Déjá Dead (Temperance Brennan #10 by Kathy Raichs

Description:

Dr. Temperance "Tempe" Brennan spends her days in the autopsy suite, the courtroom, the crime lab, with cops, and at exhumation sites. Often her long days turn into harrowing nights.

It's June in Montreal, and Tempe, who has left a shaky marriage back home in North Carolina to take on the challenging assignment of director of forensic anthropology for the province of Quebec, looks forward to a relaxing weekend.

First, though, she must stop at a newly uncovered burial site in the heart of the city. One look at the decomposed and decapitated corpse, stored neatly in plastic bags, tells her she'll spend the weekend in the crime lab. This is homicide of the worst kind. To begin to find some answers, Tempe must first identify the victim. Who is this person with the reddish hair and a small bone structure

My Thoughts:

It been more than a week since my last post; been to busy to post anything. Finally found some time.  I had my eye on this series for a while, but I’ve been putting it off, one of the reasons is that I also watch Bone, the TV show. For those who do not know show Bones is based on Kathy Reichs’s books. I heard a lot of different things about these book from fans of the show and fans of the actual series. Both are mixed, so I decided to give this a try. I was in a mood where I wanted to read something gory, something other than my usual teen or romance books that I read.

This was a very good book, it had a lot of twist and turns. Filled with mystery, there is a lot of forensic anthropology details at the beginning of the book, but not as much towards the end. I really liked Temperence’s character, she was well developed, tough, caring, and compassionate. I thought that I would have hard time getting into this story because I watch the show, which is very much different from the books. However, I never even though of the show once while I was reading, which is good.

I did find this book somewhat disturbing, because of the nature of the crimes. It was about a serial killer who targets women in Montreal area. For someone who has taken criminology classes reading books like this sometimes I find hard, because I am a woman. Most serial killer victims are women and majority of the time the nature of the crime is sexual in nature. Even other crimes, such as domestic abuse, rape, murder, majority time the victim is a women. But that is not to say that there are no male victims, there are. I find it very hard to read books like this, they make me angry and upset. Even though I know that it is just a story, it still makes me upset, because I know that this could be someone’s reality.

On the happier note, this was a very good read and I would recommend this book to all mystery or crime readers. However if you do watch the show, Bones, I would suggest that you do not compare the two too much. You will not find a lot of similarities.

Ink Exchange (Wicked Lovely #2) by Melissa Marr‏

Description:

To 17-year-old Leslie, the tattoo is a thing of indescribable beauty, a captivating mark that she must make her own. But this subtle web of eyes and wings brings with it a transformation that no sweet young girl would ever imagine or welcome. Like its predecessor, this stand-alone sequel to Wicked Lovely plunges its youthful heroine into a faery world of almost constant peril. A tantalizing urban fantasy that won't let go (from Goodreads).

My Thoughts:

This is second book in Wicked Lovely series; this book was not about Aislinn, Keenan and Seth, but it is about Leslie Niall and Irial. Leslie is Aislinn’s friend, we meet her in book one.

I liked this book more than I did first book in the series; Leslie’s character is so much better written and developed than Aislinn character was. Leslie is very strong, smart, knows how to hold her own, even considering what was done to her. I felt angry and sorry for her for what she had to go through at the hand of her own brother, I think that makes it even worse. But what I liked the most about her was that she did not let the bad things that happened to her bring her down, she was not whinny, weak, but rather brave and strong.

Niall and Irial characters were one of my favourite in this series, you learn how they think, feel and why they do things. At first you think that Irial is evil, but as you read you learn that he is not evil. He is not good but any means, at least by human standards, but nothing is black and white. I like his protectiveness over Leslie, even though her was using her, he still cared for her. What made me like him even more when he went after Leslie’s brother and dealer that hurt her. I know people say revenge brings you no happiness, but it might bring her some peace of mind that they can never hurt her again. Niall was another character that I enjoyed reading about, and I was really thorn between him and Irial because I liked both of them. Niall struggles with his past and his feelings for Irial and Leslie. He struggles with past of things he has done, dealing with guilt.

This book also made me think of how much we take our ability to feel wide range of emotions for granted. We feel things, but really do we ever think about not being able to feel anything? What that would be like? All Leslie’s emotions were taken away from her before she could feel pain, anger, etc., even though she knew that she should be feeling these things. At first she welcomed not being able to feel anything but after a while she wanted to feel something anything. Even though the surge of those emotions was overwhelming she wanted to feel them. I guess at the end, it does not matter how painful, angry, sad, you want to feel those things.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, like I already said better than book one. I would recommend this to all readers who enjoy reading faerie stories; story is well written, well developed, plot line moves quickly and likable characters. I give this book 4/5 Stars.

Red Riding Hood by Sara h Blakley-Cartwright, Catherine Hardwick (Introduction by)

Description:

The blacksmith would marry her.
The woodcutter would run away with her.
The werewolf would turn her into one of its own.

Valerie's sister was beautiful, kind, and sweet. Now she is dead. Henry, the handsome son of the blacksmith, tries to console Valerie, but her wild heart beats fast for another: the outcast woodcutter, Peter, who offers Valerie another life far from home.

After her sister's violent death, Valerie's world begins to spiral out of control. For generations, the Wolf has been kept at bay with a monthly sacrifice. But now no one is safe. When an expert Wolf hunter arrives, the villagers learn that the creature lives among them--it could be anyone in town.

It soon becomes clear that Valerie is the only one who can hear the voice of the creature. The Wolf says she must surrender herself before the blood moon wanes...or everyone she loves will die.

Based on a screenplay written by David Leslie Johnson

My Thoughts:

Little Red Riding Hood used to be one of my favourite stories as a child. So when I found out that there is a movie coming out and a book I had to read the book. Even though, the book is based on the movie rather than the other way around. Which I thought was interesting and wanted to know how that worker out. Now all I have to do is see a movie when it comes out.

Once I have finished the book I had mixed feelings about it, I did not hate the book but I did not love it. It was an easy and enjoyable read. Book was not action filled as I thought it would be, I mean there was some action towards the end, but nothing major. Even thought there was not a lot of action; plot was moving fast. I really liked Valerie, she was a very well done character, but she was the only well done character. All other were flat and not well developed at all; it was like the author only concentrated on Valerie’s character and all others were just given a brief description. I really could not say if I liked Peter or Henry, because I really do not know, there was not enough background on them for me to say that I like them or dislike. There was not enough character interaction between Valerie and Peter or Valerie and Henry. I wish that there was more tension between the three main characters, lack of it left it somewhat bland. Also, mystery behind the werewolf and who is the werewolf was not very well done. I was able to discover who the werewolf was from the beginning, It was kind of obvious. Maybe that was done on purpose but I did not see the point behind it, it would have been more interesting if mystery behind the werewolf identity were better hidden. It was just too easy. There weren’t many scenes with the werewolf but those few that we did get to read about were not amazing, they were short and not very descript.

However one other thing that I need to mention, it’s not that this book has no ending, it does end. However, after the last chapter , on the next page there is a teaser that says something along these lines “is this Truly the end of Valerie’s story” . get this, readers have to wait till the day movie is released to the theatres to find out what really happens at the end. You have to go to the movie website, I believe, to read the “last” chapter.  Even though I did not buy this book, I borrowed it from a friend, but I would not put it past the publishers to realise another edition of this book with the “last chapter” sometime after the movie is released. But who knows.

Overall, this was an alright book, not wow type of book. I am still going to see the movie when it comes out , I hope that I like it more than I liked the book. I give this book 3/5 STARS.