FRAGILE by LISA UNGER

I "met" Lisa Unger a few years back when I first joined Facebook. She was one of the first people to "request' my friendship. I noticed she lived in Clearwater,Florida, as I do and that she was a novelist. I had never heard of her books up until that point, but loving suspenseful books,I was eager to check hers out.
I had a conversation a few days later with my mother and told her of my "discovery" of this "new" author(well, new to me-little did I know she was an international best-seller) and my mother asked me to wait a miniute while she went to grab something. That "something" just happened to Lisa's BEAUTIFUL LIES. We both had a good laugh over the coincidence and from that point book of us have been huge fans of Lisa's novels. I also have had the pleasure of meeting Lisa several time at her book signings since she lives not very far from me. She is a delightful, warm person who you can't help but smile when you talk to her.
Below is my review of her most recent release, the NY Times bestseller, FRAGILE. If you have not read any of Lisa's books, I urge you to pick one (or four) and give them a shot. I guarantee it will be worth the time!

FRAGILE By Lisa Unger  (5 stars)
Sometimes you open a book and it grabs you right from the very first chapter, and doesn't let go till the very end. Of the hundreds of books I have read, there have been a few like that. Books that even after you close them and put them back on the shelf, stay with you for a very long time. Lisa Unger's Fragile is one such book.
I could say that Fragile is the story of a young girl's disappearance. That it is about small town secrets, or families  cracking apart . I could say that because it is all of those things.
This book kept me up nights telling myself "just one more chapter" . It's a suspenseful story set in a small town outside New York City where many residents have lived their whole lives. The kind of of town where almost everyone knows everyone else.
One night a young girl leaves home after arguing with her mother, only to never come home that night. What begins from there is a sequence of events that bring back memories of a similar event 20 years earlier and how it affects those involved. Did she run away, as she stated on her Facebook status? Or was she taken by someone out to do her harm. I don't like to give away too much of a story in a review because I don't want to cheat anyone of of the mysteries and answers  I had the pleasure of discovering myself. I will tell you Fragile is not the first novel I have read by Lisa Unger, and it certainly will not be the last.

VAMPIRES AND WEREWOLVES AND DAEMONS, OH MY!

This month I was lucky enough to be chosen to receive an Advanced Reader's Copy of WHEN BLOOD CALLS, the first book in a new series by author J.K. Beck, so I could review it. The new series is titled SHADOW KEEPERS and book one will be released on August 31, with books two and three to be released September 28 and October 26, respectively.

With so many paranormal romance/urban fantasy series currently available and being published everyday, it's difficult to find one that is new and exciting, touching on subjects that haven't been visited over and over.
This series manages to do that and more.

J.K. Beck is the "alias" of Julie Kenner, very well known for her best-selling "Kate Conner"series about a demon-hunting soccer mom.. While Kenner's other series is incredibly enjoyable, filled with lots of humor as well as action, this series is quite different.

With WHEN BLOOD CALLS,  Beck takes us into a world where vampires, werewolves and other creatures of our imagination are living out an existence side by side with unsuspecting humans.

Prosector Sara Constantine gets a promotion at the DA's office to work in "Division 6". Previously known to her only as part of Homeland Security, Division 6 is actually a department that deals with members of society that require "special" attention. Vampires, werewolves, goblins and other creatures Sara has only seen in movies and on TV.
Not even aware thees "creatures of  the night" existed before, Sara also comes to know the man who murdered her father when she was a child also was a vampire.
Thrown into this world, her first assignment is prosecuting vampire Lucius Dragos, who is accused of murdering a retired judge.When Sara meets Lucius (also known as Luke) she realizes he is the man she recently had a very hot, sexy encounter with after leaving a bar together. Now Sara has just found out the man she has been lusting over is not only a vampire, but in jail for murder. Will she be able to control the intense desire for him long enough to do her job?

Sara soons finds out Luke may have in fact have had personal reasons for wanting the judge dead. It seems his ward ,Tasha, may have been harmed by the judge who was not so squeaky -clean.
When the last person Sara has successfully put in jail escapes(possibly with some supernatural help) Sara may be forced to enlist Luke's aid in catching him and putting him back behind bars.
It tuns out  Tasha is missing and may have been kidnapped by someone connected to the murderer.
Sara is torn between doing her job and the strong feeling she still has for Luke.

This new series has it all: suspense, passion, intrique and more. Sometimes dark, sometimes sexy, but always exciting, this book left me anticipating the second in the series. I urge fans of paranormal romance/urban fantasy to check it out when it is releases on August 31st!

"HATE THE GAME,NOT THE PLAYER"

WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!!


