Jack and Jill by James Patterson

I listened to an unabridged audio book version of Jack & Jill by James Patterson. Finally, I had the whole story again and wasn't listening to an abridgement. Jack & Jill is another Alex Cross novel, and is the third book in the series. Alex and Sampson try to catch the cold blooded killers, Jack and Jill before they kill the president of the United States. They first kill several other high profile people, and they announce ahead of the fact that they intend to kill the president.

Jack and Jill are given different identities throughout the book. They are known as Jack and Jill to the police and FBI, but the real name of Jill is given early on. Jack's true identity isn't revealed until late in the novel. In some ways, it was a good scheme, and makes for a page turner because the reader wants to know who Jack and Jill really are.

On the other hand, I found myself a little confused throughout the book because there are so many names for some of the same people, including another killer who kills young children in who go to the same school as Alex's son, Damon. Maybe I would have had an easier time keeping all the characters straight if I had been reading Jack and Jill as opposed to listening to it while I drove to and from work, but I'm not one hundred percent sure.

I wasn't as thrilled about Jack and Jill as I had been about Cross, Along Came a Spider, and Kiss the Girls. I think it was because a lot of the killing Jack and Jill did was more a political move rather than something tied to their insanity or their emotions. Killing for hire type of schemes aren't as interesting to me as ones tied to emotions. Alex's emotions carry the book, and for that reason I still enjoyed Jack and Jill, but it won't be a book that I would reread or ever buy. I listened to the library's copy of this one.

I give this one 3 stars. ***

That doesn't mean that I'm totally disenchanted with the Alex Cross series. I went ahead and listened to Cat and Mouse right after finishing this one.

Vision in Blue by Nicole Byrd

Vision in Blue by Nicole Byrd is a regency romance. Byrd writes a few different series but with characters who weave in and out of the series and have different relationships with each other. The novel follows the story of Miss Gemma Smith and her friend Miss Louisa Crookshank. Gemma spends most of the book trying to find her parentage.

Gemma was sent to a foundling home as a young child. After a year in the foundling home, she was taken to a school for gentlewomen and given financial support through a solicitor. When Gemma turns twenty one, she receives a letter from her mother through the solicitor telling her that she has a brother named Lord Gabriel Sinclair in London. Gemma travels to London to seek out her family. Along the way, she meets Louisa, who is engaged to Mr. Lucas Englewood. Gemma stays with Louisa in her rented home in London.

At first, I had a difficult time getting into this book because I'm not accustomed to reading historical romance. The pacing is a lot slower than the books I'm used to reading, and I was bored. I was determined to read the entire novel, though, because I got to hear Nicole Byrd speak at Music City Romance Writers. I also knew several people who had read Byrd's work and loved it.

I continued reading. Once I got halfway through, I was hooked. For a proper and ladylike book, this one through me for a loop in the second half. There was a lot of suspense later on, and I couldn't put the book down until I had finished it. I may end up reading the whole series, but I haven't made up my mind yet. Like a few of my other posts, I've plucked this book out of the middle of a series. It was very much self contained, and I didn't feel like I was missing out by not having read the books that came before it in the series, but I'm now curious about some of the other characters that are the protagonists in the other books earlier and later in the series.

I got to the end knowing who Gemma's mother was, but the novel ended with the question of who her father was. I'm curious now.

I give this book four stars ****

Along Came a Spider by James Patterson

Along Came a Spider by James Patterson is the first book in the Alex Cross series. If you've been reading my blogs posts so far, you know that I'm blogging a little out of order with these books. I listened to the audio book version of of Along Came a Spider. Like Kiss the Girls, I didn't realize this was an abridged version until after it came in the mail. *sigh* My review is based on the cassettes, not of the complete, unabridged version. I wished I had read the book instead.

