Review: Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen

In a tragic accident that took the life of her precious horse Harry, world-class equestrian and Olympic hopeful Annemarie Zimmer was severely injured and as a result she gave up riding forever. Now eighteen years later she just got laid off and in the same day her daughter vows to drop out of school and her husband left her for another woman.

Tail tucked between her legs, Annemarie and her daughter Eva escape to her parent’s horse farm. But life on the horse farm is not a vacation. Her father is stricken with ALS and since her mother is tasked with taking care of him, Annemarie has to step up and become the farm’s manager. When the farm’s vet, who runs a horse rescue center, calls them with a possible addition to their horses, the family is packed up and they head over to take a look. Surprisingly the horse looks exactly like Harry and with just one glance Annemarie becomes obsessed to the point of running the farm into the ground to prove a point.

I loved this book and the story but OMG did I hate Annemarie’s character! She’s so tragic and does nothing but whine and act irrational throughout the whole book. The worst part of it is that in the audio book version, Maggi-Meg Reed does such a phenomenal narrating job that every bit of Annemarie’s impossibly irritating personality comes through loud and clear.

The best thing Riding Lessons has going for it is the fact that the ending is not a forced happily ever after. It’s completely realistic given Annemarie’s character and I appreciate the fact that it remained true to the end. This is a recommended read for contemporary fiction readers.

Review: Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen

http://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/07/review-ridding-lessons-by-sara-gruen.html

Value Fiction “Grab Bag” Blog Tour

Value Fiction Brings Readers Summer Relief

Colorado Springs, CO— Fiction lovers don’t need to budget to travel this summer with Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group’s eight full-length, historical novels by beloved Christian authors (WaterBrook, June 2, 2009). At the low cost of only $5.99, these well-read “get-aways” provide quality entertainment at a price that any reader can afford.
Full-length historical novels offered include:

The Captain’s Bride

(ISBN-13: 978-0-307-45806-3)

by Lisa Tawn Bergren, book one in Northern Lights series. Experience an epic saga of perseverance and passion, faith and fidelity in a sea adventure from the gentle hills of Bergen, Norway, to rocky coast of

Camden, Maine.

Tommorrow’s Treasure

(ISBN-13: 978-0-307-45808-7)
by Linda Lee Chaikin, book one in East of the Sun series. Family secrets and

a passion for a man of a higher social class draw Evy Varley into a dangerous mystery and disturbing questions about her past.

The Silver Sword

(ISBN-13: 978-0-307-45809-4)

by Angela Elwell Hunt, book one in The Heirs of Cahira O’ Connor series. The auburn-haired O’Conner women push against social limits. Their tale is one of peril, courage, vengeance, love and sacrifice.

The Veil

(ISBN-13: 978-0-307-45807-0)
by Diane Noble. Hannah McClary dares to question the truth behind the shroud of secrecy that cloaks a nineteenth-century sect known as the Saints. Soon she and Lucas Knight, the young man she loves, find themselves fighting for their lives.

Under the Distant Sky

(ISBN-13: 978-1-60142-245-3)

by Al and Joanna Lacy, book one in Hannah of Fort Bridger. Join Hannah and Solomon Cooper as they journey by wagon train to a new life on the frontier. Will they overcome tragedy and great opposition as they strive to live their dream?

A Promise for Breanna

(ISBN-13: 978-1-60142-244-6)

by Al & Joanna Lacy, book one in Angel of Mercy series. Suspense, danger, romance and spiritual truth each play a part in this heroine’s life as she faces the man who once broke her heart and led her to mistrust men.

Maire

(ISBN-13: 978-1-60142-256-0)
by Linda Windsor, book one in Fires of Gleannmara. Maire, Warrior Queen of Gleannmara, finds her fierce heart gentled by a reformed mercenary, a Christian, who’s taken hostage during a raid.

A Gathering of Finches

(ISBN-13: 978-1-60142-247-7)
by Jane Kirkpatrick. A turn-of-the-century Oregon coastal couples’ life is seen through the eyes of the wife, her sister, and her Indian maid who discover reasons why money and possessions can’t buy happiness, forgiveness or relieve consequences of choices.

Waterbrook summer release of value line books will also include a 99 Ways (July 2009) and Non-fiction series (September 2009).

BE SURE TO LOOK FOR THESE TITLES

AT YOUR FAVORITE BOOKSTORE!!

