New Moon (Twilight #2) by Stephenie Meyer

Synopsis by http://www.goodreads.com/

Shoot, I muttered when the paper sliced my finger; I pulled it out to examine the damage. A single drop of blood oozed from the tiny cut.It all happened very quickly then.Edward threw himself at me, flinging me back across the table...I tumbled down to the floor by the piano, with my arms thrown out instinctively to catch my fall, into the jagged shards of glass. I felt the searing, stinging pain that ran from my wrist to the crease inside my elbow. Dazed and disoriented, I looked up from the bright red blood pulsing out of my arm-into the fevered eyes of the six suddenly ravenous vampires.

Legions of readers entranced by Twilight are hungry for more and they won't be disappointed. In New Moon, Stephenie Meyer delivers another irresistible combination of romance and suspense with a supernatural twist.

The "star-crossed" lovers theme continues as Bella and Edward find themselves facing new obstacles, including a devastating separation, the mysterious appearance of dangerous wolves roaming the forest in Forks, a terrifying threat of revenge from a female vampire and a deliciously sinister encounter with Italy's reigning royal family of vampires, the Volturi. Passionate, riveting, and full of surprising twists and turns, this vampire love saga is well on its way to literary immortality.

My Comments:

I certainly like this book much better than the first book. Got it from the Big Bad Wolf Sale 2011. Brand new!

The book have a much faster pace and more action packed.

I like the way she put he empty pages to reflect the time passed in a zombified state. But the part about Bella's best friend alienated her does not really jibe with me.  If the author could have elaborated more on what happen it would be nice.

Anyway, I started to hate the character, Bella, in this book. Well, that is a good sign of success for the author, right? The ability to arouse readers emotions.

Why I hated Bella? Coz to me she was very self-centered. I felt that in the first book she used Mike to gain acceptance among her peers. Then in the second book she used Jacob to nurse her wounds. She is a "user".

Nevertheless, the story was well written and plot were well planned..at least for me.

The Charm School by Nelson DeMille

Young Gregory Fisher was an American on a holiday trip in Russia. He was young and daring. It was most unusual for tourist to drive around on their own there. Normally tourist would join a tour group but not Fisher. He drove around on his own.

All was well till he "bump" into an unexpected man when he was on his way to Moscow. The man was a U.S P.O.W on the run. He held a terrible secret which he passed on to Fisher with instruction that he contact the U.S. Embassy soonest possible.

Fisher managed to reach Moscow and contacted the Embassy. His call was pick up by Lisa, an embassy liaison. Upon hearing the news, Lisa immediately contacted Colonel Hollis who rushed out to meet with Fisher. Unfortunately, he was too late and Fisher was missing.

Hence start a series of life threatening events for both Colonel Hollis, Lisa and people who are involved. In fact some innocent lives were affected too.

I have always love Nelson DeMille's novels. They are always full of suspense and action.  This book is no exception. There is even a hint of romance in this.

I love Colonel Hollis ironic sense of humor. My only complain is some part of the story tend to dragging.

Overall, this has been an entertaining read.

Life Everlasting by Robert Whitlow

This is the Book Two of an Alexia Lindale novel.

In Book One, Alexia, a divorce lawyer hired by Baxter Richardson's wife(Rena) to help her with her case. She doesn't want a divorce but she wants to have her husband, Baxter, who is in a coma to be taken out from life support.

For this second instalment, Baxter was called back to this world by the enchanting music played by Ted Morgan. Meantime the mental state of Rena deteriorated.

This is a fine continuation of "Life Support". I like the mysterious way that Baxter being called back and "romance" seems to blossoming for Alexia.

Every characters in this book seems to be govern by a higher power. Maybe God is working through the author to send a message to us? It's not everyday that I find a book that have suspense and yet promote the believe in the Lord.

One thing that I find rather this book is a bit long winded. Some reduction of 50 to 100 pages would make the book more enjoyable to read.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this bookfrom the publisher through theBookSneeze®.com   The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with theFederal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Theodore Boone by John Grisham

News Flash!!

Just saw BIG BAD WOLF BOOKS' Facebook that the BBWS is coming in OCTOBER 2011

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For those who know me personally, they would know that I have a love and hate relation with John Grisham books. Some I love to death. Some I would condemn.

