Fearless Fourteen- Janet Evanovich (book Review)

Fearless Fourteen- Janet Evanovich

*Book Jacket Review*
Stephanie’s latest skip is Loretta Rizzi, a stressed out single mom who recently help up a liquor store- “I needed a Tom Collins.”- and who just happens to be a cousin of Joe Morelli. Seems trouble runs in the family: Joe’s other cousin Dom- robs banks for a living. His latest take: 9 million dollars stashed… Well, your not the only one who wants to know.
Loretta’s on the lam, and she only agrees to be brought in on one condition: that Stephanie pick up her son, Mario (street name: Zook) from school while Loretta gets bonded out. Plum luck being what it is, Loretta doesn’t get the bond. And now Stephanie’s playing nanny to a 14-year-old tough guy she can neither shoot nor shake down.
Meanwhile, less than a week after Dom gets out of the slammer, shadowy figures are breaking into Joe Morelli’s house. Plus, he’s getting threatening messages-and now Dom’s gone missing. On top of all that security expert Carlos Manoso- a.k.a Ranger-has a job for Stephanie that will involve nightmare night work: babysitting an aging rock diva who eats bodyguards for breakfast!
And you thought YOU had it bad>
Bottom line: Only the fearless should read Fourteen.

*My Review*
Loretta Rizzi, a single mom holds up a liquor store just for a bottle of vodka, so that she may make her a Tom Collins. Now she’s in deep trouble because she has skipped bail, and the only way she will agree to be taken back to jail- Stephanie has to be there for her son. Stephanie’s luck lands her in the middle of a babysitting job (make that TWO) and she isn’t sure which one is worse.

Janet Evanovich- To The Nines (Book Review)

Janet Evanovich- To The Nines
A Stephanie Plum Novel

*Book Jacket Review*
Stephanie Plum has rent to pay, people shooting at her, and psychos wanting her dead every day of the week (much to the dismay of her mother, her family, the men in her life, the guy who slices meat at the deli…oh, the list goes on. An ordinary person would cave under the pressure.
But hey, she’s from Jersey.

Stephanie Plum may not be the best bounty hunter in beautiful downtown Trenton, but she’s pretty darn good at turning bad situations her way…and she always gets her man. In To The Nines, her cousin Vinnie (who’s her boss) has poste bail on Samuel Singh, an illegal immigrant. When the elusive Mr. Singh goes missing, Stephanie is on the case. But what she uncovers is far more sinister than anyone imagines and leads to a group of killers who give new meaning to the word hunter.

In a race against time that takes her from the Jersey turnpike to the Las Vegas strip, Stephanie Plum is on the chase of her life. The unforgettable characters, nonstop action, high-stakes suspense and sheer entertainment of To The Nines define Janet Evanovich as unique among today’s writers.

*My Review*
This is a very well written book that keeps you so embraced in the words that I actually read it in about 2 ½ hours, because I couldn’t do anything but keep reading.

Until this book, I hadn’t had the privilege to read ANY book by Janet Evanovich. Now that I have, I want to read them all. She is a wonderful author, with an amazing way with words. She has so clearly made her characters lifelike and plot and characters are very well detailed.

Stephanie, the bounty hunter is trying to find Samuel Singh (an illegal immigrant in Trenton on a Visa) before her cousin Vinnie has a heart attack (he bailed Samuel Singh out) and now he is nowhere to be found. What Stephanie hopes to find is far from what she DOES actually find. Far more trouble than she realized it would be. She thinks for awhile that she is on a goose chase. If Vinnie and Stephanie don’t have Singh in custody before the hearing, both of them may very well be out of jobs. While questioning the whereabouts of Singh, Stephanie finds herself in a situations she couldn’t have even dreamed up.

I’m not one for spoiling, so I’m going to leave it at that. Amazing book, unforgettable characters, and fantastic plot. You have to read it yourself.


- Jess

V.C. Andrews- Flowers in the Attic (Book Review)

V.C. Andrews- Flowers in the Attic
The horror begins with…
Flowers in the Attic.

Righteous Anger…
Innocent Fear…
Because the grandmother’s wrath has not yet materialized, Chris and I had grown careless. We were not always modest in the bedroom. It was difficult to live, day in, day out, and always keep the intimate places of our bodies secret from the other sex.

