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The Great Alone
The Great Alone
Kristin Hannah | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Romance
10
8.5 (13 Ratings)
Book Rating
Extremely well written. (1 more)
It's Kristin Hannah
Repetitive (0 more)
Phenomenal
As always Kristin Hannah does it again. I swear I can not read one of her books without becoming a blubbering baby. Ugh Why??????

Anyway. I love The Great Alone. The story of a family moving to rugged Alaska. The father, Ernt, a flakey, unpredictable, POW. The Mother Cora timid, loving, and clueless. Then Lenora. The teenage girl who throughout the story is tried and tested. She has to navigate not only the rugged world of Alaska. Also the tumultuous home and family life. You will love all the character's. Reading this book will have you googling Alaska. Dreaming of trips to the Kenai Peninsula.

You really can't go wrong with anything Kristin Hannah. I can't seem to get enough. The worst part is waiting for the next one. Please not so long this time Ms. Hannah. I know you are busy. But writing like yours doesn't come along very often. Your books transcend time and place. They transport us into the world you create. Please just never stop writing.
  
Jade was positive she was just an average girl, until she fell asleep in her bath, inhaled some salt water, and sprouted a mermaid tail. Soon the truth comes out that her mom was a mermaid. But then how did her mom drown last summer? Jade works to come to terms with this new side of herself, maintain her close friendships without spilling her secret, attempt to keep her dignity around her adorable crush, and figure out the mystery behind her mother.

 

I enjoyed every second of this story. I instantly liked Jade and her slight sarcasm. Although the events were, in reality, absolutely ridiculous, they worked in the context of the book, and it was easy to get lost in the story and believe in mermaids for a while. It was much more of an exciting and thrilling adventure than I originally imagined it to be. The twist at the end was perfectly wonderful! I read it twice I liked it so much. (*grins ecstatically*) I would recommend this book in a heartbeat.

 

Content/Recommendation: Clean, ages 10-16
  
Silver Sparrow
Silver Sparrow
Tayari Jones | 2011 | Fiction & Poetry, Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences
8
9.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Two women, two daughters. One who can speak openly about her father, one who has to hide who her father is. He isn't even named correctly on her birth certificate. One knows about the other, one is in the dark. When the two of them become friends, what will be revealed about each others lives that makes this friendship seem a little odd.

Dana & Chaurisse are sisters. James Witherspoon is their father. They are only a few months apart in age. They live in the same town, and often cross paths. Dana misses out on a lot of things because her father doesn't want her to run into Chaurisse and expose this secret. But living in the same town, this secret won't stay secret for long. How will Chaurisse act when she find out the girl she has befriended is really her sister. That her father has been living a double life all these years. That she has been running into her sister and her mother all her life, but never realized that these people were of any significance to her.
  
The Art of Vanishing
The Art of Vanishing
Cynthia Kuhn | 2017 | Mystery
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Someone is Out to Destroy Arts Week
Every spring semester, Stonedale University puts on an arts festival, and Lila has been roped into serving on the committee. The big name for the week is author Damon Von Tussel, who has just released his second book decades after his critically acclaimed debut. Lila is sent to interview him before the big event to gain some publicity, but before she can talk to him, he disappears. Then everyone on the committee starts to get threatening e-mails. What is going on?

I don’t read too many mysteries set in the academic world, so I enjoyed changing that with this book. The internal politics of the college and Lila’s worries since this is her first-year teaching there overshadowed the mystery at times. The mystery itself is a little different than many of the books I read, and I found it a refreshing break. The characters are fun, especially Lila’s mother, and I am curious how some of these relationships will develop in the future.
  
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Whatchareadin (174 KP) rated The Help in Books

May 10, 2018  
The Help
The Help
Kathryn Stockett | 2010 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.9 (49 Ratings)
Book Rating
I read "The Help" on my Kindle and I couldn't put it down. I think I had to charge it at least 4 times. My mother had told me about the book and so I read it from her recommendation. It was interesting to me to read because my grandmother or my aunts could have very easily been in this role as well. Even though I know the timing of the civil rights movement, it intrigues me that it wasn't that long ago, and how life really was. As a black woman I have, luckily, not really encountered much racial tension in my life. I have always had friends from different backgrounds and have been able to get along with others very freely. To put myself in a world where I could not be friends with people I am friends with or would have to do so in secret made me keep turning the pages. Not that these women were necessarily friends, but if circumstances were different, I'd like to think that Miss Skeeter would have been friends with Aibileen and Minny.
  
