Review: Lee Child "Gone Tomorrow" (Jack Reacher #13) ~~ #JackReacher #Review

 



Publisher:  Bantam

ISBN: 978-0345541581

My Rating: 5/5




New York City. Two in the morning. A subway car heading uptown. Jack Reacher, plus five other passengers. Four are okay. The fifth isn’t.
In the next few tense seconds Reacher will make a choice--and trigger an electrifying chain of events in this gritty, gripping masterwork of suspense by #1 New York Times bestseller Lee Child.
Susan Mark was the fifth passenger. She had a lonely heart, an estranged son, and a big secret. Reacher, working with a woman cop and a host of shadowy feds, wants to know just how big a hole Susan Mark was in, how many lives had already been twisted before hers, and what danger is looming around him now.
Because a race has begun through the streets of Manhattan in a maze crowded with violent, skilled soldiers on all sides of a shadow war. Susan Mark’s plain little life was critical to dozens of others in Washington, California, Afghanistan . . . from a former Delta Force operator now running for the U.S. Senate, to a beautiful young woman with a fantastic story to tell–and to a host of others who have just one thing in common: They’re all lying to Reacher. A little. A lot. Or maybe just enough to get him killed.
In a novel that slams through one hairpin surprise after another, Lee Child unleashes a thriller that spans three decades and gnaws at the heart of America . . . and for Jack Reacher, a man who trusts no one and likes it that way, it’s a mystery with only one answer–the kind that comes when you finally get face-to-face and look your worst enemy in the eye.


My thoughts

He's done it again. This was a brilliant story resulting in some sleepless nights because I wasn't able to put the book aside.

Reacher travels in a subway late at night, when he witnesses one of the passengers acting 'suspicious'. Moments later he's involved in a murder and events unfolding that in true Reacher style,  he does not rest until he knows the reasons for her actions.

Brilliant. It's fast paced, it's a thriller / mystery at its best.

Highly recommend this one!

Stephanie Taylor - The Picture

Publisher: Astraea Press

ISBN: 978-1463512477

My rating: 4.5/5

Sophie lives her life as a hospice nurse running from her past and over-compensating for her sins. She wants nothing more than to help others the way someone once helped her. But she never expected to get so attached to one of her patients.  Nicholas is suddenly looking for more meaning in his life than money, fast women and flashing lights. Life as a rocker has left him empty. Only Emily filled the gaping hole in his heart and with her death, his soul is broken into pieces. When two lives collide, Sophie and Nicholas know they’ll never be the same. Together, they try to figure out a message Emily has left behind. Can they succeed before the realities of life tear them apart?  (astraeapress.com)

My thoughts
 

This is a sloooow book. It's the desert for book readers - you indulge into every word and treasure every page you turn. You cry and you sigh, and deep inside you feel really good! Why 4.5 - well, actually, the start was a tiny bit slow :-)

Sophie and Nicholas meet at his party after his concert. He is drawn to her straight away, but Sophie holds back, because she's only come to give him "a picture".

But "fate" has it and they both spend some days in Sophie's apartment. They get to know each other and fall in love. Yet, they know they have to let go of the past for them to be a future together.

If you persist past the first three - four pages you will love this book. It's packed with love, loss and grief and the challenges along the way. It's full of sexual tension, yet clean. You will love little Emily who takes on the battle with cancer like a little trooper, and the way her backstory was woven into the main plot was well done!

If you're looking for a love story with depth and honesty - this one is for you!

Jill Shalvis - Lucky in Love

Publisher: Forever / Hachette Book Group

ISBN: 978 - 1 4555037228

My rating: 5/5


Mallory Quinn has had enough of playing it safe. As a nurse and devoted daughter, she takes care of everyone but herself. And as the local good girl, she's expected to date Mr. Right. but for once she'd like to take a risk on Mr Wrong and who could be more wrong than Ty Garrison? The mysterious new guy in town has made it clear that he's only passing through, which suits Mallory just fine. Besides, his lean, hard body and sexy smile will give her plenty to remember once he's gone ...
For the first time in his life, Ty can't bear to leave. Helping this sexy seductress-in-training walk on the wild side is making him desire things he shouldn't - including leaving the military for good. As their just-for-fun fling becomes something more, Mallory and Ty wonder if they could really be this lucky in love. After all ... anything can happen in a town called Lucky Harbor. (from the back of the cover)


My thoughts

Is there a petition out there I can sign up for Jill Shalvis to continue the Lucky Harbor series?

So this is a straight forward review. In short: We asked, Shalvis delivered. Another non-put-down-able story (I don't care if that word doesn't exist), in true Shalvis style with humour, wit and a few social issues ... as well as hot scenes. Mallory Quinn is the 'must-like' character, and Ty Garrison aka "Mysterious Cute Guy" the hottie who just kicked of Jax from the number one spot for 'my favourite heroes'.

