Marian Keys - Anybody out there?

Publisher: Avon A

ISBN: 978-0061240850

My rating: 4/5

International bestseller Keyes is back with another quirky, heartwarming story of the Walsh sisters (Angels, etc.). Anna Walsh has returned to the bosom of her family in the Dublin suburbs to recuperate from the horrendous car accident that has left her with multiple fractures and a disfiguring scar across her face. Desperate to go back to New York and resume her normal life, she soon packs up her bags and returns to her job in beauty PR for punk cosmetics brand Candy Grrrl. A lonely and debilitated Anna leaves e-mails and phone messages for her mysteriously absent husband, Aidan, pleading for him to reply. [...] Meanwhile, she reminisces about their courtship and marriage while her kooky family (especially her Mum and hyperactive PI sister Helen) tries to buoy her spirits. Keyes's trademark blend of humor, diverse characters and a warm but unsentimental tone strikes gold.


My thoughts

I chose this book purely by looking at the shelf and taking one. Chick lit for a change please, I thought – but boy this one had me in tears, and not because of laughter.

The start is quite slow I thought. We get to know Anna Walsh from Ireland (of course that was a wee factor in my decision, too) recovering from her severe injuries – not only physically, but emotionally as well. We find out about her “best job in the world” and Aidan; Aidan the man in her life, the life she’d been living in New York before her accident.

Yet, it takes about 1/3 into the book until we find out more about Aidan and what happened that left her scarred and broken.

It was a rollercoaster of emotions and I personally think Keys did a great job combining the issues of love, loss and anger wrapped up in a chick-lit-story, though some parts of the book are quite sad and perhaps not necessarily what readers are expecting from a book for a “light-hearted” read.

“Anybody out there” was my first book I’ve read by Marian Keys and probably not the last. If you’re looking for something witty, full of humour, yet thought- and meaningful as the story follow Anna’s journey to find out whether Aidan’s doing okay, you'll definately enjoy this one!

Janet Evanovich - High Five

Publisher: St. Martin Press

ISBN: 978-0312971346

My rating: 4/5


High fives all around! The New York Times bestselling author of FOUR TO SCORE puts Stephanie Plum, America's favorite bounty hunter, back behind the wheel in her fifth high-octane thriller.

What's Stephanie up to now?

• Her Uncle Fred has disappeared.
• A body turns up in a garbage bag.  
• She's got a nasty bookie following her around town.
• Grandma Mazur has her hands on the stun gun.
• Stephanie can't keep a car for more than forty-eight hours.
• Two men are trying to get her into bed.
• She has nothing to wear to the Mafia wedding.
• And there's an angry little man (don't call him a dwarf!) who won't leave her apartment.

Bail jumping in Trenton is down to small potatoes. Stephanie's only open case is a small bond for a small violation, committed by a small person who raises Stephanie's frustration level in big ways. So short of money and long on bills, Stephanie comes up with a plan --diversify! Signing on as an intern with entrepreneurial Super Bounty Hunter Ranger, Stephanie ventures into Ranger's mostly morally correct and marginally legal operations.

None of this makes vice cop Joe Morelli a happy man. The cop in him can't help but wonder as to the source of Stephanie's expensive new cars. And the rest of him, the man who's been friend and lover to Stephanie, can't help but wonder if there's more to the partnership than meets the eye.

The internship is downgraded to second priority when Uncle Fred goes missing. Even though Grandma Mazur is sure he was abducted by aliens, Stephanie sets out to look for Fred. He's a perfectly average senior citizen, and he's disappeared without a trace while running errands. He's left his ten-year-old Pontiac station wagon locked up nice and neat in the Grand Union parking lot, the cleaning is carefully arranged on the back seat, and his wife is at home, waiting for him to return with the bread and the milk and the olive loaf bologna. Locked in the top drawer of his desk are photos of a body, dismembered and stuffed into a garbage bag. And locked away in the computer files of a another average citizen are the clues that will lead Stephanie to Fred.

Criminally original and stone brilliant, this Intermediate Bounty Hunting Survival Manual is blockbuster entertainment. (evanovich.com)


My thougths

What can I say ... another page turner! Brilliant.