And to be perfectly honest, none of us cared very much who saw what.
We should have cared…
We should have been careful…
We should have kept the memory of momma’s bloody welted back sharply before us, and never, never, have forgotten. A key turned in the door lock, swiftly I tried to put the dress over my head and pull it down before she came in. But she had seen me naked; it was those glittering gray stone eyes.
“So!” the grandmother spat, “I have caught you at last…Sinners! You think you look pretty? You think those new young curves are attractive? You like that long golden hair that you brush and curl?”
She smiled then.
The most frightening smile I ever saw..
This is the extraordinary novel that has captured millions in its spell! All across America and around the world, millions of readers have been captivated by this strange, dark, terrifying tale of passion and peril in the lives of four innocent children, locked away from the world by a selfish mother.

FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC is the novel that launched the extraordinary career of V.C. Andrews, winning her an immediate and fiercely devoted worldwide following; today there are more than 58 million copies of her books in print.

My Review
Christoper-
Cathy-
Carrie-
Cory-
These are the main characters, they are all children. Chris is the eldest at 15, then Cathy who is twelve, ad the twins are five. The story begins with them living with both parents, their lives are very happy. Although they aren’t rich, they aren’t poor either. They know love and caring, as well as nourishment and delight.
Their daddy, Christopher Sr., was a P.R. man for a large computer manufacturing company. He was a huge success and they were living well=being middle-class citizens.
Their mother was a stay-at-home mom. Everything seemed to be going well, until their daddy didn’t show up for his own birthday party. They were thinking he was just held up in traffic. Three hours after the dinner was supposed to start, there was a knock at the door. A policeman gave the bad news that their fateher had been in a terrible accident and he didn’t survive. Their mother had no way to keep the bills paid on their house and car.
The kids knew she was writing her parents to ask for forgiveness, but they had never heard her speak of them when their dad was alive. She wanted to be able to move back in with them because she couldn’t financially take care of all four kids with no job and no experience. When the story unfolds the kids learn that their mother had come from a very rich family and had been disinherited. The grandmother agrees to let her and the kids come live with them. The mother explains to her children, that until now, the grandmother didn’t know about them.
She promises that she can get her father (who is on his deathbed) to re-write her into his will. So staying with them would only be temporary until she can leave with a vast amount of money and they would be rich. They end up being locked in a room off an old wing of the huge house that isn’t used anymore. Their mother promises to them that they won’t be in the room for long. She promises to buy them thing to keep them occupied, such as games and toys, until she can win back her father’s love and affection.
They hate their grandmother and she hates them right back, calling them “devil’s spawn”. They don’t know what she means by this until their mother explains that their father was also their half uncle, and that’s the reason she had been disinherited. A week turns into months, which turns into years of them not being able to go outside and see other people. They turn pale and sickly and begin to lose weight.
Their affections for each other turn from innocent into thriving curiosity. They end up sleeping together when her brother turns aggressive because he can’t express himself as a man and she feels like she caused him to feel this way when she wore short skirts and clinging nightgowns in front of him.
The twins end up hating their mother and turning against her and start seeing their big sister as their mother because she is the one who takes care of them. The story unravels and they find themselves sickly and wanting out after 3 years of imprisonment. Chris, the brother, makes a key imprint when their mother leaves the key laying around, and they sneak in her room and pocket all the money they can get their hands on without being noticed. She thinks the maids are stealing from her, while they are collecting money for their escape.
The twin boy Cory, ends up getting extremely sick and dying. Their mother didn’t even want to take him to the hospital for fear of them being found out. She finally agrees to, although the other kids soon realize that she is lying to them. Cory dies, and although she says it’s pneumonia, they think he has been poisoned. They take Cory’s pet mouse, and start experimenting with him, giving him bites of the powered sugar donuts that the grandmother brings them each morning.
They finally realize that their mother has lied to them the entire time they have been held in captivation. They realize that she has had a new love, and she didn’t even tell him about them. The grandfather has been dead for awhile, and she never said anything. Why would she betray her own children this way? They realize that they can’t depend on their low-life money hungry mother to help them. They have to depend on each other or they will die in captivation. They find out that her love for money, exceeds the love that she has for them.
This is a must read book. It captivated me, drawing me in and kept me turning pages until I was done with it. Makes you hate their mother for being so rude and disregarding to her own children, while they suffer- locked away, dying for her affection and love. V.C. Andrews is a very good writing. Spinning an unbelievable awesome web, that leaves you wanting more of her words. She knows how to write a story, her characters are well developed, her plot so terribly frightening and words that bring you to your knees.

♥Jess

Janet Evanovich-Ten Big Ones (Book Review)

Janet Evanovich-Ten Big Ones
A Stephanie Plum Novel

*Book Jacket Review*

She’s accidentally destroyed a dozen cars. She’s a target for every psycho and miscreant this side of the Jersey Turnpike. Her mother’s convinced she’ll end up dead…or worse, without a man. She’s Stephanie Plum, and she kicks butt for a living (well, she thinks it sounds good to put it that way…)

It begins as an innocent trip to the deli-mart, on a quest for nachos. But Stephanie Plum and her partner Lulu, are clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time. A robbery leads to an explosion, which leads to the destruction of yet another car. It would just be another day in the life of Stephanie Plum, except that she becomes the target of a gang-and of an even scarier, more dangerous force that comes to Trenton. With super-bounty hunter Ranger acting more mysteriously than ever (and the tension with vice cop Joe Morelli getting hotter), She finds herself with a decision to make. How to protect herself and where to hide while on the hunt for a killer known as junkman. There’s only one safe place and it has Ranger’s name all over it.-if she can find it. And Junkman doesn’t find her first. With Lulu riding shotgun and Grandma Mazur on the loose, Stephanie Plum is racing against the clock in her most suspenseful novel yet. Ten Big Ones is page-turning entertainment, and Janet Evanovich is the best there is.

*My Review*
This is the second Stephanie Plum novel I’ve read by Janet Evanovich.
I have to say-She’s drawn me in with her witty, kick-ass characters. Stephanie’s the chick you wanted to be when you grew up. Outspoken yet caring, and the need to be unlike most. Most women would be happy to stay at home and let their husbands make the money, but not Stephanie. When she is at home she walks in circles trying to figure out a way to get around the overprotective Joe Morelli. She’s adventurous and is willing to put her life on the line to get the criminals off the streets. Stephanie’s partner Lulu, the big black lady who loves to eat and where her spandex a little too tight brings insight and humor to the story. Ranger and his bad-boy attitude, and unlimited cars and bodyguards for Stephanie. Joe Morelli and his charming good looks and his almost humorous ways he tries to protect Stephanie.
Janet Evanovich is an excellent novelist. She knows how to pull it all together. Crime-fighting, humor, romance, and all….She is now one of my favorite authors and her other books are on my “to-read” list…

-Jess

CampusBookRentals.com Review

When your in college, life can be expensive. Tuition seems over the moon to what it used to be back years ago. As a mom of 2 young kids, I hate to see what it's going to be like when they're ready to head off on their ambitions for their future. You need to have a budget, and try and save as much money as you can. Instead of buying college books that you may never use again after your class is through, you could rent them. YES, I said rent them. campusbookrentals.com offers free shipping both ways This is an amazing offer, considering paying weight shipping on a textbook could be mighty expensive. Way more than you actually think it should be. They have live customer support, so if you need help, you have it without having to play email tag back and forth. You can search for books by ISBN, Title, Keywords, or Author. They have flexible renting periods with the largest selection of books in the nation. They also buy books, so if you have any left over and not in use, you could sell them to campusbookrentals.com so that someone else could use it. You can write or highlight in these rental books as long as you don't make it excessive, writing in every open space and highlighting every words. Just keep it to a minimum, and you can use it as your own. How cool is that? CampusBookRentals.com also work with Operation Smile.. campusbookrentals.com supports The children of Operation Smile We're ecstatic to announce our 2011 Making a Difference Program. We have officially teamed up with Operation Smile, an out of this world, awesome organization, that performs life changing cleft lip surgeries on children whose families could not otherwise afford it. The long term Improvement in quality of life for the children that receive these surgeries is almost incomprehensible. We have committed to donating enough to cover a minimum of 1,000 life changing surgeries. We hope To beat that number, but it's a significant commitment. So for EVERY book rented starting now, we will donate a portion of those proceeds to Operation Smile with our sights set on meeting and exceeding our goal of 1,000 lives changed. So add that extra book to your cart, and consider this goal as you go back to school this year. Thank you for your support. So not only are you saving money, you are also helping out someone in need. They donate a part of your renting fee to help these children, and it does make a giant significance in their lives.So if you are in college, thinking about going to college, or know someone in college--> send them in the right direction Love, Jess