When I spotted this in BookXcess, I was wondering if I should buy it or not.

The story is about Theodore Boone, whose parents are lawyers and he is inspired to be a lawyer and maybe some day a judge.

Theo is not your typical boy. Although he is only 13 years old, he knows everyone in the Court from the Judges, Policemen and the court clerks. He know tonnes about the law and frequently help his schoolmates with their family's legal problem.

And this is how he become entangled into the most sensational murder trial a Strattenburg. He is the only one who knows that a murderer is going to walk out of the Court a freeman. He knows that the man is guilty. The stakes are high and he won't stop till justice is served.

I enjoyed reading this book a lot. It's a refreshing book written through the point of view of a 13 year old kid, although I must say that this kid does seems to be mature for his age. It's not impossible as nowadays kids seems to grow up very fast.

The suspense kept me up at night.It's full of suspense. For me it's something fresh and suit kids and adult from the age 12 onwards. 

Stories like this make me want to look into classes at CSI schools or get an exciting JD degree and bring criminals to justice.

Sidney Sheldon's After The Darkness by Tilly Bagshawe

Last week I went to Big Book Shop Moving Out Clearance Sale. To my delight, this book was one of those on sale. Got this for RM7-50 only.

I feel in love with Tilly Bagshawe's works after reading "Sidney Sheldon's Mistress of The Game", purchased from BookXcess last year.

Sidney Sheldon's After The Darkness tells the exciting story of Grace Brookstein, the young and beautiful wife of billionaire Lenny Brookstein. Her life is the envy of all her friends and even sisters. What is not to envy? She have everything that a woman wants, a loving husband, a charmed life, rich and surrounded by tonnes of "friends".

That is until the death of her husband in a tragic sailing "accident". After his death, it was discovered that billions of dollars were missing from the company. FBI suspected Lenny and Grace took the money and had prepared to run away before Lenny's "accident".

Grace's life took a drastic dive. Not only that she become penniless, all her "friends" and her "sisters" also deserted her. She become the most hated woman in the country.

She tried to clear Lenny's and her name, she was drawn into well planned lies and deceit which sole purpose to make her as the "'scapegoat". When she became "dis-Grace", there was someone who "helped" and stood by her. She thought she had found a true friend.Unknown to her, this friend was a "wolf in sheep's clothing". Grace was used and betrayed mercilessly.

There was a surprise ending which drove the knife of betrayal deeper into her heart. A Judas.

Yes, this books is about false sense of security and betrayal. It's a world where the naive and those with kind intention were fed to the dogs. Lenny and Grace had showed kindness to their friend. But when no benefit can be had with association with Grace, these friend become like "pea forgetting the pods'". There were so many Judas in this book.

Some may ask, with so many betrayal and will this book make sense? Yes, the book makes sense. The betrayal were not overly exaggerate. I may not have a degree in Psychology but I know something about human nature and the need of survival. During desperate time, self preservation tends to dominate.

I have to salute Ms Tilly Bagshawe. I found that this book is equal if not more exciting that some of Sidney Sheldon's novel.

There are many exciting twist in the plot. None were confusing nor unbelievable. She really makes my heart bleed for Grace. I love the way how she developed the character "Grace" from being a naive sort of personality into a woman with inner straight-like a bamboo bending but not breaking under strong wind.

This is certainly a very good book. I wonder if Ms Tilly's next book will be able to surpass this one

No Place Like Holmes By Jason Lethcoe

Book Description From BookSneeze.com

The new resident in 221A Baker Street is about to give Sherlock Holmes a run for his magnifying glass!
When Griffin is sent to stay with his detective uncle at 221A Baker Street for the summer, he is certain that his uncle must be the great Sherlock Holmes! But Griffin is disappointed to discover that Holmes lives at 221B Baker Street and his uncle lives unit 221A. His uncle is a detective, just not a very good one. But when Griffin meets a woman with a case that Holmes has turned away for being too ridiculous, he and his uncle team up to help her. Along the way, Griffin shows his uncle just what it means to have true faith in God, even when the case challenges that. The woman claims that her husband was eaten by the Loch Ness Monster, but monsters aren’t real—or are they?


