Inside Out

Next, I read INSIDE OUT by Terry Trueman (Harper Collins, c2003, ISBN 0-06-447376-7), a young adult book about schizophrenia.
Set in Spokane, Washington at the Sunshine Espresso, Zach Wahhsted is one of 9 patrons when "Stormy" and "Frosty" aka Alan and Joey Mender hold the restaurant up. Only problem is...Zach has adolescent onset schizophrenia and the hold-up is making him late for his medication.

The story jumped around telling the story from Zach's viewpoint with blips from his doctor and mother and occasionally Rat and Dirtbag, the voices in his head.

I found this to be a touching, sometimes funny story with a bittersweet look at mental disorders. I enjoyed this book but liked STUCK IN NEUTRAL by Trueman better.
The foul language would have me recommending this book to ages thirteen and up.
The first sentence:

"You're worthless," Dirtbag says.

The Kill

I've been late in posting my most recent reads because I've been so busy with wedding preparations.

First, I read THE KILL by Allison Brennan (Ballantine Books, c2006, ISBN 0-345-48523-8), the third book in her trilogy.

In this book, Olivia St. Martin is tormented by the kidnapping and death of her sister 34 years ago. Present time, the man Olivia helped send to prison has been released because DNA evidence proved that he was not the man responsible for the death of Olivia's sister. When Olivia starts piecing together similar crimes, it looks like her sister's killer is still out there and Olivia feels responsible for this so she goes to Seattle where the "Seattle Slayer" is still killing, unofficially, to offer her knowledge and expertise. Zach Martin is the hunky detective that Olivia hooks up with in Seattle, Washington.

Once again, Brennan provides us with a solid, romantic suspense book with good likeable characters, a creepy bad guy and quick pacing. This book is not for people who detest books with children characters that are brutalized in one form or another. I know several readers who feel strongly about this and feel that I should include a warning to my own readers.

I've read all three books in this series and imagine I'll read the next trilogy when it's complete.

The first sentence:

Livie tilted her head toward the late-afternoon sky and frowned, wrapping her arms around her stomach.

Up next are two young adult books...

A perfect match (again!)

Well, as I mentioned yesterday, I was going to read PERFECT MATCH by Jodi Picoult (Atria Books, c2002, ISBN 0-7434-1872-7)but when I got about 20 pages in, I thought to myself, I think I've read this...it is very familiar. So I went back to my book logs and sure enough, I read this book back in 2002. Unfortunately, it was before I kept detailed accounts of my books read but I skimmed through the book as a refresher and looked at my notes pertaining to this book. It said, "EXCELLENT NOVEL, THE PERFECT GAME, MATCH and POINT FOR PICOULT." And I gave it 4 1/2 stars out of 5. I'm guessing I really liked it.

The first sentence is:

When the monster finally came through the door, he was wearing a mask.

In Biddeford, Maine Nina Frost works as an assistant district attorney prosecuting child molesters. She's seen first hand how the system often fails these children and must come to grip with this when her own child, her miracle child, is rendered mute and it comes out that he too was a victim of sexual molestation. How far will a mother go to protect her child?
Read this book and find out.

Picoult weaves her magic again and again...

Under the Knife

Today's finish was UNDER THE KNIFE by Tess Gerritsen (Mira, c1990, ISBN 1-55166-611-1), one of her older books that I had not read and came across so I picked it up.
First things first, the first sentence:

Dear God, how the past comes back to haunt us.

So my take on the book? Well, you can definitely tell it was one of her first books and her writing has improved greatly over the past 16 years. There were a couple of times that I wanted to pitch the book across the room but I kept reading.
Dr. Kate Chesne, an anesthesiologist in Honolulu, Hawaii, is sued for malpractice when a patient and coworker dies under her care. David Ransom is the attorney representing the plaintiffs. He's a lawyer with a hard-on for doctors and is determined to bring her down. But then it appears there is a conspiracy of sorts, murders are rackin' up and in just three days time he believes her, becomes her protector and they fall in love, argh!

So much of it was just so implausible, but I kept reminding myself that this was one her first books, but I'm not sure that I want to revisit any of the other 'firsts' that I've missed.

I just started reading PERFECT MATCH by Jodi Picoult. It's looking very promising...

Glory Be

The second book in JD Robb's fantastic IN DEATH series is GLORY IN DEATH (Berkley Books, c1995, ISBN 0-425-15098-4) and I enjoyed it as much as the first, Naked in Death.

The year is 2058 in New York and Lieutenant Eve Dallas is on the trail of a murderer. Cicely Towers, a prominent prosecuting attorney, is found in a seedy part of town with her throat slashed. Then an upcoming actress is found murdered, same MO. The only problem Eve is having is that both victims link to her love interest, Roarke, and that is never a good thing.

