Review: Flowerbed of State - Dorothy St. James

Flowerbed of State by Dorothy St. James
White House Gardener Mystery, Book 1

Meet Casey. The newest member of the White House staff. She was personally selected by the First Lady due to her gardening practices, philosophy and vision. On the day Casey is to present her new plan to the First Lady and the Grounds Committee, she is attacked and discovers the body of a Treasury Department employee.

When someone close to her is hauled into the police station for questioning, Casey takes it upon herself to learn more about the victim and why she was killed. You see, Casey is a bit of a mystery buff and always has a mystery book with her. Channeling her inner Miss Marple, Casey is able to follow the clues to solve the mystery.

Flowerbed of State is the first book in the brand new White House Gardener Mystery series. It centers around Casey Calhoun as she transitions from South Carolina to the District working for the White House. She's a likable and competent sleuth, always managing to stay one step ahead of the Secret Service.

I figured out the killer early in the story, however it did not prevent me from enjoying Flowerbed of State. St James provides a host of secondary characters that will keep the reader engaged, entertained, and interested in learning more about them. I'm looking forward to reading book two in the series. Cozy fans will enjoy this newest addition to the genre. Recommended.

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Book Details:
Pub. Date: May 3, 2011
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9780425240571
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Source: Publisher

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Sheila, of One Persons Journey Through a World of Books, is the host of It's Monday! What Are You Reading? This is a weekly event to share what we read last week, what we are currently reading and what books we plan to read this week.

Recently read:

• Flowerbed of State - Dorothy St. James
  Summary: The first book in the White House Gardner Mystery series. Casey discovers the body of a dead woman and vows to solve her murder.
  

I'm reading:

• Ten Beach Road - Wendy Wax
  My first summer beach read! I hope to finish it later today.
  

Reading soon:

• On Maggie's Watch - Ann Wertz Garvin
  
• Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) - Sarah Mlynowski
  

What are you reading this week?

Good Enough to Eat - Stacey Ballis

Title: Good Enough to Eat
Author: Stacey Ballis
ISBN: 978-0-425-22963-7

Mini-Review:
Melanie lost 145 pounds in two years. After successfully completing her weight loss goal, her husband tells her he wants a divorce. He's fallen in love with someone else. A woman twice the size that Melanie used to be.

Instead of allowing herself to wallow in self-pity, Melanie decides to quit her corporate job and follow her dreams: opening a gourmet shop. When the shop is up and running, Melanie soon faces a dire financial situation that forces her to take in a roommate.

Good Enough to Eat is a novel about starting over, having the courage to pursue one's dreams and the strength to love again. Sometimes we find ourselves on an unfamiliar path, but if we are patient it will lead us to where we were meant to be. Highly recommended.

The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger

The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger


Alexandra first encounters the Night Bookmobile after an argument with her boyfriend Richard. She's walking home late at night when she noticed the Winnebago. Thinking it odd, but not feeling afraid, she approached the vehicle and noticed an older man reading a newspaper. He invites her in and she quickly realizes the Bookmobile has every book she has read on its shelves. Confused by this, Alexandra starts to question Mr. Openshaw, but he politely tells her the library is now closed. Its hours are from dusk to dawn.

She returns home to find Richard waiting for her. She explains what happened, but Richard flat out doesn't believe her. From that moment on, Alexandra becomes obsessed with finding the Bookmobile again. Richard eventually leaves her and she spends every moment, when she's not working, reading Every night she walks in hopes of seeing the Winnebago. Nine years later, her path crosses with Mr. Openshaw again.

This time she asks him if she can work for him. He declines and suggests she becomes a librarian. She immediately goes to school and upon graduating, she is hired at a new library branch in Chicago. Years later she meets Mr. Openshaw again and asks if she can work for him. Again he refused.

This time, the rejection is too much for Alexandra to handle. She begins to resent all the time she has spent reading and that she allowed her life to pass her by while she primarily focused on books and building her collection.

I'm not sure what I expected when I picked up The Night Bookmobile. The ending definitely caught me off guard, so much so that I had to reread it. What began as a light, quick read turned very dark quickly. The ending left me full of questions as I wondered what will happen next for Alexandra.

Be sure to read the author's "After Words" upon finishing the story. It will provide insight on the novel.

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Pub. Date: September 10, 2010
Publisher: Abrams ComicArts (An imprint of Abrams)
Pages: 40
ISBN: 978-0-8109-9617-5
Genre: Graphic Novel
Source: Library

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. (Button courtesy of Bewitched Bookworms.)

Here's what I'm looking forward to:

Title: Books Can Be Deceiving
Author: Jenn McKinlay
Release Date: July 5

From Amazon.com:

Lindsey is getting into her groove as the director of the Briar Creek Public Library when a New York editor visits town, creating quite a buzz. Lindsey's friend Beth wants to sell the editor her children's book, but Beth's boyfriend, a famous author, gets in the way. When they go to confront him, he's found murdered-and Beth is the prime suspect. Lindsey has to act fast before they throw the book at the wrong person.

