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Location: Vero Beach, Florida, United States

My name is Pat and I live in Florida. My skin will never be smooth again and my hair will never see color. I enjoy collecting autographs and playing in Paint Shop Pro.,along with reading and writing. Sometimes, I enjoy myself by doing volunteer "work" helping celebrities at autograph shows. I love animals and at one time I did volunteer work for Tippi Hedren's Shambala Preserve.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Books Read in April..

For me, I have done exceptionally well reading this year!  But it is about to fall off a bit in May as I will have company and not be reading very much for a while.  But until then, here's my list of seven books for April:

 

April...

25..The Alchemyst.......................Michael Scott.......(400 pgs)

The Alchemyst is the first of a 6 book young adult series... it is really, really, (REALLY) a good series!  Matter of fact Paramount PIctures has bought the rights to make a movie from the first book!  And if that's not enough to want to read them:  Michael Scott is a fantastic writer! ('nuff said)


26..What She Left Behind................Ellen Marie Wiseman.(321 pgs)

I have to admit that all the books I read this month were really good.. including this one!


27..The Forgotten Girl..................David Bell..........(448 pgs)

David Bell has turned into a writer that I enjoy.  I've read a number of his books and they all are good reads!


29..The Lewis Man.......................Peter May...........(320 pgs)

ok... so this Peter May series that begins with The Blackhouse, and takes place in the Hebrides Islands (Lewis Island) off of Scotland are just and outstanding trilogy!!


30..Firedrake...........................Richard Knaak.......(234 pgs)

This one, although I liked it would be my least favorite. 


31..The Chessman........................Peter May...........(308 pgs)

Book 3 of the Peter May trilogy.  I wish it wasn't over the characters and the Island are all fascinating even if the story is fiction!


32..Gaudy Night.........................Dorothy Sayers......(544 pgs)

I got a bit lost in this book. As I age I can't keep track to too many characters! lol.. but still a good mystery!

Friday, April 24, 2015

Gaudy Night

Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers.

Series: Lord Peter Wimsey
Paperback: 544 pages
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks;(October 16, 2012)
ISBN-10: 0062196537

 

 

From the Back Cover

When Harriet Vane attends her Oxford reunion, known as the Gaudy, the prim academic setting is haunted by a rash of bizarre pranks: scrawled obscenities, burnt effigies, and poison-pen letters, including one that says, "Ask your boyfriend with the title if he likes arsenic in his soup." Some of the notes threaten murder; all are perfectly ghastly; yet in spite of their scurrilous nature, all are perfectly worded. And Harriet finds herself ensnared in a nightmare of romance and terror, with only the tiniest shreds of clues to challenge her powers of detection, and those of her paramour, Lord Peter Wimsey.

Basically we have a mystery at Oxford, seemingly based around the dons. (all women).

I easily admit I am not the brightest bulb in the pack and it took me a while to get into this book. A good part of the first half of the book was beginning to feel like it was overwritten.. a lot to do about not a big deal.  But the second half of the book perked up, especially when Lord Peter Wimsey entered the story.

It seemed to be a number of minor stories going on and so I found myself lost a number of times. But in the end I have to say I did enjoy the book.  I like the character of Wimsey, and I think I would have liked Harriet more had I read other books by Sayers. 

Of course the ending is one you didn't really see coming... but then that's what a good mystery is about.. not knowing the ending before it happens!

Another moment to admit that Oxford would not have been for me! lol.  Brilliance abounds with the dons but I really didn't feel that "doing what they loved" made them happy people... I found that odd.

So.. onward and upward to another good book... I hope!

Friday, April 17, 2015

The Chessmen: The Lewis Trilogy

The Chessmen by Peter May.

Series: Lewis Trilogy

Hardcover: 308 pages
Publisher: Quercus;(February 3, 2015)
ISBN-10: 1623656044

 

 

Amazon Review

Now, with The Chessmen, Peter May gives us a dramatic conclusion to his award-winning Lewis trilogy. Living again of the Isle of Lewis, the ex-Detective Inspector Fin McLeod is working as a security officer for a local landowner. While investigating illegal activity on the estate Fin encounters the elusive poacher and former childhood friend Whistler Macaskill.

But while Fin catches up with Whistler, the two witness a freak natural phenomenon--a 'Bog Burst'--which spontaneously drains a loch of its water, revealing a mud-encased light aircraft with a sickeningly familiar moniker on its side.

Both men immediately know that they will find inside: the body of Roddy Mackenzie, a friend whose flight disappeared more than seventeen years before. But when Whistler's face appears to register something other than shock, an icy chill of apprehension overtakes Fin. What secret has Whistler been hiding from him, and everyone else on the island? Fin is unprepared for how the truth about the past will alter the course of the future.

What a really good trilogy!  Love our protagonist, Fin, and all the characters we meet along the way.  Even by the end of book one you feel you know Fin, but learn more about him with each book.

The atmosphere is phenomenal!  In the first two books you feel you've stepped back in time.  The Chessmen I had a little more feeling of "more recent".  But no matter what Peter May writes a great story!

As in the other books there has to be a death or a body.. or both! 

