Book Reviews: August-September reading

Hi again! It has been a while, but here's the latest in what I've been reading...

Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It's taken me nine months to do it, but I can now say that I have read the complete Sherlock Holmes collection: 56 short stories and 4 novels. I also watched the movie when it came out last year (or was it the year before... time flies...) and between the two I have completely fallen in love with both Sherlock and John Watson. I won't go into really describing each story, and to be honest, it's been a while since I read the first ones. But I think my favourite Holmes story will always be The Hound of the Baskervilles. I also particularly enjoyed The Adventure of the Dying Detective and The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire. In the Dying Detective, Holmes pretends to be dying of some rare disease in order to draw a confession out of a murderer. In the Sussex Vampire, a woman is believed to be a vampire because she is found with her mouth to her young child's neck, where there are pinpricks, and her mouth is covered in blood. Holmes figures out that the child's half brother was trying to kill his brother with poison darts, out of jealousy, and the mother was sucking the poison out.

Overall story rating: 9.5/10 for all
Recommendation: 13+ (the British might be more difficult for younger readers)


Over Her Dead Body by Kate White. I read another book by Kate White, this book actually takes place before that one. In this book, main character Bailey Weggins lands a great job working for a high profile celebrity magazine. Shortly after starting work, her boss is found dead in the office and Bailey makes it her business to find the killer. Another coworker dies along the way, but Bailey eventually finds her man.

Overall story rating: 9/10
Recommendation: 14+


My Wicked Vampire by Nina Bangs was by far the strangest take on vampires and other-worldly creatures that I have ever read. In this book (which is apparently part of the Castle of Dark Dreams series), main character Cinn Airmid is hired by Sparkle Stardust to work for the Castle of Dreams - an adult theme park - because Cinn has a unique ability with plants. Meaning that she can develop plants that do unimaginable things. Cinn believes that it's all science, but Sparkle knows that the truth is that Cinn is a descendant of the plant goddess Airmid and Cinn is actually a demi-goddess which means she has some of Airmid's own powers. And Airmid doesn't like what Cinn's doing to her plants. Cinn is suddently thrown into a world she never knew existed and falls for the most lethal creature of all - vampire.

Overall story rating: 7/10
Recommendation: 17+


If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now by Claire LaZebnik. I found this to be a really awesome "coming-of-age" story that I kind of felt able to relate to. College dropout Rickie is a 25 year old single mom to the very challenging 7 year old Noah, who has been unemployed and living with her parents since Noah was born. She can't get along with her mom, and can't understand her son. Things start to change when Noah complains that his new gym teacher pushed him too hard and let the other kids kick him and laugh at him. Rickie goes to the school in a rage and tries to get Coach Andrew Fulton fired. That of course doesn't work, but it sparks an interesting relationship between Rickie and Andrew and they ultimately fall in love. *sigh* <3

Overall story rating: 10/10 
Recommendation: 14+


Smart Girls Think Twice by Cathie Linz. This was your typical romance. Between a smart, naïve girl, and a buff, guarded boy. It's more or less love at first sight, and lots of sexual tension between them for most of the book. The story wasn't very well developed/written. The characters were, I feel like the main characters are some of my friends. But the story line was lacking. And it was all very predictable - nothing new going on here. The basic opposites-attract, fall in love, then one runs away and hurts the other, and then they get back together and live happily ever after. The End.

Overall story rating: 5/10
Recommendation: 19+ (a lot of explicit imagery)


I have now read 30 out of my aimed 52 books. There are 14 weeks left of 2011 so I've got 22 books left to read, approximately 1.5 every week between now and the new year!! Wish me luck!  =0D