TO BE REVIEWED:

The Tiger's Wife --Tea Obreht

The Lost Empire and The Tombs --Clive Cussler

The Vintage Books of Contemporary Short Stories --Tobias Wolff

The Angel's Game --Carlos Ruiz Zafon

IQ84 -- Haruki Murakami

The Forgotten Garden --Kate Morton

The Casual Vacancy -- J.K. Rowling

The Imperfectionist --Tom Rachman

Holidays on Ice -- Dave Sedaris

My New Years Resolution is to be better at updating my blog! I read 42 books in 2012 (and listened to about 5 audio books, if that counts!!!) and I only have about 10 reviews from 2012! Just a bit behind!!! So for 2013 I will finish reviewing the last 10 books I read in 2012 and then keep up with all the books I will read in 2013!!!

Spartan Gold, Clive Cussler

Spartan Gold, by Clive Cussler

This book was a happy find when my manager at work loaned it to me. I've said it once, I'll say it again, recommend, lend, or mention a book, I will read it!!!!! I love getting new reads from people. Anything and everything, people! I read it all!!! Anyways, I digress...

This was an awesome, amazing, couldn't put it down, action/adventure book. It follows married couple Sam and Remi Fargo, treasure hunters, on a whirl wind adventure. This is also a historical fiction book, so there are lots of little historical nuggets about Napoleon's lost treasure, Greek history (Delphi and lost Greek statues made of pure gold...), Persian history (focused on Xerxes the Great, a very kick ass dude, until he died, at least) and all that is brought together by the power hungry Persian Bondaruk who is OBSESSED with all this stuff because he thinks he is a direct descendant of Xerxes himself.

Sam And Remi are vacationing and happen to find a shard of a wine bottle that kick starts their journey of finding Napoleon's lost treasure, a convoluted treasure hunt with secret codes that the Fargo's research team flawlessly decode. Bondaruk catches wind of these finds and tries to threaten the Fargo's to give up the search. When that doesn't work, he just uses them to continue his search. What really cracks me up about these two, the Fargo's, is that they will literally have just gotten gunned down, and then in the next scene they are getting deep tissue massages at the Four Seasons! Like nothing happened! Just another day, I guess!! But anyways, the Fargo's follow the trail of the wine bottles, and into Bondaruk's mansion to get the other bottle, and discover the bad guy's obsession with Persian history and weapons. They put the pieces together and figure out the whole Persian side to it, are lead to a cave, and BOOM, they find missing Greek statues made of pure gold (Napoleon's lost treasure). Just like that...

Well obviously not, there are of course huge cat and mouse chase scenes, car crashes, war wounds, etc.  Like is said, it was a pretty great action/adventure story, so getting to the treasure was just a fraction of the good stuff...

My only real complaint of this book was the ending. It was like Cussler was only given so many pages to write this story in, and such a fantastic story going, that he got to the last 10 pages and was like, Oh yea, this has to end like now. And that is pretty much how it did end. They got to the cave, had a shoot out with the bad guys, and then called in a chopper to pick em up, and they decided what their next adventure would be. It was just...to quick. I wish that there was just a little more closure, like what happened with the statues, the repercussions of Bondaruk and his men and his obsessive collection. It was all wrapped up very quickly in a neat and pretty bow, and I don't know, just wasn't the ideal way for it to end for me.

With that said, the next adventure, The Lost Empire, looks promising and I can't wait to start reading it!!!!!

Moon Dance, J.R. Rain

Moon Dance, by J.R. Rain

This was a quick, fun vampire book. The first of a series, we meet Samantha Moon, who apparently is a vampire. Refreshingly, this was not your typical vampire novel. She is a private detective, working mostly at night, but unlike most vamp books, she has a family, and because of that, she is trying to maintain some sort of normalcy in her new life.

Let's backtrack...the book begins with meeting Sam in her house. Her vampire status is never really declared, instead, she has a "condition". She slathers on sunscreen, wears long sleeved shirts and big brimmed sun hats to pick her kids up from school. She seems real lethargic during all this, but once the sun goes down she seems to perk up. We learn that her marriage seems to be on the rocks as well.

She takes a case and meets with her new client. This is where the supernatural really comes out. Her new client, Kingsley Fulcrum (I think some of the names in this book is are kind of silly...like Kingsely Fulcrum...). Turns out Fulcrum is a werewolf. And makes her admit that she is a vampire. The story continues with her working for Fulcrum, trying to figure out who tried to kill him, figure out what to do with her marriage (which doesn't end well) and embrace what she really is without losing everything important, and figuring out what to do when and if she does.

