Most Likely to Die

I picked up Most Likely to Die because one of the authors, Wendy Corsi Staub, is probably my favorite suspense authors. She, along with Beverly Barton and Lisa Jackson, worked together to write this novel, and I picked it up on it's release date. I was glad I did! Four out of five stars.

It's been twenty years since the night Jake Marcott was brutally murdered at St. Elizabeth High School. It's a night that shattered the lives of Lindsay Farrell, Kristen Daniels, and Rachel Alsace. It's a night they'll never forget. A killer will make sure of that...

A 20-year reunion has been schelduled for St. Elizabeth's. For some alumni, very special invitations have been sent: their smiling senior pictures slashed by an angry red line...

Three women have been marked for death. Tonight, as the music plays, and the doors of St. Elizabeth are sealed, a killer will finish what was started long ago, and the sins of the past will be paid for in blood...

I loved this book. The writing was done very well, and the transistions between the authors were seamless. The suspense was high, though I was able to figure out who the killer was about halfway through the book. I loved the main characters, Rachel, Lindsay, and Kristen and am happy to see that both Rachel and Lindsay are characters in Staub's and Barton's upcoming novels. I will be sure to get those next month. I loved getting to know the three girls through the sections and to see their friendship grow close again after 20 years of separation.

If you haven't read Staub yet, I cannot highly reccommend her novels. She also writes under the name Wendy Markham and has written for Red Dress Ink the Slightly series. Those are hilarious and a new one is going to be released later this year, I believe.

Up next is Rachel Gibson's True Confessions. Just grabbed it off of the TBR bookshelf.

Dream Man by Linda Howard

I got Linda Howard's Dream Man from the thrift store for $0.20 awhile ago. I was leaving for somewhere and needed to have a book with me just in case, and grabbed it off of the bookshelf and I am glad I did. 4 out of 5 stars.

Marlie Keen was trying to lead a quiet, ordinary life. She thought the knowing- the clairvoyance that allowed her to witness crimes as they happened- had been destroyed in the nightmare of her past. Then one night it returned with a vegeance, and she desperately needed to find someone to make it stop.

Detective Dane Hollister of the Orlando police department had never met anyone like Marlie. He had doubts about her clairvoyance, but there was no doubt how much he desired her. Her soft, sweet scent set his blood afire, and he wanted to wrap her arms and chase the sadness from her eyes. To Marlie, Dane was all heat and hard muscle, and he made her body come alive as it never had before. But not even she could forsee where their passion would lead: a hungry quest for the elusive, dreamy ecstasies of love... and a dangerous journey into the twisted mind of a madman who would threaten their happiness and their lives...

With her bestselling mix of stirring sensuality and breathless excitement, Linda Howard reveals the heart's most intimate secrets in this irresistible tale of romance- a sizzling contemporary story that will hold you spellbound.

This was a great story and was a touching love story with good suspense. One of the things that I like about the Linda Howard novels I have read is that the love aspect of it really starts to develop early on and you get to see the hero and heroine be in love. There is not a bunch of buildup and then just a rushed ending with a HEA ending. Marlie and Dane seem to be an odd couple, but they are a great match.

The mystery is not really a mystery since you know who the bad guy is but the suspense is done well. I also enjoyed the paranormal aspect though I seem to only like paranormals that have psychics in it. Linda Howard is quickly becoming a favorite of mine and I know that Kristie, a fellow blogger, suggested a few other titles of hers that I have picked up. I do plan on reading those pretty soon.

I am on Spring Break this week so I hope to get some more reading in! I hope everyone else is reading great books and enjoying the wonderful weather across the country. I know I did today!

Nature Girl

I finished listening to Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen on my way into work today. As always, the book was fantastic and wonderful to listen to! Four out of five stars!

The engaging and diverse screwball cast includes Boyd Shreave, a semicompetent telemarketer; Shreave's mistress and co-worker, Eugenie Fonda; Honey Santana, a mercurial gadfly who ends up on the other end of one of Shreave's pitches for Florida real estate; and Sammy Tigertail, half Seminole, who at novel's start must figure out what to do with the body of a tourist who dies of a heart attack on Sammy's airboat after being struck by a harmless water snake. When Santana cooks up an elaborate scheme to punish Shreave for nasty comments he made during his solicitation call, she ends up involving her 12-year-old son, Fry, and her ex-husband in a frantic chase that enmeshes Tigertail and the young co-ed Sammy accidentally has taken hostage.

Hiaasen's books are always wonderful, and I really enjoy the readers. I want to move to Florida, so I always look forward to reading books that are set there. There are exciting characters in Hiaasen's books, and he always seems to find things that annoy all of us and really makes them fun! I need to check out more of his older novels and see if the library has any on CD. They really make the drive a lot more fun.

I also bought an IPOD last night. I found out through my library I can check out free ebooks and free audiobooks through the internet and download them to my computer or IPOD. DH and I just bought a treadmill last week, so the IPOD is a perfect way to listen to audiobooks to keep me excerising!

Well back to work! Happy reading!

Flush by Carl Hiaasen

I picked up Flush from a local library because I wanted to include it as a text that I was going to use for a project for school. Though it was written for middle school aged students, I had to read it for some ideas on how to incorporate it. I am glad I did, as it was enjoyable and a fun read. 4 out of 5 stars.

Noah's dad has a little problem with anger control. He tried to stop the Coral Queen casino boat's illegal dumping... by sinking the boat.

But his bold protest fizzles. Within days the casino is back in business, and Noah's dad is behind in bars and out of action.

Now Noah is determined to succeed where his father failed. But even though pumping raw sewage into the waters of the Florida Keys is both gross and against the law, it turns out it's near impossible to catch the flusher- especially when he's already bamboozled the prosecutors, the local press, and even the Coast Guard.

