Archive for July 2016

Giveaway: Blue Moon by Wendy Corsi Staub

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on Tour July 25th - August 26, 2016


Blue Moon by Wendy Corsi StaubNew York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub returns to Mundy’s Landing—a small town where bygone bloodshed has become big business. Hair neatly braided, hands serenely clasped, eyes closed, the young woman appeared to be sound asleep. But the peaceful tableau was a madman’s handiwork. Beneath the covers, her white nightgown was spattered with blood. At daybreak, a horrified family would discover her corpse tucked into their guest room. The cunning killer would strike again . . . and again . . . before vanishing into the mists of time. A century ago, the Sleeping Beauty Murders terrified picturesque Mundy’s Landing. The victims, like the killer, were never identified. Now, on the hundredth anniversary, the Historical Society’s annual “Mundypalooza” offers a hefty reward for solving the notorious case. Annabelle Bingham, living in one of the three Murder Houses, can’t escape the feeling that her family is being watched—and not just by news crews and amateur sleuths. She’s right. Having unearthed the startling truth behind the horrific crimes, a copycat killer is about to reenact them—beneath the mansard roof of Annabelle’s dream home...
Book Details:
Genre: Thrillers, Suspense Published by: William Morrow, Mass Market Publication Date: July 26th 2016 Number of Pages: 448 ISBN: 0062349759 (ISBN13: 9780062349750) Series: Mundy's Landing #2  Amazon Barnes & Noble Goodreads

Wendy Corsi Staub

About the Author

USA Today and New York Times bestseller Wendy Corsi Staub is the award-winning author of more than seventy novels and has twice been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. She lives in the New York City suburbs with her husband and their two children.

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Don't Miss the Blue Moon Giveaway:

If this sounds like something you would like to read, please enter with the rafflecopter giveaway below. This giveaway is sponsored by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours for Wendy Corsi Staub and HarperCollins. This contest is open to US residents only. No PO boxes please. Winner will have 48 hours from contact to respond. Contest ends 8/12.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check out the other participants in this tour!

 

Purity by Jonathan Franzen

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"So many Jonathans. A plague of literary Jonathans."

Jonathan Franzen has reluctantly accepted his role as one of America's most prominent literary authors. He writes massive novels about broad ideas that garner critical and popular success. Despite the persistent buzz around his previous novels The Corrections and Freedom, I've never been inclined to read any of his works for myself. When a book club that I follow through Goodreads announced his latest Purity as their monthly selection, I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

The main protagonist is Purity "Pip" Tyler, a twenty something year old who is saddled with overwhelming debt, an underwhelming job with a corporation that she's pretty sure is nothing more than a scam, and a reclusive and emotionally unstable mother who refuses to reveal the identity of her absentee father. Pip uses her sarcasm and unyielding devotion to her mother to cope with the less than ideal place she finds herself in. She comes up with a plan to address the first of her problems. If she can discover the true identity of her father, she might be able to convince him to help alleviate some of her debt. Unfortunately, Pip's mother refuses to give even the slightest hint to the man's identity.

The story begins to turn from a focus on family drama to more current affairs when Pip is afforded the opportunity to intern with The Sunlight Project. The initiative is comparable to WikiLeaks. The project is led by Andreas Wolf, the German equivalent to Julian Assange, who claims his work comes from pure intentions. As Pip travels across the globe to further bring to light the truths of the world, she secretly hopes to unearth a truth of her own. Even though she is excited to do what she considers to be meaningful work, she is equally eager to use The Sunlight Project's vast resources to finally uncover the name of her father.

At nearly 600 pages, Purity is an ambitious work that blends complex characters and situations around its central theme. Beyond the present day story of Pip's search for her father, Franzen writes numerous backstories that end up forming the majority of the work. Through these detours, we gain a greater understanding of each of the characters that Pip is encountering in her life. With the dexterity of a masterful wordsmith, Franzen strings together these plots in a way that allows each to have a unique identity without ever detracting from the book as a whole. It is the idea of purity that brings these pieces together. Each character is motivated by their own idea of what they believe to be pure actions. Even with an ending that did not seem worthy of the story that preceded it, Purity is a thought provoking and surprisingly enjoyable read that makes me eager to read Franzen's other novels.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.

(2016, 22)



Burn by James Patterson

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By now I know exactly what to expect when I open a James Patterson novel. His heroes will be classic good guys with just enough personal baggage to keep us invested in them. His villains will be psychopaths hellbent on taking down the hero. The story will unfold through short chapters that usually end in mini cliff-hangers. All combined, these elements keep the pages turning quickly and provide a mild diversion from everyday life. It is a tried and true formula that has turned Patterson into one of the bestselling authors of all time. Even when I complain about his use of co-authors to churn out multiple books a year and the deficit in quality this has caused, I can't help but come back for more. And so I started Burn, the seventh installment in the Michael Bennett series knowing pretty much what I was in store for.

Michael Bennett and his brood of adopted children finally return home to New York after being hidden in witness protection for most of the last novel. Despite having nabbed one of the most notorious drug lords in the world, Bennett is not given the hero's welcome he expected. Instead, the NYPD has assigned him to lead a community outreach squad in Harlem. The poorly supported squad lacks the resources and personnel to adequately assist the large population that it has been charged with. The bureaucratic systems that people have to follow to provide tips to the squad means that potentially valuable information goes unnoticed by the people who are supposed to act on it. When a burned body is found at a property of a previously ignored tip, Bennett vows to correct the broken system and bring justice to the people he has been tasked with serving.

Just as Michael is starting to implement changes at the squad, he gets pulled into another high profile case. This time a string of jewelry heists have left the department stumped. When the higher ups beg Bennett to step in, he only agrees to assist if he can continue his duties with the outreach squad as well. Soon he finds himself back in the crazy juggling act that his turns into all too often. The stresses of work coupled with a budding romance with his live in nanny and the duties of being a single father begin to take their toll on him. But Michael is determined to give his best in all aspects of his life. He is the hero after all.

As I expected, Patterson delivered on all of the usual fronts. The Michael Bennett series is probably my second favorite Patterson saga behind the Alex Cross books, and Burn is certainly a worthy continuation of the story. More so than usual, I found the real joy of this novel was in reading about Michael's personal relationships with his family. That drama seemed to outweigh the more surface level crime threads in the book. In fact, with so much time devoted to developing a romance and maintaining the unique Bennett clan, the actual mystery was too brief. As I got to the last couple of pages, I would have even preferred a cliff-hanger that the rushed ending that we got. Still, Burn does nothing to deter me from looking forward to the next installment. The next time I'm looking for a quick and fun read, I'll definitely turn to a Patterson novel again.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.

(2016. 21)


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