Elixir

Elixir (Elixir, #1) by Hilary Duff, Elise Allen
Published by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers on October 12, 2010
Pages: 327
Goodreads
three-stars

Clea Raymond has felt the glare of the spotlight her entire life. The daughter of a renowned surgeon and a prominent Washington DC politician, she has grown to be a talented photojournalist who takes refuge in a career that allows her to travel to the most exotic parts of the world. But after Clea’s father disappears while on a humanitarian mission, Clea’s photos begin to feature eerie, shadowy images of a strange and beautiful man—a man she has never seen before.

When fate brings Clea and this man together, she is stunned by the immediate and powerful connection she feels with him. As they grow closer, they are drawn deep into the mystery behind her father’s disappearance, and they discover the centuries old truth behind their intense bond. Torn by a dangerous love triangle and haunted by a powerful secret that holds their fates, together they race against time to unravel their pasts in order to save their lives—and their futures.

Elixir is the first novel written by pop singer and TV/movie star Hilary Duff. I’m sad to say that I feel as if the book was poorly written and was not worth the price I paid for it. I was initially drawn to the book because of the dramatic cover and that the fact that it was written by Hilary Duff. I wanted to know if Ms Duff could write a novel, since in Hollywood adding the word author to your resume is now the hot thing to do.

I’m sad to say that this story did not deliver. The novel at times seems slow moving with too much excessive description of the scenery and other details which did not help the twisting plot line often times jumping between the 2 main characters. The ending of the novel left me hanging and thinking that perhaps Ms Duff had intentionally left it open, so that she would have the possibility open to writing a continuation novel for the book. What her thoughts were I can’t be sure.

Sisterchicks go Brit!

5 / 19 / 1111 / 13 / 19

Sisterchicks Go Brit! (Sisterchicks, #7) by Robin Jones Gunn
Published by Multnomah Books on May 20, 2008
Pages: 285
Format: Paperback
Goodreads
three-half-stars

Cheerio, Sisterchicks!

SISTERCHICK(R) n a friend who shares the deepest wonders of your heart, loves you like a sister, and provides a reality check when you're being a brat.

Two midlife mamas hop over to jolly ole England and encounter so much more than the usual tourist stops. Liz does have a bit of a childhood crush on Big Ben, and she has hoped to "meet" him ever since her fifteenth birthday. Kellie dreams of starting an interior design business and figures Liz needs to be a part of that equation-a calculation that hasn't added up for Liz yet.

Nothing on the excursion goes the way these two friends had envisioned. They start with a village pancake race and end up being held for questioning on The Underground. Kellie and Liz take a wild tour through the land of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien and then find themselves swept up, up, and away in a hot air balloon over the Cotswalds. London beckons with the Tower of London, Windsor Castle, shopping at Portabella Road in Knotting Hill, and of course, reservations at the Ritz for a posh high tea.

A few detours along the way and the possibility of being lost in a London fog of wonderment aren't enough to stop these two Sisterchicks! Each step of their regal journey is lined with evidence of God's gracious compassion, and both come to realize that God knows their every wish. He is the One who planted every dream in their hearts.

And, oh, what a surprise awaits them when they return home!

I just finished SisterChicks Go Brit! By Robin Jones Gunn. This is part of her SisterChicks series, but I had not read a book in the series in a long time. I forgot how much I loved the series and Robin Jones Gunn’s writing!

The SisterChicks series are stories about best friends who share the deepest wonders of your heart, love you like a sister and provide a reality check when you’re being a brat. I feel in love with the story of Kellie and Liz and their adventure in England. Kellie and Liz longtime friends find themselves on a trip to England after helping out Opal redecorate her apartment. Little do they know that their little trip across the ocean to see Big Ben, C.S. Lewis sites, and J.R.R. Tolkein sites that they would find out about themselves and just a glimpse into God’s plans for them.

I’m not really a religious person by any means. I did find that in reading the book that I want to visit England even more know. Robin Jones Gunn style of writing in this series makes each and every place come to life, so you can almost always find a destination that you will want to travel to, even if it is only in your imagination.

I recommend that you pick a destination and begin your travels!

