Saturday, April 30, 2011

Saturday Giveaway #9

First off, last week's giveaway winner is:  

vidisha

Vidisha will be contacted today to make her selection.

Let's continue another week with the giveaway.  Help me get some great books out of my house and into yours.  It's simple, fill out the form and you are entered.  Open to US/Canada only due to lack of funds. Following is not required, nor is tweeting or anything like that but if you would like to, I would be thrilled.

Here are this week's choices:

Hybrid  Semi-Sweet: A Novel of Love and Cupcakes
       
 
or these from earlier weeks are back in as choices:
 
Night RoadThe Map of True Places: A NovelHorns: A NovelMy Jane Austen Summer: A Season in Mansfield Park  Mystify (Kimani Tru)  Skipping a Beat: A NovelZero Day: A Novel So Much Pretty: A Novel Letters From Home

Please note that Semi-Sweet, Night Road, The Map of True Places, My Jane Austen Summer, Mystify, Zero Day and Letters from Home are ARCs
 Giveaway open through next Friday, May 6 at 11:00pm so I can draw the winner and announce with my new Saturday giveaway next week.  A little something for everyone.  If you win, I'll email and ask your choice.  It's simple.

If you can't see the form, you can find it here.





Thursday, April 28, 2011

Book Tour & Review: Hybrid by Brian O'Grady



HybridHybrid by Brian O'Grady
Publisher: The Fiction Studio
Publish Date: March 16, 2011
Paperback, 368 pages 
Fiction, Suspense/Thriller
ISBN:
978-1936558049



Review:
Why I read this book:  I love Michael Crichton and I love medical thrillers so this sounded like something I would love.

My Thoughts:  Wow, this is a very exciting book from the very first page.  I love how the story unfolds right before your eyes, letting you see the characters layer by layer.  Every time you think you understand the characters, you learn just a bit more about them to add more and more to the suspense plot.

The characters are very well done in Hybrid.  I felt like I got to know each of the main players pretty well.  Enough to empathize or hate each one of them.  None of them felt half-developed to me and I thought they were done really well.

The plot is amazing.  Both the characters and the plot move this book along and it's a great balance.  I never felt like the science was too much either.  It was a good balance of making the science understandable and making it interesting and moving the story along at a breakneck speed.

I really can't think of anything bad about the book.  There were a few typos, but nothing that made it impossible to read.  Other than that, Hybrid is a pretty amazing medical suspense/thriller and I will definitely look for more of Dr. Brian O'Grady's work in the future.  He made Hybrid extremely exciting from first page to the last and that is what I love in a book from this genre.

My Rating:  4.5/5.0
About the Book:

What sort of untapped abilities lie within the human brain? Could we summon the powers of telepathy, telekinesis or mind control if we only knew how? Dr. Brian O’Grady, a Washington neurosurgeon, explores these intriguing questions in his pulse-pounding medical thriller HYBRID (The Fiction Studio; April 2011). “We have limitless connections between the nerve cells in our brains, yet we only use about 10 percent. Imagine if we could unlock our vast potential?” he asks. The key in Dr. O’Grady’s debut novel is a virus, which unleashes a chain of events in same spine-tingling spirit of suspense as The Andromeda Strain and the X-Files.

Seven years ago, everyone died in the Honduran camp from the EDH1 virus, but Red Cross worker Amanda Flynn. Airlifted home to America, medical professionals tried to identify why Amanda survived when others died gruesome, agonizing deaths or became violent savages. Little did they know that anyone who survived…changed.

Since her escape from quarantine, Amanda has been in hiding slowly realizing the powers that could have only come from her infection. She can sense things, do things using her mind, things that are incredible and sometimes incredibly dark. But as she resists the pull toward violence, a new survivor has entered her consciousness – one without her will to block evil impulses. One who revels in bloodlust and seeks to expand his mastery by forcing the end of human society. And he’s coming for Amanda.

A sharply written and engaging cast of characters adds to the fever excitement and suspense – Dr. Phil Rucker, the coroner whose Asperger’s syndrome comes complete with its own demons; Father John Oliver, the kindly priest whose faith is brutally tested; Rodney Patton, the homicide chief who sees what others miss; and Greg Flynn, Amanda’s father-in-law and the man whose moral center guides others in the storm.

About the Author:
Brian O’Grady follows in the tradition of Michael Crichton as a physician who brings his in-depth medical knowledge to his craft. A practicing neurosurgeon from Richland, WA, O’Grady is a graduate of the University of New Mexico who completed his residency in neurosurgery at the Mayo Clinic. His deep insight into the mysterious workings of the human brain brings HYBRID realistically to life. 




Other Tour Stops:

April 14 The Megalomaniac Mommy
April 15 Bibliophilicbookblog
April 15 True Crime Book Reviews
April 16 Reading Without Restraint
April 19 Today’s Adventure
April 20 CMash Loves to Read
April 22 Game Vortex & PS Illustrator
April 23 Outnumbered 3 to 1
April 25 Happily Blended Family
April 26 Book Lovers
April 27 Broken TePee
April 28 My Reading Room
May 04 Proud Book Nerd
May 21 Rundpinne
May 23 songberries