My Comments:

I have always been a fan of Sherlock Holmes stories and I am delighted to be given the opportunity to review this book by Thomas Nelson Publisher through their blogger review programme. As usual, I am not required to give a positive review. Just an honest review would do.

This books is geared towards young readers of the age 9 to 12 years old. It's well written and resonant the gentle teaching of the old school like respecting the elders. I really missed this type of books. The market is being flooded by too many vampires type of books for young readers and I think it is refreshing to get a hold of books that bears some of the former theme.

Adventures and excitement awaits readers of this book. It's certainly a page turner. At times, Griffin is portrayed more mature than his age. As usual with mystery and detective novels, this story has many twists and turns. Nevertheless, it is impressive how Jason Lethcoe managed to incorporate into the story, the believe in God, Prayer and a little faith can go a long without sounding to preachy.

One thing that I don't understand is why this book is classified as Non-Fiction. Aren't Sherlock Holmes a fictional character?

Overall, this is a good read worth 4 stars out of 5.

Don't Look Twice By Andrew Gross

Life was good for the local detective, Ty Hauck. Though he was divorced, the break was a amicable one. He gets to see his daughter and he have a new girl friend.

But then a day trip with his daughter to downtown turned into a blood bath when a gunman suddenly open fire into the store.

From a glance it looks like a revenge. But is it as simple as that. As Ty dig future, many parties seems to tried to advice him to change his course and do not pursue the investigation.

He was determined to get to the bottom of it. How far is he willing to go? The more he dig, he does not only put himself in danger but also of his family. Even his en strangled brother Warren also seems to be entangled in all of it.

I find that Ty is not a lovable character. Someone just opened fire at them and his daughter were in shock. Yet all he can think of is his work. Left the daughter to go to the hospital alone.

I love the beginning and the middle but when comes to the ending, I was kinda lost. The reason for the blood bath was just too big to digest

Inspector Singh Investigates : A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree by Shamini Flint

This is the 4th book of Inspector Singh Series. This round the chubby and funny Inspector Singh landed in Cambodia. Got kicked by his "boss" to be an observer to the International War Crime Tribunal in Phnom Pehn.

When a key witness of the trial was murdered, Inspector Singh was roped in to help out with the investigation.

The authorities are determined to write off this murder as random acts of violence but knowing Inspector Singh, we know that he would certainly leave no stone unturned.

The investigation brings up a lot of heart ache and pain for everyone inclusive of Inspector Singh.

Before reading this book, I was really like "A frog under the coconut shell". I have no idea of Cambodia have such a violent past coz I never really bother to read up the country history and current event.

Frankly, I was horrified by the acts of violent against the so call "intellects" and their family members. The Khmer Rouge were so cruel against women and children. The scenes in this book were very vivid and descriptive.

I had a good laugh at page 137. Just too bad they didn't use the image of Ganesha statue and Inspector Singh side by side as the book cover. It would be very funny.

This is definitely a good read. Full of human and mysterious elements

The Eye of Jade By Diane Wei Liang

Mei is a Private Investigator in the new China. There is no P.I. in China. It's not allowed. Thus, she had to register herself as a Consultant instead of P.I.

She was approached by an old family friend "Uncle Chen" to look for a piece of missing jade from Han Dynasty which is supposedly taken by the Red Guards from the museum during one of the Cultural Revolutions raids.

On top of the investigation, her mother was taken ill suddenly. She had to worry about her mother and she had to deal with her gorgeous but self-centred younger sister who is married to a rich man.

There seems to be many layers of deceptions here. During the investigation, Mei found out that things might be link to her family.

I find that this book is rather slow paced for a suspense/thriller type of book. Mentioned and elaborated a lot on Mei's relationship with her mother and younger sister instead of the investigation. Seems like it is a secondary issue.

The plot at the ending was rather confusing on how everything was linked up. I sense that this book could have done better and need some improvement.

The Broker By John Grisham

Joel Backman was nickname the Broker as he is a genius in making deals. One day, a deal went awry. One by one those who were involved was murdered. He packed his bag and "confessed" his crime. He was jailed in a maximum security prison for his own safety.

