Damaged by Alex Kava (ARC)
Published by Doubleday
ISBN 978-0-385-53199-3
At the request of Doubleday, a PB copy was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis: FBI Special Agent and profiler, Maggie O’Dell, has been asked by friend and colleague Charlie Wurth, from The Department of Homeland Security to work with him on a special assignment in Florida. The coast guard had recovered a drum usually used by fisherman to preserve their daily catch, except in this particular drum, are human body parts carefully wrapped and appearing to be from multiple victims. Once Maggie has accepted this mission, Charlie then tells her there may be a bit of a glitch, Florida is in the path of a Category 5 hurricane. And why are soldiers who have had routine orthopedic surgery, in Florida, dying, Dr. Benjamin Platt, another friend of Maggie’s is having a race against the clock. The time frame of the story takes place over a 5 day period but each minute is filled with suspense.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: This was not only the first, in what I understand to be one of seven (7) of Maggie O’Dell stories, that I read but also the first Alex Kava novel. This book was what I call “the just one more chapter” reads, whereas the chapters are only a few pages long and by the time you realize it, many chapters have been read. And add this twist into the mix…there were 3 different mini mysteries going on at the same time which were rotated every 3 chapters and then Ms. Kava weaves all 3 “stories” into one fast paced, heart racing and action packed ending. Without giving too much away and/or including any spoilers, all I can say is the way she describes certain scenes in this book, I found that I was holding my breath in sheer fear and anticipation. As I said, this was my first Alex Kava’s Maggie O’Dell novels but it won’t be my last. I have a lot of catching up to do.

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The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose
Published by Mira Books
ISBN-13: 978-0-7783-2675-5
At the request of Media Muscle The Book Trib, a HC was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis (from the book jacket): Haunted by a twenty-year-old murder of a beautiful young painter, Lucian Glass keeps his demons at bay through his fascinating work as a special agent with the FBI’s Art Crime Team. Currently investigating a crazed art collector who has begun destroying prized masterworks, Glass is thrust into a bizarre hostage negotiation that takes him undercover at the Phoenix Foundation-dedicated to the science of past-life study-where, in order to maintain his cover, he agrees to submit to the treatment of a hypnotist.
  Under hypnosis, Glass travels from ancient Greece to nineteenth-century Persia, while the case takes him from New York to Paris and the movie capital of the world. These journeys will change his very understanding of reality, lead him to question his own sanity and land him at the center of perhaps the most audacious art heist in history-the theft of a 1,500-year-old sculpture from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: The first chapter of this book pulled me right in where a young artist arrives late to a meeting only to find Solange, a friend, clinging to life due to what appears to be a vicious attack. The next thing he feels is pain, his own pain as he gets attacked. How could I not be pulled in to this plot?  On to Chapter Two, and it starts to take another turn. The characters and story line are now very confusing to me. I also find, and this is only my opinion, the detailed descriptions of art history became quite boring. I try to continue reading but the book is just not holding my interest. Unfortunately, I did not realize when I accepted to read this book, that it was the third of a series. Maybe if I had read the first two books, I wouldn’t have had this outcome. Regrettably, I had to put this book aside, it just wasn’t for me. I can not say if I would recommend this read or not, since I was unable to finish it.

The Journey Home by Michael Baron
Published by The Aronica-Miller Publishing Project, LLC
ISBN-13: 978-0-9819568-6-2
At the request of The Story Plant, a PB copy was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Subject: (from back of book): Joseph, a man in his late thirties, awakens disoriented and uneasy in a place he doesn’t recognize. He sets out on a journey to find his home with no sense of where he’s going and only the precious, indelible vision of the woman he loves to guide him.
  Antoinette is an elderly woman in an assisted living facility who has retreated inside her head. There, her body and mind haven’t betrayed her. There, she’s a young newlywed with a husband who dotes on her and an entire life of dreams to live. There, she is truly home.
  Warren, Antoinette’s son, is a man in his early forties going through the toughest year of his life. With far too much time on his hands, he decides to try to recreate his memories of home by attempting to cook his mother’s greatest dishes and eat them with her.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: Michael Baron delivers again !! Another heart tugging, thought provoking, tender and emotional story written only the way Michael Baron can. Filled with mouth watering descriptions of meals that evoke memories of the past. He takes the reader on a journey, along with the characters, to find their way home. But where is truly the place called home and how do we get there? This story touched an emotional chord in my heart, on a personal level, due to the cross road I am also on. While reading how Warren tried to recreate his memories with the smell of meals being cooked, also brought to mind, meals and memories of my own past. Mr. Baron hit this one out of the park !! Like any good meal, The Journey Home, needs to be devoured in one seating.  Bravo !!

