From Booklist
Becky Bloomwood, shopaholic extraordinaire, is back. She and her new husband, Luke Brandon, have been on a whirlwind ten-month honeymoon that's taken them all around the world, but both are itching to get back to London. When they do return, Becky is disturbed to discover that her best friend has a new good buddy, and Becky's parents are acting strangely. It turns out that they've just learned that her dad fathered a child a few years before he met her mother. Becky is thrilled to learn she has a half-sister, until she meets Jess. Jess is nothing like Becky: her clothes aren't fashionable, she prefers dank caves to shoe stores, and she is incredibly frugal. After an awkward weekend together, the sisters part company on bad terms. To make matters worse, Becky's gotten herself into a pickle with a purchase that could put a strain on her marriage. Like the previous installments, Shopaholic & Sister is hilarious fun for Prada and Gucci aficionados.
--Kristine Huntley
Monday, May 9, 2011
Shopaholic Ties the Knot / Sophie Kinsella
From Booklist
Another entertaining entry in Kinsella's unabashedly fluffy Shopaholic series. Life could not get any better for Becky Bloomwood, the irresistibly daft heroine of Confessions of a Shopaholic (2001) and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan (2002). She has managed to parlay her personal and professional passions into a dream job as a personal shopper at Barney's, and she and her wildly successful boyfriend live a life of relative peace and prosperity in Manhattan's West Village. Well, at least they would if Becky could manage to curb her extravagant spending habits a bit. When Luke finally pops the question, a euphoric Becky manages to entangle herself in another rather sticky predicament. Becky's cozy mum back in England has planned a homespun wedding for her only daughter on the same day for which Luke's frosty society mother has booked the Plaza in New York. Two weddings on the same day, what's a committed consumer to do? Chock-full of the charming antics and asides that made the first two installments hilarious best-sellers.
--Margaret Flanagan
Another entertaining entry in Kinsella's unabashedly fluffy Shopaholic series. Life could not get any better for Becky Bloomwood, the irresistibly daft heroine of Confessions of a Shopaholic (2001) and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan (2002). She has managed to parlay her personal and professional passions into a dream job as a personal shopper at Barney's, and she and her wildly successful boyfriend live a life of relative peace and prosperity in Manhattan's West Village. Well, at least they would if Becky could manage to curb her extravagant spending habits a bit. When Luke finally pops the question, a euphoric Becky manages to entangle herself in another rather sticky predicament. Becky's cozy mum back in England has planned a homespun wedding for her only daughter on the same day for which Luke's frosty society mother has booked the Plaza in New York. Two weddings on the same day, what's a committed consumer to do? Chock-full of the charming antics and asides that made the first two installments hilarious best-sellers.
--Margaret Flanagan
The Taste of Innocence / Stephanie Laurens
From Booklist
The Earl of Meredith has decided it is finally time to marry. Charlie has even found the perfect candidate for his future wife: Sarah Conningham. Now he has to find some way to convince her to go along with his plan. Although she has secretly been infatuated with Charlie for years, Sarah refuses to marry for anything less than love. So, she gives Charlie two weeks to prove that they belong together. Charlie intends to simply seduce Sarah, but much to his surprise, he finds himself falling in love with her instead! Laurens expertly spices up the passion-rich plot with danger and intrigue, making the fourteenth in her best-selling Cynster series sinfully sexy and deliciously irresistible.
The Earl of Meredith has decided it is finally time to marry. Charlie has even found the perfect candidate for his future wife: Sarah Conningham. Now he has to find some way to convince her to go along with his plan. Although she has secretly been infatuated with Charlie for years, Sarah refuses to marry for anything less than love. So, she gives Charlie two weeks to prove that they belong together. Charlie intends to simply seduce Sarah, but much to his surprise, he finds himself falling in love with her instead! Laurens expertly spices up the passion-rich plot with danger and intrigue, making the fourteenth in her best-selling Cynster series sinfully sexy and deliciously irresistible.
Moonlight Mile / Dennis Lehane
From Publishers Weekly
An old case takes on new dimensions in Lehane's sixth crime novel to feature Boston PIs Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, last seen in 1999's Prayers for Rain. Twelve years earlier, in 1998's Gone, Baby, Gone, Patrick and Angie investigated the kidnapping of four-year-old Amanda McCready. The case drove a temporary wedge between the pair after Patrick returned Amanda to her mother's neglectful care. Now Patrick and Angie are married, the parents of four-year-old Gabriella, and barely making ends meet with Patrick's PI gigs while Angie finishes graduate school. But when Amanda's aunt comes to Patrick and tells him that Amanda, now a 16-year-old honor student, is once again missing, he vows to find the girl, even if it means confronting the consequences of choices he made that have haunted him for years. While Lehane addresses much of the moral ambiguity from Gone, this entry lacks some of the gritty rawness of the early Kenzie and Gennaro books.