Well, it's week five in the Big Brother house and we are one day away from our latest eviction. As of today, Rachel and Brendon have been nominated by current HOH, Matt, and tonight CBS will air the veto competiton as well as the veto ceremony.
The veto comp was played over the weekend and the ceremony on Monday, so if you get the feeds or read any blog posts, you already know the outcome.
I , myself, do not subscribe to the feeds(God knows I would never get any work done if I did) but I do watch Showtime Too's Big Brother After Dark and I also get most of my info from the wonderful ladies over at BBDish! Ya Gotta Have it! . If you are a big fan of the show, a feed subscriber, or love to chat with other fans, well, then this is the ONLY place I recommend going for the inside scoop. Carolyn and Co. have the latest up-dates, as well as polls, blogs by former Houseguests, viewing parties and general all around fun. They make it a place where you can always express your opinion, but never get criticized if you don't agree with others. Much better than any other BB sites I have seen. So, you might want to check that out @http://www.bbdish.blogspot.com/
Ok, now that I am done giving a shout-out to the "Dish", back to my view on the game so far.

After practicing their little hearts out for the veto challenge, nominees, Rachel and Brendon, were not lucky enough to actually win it. That honor went to Britney. Britney is someone I continually have mixed feelings about. A pretty, funny girl, she sometimes (ok, a LOT of times) can be very mean when discussing other houseguests. In the beginning, her sidekick was evicted guest #2, Monet. After Monet's departure, Brit seems to become more engaged with the others and I thought  her true self was being revealed, but soon, she was back to her old tricks, this time picking up a new partner in crime: Ragan.
I am quite surprised by the way Ragan has been presenting himself in the house of late. In the first 2 weeks, I really enjoyed him and his fun, "showmance/friendship" with Matt, but he has taken a quite "evil" turn and has become just as catty as Brit. Ragan was someone I original was rooting for to make it to the end, and now I don't think I feel quite the same. While I am no fan of "Team Brenchel" ( the pair of Brendon and Rachel) I still do not like the way they are constantly being bashed. Of course, the two of them give as good as they get and Rachel doesn't seem to think she does anything wrong.
Speaking of our two lovebirds, I am quite sorry-no, I take that back-I am not, to say that I think it is quite ridiculous to think you are "in love" with someone you met little over a month a go. Not to mention these two, in my opinion could be no further than an ideal match. Brendon seems very reserved and Rachel is a Vegas party girl. I know that should not matter, but well, I think it does and since this is my opinion, that's what I am going with. ;) I have heard Brendon say how he thinks Rachel will "grow out" of her Vegas way of life and move to LA where she might possible make it big or go to UCLA. (sorry, Brendon, doubt that's going to happen.
So, back to the game. As of earlier today, it was pretty much the house's decision to evict Rachel tomorrow night. This is something that I think bothers Brendon more than Rachel, herself. He has acutally begged others to vote him out instead because "Rachel really deserves to make it to the end and win" . Now I say to that "are you STUPID,man?" you are going to give up a chance at half a million dollars for a girl you barely know? Why did you come on this show? There are many,many people who would love to have gotten on the show and get a shot at winning. You want to throw that away? I feel he is an idiot.  Even if he goes this week, there is no guarantee that Rachel will make it any further in the game. Sure, I think she is a great player and very good at comps (she won 2 of the past 5 HOH's) but anything can happen.
The both of them have become enemy # 1 for the rest of the house ,becoming the butt of countless jokes by everyone,including Kathy, who must feel happy that she is in with the "cool crowd". Just last night she told Brendon , after he chose to hide the wine bottle opener from Britney not to "stoop to their level", then proceeded to head upstairs a while later and do just that: making fun of Brendon and Rachel and having quite the time of it.
There was a huge blowup that I was lucky(or not) to catch on Afterdark. Ragan and Britney were hanging out on the hammock. Rachel came over to talk to Ragan who had been avoiding her for the past couple days. He proceeded to tell her exactly how he feels about her. Now I will not give you the details, but in the short of it, Rachel ended up in the DR crying, Brendon went out to confront Ragan, and there was an intense name-calling session. Then proud he defended his girl's honor, Brendon went off on a rant directly to the live feed cameras. Then when Rachel emerged from the DR, he gave her wine and they spent most of the night alone talking about much better than the others they were.
On a positive note, I am really enjoying "Jersey" boy, Enzo. Watching the other houseguests make fun of his acccent and making him say words like dog, was quite the relief from the tension in the house. Plus, I have been in his shoes, being from Jersey, myself.
I have to say I am hoping Rachel leaves tomorrow taking most of the drama with her. Now I have to go. It's 8pm and Big Brother is on. ;)