SYNOP: As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object — artfully encoded with five symbols — is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation . . . one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon’s beloved mentor, Peter Solomon — a prominent Mason and philanthropist — is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations — all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.

I enjoyed this book…despite all the hype.  But it was definitely not as good as Brown’s previous efforts.  I was intrigued that it was set in DC, as I don’t live that far from there and am familiar with a lot of the places they talked about, but outside of that I felt the story was a bit of a re-tread, not to mention that I had figured out the most important “twist” early on.  I did enjoy being back in Langdon’s company and the book slipped right on like a pair of slippers, but there was a spark missing.  I did thoroughly enjoy the parts on noetic science but The Lost Symbol was just a read and then quickly forgotten.  I’m hoping the next Brown book will keep me on the edge of my seat!

]]> http://bewitchedbybooks.com/2010/03/06/the-lost-symbol-by-dan-brown/feed/ 0 http://bewitchedbybooks.com/2009/09/06/evil-without-a-face-by-jordan-dane/ http://bewitchedbybooks.com/2009/09/06/evil-without-a-face-by-jordan-dane/#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:26:18 +0000 Shelly http://bewitchedbybooks.com/?p=240

SYNOP:

Haunted and Obsessed
She sleeps with a Colt Python in her nightstand and her senses on alert—Jessica Beckett isn’t taking any chances. Hiding a chilling secret, living in a world of snitches and felons, good cops and bad dreams, Jessica is a bounty hunter who brings lowlifes to justice. But not even she can imagine what she’ll face when she tracks an online predator who has abducted a naive teenage girl.

Making Promises That Can’t Be Kept
Former NFL quarterback Payton Archer swore to his sister that he’d find her only child. But the police have no leads and the teen’s trail has turned cold. Plagued by personal demons, Payton’s never considered himself a hero. But this time he has to be.

And Fighting a Faceless Enemy
Joining forces to save the seventeen-year-old girl, Payton and Jessica discover that she’s nothing but a pawn in an insidious, terrifying global conspiracy. They’re battling a new kind of criminal. And soon their race for answers will become a dangerous struggle for survival.

I enjoyed a lot of things about this book.  I loved Jess. She was sassy and bold and was quick to think outside the box.  She would be great as an amateur sleuth in her own series.  I also loved how Dane wove danger and tension throughout the story and I enjoyed the couple of little twists I didn’t see coming.  The story was taut and an excellent thriller with the bad guys being scary bad.  I also like Nikki, the teen who runs headlong into trouble.  She was very real and plucky yet the events changed her realistically and I liked that.  I enjoyed reading about the mysterious Seth Harper and can’t wait to read The Wrong Side of Dead.  And I am so very intrigued by Alexa Marlowe!

But two crucial things kept me from giving this book an A.  One was the sheer number of characters that made it hard to really get to know some of them.  Sometimes their presence felt forced.  And the whole romantic relationship between Payton and Jess just seemed silly and minor.  They had so little time together (first meeting on page 234 of the book!) that their attraction didn’t feel real.  I felt more chemistry from Alexa and Garrett than Payton and Jess.  It just felt out of place and made me want to skim the few parts where they interacted emotionally (like the awkward hotel scene) to get back to the action.

Dane has made me think of internet chat rooms in a whole new light.  And I enjoyed wondering how they were going to thwart a plan that was obviously so large and out of their scope.  It wrapped up a bit too nicely but I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more of the Russian…at least I hope so cuz he’s creepy and awful and deliciously scary!  Give Evil Without a Face a whirl.  I think if you like thrillers you’ll enjoy this one.  It’s up for grabs on my Paperback Swap bookshelf!

Book Synop:

The three girls have been inseparable best friends since the third grade — Josie, the athletic one; Perri, the brilliant, acerbic drama queen; and Kat, the beauty, who also has brains, grace, and a heart open to all around her. But their last day of high school becomes their final day together after one of them brings a gun to school to resolve a mysterious feud. When the police arrive, they discover two wounded girls, one so critically that she is not expected to recover. The third girl is dead, killed instantly by a shot to the heart.

What transpired that morning at Glendale High rocks the foundation of an affluent community in Baltimore’s distant suburbs, a place that has barely recovered from an earlier, more comprehensible tragedy. For the shell-shocked parents, teachers, administrators, and students, healing must begin with answers to the usual questions — but only if the answers are safe ones, answers that will lead back to one girl and one family and absolve everyone else.