An old case takes on new dimensions in Lehane's sixth crime novel to feature Boston PIs Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, last seen in 1999's Prayers for Rain. Twelve years earlier, in 1998's Gone, Baby, Gone, Patrick and Angie investigated the kidnapping of four-year-old Amanda McCready. The case drove a temporary wedge between the pair after Patrick returned Amanda to her mother's neglectful care. Now Patrick and Angie are married, the parents of four-year-old Gabriella, and barely making ends meet with Patrick's PI gigs while Angie finishes graduate school. But when Amanda's aunt comes to Patrick and tells him that Amanda, now a 16-year-old honor student, is once again missing, he vows to find the girl, even if it means confronting the consequences of choices he made that have haunted him for years. While Lehane addresses much of the moral ambiguity from Gone, this entry lacks some of the gritty rawness of the early Kenzie and Gennaro books.
Night World No. 1: Secret Vampire; Daughters of Darkness; Spellbinder / L.J. Smith
Product Description
In Secret Vampire, Poppy thought the summer would last forever. Then she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Now Poppy's only hope for survival is James, her friend and secret love. A vampire in the Night World, James can make Poppy immortal. But first they both must risk everything to go against the laws of Night World.
Fugitives from Night World, three vampire sisters leave their isolated home to live among humans in Daughters of Darkness. Their brother, Ash, is sent to bring the girls back, but he falls in love with their beautiful friend.
Two witch cousins fight over their high school crush. It's a battle between black magic and white magic in Spellbinder.
In Secret Vampire, Poppy thought the summer would last forever. Then she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Now Poppy's only hope for survival is James, her friend and secret love. A vampire in the Night World, James can make Poppy immortal. But first they both must risk everything to go against the laws of Night World.
Fugitives from Night World, three vampire sisters leave their isolated home to live among humans in Daughters of Darkness. Their brother, Ash, is sent to bring the girls back, but he falls in love with their beautiful friend.
Two witch cousins fight over their high school crush. It's a battle between black magic and white magic in Spellbinder.
Three Stations / Martin Cruz Smith
From Publishers Weekly
Smith's seventh Arkady Renko novel (after Stalin's Ghost) falls short of his usual high standard. The Russian police detective, now a senior investigator, is seriously considering quitting the force because his boss, state prosecutor Zurin, refuses to assign him any cases. Renko seizes the chance to buck Zurin by finding the truth behind the death of a prostitute found in a workers' trailer parked in Moscow's seedy Three Stations (aka Komsomol Square). While the young woman, who Renko guesses is 18 or 19, apparently took a fatal drug overdose, he believes she was murdered. A subplot centering on a mother whose infant is stolen on a train detracts from rather than enhances the main investigation. This disappointing entry does only a superficial job of bringing the reader inside today's Russia. Hopefully, Smith and Renko will return to form next time.
Smith's seventh Arkady Renko novel (after Stalin's Ghost) falls short of his usual high standard. The Russian police detective, now a senior investigator, is seriously considering quitting the force because his boss, state prosecutor Zurin, refuses to assign him any cases. Renko seizes the chance to buck Zurin by finding the truth behind the death of a prostitute found in a workers' trailer parked in Moscow's seedy Three Stations (aka Komsomol Square). While the young woman, who Renko guesses is 18 or 19, apparently took a fatal drug overdose, he believes she was murdered. A subplot centering on a mother whose infant is stolen on a train detracts from rather than enhances the main investigation. This disappointing entry does only a superficial job of bringing the reader inside today's Russia. Hopefully, Smith and Renko will return to form next time.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror - 7th Annual Collection
Amazon.com review:
There are vampires, a Lovecraft homage, enchanted birds and animals, shapeshifters, adult fairy tales, ghosts, and even a hunted muse. The best are Byatt's sensuous, enchanting "Cold"--about an ice princess who marries a glass-blowing desert prince--and Straub's novella, "Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff", a black comedy of revenge gone awry. The reference material includes each editor's review of the year's best novels, collections and anthologies, magazines, related nonfiction, children's books, and art.
There are vampires, a Lovecraft homage, enchanted birds and animals, shapeshifters, adult fairy tales, ghosts, and even a hunted muse. The best are Byatt's sensuous, enchanting "Cold"--about an ice princess who marries a glass-blowing desert prince--and Straub's novella, "Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff", a black comedy of revenge gone awry. The reference material includes each editor's review of the year's best novels, collections and anthologies, magazines, related nonfiction, children's books, and art.
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