A Shore Thing, by Nicole Polizzi (Snooki)

Well, from a lot of the comments I heard about Snooki's book, (OMG Snooki wrote a book? Are there pictures? Is it a pop up? I didn't know Snooki could write...or read!"), and the grief I got for actually wanting to read it...(not gonna lie...I totally pre-ordered the book on Amazon, straight to my Kindle so no one really even had to know I was reading it...), I thought it was really entertaining. Definitely not going to win a Pulitzer Prize or anything, but if you are looking to sit on the beach, get your tan on on a beach towel, then this book would be a great read to pass the time while you soak up the sun. It was a pretty quick read, with a pretty decent story line, so it flows pretty well. Vulgar at times, but as is Snooki! Some of the narrative sounded like it came straight from the Jersey Shore, so when it comes to originality, there's not much there. The ending was your typical, the girls get the guy and make big decisions, but the ending did leave me feeling like Snooki took the easy way out on this one, trying to tie everything up with a nice, pretty bow, but still open for a (good God) sequel. I wish it had ended a little better, but it was still the right amount of cheese, sleaze and fun!! Definitely a kick back, filler book (I read probably 75% of the book on my iPhone, on a treadmill, at the gym), and I give it a B+!!!!

Heat Wave, by Richard Castle

This was a glorified episode of Castle, and I loved reading it just as much as I love watching the show. Obviously the names are different, but the characters are pretty much interchangeable between the show and the book: Nikki Heat=Kate Beckett, Jamison Rook=Richard Castle (Castle and Rook are also interchangeable and mean the same piece in chess!) Even Esposito and Ryan are the same in the novel as well as in the show. The one big difference is that Heat and Rook act on their feelings, rather then Castle and Beckett skirting around them. It was a pretty good who-dun-it, and had me guessing who did it, and I was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, until the mystery was solved! It was great. I love when the crime is committed so well that it is nearly impossible to figure out, but still a totally plausible solution. I also liked putting the pieces together with Heat and Rook.

These characters were very likable and fun to work the mystery out with, and I am looking forward to reading the next book, in what will hopefully be a series (I am a sucker for series!!), Naked Heat. All in all I give this book an A for being fun, creative, and very entertaining. It was also a pretty quick read. I read it in about 3 or 4 days in my down time at work and before bed! If you like the show, then I think you will love this book!!

Jemima J, by Jane Green

This was a fun, escapist, Bit Chick Lit type book. A really fast read too. It is about severely overweight Jemima Jones, who lives in a small town in London and works for a newspaper. She is in love with a coworker, but because of her size, he only sees as a friend (typical). She lives with horrible roomates and had one real friend, who also works at the newspaper. The three friends discover the Internet and Internet dating, and Jemima soon develops an alter ego who goes by JJ. JJ meets Brad in a chat room and the two become involved. Pictures are exchanged. He is a Californian babe, blonde, perfect white teeth, buff and fit. So obviously JJ sends over a photo shopped picture. Soon Brad invites JJ to CA, which sets JJ off on a health kick and she gets all kinds of skinny and beautiful. She flies to LA, meets Brad, has amazing sex, but does not feel love. Brad has a secretary who HATES JJ for no apparent reason. This secretary, Jenny, is overweight and JJ tries to confide in her about how she used to be, but Jenny will hear none of it. Soon the reader, and JJ discover Brad has a BIG secret. Jenny. Jenny and Brad are in love, but since they live in superficial CA, they could never be together, so Brad needed a trophy wife, aka, JJ. JJ leaves, runs into her original love, Ben, from London, they have sex, its better than with Brad, they go home to London and live happily ever after, and she stays skinny.

Cute story, but I have a hard time believing that any woman, no matter what her size, would not be ok with the man they love shacking up with another woman just to save face. I thought the story was good up until that point, because in real life, even though people are, sadly, that shallow, they are usually not that generous. People who are that shallow tend to be selfish. It was one thing for Jenny to hate JJ, but for the relationship she (JJ) and Brad had together would have been enough to make any woman, no matter how big and self conscious, leave without blinking an eye. I don't know. That's just my opinion.

Like I said, it was a pretty quick read, with good character development and a pretty decent story line. But for that one little twist, I have to give this book a C. It just wasn't believable to me!!

The Hangman's Daughter, by Oliver Potzsch

I read this book on my Kindle. I was clicking through the Kindle Daily Post awhile ago and saw that this book was on special for $0.99, so I thought "Why not!?" It was written by a German TV screenwriter, and to be honest, it read like a screenplay. This book would honestly make a great TV mini series or movie. It had really great dialogue and descriptions. It was written very well and the story line was pretty unique. I had never read anything like this before, and although this is my first book review, I have read quite a few books. The story goes as follows:
We are introduces to Jakob Kuisl, a hangman. It is his job to torture and execute people. He has a family, but the family it alienated, because the hangman is a curse to the people, but somebody has to do it. His daughter, Magdalena is introduced, and regardless of the title, she has very little to do with the story. The young physician in town is in love with the hangman's daughter, but it is highly frowned upon because the hangman's daughter is a disgrace and can only marry into other hangman families. Anyways, those are the three main characters, Jakob, Magdalena and Simon, the physician. A boy is found by the river, murdered, and with a symbol tattooed on his shoulder related to witchcraft. The midwife of the town is arrested and accused of murder and being a witch, and this is where the story begins. Jakob takes it upon himself to exonerate the midwife and find out who is behind the chaos in town that includes multiple child murders and attempted kidnappings, the destruction of a leper house, and the involvement of the devil. The devil is a solider with a bone to pick with Kuisl.
A huge mystery begins, and it is quite enthralling. I had a hard time putting the book down, because like Simon and Jakob, you are putting pieces together as you go. You think you have an idea of who the real killer was, and then all that goes out the window because of another piece of the puzzle, or mosaic, as that is used as the metaphor throughout the whole book. The missing mosaic piece.
I won't give away the ending, but it was okay. Kind of anti-climactic, because once all the pieces are put together and everything comes together, it all kind of turns out to be people being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and all assumptions that were made were entirely wrong because there was really no binding pieces. But it was fun getting to the answer.

The ending was kind of drawn out and it eventually felt like maybe Potzsch was trying to pack in as much punch as he could, and it wasn't really necessary. As for the title, I really think it should have been titled something else, because even though Magdalena helped figure everything out and the love story that was intertwined throughout the mystery was led by her, it is kind of misleading to see the title and think the story is going to have a lot to do with her.

Overall I give the book a B-. It kept me on my toes, and I definitely enjoyed reading it.