give it a go.

There are things that bothered me with the story, like for instance the secrets between Miranda and Archer, but this isn't the first book I will read or the last that the characters misunderstand each other because they keep secrets from each other. But it would have saved them a lot of time just being honest with each other. I also felt the story dragged on a bit. But this is a love story so they have to have this lustful dance around each other before they consummate their passion. (Why on earth it took so long time beats me since it's obvious they have the hots for each other).

I liked the waiting to uncover what's under Archers mask, it's a smart move drag out the waiting, it is much more alluring to read a book that has some mysteries left towards the end.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane

Gone, baby, gone by Dennis Lehane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Boston private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are hired to find four-year-old Amanda McCready, abducted from her bed on a warm, summer night. They meet her stoned-out, strangely apathetic mother, her loving aunt and uncle, the mother's dangerous, drug-addled friends, and two cops who've found so many abused or dead children they may be too far over the edge to come back. Despite enormous public attention, rabid news coverage, and dogged police work, the investigation repeatedly hits a brick wall. 

Led into a world of drug dealers, child molesters, and merciless executioners, Patrick and Angie are soon forced to face not only the horrors adults can perpetrate on innocents but also their own conflicted feelings about what is best, and worst, when it comes to raising children. And as the Indian summer fades and the autumn chill deepens, Amanda McCready stays gone, banished so completely that she seems never to have existed.

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In Gone, Baby, Gone you really get a taste of darkness and an overdose of evil. I finished the book a couple of weeks ago but this was a book that actually was so awful to read, the first Lehane book I had to read in phases, not right through because it was sometimes too awful to read. I also waited a while to write the review. Sometimes dwelling in darkness isn’t that nice and after Gone, Baby, Gone I just wanted to read easy things and watch fun things on tv.

Rating the book was also hard. I gave the book 4.5 stars after I finished the book, but after thinking it through these weeks after finish the book I've decided to give the 4 instead, knock off a half star more. I found the book too dark and disturbing for my taste. I hate reading books when children get hurt and for instance, the pedophile part of the books was horrific.

I have more Lehane books to read, but for the moment I will read another kind of books. Books with hopefully happy endings…

Sleepy Hollow: Children of the Revolution by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Sleepy Hollow: Children of the Revolution by Keith R.A. DeCandido
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The story in this book takes place after the episode "The Golem" and before the episode "The Vessel".

A Coven of witches is collecting Congressional Cross's to use in a spell to bring the witch Serilda back. It is up Abbie, Crane, Jenny, and Irving have to stop Serilda from resurrecting.

I enjoyed reading about Crane and Abbie mostly because I'm looking forward to season 2. It took me a while to realize that Serilda was the witch whose bones was burned in an episode. I would have liked it mentioned early in the story since it's not easy to remember everything that happens in the show. But my biggest problem is that I didn't find the story that interesting because I know what will happen next and I'm more interested in the future of Crane and Abbie than a story from a period that has passed.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!

Surrounded by Enemies: What if Kennedy Survived Dallas? by Bryce Zabel

Surrounded by Enemies: What if Kennedy Survived Dallas? by Bryce Zabel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What if Kennedy survived Dallas?

President John F. Kennedy has lived through the ambush in Dealey Plaza. America holds its collective breath, seeing its president nearly executed in broad daylight. But as the country marches on, the office of the President finds itself under a much more insidious type of fire. Political scandal, an endless war, and a country coming apart at the seams take the 1960’s in a terrifying new direction, and both John and his attorney-general brother, Bobby, struggle to stay ahead of their enemies, political and otherwise, and steer America toward a greater future.

Bryce Zabel is a master of the cover-up and the conspiracy, creating the Emmy-award winning series DARK SKIES. SURROUNDED BY ENEMIES is the first novel in the new Breakpoint series—each book exploring seminal moments in popular history and taking readers on a journey into a mirror world where events are both unexpected yet startlingly believable.

This savvy, fiercely intelligent novel, perfect for readers of Harry Turtledove, brings together elements of political thriller and page-turning history, enthralling readers with a sharply written take on the America that was, and the America that could have been.

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What if JFK had survived the attack on his life in Dallas?

This book was really intriguing and well written. Instead of dying in Dallas in 1963 JFK survived and one get a chance to see how his life and those around him change with him alive. But it is not a fairy tale with everything ending well. His involvement with women, especially affairs with women of questionable reputations that are something everyone knows about nowadays but something that was not public knowledge during the 60's is the thing that in this "what if story" will come to light during his presidency. And that combined with his ill health that he has been hiding from the general public and orders he has given to alleged assassinations of foreign leaders will, in the end, lead to his impeachment.

In the end, when they could not kill him they tried in every way to kill his political career instead.

