My June and July Book Reviews!

These are all the books I've read outside of our monthly books during June and July.

I've never been a fan of Nora Roberts. My mom is a HUGE fan of hers and she's always trying and trying to get me to read her books, but everytime I've tried, I just couldn't get into them.

I think it's because the books of hers that I've tried out were strictly romance novels and I'm not much of a romance novel girl. I like when the books I read have romance IN THEM, but not when that's the sole focus of the book.

Anyway, this book, THE SEARCH, was soooo good! I could hardly put it down. Not only is the story completely engrossing, but her character development is awesome.

And this book was also so interesting because it was about a woman whose profession is training dogs to be search and rescue dogs and she leads search and rescue teams looking for missing people. And it had a little bit of a love story entertwined and a HUGE amount of mystery, which is where my heart lies. :)

Because of this book, I now can't WAIT to read another Nora Roberts mystery novel.

You guys should know by now that I'm a huge James Patterson fan. Some people take issue with his short chapters and stories that move at lightning speed, but I love them. They never disappoint in being true nail biters and I especially love to read one of his books after I've just read a book that had excruciatingly LONG chapters and a million words per chapter with tiny writing on the page. LOL... his books are the complete opposite of that.

This one, The 9th Judgment, was really good, but it's the kind that can really turn your stomach as well. Not because it's super gory, because it wasn't that at all, but this one was about a killer in San Fransisco whose targets are always women and their children.

I knew that that particular subject matter would both draw me to the book out of pure fascination and also make me want to throw it on the ground and stomp it to death everytime a sweet mother and her baby were MURDERED.

The good thing is that the murders were NEVER detailed. I think the writers did it that way because of the extremely sensitive subject matter.

Anyway, if you like a good, fast paced mystery, read it, you'll like it! :)

Well, looky there, another Patterson (along with the next two!!).

I have about a million unread (not really, but close) books in my house, but I can't hardly bare for any of them to be James Patterson books. You know he cranks out about 4-6 new books a year and I am an avid collector of his books, so no matter how many unread books I have, his always have top priority in my house.

This one was great, but different. It was different because they never really named the killer! So odd. But it was a fantastic story and I have a feeling this one will have a sequel in the future because of the fact of not naming the killer. One thing that really got me about this story was the fact that I could really see some psycho path doing something like this. This one was actually, though, about a GROUP of psychos. The killer in this book kidnapped famous people and then videoed the murders for this group of super rich people located all over the world just for their watching pleasure.

It was different, but good.

When the Wind Blows.... I was honestly a little hesitant to read this one, because it has a bit of fantasy involved, but in the end I gave in and read it and boy am I glad I did! This one is my favorite Patterson book. Favorite. Ugh. I want to read it again just thinking about it.

I don't want to give too much away, but this book is the beginning of a whole slew of his books in the Maximum Ride series.

The basis is that there are a group of scientists who manufacture children who have avian dna.

They can fly.

It's awesome.

Read it. :)

I'm reading The Lake House right now. It's the sequel to When the Wind Blows. I'll be finishing it up sometime today. I really like it a lot, can't wait to see where it ends up...

Nantucket Nights... I liked it. It was not my favorite Hilderbrand book. I almost quit it, but I'm so glad I didn't.

It's one of those books that just takes a little bit to get into, but once it started going, it was really, really a good story.

Thanks Heather, for convincing me to keep going. ;)

Castaways... I was told by someone... Heather, was it you?... that this is the book that put Elin Hilderbrand on the map.

I have to say I am surprised by that. I liked this book, but A Summer Affair was sooooo much better and that one was written one year BEFORE this one, so I'm kind of confused by that.

Castaways was a major mystery. It's about a group of 8 friends, 4 couples, and all of them have history together. They've been friends a really long time and have major, major drama that has played out between them and will play out between them.

In the beginning of this story, one of the couples dies and the whole story is focused on trying to figure out exactly what happened because there are a ton of mysterious circumstances. Each chapter is told by a different member of their group, so you really get to know each character intimately.

And really, I would highly recommend this book, it was a great story. I think what disappointed me was that the story was not what I thought it was going to be about. I thought the couple who died were really going to be found as "castaways" on an island. But that is not it at all! Instead, the book is called The Castaways because that was the nickname of their "group". Anyway, it's great, and I would read it again.

I know I just went through those really fast, but that was a lot of typing and remembering to do all at one time! ;)

Can't wait to see what you guys end up recommending for our August read! Try to get your recommendations in by tomorrow midnight if you can!