Monday Mourning

Title: Monday Mourning (Temperance Brennan #7)

Author: Kathy Reichs

Genre: Mystery, TV

Published: June 1, 2005

Brennan was called in when three skeletons were found in a basement. The cop assigned to the investigation believed the three were from a century ago and was not in a rush to find out what had happened to them. Brennan was also having relationship issues with Ryan.

I will admit this book took me longer to read than it should have. I will also admit for a good portion of the book I was jealous of the characters who were in Montreal, in December, during a blizzard. I read most of the book during the summer when we were excited whenever the temperature got below 95. There were times I felt some serious envy.

I have asked myself again and again why I keep reading this series. I am not completely wild about Tempe’s character. I am annoyed she feels the need to pester the other characters into doing their jobs. Either they are not doing their jobs, they don’t agree with her how their jobs should be done, or they just haven’t gotten to it yet. My biggest problem with these books how Brennan makes the same mistake in almost every one. At some point in the story she goes off with a vague idea of what she is doing and without telling anyone where she is going, then she gets into horrendous trouble and the audience is supposed to be surprised. I have got to tell you I haven’t been surprised yet.

I think I keep coming back because I do like the character of Ryan. I have had fun watching their relationship. I really think they should work on their communication skills, but I have enjoyed where their characters have been going with each other.

Overall I give this book 3 stars out of 5.

Title: Heat Rises (Nikki Heat #3)

Author: Richard Castle

Genre: Mystery, TV/Movies

Published: September 20, 2011

A priest was found killed in a bondage club. As the investigation continued Nikki found herself in the middle of a conspiracy.

The best part of the book was the references to the television show. On more than one occasion I was able to say ha I know which episode that seen came from. Often it was in those scenes I would also find myself laughing.

 My biggest hangup was the blocking and backstabbing within the story. Nikki was doing her job and she was doing it well, but despite her exceptional performance in the past she had her badge taken away and she was forced to work outside the system. It was sudden and really didn't feel authentic because the provocation really didn't seem a good enough reason to punish her that severely.

I did enjoy this book more than the first two. The mystery was more involved and took me longer to actually figure out. I was excited I didn't know who the killer was when I first met them, which happened in the first book.

Overall I gave this book 4 stars out of 5.

Title: William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope (William Shakespeare's Star Wars #1)

Author: Ian Doescher

Genre: Play, Science Fiction, TV/Movies

Published: July 2, 2013

This book was Star Wars told in iambic pentameter.

I am pretty sure I would have enjoyed this book less if I had not seen and enjoyed the movie. Despite the chorus' directions the action was often vague. I also had a problem with many of the asides the different characters would do. I wasn't sure they were always within the established personality. My favorite person in the movies was R2 D2, but if my opinion was completely formed from this version I would have thought he was a snot and would have not liked him at all mainly from his comments to himself.

I did have fun when Leia and Han's interactions sounded a lot like Beatrice and Benedict's. Much Ado About Nothing is my favorite Shakespeare. I had never made the correlation between the four characters before even though in this context it was obvious. I believe this connection is why I liked this version as much as I did.

Overall I gave this book 3 stars out of 5.

Title: Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles #1)

Author: Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Published: December 1, 2009

Lena would be claimed by either the light or the dark on her sixteenth birthday. She believed it would be by the dark. The boy of the book Ethan was determined to prevent it from happening and losing her.

What bugged me the most was the adults. The ones who knew what was happening had more information than Lena or Ethan, but they refused to share. It was "all for the kids protection", but once the information was out it was clear it would have been better if Lena had known all of it before. The more I think about it, the lack of knowledge was a literary device for the authors to not give away too much early in the story. Since I was fully aware of that it got on my nerves even more.

The rest of the adults were easily swayed. They were willing to persecute a 16 year old girl just because she was different.  It was almost understandable for her fellow classmates to treat her with contempt, cliche, but understandable. The adults shouldn't have turned that fast or that hard against her with so little provocation. I also had a problem with Ethan's father. Okay, yes he was in mourning and depressed, but despite that he had a child who had lost his mother and because his father shut down he  ended up losing both his parents. The father should have at least been there enough to actually take an interest in what was happening in his sons life.

I was weirdly surprised the book was told from Ethan's point of view. I guess I shouldn't have been, from the beginning he was the character who knew the least about what was happening. I think since a lot of the books I have read recently the narrator has been female it was refreshing and something that took me a while to get used to.

My favorite aspect of Lena's character was her constant writing. I was even good when we, the audience, didn't actually know what she was writing about. My favorite aspect of Ethan's character was his unwavering devotion towards Lena. I liked Boo Radley probably just because he was the animal of the book. I liked Link because he was the humor within the story, I did think his character could have been more fleshed out.

Overall I gave this book 4 stars out of 5.