The principle is more or less the same, though this book has less laughs, yet a more complex story. We have Steph who’s looking for Uncle Fred, but what should be sort of easy, turns out a bit creepy when they find photos of body parts on Fred’s desk. And that’s not all – we have the crazy Ramirez back from book one and she starts working with Ranger which doesn’t please Joe Morelli (her on again /off again boyfriend) at all. We have Grandma Mazur using the stun gun on Steph’s dad – hilarious!

Janet Evanovich knows how to put a nice story into words, with great dialogues and even better characters.

Go out and get this one too! It has a great ending – I wonder who she did put the little black dress on for.

Janet Evanovich - Four to score

Publisher: St. Martin Press

ISBN: 978-0312966970

My rating: 4/5

Janet Evanovich, bestselling author of One for the Money, Two for the Dough, and Three to Get Deadly, scores big with Four to Score, her most thrilling Stephanie Plum adventure yet. Working for her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, Stephanie is hot on the trail of revenge-seeking waitress Maxine Nowicki, whose crimes include bail jumping, theft, and extortion. Someone is terrifying Maxine's friends, and those who have seen her are turning up dead. Also on the hunt for Maxine is Joyce Barnhardt, Stephanie's archenemy and rival bounty hunter. Stephanie's attitude never wavers - even when aided by Grandma Mazur, ex-hooker and wannabe bounty hunter Lula, and transvestite rock musician Sally Sweet - and even when Stephanie makes an enemy whose deadly tactics escalate from threatening messages to firebombs. All of this pales in comparison, though, with an even greater danger Stephanie faces, when, homeless and broke, she and her hamster Rex move in with vice cop Joe Morelli.

RATED PG35 for licentious wit and libidinous cohabitation. (evanovich.com)


My thoughts

What a ripper of a book!

The fourth book of the Plum series doesn’t disappoint – it had me laughing nearly non-stop. It’s a page turner.

Grandma Mazur and Lula (whose quick wit and humour will make you like her even more) are back and we get introduced to Sally Sweet, a transvestite drag-queen musician.

Joe Morelli is back as well and finally gets together with Steph when she has to move in after her apartment was lit on fire – and they do get together, hot and steamy, very graphic and perhaps not for everyone!

And the end has a nice twist indeed. Go out and get it!

Quote of the book: "(I) Got a free beer for a $5 tip"

Sigrid Macdonald - D'amour Road

Publisher: Lulu Enterprises, Inc

ISBN:  978-1411628724


My rating: 4/5


 Tara Richards is approaching 40. The thought fills her with dread. She is unhappy with her job as a rehabilitation nurse and disenchanted with her marriage, but lacks the courage to make a major life change. When her best friend Lisa disappears, Tara's life is thrown into turmoil.


Has Lisa jeopardized her sobriety by going on a drinking binge, or has she been harmed by her partner, who has a history of battering? Tara joins a massive search for her friend in conjunction with the police, her colorful women's collective, and a 24-year-old man, whom she finds particularly captivating.

D'Amour Road explores themes as diverse as women's friendships, male violence, wrongful convictions, addictions, cultural biases against aging, and infidelity. With pathos and humour, social activist Sigrid Macdonald draws us into the world of a quirky and imminently likable Canadian woman, whose life is about to be irrevocably changed  (http://www.amazon.com/)


My thoughts

WOW .... what a powerful book!

The book is loosely based on the story of Louise Ellis who went missing in 1995.

The main character is Tara Richards and we follow her life for two weeks.

Tara is approaching 40 and with that she questions her life and what she's done with it - sounds familiar to probably many of us women! She's not satisfied with her work as a nurse anymore, struggles to find common ground with her son and a look at her husband Mark turns her off instead of on. But Tara's life turns seriously up-side-down when her best friend Lisa Campana dissappears and Tara needs to find the strength to cope with it all - and that without her best friend!

Sigrid has a wonderful writing style, detailing every point, character or scene which makes the reader feel part of the story. However, I find exactly that attention to detail, made the start very slow and it took me a while to get into it. Yet, once Lisa dissappeared it was a rollercoster ride and I wasn't able to put the book down.

It's a great book and a reminder to not take life and friendship for granted.

I would definately categorise D'Amour Road as a must read, yet I'd like to add that as a reader you will need a bit of background knowledge of Canada (politics and hockey of all subjects), nursing and of course "missing people" around the globe.

Janet Evanovich - Three to get deadly

Publisher: St. Martin Press

ISBN: 978-0312-96609-1

My rating: 3.5/5


Stephanie Plum, the brassy babe in the powder blue Buick, is back, and she's having a bad hair day - for the whole month of January.