This time I had some moments where I felt it was being stretched out a bit... but he sure makes up for it in the last 80 pages!!

I certainly learn things when he writes also... never heard of a "bog burst"!  But then again until my second life here in Florida I had not known of sink holes!  So there ya go lol.

I think I tried to read the Chessmen a little slower because I didn't want it to be the last I'd read with these characters. To sum it up I would say that anyone who likes mysteries and plenty of atmosphere will not be disappointed in this trilogy!

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Firedrake

(Book 4, for OUaT)

Legends of the Dragonrealm: Firedrake by Richard A Knaak.

Series: Dragonrealm

Paperback: 704 pages
Publisher: Gallery Books (September 1, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1439107009
Book 1 contains 3 books: the first being: Firedrake: 234 pgs.

 

Amazon Review

Firedrake• : In the ultimate war between humans and fiery shape-shifting beings, Duke Toma has unleashed every conceivable evil upon the world of the Dragon Kings. Only one dares to challenge him: Cabe Bedlam, a youth with a magical sword that promises its bearer total mastery over man and beast alike.

A 700 page book holding 3 books in one.

Firedrake wasn't the greatest for me.  It seems any time someone writes about Dragons that can shape-shift and that hate humans I just can't really enjoy the story. In general they all seem to have the same basis.

This book did have a few side characters that I did liked,  and a number of  "odd" creatures not usually used, and so I had no trouble reading the story.  Also, the humans that had magic were written well.

I find myself wondering if I might have liked this better had I not come off of a book I had enjoyed a lot .  Sometimes the next book never lives up to the one I just finished.

The world building was good, but I am not sure that I will go on to read the next book called The Ice Dragon.

Wednesday, April 08, 2015

The Lewis Man

The Lewis Man by Peter May.

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Quercus;(September 2, 2014)
ISBN-10: 1623658195

 

 

In The Lewis Man, the second book of the trilogy, Fin Macleod has returned to the Isle of Lewis, the storm-tossed, wind-scoured outer Hebridean island where he was born and raised. Having left behind his adult life in Edinburgh--including his wife and his career in the police force--the former Detective Inspector is intent on repairing past relationships and restoring his parents' derelict cottage. His plans are interrupted when an unidentified corpse is recovered from a Lewis peat bog. The only clue to its identity is a DNA match to a local farmer, the now-senile Tormod Macdonald--the father of Fin's childhood sweetheart, Marsaili--a man who has claimed throughout his life to be an only child, practically an orphan. Reluctantly drawn into the investigation, Fin uncovers deep family secrets even as he draws closer to the killer who wishes to keep them hidden.

 

I read Peter Mays first book of this trilogy in October of 2013.   I loved the book.  I really liked the main character, Fin, and the authors descriptions of the Isle of Lewis and surroundings made you feel like you stepped into a third world and put you smack dab in the middle.

Due to rising prices of hardback books I thought I would go no farther.  It seemed his second book, The Lewis Man was more then I have come to spend on a single book anymore.  In order to stretch finances I buy mostly used books and find that many people take excellent care and they are like new.

Anyway... along comes my birthday and my girlfriend Michelle sends me two books.  New books!  And one of them is: The Lewis Man!

My first thoughts were, utoh... it's been a looooong time since I read the Blackhouse I wonder if I can read this without rereading The Blackhouse?   Peter May put me at ease quickly.  He put just enough small reminders that I didn't feel like it was that long ago that I read book one.  I was right back there on the Isle of Lewis with Fin!  In this book there is a "cold case", a mystery, and a budding romance of the past.

Peter May puts very original twists on his mysteries.  He's so descriptive that you have no doubt you can "see" what is happening and the sights around you.   I had no choice but to send for the last book!

Since I always include the Amazon review I don't like to say much more other than saying.. they are a compelling set of books that I am more then happy I have read. (can't wait for delivery of book 3!)

I will leave this post with a small quote from the book that I found very profound, both to the book and to me personally...

"It's strange.. you think you know who you are, because you think you know who your parents are.."

Monday, April 06, 2015

The Forgotten Girl

The Forgotten Girl by David Bell.

Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: NAL (October 7, 2014)
ISBN-10: 0451417526

 

Amazon Review:

The past has arrived uninvited at Jason Danvers’s door…
…and it’s his younger sister, Hayden, a former addict who severed all contact with her family as her life spiraled out of control. Now she’s clean and sober but in need of a desperate favor—she asks Jason and his wife to take care of her teenage daughter for forty-eight hours while she handles some business in town.
But Hayden never returns.
And her disappearance brings up more unresolved problems from Jason’s past, including the abrupt departure of his best friend on their high school graduation night twenty-seven years earlier. When a body is discovered in the woods, the mysteries of his sister’s life—and possible death—deepen. And one by one these events will shatter every expectation Jason has ever had about families, about the awful truths that bind them and the secrets that should be taken to the grave.

I have read a number of books by David Bell, including:  Never come Back, Cemetery Girl, The Hiding Place and now, The Forgotten Girl.  He is a very good story teller! I've enjoyed all the books I've read by him and even waiting for July for yet another book to come out.