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Whatchareadin (174 KP) rated Fragile in Books

May 10, 2018  
F
Fragile
Lisa Unger | 2010
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is the first book that I have read by Lisa Unger. There were a lot of characters in this book. A couple that I think that could have been left out of the book.

Everyone lives in a quiet little town outside of New York City called The Hollows. Most of the people in that town grew up there and came back to live their lives and raise their families.
Jones Cooper: the head detective of The Hollows police department
Maggie Cooper: His wife and local shrink
Ricky Cooper: Their son
Charlene Murray: Ricky's Girlfriend
Elizabeth: Maggie's mother and former principal of Hollows High School.
Travis Crosby: Friend to Jones since High school and police officer
Marshall Crosby: Travis's son and town misfit
These are the main characters of this story.
When a local teenager goes missing(or ran away) the whole town gets together. This missing girl brings up a past that connects all the current suspects in way that no one would expect. This has all happened before, but will the outcome be the same.
  
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ClareR (5603 KP) rated Vicious Rumer in Books

Apr 16, 2018  
Vicious Rumer
Vicious Rumer
Joshua Winning | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
8
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Rumer Cross believes she is cursed by the mother and violent criminal, who abandoned her. She has been through the foster care system, and suffered at the hands of people who would judge her for that. She escapes the system and becomes a shadow. That way, no one will get close. To get close to Rumer means certain death. She is cursed, after all.
Her day becomes unimaginable bad when a top/ the top London crime boss decides that she knows where something is that he wants.
This is a very dark, violent, action-packed book, and definitely not one for the faint-hearted! And I loved it. Rumer is a lonely young woman, afraid to get close to anyone, and fighting for her life. There are so many twists and turns that it made ME paranoid, never mind Rumer. I'm glad I got the chance to read this through The Pigeonhole, and I'll be keeping an eye out for any other books that the writer writes in the future.
  
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Ross (3282 KP) rated Blindspot - Season 3 in TV

May 23, 2018  
Blindspot - Season 3
Blindspot - Season 3
2017 | Action
This season should have been titled "really do we still have to bother with those tattoos?!". The series once again follows the FBI team, and Jane Doe in trying to solve mysterious tattoos on Jane's body, averting terrorist attacks as they go. Only this time, it is a whole new series of tattoos which have been ridiculously put on her in UV or something so were not obvious.
The tattoos are no longer solved in interesting manners, now there is 30 seconds devoted to that, the rest being rushing around with guns.
Some of the puzzles appear to have been solved by something like "so I took these numbers, rearranged them at random, converted each one to the letter of the alphabet, translated that into Dutch, then back into numbers and tried this as an IP address and found that a ship has just docked with the same name as your mother-in-law's maiden name, get over there pronto".
The overarching plot was fine and reasonably exciting, but there was so much deus ex machina that I just got really annoyed.
  
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Lindsay (1706 KP) rated Marine in Books

Apr 9, 2019  
Marine
Marine
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Marine takes place about three years after Neb is on Halley's Casino. This book takes you on an adventure of it own. It also talks about Neb parents home planet and more about his parents. I gives you lesson about history or at least a bit about Neb's history or his parents for that mother. There seems to be something going on that makes Neb go after a star chart.

What is this star chart and why does everyone want it. There seems to be a dragon that guarding it and only one person who is to receive it. Mark put you in the story and you go for a ride. It adventures and filled with action.

Who are friends and who are foes? What is an Air-heart? What an Ice dragon? Whatever happen to here home? What or who is a water moon? It all started on Halley's Casino when Neb see two guest acting strange. I believe Mark doe a wonderful job with this story. I can not wait to pick up the next book.
  
The Evidence Against You
The Evidence Against You
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
It's the day Izzy's father will be released from jail.
She has every reason to feel conflicted - he's the man who gave her a childhood filled with happy memories.
But he has also just served seventeen years for the murder of her mother.
Now, Izzy's father sends her a letter. He wants to talk, to defend himself against each piece of evidence from his trial.
But should she give him the benefit of the doubt?
Or is her father guilty as charged, and luring her into a trap?

This is an utterly amazing thriller,
The story is told in a very good way in that the past and present are told in alternating way and we get to find out facts about the case in drips.
Lots of twists and turns and keeps you wanting to know what’s going to happen next and leaves the best to the very end.
A must read for 2019!
Highly Recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin UK Michael Joseph and the author for the chance to review.