Along Came a Spider came on four audio cassettes. Although the abridgement was better than Kiss the Girls, I think I missed about half the plot. There were a few times when I wondered how Alex Cross, Sampson, and the villain Gary Soneji. Gary Soneji kidnaps two children, and Alex works on another case from the projects at the same time. I identified with the villain in Along Came a Spider, and there was a piece of me that wanted Gary Soneji to succeed. Patterson does a good job of writing the bad guy to be likable in certain respects. I can't pinpoint what I liked a bout Gary Soneji in particular, but I rooted for him to get away.

Along Came a Spider contained a few plot twists that I didn't like. I'm not at all for spoilers, so I won't mention what turned me off exactly. I'll only say that in this abridged version there were things I didn't see coming that didn't have any warning at all. Given how Patterson tells his story in the books versus the abridgements, I think those plot twists wouldn't have come out of thin air quite to the extent that they did in the abridgement.

I give this one three stars *** based on the abridgement. I still recommend it, and I'm going to rent the movie.

What Looks Like Crazy by Charlotte Hughes

What Looks Like Crazy by Charlotte Hughes was a fun read. I give it three and a half stars. *** 1/2.

I think the first paragraph of What Looks Like Crazy was one of the best paragraphs I've ever read in a book. I was hooked right away. What Looks Like Crazy follows the professional life of Dr. Kate Holly as well as her love life. She is a psychologist and has a lot of crazy patients. Her secretary/friend Mona is a trip, and her family is hilarious. This was a light read which kept me smiling throughout.

What keeps me from giving it a little higher rating is that the characters were funny, but some of them were a little too out there for me. In particular, I couldn't find much affection for Thad's character. He is another doctor and is a former lover and friend of Dr. Holly's. I expect the patients to be a little nutty but Thad's behavior, especially with his brother Thomas is a little too much for me. It was cute at first but annoyed me the further into the novel I read.

It took me about two weeks to read this book, but the reason had nothing to do with the pacing of Hughes' writing. I used this one as my book to read during lunch when I had free time at work. It's only 261 as mass market paperback, so it was easy to keep in my purse and to carry with me.

There is a sequel titled, "Nutcase," but I don't think I'm going to read it. I enjoyed the plot and characters, but not enough to invest myself in another novel.

Kiss the Girls by James Patterson

Kiss the Girls by James Patterson is the second book in the Alex Cross series by James Patterson. I listened to the audio book version of Kiss the Girls. When it arrived in the mail, I received two cassette tapes, which took me two days to listen to while driving to and from work. From the beginning, the I was swept into the plot of this thriller because I already felt like I knew Alex Cross and because Patterson is an expert story teller.

Unfortunately, I was thoroughly disappointed with how Kiss the Girls was abridged. When ordering the audio book copy, I didn't realize I was buying an abridged copy. In my opinion, abridged versions of thrillers should be illegal because I felt cheated at the end. I'm pretty sure I know where the gaps in the story were because I felt jolted when suddenly Alex Cross and Sampson find the underground "House of Horrors."

Abridged version aside, I think I would have given the unabridged version five stars. I found myself wanting to drive around just to hear more of the audio book while in my car. Also, Time Warner Studios chose two different narrators. The voice of Alex Cross was very different from the other person reading the rest of the book. There were other sound effects adding to the drama of Alex's race to find his niece, Naomi.

Why did I choose to listen to Kiss the Girls before Along Came a Spider? Kiss the Girls arrived before Along Came a Spider did through the mail. Like Cross (see my earlier review), I felt this plot was self contained and didn't leave me confused by not having read Along Came a Spider first.

Cross by James Patterson

Cross by James Patterson was a delightful read. I give it five stars *****. Cross is the 12th book in James Patterson's Cross series. I read the mass paperback version and was enthralled from start to finish. I read it under two days. It was so good that I immediate went out and bought books one and two of the series, Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls.

