Don't Kiss the Messenger (Edgelake High School #1) by Katie Ray

Rating ****

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review. i liked this book a lot and that's saying much for a young adult fiction which generally have very sappy story lines. I really loved the sassy female lead in this book. I like strong female characters and the characters in this book were quite realistic. The female narrator Cece has strong thought process and is well read and a volleyball athlete. The male narrator Emmett is a very unorthodox football player cum pianist composer. He loves his music and excels in football which gives him a to die for physique at the same time a very high emotional quotient. The dialogues and the book references were easy to follow for me and song references were mostly over the top as i guess i still listen to very different genre. Even the texting in lyrics somehow felt bit to mature for that age kids but it gives a nice touch to the story. 
All in all i really liked the story and even though at point i felt that it was bit staged as in some things were quite obvious,the male lead took his time to figure out

The Cuckoo's Calling

The Cuckoo's Calling ( Cormoran Strike #1)
 By Robert Galbraith ( Pseudonym) J. K. Rowling

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16160797-the-cuckoo-s-calling?from_search=true



Book Review: ***1/2  ( SPOILERS AHEAD)

It was a good mystery....did like how it started but it was very very slow to pick up …you really need to have patience to want to know about the story as the build-up is slow.. ...the gist of the story is that a model (Lula Landry) falls off her second floor balcony flat and after some investigation the police declare it as suicide. Her brother is not convinced with this verdict and hence after three months he hires the protagonist (Cormoran Strike) to investigate further in the matter. The whole investigation wraps up in 2-3 weeks.  We will start with the good points first. I liked how the story and entire unfolding of characters happened…we get a good glimpse of how being in a spotlight is…how the glamour industry works and how insecure the people up there are…although we don’t really get a complete understanding of any other secondary characters but I liked how the investigator and his secretary (Robin) developed a rapport and how he utilised some of her enthusiasm for solving the case but how their friendship remained just that being friends…without further complications…

The negatives: I don’t like a mystery wherein it’s not exactly completely explained as to how he drew his inferences…(SPOILERS AHEAD) like how did he know just from the water on the stairs that it must be from the flower pot…or how did he absolutely and so surely infer that one of the witness was on the balcony when the crime happened…there was a lot of surmising that happened…and it wasn’t properly explained as to how he came to those inference which left me a bit dissatisfied when the book ended…plus what was the reason for the brother to hire him after all these days? And why hire in the first place…

Now about the author…unlike other reviews I didn’t want to focus too much just on the author…which I found is the case with many other reviewers here…yes it is J K Rowling who wrote it but let’s approach the book without any pretence and any hype and give it a fair chance..well it wasn’t mind blowing like the harry potter books…but considering its her first foray in to mystery the story was good just that she should work a bit better in explaining how she has concluded certain things in the end instead of leaving us hanging and finding our own explanations.
Feel free to give you comments on my review.

The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Naturals
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes


Book Review: ***

It was a very so-so book for me. The story starts with our protagonist Cassie who seems to have some ESP of reading people and personalities. She is hired by the FBI for their special program which has other similar teenagers with special powers. I didn't like the fact that in wont it be more natural for people to be more curious as to how only this select bunch got these powers and if there was anything that can be done to induce/increase/inculcate these powers in others. No explanation has been given as to why only the select bunch of teenagers have the power ( as in if they are genetic or they have extraordinary brain capacity or what). I didn't even understand the power of Sloane (a secondary character)...is she a person who memorizes facts like "only 16% of American men have blue eyes" followed by  " 40% of male TV doctors have blue eyes" so has she done any statistical analysis or has she seen all doc TV programs and then come to this conclusion.
Anyways the mystery was good to read once when it started...the inferences drawn by the profilers were well explained. I have read lots of serial killer novels and this one was good to read at a very basic young adult level. Considering most characters are teenagers, I can see that most teenagers and young adults would like the book for its not too complicated profiling and murder mystery. Personally since I have read too many mysteries and  FBI profiling cases I found the mystery to be bit too easily  undone or rather the profiling was just a bit too easy. But again as the mystery was just part of the whole story I can maybe understand why the author didn't really extend the story line there.
There was a love triangle brought in which I found not really contributing to the story at all plus I didn't really feel connected to Cassie, she seems strong and brave but you aren't really invested in her till the end. You don't feel as intensely for her even at the end of the story as you did at the beginning which is something the author should think about and maybe put some more time in building up the main character.
the secondary characters are also not well etched out and hence at the end you don't feel any pain/agony/happiness for the turn of events. you are just like a third party spectator wherein you see the last act and get up from your seat and start thinking of what you have to do the rest of the day without spending even a minute thinking about what you have just seen ( read in case of this book)

Feel free to give you comments on my review.

