Wednesday, June 22, 2011

REVIEW OF LONG GONE by ALAFAIR BURKE

Long Gone started off as what I thought would be a great suspense novel by an author whose work I truly enjoy reading.
Half-way through, I was so drawn in, my head was spinning. By the very end, I was speechless.
The major plot of this novel, which is the first "stand alone" novel by author Alafair Burke, revolves around Alice Humphrey, who having been out of work for a while, lands a dream job managing an art gallery in Manhattan's Meatpacking District.
Alice knows nothing about the gallery owner,but Drew Campbell, the man who offers Alice the job, assures her that the owner prefers to remain anonymous and will let Alice handle running the gallery as if it were her own. It sounds too good to be true, but Alice is excited for the opportunity to not have to look for any financial support from her famous Hollywood director father.
All is working out well with the gallery until the morning after the gallery's opening night,when Alice arrives to find Drew dead and everything missing from the gallery. Police are questioning Alice and she cannot give them any answers. She has never met or even seen a photo of the artist who's work was displayed, she has no idea who the owner is and it turns out the man she knew as Drew Campbell was using fake identity.
Meanwhile, across the Hudson in New Jersey, a young girl is missing and it is looking like there may be links between her and the gallery. Alice begins to see signs that someone is setting her up and as she digs deeper for answers, more and more secrets are revealed, including ones involving Alice's own family.
I have enjoyed Alafair Burke's past novels, and when I found out she was releasing her first stand-alone, I was eager to read it because I consider her to be one of the finest the suspense authors whose books I have read.
This novel not only lived up to my expectations, it exceeded them way beyond what any suspense novel has in recent time. Intertwining murder, a missing girl, and lots of secrets, the twists and turns kept on coming from all directions. It kept me guessing and just when I thought I had it all figured out-another another twist hit me. I was literally gasping out loud!
This may be Alafair Burke's first stand-alone, but I sure hope it's not her last.
Note: this book was received by me from the Amazon Vine review program. You can find out more about it here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/vine/help

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

E's blog: Hollyweird Tuesday Trivia Summer Challenge

E's blog: Hollyweird Tuesday Trivia Summer Challenge: Today is the first day of summer and E. Van Lowe has a NEW Hollyweird Tuesday Trivia Challenge. Head to the link above and take your chances at guessing the correct answer.
 E. thinks he has been making these challenges too easy for us, so he has tried to "stump"us this time. I emaled my answer in already!
Also, E has a new YA novel (BOYFRIEND FROM HELL )coming out in September , but meanwhile, you can order his other novel NEVER SLOW DANCE WITH A ZOMBIE which you can order from amazon either in paperback here:
 http://www.amazon.com/Never-Slow-Dance-Zombie-Lowe/dp/0765320401/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1308673090&sr=1-1#_


or for Kindle here:
http://www.amazon.com/Never-Slow-Dance-Zombie-ebook/dp/B003H3IOPK/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1308673090&sr=1-1

Friday, June 10, 2011

5 STAR REVIEWS

It's been a while since I have posted to this blog. This is mainly because a) I have been working at my full-time job-well, er-full time, b) I have been busy catching up on my reading and c) because I have been too lazy to do it. (mainly c)

My friends know that I am an avid reader, and also that I like to give my opinion on just about everything whenever possible, so from time to time they will ask my advice on what books are good to read.
 I ,of course, am more than willing to offer up my (not so) humble opinion.

Since I have recently been on, as one friend calls it, a "reading frenzy" and have read more than my usual amount of books in the past month or so, I have decided to post my most recently read books that I consider the cream of the crop for 2011.

And so, in no particular order, I present:

               LISA MASON'S 5 STAR BOOKS OF SUMMER 2011


1. SUMMER'S ROAD by KELLY MORAN http://lasergirl70.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-review-of-author-kelly-morans.html

2. STORIES I ONLY TELL MY FRIENDS: an autobiography by ROB LOWE

3. FRAGILE by LISA UNGER http://lasergirl70.blogspot.com/2010/08/fragile-by-lisa-unger.html
(ok, so Fragile is not a new book, but Lisa Unger's follow-up, DARKNESS, MY OLD FRIEND, will be out this summer, so you MUST read Fragile now!)


4. NEVER KNOWING by CHEVY STEVENS http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/149248601

5. BREAKING SILENCE (Kate Burkholder #3) by LINDA CASTILLO http://www.amazon.com/review/RT1OC4UZKXWGD/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Why only 5, you ask? Because these are the most recent and I am working my way to hopefully expand up to at least 10.
 As of this posting, I am currently deep into James Patterson's latetest from his Women's Murder Club series, 10TH ANNIVERSARY, a book I have been anticipating for several months.

Happy Friday!
Happy Reading!


Lisa