May #8 - BITE ME

Title: Bite me

Author: Parker Blue

Publisher: Bell Bridge Books

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 978-0-9802453-8-7

Series or stand-alone: #1

Setting: San Antonio, TX

1st Sentence:

The stench of rotting garbage filled my nostrils as I scoured the streets of San Antonio for something to take the edge off.

Comments:

Valentine, or Val for short, is part demon and she uses that to find and kill vampires. When her parents kick her out she goes to work with the Supernatural Crime Unit and partners with Dan, but at her young age she's having a hard time dealing with a lot of things and it appears there is a vein of rogue vampires waiting to get their butts kicked and she thinks she'll help them out with that!

It was a good story with potential. I found it dragged in a few spots but overall it was a pretty quick read.

May #7 - ADDITION

Title: Addition

Author: Toni Jordan

Publisher: William Morrow

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 978-0-06-158257-8

Series or stand-alone: Stand-alone debut novel

Setting: Glen Iris, Australia

1st Sentence:

It all counts.

Comments:

Grace has OCD. She is a counter and a lot of her quirks resonated deeply with me, also a sufferer of OCD. The book is chock full of information of interesting people I'd never read about or even heard of and it's about Grace trying to sustain a normal relationship without losing herself.

May #6 - THE 8TH CONFESSION

Title: The 8th Confession

Author: James Patterson

Publisher: Little, Brown and Co.

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-0-316-01876-0

Series or stand-alone: #8

Setting: San Francisco, CA

1st Sentence:

The old chrome-yellow school bus crawled south on Market Street at half past seven that May morning.

Comments:

This is #8 in the Women's Murder Club books and someone is killing off the rich and elite and there are no signs or symptoms of foul play. In a side story, Cindy finds a homeless man beaten and shot several times and tries to find out who he is.

The book has an interesting choice of murder weapons.

I was amazed at how boring the cover was though. I suppose when you're James Patterson, you no longer have to put any effort into the packaging of a book because people are going to buy it. I get them all from my library so it's no money out of my pocket but I was a little disappointed in this. But I like Lindsay and crew so I will continue to read this series, boring cover or not. I just won't buy 'em.

May #5 - YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME

Title: You are so undead to me

Author: Stacey Jay

Publisher: Razor Bill

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-1-59514-225-2

Series or stand-alone: #1

Setting: Carol, AR

1st Sentence:

Prologue
The cold wind swept across the hill, whistling through the headstones that poked from the ground like dozens of crooked baby teeth.

Comments:

Summary from the book:

Megan Berry, a Carol, Arkansas high school student who can communicate with the dead, must team up with her childhood friend Ethan to save homecoming from an army of flesh-hungry zombies.

Yeah, that about sums it up! This was a fun story with a believable main character (she sounded 15-16) who was dealing with a responsibility that was handed to her at birth. I'll be looking to read the second in the series.

May #4 - CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE

Title: Conspiracy of silence

Author: Martha Powers

Publisher: Oceanview Publishing

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 978-1-933515-18-2

Series or stand-alone: Stand-alone

Setting: Grand Rapids, MN

1st Sentence:

Prologue
Clare Prentice sat on the edge of the examination table, the blue hospital gown tied at her neck.

Comments:

This is one of the few books that I've read which deal with adoption which is a subject near and dear to my heart. The writing was okay; I found it to be very similar to Mary Higgins Clark's style. I remember the older books by Powers' as being more suspenseful, but it's been years since I read them so my memory may be skewed.

May #3 - THE BAR CODE TATTOO

Title: The bar code tattoo

Author: Suzanne Weyn

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Copyright: 2004

ISBN: 0-439-39562-3

Series or stand-alone: #1

Setting:Year 2025

1st Sentence:

Outside, rain drummed against the window.

Comments:

Kayla Reed is about to turn 17, the age when she can get her barcode tattoo. However, when a traumatic thing happens in her life, it triggers an expanding suspicion of the tattoo or "too", in this book. Along with a small group of other teens opposed to the tattoo, they work together to find out what's up with the barcode and Global-1, a company which seeks to control the world.

This was quite scary in a 1984 Orwellian way but a very interesting concept. I've put #2 on my TBR list.

May #2 - REVENGE OF THE SPELLMANS

Title: Revenge of the Spellmans

Author: Lisa Lutz

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-1-4165-9338-6

Series or stand-alone: #3

Setting: San Francisco, CA

1st Sentence:

Therapy Session #19
[Partial transcript reads as follows:]
Dr. Rush: 'Two weeks ago you mentioned that you were being blackmailed.'

Comments:

I read all three of the books in the series thus far in one month I liked them that much and I look forward to more.

If I had to pick a favorite thing from this book it would be their acronym used to describe what Izzy's brother goes through: MILFO (Mid-life freak out!)

Keep 'em coming, Lisa!

May #1 - AFRAID

Title: Afraid

Author: Jack Kilborn

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-0-446-53593-9

Series or stand-alone: Possibly #1 or stand-alone

Setting: Safe Haven, WI

1st Sentence:

The hunter's moon, a shade of orange so dark it appeared to be filled with blood, hung fat and low over the mirror surface of Big Lake McDonald.

Comments:

Jack Kilborn is the pseudonym of one of my favorite authors, JA Konrath and this book is the first in a more horror-like series.

A helicopter crashes in Safe Haven, WI and it all goes to hell from there.

A great story but very graphic and violent. I would not recommend this to my weak of heart patrons. I prefer his alter egos Jack Daniels series better, but I will look for the next book written by this author.

Boy, do I apologize a lot!

Sorry again to my whole 9 regular readers about my absence. I plan to put new posts up starting next week! Please bear with me...