Mallory, local nurse, wants to leave the "good girl" image behind, and gets lucky straight away, literally! - with Ty, Navy Seal, currently in Lucky Harbor recovering from a leg injury until cleared and deemed fit for his next mission. What starts out as a "one nighter" becomes more. More than both of them initially realise - In a wonderful "macho", yet straight to the reader's heart way, Ty shows Mallory that she needs to care for herself first and foremost before trying to save everyone else, and in return she helps him to address his grief and loss.

In the end, it leaves you wanting more. More Mallory and more Ty, because yet again the story is driven by strong and solid characters. Not to forget, the quirky Lucille has her part as well. And we get set up for the next book with Amy and Forest Ranger Matt.

LOVE IT!

Thank goodness, Amy's story arrived the other day ... so if you excuse me, I've got a date in Lucky Harbor!


Go and get'em - you won't regret it! I promise.
   

Lee Child - Without Fail

Publisher: Jove Books

ISBN:  978-0515144314

My rating: 5/5

Reacher is approached by a Secret Service agent who makes a highly unusual request. "I want to hire you to assassinate the Vice President of the United States," she says. She's the newly appointed head of the VP's security detail and wants Reacher to try and penetrate her team's shield, testing its efficacy against a genuine attack. Reacher has the skills and the stealth, and he's totally anonymous - how better to check security? What she doesn't tell Reacher is that a very determined and deadly team of assassins already has the VP in its sights. These men are skilled killers, but they've overlooked one key element - the presence of the equally lethal Reacher. (leechild.com)

 

 

My rating

O-M-G ... what a rollercoaster ride. Loved it! Though in a way short on action, it's a page turner from start to end.

Joe Reacher's ex-girlfriend, M.E. Froelich from the Secret Service asks Jack Reacher for help. Help in form of trying to kill the Vice-President Brook Armstrong. And he delivers - he finds the weak points in the protection of the VP.

Only then he learns that the threat is actually real and the hunt for the bad guy begins.

Mix a little bit of romance, yes, Reacher in a suit (!) and a twist I didn't see coming and you have a good book. Ok, IMO the bed-hopping gets a bit too much for me!

But most interestingly, add another character: Francis Neagley, a colleague from Reacher's Army days. She is a great character and let's hope that she will be back in any future stories! Or even her own?

Catherine Bennett - The Trouble with Charlie

Publisher: Astraea Press

 

ISBN: currently only available as an ebook

 

My rating: 5/5

 

 

 

Love. Desire. A psycho bent on revenge. But can Charlie Reynolds recognize the most dangerous of the three?

 

Since being out on her own at eighteen, Charlotte “Charlie” Reynolds is a street-smart “good” girl who hides her desire for love and security behind her feisty and independent personality. She just never expected a more noxious hero than wealthy, self-consumed Evan Gardner, the CEO and founder of Valley Tech., a successful software company in Los Angeles. From the moment Evan rescues her from an apparent random attack, their attraction for each other bubbles just below the surface of all-out passion.  (astraeapress.com)

 

 

My thoughts

 

Loved it!

 

Charlie (Charlotte) is attacked by a stranger while on her morning run and Evan Gardner comes to the rescue. Sounds like a cliche doesn't it? Kinda is, but these two find their way together when he offers her the job as an Au-pair (which is the wrong term as it is a nanny job - but I don't wanna be cheeky here). He feels out of his depth the way she brings along a breath of fresh air into the house as she shows his little daughter to "live life". But Charlie and Evan struggle to give into their feelings, as friends as well as neighbours seem to throw in some obstacles.

 

Catherine Bennett writes a fast paced page turner, with beautiful dialogues and the "inner thoughts" don't slow down the story. It is well written! I had a giggle though at how often those characters fall asleep over 200+ pages.  All lose ends are nicely tight up together at the end and it leaves you with a "Awwww" and a smile on your face.

 

Give it go. You won't regret it!

Lee Child - Tripwire (Reacher #3)

Tripwire by Lee Child

Publisher: Berkley Trade

ISBN: 978-0425206225

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In Tripwire, Child pits ex-military policeman Jack Reacher against his most deadly and merciless adversary yet. Kirkus Reviews noted that "Reacher swashbuckles with the best of them" and Booklist called Tripwire "edgy, exciting reading."

Jack Reacher washes up in the Florida Keys with his savings running out; he spends his days digging pools and his nights as the bouncer in the local strip club. But a private investigator intrudes upon his tropical refuge, seeking Reacher out. When he discovers the PI's lifeless beaten body lying in the street, Reacher heads north to determine who is trying to find him and why.

Tracing the dead man's trail to New York, Reacher discovers the PI was working for Reacher's former commanding officer, mentor and close friend Leon Garber. Reacher teams up with Garber's daughter Jodie, a sharp Wall Street lawyer, to find out why Leon needed Reacher's help and they find themselves embroiled in a life-threatening search for the truth—and the deeper they dig, the more dangerous and twisted their path becomes.

In this third novel featuring Jack Reacher, author Lee Child masterfully intertwines the domains of the underworld and the bureaucracy of the U.S. Army. Reacher and Jodie uncover 30 years of deceit—and their love for each other—in a thriller that reaches its heart-stopping, plot twisting climax on the 88th floor of the World Trade Center. (www.leechilds.com)

My thoughts

Another great book! BRILLIANT. Right from the very beginning I was hooked on to the story and found myself picking it up again and again for "just another few more pages". So much so, I will need to catch up on sleep and life now. :-)

Jack Reacher has taken on two jobs, but his daily life gets interrupted when PI Costello is looking for him. When he finds Costello dead in the streets, Reacher heads to New York to find out who is looking for him and why. And that's when the rollercoaster starts and won't let go of the reader until the very end.

What can I say. It was simply good, and IMHO even better than the first one. Fast flowing, interesting plot, great characters - Reacher is becoming more 'likeable' as he ponders more about life, about whether there's more to just live life on the road. Great development and with Jodie in his life now I can't wait to see where Lee Child's going with it.

About 3/4 into the book there's a lot of backstory all of a sudden. At the time it seemed long but probably only because I was so eager to get to the end, to find out about mystery, yet without really wanting the book to finish. For me it killed the flow of the story a tiny little bit, though I admit it's necessary!

The end seemed quick and we never find out what actually happened to Marilyn and Chester Stone who I thought were important characters in the story. But I would have also loved to know more about Tony - Hobie's sidekick. With such a detailed backstory I would have imagined there'd be a paragraph about him.

So I'm torn between 4 and 5 stars. Is the above really enough to lower it to 4 stars when I spent the last three days eagerly reading?

This was a great book and I thoroughly enjoyed it!




View all my reviews

Lee Child - Killing Floor (Reacher #1)

Publisher: Bantam Books

ISBN: 9780553505405

My rating: 5/5

Welcome to Margrave, Georgia—but don't get too attached to the townsfolk, who are either in on a giant conspiracy, or hurtling toward violent deaths, or both.

There's not much of a welcome for Jack Reacher, a casualty of the Army's peace dividend who's drifted into town idly looking for traces of a long dead black jazzman. Not only do the local cops arrest him for murder, but the chief of police turns eyewitness to place him on the scene, even though Reacher was getting on a bus in Tampa at the time. Two surprises follow: The murdered man wasn't the only victim, and he was Reacher's brother whom he hadn't seen in seven years. So Reacher, who so far hasn't had anything personal against the crooks who set him up for a weekend in the state pen at Warburton, clicks into overdrive.

Banking on the help of the only two people in Margrave he can trust—a Harvard-educated chief of detectives who hasn't been on the job long enough to be on the take, and a smart, scrappy officer who's taken him to her bed— he sets out methodically in his brother's footsteps, trying to figure out why his cellmate in Warburton, a panicky banker whose cell-phone number turned up in Joe's shoe, confessed to a murder he obviously didn't commit; trying to figure out why all the out-of-towners on Joe's list of recent contacts were as dead as he was; and trying to stop the local carnage or at least direct it in more positive ways. Though the testosterone flows as freely as printer's ink, Reacher is an unobtrusively sharp detective in his quieter moments—not that there are many of them to judge by.

Despite the crude, tough-naïf narration, debut novelist Child serves up a big, rangy plot, menace as palpable as a ticking bomb, and enough battered corpses to make an undertaker grin. (leechild.com)

 My thoughts

An "OMG" wouldn't even be near how I like to express what I think of this book. A page turner? Definitely! Gripping? You bet! A must read? OH YES!

So I accidentally stumbled over this book. The cover was .... nahhhh .... the blurb was ..... nahhhh, but I wanted to read something different than the usual romance, a little break so to speak! And boy oh boy did I get a break.

So there's this guy Reacher who one day ends up in this little town called Margrave in Georgia. Out of the blue, really, because his older brother once mentioned that a famous guitarist, Blind Blake, died at that place. But there's a lot more he finds out and gets himself into in quite some trouble.

I honestly loved it. I found myself sneaking into a corner of the house at any given moment just to read another two or even five pages. The characters are interesting and well developed. The story was different to what I had read before (which doesn't mean too much due to my love for romance), but well explained and believable. Jack's great and in his own way very likable from page one onwards.