Title: A Raging Storm (Derrick Storm ebook Trilogy #2)

Author: Richard Castle

Genre: Novella, Mystery, TV-Movies

Published: July 3, 2012

This is the second story in the Derrick Storm shorts. A US senator was assassinated in front of Storm and the FBI agent April Showers. They are sent to figure out if one of two Russians arranged the killing.

Jones (Storm's boss) forced Storm to reenter the life of espionage as a favor. He said more than once he trusted few people and one of those few was Storm. Then Storm had to pry and work every piece of information he could weasel out of Jones. If you trust someone and ask them to do you a favor why don't you just give them the information they need in order to get the job done? Then when Storm and Showers worked together she was forced to pry and work just so she was able to do her job. Storm wouldn't tell her anything and when she got upset with him he did the equivalent of patting her on the head. Really made him unlikeable.

I enjoyed getting a little background information on Showers. It made her almost an actual memorable character.

I really hate when stories just stop without an actual ending. Okay I realize this is part of a trilogy and I will find out what is going to happen in the next book, but really if you are going to bother writing something like this just extend the novella and make it a full sized book. Thank you.

Overall I gave this book 3 stars out of 5.

Title: Naked Heat (Nikki Heat #2)

Author: Richard Castle

Genre: Mystery, Television

Published: September 28, 2010

The mystery was predictable, which for some reason in this case I was actually okay with. My problem really was with the actual writing. The suspects and person's or interest were flat. I was forced to remind myself and sometimes backtrack in the story to remember who they were. The reoccurring characters are cliche enough that I am grateful they have unusual names to help give them some personality.

This book was better than the first one where by the time it ended I wondered why they had even bothered. For me the best parts of the book were those that came from the TV show. Those scenes were I was able to say yes I remember that episode and can see where that came from.

Overall I gave this book 3 stars out of 5.

Review: Doctor Who: The Death Pit

Title: Doctor Who: The Death Pit (Time Trips)

Author: A.L. Kennedy

Genre: Fantasy, T.V., Novella

Published: December 5, 2013

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Something was going wrong on a golf course. People were disappearing and no one was really noticing when The Doctor showed up.

I thought the author was able to capture the humor and floppy whimsy of the fourth doctor. I was surprised he didn't actually show up in the story until page twelve and then it was only for a few paragraphs. He didn't reappear for another seven pages. Considering how short the story was I thought it was weird he was not in it for almost a third of the book.

The climax and resolution were both a little abrupt and I am not entirely sure the problem was really solved. Also there were plot points brought up throughout the story that were not completely explained. The story felt incomplete. 

 

 
Title: Insurgent (Divergent #2)

Author: Veronica Roth

Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Published: May 1, 2012

This book picked up where Divergent left off.

I have noticed recently a lot of the books I have been reading I have been paying attention to the psychological aspect of what happened to the characters. Most of the story dealt with the aftermath from things Tris had experienced in Divergent. Despite Tris being a little broody every once in a while I thought it was well handled. I liked how Tris who had been raised in a sheltered environment had a difficult time dealing with the violence from the first book.

It was interesting how Tris felt she was learning lessons from each faction. I thought that was a good point, but then I began tho wonder about the world which had been built in the story. How could the characters who were not divergent not understand the need to learn from each other? How did they not realize they needed each other? Then I got stuck on the idea that a person is not all one thing.
They may have one focus, but a person is more complex than that. That being said the book was fast paced and enjoyable to read.

I gave it 4 stars out of 5.

Title: A Brewing Storm (Derrick Storm Trilogy #1)

Author: Richard Castle

　
Derrick Storm was pulled back into the world of the CIA when a senator's stepson was kidnapped.

Derrick Storm is from books written by the fictional Richard Castle that do not actually exist. There is a graphic novel with the character that has been published, which the story makes more than one reference to information the reader was supposed to have gained by reading. I have never been into graphic novels so I did not read it before reading this story. Normally when reading a book that is not supposed to be the first in the series the reader will miss certain jokes or references from the previous books, but authors do not want to alienate people so they generally keep the story moving forward and if a moment from a previous book is mentioned they will either explain or keep the memory brief enough that it doesn't detract from the current plot. The references to the past in this story were just annoying. They were too many to be considered brief and very few of them were actually explained in a way that satisfied.

It was almost as if Storm was supposed to be the American Bond without the charisma. Every time he spoke to April I was thinking just stop talking. He couldn't come up with a better line than, "Come up to my suite for a debriefing"? Well I am completely shocked she didn't fall for that.

This story could have easily been a much longer book. The characters, ones we were supposed to already know and those we were just introduced to, had no background. This made them all feel like cardboard cutouts. The plot could have been thicker. Instead of getting information about the kidnapping in a report the story could have started with that as an actual seen. It would have given us a better connection to the victim. That is just one example. I felt like I was being told a story instead of reading it. I was just skipping across the surface instead of diving into the water.
Despite loyalty to the tv show I give this 2 stars out of 5.