This book had several things going for it. I appreciate Patterson's use of short, straightforward sentences during scenes in which a lot of action occurs. He writes using short chapters. Many of the chapters were two or three pages long. I love this in a murder mystery because it adds to the, "I'll just read one more chapter before going to sleep" mentality of the reader. Patterson alternates in this series between first person narrative for Alex Cross' chapters and third person narrative for the chapters in which the killer is present.

From the sell copy of Cross, we learn that Alex Cross' wife is murdered in this book, and Alex has to find her killer. Wow. That alone drew me into buying the novel. As I mentioned, I plucked this novel from the middle of a series, and I wasn't in the least confused by what was going on. Cross is a self contained book, and I didn't feel cheated by not reading the preceeding books in the series.

Also, a lot of action happens in Cross. It was paced as excellently written thriller.

Crossing Over: One Woman's Exodus from Amish Life by Ruth Irene Garrett with Rick Farrant

Crossing Over: One Woman's Exodus from Amish Life by Ruth Irene Garrett with Rick Farrant is nonfiction. As such, I'm going to review it a little differently than I have the fiction works. Especially in the case of an autobiography, I think there have to be slightly different rules to measure a person's story. Unlike fiction, nonfiction writers don't change the details of the story just to make the plot more coherent or parallel.

With that said, I give Crossing Over four stars **** because it was a fascinating read. The style in which it is written is simple and to the point. I read the book in less than two days. At 190 pages, it wasn't a long book, but it was a good one. The inclusion of bits and pieces of the letters Garrett's parents wrote to her after she left the Old Order Amish community in Kalona, Iowa made the book even more personal than it already was.

I can't imagine the emotional turmoil Garrett had to go through in order to join outside society. To lose one's family and to have to start from scratch in learning how to live life in modern society must have been an utter shock for her. I learned a lot from this book, and I was especially pleased to read a first person account of the author's life after leaving the Amish because I feel too many times the Amish are romanticized in literature and in modern society in general. Garrett paints a picture of realism.

One of the things that made me stop and think after reading the book was that she didn't have many photographs by which to remember her childhood and family. There are so many things I take for granted in modern life that I can't fathom not having photographs of my family from years ago.

I think the thing that cemented Crossing Over at 4 stars for me is that the story itself and the way it was told was compelling. I felt like I knew the author as I was flipping through the pages. There aren't many books that come across so clearly for me.

And yes, I'm on an Amish kick right now.

Looking for a Miracle: Brides of Lancaster County Book 2 by Wanda E. Brunstetter

Looking for a Miracle is a novel about an Amish woman in Lancaster County, PA named Rebekah Stoltzfus. Rebekah was paralyzed in a freak accident when she was a child, and as a result she is wheelchair bound. Looking for a Miracle takes Rekekah's point of view, her suitor's point of view (Daniel) and her sister, Nadine's, point of view. Rebekah must deal with her disability with relation to growing into a self-sufficient woman and how that relates to love and marriage.

I listened to the audio book version. I give this book three stars. *** I enjoyed the story and would listen to it again if given the chance, but I found myself a little frustrated by it at the same time. Looking for a Miracle is what I would call a "sweet romance." I expected it to be pretty chaste, which it was. What frustrated me about the novel were some of the same things that I also liked about it.

The biggest thing that irritated me was that the characters were a little too realistic. Nadine was constantly whining about how Rebekah got to do things she wasn't allowed to do. Rebekah was constantly focusing on the limitations her disability posed. Though very realistic teenage behavior and behavior for someone learning to cope with a disability, I felt like I wanted to give both characters a good talking to, slap them in the face, and just tell them to deal with it. Nadine's character in particular was very realistic in her self centeredness, but it got old page after page. I wanted to suspend my disbelief a little more. Brunstetter's constant use of showing the readers these two character's thoughts annoyed me. It's bad enough to hear a teenager constantly whine in real life about her siblings, but to hear their thoughts was a little much for me.

But it was realistic...