But Noah's got a few allies of his own. There's his little sister, Abbey, an unreformed childhood biter; Lice Peeking, a half-soused ex-mate of the Coral Queen whi is willing to testify...for a price; and Shelly, a bighearted bartender with even bigger biceps.

Okay, so the odds aren't good. But Noah has an ace up his sleeve- a plan so crazy it just might stop the polluting, save the beaches, and prove to be the world that it's the owner of the Coral Queen, and not his dad, who is full of ...crud.

I really enjoyed this book. Carl Hiaasen is a favorite of mine, and I am even listening to his newest adult book, Nature Girl, on CD. I really like his audiobooks, as the readers are really good. Though this book is for adolescents, and it is really good for them, it was enjoyable for adult readers. There was a part of the story where I was held in suspense for Noah and his sister, and I rarely find that in other books I read. I also love the way Hiaasen writes about Florida, which has me imaging and believing that I am there. I would love to move to Florida so that is another plus. I recommend this to any and all who like humor, a little suspense, and care anything about the environment. I have so many ways I am planning on using it in my unit on the environment. Great reading!

Bad Move by Linwood Barclay

Bad Move was a book that I picked up on my last library run. It was by a new to me author, and it seemed to be like something I would enjoy. I was right, four out of five stars.

As a father of two overly curious, streetwise teenagers and husband to a wisecracking news-junkie journalist, work-at-home science fiction writer Zack Walker has a hard time convincing his loved ones to obey his rules for coming them out of harm's way. Who can blame them? Zack's paranoia ranks with that of a Twilight Zone episode. But when city life begins to prove that Zack's fears are not so fantastical, he uproots his family and heads for the tranquility of the suburbs, where planned communities prevail and fathers rest easy. Well not quite...

As Zack discovers that his plumber moonlights as a mercenary and the local domanatrix has a a swimming pool, it becomes evident that the "nice" neighborhood of Oakwood isn't the crime-free paradise he'd been promised. Then Zack stumbles upon the body of a local environmentalist, and a madcap mission of deciet and murder that leads back to his own front door. Now this paranoid pop is in a state of high anxiety and will stop at nothing to keep his family safe. But can he keep himself from snuffed in suburbia?

I really enjoyed this story. I think it falls in the cozy mystery series and I really liked it. I think it was interesting that the main character is a man, and that the author is a man as well. It defintely gives the cozy mystery a new spin.

Zack is a great character whose paranoia can easily be explained as a lot of his points are valid ones. The extremes he goes to to remind his family about safety are absolutely hilarious. The mystery is a good one, and I love the side characters as well. There are two more stories in this series, with another one coming out in May. I will definitely be on the lookout, and if Mr. Barclay's future novels are as good as his first one is, I have found a new auto-buy author. I recommend this series to all who love a good mystery and a few laughs!

After the Night by Linda Howard

After the Night was recommended to me by a fellow blogger, Kristie J, who after reading my review of Linda Howard's The Perfect Man. The next time I was at the library, I checked it out and began to read. It was very enjoyable, and I was glad I listened to Kristie's suggestion. Four out of five stars.

Faith Devlin: A poor, outcast child in Prescott, Louisiana, she'd always adored the town's golden boy from afar. But he called her white trash that sultry Southern night when his rich, respected father disappeared, along with her pretty Mom. Now Faith wanted to hate Gray Rouillard... not feel a powerful surge of desire. But she couldn't quench her passion, any more than she could hide the truth about the past she had waited so long to unravel.

Gray Rouillard: Even when he raised hell, he did it with style. Reckless, charming, and backed by Rouillard money, Gray controlled the town of Prescott- and Devlin was a name he never wanted to hear again. But when he gazed at Faith Devlin, all he saw was a swirl of tangled sheets and her silken flesh beneath him. To for her was impossible, unthinkable... because Gray Rouillard planned to use all his power to ruin her.

The mystery in the story was second to the romance... but it was well written. The sexual tension between Gray and Faith is amazingly written and done with style. The conclusion of the story was predictable, but I had a smile on my face. As a matter of fact, I had a smile on my face for most of the story. I was wishing for them to get together sooner and later and was very happy when they did. I had a hard time getting over Gray's style with the long hair and small diamond earring, as I like a clean cut guy, but loved his charm and his protectiveness over Faith. I feel like I have now become a "fan-girl" of Linda Howard and plan on searching out more of her backlist. I have "To Die For" in the TBR and want to read it so I may read the next one, Drop Dead Gorgeous. I picked it up this weekend at a thrift store for only $0.25!!!! Up next is another library book, Deadly Housewives, a series of short stories written by several new-to-me authors.

The Perfect Man by Linda Howard

The Perfect Man by Linda Howard was one of the first Linda Howard's I have read, besides Open Season. I really enjoyed the banter between the hero, Sam, and the heroine, Janine and fel that the suspense was second to the romance. While I normally like a mystery more than the romance, I felt it really went well in the story. Overall, I would give the story 4 out 5 "books".

The other thing I really enjoyed about the story was the fact that it is set in my hometown of Warren. I just moved here about 3 years ago, and it was really neat to know all of the locations and cities that are part of the story. I really think it had an impact on my interest level of the story.

I am planning on looking for more of Linda Howard's romantic suspense novels. Hopefully they will all be as good and funny!

Up next, the second book in the Abby Cooper Psychic Eye series, titled Better Wed than Dead. The reason why I selected this one is because I read the first book in the series and really enjoyed it, and it is also set in Southeastern Michigan. I figured to continue the trend! It has been sitting on my TBR bookshelf for over a year... and I do plan on getting some of these read!