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.

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!

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!!

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.