Stephenie Meyer - Breaking Dawn (Twilight Series, Book 4) (Spoiler included)

When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give, how could you not give it? If it was someone you truly loved?

To be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare woven into a dangerously heightened reality for Bella Swan. Pulled in one direction by her intense passion for Edward Cullen, and in another by her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black, a tumultuous year of temptation, loss, and strife have led her to the ultimate turning point. Her imminent choice to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or to pursue a fully human life has become the thread from which the fates of two tribes hangs.

Now that Bella has made her decision, a startling chain of unprecedented events is about to unfold with potentially devastating, and unfathomable, consequences. Just when the frayed strands of Bella's life-first discovered in Twilight, then scattered and torn in New Moon and Eclipse-seem ready to heal and knit together, could they be destroyed... forever?

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The fourth and last installment in the Twilight series concludes the whole series with Bella finally giving in to marry Edward and her getting pregnant on their honeymoon, But what wasn't known to be possible happened and Bella bears a half human, half vampire girl she names Renesmee. Bella is also changed into what she chose to be: a vampire.

But these changes affect not only the Cullens' and Bella's family, it also affects the wolves pack, especially Jacob. Other threads involve themselves as well.

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Breaking Dawn with its 700+ pages was a piece to read, especially at parts that were just too long and made me wonder how the capability of writing page after page with the same over and over again just using different words is called. There were parts that I think are excruciating to read just because they don't seem to end, like f. e. Bella's pregnancy. Although she got the child in a manner of a few weeks it felt much longer for the reader to get through that part.

Surprisingly I liked the part from Jacob's view. A style that wasn't used by Meyer in the previous three books.

I didn't like the fact that our Bella got everything she wanted. No sacrifices at all, besides as a vampire she lost all her "bad" characteristics. No problems at all. That certainly helped finding the book exciting.
The Renesmee - Jacob relationship made me choke. Seriously ?

To end this painfully, most certainly spoiling review, I'd like to end that if Meyer would have read Wuthering Heights she'd never have used such an ending. Why she felt the need to mention Wuthering Heights more than once in her books is not understandable to me.

In the end there was no drama. All is well, happily ever after - no.
This particular way of writing a conclusion so many people waited for shatters dreams. Not mine but others I now have to feel bad for.

Rating:
Visit Stephenie Meyer.

Stephenie Meyer - Eclipse (Twilight Series, Book 3)

As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself in the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob - knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: Life or death.
But which is which ?

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Bella and Edward move on with their relationship with Bella desperately missing her friend Jacob who keeps away from her since she decided to stay together with vampire Edward. Edward, strictly against a friendship warns her that werewolves aren't predictable and tries to occupy her with his sister Alice or himself to keep her away from La Push, the wolves reservoir.
But sooner or later he has to learn that Jacob's friendship means a lot to Bella, enough to run away from his watchful eyes. He knows that sooner or later Bella has to decide between the human love she feels for Jacob and his and wants her to decide for herself.

When Seattle is raided by a group of young vampires, Bella once again is the target of Victoria's revenge. To win this war the Cullens' have to built an alliance with the wolves pack to fight the group that will come to Forks.

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I don't quite know what to think of this third installment. Bella has her issues with becoming immortal, she has her issues to give up the human qualities Jacob could offer her. The author most definitely went overboard with the whole love triangle thing and certain parts didn't make sense to me at all. But then, I've never been like Bella, who is still the most dependent person in the world, now needing two men to "survive".
Edward seems to have matured a bit by allowing Bella to keep her friendship and decide for herself but still the whole situation is annoying. As a mother I'd probably throw a fit over it.

So top or flop, I wouldn't know and can't decide if I liked it or not. The book didn't offer much substance to me which I expected but overall, it was an ok read to pass the time.
I'm still interested how the story ends and have already picked up the last book to finish the series and get it out of the way.

I refuse to draw any conclusions to the secret fantasies the author might have. Won't do that. No no no.

Rating:
Visit Stephenie Meyer.

Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 640 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers; Reprint edition (August 4, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316027650
ISBN-13: 978-0316027656

Brian Freeman - Immoral (Jonathan Stride Series, Book 1)

Lieutnant Jonathan Stride is suffering from an ugly case of déjà-vu. For the second time in a year, a beautiful teenage girl has disappeared off the streets of Dultuh, Minnesota - gone without a trace, like a bitter gust off Lake Superior. The two victims couldn't be more different.
First it was Kerry McGrath, bubbly, sweet sixteen, and now, Rachel Deese, strange, sexually charged, a wild child.
The media hound Stride to catch a serial killer, and as the search carries him from the icy stillness of the northern woods to the erotic heat of Las vegas, he must decide which facts are real and which are illusions. Stride also finds his own life changed forever by the secrets he uncovered. Secrets that stretch across time in a web of lies, death, and illicit desire. Secrets that are chillingly ... immoral.