For Homicide Sgt. Harold Lenhardt, this case is a mystery with more twists than these grief-stricken suburbanites are willing to acknowledge — and the sole lucid survivor, a girl with a teenager’s uncanny knack for stonewalling, strikes him as being less than honest. What is she concealing? Is she trying to protect herself or someone else? Even the simplest secrets can kill — and kill again if no one is willing to confront them.

Simply exhilarating!  Laura Lippman’s To the Power of Three kept me on the edge of my seat.  It takes a special book for me to want to “cheat” and sneak a look at the ending.  I am never one for much self-control so I must admit, I looked.   But I still read the whole book.  At some points I thought the story was a little disjointed with it flashing back to the girls past.  And admittedly, those parts didn’t keep my interest as well as the present. Lippman does an excellent job of getting into the high school girls’ heads. It’s all very believable and some parts had me a little choked up.

To the Power of Three isn’t a traditional mystery where the reader can figure out the who, what, where and why. She crafts it so well that while you know the who, you can’t begin to guess the road that led to Perri, Josie and Kat’s fateful meeting in the girls’ restroom. I can’t wait to read What the Dead Know!

As usual I PPH Karen Rose! I’m Watching You was excellent! I love stories that challenge my own perceptions and this one had me doing a bit of thinking at the end. This story is about a vigilante killer who is taking out some of society’s worst offenders. These guys all got off in court by a technicality or by their defense lawyer being total scum and discrediting the Prosecution’s witnesses. Kristen Mayhew tries so hard to put these bastards away as an ASA but she can’t get them all. But someone has decided to help her and he calls himself Your Humble Servant. She gets close to the cop assigned to her case, Abe Reagan but there are issues that both of them are dealing with that keeps them at arms lengths from each other. The book is extremely fast paced and I only put it down to get some sleep. I had to look at whether I thought the killer was actually a killer or if he was doing a society a favor. Very interesting. And since I don’t usually read psychological thrillers a second time, I’m going to leave the book here at the condo for someone else to enjoy.

Next was a book I’ve had since the day it hit the shelves of my bookstore – Your Mouth Drives Me Crazy by HelenKay Dimon was incredible! A lot of times snarky dialogue feels forced to me and pulls me out of a story, but the characters of Kane and Annie were hilarious and believable! The story kept me engaged (and practically had me washed away at high tide because I didn’t want to move from the beach chair!). I can’t wait for more from her. Fantastic! Now if only she will be doing Josh and Derek’s stories. I know something is in the pipelines for another Hawaii story because I went to her website, but I am soooo very impatient!

And last, but by no means least, is the story I just finished this evening. One that Tina has been bugging me to read for quite a while and I was very resistant to trying. When Darkness Comes (Guardians of Eternity, Book 1) is one of the best vampire books I’ve read in a while! I absolutely loved the character of Dante (where can I find myself one!!!) and the byplay between Dante and Abby kept me chuckling all through the book. The world building was subtle, yet weaved so skillfully in it wasn’t like a lesson. These two were HOT! I can’t wait to pick up Embrace The Darkness (Guardians of Eternity, Book 2) in early November. Alexandra Ivy is now on my auto-buy list!

Now what will I pick-up next…..

Book Synop: It was a desperate plan. But Mary Grace Winters knew the only way to save herself and her child from her abusive cop husband was to stage their own death. Now all that remains of their former life is at the bottom of a lake…Armed with a new identity in a new town, she and her son have found refuge hundreds of miles away.

As Caroline Stewart, she has almost forgotten the nightmare she left behind nine years ago. She is even taking a chance on love with Max Hunter, a man with wounds of his own. But her past is about to collide with the present when her husband uncovers her trail and threatens her hard-won peace. Step by step, he’s closing in on her — and everything and everyone she loves.

Don’t look … Don’t trust… Don’t Tell.

There are few things that are scarier to me than reading about women who run away from their abusive husbands and then are stalked by them. It creeped me out in The Perfect Husband by Lisa Gardner and it did so again in Don’t Tell by Karen Rose.

