Endangered

by C. J. Box

            The 15^th installment in Box’s Joe Pickett series is a good, solid story. Joe’s ward, 18 year April, has run off with a rodeo rider. Not just any rider, but a local boy that Joe intensely dislikes. Dallas Cates is a local boy, a rodeo champion, and the youngest son of a family that Joe suspects of breaking the law frequently. Joe’s concern for April proves well founded when she is found alongside a rural road, badly beaten and barely alive. Who beat April? Dallas or someone else? Joe plans on finding out and quite possibly meting out his own justice.

            This novel differs from the last few novels in the series since Joe’s friend Nate Romanowski does not figure as prominently as he has. I believe this is a nice change and allows the story to move in some different directions.

            Box does a good job of character development in all his novels without sacrificing the fast pace readers come to expect in this genre.

            Borrow this book from your library for a quick enjoyable read. 

The Dream Lover: A Novel of George Sand

by Elizabeth Berg      

      

            Elizabeth Berg’s newest book is a fictionalized story of the life of George Sand. Told in first person narrative, the story documents a woman who was perhaps the most unconventional person in her day.  This is a fabulous book, classic Elizabeth Berg.

            I confess to not knowing anything about George Sand before reading Berg’s novel. Born Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin in 1797 in Paris, her parents were a French lieutenant from the aristocracy and his courtesan lover whom he married. This unusual beginning for the young Aurore, as she was called, was to set the tone for her entire life. While Aurone/Sands did marry and have children, she also left her husband, built a successful career as a writer and sued her husband to get her fortune back. She wore men’s clothing, smoked in public and took multiple lovers without apology. A truly gifted writer, Sands was a woman who was centuries ahead of her time in advocating for women’s rights.

It is Berg’s ability to bring this complicated and unorthodox woman to life that makes this novel shine. This is a huge, luscious novel to be read slowly and savored.  

Victor Hugo said this about George Sands upon her death: “George Sand was an “idea.” She has been released from the flesh, and now is free. She is dead, and now is living.”

In The Dream Lover, Elizabeth Berg has indeed set Sands free and she is once again living.

Scheduled for publication on April 7^th, this is a book to buy, read and then read again.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Night Crew

by Brian Haig

            Just when I had given up on ever seeing Sean Drummond again, Haig returns with a new novel, and it may be his best yet.

            This novel again pairs Lt. Colonel Drummond with his old law school rival, Katherine Carlson. First appearing in Mortal Allies, Carlson and Drummond do not play well together. In The Night Crew they are the co-council of a young female army soldier accused with committing atrocities against Iraqi prisoners in Iraq. To further complicate their defense are pictures of the atrocities. Lots and lots of pictures.

            As they interview the other four defendants in the case, a picture of depravity emerges that Drummond wonders how they can defend against. While Carlson sees this case as a chance to put the Army on trial, Drummond begins to sense there is more to this case. With key witnesses dead and documents suddenly missing, Drummond believes someone is covering up. The question is who, and what.

            Haig’s books are always good, but he has outdone himself with The Night Crew. His characters face moral ambiguities that are all too plausible and real. Well done, Mr. Haig.

            With an expected publication date of March 10^th, this is a book to buy and lose sleep over.  

          Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. 

Motive    

     

by Jonathan Kellerman

 

                Motive is the latest installment in Kellerman’s Alex Delaware series. It opens with the murder of a young woman in her apartment. The aberration is that her table has been set up post crime with a dinner for two. When another woman is murdered and her table for two is set, the case moves into Dr. Delaware’s area of expertise: motive.

                This novel is classic Kellerman. It’s a fast paced story that is a quick enjoyable read. There are plenty of red herrings along the way. In fact, Kellerman is known for this. He throws out red herrings like a crazed jester throwing beads at a Mardi Gras parade. I know this. I expect this. Every time I read a Kellerman novel, I have a conversation with myself. “You know he’s going to try to lead you down the garden path, right? Yep. You’re not going to fall for all those false clues, right? Nope.” Of course, I do fall for his misdirections and slight of hand. I don’t know why I even bother.

                For fans of Kellermans, you will not be disappointed. If you’ve never read this author, what are you waiting for?

The Forever Bridge

by T. Greenwood

             

            Set in a small town in Vermont, The Forever Bridge begins with a storm that fractures a family and ends with a storm that holds the possibility of healing that fracture.

            Sylvie is a woman who can no longer face the world after the death of her son in an accident. For two years she has closeted herself in her home believing the world to be a dangerous place.

            Ruby is Sylvie’s eleven year old daughter. For her, the accident took not only her brother, but also her mother. Living with her father, Ruby longs for her mother. Alternating between pity and anger, Ruby tries to navigate the mine field that is her mother’s world.

            Nessa was a throw away child. Now seventeen and pregnant, she longs for the only thing she has ever wanted; a home. Returning to Vermont to find her mother, she carries secrets that could destroy some lives and heal others.

            These three lives are on a collision course that will explode one night as a hurricane bears down on their small town.

            Beautifully written, The Forever Bridge may just be Greenwood’s best novel to date. Her books are always a joyous, sad, funny, heart breaking, lush, barren and thought provoking examinations of relationships. This book is no exception.

            If you've read T. Greenwood’s novels before, you will love this book. If not, you're in for a treat. A must buy.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. 

The Nightingale

by Kristin Hannah

 

            An epic novel that spans over 50 years, this is beyond a doubt Hannah’s finest book to date. Hannah is at the height of her ability on this one, and it is impressive.

            Set in France during WWII, the book follows two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, ordinary French women who experience the evil, desperation and desolation of war in occupied France. Vianne, the elder sister, believes that if she keeps her head down and follows the rules the Germans impose, all will be well. Isabelle has seen the evil of the German army and believes that resistance is the only choice.  Each of the sister’s attitudes not only shape their choices and change their lives, but will affect many others, both in the present and in the future.

            The book moves from the present day to the past in the two sisters voices. Vianne and Isabelle in the past, and one of the sisters in the present. It is not until the end that the present tense sister’s identity is revealed.

            It is impossible to read this novel and not loose oneself in it. There is just so much to this book: love, loss, beauty, evil, horror, courage and hope.

            Hannah’s opening line to this novel sums it up best: ‘In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.”

            Buy this book for yourself, your friends, anyone who enjoys an epic read of the first quality.

The Great Zoo of China

by Matthew Reilly

 

Think Jurassic Park with dragons and you have Reilly’s latest book. Just as the dinosaurs run amuck in Jurassic Park, so do Reilly’s dragons. However, Reilly takes this idea and goes far beyond expectations.

The book begins with a media tour of a fantastical zoo, amusement park, vacation destination spot the Chinese government has been building in secret for over 40 years. Of course, the tour goes horribly awry very quickly. That’s when the fun begins!

Led by a female protagonist, CJ Cameron, the cast of characters includes a host of Chinese officials, technicians, a U.S. ambassador, scientists and dragons, dragons, dragons. Lots of dragons of varying sizes, shapes, colors and abilities.

What makes this book work so well, is the author’s ability to make the existence of dragons in the modern world seem so believable. Whatever objection your mind can conjure up, Reilly has an answer to, and that answer is very plausible.

The Great Zoo of China is a thriller, a fantasy and a sci-fi novel all rolled into one really good read. Even for readers who are not fantasy or sci-fi readers (I count myself among them) this is a novel that will be enjoyed by most.

                Buy this book, buckle your seat belt, and let Matthew Reilly take you on one fantastic ride. Oh, and when you dream of dragons, blame the author, not me.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.