This particular book I wasn't really sure of, because it was a more modern then most I like to read, but I should have known better.  Once the characters grab you and you can tell there are "secrets" to be revealed, it becomes  a page turner. And as any good story teller he leaves a few surprises for near the end of the book. 

I'm looking forward to his next book .. and glad each story is different from the others.

Wednesday, April 01, 2015

The Alchemyst

(Book 3 for Once Upon a Time)

 The Alchemyst by Michael Scott.

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (May 22, 2007)
  • ISBN-10: 0385733577

    From the book: Born in 1330 Nicholas Flamel was one of the most famous alchemists of his day. Alchemy is a peculiar combination of chemistry, botany, medicine, astronomy and astrology. It has a long and distinguished history and was studied in ancient Greece and China, and there is an argument that it forms the basis for modern chemistry. One day he bought a very special book: the Book of Abraham. It, too, really existed, and Nicholas Flamel left us with a very detailed description of the copper-bound book, which was written on what looked like bark.

    No one knows what happened to Nicholas Flamel. What is authenticated is that when he returned to Paris in the late fourteenth century, he was extraordinarily wealthy. The rumor quickly went around that he had discovered the two great secrets of alchemy in the Book of Abraham: how to create a philosopher's stone, which changed ordinary metal into gold, and how to achieve immortality. Neither Nicholas nor Perenelle (his wife) would ever confirm how they had become so rich.

    At a later date Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel's tomb was broken into.. and that was when it was discovered that the tomb was empty. Had they been buried in secret graves, or had they never died in the first place?

    (below: the home of the Nicolas Flamel on Rue du Montmorency, Paris)

     

    From Publishers Weekly

    Twin 15-year-old siblings Sophie and Josh Newman take summer jobs in San Francisco across the street from one another: she at a coffee shop, he at a bookstore owned by Nick and Perry Fleming. In the vey first chapter, armed goons garbed in black with "dead-looking skin and... marble eyes" (actually Golems) storm the bookshop, take Perry hostage and swipe a rare Book (but not before Josh snatches its two most important pages). The stolen volume is the Codex, an ancient text of magical wisdom. Nick Fleming is really Nicholas Flamel, the 14th-century alchemist who could turn base metal into gold, and make a potion that ensures immortality. Sophie and Josh learn that they are mentioned in the Codex's prophecies: "The two that are one will come either to save or to destroy the world." Mayhem ensues, as Irish author Scott draws on a wide knowledge of world mythology to stage a battle between the Dark Elders and their hired gun—Dr. John Dee—against the forces of good, led by Flamel and the twins (Sophie's powers are "awakened" by the goddess Hekate, who'd been living in an elaborate treehouse north of San Francisco). Not only do they need the Codex back to stop Dee and company, but the immortality potion must be brewed afresh every month. Time is running out, literally, for the Flamels. Proceeding at a breakneck pace, and populated by the likes of werewolves and vampires, the novel ends on a precipice, presumably to be picked up in volume two. Ages 12-up. (May)
    Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc

    This is a story of twin 15 year old teenagers, Josh and Sophie, who because of circumstances get to meet and be friends with a man and his wife who run a book store and a coffee shop. Due to other circumstances waaaaay beyond their control, they both learn that their friend is not who they thought he was, Nick Fleming was really Nicholas Flamel!

    A man named Dr John Dee (also a real person in history) strolled into the store one day with a group of Golems and proceeded to destroy the store, steal Perenelle (Nicholas's wife) and the Book of Abraham the Mage... minus the last two pages which Josh managed to tear out as the books was ripped from his hand.... And what does Josh   learn from this? He learns magic has a smell. Nicholas (the good guy) smells of Peppermint... and Dee (the bad guy) smells of rotten eggs. (somehow that figures!)

    A small background worth a good chuckle:  The twins parents are Archaeologists which discovered a new species of small hominids that are now called Hobbits in Indonesia. (heh.. Hobbits eh?! lol)

    This whole series of books is compiled of Historical people, mythical beings and Michael Scotts own characters.

    Thus begins the story of unbelief to belief. Of what was, and what is. Of danger and intrigue... and the possibility of the destruction of the world.

    This series of YA books by Michael Scott are really good reads.. ALL of them!  There are 6 books in the series: The Alchemyst, The Magician, The Sorceress, The Necromancer, The Warlock and The Enchantress.  Every book and every character has been so well written about that you feel you know them all! I can't imagine the amount of research that went into these books

    I "met" Michael Scott quite a number or years ago when he commented on a review I did.  From that time, as I awaited each new book each year I would email him and always say:  "Nicholas isn't going to die is he?"   Michael would never tell me the answer.  We graduated to emails now and then as I awaited the new books.   Now, years later, Paramount Pictures has bought the rights to The Alchemyst for a movie.  Before anyone says "hooray".. I will say that Paramount can be slower then molasses in winter getting started.  I am hoping it happens soon though as my age refuses to slow down!

    I just want to say that if you enjoy YA books now and then, this is a really action packed, character oriented group of books that anyone would enjoy!   

    If you'd like to know more about Michael Scott (very Irish! )  here's a link for you to discover a really super author:  Michael Scott.