Book Review : Double Click by Lisa Becker

Synopsis: Fans of the romantic hit Click: An Online Love Story will enjoy another voyeuristic dive into the lives of Renee, Shelley, Ashley, Mark and Ethan, as Double Click picks up with their lives six months later. Are Renee and Ethan soul mates? Does Mark ever go on a date? Has Shelley run out of sexual conquests in Los Angeles? Will Ashley's judgmental nature sabotage her budding relationship? Through a marriage proposal, wedding, new baby and unexpected love twist, Double Click answers these questions and more. Readers will continue to cheer, laugh, cry and cringe following the email exploits of Renee and friends.

My review: The sequel catches up with Renee and her mismatched group of friends through new relationships, new babies and friends moving. The e-mails continue to fly back and forth at a fast pace filled with wit, banter and lots of puns. I still can't keep my brain focused on the date and time part that is involved with the e-mails so I switched off to that and enjoyed the book for what it was.
The happy/sad ending left it open for another should Lisa Becker wish to go down that route.

Would be interesting to see how the dynamics of each friends relationships work out now there are partners and distance involved for them all

Book Review: Sometimes it happens. By ~Pauline Barclay

A single mum, working all hours to make ends meet wins the lottery. She and her daughter take a holiday in a complex that is out of this world. She meets her ex- How did he know she was there? Her old best friend lives nearby and is having an affair with one of the apartment owners who happens to be her neighbour while she is there.

Its all happening here. Coincidence or contrived?

This is a laugh a minute fast paced read. Highly recommended. Its light hearted. Highly unlikely to ever happen yet you can't help but join in the dream.

5/5  read from me, can't wait to read more of this authors work

Book Review: Bedknobs and Bachelors by Kathryn Brown

My Thoughts:

Another great read by Kathryn Brown.
Getting into the mind set of a mid 20's bachelor and staying in 1st person narrative all the way can't be easy. I found myself warming to the characters and changing the way I felt about them as the story went along. Lisa came across as the axe murdering type of girlfriend when in fact the obsessed one was really Janice.
We're left until the end wondering how everything will turn out. And even now I'm questioning if the main character he's done the right thing.

I give this my full 5/5, Please go buy it.

I can't wait for her next book. Fingers crossed she won't keep us waiting too long.

Perverse by Larry Rodness

19 year old Emylene Stipe, a 2nd generation Goth, is shaken to the core when her make-believe world turns out to be real.


My thoughts

Interesting, inspired, twists and turns but with a sadly normal ending. The author kept me guessing and i was surprised with a few twists that didn't turn out how i thought it would. I enjoyed the writing style and found that it flowed well. Has been left open for another should he choose to.
My rating is 4/5, i would like to have had a better ending, i feel this one was too 'normal' considering the rest of the book.

Book Review:- Arabelle's Shadows by Fleur Gaskin.

Everything in Arabelle's life is coming together. She has confidence, great friends, she's even dating Naak, a wealthy Thai socialite. But there are too many models in Bangkok. Arabelle’s broke, she can’t find an agent in New York, and Naak isn’t as wonderful as he first appears. Slowly the Shadows creep back into Arabelle’s mind, bringing with them thoughts of hopelessness and despair. The vile Shadows know something Arabelle’s refusing to remember and, if she’s not careful, they’ll use it to destroy her. Based on a true story, Arabelle’s Shadows takes us on a journey through the struggles of growing up, not quite making it as an international model, and attempting to overcome a crushing depression.

My Review:

Written in a diary form the book needs concentration. There were times where i forgot where in the time line the writer was as she jumped between present past and dream states. Modelling and the fashion industry isn't really of any interest to me, but i found the Shadows part of Arabelle's life very gripping. I can totally relate to the way she was totally controlled by them and caught up in what they were telling her. Since the book is based on a true story i can only make the assumption that the author has first hand experience of depression in its many forms and guises. The different cultures was also of interest to me and the way that they helped or didn't some case.
The author has a good grasp of language and manages to draw the reader into feeling for some character while turning them away from others. This is always a good point for me, as not all writers can do this for me. I like to be able to feel part of the story, and for the most part i did in this. I wanted to go travelling with the main character. And i wanted so much to be there to help her with her Shadows.
I rate this book as 3 stars. Had it not been about Fashion and modelling then it would have rated more highly for me.

Book Review: Nolichuck! TJ's Wild Frontier Adventure by Jackson Keene

Synopsis:  TJ’s just an ordinary fourteen year old kid with extraordinary problems at home and school: A broken up family from his parents’ bitter divorce, evil bullies almost every afternoon, failing grades, boring classes, snobby girls, mean teachers, cut from basketball tryouts, few friends.

Life is rough for TJ Cockrell.

And then that mysterious little green book had to go and throw him into the past. And not just any past, but into the untamed forbidding forests of 1802 eastern Tennessee along with the savage Indians, wild beasts, bloodthirsty robbers, backwoods ruffians, and log cabin living! Yup, it’s definitely not 2011 Knoxville anymore.

And he thought his present life was bad news! But TJ’s adventures are only beginning. Along the way, he fights off killer beasts and bandits and braves, meets the young Davy Crockett, gains a world of confidence in himself, finds his first real love, and is befriended by a fantastic frontier family who really has it together.

When he returns to the present, he’s a brand new person––but there's killers loose in his house, bullies waiting to beat him up at school, a pretty new girl at Highland High he's hasn't even seen yet. And the aftermath of the little green book to deal with!

 

My Thoughts: Following the guest post i held for the author i have read the book (admittedly with a delay due to moving and then having no Internet to post my thoughts) and i have asked what my son thought of it. My son is almost 13 and has some dealing of bullies in the past so i thought it would be interesting to see what he thought. Unfortunately he read the overview of the book and decided it was not his thing, i couldn't persuade him to try it even throwing in the idea of the history- of which he has a great interest. This is therefore based on an adult viewpoint and not as i had hoped a teenage one for which the book was written.

 

I like the concept of the story, the modern and going back in time, i felt it had some gaps. There was no real explanation of the dads disappearance and how he was suddenly so clever- some background may have slotted things together better. I'm not sure that a boy of 14 would really accept as easily that he had gone back in time and just "get on with it" as it were. I felt that the travel was made too easy, and the reader was expected to just assume the boy had understood how to keep quiet and make up a story about his life. Would people in the wild west have been as accepting as they are in the story?

In general if you don't think too much about the history then the story works and as a light hearted book with a deeper message to convey it is a good book.

 

My rating 3/5