Review - One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

Title: One for the Money
Stephanie Plum series #1
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publish Date: June 13, 2006
Publisher: St Martin's
Paperback, 320 pages

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I walked by this book at work so many times and never even picked it up, then it showed up on our New in Paperback table with Katherine Heigl's picture on it and I stopped in my tracks. WHAT?! A movie of hers I had missed? That's crazy talk. When I looked up the movie, I realized it hadn't come out yet. I was on a mission to read the book before the movie comes out. I plan on seeing that movie.
I was so pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed these books. Granted, I did picture the ever exciting and funny Heigl as the actor in this role, but it is written so funny. Stephanie is the main character. A woman who is losing her life. She is out of a job, can't pay her rent or bills. She takes a job as a bounty hunter - just some easy grabs til she can get back on her feet. Unfortunately, she is the most unpredictable woman who ends up accidentally falling in to the wrong places at the wrong time. She meets horrible men who despise women, especially women who are as self supportive as she is. I find myself laughing out loud, struggling to control the grin spreading across my face. Janet Evanovich has done a spectacular job bringing Stephanie Plum to life.

Check out the Movie Trailer -


Summary -
Read the Dynamite Blockbuster that Started It All!

Welcome to Trenton, New Jersey, home to wiseguys, average Joes, and Stephanie Plum, who sports a big attitude and even bigger money problems (since losing her job as a lingerie buyer for a department store). Stephanie needs cash--fast--but times are tough, and soon she's forced to turn to the last resort of the truly desperate: family.

Stephanie lands a gig at her sleazy cousin Vinnie's bail bonding company. She's got no experience. But that doesn't matter. Neither does the fact that the bail jumper in question is local vice cop Joe Morelli. From the time he first looked up her dress to the time he first got into her pants to the time Steph hit him with her father's Buick, M-o-r-e-l-l-i has spelled t-r-o-u-b-l-e. And now the hot guy is in hot water--wanted for murder.

Abject poverty is a great motivator for learning new skills, but being trained in the school of hard knocks by people like psycho prizefighter Benito Ramirez isn't. Still, if Stephanie can nab Morelli in a week, she'll make a cool ten grand. All she has to do is become an expert bounty hunter overnight--and keep herself from getting killed before she gets her man.

Review - The Dispatcher by

Title: The Dispatcher
Author: Ryan David Jahn
Publish Date: Dec 27, 2011
Publisher: Penguin

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I was at work, this book popped on the coutner and I immediately stopped what I was doing and read the back and the front of the book. It sounded so fabulous! What could be more of a page turner than a phone dispatcher getting the call from her daughter that disappeared seven years ago?

I hate to say it, but I should have put the book down after the first chapter. It was the most gruesome, bloody, gore-filled book I have read in a long time. I tried so hard to like this book. Heck, I read the whole thing, but so many times I got lost in the man using an axe to cut off another guy's toe or the man who uses his fist to shut up women.

But hey, to each their own. Feel free to let me know if you like this book. The reviews at B&N are 5 stars, so what do I know.

Summary -

Ian Hunt is the police dispatcher for the small town of Bulls Mouth, East Texas. Just as his shift is ending he gets a call from his fourteen-year-old daughter, Maggie.

Maggie, who has just been declared dead, having been snatched from her bedroom seven years ago. Her call ends in a scream.

The trail leads to a local couple, but this is just the start of his battle to get his daughter back. What follows is a bullet-strewn cross-country chase along Interstate 10, from Texas to California.

The riveting new novel from the acclaimed author of Acts of Violence and Low Life is a brilliantly original, blood drenched thriller, about the lengths a man will go to for his daughter.

Wordless Wednesday - Homemade Pizza

Homemade pizza dough with cheese, canadian bacon and pineapples.

Wordless Wednesday

Review - Scored by Lauren McLaughlin

Title: Scored
Author: Lauren McLaughlin
Publisher: Random House
Publish Date: Oct 25, 2011
Hardcover, 240 pages

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This book was so awesome!! I loved every minute of it. It was so cool the way it referenced the utopian books from my high school days like 1984 and Brave New World as if the new dystopian is the old utopian. It was a quick read, but very entertaining.

What would your score be if you were ranked according to the company you hold, the decisions you make and all of it was big brother caught on tape. There are kids who are scored and those who are not, those who are not will never get in to college, get a good job or live a life of stature. Those being scored can use everything to get a better score, even use each other's failings to gain more points. What if you could save someone, but hurt your score in the process, would you risk it all? What if your best friend made a decision that plummeted your score, would you disown them?

Summary -
Set in the future when teenagers are monitored via camera and their recorded actions and confessions plugged into a computer program that determines their ability to succeed. All kids given a "score" that determines their future potential. This score has the ability to get kids into colleges, grant scholarships, or destroy all hope for the above. Scored's reluctant heroine is Imani, a girl whose high score is brought down when her best friend's score plummets. Where do you draw the line between doing what feels morally right and what can mean your future? Friendship, romance, loyalty, family, human connection and human value: all are questioned in this fresh and compelling dystopian novel set in the scarily forseeable future.