Verdict: hooked to the Reacher series and want more.

PS - Nice touch with the old lady at the end!

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Jill Shalvis - Head over Heels

Publisher: Hachette Book Group

ISBN: 978 0 446571630

My rating: 5/5


Free-spirited Chloe lives life on the edge. Unlike her soon-to-be married sisters, she isn't ready to settle into a quiet life running their family's newly renovated inn. But soon her love of trouble--and trouble with love-draws the attention of the very stern, very sexy sheriff who'd like nothing better than to tame her wild ways.

Suddenly Chloe can't take a misstep without the sheriff hot on her heels. His rugged swagger and his enigmatic smile are enough to make a girl beg to be handcuffed. For the first time, instead of avoiding the law, Chloe dreams of surrender. Can this rebel find a way to keep the peace with the straitlaced sheriff? Or will Chloe's colorful past keep her from a love that lasts . . . and the safe haven she truly wants in a town called Lucky Harbor? (from the back cover)


My thoughts

L-o-v-e-d    i-t !!!

Can't say it any other way. Okay, this was #3 in the Lucky Harbor (or should it be Lucky Reader?) series and all about Chloe. We've met Maddie in Simply Irresistible (one of my favourite reads this year) and Tara in The Sweetest Thing. I've really enjoyed the Lucky Harbor series so far, in fact since "discovering" Jill Shalvis spot on 12 months ago, it's been definitely "her" year in my household! :-)

I was really looking forward to reading Chloe's story. The wild one! The one with Asthma and lack of sex because of it. The one with issues like saying "I love you" and issues with settling down. And big kudos to Shalvis - SHE DID NOT DISAPPOINT. Throw in a guy like Sawyer, a tough, sexy Sheriff, and complicate it a bit with some past issues for him as well.

With the usual Shalvis wit and humour we read how Chloe and Sawyer get closer. The development of their characters is nicely written and the care they show and give each other makes you keep reading day and night.

So .... bottom line, I could sit here and write about what else I liked, about Maddie and Tara, about Sawyer's friends, Jax and Ford, about Lance, the wonderful Lucille, but as I said, bottom line is, you need to get this one and just read it yourself. I promise you, you will not be disappointed! It's a real treat!

Now go and make 2012 YOUR Jill Shalvis year .... there's more Lucky Harbor to come - thank goodness!

Jill Shalvis - Instant Attraction

Publisher: Kensington Brava

ISBN-13: 978-0758231239

My rating: 5/5


Accountant Katie Kramer is a quintessential good girl--working hard, recycling diligently, all the while trying to ignore the feeling that she doesn't fit in anywhere. That's all she wants. Well, that--and amazing sex, and the kind of daredevil escapade she can look back on when she's crunching numbers in a dusty cubicle. Which explains why she just took a job in Wishful, California, working for Wilder Adventures and Expeditions. Waking up to find a magnificently built stranger towering over her bed--that part defies explanation. . .
After wandering the planet for months following a life-changing accident, Cameron Wilder has come back to the only home he knows. Under other circumstances, he might be thrilled to find a gorgeous woman sleeping in his cabin, but now, while he'll risk his body taking clients on adrenaline-drenched excursions, his heart is off limits. Still, Katie's killer smile triggers something deep in his gut. . .among other places. Showing her how exhilarating it can be to stop balancing her life as if it was a checkbook is the biggest rush he's ever felt--and an adventure Katie's wishing would never end... (amazon.com)


My thoughts

No wonder 3/4 of the female population is ooh'ing and ahh'ing about this book. Two words: It's GREAT. It pulls you in from the very first page and doesn't let go of you until the very end.

The main characters are Katie and Cameron (Cam) who meet in Cam's bedroom on the very first page. Great start!

Katie's just survived a traumatic accident when she flees from her life to seek some adventure - in the Sierras where she's taken on a temp job with WILDER ADVENTURES. Cam returns from his year of "finding himself traveling the world" at the same time and finds Katie in his bed. He has to deal with his own demons as well after a snowboarding accident finished his careers.

Both have an "instant attraction" and agree to do the "no strings attached" fun time. Yet, over the few weeks they lean to cope and work at their bottled up problems. The way they help each other to deal with their past was well developed and I loved it. And with the Jill Shalvis' touch of wit and humour the story was close to perfect.

Katie's a great character - I really liked her. "Balls out" is her motto, live her life and no regrets. She's the one in the "relationship" who gives, is open about her feelings and so down to earth, one can not like her. Even a guy like Cam who's trying his darnest.


So if you please excuse me, I need to order Stone's and TJ's books .... NOW!


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