After 6 years, the out going President gave him a last minute Presidential Pardon at the request from the CIA. The condition of the pardon is that he have to leave the country and live under a new name.

He was smuggled out from the country and given a new identity.

However, he still does not feels secured as sometime seems to be amissed. Why did the CIA wants him out of the prison when so many parties wish him dead?

He tries his most to learn the truth and to find safety though he is like a newborn baby who need CIA to keep holding his hands.

I have read this book a few years ago. Came across this book again when I was looking for something in the storeroom.  Read the synopsis and found that I have forgotten much of the story. Hence the interest to re-read this again.

Found that the beginning and the middle are very interesting. The suspense was there. But by the ending, the suspense just couldn't keep up. Many things just seems to coincidentally fell in step. It doesn't seem very believable.

Like the part where CIA supposed to follow him 24/7 and there are tracking devices in his clothing. Why CIA does not feel suspicious when he took off to go and meet up with Rudolph?

How can someone who is computer illiterate suddenly become techno savvy after reading 2 pages of instructions from his son? The CIA supposed to monitor the son's movement. How can the son withdraw huge sum from his account to buy and send Joel a handset without the CIA noticing that? All seems to be lump into negligence.

He was in the hit list of so many country and everything suddenly stopped just because he hand over the disc?

Despite my grouses, this is still not a bad book to read.

The Conspiracy Club By Jonathan Kellerman

Dr Jeremy Carrier, a young psychologist, was dating a nurse, Jocelyn Banks when she was brutally murdered. As usual, the police would make the boyfriend as their suspect first. There is no difference in this case.

As a result from that, he had become a blacksheep in the hospital where he worked.

Then more women turns up murdered and the police paid a a few more visit.

Jeremy started to wonder and wanted to investigate himself. And out of the blue he started to received notes/ hints in his mail. These hints are very suspicious. It could be a clue or it could be a trap

Then there is another doctor, Arthur who was formerly attached to the hospital who also aroused his curiousity.

Jeremy does not know who is the friend and who is his enermy

I don't really like this book because the pace was kind of slow and not that much of suspense unlike his others novel.

The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks

 My friend, Chen Chzan, went and dig out her collection of Nicholas Sparks books when she got to know that I like his writings.

The Guardian is a bit out of the norm for Nicholas Sparks usual style which is mostly about love. This book have is a book about love and a hint of thriller.

Julie Barenson's husband, Jim, died when she was just 25 years old. They were so in love. Knowing that Julie will be lonely after his death, Jim had arranged for a puppy to be delivered to her after his death together with a letter stating that he will be her watching over her even though in death.

Strangely enough the dog which she named "Singer" have an almost human like attitude and seems to understand her every word.

For a long time, Julie mourn  for Jim.

During this period, Jim's best friend Mike fell in love with Julie but he dare not voice out.

Then Julie started to date again. There were some disastrous dates till she met the mysterious Richard who seems to be every woman dream man. Richard courted Julie in the earnest .

Mike also came out of his shell and started to express his feelings to her and Singer like Mike. Julie was not sure whether to choose Mike or Richard for she didn't want to jeopardise her friendship with Mike should their romance does not work out.

But then Julie noticed something about Richard which makes her feel uncomfortable. When she tries to break off with Richard, strange things started to happen. There is more to Richard than what's meets the eyes.

Mike tried to protect her but even Mike also got in trouble with the law because of that.

Things started rolling and till the end of  the book

I love this book very much. It have just the right hint of romance and the suspense. Am a bit sad also as Sparks seems to love to put a bit of sadness at the end of his books

Inspector Singh Investigates : The Singapore School of Villainy by Shamini Flint

Marathon marathon...finished the one about Bali last night, immediately start with this one about Singapore.

This round, Inspector Singh is in his home turf. A senior partner, Mark Thompson, in a big law firm was murdered in his office at night. The murder seems to be much closer to home since his wife's nephew was one of the suspects.

Not an easy case to solve as there are many suspects and all of them have motives to want Mark Thompson demise.

Could it be his current wife, Marie who is in need of $$? or could it be his vengeful ex-wife? Could it be Quentin who was the one last stout supporter of Mark? Could it be Ai Leen who was prim and proper but behind the scene she was sleeping her way up the cooperate ladder? or could it be Inspector Singh's wife's nephew who seems to have something to hide.?