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In a time span of one year two young girls have been vanished without a trace. Pressured by public and media, Lieutenant Jonathan Stride and his partner Maggie Bei tried to solve the disappearance of Kerry McGrath in vain and face the same situation again.
But when rumors surface about Rachel's stepfather abusing his stepdaughter, the police digs into the families life, exposing evidence that that the stepfather might have killed Rachel.
Police and the District Attorney agree, that they can reach a conviction for murder without having the body.

The case seems to be solved but three years later when a body is found in the desert of Las Vegas, the past catches up with a restless Stride who never forgot the Rachel Deese case.

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Immoral is an o.k. read that won't bore you but neither will it wow you. I am certain there are a lot of readers that like the whole story but I couldn't find much that appealed to my taste.
The solution to the whole story is rather simply to guess otherwise other parts of the story wouldn't make sense at all. I was only waiting for my assumptions to be confirmed - which I was.

There is lots Mr. Freeman has to work on and probably already did in the following three novels already published.
I'll probably pick up the second book in the series soon just to figure out if things have changed. The Jonathan Stride character development in the end left room for hope and more. :-)

Rating:
Visit Brian Freeman.

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur; 1ST edition (August 25, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312340427
ISBN-13: 978-0312340421

Sabine Thiesler - Hexenkind

In an old, lonely and remote farmhouse in the midst of the Tuscany, a mushroom collector finds a horribly mutilated body: Sarah, the German wife of restaurant owner Romano, throat has been cut through.

This brutal killing is only the beginning of the doom that began years ago in Germany, and now reaching into the future to take it's hold over a whole family until it reaches a final, most gruesome ending.

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Romano Simonetti worked in an Italian restaurant in Germany when the battered and abused Sarah stood in his doorway, holding a crying infant in her arms. A friendship developed soon and they fled to Italy to open Romano's dream: a small restaurant.
They marry, they become children but you can not hide from your past.

Sarah's passion for other men, a mentally disabled son, an intelligent daughter with jealousy issues, a mean mother in law, and the daughters father are a mean mixture made to explode sooner or later.

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The book begins with the discovery of Sarah's dead body by one of her former affairs and her husband learning that his wife has been killed. From there on we learn about Sarah and her family through flashbacks placed very nicely. Actually the whole book is more flashbacks than "real time". The reader learns how the family developed and how the disaster was built brick by brick by the victim.

Whatever it was I felt like a bystander watching a families doom slowly develop in front of my eyes. I saw through Sarah's and Romano's eyes. I saw through the eyes of daughter Elsa and those of the abusive ex-boyfriend from Germany.

All in all you won't get a real thriller, nor will you get a family saga. There will be things you will be able to predict, but there will also be things that surprise you.

I for myself couldn't put the book down and loved it from the beginning to the end.

Sabine Thiesler is a German author, who's novels unfortunately haven't been translated yet. Her first novel, Der Kindersammler was a major success. Hexenkind, different but unique in it's own can add to that. Her third novel Die Totengraeberin was published in the beginning of 2009 and I won't wait much longer to pick it up.

Let's hope at some point they are going to translate the books. It really would add to the international list of very good writers.

Rating:

Paperback: 580 pages
Publisher: Heyne Paperback (October 1, 2007)
Language: German
ISBN-10: 3453432746
ISBN-13: 978-3453432741

Robin Cook - Intervention

It's been more than thirty years since New York City medical examiner Jack Stapleton's college graduation and almost as long since he'd been in touch with former classmates Shawn Doherty and Kevin Murray. Once a highly regarded ophthalmologist, Jack's career took a dramatic turn after a tragic accident that destroyed his family. But that, too, is very much in the past: Jack has remarried - to longtime colleague and fellow medical examiner Laurie Montgomery - and is the father of a young child. But his renegade, activist personality can't rest, and after performing a postmortem on a young college student who had recently been treated by a chiropractor, Jack decides to explore alternative medicine. What makes some people step outside the medical establishment to seek care from practitioners of Eastern philosophies and even faith healers?

Jack's classmate Shawn Doherty is now a renowned archaeologist and biblical scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose taste for good wine and generally deteriorating health are taking a toll on his career. He has recently obtained permission for a final dig beneath Saint Peter's, and despite his long-standing grudge against the Catholic Church, begins his research - which eventually takes him to Jerusalem and Venice - only to make a startling discovery with ecclesiastical and medical implications. And when Kevin Murray, now Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, gets wind of Shawn's findings, he's desperate to keep them from the public. Kevin has strong political ambitions within the Church, but his association with Shawn threatens to undermine them. Kevin turns to his old friend Jack to help protect an explosive secret - one with the power to change lives forever.