A new cozy series + story about libraries = an EXCITED me! I'm always looking for a new series to start. I've heard wonderful things about McKinlay's Cupcake Bakery Mystery series (which I hope to start soon) and her newest series, A Library Lover's Mystery, looks just as enticing.

The Postcard Killers - James Patterson & Liza Marklund

The Postcard Killers by James Patterson & Liza Marklund
Narrated by Katherine Kellgren, Eric Singer and Reg Rogers

Paris is stunning in the summer

NYPD detective Jacob Kanon is on a tour of Europe's most gorgeous cities. But the sights aren't what draw him--he sees each museum, each cathedral, and each cafe through the eyes of his daughter's killer.

The killing is simply marvelous

Kanon's daughter, Kimmy, and her boyfriend were murdered while on vacation in Rome. Since then, young couples in Paris, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, and Stockholm have been found dead. Little connects the murders, other than a postcard to the local newspaper that precedes each new victim.

Wish you were here

Now Kanon teams up with the Swedish reporter, Dessie Larsson, who has just received a postcard in Stockholm--and they think they know where the next victims will be. With relentless logic and unstoppable action, The Postcard Killers may be James Patterson's most vivid and compelling thriller yet.

My thoughts:
Last summer when The Postcard Killers was first released I attempted to read it. Key word: attempted! For whatever reason, I could not finish the Prologue. Never a good sign. I put it down thinking it was just the mood I was in and didn't think much about it.

Last week I was at the library and noticed The Postcard Killers in the audio book section. I decided maybe listening to it would be a better option. I was able to move past the place where I first stopped and soon found myself engaged with the story.

While listening to the audio book, it took me awhile to warm up to the narrators. This was my first experience with multiple narrators and the switching back and forth didn't work with me initially. I found myself paying more attention to which narrator was speaking instead of the plot itself. As the plot started to develop, and true to Patterson's style of twists and turns, I was able to let it go and focus on the storyline.

I certainly wouldn't say The Postcard Killers is Patterson's "most compelling thriller" (the Alex Cross series, in my opinion, is more compelling), but it's worth a listen for Patterson's fans. Be warned, some scenes are graphic and the killers are dark and twisted.

Length: 7 hours, 30 minutes

Source: Library

This review can also be found at Audiobook Jukebox.


Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. (Button courtesy of Bewitched Bookworms.)

Here's what I'm looking forward to:

Title: Escape
Author: Barbara Delinsky
Release Date: July 5

From Amazon.com:
In her luminous new novel, Barbara Delinsky explores every woman’s desire to abandon the endless obligations of work and marriage—and the idea that the most passionate romance can be found with the person you know best.

Emily Aulenbach is thirty, a lawyer married to a lawyer, working in Manhattan. An idealist, she had once dreamed of representing victims of corporate abuse, but she spends her days in a cubicle talking on the phone with vic­tims of tainted bottled water—and she is on the bottler’s side.

And it isn’t only work. It’s her sister, her friends, even her husband, Tim, with whom she doesn’t connect the way she used to. She doesn’t connect to much in her life, period, with the exception of three things—her computer, her BlackBerry, and her watch.

Acting on impulse, Emily leaves work early one day, goes home, packs her bag, and takes off. Groping toward the future, uncharacteristically following her gut rather than her mind, she heads north toward a New Hampshire town tucked between mountains. She knows this town. During her college years, she spent a watershed summer here. Painful as it is to return, she knows that if she is to right her life, she has to start here.

Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt

Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt

April. Charlie and Sam. Isabelle. Four lives that intersect as a result of a decision to escape one's life.

Pictures of You begins with Isabelle fleeing her marriage after she discovers her husband is having an affair. Luke is not the man her mother wants her to be with when she began dating him as a teenager. Instead of listening to her mother's warnings, Isabelle runs off with Luke and later marries him.

April is not the typical "girl-next-door" type. Which is why Charlie fell in love with her the moment he first saw her. The pair eventually marry and have one son, Sam. Sam suffers from asthma and finds himself always under his parents' cautious watch. Some may think April's parenting style is unconventional, but it's obvious she adores Sam.

That same fateful day Isabelle decides to leave her husband, April is also escaping her life. The two collide on a foggy day leaving April dead, Charlie and Sam grieving over her death and Isabelle feeling responsible for killing her. Weighed down with remorse, Isabelle seeks out Charlie and Sam. She wants to tell them how sorry she is for what has happened and asks for Charlie's forgiveness. Instead she finds herself drawn to Sam and begins a relationship with Charlie.

