Book Review: Private Vegas by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Private Vegas by James Patterson
My rating: 3.0/5.0
Publisher: Little Brown and Company

Publish Date: January 26, 2015

Series: Private #9
How I obtained my copy: my local library



My Review:
I make no bones that James Patterson is my go-to guilty read, if you want to call it that. I read every book that comes out by him and his co-writers. I have since just before the Alex Cross series took off and while I was waiting for his next book to come out (once upon a time you had to do that), I read most of his back list.

The Private series has been a breath of fresh air to me. For some reason each book has really appealed to me. I love Jack Morgan but I have enjoyed the books about the satellite offices as well (London, Berlin, etc.) But my favorites involve Jack Morgan and his LA team.

So imagine me going into this book, it's call Private Vegas. I'm thinking it's about the Las Vegas office, only there is no Las Vegas office and most of the book takes place in LA. Only a very small amount page wise takes place in Las Vegas. I have no problem with it, it just seems the book was misnamed.

So on with the book. It's fast-paced just as you expect it to be. There are several things going on in the book. This book was a little disjointed for me. While I loved every page, I kind of felt like I was being pulled in several different directions. And each case/problem was being wrapped up quickly with very little input from the team. So I was disappointed. Disappointed enough to put the book down? No. Disappointed enough to quit the series? No. But I do have hopes the next book will pull things together more and I can see the LA crew at work again.

There are several loose ends that leave things open at least on the personal front that will make the next book interesting. So I will look forward to it and to seeing more of Jack and the crew soon.

If you enjoy James Patterson and are use to the "hit and miss" element of his titles, then go for it. It's an installment in the Private series and reading something is better than not reading. If you get frustrated easily then maybe it's not the book for you. But I stuck it out and enjoyed it and I think most people will.

About Private Vegas:
What happens in Vegas...stays Private.

Las Vegas is a city of contradictions: seedy and glamorous, secretive and wild, Vegas attracts people of all kinds--especially those with a secret to hide, or a life to leave behind. It's the perfect location for Lester Olsen's lucrative business. He gets to treat gorgeous, young women to five-star restaurants, splashy shows, and limo rides--and then he teaches them how to kill.

Private Jack Morgan spends most of his time in Los Angeles, where his top investigation firm has its headquarters. But a hunt for two criminals leads him to the city of sin--and to a murder ring that is more seductively threatening than anything he's witnessed before. PRIVATE VEGAS brings James Patterson's Private series to a sensational new level.

Challenges: 
Snagged @ The Library
Outdo Yourself

***I received this book from my amazing local library, go give yours a visit!  ***

Just Finished/Review: The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith

The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Poppy
Pages: 337
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 0316254770

My Review:
What a fun and cute story.  No real angst, a little love at first sight, but distance presents problems so I felt it and understood it.  Both characters have their own family issues but I like how those are worked through in the book.

Cute start with the elevator breaking down and the blackout in New York City bringing these two characters from two different economic backgrounds together and they find common ground and bond during those hours together.  Because Lucy lives in the building and Owen is the super's kid, these are not kids that would normally meet, but they do and it works.  Lucy is not worried with her status in life, she just wants to see the world and explore.  Owen longs to do the same thing but has been brought to NYC against his better judgment.  But just as these two get to know each other their families unknowingly pull them apart.

But I like them apart, it gives them time to grow without the other one affecting them.  It's interesting how they keep coming together and how they are always on each others' minds even when things aren't smooth.  The Geography of You and Me was a fun book and a great one that explores growing up and finding your way on your own and hopefully finding your way back to that true love you have found but didn't really realize how much it meant.  I loved this book, read it in one day and now cannot wait to go back and read Jennifer E. Smith's backlist books.

My Rating: 5.0/5.0

Summary

Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father.

Lucy and Owen's relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and -- finally -- a reunion in the city where they first met.

A carefully charted map of a long-distance relationship, Jennifer E. Smith's new novel shows that the center of the world isn't necessarily a place. It can be a person, too.

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Author Biography

Jennifer E. Smith is the author of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, The Storm Makers, You Are Here, and The Comeback Season. She earned her master's degree in creative writing from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and currently works as an editor in New York City. Her writing has been translated into 28 languages.

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***I received this book from my wonderful local library for my reading enjoyment. 

Book Review: Until the End of Time by Danielle Steel

Until the End of Time: A Novel by Danielle Steel
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2013
Hardcover, 336 pages
ISBN: 9780345530882




My Review:
It's been at least a few years since I've picked up a Danielle Steel though I use to read her voraciously when I was a teenager. Somehow Until the End of Time's blurb appealed to me and I reserved it from the library.