Review - Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Title: Every Other Day
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publisher: Egmont USA
Publish Date: Dec 26, 2011
Hardcover, 336 pages

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Let's start with the obvious - the cover is SPECTACULAR!! Without knowing what the book is about, the cover itself makes me want to buy it!

This book was so weird it was awesome. Kali, the main character is a demon hunter one day and a normal human girl the next. It is continuous torture. She feels the need to hunt and kill one day and go to school and be normal the next. She can feel the minutes and hours counting down as if the clock was in her bones. She doesn't really know her background of where she came from just that her dad has a don't ask, don't tell policy that makes Kali feel alone.

When she notices a tattoo mark on a popular girl's back that signifies she will die soon, she makes a hasty decision to help her by putting her own life at risk. And the fun begins. She is thrown into the mix with new people, those who want to help and those who don't. She finally gets some insider information about her own history too.

I seriously LOVED this book!! Finally a book I was really looking forward to that did not let me down!!

Summary -
Every other day, Kali D'Angelo is a normal sixteen-year-old girl. She goes to public high school. She attends pep rallies. She's human.

And then every day in between . . .She's something else entirely.

Though she still looks like herself, every twenty-four hours predatory instincts take over and Kali becomes a feared demon-hunter with the undeniable urge to hunt, trap, and kill zombies, hellhounds, and other supernatural creatures. Kali has no idea why she is the way she is, but she gives in to instinct anyway. Even though the government considers it environmental terrorism.

When Kali notices a mark on the lower back of a popular girl at school, she knows instantly that the girl is marked for death by one of these creatures. Kali has twenty-four hours to save her and, unfortunately, she'll have to do it as a human. With the help of a few new friends, Kali takes a risk that her human body might not survive. . .and learns the secrets of her mysterious condition in the process.

Review - The Statistical Probability of Love at First Flight by Jennifer E Smith

Title: The Statistical Probability of L0ve at First Flight
Author: Jennifer E Smith
Publisher: Poppy
Publish Date: Jan 2, 2012
Hardcover, 236 pages

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The romantic in me just cried out for this book. I wanted so badly for Hadley and Oliver to end up together.

Okay, yes it does seem a bit far fetched that two random strangers meet on a plane, talk forever and feel that kinship that grows to be love in less than 14 hours. BUT my non-rational heart in me screams, "It is possible!" There are many moments in this book that I caught myself denying the parts actually could happen, but that was immediately covered up by love itself does find it's way.

Hadley is going to London to see her father who is getting remarried to a woman Hadley has never deigned to meet. Quite frankly she wouldn't even have been on the way to this wedding had her mother not insisted she go. Her father left them after being in London for half a year and falling in love with this other woman. He broke up their family and broke Hadley's heart. She doesn't want to see him.

Oliver is going to London to return to his family. His story is a bit of a mystery until the end so I am not going to give away any of it.

Hadley and Oliver are cute together. They kind of fit. There strangeness in family matters and their vulnerability catches my heart. I really liked that Jennifer Smith did a great job never letting on whether or not they would actually end up in the end. So read it and find out.

Summary -
Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. She's stuck at JFK, late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon to be step-mother that Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's in seat 18C. Hadley's in 18A.

Twists of fate and quirks of timing play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.

Review - Vampire Academy by Rachelle Mead

Title: Vampire Academy
Vampire Academy #1
Author: Rachelle Mead
Publisher:
Publish Date:

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I was completely confused for most of the book. What is a dhampire? Did she just misspell Vampire? What is a Moroi? If any book needs a companion it is this series. Rachelle Mead took no time in building the plot she jumped right in to the story. We, as readers are meant to just catch up.

Regardless of being a bit in the dark, I still really enjoyed the first book and will continue to read the next ones.

Rose is a body guard for Lissa. Lissa drinks blood and when they fled the school for protection from an unknown thread, Rose allowed Lissa to drink from her blood. When dragged back to school, Rose was in grave trouble. She ended up being in the spotlight among her peers. She chooses to take the brunt to protect Lissa. The have a bond where Rose can see within Lissa's mind and can feel her emotions. This comes in handy when protecting Lissa, but can be a burden when Lissa wants to keep secrets. Rose and Lissa have many secrets.

Rose has a very handsome, big shouldered instructor for training skills. They mostly run, but there is hope of one day learning all his protection skills. She spars with her peers in class and mostly just tries to survive after years on the lamb with Lissa.

There is so much packed in to this first book it will be interesting to see where this goes. As with the fact, this book seems to have so many followers, it's fun to be in the know.

Summary -
Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger. . . .
Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever...