Book 40-Trapped by J.A. Konrath & Jack Kilborn

Wow...what can I say. This book is AMAZING! And no, I'm not being biased, even though Jack Kilborn is one of my favorite authors....I will say it again the book is AMAZING!

So after being told by Joe Konrath on my blog (which I am still totally tickled about) that his books are available on Kobo format, I rushed to smashwords.com and got all of the books available by him. I am not disapointed with my purchases.

Trapped starts with a husband and wife taking 6 of their wards on a camping trip. Martin and Sara, two psychologists, are the owners of a Center for kids that have had run ins with the law. 3 days of camping on an island in the middle of Lake Huron. What a time to bond, grow...and bleed.

They establish camp and Martin tells a scary campfire story about soldiers that were held in a confederate prison during the civil war on an island "such as this one". These prisoners were mistreated, malnourished and eventually went crazy and resorted to cannibalism to survive.

When Martin gets "pulled" into the woods by something, everyone thinks it's a joke, but Martin doesn't return.... Sara decides to set out after him, figuring her husband is just being a jerk. Little does she know the night is going to turn ugly, pretty damn fast.

The novel Trapped is like a roller coaster ride of horror. Joe/Jack brings to life the words when he is describing things such as the gridiron. Some of the scenes in this book actually made MY skin crawl...and believe me that is tough to do.

The only thing I was disappointed with, was that I had the big "DUN_DUN" (wow that was nicely figurative wasn't it???) moment figured out about halfway through the book. But I think that's more my fault, for being the horror junkie I am...I kind of expect things like that.

In the afterword of the book it states there is the original copy of Trapped the way Jack wanted it, is included. There's more gore, more sex...you know all the stuff that makes a good horror story. I'm not sure how much more gore you can put in this book, but hey, look who your talking to...I am all for it!

I tried to start reading the uncut version, but found myself skimming over parts, thinking I've read this before...so I'm going to read something else and then get back to it. With a new "reading palate".

One last thing...I am not a camper...I don't like camping at all...but the thought has crossed my mind to go as of late. After reading this book all I have to say is: No freaking way! I will not be in the woods anywhere for the rest of my life...sure as hell not on an island. So Dawn...no camping EVER for me. You never know what may be in the woods around you...

Till next time!

Book 39-Shiver by Maggie Stievater

It's official! I am an ereader lover! I really didn't think I would enjoy reading on the Kobo, but being able to access a ton of books at the click of my mouse has turned me into a reading addict again! I love it!

So book 39 was Shiver a YA novel that really didn't interest me when I first started it, it seemed kind of empty, and as I said earlier it's like Twilight with fur....but hang on, the story gets so much better then yes, even Twilight.

Grace is a high school student, doing high school things. She is happy, independent, and struggles with the memory of when she was almost killed by a pack of wolves at the age of 11....but the thought of the one wolf in the pack that "saved" her, is stuck in her thoughts. She remembers the eyes, so yellow and beautiful. Then she meets Sam, an 18 year old boy whose yellow eyes seem very familiar...

As I said, Shiver didn't capture me right from the beginning. The book seemed kind of hollow, and unfeeling. You don't really get to "feel" how Grace deals with her feelings, both for and against the wolf pack in her area. She loves them, but yet fears them as well. But as the book progresses, Grace meets Sam, you learn more about Sam's own hardships and how it brings the two of them together it seems to open like a new bud into a beautiful rose (Ugh, where is this coming from?!?! To much love story BS for me!).

I loved the character of Sam, he reminded of a "Damon" with yellow eyes (Vampire Diaries watchers will know who I'm talking about) :) All the more reason to read the book!

Stick with this one...in the end it will please your reading appetite. I so want to go and get Linger...the next book in the series! BUT!!! first is Trapped by J.A Konrath & Jack Kilborn. I need some blood and terror to get me back to myself...no more talking about flowers. GACK!

Thank you so much Joe for telling me about smashwords.com! You've made me happier then my husband ever has! LOL!!! Just kidding...but it's pretty close! ;)

Till next time!

Book 38: Bell Hollow Ghost Hunters Files

Well I've done it...something I said I would never do....I bought an e-reader. I don't know if I should feel happy or ashamed. :) As a book FANATIC it took me quite a while to actually decide if I wanted one...the push to get one was that one of my favorite authors (J.A Konrath/Jack Kilborn) has decided he is going to be publishing most of his new books on ebook. Thus the decision was made.

So here I am trying to decide which one to get, Kindle, Kobo, or a Sony eReader. After checking all the specs and what they offer, I decided on the Kobo. Comparing all the ereaders wasn't all that hard, each one has it's benefits and it's drawbacks. For instance, the Kindle has 2 gigs of memory where you can store approximately 1500 books. On the other hand the Kobo has only 1 gig of memory which stores approximately 1000 books (the math doesn't quite add up there huh??) , but they do allow you to insert an SD card where you can increase the memory up to five gigs. The Sony E-reader comes with 1 gig, and is not expandable.

The Kobo does not have Wi-Fi capabilities, where the Kindle does. Now, I could understand the concern if I wanted to surf the net or send messages with my e-reader...but I only want to read a book...so that wasn't a huge deal for me.

Included books??? Kindle-no, Sony e-reader-no, Kobo-yes. The Kobo comes with 100 classic novels already installed on it. Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Canterbury Tales etc. etc. This was a nice bonus as I have been wanting to read these books for quite some time, but never got around to it. The screen on the Kobo is 6" diagonally, and is not back lit. The Kindle is the same size, while the Sony is like 5" and you can't change the size of the display.

Functionality of the Kobo is a bit clunky, no bells and whistles on it. You open the book and push a button to turn the page...taadaa the end. I can't tell you about the Kindle or Sony E-reader as I couldn't get my hands on one to check it out. The Kobo is a bit slow loading and changing pages but hey...I'm not running a race, I'm reading a book.

Ok the first book I read on the Kobo was Bell Hollow: Ghost Hunter Files. This is the story of the haunting of a home in the Bell Hollow district of Nashville. When I first started reading the story I felt totally strange, holding this light little slab, and not worrying about breaking the books spine, or ripping the cover. Definitely a change for me.

The book is touted as a "true story" but I think 75% of it is total BS. Half of the "information" given in the book I believe is fictional, and honestly there is really no way to determine what happened to a single man living in a lean-too in the middle of the woods in 1750! I mean really...Anyway... look past all the stuff you think is crap and it is a decent book.

Oh! I have discovered that a lot of the ebooks don't have a spell checker looking them over. One line in this book stated "Jared poured creamed in his coffee" now I must confess grammatical/spelling errors in books DRIVES ME NUTS!!! Seriously spend some money and have someone read the book over for these things! Hell, I'll do it for FREE! UGH.

Anyway...all in all I love the Kobo, it does what I want it to, and the book selection isn't half bad.
Now I'm just rooting for Mr. Kilborn to hustle and get his books on Kobo!

Book 37 The Rising by Brian Keene

Just to give you all a head warning...this blog entry is going to turn into a bit of a rant.

Brain Keene's book The Rising was a great story of another zombie apocalypse. With lots of blood, innards, and just all out violence...along with the living struggling to survive, and the zombies driving cars, firing guns and launching coordinated efforts to wipe out the living. Wait?!?! WTF?? Intelligent zombies?? Yes...they are in this book..

The Rising starts with Jim who is stranded in an underground bunker (constructed by himself for Y2K) he is deciding what he should do....should he shoot himself or should he come out of the bunker and join the zombie denizens. Which one of them, is his pregnant second wife. Suddenly Jim's cell phone goes off, he picks it up and hears his son (from his first marriage) asking him to come and save him. " I love you to infinity Daddy" Danny says and then the phone goes dead.

Jim sets out to save his son. Along the way he befriends, Martin a preacher, Frankie a former heroin addict, and Baker a scientist that worked for the company that they figure created the zombies. Which would make sense in a "The Stand" kind of flashback, but alas...it is not to be.

Instead, the zombies are created by an "unseen force" that takes over the dead body. These zombies are intelligent, calculating, and crack one liners. To me that is not a zombie. Zombies are brainless eating machines with nothing to do besides groan, walk and chew. Don't you all just start hearing the famous line "Braaaaaiiiiinnnnnnsss!" But I digress...

Anyway so my major complaint is that this book took on a science fiction type of aspect, with some "thing" taking over the dead people's bodies, (and animal bodies, did I mention that?? Lions tigers and bears plotting against us! Yup...your reading right) kind of like an alien possession?? Folks the beings from another planet aren't just abducting you...they now live in your body! Well, what's left of it...

Other than that, the book was enjoyable. I pushed through the absurdity of zombies being able to drive, fire weapons etc. and discovered I actually enjoyed the book. I may bitch about the "mensa zombie group" , but Brian weaved that aspect in quite well with the horror and made the book really entertaining. I give it two thumbs, a femur, and a decapitated head up!

Sorry...I think I've been reading to much zombie fiction. :)

Rooting around looking for my next book to read...maybe I'll go dig something up ;)

Book 36-Endurance by Jack Kilborn

Ok now I have to admit I was very upset when I found out Jack Kilborn was publishing his book "Endurance" onto ebook only...as I don't have a Kindle, or Kobo...it was quite traumatic for me. So I was figuring I wouldn't read this book which Jack has said was "very scary" for quite some time...I was crushed.

So I was browsing around on Facebook the other day and saw an add "Kindle for the PC", my eyebrows went up, and I clicked the link. I was passed to Amazon.com where I could download the Kindle application for free! The download completed and I hunted for Endurance!

Now you have to understand, I am not an ebook lover. Nothing beats the feel of a book between your fingers, the act of flipping pages, and the satisfying smell of a new book (besides what would I do with electronic books??? I wouldn't have to worry about breaking the spine?!?!?) Well all that aside I purchased Endurance, and sat in front of my computer and read it all in a few days. And Damn what a book!!

The story in Endurance centers around a few groups of people who are all-at one point or another-wanting to compete in the Iron Woman triathlon. There is Deb, an avid marathon runner who recently had both her legs amputated due to an accident, Letti, Florence and Kelly, a mother, grandmother and daughter who also want to compete in Iron Woman. Mel who is a reporter, Felix and Cam who are looking for Maria (who went missing a year before). This group of people are forced to stay at the Rushmore Inn as all the hotels in the small town are booked solid.

The Rushmore Inn is a little backwoods bed and breakfast in the middle of no where...well at least that's what it SEEMS to be. ;)

Jack Kilborn is an amazing author. He has a knack of really putting the reader into the story. I fell in love with all the characters, the good guys, the bad guys, Ronald and JD. No, I'm not going to tell you who Ronald and JD are...go get the book! It is so worth it!

Although I was under the impression this book was extremely scary, I really didn't find it that scary, it kind of reminded me of a cross between "The Hills have Eyes" and "Wrong Turn" two so-so horror movies. Then again, maybe I'm numb to the scare factor in books/movies...My BF Dawn actually asked me when I was describing the book to her-"Would "normal" people find it gorey/scary?" Ummm....thanks there BF. LOL!!

The Rushmore Inn is waiting for you all, don't get to comfortable, you won't be staying long.