Again I will remind my readers I read for pure pleasure, not to deconstruct sentence structure or how the writer writes. All I really want is a good story, however if a writer can't hold my interest I can't read the story. So with that in mind I will move forward with my review. I know a lot of people don't like Danielle Steel, but she holds a special place in my heart as one of the first novelists I read. No her newer stories aren't quite like the sweeping stories of old, but I still see some of the old Danielle Steel in her books.

Until the End of Time took a little to get into. The reading was just a little stilted at the beginning of each story in the book (it is divided into two separate yet connected love stories). But I felt like once she got into her rhythm, Ms. Steel really began to shine and I fell into the stories then. This is not a complex book, but after reading a few more complex young adult novels I think this is just what I needed. An easy breezy adult pleasure novel. Love stories pure and simple. And while they are very emotional and deal with sensitive subjects, I never felt too bogged down. I kept flipping the pages to find out what would happen next. I connected with the characters, I felt their joy and their pain. And I enjoyed the plot. I read most of the book in one sitting as well. Yes, that is the Danielle Steel I remember. Getting swept away into the story, losing track of time and just enjoying the read. I did that last night and enjoyed it. I won't apologize for my guilty pleasure. Was it the best book ever? No. Was it enjoyable for the moment? Yes. Simple enough. Go forth and read it if you want, feel free to ignore me to on this one if you want as well. We all have our guilty pleasures and we all should enjoy them :)

Have a great day! And Mitchell Fulcher, I will love you until the end of time . . .

My rating: 4.0/5.0

About the Book:
Two couples, four decades apart. One believes that if lovers die, they find each other again in another life. Or perhaps they wind up as stars side by side in the sky, together forever. Who knows how it really ends? Danielle Steel breaks new ground in her career as a perennial New York Times bestseller with the poignant story of two parallel destinies, and the kind of love we all hope will be everlasting.

UNTIL THE END OF TIME

Bill, a dedicated young lawyer working at his family’s prestigious New York firm, leaves everything he trained for to follow his dream and become a minister in rural Wyoming. Jenny, his wife, is a stylist whose heart and soul are invested in fashion. She leaves the milieu and life she loves to join him. The certainty they share is that their destinies are linked forever.

Fast forward thirty-eight years. Robert is a hardworking independent book publisher in Manhattan who has given up all personal life to build his struggling business. He is looking for one big hit novel to publish. Lillibet is a young Amish woman, living as though in the seventeenth century, caring for her widowed father and three young brothers on their family farm. In secret at night, by candlelight, she has written the novel that burns within her, and gets it into Robert’s hands, wrapped in her hand-stitched apron. He falls in love first with the book, and then with the woman he has never met, living in the sequestered world of the Amish—a world without telephones, computers, electricity, modern conveniences, or cars. Although Lillibet faces banishment from her family and community, she embraces the opportunity to publish her novel, and is irresistibly drawn to the man who has heard her voice. Destiny is at work here. Fate draws her from her horse-and-buggy life toward his, and the publication of her novel.

In the hands of master storyteller Danielle Steel, these two remarkable relationships come together in unexpected and surprising ways, as lovers are lost, and find each other again. If it is true that real love lasts forever and lovers cannot lose each other, then Until the End of Time will not only comfort and fascinate us, as destiny does her dance, but it will give us hope as well. Love and fate are powerful, irresistible forces, as Steel proves to us here, in a book about courage, change, risk, and hope . . . and love that never dies.

About the Author (from Goodreads):
Since 1981, Ms. Steel has been a permanent fixture on the New York Times hardcover and paperback bestseller lists. In 1989, she was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having at least one of her books on the Times bestseller list for 381 consecutive weeks. But Guinness was premature. The fact is that one or more of Ms. Steel's novels have been on the New York Times bestseller list for over 390 consecutive weeks.

From an education in New York and Europe to a professional background in public relations and advertising, and teaching, Ms. Steel moved on quickly to her literary career and has been hard at work writing ever since. She wrote her first book at nineteen. Often, she works on five books at a time — researching one storyline, writing another, and editing the third. Still, she often spends two to three years researching and developing a single project. In the heat of a first draft, it is not uncommon for her to spend eighteen to twenty hours a day glued to her 1946 Olympia manual typewriter.

Family, children, and young people are the central focus of her life, and her passion, which frequently shows in her writing. She deals with the themes that touch on the most pressing issues of real life, which makes her books universal, and touch so many people. She is fascinated by the pressing life situations that affect us all, how people handle them and are often transformed as a result. And her novels have explored subjects such as kidnapping, incest, mental illness, suicide, death, divorce, adoption, marriage, loss, cancer, war, among others. She also frequently writes about historical themes, shedding new light on familiar historical events with meticulously accurate research.