I find this book very fast paced from the first page. Enjoyed it very much. One thing I don't understand was why in this book Inspector Singh was allowed to continued with the investigation when his relative was one of the suspect.

Overall I give it 3 stars out of 5.

I wonder when will the 4th book be out and where would Inspector Singh go next.?

Inspector Singh Investigates : A Bali Conspiracy Most Foul By Shamini Flint

Can you imagine my delight in finding this book from The Big Bad Wolf Sale recently?

I have read the 1st book "Inspector Singh Investigates : A Most Particular Malaysian Murder"  and found it absolutely wonderful. A friend who read the same book commented that it was bias. But for me, that's the good thing of fiction. You are allowed to be bias.

Anyway, back to this book. Once again this bubbly Inspector Singh was sent out from his country to help with investigation. He was sent to Bali to help with anti-terrorism efforts. Gosh! His speciality is in murder not anti-terrorism. His bosses really seems to have one on him.

But then a body was found...not body..but a piece of skull was found in the bomb site. There was a bullet hole in the skull. The man was murdered before the bomb exploded.

The Police there were too busy with investigation on the bombing. Hence he was "given" this case to investigate. He was also given a partner,Bronwyn, an Australian lady police who had nearly caused a scandal with her statement to the press.

Inspector Singh found out the identity of the victim. He was Richard Crouch. He and his wife, Sarah just moved to Bali to save their rocky marriage.

First glance, nothing much. But then as usual odd things emerged. Wife with boyfriends on the side, friend who is in need of money, his unusual outing with his Indonesia friends and their odd behaviour.

I find that this story very fast paced and exciting. Shamini must have travelled widely around Bali as she know the little quirks of the local Bali people.

However, the ending was a bit loose at some part. Could have been better.

Overall is a good read

Am looking forward to read the 3rd book tonight

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

A big THANK YOU to Chen Chzan for this early Christmas gift. She knew that I have been eyeing this book since it was first publish. Yup, am a die hard fan of Jodi Picoult book since reading her "My Sister's Keeper".

House Rules is about the family of a boy, Jacob, who have Asperger's syndrome. Asperger's syndrome makes it impossible for him to read social cues and expression himself well to others.

To him, a smirk is same as a smile. He can't differential between the two. If someone tell him to take a seat, he would go and pick up the chair. He takes everything literally.

His father left the family because he can't stand the attention that Jacob received from his mother. Hence, Emma(Jacob's mother) is left alone to raise up Jacob and his younger brother, Theo single handedly.

Emma have set up some House Rules for the family to follow. Among them is "Take care of your brother; he's the only one you have got"

Nevertheless Jacob is not a retard. In fact he is brilliant. He is very focus about forensic analysis. He had a Police Radio Scanner and he kept appearing in crime scene and "helped" the police to solve a crime.

This seems to be harmless until a girl was murdered. This girl was Jacob's tutor.

Suddenly hell break loose when Jacob was suspected for the murder. Even Emma and Theo thought Jacob murdered the girl. But the Emma subsequently able to accept that no matter Jacob did it or not, she would still love him.

In his trial he tried to tell the truth but nobody really listened to him. Things that he said in the Police Station and in Court sound so wrong. He can't get his message across. All evidences point to him.

This is really a good read. Jodi kept the suspense till the end of the story. Don't worry. This is not like My Sister's Keeper where you need a box of tissue. This one is more like gentle suspense story.

The Associate By John Grisham

This book have been gathering dust in the store room for quite some time. Finally managed to dug it out.

The story is similar to The Firm. This round, Kyle McAvoy, a brilliant law student who is going to graduate soon. All big firms wants him.

That is when something which he did in the past came back to haunt him. He was involved in wild parties in his University days. And someone had recorded a video of him and his mates doing something which would destroy his future should the video be revealed.

He was then blackmailed. Surprisingly, instead of money, the blackmailers wants him to join one of the largest law firm in New York that would pay him USD 200K a year instead of the measly USD32K which he was thinking about.

