Gone by Lisa McMann

Genre: Young Adult/Supernatural

Author: See review for Fade

Synopsis: This was the third book in the Dream Catcher series. There was no suspense to this one. This one was about Janie trying to make a decision of how she wanted to live her life and the consequences of living it in other people's dreams or being a recluse away from any sleeping people -- no dreams.

Review: This one wasn't as exciting as the others. There was no suspense... just internal decision making. There was also a LOT of cursing in this book as well. I felt it was very much not necessary. This did talk a lot about children with alcoholic parents. The author apparently did a lot of research on it.

Rating: *** Three Stars

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No Time For Love by Nancy Campbell Allen

Genre: LDS Fiction/ Chick-Lit/ Mystery

Author: She has 10 published novels, 3 children, is a freelance editor, and has a degree in elementary education.

Synopsis: Connor O'Brian wants to end his relationship with his fiance but before he is able to she is killed in a car accident. After several break-ins to his home something is discovered that was left by his fiance but no one knows what it is. Liz Saxton, a P.I. and one of Connor's dear friends offers to help Connor solve this mystery. The two of them find themselves traveling all over the world in search of the evidence they need and hope they get it to the proper authorities before a bullet finds them.

Review: Really, I am not a fan of chick-lit, especially LDS Chick-lit. It's normally the same plot line. However, this one was different -- it still had it's fair amount of "cheese" but what chick-lit doesn't? I loved Liz's character. She wasn't wimpy and needy like most female protagonists tend to be. She was resourceful, independent, and knew what she was doing. I loved that! Connor was fun too. He was real and the author allowed the reader to see weaknesses in both of the main characters so they weren't these unrealistic people. It was great and completely clean! :) If anyone is in the mood for a quick, clean chick-lit with a bit of suspense then this is the one. Now, it is LDS but the only thing in it that is LDS is that the main characters are LDS. There are only a few references to it so if you're not LDS the book will still be enjoyable.  

Rating: *** Four Stars

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The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree, Jr

Genre: Novella, Science Fiction

Author: "'James Tiptree, Jr.' was born Alice Bradley in Chicago in 1915. Her mother was the writer Mary Hastings Bradley; her father, Herbert, was a lawyer and explorer. Throughout her childhood she travelled with her parents, mostly to Africa, but also to India and Southeast Asia. Her early work was as an artist and art critic. During World War II she enlisted in the Army and became the first American female photointelligence officer. In Germany after the war, she met and married her commanding officer, Huntington D. Sheldon. In the early 1950s, both Sheldons joined the then-new CIA; he made it his career, but she resigned in 1955, went back to college, and earned a Ph.D. in experimental psychology.

"At about this same time, Alli Sheldon started writing science fiction. She wrote four stories and sent them off to four different science fiction magazines. She did not want to publish under her real name, because of her CIA and academic ties, and she intended to use a new pseudonym for each group of stories until some sold. They started selling immediately, and only the first pseudonym—"Tiptree" from a jar of jelly, "James" because she felt editors would be more receptive to a male writer, and "Jr." for fun—was needed. (A second pseudonym, "Raccoona Sheldon," came along later, so she could have a female persona.)

"Tiptree quickly became one of the most-respected writers in the field, winning the Hugo Award for "The Girl Who was Plugged In" and "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?," and the Nebula Award for "Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death" and "Houston, Houston." Raccoona won the Nebula for "The Screwfly Solution," and Tiptree won the World Fantasy Award for the collection Tales from the Quintana Roo.

"The Tiptree fiction reflects Alli Sheldon's interests and concerns throughout her life: the alien among us (a role she portrayed in her childhood travels), the health of the planet, the quality of perception, the role of women, love, death, and humanity's place in a vast, cold universe. An award in Tiptree's name has celebrated science fiction that "expands and explores gender roles" for ten years now." This info came from here.


I just wanted to add that I found that very interesting. The whole time I was reading the story I was surprised that a man wrote so much about how a woman thinks but it's b/c James was really a female. Interesting!! :)


Synopsis: This is set in a futuristic world. It's about a young woman named Philadelphia Burke who. Philadelphia tries to kill herself and it is discovered that she has no family or friends so she is invited to work with a team of doctors and scientists where she's plugged into a machine and controls the body of a young, beautiful 15 yo girl they name Delphi. Soon, Philadelphia learns that she'll sacrifice everything for Delphi. How far will she actually go?

Review: I liked this story. There were parts where I had to read a few times to get. The narrator sounds like (s)he is telling the story to someone and occasionally that someone asks questions or comments and the narrator responds but the reader only sees one side of the conversation. Also, the someone the narrator is talking to knows a bit more about this futuristic world than me, as the reader, knows so I felt a bit out of it for parts of it but overall, I really liked the story.