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***I received this book from my wonderful library for my own personal reading. ***

Book Review: Hidden by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Hidden by P.C. and Kristin Cast

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Publish Date: October 16, 2012

Hardcover, 320 pages
Fiction, Young Adult, Paranormal
 ISBN: 9780312594428
House of Night #9

 


My Review:
I know a lot of controversy surrounds this series of books. Some don't like that a certain word is used in it. I'm not fond of it and it's a word I instruct my children not to use. Some do not like the language in it. Some do not like the sex in it. Some think this series has gotten a little tired. Well I'm still reading it and after reading Hidden, Book#10, I will also be reading Book #11 when it comes out. I also read the side stories so as soon as my library has Neferet's Curse I will be reading it as well. I like this series. I am firmly invested in the characters and the storyline. Is some of it repetitive? Maybe, but I usually have enough time between books that I don't really care. I read for entertainment and the House of Night books are different to me and they entertain me with their host of paranormal creatures and the various difficulties that Zoey and her "nerd herd" must overcome book after book.

In Hidden, it has finally been revealed that Neferet has gone over to the side of evil and Zoey and her crew really have to step up. Especially because now Neferet has upped the stakes. The book moves fast. The repartee is entertaining as always and I really enjoyed the new character Shaylin who was introduced in the last book and further explored in Hidden. Aphrodite is as always entertaining but she, Zoey and Shaylin grow the most in this book, they are having to learn to use their powers for good to help with the problem that faces them and that is the focus of the book. I enjoyed it. There were a few surprises and some things that worried me. But all-in-all, it seems to all be fine, but of course, there is an ending that is open leading to the next book.

But there is growth in the characters, there is action to move the plot along and there is entertainment value. I actually felt this was one of the stronger entries into the series in awhile. I did not want to put it down and there wasn't a lot of lore to bog it down. It was definitely fast-paced, interesting and character-centered. If you enjoy the series, I highly recommend Hidden. While it's not the caliber of the first book, it is returning to that type of book. The authors do a great job on a series that is on it's tenth book. And I hope to continue to enjoy the books for quite awhile.


My Rating: 4.25/5.0


About the Book:

At last, Zoey has what she wanted: the truth is out. Neferet's evil has been exposed, and the High Council is no longer on her side -- but she's far from done wreaking havoc in the vampyre world. First, a mysterious fire ravages the stables. Then, Neferet makes a devastating move that will test them all.
With the seeds of distrust sown and Darkness breeding chaos at the House of Night, everyone must band together -- but that's proving to be more difficult than ever before. The twins are barely speaking and the House of Night's former enemy, Kalona, has now become their warrior, pushing their trust to the limit. To top it off, Zoey is pretty darn sure she might be losing her mind. She saw something when she looked at Aurox through the Seer Stone that she can hardly explain to herself, let alone her friends. Is it possible that Heath has come back in a different form? Is that why Zoey's so intrigued by Aurox, when it's so obvious that he's dangerous? And who would believe her if she told them? Zoey knows that following her instinct about Aurox might be just what they need to defeat evil . . . but if she's wrong, it could cause the destruction of those closest to her.
With the tension at a breaking point and friendships on the line, can the nerd herd come together to stop the spread of Darkness before it's too late?

About the Authors (from Goodreads.com): 
P.C. Cast was born in the Midwestern United States, and grew up being shuttled back-and-forth between Illinois and Oklahoma, which is where she fell in love with Quarter Horses and mythology (at about the same time). After high school she joined the United States Air Force and began public speaking and writing. With her tour in the USAF completed, she taught high school for 15 years before retiring to write full time. Ms. Cast is a #1 New York Times and USA Today Best-Selling author and a proud member of the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame. Her novels have been awarded the prestigious: Oklahoma Book Award, YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Prism, Holt Medallion, Daphne du Maurier, Booksellers’ Best, and the Laurel Wreath. Her mega-hit young adult series, The House of Night, co-authored with her daughter, Kristin, has transcended the genre and, with over 20 million copies in print, appeals to readers of all ages. Ms. Cast's young adult, paranormal romance, and fantasy series can currently be found in forty-two countries. Ms. Cast lives in Oklahoma with an assortment of dogs, cats, horses, and one precocious burro.

At 19-years-old, Kristin is thrilled to be coauthoring the YA series, THE HOUSE OF NIGHT, with her mother. The first book in the series will be her first published novel. She has won awards for her poetry, as well as served as journalist for her intermediate high school newspaper, Tiger Tales, and as editor for her high school magazine, Tiger Eye. Kristin attends Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and is working hard to fulfill her goal of becoming a veterinarian without bankrupting her mother. One of the Scottinators belong to her, although we’re not telling either of the dogs that she’s going to someday be their veterinarian. Kristin would love to hear from her fans, and can also be reached through her mother’s website.

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***I received this book from the publisher for an honest review.  I was not compensated in any other way except receiving the book for free.  I do make money from purchases made at The Book Depository, Alibris and B&N.com, but all money is used to fund giveaways and shipping for giveaways from the blog.***