Review: Would I Lie to You by Cecily Von Ziegesar (Gossip Girl)

Would I Lie to You by Cecily von Ziegesar


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another fun Gossip Girl romp.

This one finds most of the crowd out in the Hamptons with Serena and Blair functioning as live-in muses for the talented fashion designer, Bailey Winters. However they weren't expecting to meet their own trashy doubles. Hijinks, Blair and Serena-style, quickly follow and are quite fun.

Nate is still working for his coach trying to earn his diploma and trying to stay away from the coach's very tanned wife.

Vanessa is still chasing around her new charges as a nanny and when she gets a chance to go to the Hamptons and escape life with Dan for a little bit she jumps at it. But the Hamptons aren't really Vanessa, are they.

What follows is a fun book. It was one of the more enjoyable in this series and that is saying something since I enjoy all of them. It's just fun fiction and that's what I take from it. Just mindless entertainment and I love revisiting the characters that make up the Gossip Girl series.

I received this book with my Booksfree.com subscription.

Challenges:
100+ Book Challenge
Fall Into Reading Challenge 2009
Countdown Challenge 2010

ARC Arrival: Drive Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Drive Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Publisher: Mira
Release Date: February 1, 2010
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 400

I received this from Kim Miller at Nancy Berland Public Relations.

About the Book:

Investigative reporter Charlotte McNally is an expert at keeping things confidential, but suddenly everyone has a secret—and it turns out it is possible to know too much.

Her latest scoop—an expose of a counterfeit car scam, complete with stakeouts, high-speed chases and hidden-camera footage—is ratings gold. But soon that leads her to a brand-new and diabolical scheme. Charlie’s personal and professional lives are on a collision course, too. Her fiancé is privy to information about threats at an elite private school that have turned deadly.

Charlie has never counted on happy endings. But now, just as she’s finally starting to believe in second chances, she realizes revenge, extortion and murder may leave her alone again—or even dead . . . .

About the Author…

As an investigative reporter for Boston’s NBC-TV affiliate with 26 Emmys to her credit, Hank Phillippi Ryan has wired herself with hidden cameras, chased criminals and confronted corrupt politicians. Her investigative reporting has changed laws and changed lives. Now Hank's writing what she lives in her engaging Charlotte McNally series about--you guessed it--a hard-hitting investigative reporter who calls Boston home.

The first two books in Hank’s sassy and fast-paced Charlotte McNally series were originally pubbed with limited distribution, but the response was so promising that Hank’s publisher reissued them as single titles, along with a brand new book, in back-to-back months last summer.

Check out www.HankPhillippiRyan.com for excerpts or additional information.

PRIME TIME by Hank Phillippi Ryan / Mira paperback / July 2009 / ISBN: 978-0778327172 / $7.99 U.S.

FACE TIME by Hank Phillippi Ryan / Mira paperback / August 2009 / ISBN: 978-0778327189 / $7.99 U.S.

AIR TIME by Hank Phillippi Ryan / Mira paperback / September 2009 / ISBN: 978-0778327196 / $7.99 U.S.

Friday Finds (Oct 23)

Friday Finds is hosted over on Should Be Reading. It's all about what great books you have heard about/discovered in the past week. Here is my entry, and head over to the Should Be Reading Blog to read others and find books to add to your TBR pile!

So here are a few of my finds (forgive me - this week I didn't make notes on which blogs I saw these on):

Kingdom by Tom Martin
When the Abbot spoke, his voice was thin and resigned. 'It is the end of our monastery. By nightfall I will be dead and our walls will lie shattered. A terrible evil is coming from the forest...' A monastery in Tibet is overrun with Chinese soldiers searching for a sacred relic. The monks flee to seek refuge in hidden caves, but their progress is hampered by an injured stranger, whose presence threatens them all ...Journalist Nancy Kelly receives a parcel containing a mysterious trumpet made of bone, and hears an account of a Westerner penetrating into a hidden kingdom in Tibet, where orchids cover the earth, pagodas hug the hills and soaring cathedrals hide underground. Soon she embarks on a dangerous journey into an ancient land of myth and legend, in search of a secret older than time itself.


The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse
March 1928. The Great War has been over for ten years, but Freddie Abrahams still hasn't recovered from the loss of his brother. Even now, on holiday in south-west France, he cannot escape his grief. When his car crashes, Freddie stumbles down from the hills to a village nearby. There he meets Marie, a beautiful young woman who is also mourning a lost generation. Her story of the fate of her family moves him deeply. But it will also lead Freddie to the caves above the village - and to the heart of a shocking secret. By turns thrilling, poignant and haunting, this is a story of two lives touched by war and transformed by courage



Sew Deadly by Elizabeth Lynn Casey
Ever since she moved to Sweet Briar, South Carolina, Yankee librarian Tori Sinclair has been the talk of the tiny town. But she’s been so busy at work, winning over the sewing circle, and trying to forget her cheating ex that she hasn’t even had time to baste together a pillow, let alone mind local gossip. Then she finds the hometown sweetheart dead at her back door…

Everyone believes the police investigator, who’s just fixin’ to link Tori to the murder in a love triangle gone bad. To clear her name, Tori will have to rely on her new sewing sisters and stitch together the truth— or be darned.



Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier
Anluan has been crippled since childhood, part of a curse that has besieged his family and his home of Whistling Tor. But when the young scribe Caitrin is retained to sort through family documents, she brings about unexpected changes in the household, casting a hopeful light against the despairing shadows.

But to truly free Anluan’s burdened soul, Caitrin must unravel the web of sorcery woven by his ancestors before it claims his life—and their love…



So what have you found this week?

Review: Magic Treehouse Boxed Set - Books #17-24 by Mary Pope Osborne

Magic Tree House Boxed Set, Books 17-24 by Mary Pope Osborne


My rating: 4.0/5.0
Includes Tonight on the Titanic, Buffalo Before Breakfast, Tigers at Twilight, Dingoes at Dinnertime, Civil War on Sunday, Revolutionary War on Wednesday, Twister on Tuesday, and Earthquake in the Early Morning

My son and I just finished this set of Magic Treehouse books and it was another enjoyable set.

The first four focus on getting gifts from various people/things to give to Morgan and Jack and Annie go off on these missions. I enjoyed Tonight on the Titanic the best, as did my 8-year-old, but the other three stories were great as well.

The next four focused on getting special writings from various people and this time Jack and Annie were working to save a boy who had been turned into a dog. Jack and Annie named the dog Teddy and later Teddy shows up to help them in more books (we had already read these so we knew about Teddy.)

I really enjoyed these four stories, two centering on wars (I learned about Hessians in the Revolutionary War) and two centering on natural disasters. Things were learned in all four books and I really enjoyed them, as they taught and they were very entertaining.

My son is now ready to move onto the next set and I look forward to reading more of Jack and Annie's adventures.

I can't recommend these books enough for a 6-10 age range. The audios are read by the author and very well done. My son and I look forward to our time in the car when we can listen to these.

Review: Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz


My rating: 4.5/5.0
Publisher: Hyperion
Release Date: March 27, 2007
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 336

This is one of the many young adult series that I have heard about since I began delving into the blogging world earlier this year. And after reading the first book, Blue Bloods, I am glad I found it.
About the Book:

When the Mayflower set sail in 1620, it carried on board the men and women who would shape America: Miles Standish; John Alden; Constance Hopkins. But some among the Pilgrims were not pure of heart; they were not escaping religious persecution. Indeed, they were not even human. They were vampires.The vampires assimilated quickly into the New World. Rising to levels of enormous power, wealth, and influence, they were the celebrated blue bloods of American society.

The Blue Bloods vowed that their immortal status would remain a closely guarded secret. And they kept that secret for centuries. But now, in New York City, the secret is seeping out. Schuyler Van Alen is a sophomore at a prestigious private school. Suddenly, when she turns fifteen, there is a visible mosaic of blue veins on her arm. She starts to crave raw food and she is having flashbacks to ancient times. Then a girl from her school is found dead... drained of all her blood. Schuyler doesn't know what to think.

Could those vampire legends really be true? Steeped in vampire lore and set against the heady backdrop of the rich, young, and powerful in the heart of New York City, Blue Bloods will be devoured by Melissa de la Cruz's legion fans.

My Review:

I loved the setting of New York, it was kind of like Gossip Girl with vampires, and yet so much more. It features what appear to be different levels of the social clique system focusing on money, yet not totally money - even the rich have their outcasts in high school and in Blue Bloods we are shown both the outcast and the social elite.

I loved the little bit of history that was put forth (I'm from coastal NC so the Lost Colony is second nature to us). And I also loved the characters and search that takes place. The world building in this was great - just enough to get a feel for the Blue Blood world, but not too much to bog the whole book down.

After finishing the first book, I quickly reserved the next two books in the series from the library and look forward to reading them very soon.

If you like your young adult paranormal books with a dark twist and very interesting characters then you will like Blue Bloods, the first of the Blue Bloods series.

Challenges:
100+ Book Challenge
Support Your Local Library Challenge
Fall Into Reading Challenge 2009

ARC Arrival: Sins of the Flesh by Caridad Pineiro

Sins of the Flesh by Caridad Pineiro

Publisher: Forever
Release Date: October 27, 2009
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 336

I received this through Pump Up Your Book Promotions for a tour date next month.

About the Book:
Caterina Shaw's days are numbered. Her only chance for survival is a highly experimental gene treatment-a risk she willingly takes. But now Caterina barely recognizes herself. She has new, terrifying powers, an exotic, arresting body-and she's been accused of a savage murder, sending her on the run.

Mick Carrera is a mercenary and an expert at capturing elusive, clever prey. Yet the woman he's hunting down is far from the vicious killer he's been told to expect: Caterina is wounded, vulnerable, and a startling mystery of medical science. Even more, she's a beautiful woman whose innocent sensuality tempts Mick to show her exactly how thrilling pleasure can be. The heat that builds between them is irresistible, but surrendering to it could kill them both . . . for a dangerous group is plotting its next move using Caterina as its deadly pawn.

Booking Through Thursday - October 22nd

Here is this week's Booking Through Thursday question:

If you could ask your favorite author (alive or dead) one question … who would you ask, and what would the question be?

Favorite Author - that's a tough one - over the last few years I have found so many wonderful authors that I have a lot of favorites or auto-buys. So let's pick one.

Let's go with Chelsea Cain - I just want to know how she was able to make up a character as creepy as Gretchen Lowell and tales as twisted as she writes. What is her thought process?