Maneater

4 / 29 / 1111 / 13 / 19

Maneater by Gigi Levangie Grazer
Published by Pocket Star on October 31, 2006
Pages: 464
Format: Paperback
Goodreads

Feast your eyes on Clarissa. At twenty-eight (thirty-one), Clarissa Alpert is blessed with a designer wardrobe, a daddy-subsidized apartment, and an A-list speed-dial. Gorgeous and wildly uninhibited, she has amassed a list of exes that amounts to a Who's Who of Hollywood power players. But with her twenty-ninth (thirty-second) birthday looming, she starts to panic. Who on earth could possibly make her an honest woman?

She's reserved a table for two. Enter Aaron Mason, the latest, hottest new producer in town, who Clarissa decides is the future "Mr. Alpert." With the help of her vivacious friends, her aerobicized Latina mother, her ex-con father, and the most divine gay waiter in Hollywood, Clarissa plans the biggest wedding L.A. has seen in years -- all before the couple's first date. Catching Aaron's eye is not the problem. He just seems to have his own agenda. Could Clarissa have finally bitten off more than she can chew?

I recently finished Maneater by Gigi Levangle Grazer. Ok, I’ll admit that I had watched the Lifetime Movie in 2008 with Sarah Chalke (Scrubs) and Judy Greer ( 13 going on 30). Although, I’ll give in and say that I only watched because the concept of a maneater seemed so intriguing.

Like many a people will say the book is better than the movie and in some ways I agree. The book did a good job of developing Clarissa’s and Aaron’s backstory and keeping that story together. It didn’t manage to keep the secondary characters story together and would often hop from their story line to the main story line in a matter of moments. The movie kept the story line of both the main and secondary characters flowing together beautifully and you never felt that one story was deeply more important than the other. Like many a book adaption there were parts of the book changed for the movie so that the movie flowed better and appeared more realistic. I would recommend both the book to read and the movie to rent, but not to own.

Heist Society

4 / 2 / 1111 / 13 / 19

Heist Society (Heist Society, #1) by Ally Carter
Published by Disney-Hyperion on February 9, 2010
Pages: 287
Goodreads
four-stars

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own—scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.

Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring Kat back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.

For Kat, there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family's history--and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

I just finished Heist Society by Ally Carter. I found this book on the bargain book rack at Borders I think (I alternately haunt Borders and Barnes & Noble depending on which one is closer and which one actually has the magazines I read). I recommend this book, I thought it was good and hopefully will be able to find other books by the author.

The book with its slight twists and turns take us on the complicated world of art thieves and what it means to be art thief. The story takes us around the world in a blink of an eye to get to the bottom of the story. The reader also finds talks about in a fictional matter the art that was stolen during World War II that is still being researched and returned to the rightful families by historians, activists, and other survivors.

If you ever get a chance to read this book I recommend it. It’s a relatively fast read and the story will make you want to keep reading until you get to the bottom of the story. Definitely a page turner no matter what your age.

Paper Towns

2 / 16 / 1111 / 6 / 19

Paper Towns by John Green
Published by Speak on September 22, 2009
Pages: 305
Format: Paperback
Goodreads
four-stars

Who is the real Margo?

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew...

I’m still reading and posting reviews and that’s the upside to this post. The downside is that I haven’t been reading and unplugging as much as I would like. I always tend to forget that with my current job Winter and Spring are probably the busiest times of the year. It will then start to slow down toward the end of Spring and continue from Summer into much of the Fall. These are about the times I wish I had an iphone with the Kindle app, so that I could whip it out and knock off a few pages every now and then. I don’t however and it would look weird to sit in a meeting and whip out a book when you think its going far too slowly.

Paper Towns by John Green is a wonderful piece of fiction for young adults. Granted his writing is geared toward young adults, but like most adults when you look for a good book you often don’t care what it is geared for even if it is young adults thus the success of Harry Potter and Twilight. The book was laid out so that it talked about the characters before, during, in an escapade, and the hunt for more ( you’ll get what I mean when you read the book). It had some interesting points, but i personally felt it dragged quite a bit. I liked the concept of Paper Towns and thought of running away and starting over completely anew ,but it was not one of his better books.