As part of this blog tour I received The Veil and A Gathering of Finches. I was most excited about The Veil which is historical fiction based on the Mormon Massacre in Utah in 1857. Having seen the movie September Dawn about the same tragedy I was looking forward to comparing the book and the movie. Now after reading The Veil I find that they are both very different yet both very good in their own way. The Veil was very engaging and I found it very hard to put down. This is a recommended read for all historical fiction and Christian fiction lovers.

Up next for me is A Gathering of Finches and I'm positive it will be just as good.

Value Fiction “Grab Bag” Blog Tour

http://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/07/value-fiction-grab-bag-blog-tour.html

Review: The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos

In 1985 three separate murders, the bodies of teenagers named Otto, Ava and Eve are all found in community gardens throughout the Washington D.C. The media dubs these killings The Palindrome Murders their names read the same way backwards or forwards. The police secretly call the killer The Night Gardener and because the killing stopped after these three murders the cases are never solved.

Now twenty years later Asa Johnson is found murdered in another community garden and since detective Gus Ramone’s own fourteen year old son knew Asa he and his partner Rhonda assist in the investigation. Because of the clear connection, also interested in solving the case is retired detective T.C. Cook who was the lead in the 1985 investigation and Daniel “Doc” Holiday, a former detective who resigned from the police force when he became a suspect in an internal affairs investigation.

The three form an uneasy alliance and together gather up the clues that tie the murder to a street war over money and a woman but will it solve the murders both old and new?

Pelecanos is such a talented character writer. In the past few months I’ve read three of his books and I always become so engrossed in the lives of the main characters that by the end of the book I feel like I know them inside and out. He perfectly captures the intensity of the detectives, the angst of Ramone’s teenage son and the harshness of the thugs.

The storyline was well developed and it had an ending I could never have predicted. After reading these three Pelecanos books I can say that I am definitely a new fan of this author and I’m definitely going to be reading more by him. This is a recommended read for mystery lovers.

Review: The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos

http://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/07/review-night-gardener-by-george.html

Review: Burned: A Tragic Mystery by J.A. Nevling

The first time Jim Nagol is left in charge of his infant daughter, tragedy strikes and he and his daughter are both severely burned when he accidentally leaves a stove burner on with no flame. His daughter Anna’s burns are so severe, doctors are not at all sure she’ll make a recovery.

Now seven month’s later Jim’s wife, Sharon, has left her husband and is living alone in an apartment two hours away. Sharon cannot forgive Jim for the accident and is struggling to make ends meet by working for Prescott Incorporated as an accountant.

When two of the company’s top executive both make unwanted passes at Sharon she knows that if she now reveals that she found some unexplained company expenses during a recent audit her findings would be seen as retaliation. She has no choice but to stay quiet and work on how best to reveal the embezzlement to the proper authorities.

But driving home one night she’s forced off the road in a hit-and-run accident and when the police investigate there is more than one suspect including the two company executives and her husband Jim with whom she had an explosive argument with that same day.

Burned alternates from the present and Sharon’s troubles and back to the time of the accident and the weeks following it. I like this approach because as soon as the story gets good it skips in time and you’re left with a major cliff hanger for the next few chapters when you pick up again but get another cliff hanger with the second story line.

Nevling does a great job of keeping the suspense going and laying out the perfect mystery. My only disappointment with the book is the dialogue between most of the characters. There were more than a few times when I would think to myself, “Who talks like that?” Otherwise the book is a recommended read for all mystery and suspense readers.

Review: Burned: A Tragic Mystery by J.A. Nevling

http://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/07/review-burned-tragic-mystery-by-ja.html

Giveaway: The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos

Read my review


From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Pelecanos (Drama City) delivers a dignified, character-driven epic that succeeds as both literary novel and page-turner. In 1985, the body of a 14-year-old girl turns up in a Washington, D.C., park, the latest in a series of murders by a killer the media dub "The Night Gardener." T.C. Cook, the aging detective on the case, works with a quiet, almost monomaniacal, focus. Also involved are two young uniformed cops, Gus Ramone, who's diligent, conscientious and unimpressed by heroics, and Dan "Doc" Holiday, an adrenaline junkie who's decidedly less straight.

Fast forward 20 years. Detective Ramone, now married with kids of his own, investigates the murder of one of his teenage son's friends. The homicide closely resembles the earlier unsolved Night Gardener murders. Holiday, now an alcoholic chauffeur and bodyguard, follows the case on his own and tracks down Cook, long retired but still obsessed with the original murders. While the three work together toward a suspenseful ending, Pelecanos emphasizes the fallacy of "solving" a murder and explores the ripple effects of violent crime on society.

MAIN ENTRY:

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Giveaway: The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos

http://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/07/giveaway-night-gardener-by-george.html