Reviw - Devious

Title: Devious
Author: Lisa Jackson
Publisher: Kensington (March 29, 2011)
Format: Hardcover; Pgs 432
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Source: Library
Series: A Rick Bentz/Reuben Montoya Novel #7

By the time I was a third of the way though this book, I wondered when it would ever end. Half way and I was convinced it was never-ending, by the end, I truly could care less who was killing the nuns or why.

So why did I continue reading – I have absolutely no idea. I would pick it up and read a little bit here and there hoping for a spark that would grab me, but that never happened.

Devious is the 7th book in the New Orleans Series by Lisa Jackson and I will tell you right now that I did not read the first six, but I do not feel that I missed anything. How is that you ask - there were repeated discussions about a previous book where a priest was killing women, but that storyline was rehashed to the point that I got more than a general feeling of the previous storyline.

The book opens with the murder of a nun wearing a wedding gown at St Marguerite’s Cathedral in New Orleans. She has been garroted and her body was covered with an alter cloth. Sister Camille has had quite a past but that was no reason to kill her, unless the fact that she is pregnant had anything to do with it.

When her sister Val gets involved, the investigation slowly unfolds, as the bodies pile up the story is unraveled. The waters become a bit muddied when one of the investigators realizes that he had dated one of the still living nuns before she entered the convent. Add in a handsome priest that is turning the nun’s heads, an orphanage closing down and adoption recorders of Val and Camille are revealed. Plus, Val’s husband has rolled into town and wants to rekindle their marriage. Just when you think you have reached the boiling point, an insidious serial killer dressed as a priest is back and killing again.

Yes, there are a couple more parts that I left out and if I had included them, you would have felt that this recap was just as never-ending as the book.

This book was not a good match for me. There was just too much thrown in and not enough to hold my interest.

Waiting on Wednesday - The Diva Frosts a Cupcake

Hosted by Breaking the Spine

Title: The Diva Frosts a Cupcake
Author: Krista Davis
Publisher: Berkley (June 4, 2013)
Format: Paperback; Pgs 304
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: A Domestic Diva Mystery #7

Overview:

Sophie Winston and her BFF, Nina Reid Norwood, share a sweet spot for animals. So Sophie is delighted to help when Nina cooks up Cupcakes and Pupcakes—a fundraising event for animal shelters. All the local bakeries will be selling treats, with the profits going to pups and kitties in need. But Old Town is in for a whole batch of trouble when a cupcake war erupts between two bakeries…

Tongues wag and tempers rise when a partner leaves Sugar Baby Bakery and unveils her competing cupcakery, Sugar Mama, precisely as the fundraiser gets under way. Just as it seems nothing else can go wrong, Sugar Baby’s sole remaining employee is found dead. Suspicion falls on the feuding owners, but the scrumptious new guy in town is also raising some eyebrows. Now Sophie and Nina have to sift through the clues and discover who isn’t as sweet as they seem…

First Chapter First Paragraph - 12th of Never

Title: 12th of Never
Author: James Patteson and Maxine Paetro
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (April 29, 2013)
Format: Hardcover; Pgs 432
Genre: Suspense
Source: Library
Series: Women's Murder Club#12

Hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea

Chapter 1

I WOKE UP to a sharp report, as if a gun had gone off next to my ear. My eyes flew open and I sat straight up in bed.

I yelled “Joe,” but my husband wasn’t lying next to me. He was in an airplane, thirty-five thousand feet above the heart-land, and wouldn’t be home until the morning.

There was another ferocious crack and my bedroom brightened with lightning that snapped and wrapped around the windows. A boomer shook the window frames and sheets of rain lashed the glass. I was so distracted by the vicious storm that it took me a second or two to register the wave of pain that came from my belly and washed right through me.

Oh, man, it hurt really bad.

Yes, it was my own fault for gorging on refried beans for dinner, then chasing down the Mexican leftovers with riga-toni marinara at ten.


Overview

Lindsay Boxer's beautiful baby is born! But after only a week at home with her new daughter, Lindsay is forced to return to work to face two of the biggest cases of her career.

A rising star football player for the San Francisco 49ers is the prime suspect in a grisly murder. At the same time, Lindsay is confronted with the strangest story she's ever heard: An eccentric English professor has been having vivid nightmares about a violent murder and he's convinced is real. Lindsay doesn't believe him, but then a shooting is called in—and it fits the professor's description to the last detail.

Lindsay doesn't have much time to stop a terrifying future from unfolding. But all the crimes in the world seem like nothing when Lindsay is suddenly faced with the possibility of the most devastating loss of her life.

Review - Wilfred

Title: Wilfred
Author and Illustrator: Ryan Higgins
Publisher: Dial (March 21, 2013)
Format: Hardcover; Pgs 32
Genre: Children’s
Source: Library
Ages: 3 - 5

Kindness and cruelty come in all shapes and sizes. That is the lesson that is learned with Wilfred.

Calling Wilfred humongous and hairy is not an insult, it is true.

Wilfred is lonely and looking for a friend when one day he comes upon a town of little bald people. Seeing the children playing, he wanted to join. Being different has it disadvantages, but one little boy was not scared. He approached this monster and they had fun together.

After promising to return the next day, the little boy was sad when it friend did not return. Turns out the town of little bald people realized that Wilfred has something that they wanted and being the kind person he was Wilfred helped out these people with their nasty idea.

Wilfred wanted to help, that is what a friend does. Little did he know that not all people have good intentions.

The sad little boy set out to make things right, and if it was not for the kindness of this sensitive soul and a town wanting to right a wrong, a hairy humongous Wilfred would not have the thing that he always wanted – a very best friend.

A delightful book to curl up with and read about friendship and caring; and not taking advantage of someone just because they have something that you want.

Review - Telling the Bees

Title: Telling the Bees
Author: Peggy Hesketh
Publisher: Putnam Adult (March 7, 2013))
Format: Hardcover; Pgs 320
Genre: Fiction
Source: Amazon

This has to be one of the saddest most heartfelt books that I have ever read.

Part beekeepers textbook, part murder mystery, you are brought headfirst into the world of Albert Honig and his neighbors the Bee Ladies. It is not the ladies plural that Albert is enthralled with, it is one lady in particular. Claire brought lightness to Albert and I believe that the Kierkegaard quote “I was too heavy for her and she was too light for me”, is the best way to sum up their relationship.

Looking back over his life, Albert tell the story of his neighbors, beginning on the day that he found their bound lifeless bodies in the living room, back to his childhood and on to the final moment that he had to tell his bees “Little Brownie, Little Brownies your Mistress is dead”.

This book is not an easy read; at its center, it is heartbreaking. Albert Honig, an unmarried 80-year-old man, has lived his entire life in his childhood home in Southern California. His world is humble, his needs are simple - it is just him and his bees. Hives dot his yard and as the story of his relationship with his family, the Straussman sisters next door and the world of beekeeping is told, you see what a very unassuming life this man has lead.

As Detective Grayson investigates the murders, the stories of Albert and Claire are told. In its joys and sorrows, you see two very damaged people. People that no matter how they try are doomed to an unrequited life.

Albert states that he does not need more than toast with honey and a good book to end the day. As the reader delves further into their lives, you see that there is so much more. Intertwining the on goings in a hive and the lives of Claire and Albert, you cannot help but to see that they were all intermeshed. We each have a part to play, a purpose, some are the queens with others doing their bidding and some are the drones that are destined to give their all.

This is the type of book that deserves multiple readings. The subtleties are easily missed until the end where all the threads are interwoven and reader finally sees the bigger picture.