The Heart of a Duke

The Heart of a Duke by Victoria Morgan

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17572839-the-heart-of-a-duke?from_search=true

Book Review : *

What a boring boring stretched out story....the author really needs to work on her story building and character sketching. For a romantic story there wasn't any chemistry whatsoever in the lead pair...I actually skipped over the part when they finally do get together.
This regency story starts with the heroine Lady Julia getting desperate to fulfill her long engagement with the Duke of Bedford, Edmund. She has been waiting for him to fulfill the engagement and at the age of 23 feels she is overdue for her marriage. She plans on getting his attention by kissing him and making him commit to marriage when she runs in to him. He is  reluctant to kiss her but she persists and after a fiery ( didn't really seem so while reading) he tells her that he is not her duke but his twin. From there you can make out most of the story line. She is angry with him and slaps him and for some reason that makes the guy fall for her and he makes a promise to himself to get her in his life. The twin whose name is Daniel has been away from the country for last ten years ( has a shipping business in America) and has come back following  a letter from his father's solicitor. He has escaped a murder attempt 10 years back when he was in England ( hence moved to America) and also wants to figure out the person behind that attempt.
As typical stories go the real duke Edmund turns out to be a nasty character, the heroine realizes his true nature, but still is unsure about accepting Daniel's proposal as she feels he is not offering true love ( don't know how she thinks that after all his confessions about she being his life and his reason for living and blah blah).
I didn't especially like the heroine's character. Its very inconsistent and frankly there was no emotional connect with both the hero and heroine.
The author could have wrapped up the story 100 pages beforehand but keeps dragging the whole thing when the entire plot is evident midway in the book. Too many extra characters are included, too many inconsistencies with the supporting characters and too boring chemistry between the lead pairs makes this a very below average read.
Considering this is just the second book of the author I hope she will work on her story writing a bit more so as to at least make the reader retain interest during the steamy scenes ( I actually skimmed the pages of those scenes in a romantic novel...can you believe that), at the end of it I was skipping more pages than actually reading them.

Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts about what you felt about the book

The Girl with the Dragon tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1) by Steig Larsson
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2429135.The_Girl_with_the_Dragon_Tattoo


Book Review *****

I loved this book and the sole reason or maybe the most prominent reason for that was the strong feminist character. I myself am a total pro-feminist and just loved the total kick ass attitude of the girl. 
The story starts of with Blomkvist's trouble with the financial world and a the hefty fine he has to pay. To reduce the impact of bad publicity on the magazine he is working for he takes a self imposed vacation during which he is given an assignment to find a murdered girl ( 36 years back). The girl was murdered ( body not found) on an island in a period when no one came in or out. So what unfolds is a locked room mystery.  He hires an investigative firm for delving in the mystery where he meets the female protagonist Lisbeth Salandar. And so the story goes.
The story is not for people with aversion to violence, rapes or in general child brutality, sex scenes and blunt language.
But one thing I learnt from the book was that Sweden doesn't seem to be a safe place for girls or at least the rapes and female brutality seems to be just shrugged off there.I was bit disturbed to learn the sort of brutality described in the book and the extent of violence in the book. But just the bouncing back and never say die attitude of the girl made me keep coming back to it. The journalist Blomkvist seems to be a decent character and in fact all the main characters in the novel have been finely etched out which leads to a smooth flow of the story without any inconsistencies or out of character acting.
The mystery was well thought out and the additional characters later on in the book added to the story. There were a few things which made me squirm a bit particularly Blomkvist's relationship with colleague Erika and her husband. Plus Blomkvist has been shown as this perfect guy over whom girls fall over and who cant or doesn't make any wrong decisions.

Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts about what you felt about the book 

Gone Girl

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8442457-gone-girl?from_search=true


Book Review **** (No Spoilers ahead)

I started on Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn when I had absolutely no idea about the author or even her writing style, read it in July of 2012 . Just read the excerpt and thought to give it a go.  From the start of the book, it was quite gripping although not as gripping as say a Micheal Crichton novel ( e.g. Prey which starts of amazingly fast) but also not as slow as a rambling by Jerome K. Jerome which you wanna enjoy on a lazy summer day. Be prepared for some foul language use.
The book goes back and forth between the perspectives of Nick Dunne and his missing wife, Amy Elliot Dunne.  Amy’s perspective is from a diary of the past, and the picture she paints is one of an unhappy marriage.  From Nick’s perspective, we hear about his current thoughts following the disappearance of his wife and subsequent police investigation. 
 The story has its good points and bad. I will start with the good ones which far outweigh the bad points.
Good Points: Very interesting plot, you are left guessing as to what is happening till 70% of the book, good writing style- not too descriptive nor very sketchy. The author is good in giving us two point of views of the two main protagonists in the book allowing us to make a judgement on their actions or behaviour.
Now to the bad side: the entire book is a dark dark thriller, and at the end of it I actually felt depressed and lost a bit of faith from human relationships.  So if you are one of those who read and keep mulling over the book for the next few days, let me tell you to keep some happy people around you and don't take it on a vacation, you would not only ruin your mood but also the people with you would start complaining.
The end is again something which I personally didn't agree with. I guess in reality things like that happen but it just went on to become something so twisted and dark and convoluted that you just want the whole thing to stop.
All in all I won't read it again as I am not fan of books that make me sad or depressed but the author had accomplished what she had set out to do; that is make a good mystery thriller which keeps people guessing till the end.

Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts about what you felt about the book and also suggest any new books whose reviews you would be interested in reading. If I have read the book I would try my best to post reviews of the book, even if its as new as published last month.