Overall, though it was a new look at a vampire book, not stereotypical at all, it was not exactly a home run. I felt like maybe this book was a good start to something better, and I am looking forward to reading more of the series. I just hope that the character development grows and the stories get a little deeper, as this story just kind of skimmed the surface of anything real deep. Not that every book needs to be deep and telling, but it felt like everything was just on the surface. This could be because Samantha herself has not delved into herself and the vampire within, holding on to a life that she can no longer functionally be a part of. The end of the book gave the impression that book 2, Vampire Moon, might open up to that.

600 Hours of Edward, by Craig Lancaster

600 Hours of Edward

What can I say about this book, except that it was a very quick read. It was a quick read because it was very, very, very repetitive.

Let me back track. This story was about a man named Edward, who has Asperger's. I have read a few books and seen a few movies and shows about Asperger's and I understand that most people with Asperger's live in their own worlds, depend on familiarity and routine, but I felt that Lancaster took the most least imaginative way of portraying this. Every chapter consisted of one day, and every chapter started the same; him waking up, "completing his data", and so on. Not gonna lie, I skimmed probably 70% of this book because it was all the same, and even when it was a little bit different, it didn't change or help the story in any way.

All in all this book was a flop and a waste of time for me. I am glad it only took me one afternoon and half an evening to read, because if it took anymore I don't think I would have made it.

=-/

The Dark Monk: A Hangman's Daughter Tale, Oliver Potzsch

This was the long awaited sequel to The Hangman's Daughter (which I STILL think was poorly named..the sequel is no different...) and it really wasn't long awaited because I really had no idea it had come out! BUT I   was pretty excited to download it to my kindle and start reading it right away!! We start off about a year (give or take) after the first book ended. Magdelena and Simon are still a couple, as starcrossed couple, but a couple nonetheless, and the Hangman (Jakob) is still hangin' people. There is a mysterious murder of a monk and Simon calls in Jakob to take a look at the and both decide that this gluttonous monk did not just overindulge for the last time, but was in fact poisoned. Some seedy characters dressed as monks that have been hanging around the town are very suspicious, and some robbers have been terrorizing the trading roads. So there is a LOT going on in this story, but it is not all always in the front line. In someway, somehow most everything is connected in one way or the other. The mystery itself is intriguing. Very Illuminati/Knights of Templar stuff going on. At times I feel like some of the story lines (especially with some of the townspeople or even with Kuisl) seem a little more strained than it did in the first book, but it was still an overall good read! I would recommend it for sure if you liked the first one! Having read the first book, however, is not necessary in understanding all the goes on in this sequel. Some of the relationships obviously go back to the first book, but there is always a little summary between them to remind/catch the reader up!

Defending Jacob, William Landay

Man. Talk about a book with a twist at the end. I never saw it coming! This was a pretty typical court room drama, but it was a good one. I like court room books, but I don't have that much experience in them. Most of the court room books I have read have been Jodi Picoult books. Maybe a few other ones, but most just the Picoult books. Anyways. The book at times was a little hard to follow, but that was mostly because of the BIG twist at the end. So without giving it away.........

Andy Barber is a DA in a small town, and a horrendous murder happens at his sons school. He takes the case (as any DA would do for a  high profile case would do), but is then forced off the case when his 15 year old son Jacob is implicated. During some of the book, you are following transcripts from the court and those move into Andy's narrative of the case and how he sees it, and how others perceive him. You see his whole family change and fall apart and rebuild, yet they are never the same.

That's a small summary of the book, without giving much away. This is one of those books that once you know the twist, once you close the book, re-reading it would never be the same. Sure, you might catch a few nuances you hadn't noticed the first time around, and you would probably be able to follow everything to the T, BUUUUUT, it's like the Sixth Sense, once you know, you know, and you don't need to read it again.

Anyways....I really liked this book, except the portrayal of the teens in the story. It was very sterotypical teenage "talk". All the teens said "like" every other word and relied on social media to be heard and as a scapegoat. Landay painted Jacob as a troubled teen (and honestly, what teen isn't  troubled...) which I guess would explain his introverted-ness and general aloofness, but I still feel like all the kids portrayed in the book were very silly. Other than that, I enjoyed the book, the twist, the topic, and the way things were explored and explained. I highly recommend this book for its content and also for it being a pretty quick read. I really couldn't put it down, especially towards the end as (semi-spoiler!!!) everything unraveled! I was on the edge of my seat, and when I closed the book, all I could say was "Damn...damn...."

So pick this up and give it a read and let me know what you think!!!!!!!!!