Review: Still Missing

Still Missing

by Chevy Stevens

Quote: " I've tried to play women's games before, with some unfortunate results, but I won't make that mistake again." ~The Freak pg. 40

Started: December 12, 2012

Finished: December 20, 2012

352 pages, hardcover

From the cover:

On the day she was abducted, Annie O'Sullivan, a thirty-two-year-old Realtor, had three goals: Sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for diner with her ever-patient boyfriend. the open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all.

 Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent captive in a remote mountain cabin-which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist- is a second narrative recounting the nightmare that follows her escape: her struggle to piece her shattered life back together, the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor, and the disturbing sense that things are far from over.

  The truth doesn't always set you free. Still Missing  is a shocking, visceral, brutal, and beautifully crafted debut novel about surviving the unsurvivable- and living to bear witness.

My review:

I have mixed feeling about this book. There were some things I really enjoyed about it and others I couldn't believe(literally), or just couldn't understand. It seems to me there were too many holes in this story. Too many un-established characters and too much left untold. It made the story very hard to follow or to even try to solve the mystery. Which for me is half the fun of reading. Don't we "want" to figure it out? 

I felt very confused throughout most of the book. 

I did like the "idea" of the book and how it gave some detail into what she went through and had to endure. I did feel her dissociating after the event believable. Maybe this book was meant to be as confusing and unbelievable as it would actually be.

How would any human "be" after such events? Don't we all question why, how, after something evil or unjust happens? Maybe this book IS more real, simply because it makes no sense. It is about a tragic, horrible "thing" that happened and someone, many people are left to go on afterwards with unanswered questions. No quick problem solved. Yet, they must go on with whatever they do have, whatever is left of themselves.

I gave Still Missing 4 stars*

Review: The Queen of Kentucky

The Queen of Kentucky

by Alecia Whitaker

Quote: " Sometimes things feel that way. You know, you just think there must've been-must be- something you can do. but in the end, you just gotta do the best you can when you can."~ Luke pg. 198

Started: November 28, 2012

Finished: December 8, 2012

375 pages, hardcover

From the cover:

Fourteen-year-old Kentucky girl Ricki Jo Winstead, who would prefer to be called Erika, thank you very much, is eager to shed her farmer's daughter roots and fit in with the popular crowd at her small-town high school. She trades her Bible for Seventeen  magazine, buys new "sophisticated" clothes, and strikes up an unlikely flirtation with the freshman class's resident bad boy. She's on top of the world, even though her best friend and neighbor, Luke, says he misses " plain old Ricki Jo."

  Caught between being a country girl and wannabe country club girl, Ricki Jo begins to forget who she truly is: someone who doesn't care what people think and who wouldn't let a good-looking guy walk all over her.

  After a serious incident on Luke's farm, Ricki Jo realizes that being a true friend is more important than being popular...and that one boy who matters most has been next door all along.

My Review:

My initial reaction to the end of this book was just.."duh". Honestly, I think you would have to either be fourteen or have the mentality of that to truly enjoy this book. It was well written, again if you actually were fourteen.

This book was way under the YA level it is classified. Other than a drunken-make-out session and the strip- truth or dare at a sleepover, I didn't see any red flags to letting my fourteen year old read it.

I will say, I pray my daughter is a lot more mature than Miss Erika Jo. In more ways than one. Her character was almost unbelievable. I just kept thinking, " Wow, are all/most fourteen- year -old girls THAT immature and naive????"

I pray not! Seriously, she seemed so superficial after seeming to have a strong start in life. Although it doesn't give much insight into her upbringing. It does seem she came from a "good" family with values and at the least a sense of worth and "what really matters."

Maybe I'm being to hard on dear Alecia Whitaker. Maybe I just didn't get it.

I gave this book 3 stars and hope it will be a better read for younger audiences. 

Review: The Unholy(Krewe of Hunters #6)

The Unholy

by Heather Graham

Quote: " If the cops could just understand what this has done to him, how he's feeling...they'd know he couldn't have done it."~ Eddie pg. 134

Started: Nov. 1, 2012

Finished: Nov. 27, 2012

486 pages/hardcover, large print edition

From the cover:

The 1940s: Hard-boiled detectives and femmes fatale are box-office gold. In one iconic scene, set in a deserted museum, the buxom beauty is throttled by an ominous Egyptian priest. 

NOW: The Black Box Cinema immortal-izes Hollywood's Golden Age in its gallery of  film noir tributes. But the mannequin of that Egyptian priest is hardly lifeless. He walks- and a young starlet dies a terrifying death. Movie mogul Eddie Archer's son is charged with the murder and calls agent Sean Cameron. As part of an FBI paranormal forensics team, Cameron works with special-effects artist Madison Darvil- who has her own otherworldly gifts.

My Review:

This is book six in the Krewe of Hunters series. Each of these books has their own story line and setting but still very many, maybe too many similarities. While they are different enough to keep you from feeling deju vu with each book as an individual, they do seem to have the save theme. crime=krewe=2 single people=both have "otherworldly gifts"= damsel in distress= cased solve=happy ending.

You get the idea, right?

I enjoyed the setting of this one only after about half way through the book when they actually started describing the history of the property and how the ancestors were connected. That was probably the best part other than the main hunk-o was named Sean and I may have been a little too biased and kept reading solely to see what action he got.

I probably will finish out this series. Even if only to see where they send the Krewe next...

*4 stars*