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I've always been intrigued to try one of Robin Cook's novels and decided Intervention might as well be the first one. The audio book unabridged audio edition lasted
11 h and 6 long minutes in which I was tempted to just leave it be and listen to another audio book. The plot, strongly reminding of Dan Brown, is intriguing but unfortunately neither the revelation of bones that possibly belonged to the virgin Mary, nor the sparsely detailed research in it's mitochondrial DNA, nor the critis into alternative medicine took a hold of me.
Truly, Cook's way of writing seems very fluent after almost 30 published novels.

The narrator's voice was an ok voice, less memorable than those I am used to but in the end it suffices the purpose. Obviously Intervention isn't a book written for newcomers to Robin Cook. Probably the reason I longer feel tempted to try one of his books.

Rating:
Visit Robin Cook.

Audio CD
Publisher: Penguin Audio; Unabridged edition (August 11, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 014314457X
ISBN-13: 978-0143144571

Jeff Carlson - Plague Year

The nanotechnology was designed to fight cancer. Instead, it evolved into the machine plague, killing nearly five billion people and changing life on Earth forever.

The nanotech has one weakness: it self-destructs at altitudes above ten thousand feet. Those few who've managed to escape struggle to stay alive on the highest mountains, but time is running out. There is famine and war, and the environment is crashing worldwide. Humanity's last hope lies with a top nanotech researcher aboard the International Space Station-and with a small group of survivors in California who risk a daring journey below the death line.

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As much as I tried the book felt like a flatliner. Having read a tad more than the first third I was hoping for some more sci-fi details and much more excitement. Instead I got the story of some survivors who live above the surviving altitude of nanoprobes which have turned badly against humanity, eating them from the inside out.
A few of the survivors make their way to another camp where they are obviously needed, as a barely surviving visitor told them. He promised them food and shelter and most of all safety.
I never read to the point if he spoke the truth or not.

Sounds interesting but believe me, the story develops flatter than a pancake.

Plague Year is the first in a series of three (Plague War, Jul. 2008, and Plague Zone, Nov. 2009).

Rating:
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Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Ace; First Printing edition (July 31, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 044101514X
ISBN-13: 978-0441015146

Barbara Delisnky - Finger Prints

Once upon a time she was Robyn Hart, a journalist who saw too much and wasn't afraid to expose it. But that courage nearly cost Robyn her life. Under the protection of the Witness Relocation program, she now has a new identity -- Carly -- and a new job. But the terror of the past still lingers, and Carly lives in fear that her enemies will find her.

Though she tries to wall herself off from the world, one determined man breaks through her defenses -- successful young attorney Ryan Cornell. And though she yearns to give him her heart, Carly doesn’t know if she can. While loving him offers a happiness she thought she'd forever lost, trusting him could cost her everything.

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Carly Quinn left her old life months ago to finally enter the witness relocation program 4 months ago. Having survived an attack on her life in a dark alley she fears for her life and lives a secluded life as a teacher when attractive lawyer Ryan Cornell moves into her building. She desperately tries to keep to herself but falls for his charm and persistence to come into her life. Not without the reassurance of her friend and person responsible for her protection, Sam Loomis, she gives in to Ryan and their relationship grows.

Things become difficult for Carly when the man she brought to jail files motion for a new trial and she might be called back to the witness stand. On top of that Gary Culbert seems quite assured he might be acquitted.
Then there is Sheila, whom Carly got to know before the huge trial. Sheila was responsible for Carly's security and they developed a deep friendship. But since Sheila moved to Cambridge she seems distracted to the dismay of her new boss Sam. Loomis.

Ultimately Carly's is going to be betrayed by a person she loves.

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Finger Prints was first published in 1984 and seems to be one of Delinsky's earlier novels. I couldn't quite figure out if or under what title the book was published before it got named Finger Prints. Today the author seems to no longer like to be associated with her pseudonyms Bonnie Drake or Billie Douglass. Fact is some of her older novels written under her pseudonyms are republished under the name Barbara Delinsky.

Coming to the book I believe it flopped. The writing style is very fluent and easy to read but the plot itself was too much romance, too little suspense. It was pretty clear in which direction the book is going from the beginning and besides all of the romance I was just waiting for something suspenseful to happen.
I'm not excited about the book but it wasn't too bad either. Just reading time I could have spent on something more interesting or a book whose cover description matches the plot.

Rating:
Visit Barbara Delisnky.

Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: HarperTorch (April 1, 1992)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061041807
ISBN-13: 978-0061041808