April #11 - DOG ON IT

Title: Dog on it

Author: Spencer Quinn

Publisher: Atria Books

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-1-4165-8583-1

Series or stand-alone: #1

Setting: The Valley, some western state and Sierra Nevada, NM

1st Sentence:

I could smell him - or rather the booze on his breath - before he even opened the door, but my sense is pretty good, probably better than yours.

Comments:

Okay, so I'm not one who typically will read a book told from the dog's point of view because I am not a big fan of talking animals in books. However, I am very glad I didn't pass this book by. I have described it to the people at my library as a cross between Raymond Chandler and Benji. Bernie Little is a PI who is hired to find Madison when she goes missing. There are some dirty characters involved and Bernie and Chet "the Jet" are on the case! The book is told in first person from the dog's point of view but it's not over the top.

I enjoyed this one a lot and it's at the top of my five faves so far this year!

April #10 - FADE

Title: Fade

Author: Lisa McMann

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-1-4169-5358-6

Series or stand-alone: #2

Setting: Fieldridge, MI

1st Sentence:

Will post at a later date.

Comments:

Janie goes undercover in her dreams to find out who, in her school, may be taking advantage of the student body and she gets sucked into some seriously dark dreams. In addition, she finds out what lay in store for her if she continues down the path of being a dream catcher. And it's not pretty. A good follow-up to the first book and it definitely made me interested in reading more of Janie and Cabel's experiences together.

April #9 - NOTSO HOTSO

Title: Notso hotso

Author: Anne Fine

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Copyright: 2001

ISBN: 0-374-35550-9

Series or stand-alone: Stand-alone

Setting: Unknown

1st Sentence:

1. How the horror began
So suddenly one morning I'm like Scratch-scratch! Scratch-scratch! and can't stop.

Comments:

Anthony, a neglected pet dog, develops an irritating skin condition and has most of his hair shaved off, which embarrasses him greatly until her realized he now looks like a lion and can frighten other animals and people.

My thoughts were that this book was eh! I thought I'd like it but I understand why it didn't circulate and we were in the process of weeding it from our collection. It was just boring, especially for a kid's dog book - and it's British, which is not my favourite - when it comes to literature.

April #8 - CURSE OF THE SPELLMANS

Title: Curse of the Spellmans

Author: Lisa Lutz

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 978-1-4165-3241-5

Series or stand-alone: #2

Setting: San Francisco, CA

1st Sentence:

In the middle...
Friday, April 21
1900 hrs
"Hello?"

Comments:

Book #2 in this delightful series. Izzie has decided that her parent's new neighbor "John Brown" is up to no good and begins to investigate him. Someone is vandalizing Mrs. Chandler's holiday tableauxs and Izzie's brother, David, is in a funk.

I absolutely love the family dynamic of the Spellman's. They are sooo dysfunctional that it's just humor. Reminds me somewhat of my own family.

April #7 - WAKE

Title: Wake

Author: Lisa McCann

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 978-1-4169-7447-5

Series or stand-alone: #1

Setting: Fieldridge, MI

1st Sentence:

December 9, 2005, 12:55 p.m.
Janie Hannagan's math book slips from her fingers.

Comments:

The first time Janie got sucked into someone else's dream, she was eight-years-old. Now, at 17, it's more frustrating than ever - the falling, the drowning, the naked-in-public and the sex-starved dreams. She's never told anyone and then she falls into a gruesome nightmare in which she is not just a spectator but a participant.

I thought this was a great plot concept and the book was written in a sort of diary form which kept the book moving. It does include some mature subject matter but I would recommend it to the mid-teen level and up.

April #6 - SAFER

Title: Safer

Author: Sean Doolittle

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-0-385-33898-1

Series or stand-alone: Stand-alone

Setting:Clark Falls, IA

1st Sentence:

Friday, December 16 - 9:25 p.m.

My wife, Sara, and I are hosting a faculty party at our home when the Clark Falls Police Department arrives to take me into custody.

Comments:

Well, of course I was going to read this, being a librarian and from Iowa.