I enjoyed this book immensely. A favorite subject, the Kennedys told in on of my favorite ways of telling a story; a what if story. It helped that it was really good and it felt like it could have happened if JFK had lived. Well except one thing, in the end, something that has to do with John-John was a bit too much and that made me remove a half star.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“The whole of Barcelona stretched out at my feet and I wanted to believe that, when I opened those windows, its streets would whisper stories to me, secrets I could capture on paper and narrate to whomever cared to listen . . .”

In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martín, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city’s underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner.

Like a slow poison, the history of the place seeps into his bones as he struggles with an impossible love. Close to despair, David receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike anything that has ever existed—a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, and perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home.

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The Angel's game is the second book I have read by Carlos Ruiz Zafón and a prequel to The Shadow of the Wind. I will probably go against the tide, but I found this book much better than The Shadow of the Wind. I liked the characters and the story better in this book. David Martíns life and struggles were captivating to read about. The only thing that bothered me really was the character Christina, I mentally sighed when we were introduced to her at the beginning of the books. She was such a flat and boring character and honestly, I just couldn’t stand her. Luckily we were introduced to Isabella later on and she was such a wonderful character that she in many ways compensated the presence of Christina.

One thing I really enjoyed was the link this book has with the first book. Not just the Cemetery of Forgotten Books but also the bookstore Sempere & Sons.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón has a really wonderful talent for telling a story. And I’m looking forward to reading his next book The Prisoner of Heaven.

The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Barcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife Bea have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julian, and their close friend Fermín Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city's dark past. His appearance plunges Fermín and Daniel into a dangerous adventure that will take them back to the 1940's and the dark early days of Franco's dictatorship. The terrifying events of that time launch them on a journey fraught with jealousy, suspicion, vengeance, and lies, a search for the truth that will put into peril everything they love and ultimately transform their lives.

Full of intrigue and emotion, The Prisoner of Heaven is a majestic novel in which the threads of The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game converge under the spell of literature and bring us toward the enigma of the mystery hidden at the heart of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a collection of lost treasures known only to its few initiates and the very core of Carlos Ruiz Zafón's enchanting fictional world.

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The book continues the story that started in The Shadow of the Wind and also has ties with The Angel's Game which story takes place before The Shadow of the Wind. In many ways it’s a really good story, you get to know what happened to David Martin from The Angel's Game and his connection to the Sempere family. Well, you don’t get all the answers, the ending has a “to be continued” feeling over itself. And since the book had only 300 pages (the Swedish version) and I just think Carlos Ruiz Zafón could have written well at least 100-200 pages more and just given the book a better ending instead of leaving one hanging. Well, it’s a smart move because now one just has to have the next book… when it comes…

The Angel's Game was such a great book that really pulled you inside and this book for all its promises didn’t really reach the same level, it was good and I love the connection to The Count of Monte Cristo (need to re-read the book), loved to know what happened to David Martin, how and where he wrote his book. I just want more…more Daniel Sempere and more David Martin…more about the Cemetery of Forgotten Books...

#BookReview Haunt Me Still by Jennifer Lee Carrell

Haunt Me Still by Jennifer Lee Carrell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Caught in a web of evil, Kate Stanley tangles with a legendary curse, a witch-haunted blade, and all-too-modern murder.

What price genius? Macbeth is so famously cursed that many actors refuse to name the play aloud. Kate Stanley, Shakespearean scholar and theater director, dismisses the curse as superstition, but--as the cast begins rehearsals at the foot of Scotland's Dunsinnan Hill--evil begins to stir. Actors go missing, and a trench is found filled with blood. Then Kate discovers a local woman dead in circumstances that suggest ancient pagan sacrifice. Marked as either suspect or future victim, Kate races to find a dangerous, alternate version of Macbeth said to contain actual rituals of witchcraft--and Shakespeare's darkest secret.

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Haunt Me Still is the sequel to Interred with Their Bones in which Kate Stanley was on the hunt for a missing Shakespeare play. In this book, she is hired to stage a new production of Macbeth. Macbeth is a play so famously cursed that actors even refuse to name the play or quote from the play aloud. And it won't take long before it seems like the play really is cursed…

Interred with Their Bones was such a good book that I for a long time have wanted to read Haunt Me Still, unfortunately, this book wasn’t nearly enough good. It's was entertaining, it was interesting; I love the idea of a lost Macbeth that is said to contain ritual of real witchcraft. But it wasn't a page-turner for me, I read part of it now and then and I enjoyed it but it never became a book that I couldn't put down. It was just…a good for the moment book, but not an OMG book. I liked the first book much more, it was more intense, more action and more adventures. Will I read the third book if it comes out? Yes, I would, I just hope that the mystery will be more interesting than this book.