Radiance by Alyson Noel

 

Title: RadianceAuthor: Alyson Noel
Series:
Genre: YA, Paranormal, Romance
Publisher: Square Fish
Release Date: 2010, August
Format: Paperback, 192 pages
Source: Bought

Rating: 3.75/5

Smuttiness: N/A

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Riley Bloom left her sister, Ever, in the world of the living and crossed the bridge into the afterlife—a place called Here, where time is always Now. Riley and her dog, Buttercup, have been reunited with her parents and are just settling into a nice, relaxing death when she's summoned before The Council. They let her in on a secret—the afterlife isn't just an eternity of leisure; Riley has to work. She's been assigned a job, Soul Catcher, and a teacher, Bodhi, a curious boy she can't quite figure out.
Riley, Bodhi, and Buttercup return to earth for her first assignment, a Radiant Boy who's been haunting a castle in England for centuries. Many Soul Catchers have tried to get him to cross the bridge and failed. But he's never met Riley...
 
Review:
 
I had read some pretty great things about this book on my travels through the book blog world.  When I started reading it I was really impressed with how well the author was able to write form the point of view of a pre-teen.  In my opinion she did an excellent job of connecting with the teen reader.
 
The different descriptions were well written also.  The description of life in "here" was really good.  There is no sense of time in "here" hence why Riley says she lives in the "here and now."  The description of what being dead feels like was even better in my opinion.
 
Riley in the beginning of the book was more of a follower/tag along who also happened to be pretty mouthy.  But as the story went along she grew stronger and wasn't so much of a follower anymore.  I think that she was headed more towards being a leader....even though she was still pretty mouthy.
 
Bodhi is Riley's guide.  When Riley first meets Bodhi he's dressed as a bit of a geek.  But the more time that Riley spends with him the more she realizes that there's more than what meets the eye.  In this case it also hands Riley a pretty sizeable piece of humble pie.
 
Buttercup....poor Buttercup.  See Buttercup is a LARGE MALE Labrador Retriever that accompanies Riley and Bodhi on their journey. I feel for Buttercup...His name alone is, in my opinion, meant for a k-9 that is much smaller and FEMALE.
 
I guess what disappointed me about the book was that it was one "mission" for both Riley and Bodhi and then the book is basically over.  I guess I was just hoping for a little more out of the book.
 
Favorite Quote: "You do know you can manifest a whole new wardrobe right?  We're really not bound to the mistakes of our past.  So go ahead, knock yourself out.  Just close your eyes and ask - What would Joe Jonas wear?"

Review ~ The Life O'Reilly

 

Published: August 18th 2009 by iUniverse (Rising Star) (first published 2009)

Details: Paperback, 276 pages

Rating:

 

.75

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

At once a bittersweet love story and a young lawyer's journey of self-discovery, this auspicious debut delivers an emotional wallop and will move readers in unexpected ways.

Review:

I'd like to thank the author Brian Cohen for contacting me about reading and reviewing his book on my blog.  I'd also like to apologize for taking so long to get it up on the blog.  I'm really sorry about that.  When I was first contacted about this book the little bit that I was able to read of it on Brian's webpage really peaked my interest.  After reading the first chapter I had to read the rest of the book!

Now I know why this book is an award winner!  I didn't realize how many awards it had gotten until I logged onto Goodreads to add it to my "read" library.

The book itself is billed as "modern day love story" but it is soooo much more than that.  It's about knowing what you really want out of life and going after it full speed ahead.  It's also an emotional roller coaster...I'm usually not much on roller coaster's but this one was a good one.  It sucks you in and you have to know what happens next!

The plot?  Really liked it alot!  I don't want to give away too much but I will say that I sooooo did NOT see that twist coming at all!

I guess the only fault that I could really find with the book (which prevented it from getting a higher rating) was the ending wasn't as detailed as I would have liked to see.  The beginning of the novel was excellently detailed...I just didn't feel the same about the end of the book.  That's it for faults and even that isn't all that major of a fault, in my opinion anyway.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Life O'Reilly and would recommend it to other readers as well.  Pick up this book!