Paul and Sara move to the small community of Clark Falls from Boston and are excited to find such an idyllic community to start their family in. But after a home invasion and charges of inappropriate conduct with a minor are brought forth, they find themselves in a fight to save their lives against the powers that be and find that small town living isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

I thought this was wonderful, fast-paced book that illustrated how smaller isn't always safer and things may not always be as they appear. This has made my top 5 of 2009!

April #5 - THE BODIES LEFT BEHIND

Title: The bodies left behind

Author: Jeffery Deaver

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 978-1-4165-9561-8

Series or stand-alone: Stand-alone or could be #1 of a new series

Setting:Lake Mondac, WI

1st Sentence:

Silence.

Comments:

When off-duty deputy Brynn McKenzie responds to an abandoned 911 call at a house in Lake Mondac, she surprises two professional killers and her and a weekend guest flee for their lives into the woods around the lake. But not everything is as it seems!

This book started off slow for me and a lot of it had to do with the enormous amount of plant and surrounding foilage detail included in the text. This distracted me from the story. But when I started to ignore that and focus on the "story", I was swept along in a book that was filled with good twists and turns.

April #4 - THE SPELLMAN FILES

Title: The Spellman Files

Author: Lisa Lutz

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Copyright: 2007

ISBN: 978-1-4165-3239-2

Series or stand-alone: #1

Setting: San Francisco, CA

1st Sentence:

Prologue
San Francisco, Night
I duck into the parking garage, hoping to escape.

Comments:

OMG! Why didn't somebody tell me about these books earlier! What a hoot!

Isabel Spellman's family consists of private investigators - they're all crazy, they're all paranoid, but most importantly, they're all fun! This book is an introduction to this dysfunctional family and their insane spying, privacy invading ways. This is a fresh, new author with a great voice and I have since read the rest of the books and loved every one!

April #3 - FIREGIRL

Title: Firegirl

Author: Tony Abbott

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Copyright: 2006

ISBN: 978-0-316-01170-9

Series or stand-alone: Stand-alone

Setting: New Haven, CT

1st Sentence:

It wasn't much, really, the whole Jessican Feeney thing.

Comments:

Summary from the book:

A middle school boy's life is changed when Jessica, a girl disfigured by burns, starts attending his Catholic school while receiving treatment at a local hospital.

A good story to recommend for reluctant readers and to include in a display on prejudices or odd man out type of books.

April #1 - NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM

Title: No one heard her scream

Author: Jordan Dane

Publisher: Avon Books

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 978-0-06-125278-5

Series or stand-alone: #1

Setting: San Antonio, TX

1st Sentence:

Prologue
South Padre Island, TX
Mid-June, After midnight
Somewhere in her heart, Danielle Montgomery knew this was wrong, and her guilt had a face.

Comments:

Since Detective Becca Montgomery's sister went missing five months ago it has haunted her, and more women are disappearing. Then she catches an arson case that reveals the bones of a young woman who had disappeared seven years ago. Are the cases connected?

This was a good albeit typical romantic suspense story. The book does contain violence against women, trafficking, prostitution, kidnapping and murder. It did get rather graphic at times and I would definitely steer my tender read patrons away from this one.

March #6 - WICKED GAME

Title: Wicked game

Author: Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush

Publisher: Zebra Books

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-1-4201-0338-0

Series or stand-alone: Stand-alone, with the possibility of a series

Setting: Laurelton, Oregon

1st Sentence:

Prologue
St. Elizabeth's Campus
February 1989
Midnight...
Mother Mary, help me!

Comments:

Twenty years ago Jessie Brentwood disappeared and it's possible that her remains have just been unearthed during an excavation of the old school. Old school friends must come together, disturbed by the discovery and the memories evoked by this find and someone is killing them, one by one.

The book was okay and the plot kept me interested but there were some editing errors and repetition of certain words that left me really cold. I've always been a big fan of Lisa Jackson's but I've not been crazy about the Bush books I've read. I hoped with the duo writing I would like it better, but I didn't.
At least I finished it and didn't throw it across the room. I guess that says something.