One thing that kept me engaged in the plot was that Brunstetter did an excellent job of dropping just enough Pennsylvania Dutch into all the character's speech to remind me that in real life these characters would be using very little English amongst themselves. Brunstetter uses a lot of Pennsylvania Dutch to English cognates, which greatly added to their characterization. I found myself looking for some print books about the Amish just to see how some of these words were spelled.

Another thing I liked about Looking for a Miracle is that Brunstetter's characters aren't romanticized to the point of being flat. It's easy to pigeonhole the Amish into an idea of what they should be like, but Brunstetter's writing shows the common humanity these characters have. The Amish get angry, irritated, lazy, sad, etc. just like others. I think Looking for a Miracle's best feature as a novel was Brunstetter's ability humanize the characters into people I'd like to know if I could meet them even though this was a work of fiction.

One thing that I would have liked to have addressed a little more in the book was what Amish group was fictionalized. Was this Old Order Amish? Beechy Amish? Etc.? As I choose book 2 to listen to and review, perhaps the answer is in Book 1 and I need to read book 1. I have a knack for picking books up the middle of a series. Other than the specific Amish group, choosing book 2 was very easy to understand the plot. This wasn't a novel in which not reading book 1 detracted from the story as I plucked this one from the middle of a series.

Brunstetter also does a good job describing the way of life the characters have established. I could picture all the gas powered items, the farm, the singings, etc.

I think the other thing keeping me from rating this book higher than 3 stars was the pacing. It was fitting that the pacing of the plot was slow; The Amish have a slow pace of doing things. I just wasn't used to taking 6 1/2 hours to listen to a storyline I could have summarized in three sentences. Perhaps I should read more sweet romance before being as harsh, but oh well. I did enjoy the novel, though.

Brunstetter surely didn't have any control over the last thing that made me rank the book lower, but I have to write about it. I listened to the audio book without seeing the cover. Library audio books are sometimes that way. When I finished Looking for a Miracle and looked the title up on Amazon to link to this page, I was disappointed because the book version has the characters' faces on the cover. The Amish don't like themselves portrayed with their faces showing. The publisher surely knows it. I know that Brunstetter knows it because her web page tactfully leaves the faces obscured with the images portrayed.

Chosen Prey by John Sandford

Chosen Prey by John Sandford is the 13th book in John Sandford's Prey series. John Sandford is the pen name of John Roswell Camp. He is originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Oddly enough, I didn't know this when I chose to read/listen to Chosen Prey. I have to root for my fellow native Iowans.

In Chosen Prey, The police chief, Lucas Davenport, hunts a serial killer named James Qatar. I'm not including any spoilers in this review, so I'm not going to get into a lot of detail about killings other than to say Sandford establishes very early in the book that Qatar is the killer. It's up to Davenport and his team of investigators to find him before he kills again.

Overall I enjoyed Chosen Prey very much. It was a page turner, and although I knew who the killer was, I was on the edge of my seat while reading/listening to the audio book version of the novel. Sandford does a good job of creating realistic characters and building tension from scene to scene and chapter to chapter. I even found myself identifying with Qatar at times. It's a rare quality to identify with a serial killer when I read. I think that's why I was so drawn in. I almost didn't want him to be caught.

I give this book three and a half stars. *** 1/2. There were more aspects I liked than didn't like, but a few things about Chosen Prey really bothered me too. One of those things wasn't within Sandford's control. The audio book version I used had an author interview at the end lasting nearly 40 minutes. When Chosen Prey ended, I was expecting another 40 minutes of story. Had I read the book version this wouldn't have been a problem. As it was, however, I felt cheated that the novel ended when it did. I kept waiting for one more plot twist, and suddenly the whole thing was over.