Mini Review ~ In The Name of Honor

Barnes and Noble (will take you to the book's page)


Review:
The book deals with a lot of current issues...Iraq, the military, war in general, and one of the possible battle scars that can come from going to war...PTSD. The story revolves around a miltary officer, Lieutenant Brian McCarran, who is just home from Iraq and is being tried for the murder of his wife....But was it really murder or was it self defense? The book has a TON of twists, turns, secrets and tension. Throw in some close friends and family..."Some" military courtroom action....PTSD and all the twists, turns, secrets and tension mentioned above and you get the makings for a pretty dang good story. Though for me personally, I thought the story was a little bit slow to build and there were a few parts near the beginning where it had a hard time holding my attention. But once things started rolling it became another one of those that I couldn't put down. So overall, I liked this book. I will be checking out more books by this author in the future.

Review ~ The Guest House

Published: March 16th 2010 by Bay Tree Publishing (first published 2010)
Details: Paperback, 218 pages

* I was sent this book in exchange for an honest review

Rating:

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

On a summer afternoon, Melba Burns witnesses a nightmare collision. The unknown bicyclist dies in her arms, ending Melba's desire for success at any cost. She settles into her boxy old farmhouse trying to find a simpler peace. But Melba's stunning new roommate JoLee Garry only magnetizes messes and trouble-she brings a series of unexpected guests who transform Melba's fruitful solo life into something different, darker, and better.

Review:

I was asked if I would read and review this book a little while ago. I can honestly say that this was a very interesting book to read. Though in the beginning I had a little bit of a difficult time tracking the story, which lead to the rating it got. It would start with Melba and then move on to another character and then another. I got a little bit confusing after a little while. But being the trooper that I am I carried on. After the little character "mistep" the story really started to shape and form and it became one that I had a hard time putting down. Overall, even with the confusion in the beginning it held my interest. I needed to know what happened next. When it all came together, as I said a little further up, the book became hard to put down.

The characters are all very believeable and real. These are people that you can very easily identify with....you might even know a few in REAL LIFE. The overall story is centered around a good soul who likes to help others who are going through rough times. This story also is chock full of different emotions...hurt, anger, hope and deceit, such to name a few.

If you would like to learn more about the author here are a couple of links. This first link is to an essay recently posted by Good Morning America where the author talks about the book and spirituality in general and the second link is to SpiritualMediaBlog where they conducted a 20 minute interview with the author.

New Beginnings review

New Beginnings
Anne Marie Busch
276 pages

Ratings:


Challenges: 100+ Challenge, 144 books 2010
Synopsis:
John Stanton lost the love of his life to cancer. Even though he has tried to move on with his life and has remarried, he still misses his first wife, Jenny, and longs for her companionship. His marriage to Darlene is lacking true love, and will not survive because of the distance between them, both in body and soul. He longs for contentment in his life. John is convinced that he will never again find true love, but a chance meeting with a lovely and enchanting waitress named Wendy Burke changes his outlook. He is instantly drawn to her, and this attraction leads to a chain of events that transforms his life. As his life changes, the result impacts the lives of his beautiful and naive daughter, Maggie, and Wendy's handsome and devil-may-care cousin, Michael.
Review:
When I started this book I was really drawn into how much John still misses his first wife Jenny and how big of a self absorbed bitch his second wife Darlene is. While John is moving his son Scott to college he meets Wendy Burke and some stuff happens between them that get's a whole chain of events rolling. As the story progresses we are introduced to Wendy's family, including her favorite cousin Michael. John's daughter Maggie has almost an instant attraction to Michael and so does Michael towards Maggie...but because he's 9 years older than her he tries to deny the attraction. In the end everyone ends up happy....well with one exception...Darlene.
Overall, I liked the book. I really wanted to give this book 4 boots but because of a few missed typos I couldn't (that sort of stuff is very distracting to my ADD brain.) I think my all time favorite character in the book was Grandma Mo....She said some pretty crazy things that made my laugh out loud.
What we're really thinking:
Jamie - The few typos I found at the beginning were distracting to my ADD brain. Overall, I liked the book. I think Darlene was written in a way that made you LOVE to hate her.
GnL - THERE WAS ZERO "TEAM CUDDLE" TIME!