Book Journey

Tana lives in a futuristic world.  There are humans, like Tana, and their are the dead… vampires, that live in walled cities called Coldtown.  The Coldtown occupants are safe from others and can live as normal a life as possible surrounded by their kind, the undead.

One morning, after a crazy happening party with her friends, Tana wakes up to find everyone dead.  Among the massacre she finds her ex boyfriend in the throws of being turned into a vampire, and another strange quiet boy hiding in a room.  The three of them set off for Coldtown in hopes that Tana may be able to save them.

Eep.  I really was thinking I would like this one a lot and that turned out not to be true.  I found as I listened to this one on audio that I could not get a good feel for any of the characters.  There was no one I wanted to say “I got your back!” to.   It just left me feeling kind of ….

cold.

As I thought through this I think I have come to the conclusion that I like my vampire books more like Twilight.  I know some of you just groaned and that’s ok. 😛  I admit it, I like my vampires to be just like us, looking like us, and still remaining cute and sociable and the whole “I like blood” thing takes a back seat.  When you make the blood and gore the center of the story…. I lose interest… (and quite possibly my lunch).

So that is my take on the book, or in this case, audio – but I know others have loved it so look for other opinions on this one.  My squeam level just couldn’t handle it.

Check out these other thoughts on the book:

Book Smugglers

Forever Young Adult

Books With Bite

Say what you will about Patterson, the Michael Bennett series has me waiting anxiously for each book!

~Sheila

Michael Bennett missed New York.  He misses the ability to pick up a hot slice of pizza at any time, day or night.  He misses the hustle and bustle of a fast life, and heck, he even misses the noise.  Yet as he looks around the room at his ten adopted children, grandfather Seamus, and the kids live in nanny Mary Catherine, he knows this is the way it needs to be.

Due to recent events and a mad man still on the loose, Michael and his family have been relocated (compliments of the witness protection program and the FBI) to a rural farm area in California.  It’s big, it’s secluded, and God willing, it is safe.

Now, big name crime guys are being killed off in bizarre and horrifying ways.  What is happening is unthinkable,clearly the work of a mad man and Bennett knows that these crimes reek of Manuel Perrine, the same man who is after Bennett and his family.  A choice needs to be made, does Michael stay on the farm like a sitting duck waiting for Perrine to track him down, or does he go back to work and do what he is best at… getting the bad guy before he gets him?

Oof ta.  I do love me the Michael Bennett series.  I have praised these books before.  While they do have essence of James Patterson, author Michael Ledwidge must be the difference in these books.  This series follows a great story line… a New York detective, single after losing his wife to cancer, his ten adopted children of various ages, his Pastoral grandfather who lives with them and keeps it real, and the nanny, the sweet Irish gal names Mary Catherine who is the glue that holds it all together.

Gone is another great listen.  I enjoy Patterson’s books on audio immensely as he adds sound effects (gun shots, tires screeching, doors slamming…) that never come off as cheesy, but instead make my heart pound.

I highly recommend these books on audio.

for reviews on the other books in this series:

(Fast listens on audio and highly engaging – I encourage you to give Step On A Crack a try and see if you are not hooked. :D)

Step On A Crack

Run For Your Life

Worst Case

Tick Tock

I, Michael Bennett

I use Grammarly’s free plagiarism checker online because my teflon coating on this blog does not always prevent others from re-publishing my words. 😛

Alice Love has it all.  She married the cute guy.  She found the home of her dreams.  And now at 29 years old she is and Nick are so excited for the birth of their first child.

Then she wakes up in the hospital and they tell her it is not 1998, but 2008.  That sweet precious baby she couldn’t wait to meet, is now a somewhat snarky ten year old.  Her sister who she has always adored, comes to be by her side but she can feel that their is a distance between them.  And her amazing husband Nick is fighting her for part time custody of the kids.

Uhhhh… What just happened?

Now close to 40 years old, Alice learns that she had taken a nasty fall at the gym.  The gym?  She hates the gym!  The girl (woman?) in the mirror looks tired, and not the easy going Alice she remembered being.  She is told that she does not just have the one child, but three.  Wha….

After my recent adventures with author Liane Moriarty in The Husband’s Secret, I was so impressed with her pace of a book and her subject matter that could come off as serious but thanks to a fun writing style actually comes off as lighter and a little funny at times, I dove right into What Alice Forgot.

What Alice Forgot can be described as brilliant.  It’s a fun concept, if not at all time realistic, it makes up for it in funny, smart moments.  I enjoyed how the story unfolds a little at a time with Alice’s memories of what was, and then the present.  I found it hard to stop listening because I wanted to know what was going to happen when she got her memory back... if she got her memory back…. SHE HAD TO GET HER MEMORY BACK!

The Alice she was ten years ago and the Alice she has become collide in ways that can possibly be considered a “do over”.  Alice’s head injury takes her back ten years and when a softer, more easy going Alice is presented to the world through this… really anything is possible.  Right?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have my eye out for other books from this author.  The Hypnotist’s Love Story comes out mid 2014 and you can bet I am watching for that one.