The Journey Home by Michael Baron
Published by The Aronica-Miller Publishing Project, LLC
ISBN-13: 978-0-9819568-6-2
At the request of The Story Plant, a PB copy was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Subject: (from back of book): Joseph, a man in his late thirties, awakens disoriented and uneasy in a place he doesn’t recognize. He sets out on a journey to find his home with no sense of where he’s going and only the precious, indelible vision of the woman he loves to guide him.
  Antoinette is an elderly woman in an assisted living facility who has retreated inside her head. There, her body and mind haven’t betrayed her. There, she’s a young newlywed with a husband who dotes on her and an entire life of dreams to live. There, she is truly home.
  Warren, Antoinette’s son, is a man in his early forties going through the toughest year of his life. With far too much time on his hands, he decides to try to recreate his memories of home by attempting to cook his mother’s greatest dishes and eat them with her.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: Michael Baron delivers again !! Another heart tugging, thought provoking, tender and emotional story written only the way Michael Baron can. Filled with mouth watering descriptions of meals that evoke memories of the past. He takes the reader on a journey, along with the characters, to find their way home. But where is truly the place called home and how do we get there? This story touched an emotional chord in my heart, on a personal level, due to the cross road I am also on. While reading how Warren tried to recreate his memories with the smell of meals being cooked, also brought to mind, meals and memories of my own past. Mr. Baron hit this one out of the park !! Like any good meal, The Journey Home, needs to be devoured in one seating.  Bravo !!

The University by Jeffrey Leever
Published by Capital Crime Press
ISBN 13: 978-0-9799960-6-1
At the request of Omnimystery, a PB copy was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis: (taken from back of book): Ah…college life. A place for learning. Partying and dating. And murder. When investigative journalist Kevin Gibson lets his cousin, a former cop, talk him into looking into a student’s disappearance at Tremont University, he gets more than he bargained for. A former student-injured in a brutal attack two years ago and in a coma-may hold a critical piece of information that can solve the mystery. Meanwhile, an attractive coed continues to hide a very dark secret.
  Tremont junior Brett Duncan is drawn into a cunning world few know exist-a conspiracy involving faculty, students and some well connected people in high places. Beneath the campus’ Hallmark-card exterior lie many secrets, and a pulse-racing mystery with plenty of chills along the way.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: I will start with the positives of this book. I found it to be a quick read with page turning suspense the last 1/3 of this book. I felt that the author’s writing style and the way he created the story line of suspense was quite good. However, there were quite a few things that I didn’t enjoy, and this is my opinion and only my opinion, another reader might totally disagree with me. I felt that some of the sub plots appeared to be written in haste, which made the story line unbelievable and took away from the suspense. I also felt, and again this is my opinion only, that the book as a whole was unsophisticated. The overall basis of a suspenseful plot was good, however, the subplots appeared to be written with not much plausible thought. Unfortunately, this is not a book I would recommend.