Marshall, Davenport, Lucas, and Qatar were finely crafted characters. Dell, Marcey, and Weather were harder for me to get to know. Their personalities and actions were important to the plot, but I didn't feel like I related with any of them. I think part of this was because Weather's last name was used. I wasn't sure if Dell was the investigator's first or last name. Marcey felt like a secretary to me rather than a cop. Her role worked with the plot, but I felt like a whole can of worms was opened that wasn't able to be resolved. I wanted to know if she went back to more in depth police work.

Perhaps part of my problem was choosing the 13th book in the series rather than book number one. Overall I was still able to enjoy the novel on its own merits without having to have read the preceding 12 novels, but my favorite kind of series as a reader is one in which I can pluck a book out of the middle and not have a lot of loose strings.

My other issue was that Qatar's bag of bloody clothes isn't really tidied up. Lucas Davenport spends a lot of time looking for it, and the bag with the clothes isn't really a closed issue at the end of Chosen Prey.

I did manage to listen to 13 hours of audio in 3 days, so I was pretty sucked into the plot. I would have given this one 4 stars if the bloody clothes would have been better addressed. Maybe I just need to read book 14?

Absence of Nectar by Kathy Hepinstall

Absence of Nectar by Kathy Hepinstall was a delightful book. Hepinstall weaved several stories into Absence of Nectar, all of which could have stood on their own and been interesting without the other subplots. Alice, the narrator, tells the story in a way that is both easy to understand but is also believable. Telling the story through the eyes of an eleven year old I think added to the genius of the book because Alice's perception of the events was a lot different than it would have been had her brother, Boone, been the narrator. It wasn't until the end of the book that I really started to think of the events more as Boone's story than Alice's. I think the case could be made that either of the two children could have been the main character.

I listened to Absence of Nectar on audio book, and I was glad that I did. Hepinstall's language throughout the book felt poetic in its rhythm. I definitely wouldn't classify it as a prose poem, but the rhythm of the words on the page helped me to stay interested in the plot. I listen to a lot of audio books, and very few achieve this quality.

I found myself liking all the characters in Absence of Nectar except for Simon Jester. I don't want to spoil the plot, but I will say that Hepinstall's writing makes it easy to hate some of the characters I ultimately ended up liking. There was enough room for redemption to keep them from becoming flat on the page.

Although I enjoyed Absence of Nectar, I'm not sure how I categorize it. I've seen it listed as a thriller when looking up information online. I don't agree that it's a thriller per se, but I'm not sure it's genre fiction at all. There's a little bit of everything in the book. Death, life, romance, tragedy, etc. I think contemporary fiction is probably the best label for it. There's a universal quality to the plot that makes me think readers of many different types of fiction would enjoy reading Hepinstall's work.

I give Absence of Nectar four stars. **** Without a doubt, I recommend the book.

There were a few things that bothered me about the plot that keep me from giving it five stars. First and foremost, I found myself wondering why Boone was so religious/spiritual. Alice gives details over and over again on her take on her pagan gods and her own sacrifices to them to keep her family safe from Simon Jester, but ultimately Boone is more spiritual than she is. He's always talking about God and so forth, but there's never really an explanation for why. Did he have a conversion experience? There isn't anything particularly useful by way of exposition that would suggest Alice and Boone's parents were spiritual or even took the kids to church or made them read the Bible. Yet, Boone borders at times on being a religious fanatic during certain parts of the novel. I don't know many people who were that way as kids without either the parents being pretty zealous or the kid having some huge experience causing him to talk about God all the time.

At one point, Alice and Boone are in a Catholic church and Alice describes the church in enough detail to make me think that either Hepinstall intended the kids to be Catholic or she stepped out of Alice's perspective for a few pages to add detail regarding their setting. Other parts of the story would suggest the kids weren't Catholic, though. The biggest two things were that both Alice and Boone's mother and father divorced and remarried.

Given the vast detail and length (it took over 10 hours on audio book to listen to the unabridged version) these are somewhat minor things I'm criticizing. Even with those questions lingering, I finished Absence of Nectar in 3 days.