Pictures of You provides an inside look on how grief affects the living. For Charlie, he now is forced to raise Sam alone and to honestly look at his marriage and the woman he fell in love with. How well do we really know our spouse? Charlie is left with many unanswered questions surrounding April's death.

Isabelle initially isolates after the accident. When she starts picking up the pieces to move forward, she is given a second chance. Will she take advantage of this opportunity despite what has happened? Or will she wallow in self-guilt about the accident and the end of her marriage that she remains permanently stuck?

And Sam. How does a young boy grow up without his mother? April was different than the others moms. She took him out of school so the two of them could have an adventure. How will he adjust to Isabelle's and Charlie's relationship?

Pictures of You is by no means a light, quick read. Leavitt created characters so complex that I found myself slowing down to take in the story. I admit I was against Isabelle's and Charlie's relationship from the start. Leavitt's style of writing vividly painted the raw pain and deep loss both felt after the accident, that it was almost as though they were drawn to each other as two magnets. Yes, I understood their immediate attraction for each other, however I did not want to see them as a couple.

April is the link that ties Charlie, Sam and Isabelle together. Unfortunately the reader does not hear April's story in her own voice. Instead the reader learns about April through memories and other people's perceptions. From this, I found it difficult to like April and easy to judge her. I wish I could have read April's story in her voice, especially the events that led her to leave Charlie.

Despite my reservations with Charlie's relationship with Isabelle and not hearing April's voice, I still highly recommend Pictures of You. Leavitt will keep you up long into the night as you find yourself being pulled into the story.

______________
Pub. Date: January 25, 2011
Publisher: Algonquin Books (A Division of Workman Publishing)
Pages: 336
ISBN: 978-1-56512-631-2
Genre: Fiction
Source: Personal Copy

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. (Button courtesy of Bewitched Bookworms.)

Here's what I'm looking forward to:

Title: Kindred Spirits
Author: Sarah Strohmeyer
Release Date: June 30

From Amazon.com:
When life gives you lemons, call your best girlfriends and whip up some lemon martinis. Such is the mantra for the Ladies' Society for the Conservation of Martinis, which was established after one fateful PTA meeting, when four young mothers-Lynne, Mary Kay, Beth, and Carol- discovered they had more in common than they ever thought possible. Meeting once a month, the women would share laughs and secrets and toast to their blossoming friendship with a clink of their sacred martini glasses. The Society was their salvation, their refuge, but when life-shattering circumstances force the group to dissolve, their friendship is never quite the same...until two years later, when a tragic event puts the Society back in session.

When Lynne passes away suddenly, she leaves behind one simple request: that her old friends sort through her belongings. Reluctantly, the women reunite to rummage through her closets. There's nothing remarkable; no kinky sex toys, no embarrassing diary. But buried deep within Lynne's lingerie drawer is an envelope addressed to the Society. And inside they find a letter that reveals a shocking secret and a final wish that will send the women on a life-changing journey...proving that nothing is more powerful than the will of a true girlfriend and a good, strong martini.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Sheila, of One Persons Journey Through a World of Books, is the host of It's Monday! What Are You Reading? This is a weekly event to share what we read last week, what we are currently reading and what books we plan to read this week.

Recently read:

• Pictures of You - Caroline Leavitt
  Summary: Two women's lives cross paths as both are running away from their lives.
  

I'm reading:

• The Ninth Wife by Amy Stolls
  

Reading soon:

• Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon
  
• Toys by James Patterson
  

What are you reading this week?

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. (Button courtesy of Bewitched Bookworms.)

Here's what I'm looking forward to:

Title: Uncommon Criminals
Author: Ally Carter
Release Date: June 21

From the author's website:

Katarina Bishop has worn a lot of labels in her short life: Friend. Niece. Daughter. Thief. But for the last two months she’s simply been known as the girl who ran the crew that robbed the greatest museum in the world. That’s why Kat isn’t surprised when she’s asked to steal the infamous Cleopatra Emerald so it can be returned to its rightful owners. There are only three problems. First, the gem hasn’t been seen in public in thirty years. Second, since the fall of the Egyptian empire and the suicide of Cleopatra, no one who holds the emerald keeps it for long — and in Kat’s world, history almost always repeats itself. But it’s the third problem that makes Kat’s crew the most nervous, and that is . . . the emerald is cursed. Kat might be in way over her head, but she’s not going down without a fight. After all, she has her best friend — the gorgeous Hale — and the rest of her crew with her as they chase the Cleopatra around the globe, dodging curses and realizing that the same tricks and cons her family has used for centuries are useless this time. Which means, this time, Katarina Bishop is making up her own rules.

Earlier this year, I read Heist Society, book one of the series and loved it. It reminded me of Ocean's Eleven or The Italian Job for teenagers. I'm looking forward to finding out what's next for Kat and Hale.