Alexandra, Gone by Anna McPartlin
Published by Downtown Press (Division of Simon & Schuster)
ISBN 978-1-4391-2333-1
At the request of Gallery & Pocket Books, a PB copy was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis (from back of book): Once, Jane Moore and Alexandra Walsh were inseparable, sharing secrets and stolen candy, plotting their futures together. But when Jane became pregnant at seventeen, they drifted slowly apart. Jane has spent the years since raising her son, now seventeen himself, on her own, running a gallery, managing her sister’s art career, and looking after their volatile mother-all the while trying not to resent the limited choices life has given her.
  Then a quirk of fate and a faulty elevator bring Jane into contact with Tom, Alexandra’s husband, who has some shocking news, Alexandra disappeared from a south Dublin suburb months ago and Tom has been searching fruitlessly for her. Jane offers to help, as do the elevator’s other passengers-Janes’s brilliant but self-absorbed sister, Elle and Leslie Sheehan, a reclusive web designer who’s ready to step back into the world again. And as Jane quickly realizes Tom isn’t the only one among them who’s looking for something…or traveling toward unexpected revelations about love, life, and what it means to let go, in every sense.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: Most books I read, I can’t wait to finish it to find out the ending.  I was totally ambivalent with this one. I hated to see it end, but then I also wanted to see how it did end.  I don’t know about you, but, I become part of the story in which I am reading.  That is why I didn’t want to turn the last page because I became friends with the characters of this book.  In Alexandra, Gone, the author writes a story of the lives of many loveable, but at times, troubled characters.  I found myself laughing out loud on one page, eyes filling with tears on another, and frustrated with them on yet another.  Ms. McPartlin tells a tender, funny, poignant and moving story of friendship, loss, disappointment, pain, denial and love on so many levels.  This book is the type of book that you get so engrossed while reading that you are unaware of what is going on around you, at least that is what happened to me.  I highly recommend reading Alexandra, Gone and becoming friends with Jane, Elle, Leslie and all the other characters.

Alexandra, Gone by Anna McPartlin
Published by Downtown Press (Division of Simon & Schuster)
ISBN 978-1-4391-2333-1
At the request of Gallery & Pocket Books, a PB copy was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis (from back of book): Once, Jane Moore and Alexandra Walsh were inseparable, sharing secrets and stolen candy, plotting their futures together. But when Jane became pregnant at seventeen, they drifted slowly apart. Jane has spent the years since raising her son, now seventeen himself, on her own, running a gallery, managing her sister’s art career, and looking after their volatile mother-all the while trying not to resent the limited choices life has given her.
  Then a quirk of fate and a faulty elevator bring Jane into contact with Tom, Alexandra’s husband, who has some shocking news, Alexandra disappeared from a south Dublin suburb months ago and Tom has been searching fruitlessly for her. Jane offers to help, as do the elevator’s other passengers-Janes’s brilliant but self-absorbed sister, Elle and Leslie Sheehan, a reclusive web designer who’s ready to step back into the world again. And as Jane quickly realizes Tom isn’t the only one among them who’s looking for something…or traveling toward unexpected revelations about love, life, and what it means to let go, in every sense.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: Most books I read, I can’t wait to finish it to find out the ending.  I was totally ambivalent with this one. I hated to see it end, but then I also wanted to see how it did end.  I don’t know about you, but, I become part of the story in which I am reading.  That is why I didn’t want to turn the last page because I became friends with the characters of this book.  In Alexandra, Gone, the author writes a story of the lives of many loveable, but at times, troubled characters.  I found myself laughing out loud on one page, eyes filling with tears on another, and frustrated with them on yet another.  Ms. McPartlin tells a tender, funny, poignant and moving story of friendship, loss, disappointment, pain, denial and love on so many levels.  This book is the type of book that you get so engrossed while reading that you are unaware of what is going on around you, at least that is what happened to me.  I highly recommend reading Alexandra, Gone and becoming friends with Jane, Elle, Leslie and all the other characters.

It’s that time again, students graduating high school and college and in this economy, this is a perfect gift.

Partially taken from the book’s jacket:  Today’s college grads face a new set of challenges brought on by a sluggish job market, changing technology, and staggering amounts of debt.  The rules have changed since their parents were in school, leaving young adults at a loss for advice that addresses their immediate concerns as well as the big-picture questions with which each generation must contend.
  Life coach Ken Jedding has spent the past decade talking one-on-one with college students and graduates across the country in his workshops and lectures.  In Higher Education, he provides a fresh, modern guidebook to post collegiate life that addresses the issues and concerns he hears voiced most often like How can I land my dream job?  Jedding’s valuable insight, wisdom and humor provide a much-needed roadmapfor the journey that is only just beginning.
My Thoughts:  As a mother of two recent college graduates, I would have liked both of my sons to have read this book.  I know first hand, not only with my sons but also their friends, how many interviews and how many disappointments there were.  How many times I heard that they sat with many other applicants hoping for the same position.  How many times they waited for “the call”.  Fortunately with my boys, “the call” did come and are currently working in their field.
Higher Education  On Life, Landing A Job and Everything Else They Didn’t Teach You In College by Kenneth Jedding is a perfect gift for today’s students.  Available here:   www.higheredgradbook.com