The Leisure Seeker

The Leisure Seeker

Michael Zadoorian

5 out of 5

Though this could have easily fallen into the “oh, poor me” genre of books, The Leisure Seeker redeems my faith in the ability of hitting a life experience head on and living what time you have left right between the eyes .

Yeah for John and Ella Robina, both in their eighties and both with end of life illnesses. After being married for more than fifty years Ella has decided to end her cancer treatments, her horserace soliloquy is hysterical, and John has Alzheimer’s. Ella decides that they need one more adventure, one more chance to be alive before they die, so she packs up the RV (a Leisure Seeker) and they head from Michigan to California. Their goal is to drive Route 66, remember their lives, and end up at Disneyland, the happiest place on earth.

Against their adult children’s wishes they kidnap themselves and head out. John still remembers how to drive and Ella is darn handy with a map, as long as her difficult periods can be contained by pain medication.

And adventure they have, often laugh out loud funny, these two “down-on-their-luck geezers” take on what most would be too terrified to do. With humor, though sometimes darker then you would expect, and a whole lot of gusto, this dynamic duo take on the ride of their lives.

To say that the end is an OMG moment is an understatement. I love this couple and the life lessons that they have taught me along the way. I just wish that when I am this age I have the courage to be Ella and have the adventure of my life.

7th Heaven

7th Heaven

James Patterson

3 out of 5

This one just didn't capture me like the last.

Lindsay Boxer is battling two cases. Who is killing the wealthy families of San Francisco, not just killing, but binding them up and setting fire to their homes and what happened to Michael Campion, the son of the ex-governor. Everyone knew that he had a heart condition, but when he was last seen walking into the home of a prostitute, the rumors start flying; and with no body, Yuki has quite the uphill battle in prosecuting the very innocent looking prostitute he was seen with. In addition to a battle for her own life.

Lindsay needs the full support of her Women's Murder Club to sort out all the details of these two case, but when she decides to take a little time for herself, well, tragedy hits a little too close to home.

Devil May Ride

Devil May Ride

Wendy Roberts

4 out of 5

OK, I'm not slow, but it took me three-quarters of the book to figure out how the title related to the story and once I did, it was definitely a head thumping moment.

Second book in the Ghost Dusters series.

Sadie Novak has a unique gift, she can see and talk to the dead, that isn't so bad, the troubling part comes in that her company is into specialized cleaning. She and her business partner Zack clean up crime scenes. Donning haz-mat suites they clean the fluids and grizzle that is left behind at every unattended death.
She can see everyone that has died, everyone that is except suicides and the one person that she can not see is her brother Brian, who killed himself and no one knows why, leaving a big hold in Sadie.

But in a strange way this is his story. It doesn't start out that way and we learn more then you every wanted to know about bikers (hence the title) and cults. But most importantly, we learn how gifts that appear to be anything but, can save your soul and make you whole again.

That sounds a little heavy for this very good book, but you really learn a lot more about these characters then we were introduced to in the first book. I certainly hope that Ms. Roberts continues on with this series because I'm definitely hooked on this ghost busting angle of hers.

I highly recommend.

Beat the Reaper

Beat the Reaper

Josh Bazell

5 out of 5

You Had Me Until The Fibula

First off, having footnotes in a book of fiction is quite distracting; other then that the book had me flipping pages until the very end where Bazell just seemed to have jumped the shark. Well, almost literally. His main character pulled off something that has never before been done, and hopefully, will never be done again in a book that I read.

Very reminiscent of the books by Charlie Huston, Josh Bazell takes us into two very terrifying worlds. The Mafia and public hospitals - and honestly, I don't know which one terrifies me more. After his grandparents are murdered, a young Pietro Brwna is taken into a mafia family where he tries to avoid the family business but that isn't possible when he feels that he owes the family that has cared for him. He does what he needs to do, he moves on, that is until an ultimate betrayal and Pietro enters the witness protection program. He goes to medical school, works in a hospital that no one in their right might would be a patient at let alone be an attending doctor and runs smack dab into his past.

Pietro is now in a fight for his life and limb. You honestly have to read it to believe it. This is definitely a 24 hour book. It won't let you put it down. The characters are just quirky enough, the pace is unstoppable and the storyline well, let's just say, no good deed goes unpunished.