Their "request" is that he was to pass them documents on a Billion dollars lawsuit that the firm had undertaken.

Kyle had to do what they wanted. He join that firm but he tried his best to avoid from being assigned to the said case. At the same time he also tried to extricate himself from this mess.

I found this book unsatisfying. Most of the things was mentioned briefly. Like how he didn't tell his dad about being blackmail. Also briefly about his girlfriend and his colleague who were working half dead. To me the story was loosely woven. I really miss the way he wrote in The Firm, The Pelican Brief and Runaway Jury.

Sorry to say that I deem this book worth 1 star out of 5.

Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Haris

Clarice Starling, a FBI newbie is under training and was selected to approach Hannibal Lecter, a Pycho who is being detained in a high security asylum . This is to garnet information of psychotic killer. A research.


Hannibal was a psychiatrist before he was apprehended. Very clever fella.

At the same time, Jack Crawford who is Starling superior is chasing after a pycho killer nick named Buffolo Bill. His speciality is to kill and skin the victims.
During the course of research, Lecter hinted that he know the identity of Buffolo Bill. And Starling was given hints

Suddenly, Catherine Baker Martin, the daughter of Senator Ruth Martin, was kidnapped. This lady will stop at nothing to get her daughter back

Starling was forced to get closer to Lecter for information. But then the jailer got jealous. He planned a trade with Lecter. If Lecter would give him the name of Buffulo Bill, he would ask for a more comfortable place/jail for him from the Senator.

The senator agrees and during the transfer, Lecter escaped.

But Lecter is specially fond of Starling and had contrived to give her hints on who is Buffolo Bill.

Though Starling encountered a lot of obstacle but she kept on at it.

Finally found Buffolo Bill in time to rescue the senator's daughter
 
This is a good book. Hannibal was really psycho and love to play games with minds. Manipulative. Well, can't blame him. Maybe he learn from his folks and the people around him
 
Have you noticed that parents loves to play mind games too? Especially the older generation. They would pit one siblings against another and later on wonder why the siblings relationship aren't as close. How to be close if there resentment constantly building up?
 
Why is it parents love to compare one kid against another? Some parent would say something like this..."why you are not as hardworking as your bro/sis?" or "if you don't do this, never mind, I'll get your bro/sis to do it". It's as if the kid is easily disposable.
 

Whatever it is, I wonder if someone would write a book on this.

Inspector Singh Investigates " A Most Particular Malaysian Murder by Shamini Flint

Inspector Singh is with the Singapore Police Force. Kinda black sheep if the force coz he doesn't do thing according to the rules. He was sent to Malaysia to "help" out with a murder case. If he managed to solve the murder then "hooray!" but if he failed, the Singaporean Police Force will have a reason to force him into an early retirement.

The case? Involve the murder of a Timber Tycoon, Alan Lee. The main suspect is his ex-wife, Chelsea Liew, a Singaporean who used to be a famous model until she married Alan Lee. She stopped working after she married him. They have 3 kids. And there are rumours that Alan beats her up and that Alan had numerous affairs during their marriage

Finally she can't take it anymore and filed for divorce. They were fighting for custody of the kids. Looks like Chelsea have public sympathy. That is until Alan suddenly announced that he had converted to Muslim and declared all his kids to be Muslim.

Chelsea was outraged for this nasty trick of his. And had out of anger threaten to kill him.

Soon, he was found dead with a gun shot wound. Chelsea was arrested. This is where inspector Singh comes in. In normal case, this would not have involve Singaporean police. But this case had turned into media circus especially with the conversion to Muslim and all that.

There are several unexpected turns of events.

I love this book. Shamini seems to managed to touch a few controversial issue. Like what happen if conversion to Muslim is fake, what happen to the death body of the so call convert, the "harta pusaka", wife beating, environmental issue and a few others.

The only thing I don't like is the misplaced usage of the word "lah" in this book. She doesn't seems to get the hang of how the word "lah" is supposed to be use. For example page 122 "Don't go to airport, lah!" spoken by Mrs Wong to warn Rupert. The "lah" seems to have diminish the urgency.

Overall, I give it 4 stars out of 5. Am looking forward to her next book "Inspector Singh Investigates : A Bali Conspiracy Most Foul".