She's been given the unpopular task of finding Mo Bedemeir, Trenton's most beloved citizen, arrested for carrying concealed, gone no-show for his court appearance.
And to make matters worse, she's got Lula, a former hooker turned file clerk--now a wannabe bounty hunter--at her side, sticking like glue. Lula's big and blonde and black, and itching to get the chance to lock up a crook in the trunk of her car.
Morelli, the New Jersey vice cop with the slow-burning smile that undermines a girl's strongest resolve is being polite. So what does that mean? Has he found a new love? Or is he manipulating Steph, using her in his police investigation, counting on her unmanageable curiosity and competitive Jersey attitude?
Once again, the entire One for the Money crew is in action, including Ranger and Grandma Mazur, searching for Mo, tripping down a trail littered with drug dealers, leading Stephanie to suspect Mo has traded his ice-cream scoop for a vigilante gun.
Cursed with a disastrous new hair color and an increasing sense that it's really time to get a new job, Stephanie spirals and tumbles through Three to Get Deadly with all the wisecracks and pace her fans have come to expect.  (http://www.evanovich.com/)


My thoughts

This third installment of the Stephanie Plum Series is not quite as good as the previous two books, but still a very good laugh.
Initailly it was hard to follow, but like the previous books, as soon as I got the hang of the "who's who" I wasn't able to put the book down again. I love Lula, the hooker turned file clerk, more and more and I think it's great that not only is she now a regular in the stories, but with more voice as well - she cracks me up!
I also really liked one of the secondary plot of Steph not really coping with Morelli's "disinterest" in her - which makes her spy on him with her best friend Mary-Lou. "Mary Lou giggled. And then I giggled. Then we slapped ourselves so we’d stop giggling."  Well I didn't. I kept on giggling.
Did I mention Rangers plans to get Steph fit?

Well worth a read, not only for Plum fans, but everyone who needs a good laugh.

Vera Bleibtreu - Und fuehre uns nicht in Versuchung

Publisher:  Knecht Verlag
ISBN: 978 3782008921
Language: German


My Rating: 2.5/5
 


A Minister like like Susanne Hertz is not unfamilar with anything human. She knows there are temptations everywhere and she knows the abyss of the human soul. That's what she believes anyway until she discovers a dead corpse while jogging and quicker than she would have liked she's involved in the solving of the murder. (translated from http://www.amazon.de/)

My thoughts

My Mum gave me the book to read as the story is set in the town I grew up.

The main protagonists are the minister Susanne Hertz and Inspector Tanja Schmidt.

The story itself is interesting but poorly executed. The book starts with Susanne finding a dead body near a little chapel in a small town, but then the story slows down so much, that by page 27 I had already forgotten, what had actually happened. Some of the chapters are very long describing too much personal detail which seemed irrelevant to me. Not to mention that at around page 60 I still didn’t know what the importance of Susanne in the story was. And in the end it seemed to me that the author, a minister herself and living in exactly that same town, wanted to quickly wrap up the story so we only find out who the killer is by sheer coincidence ... although I believe most of the readers will have an inkling of exactly who that person might be more or less half way through the book.

And yes ... I'm not quite sure about the Inspector falling in love at first sight with with this witness thirty years her age ...

The Age 2010 short story competition

The Age short story competition is now accepting entries.
Entries must be no longer than 3000 words and should not have been previously published.

Stories for children are not eligible for this competition. Manuscripts must be typed: double-spaced and on A4 paper.

A separate page should be submitted with the author's name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. No entry form is required.

No more than three stories per person should be submitted.

Faxes or hand written submissions will not be accepted and manuscripts will not be returned.

Send entries to:
The Age Short Story Competition
The Age
Level 2
655 Collins Street
DOCKLANDS 3008

or email shortstory@theage.com.au

The closing date is October 1, 2010 - 5pm (unfortunately late entries can not be accepted) Winners will be announced in December.

The 1st, 2nd, 3rd winning stories will be published in A2. They will also be published at theage.com.au along with all highly-commended entries.

First prize winner will receive $3000. 2nd prize, $2000, 3rd prize, $1000.

For further information please contact Jason Steger 03 8667 2044 or jsteger@theage.com.au.

 
 
Good Luck everyone !
Iris