Rating: **** Four Stars

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Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong

Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal

Author: "Kelley Armstrong has been telling stories since before she could write. Her earliest written efforts were disastrous. If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers' dismay. All efforts to make her produce "normal" stories failed.

"Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She's the author of the NYT-bestselling "Women of the Otherworld" paranormal suspense series and "Darkest Powers" young adult urban fantasy trilogy, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and far too many pets." (Came from here.) 


Synopsis: This is actually the tenth book in the Women of the Otherworld Series. I have never read any of them but there was enough back story that I wasn't lost at all. Elena and her husband are both werewolves and sent to Alaska to investigate several mysterious deaths that look like wolf attacks. Since wolves don't normally attack humans, the werewolves are concerned and send their best two pack mates in to investigate. Elena and Clay encounter some unexpected mysteries along the way -- including some paranormal creatures the werewolves thought were just a myth in the Alaska Wilderness.

Review: I couldn't finish this book. I tried but there was too much sex and the F-bomb was dropped a lot. There were 299 pages and I got to 100. I can't convince myself to go any farther. The story was interesting and I wanted to find out what happened but I had trouble forcing myself to read through so much bad language and sex scenes. I am really disappointed about this though b/c I love love love Kelly Armstrong's YA adult series, Darkest Powers. I was hoping this would be just as awesome. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past all the inappropriate content. Sorry....

Rating: * Star

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Millie's Fling by Jill Mansell

Genre: Chick-Lit

Author: Jill Mansell lives with her partner and children in Bristol, and writes full time. Actually that’s not true; she watches TV, eats fruit gums, admires the rugby players training in the sports field behind her house, and spends hours on the internet marvelling at how many other writers have blogs. Only when she’s completely run out of displacement activities does she write.

Jill Mansell's books have sold over three million copies and her titles include: Rumour Has It, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Making your Mind up, Fast Friends, Good at Games, Sheer Mischief and Solo, among many others. (Info came from here.)

Synopsis: The book starts out with Millie getting asked to move in with her boyfriend when she sees Orla, a well-known author, contemplating suicide. By talking Orla out of it she gains a friend and looses a boyfriend. Orla realizes what a complex life Millie and her friends have so she hires Millie to allow her to write about her. A fictional story based on Millie's life. Orla wants romance so spends a lot of time trying to set Millie up with other men. She is secretly in love with someone she can't have.

Review: This book had me laughing out loud with the situations Millie and her friend Hester manage to get themselves into. There are several stories followed throughout this book. At times, I felt it dragged on a little bit but overall, it was very entertaining and fun. You must remember that the author is from the UK so there are terms that Americans aren't quite used to that I had to figure out. Like the book of a car is the trunk. hehe! Stuff like that. There was more language than I would have liked however. Other than that, a fun read! :)

Rating: *** Three Stars

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Women of the Book of Mormon by Heather B. Moore

Genre: Non-fiction/Religious

Author: "Heather B. Moore is the award-winning author of several historical novels which are set in Ancient Arabia and Mesoamerica. She is not old and doesn’t remember the time period, so google.com has become a great friend. Although she has spent several years living in the Middle East, she prefers to forget the smells. Heather writes under the pen name H.B. Moore so that men will buy her books. She is also the author of one non-fiction book, which took her much too long to research and write, so she is back to novel writing (when she isn’t clipping 2-for-1 coupons).

Heather graduated from Brigham Young University with a major in Fashion Merchandising and minor in Business Management—which has absolutely nothing to do with writing novels. But at least she can balance a mean checkbook and color-coordinate her kids’ school clothes." (Info cam from here.)

Synopsis: Heather B. Moore explores the lives of women in the Book of Mormon. It's an opportunity to learn about the lifestyle and people of Ancient America to see what they went through and to better apply it to our lives today.

Review: I loved reading about the women in the Book of Mormon. I saw this book and thought, "How can she write an entire book on the women? There aren't very many!!" But, she did. She actually wrote about the unnamed women in it and the women mentioned just briefly in it who are described more in the Bible. The women covered were Sariah, Eve, Mary, Sarah, Twenty-four Lamanite Daughters, Queen of King Lamoni, Abish, Isabel, Mother of the Two-Thousand Stripling Warriors, Daughter of Jared, and the Wife of Mormon. It was an opportunity to read between the lines and to see what these women went through. The artwork in it is absolutely beautiful too. Obviously, it was a very clean read. ;)

Rating:  ***** Five Stars

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