Phantom Prey

Read May 2010 * * * * 1/2

“A widow comes home to her large house in a wealthy, exclusive suburb to find blood on the walls, no body – and her college-age daughter missing. She’s always known that her daughter ran with a bad bunch. What did she call them – Goths? Freaks is more like it, running around with all that makeup and black clothing, listening to that awful music, so attracted to death. And now this. But the police can’t find the girl, alive or dead, and the widow truly panics. There’s someone she knows, a surgeon named Weather Davenport, whose husband is a big deal with the police, and she implores Weather to get her husband directly involved. Lucas gets in only reluctantly – but then when a second Goth is slashed to death in Minneapolis, he starts working it hard. The clues don’t seem to add up, though. And then there’s the young Goth who keeps appearing and disappearing: Who is she? Where does she come from and, more important, where does she vanish to? And why does Lucas keep getting the sneaking suspicion that there is something else going on here… something very, very bad indeed?”

Brianna's Review: I thought this was a pretty good book. Took me a few chapters to get what was going on but once I was in I couldn't set it down. The author did a great job with his creativity with one character in particular. I haven't read a mystery in a while and I am happy that I read this one.

Best Friends Forever

Read May 2010 * * * * *

“Addie Downs and Valerie Adler will be best friends forever. That’s what Addie believes after Valerie moves across the street when they’re both nine years old. But in the wake of betrayal during their teenage years, Val is swept into the popular crowd, while mousy, sullen Addie becomes her school’s scapegoat.

Flash-forward fifteen years. Valerie Adler has found a measure of fame and fortune working as the weathergirl at the local TV station. Addie Downs lives alone in her parents’ house in their small hometown of Pleasant Ridge, Illinois, caring for a troubled brother and trying to meet Prince Charming on the Internet. She’s just returned from Bad Date #6 when she opens her door to find her long-gone best friend standing there, a terrified look on her face and blood on the sleeve of her coat. “Something horrible has happened,” Val tells Addie, “and you’re the only one who can help.” Best Friends Forever is a grand, hilarious, edge-of-your-seat adventure; a story about betrayal and loyalty, family history and small-town secrets. It’s about living through tragedy, finding love where you least expect it, and the ties that keep best friends together.”

Brianna's Review: I loved this book. Very nice light read, excellent for the summer and sitting out in the sun. I enjoyed her writing and never wanted to set it down. I instantly fell inlove with the characters. I liked this book from first page all the way through to the last. Looking forward to reading more of her books.

The Almost Moon

Read May 2010

My Rating: 2 / 5


"For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined.

Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this searing, fast-paced audiobook explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate. It is a challenging, moving, gripping story, written with the fluidity and strength of voice that only Alice Sebold has.”

Brianna's Review: I was very disappointed with this book. The only good thing I can say is that I was never bored. The book is over a span of 24 hours, and she is constantly moving from past to present, leaving you confused. She also has way too many characters, whether it's her daughter, friend, neighbour, etc. It took me till the end of the book to remember which character was which. The actual story itself I was also disappointed in. I mean in the first chapter the main character does something completely crazy and you think that by the end of the book you will find out what her reasons were to lead her to doing what she did, and you never really find that out. The end of the book also leaves you with no answers. I loved the Lovely Bones, and Lucky which are her two other books, so I was definatley disappointed in this book.

The Gargoyle

Read May 2010

My Rating 2/5


“On a dark road in the middle of the night, a car plunges into a ravine. The driver survives the crash, but his injuriesconfine him to a hospital burn unit. There the mysterious Marianne Engel, a sculptress of grotesques, enters his life. She insists they were lovers in medieval Germany, when he was a mercenary and she was a scribe in the monastery of Engelthal. As she spins the story of their past lives together, the man’s disbelief falters; soon, even the impossible can no longer be dismissed.”


Brianna says: This book was different, I can't say I loved it, but I didn't hate it either. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to anyone unless they had nothing else to read. One thing I did like about this book is how the author wrote it as someone telling a story.

Vanishing Acts

Read April 2010 * * * * *

Delia Hopkins has led a charmed life. Raised in rural New Hampshire by her widowed father, Andrew, she now has a young daughter, a handsome fiancé, and her own search-and-rescue bloodhound, which she uses to find missing persons. But as she plans her wedding, she is plagued by flashbacks of a life she can’t recall. And when a policemen arrives to disclose a truth that will upend the world as she knows it, Delia must search through these memories – even when they have the potential to devastate her life, and the lives of those she loves most. Vanishing Acts is a book about the nature and power of memory; about what happens when the past we have been running from catches up to us… and what happens when the memory we thought had vanished returns as a threat.

Brianna says: I loved this book, as I love all of her others. The main story is enough to make you enjoy this book, but she just adds more and more and more, so that you never know which story you want to find out more about. Each character comes with a story, and I love how the book is written in all of their views. Oh Jodi Picoult, I just can't get enough of her books!

How This Works

Hey guys!

So basically if you have read any of the books under "reviews" you can send me a written review and your star level and I will post your reviews under mine. I also will post what I am currently reading on the right hand side of the home page, you are more than welcome to read that too and send me your review. If you have a wish list of books to read you can email that to me, and I will add them to the "wish to read" page, and will read as many of them as I can! My email is bri.beck.19@gmail.com , hope to hear from you guys!

So excited for this book to come out...

Coming out May 11, 2010!

"Tessa Russo is the mother of two young children and the wife of a renowned pediatric surgeon. Despite her mother’s warnings, Tessa has recently given up her career to focus on her family and the pursuit of domestic happiness. From the outside, she seems destined to live a charmed life.

Valerie Anderson is an attorney and single mother to six-year-old Charlie---a boy who has never known his father. After too many disappointments, she has given up on romance---and even, to some degree, friendships---believing that it is always safer not to expect too much.

Although both women live in the same Boston suburb, the two have relatively little in common aside from a fierce love for their children. But one night, a tragic accident causes their lives to converge in ways no one could have imagined.

In alternating, pitch-perfect points of view, Emily Giffin creates a moving, luminous story of good people caught in untenable circumstances. Each being tested in ways they never thought possible. Each questioning everything they once believed. And each ultimately discovering what truly matters most."