Eventually the killer is revealed and it had kind of a Scooby Doo moment for me (A-ha! So you're the killer! Wink! Wink!) but I enjoyed the book nonetheless.

I think my favorite aspect of these books is Eve Dallas. She is one tough character, although Roarke continues to try, and sometimes succeeds, to bring out her softer side. I like that she is cold and indifferent but she goes to bat 100% for her victims, a quality I find very endearing in a futuristic cop. I'll be reading the rest of this series.

It starts:

The dead were her business.

Next up for me are an older book by Tess Gerritsen, UNDER THE KNIFE and Jodi Picoult's PERFECT MATCH.
Stay tuned...

The Hunt

THE HUNT by Allison Brennan(Ballantine Books, c2006, ISBN 0-345-48024-4) is the second book in her fast-paced trilogy.

In this book, set in Gallatin County and Bozeman, Montana, Miranda Moore must come face to face with her bogeyman. Twelve years earlier Miranda survived the attack of the Bozeman Butcher, serial killer. She has spent the past decade doing search and rescue work, especially for victims of the Butcher, always hoping to come face to face with her long-time tormentor.


When another woman goes missing, the FBI comes in. The lead investigator, Quinn Peterson, was once Miranda's love but he broke her heart. Can she let bygones be bygones or will Quinn break her heart again and will the Butcher finish off the one woman he couldn't kill?

First sentence:

"I don't want to die."

Punished!

What happens when your mouth runs faster than your brain?

Well, in David Lubar's book, PUNISHED (c2006, Darby Creek Publishing, ISBN 1-58196-042-5) Logan, the main character finds out it's not always good.

This was another book written in first person that I didn't mind. Logan and his best friend Benedict are engaged in a game of tag in the library when Logan runs smack into a mysterious man. When he doesn't show enough remorse, the man "punishes" him by causing him to speak only in puns. Only by finding seven examples each of oxymorons, anagrams and palindromes in the time frame allotted will fix the curse.

The book starts:

"This is a terrible idea," I told Benedict as we walked up the stone steps toward the huge wooden door.

This is a cute book for kids ages 9 and up, appealing strongly to my love for the English language.

Open and Shut

This is the book I finished last weekend. Written by David Rosenfelt,(c2002, Warner Books, ISBN 0-89296-748-X), it was a wonderful debut book and I'm kicking myself for waiting so long to read it!

Set in Paterson, New Jersey, Andy Carpenter is a defense attorney who takes on an appeals case for Willie Miller, the man Andy's father put in prison seven years earlier. After his father dies abruptly, Andy finds out about some dirty little secrets that make his father's past and Andy's present collide in a maelstrom of dirty money, death threats, attempts and resolutions.

The first sentence:

The Lincoln Tunnel is a scary place.

One of the things I particularly enjoyed about this book was that I liked the majority of his chapters' first sentences. And although written in first person, which I typically avoid, this book was refreshingly different. Andy Carpenter is a sarcastic attorney in an affable sort of way. He's quick witted with one liners that had me chuckling, sometimes snorting with guffaws.
OPEN AND SHUT was a quick read and I'm looking forward to more of David Rosenfelt's work.

Totally Joe

This past Friday, I finished reading TOTALLY JOE by James Howe (c2005, Ginee Seo Books, ISBN 0-689-83957-X), a wonderful book for young adults.
For Joe Bunch, growing up in Paintbrush Falls, New York can really blow. When a school project is assigned, to write an alphabiography, the story of his life from A to Z, Joe takes on the task by writing about friendship, family, school, disappointments and joys, and growing up and coming out as a gay teen in a small town. It has great supporting characters like Joe's Aunt Pam who is totally cool with Joe being gay and actually gives him his first gay pride things (I snicker here--Like a shirt to sleep in that says "I'm not gay but my boyfriend is.") and some very understanding friends like Addie, Skeezie and Bobby (especially for a small town--unlike one I've ever seen, but I imagine they exist.)

The book starts out with a letter to the teacher assigning this:

Dear Mr. Daly,

       Okay, I admit it.

Little Boy Blue Come Blow Your Horn

One of my most recent reads was Mary Higgins Clark's newest, TWO LITTLE GIRLS IN BLUE (c2006, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-7432-6490-8). It was a typical MHC book, fast moving yet predictable. Set in Danbury, CT and Cape Cod, the book starts out with the kidnapping of two twin girls. When only one of them is returned after the ransom is paid the worst is assumed. But mommies knows best and with a little twin telepathy from the returned, they embark to find the other missing girl.

It starts out:

"Hold on a minute, Rob, I think one of the twins is crying."