I really liked the character Mary Grace/Caroline. I believed in her strength and her reactions seemed very real and believable. I also really believed her way crazy husband, Rob Winters. It’s scary to think of any man being like Winters, but it’s even more horrifying to think of them as part of the system that’s supposed to protect us. I did have a small problem buying Max Hunter. He seemed to be a little all over the board. And I understand this was because of his own problems that he’s had and not faced, but I’m not sure I believed in him and Caroline as a couple.

Overall, the story flowed fairly well and I read it in one sitting (two books in one day! Holy Moly!) and I was very happy to see Special Agent Thatcher again. I had already read Rose’s Have You Seen Her? which was another great suspense novel.  I’ve bought all her books and I’m sure I’ll love each and every one those too.  I’ll let you know as I go through them.

Book Synop: (from Amazon) Regulars at Nadia’s nature lodge don’t ask what she does in the off-season. And that’s a good thing. If she told them, she’d have to kill them. She’s a hit woman for a Mafia family. Tough and self-sufficient, Nadia doesn’t owe anyone any explanations. But that doesn’t mean she always works alone. One of her contacts has recruited her in the hunt for a ruthlessly efficient serial killer cutting a swath of terror across the country. The assassin is far too skilled to be an amateur—and the precision of the killings is bringing the Feds much too close to the hit man community for comfort.

To put an end to the murders, Nadia will have to turn herself from predator to prey as she employs every trick she knows to find the killer. Before the killer finds her…

Exit Strategy (Nadia Stafford Series, Book 1) is my first read by Kelley Armstrong. I’ve got her one of her paranormal books sitting on my TBR pile, but I’ve yet to pull it out. I was intrigued by the idea of a female hitwoman. Especially since she used to be a cop. The plot was well paced and I enjoyed the peak into the life.

Nadia has a mentor, Jack, who confused me a bit throughout the book. Jack doesn’t share much of himself, yet it’s obvious that he cares about Nadia. But there’s something so aloof about Jack that I’m not sure I’m rooting for him yet. Another man that might be part of Nadia’s picture is another hitman named Quinn. I really liked him. He was fun, rather open and jovial.

The ride to capture the rogue hitman who has now crossed the line into serial killer was fascinating. How do you catch someone who knows all the ins and outs like you do? This was a pretty solid first book, even though I expect even more characterization in the second one.

In fact, in the second one I’d like to see more of Nadia on the “job” for the mafia. I’d also like to see a little more of her “personal code” in a manner of speaking. I want to understand why she’s taken on this life (and it’s not just for the money). According to KA’s website, she’s contracted for only two books so far in this series — depending on how they sell. Well, I know I’m eagerly awaiting the next one!

Synop: (From Amazon) Plucky, bumbling New Jersey bounty hunter Plum is reunited with her two-timing lawyer ex-husband, Dickie Orr, while doing a favor for the mysterious, sexy Ranger. But when Dickie disappears from his house leaving behind only bloodstains and bullet holes, Plum becomes the prime suspect in his alleged murder. Determined to clear her name, Plum and her on-again off-again Trenton cop boyfriend, the irresistible Joe Morelli, uncover Dickie’s ties to a shady group of men involved in everything from money laundering to drug running. And when Dickie’s jilted business partners decide Stephanie holds the key to the $40 million they believe Dickie stole from them, she’s in for a wild ride. With the author’s usual cast of eccentric side characters—everything from a taxidermist with a penchant for bombs to a grave-robbing tax man—Evanovich proves once again that Stephanie Plum and her entourage are here to stay.

Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum Novels) had me laughing as per usual with Evanovich’s crazy series. LMT doesn’t really cover any new ground with Stephanie, Ranger and Morelli. It’s still that crazy triangle I love to watch unfold. I’m a Ranger fan myself but overall I’m just terribly jealous that between the 2 men, Stephanie has it all!

I don’t know where Evanovich comes up with her wacky FTAs but I always have a good laugh at Stephanie’s crazy pursuit of them. This time we get to see this taxidermist who makes exploding roadkill. And of course Stephanie gets herself into deep doo with some very bad guys that are out to find 40 million dollars.

These books are such a wonderful, light read. I have to be careful reading them in public because I don’t want those “what’s wrong with her” looks when I burst out laughing. I am starting to get a touch impatient with the love triangle but I know that if Steph ever picks just one, well, the series will be over. If you love the series, you’ll love LMT.