Review: Out of Sync: A Memoir by Lance Bass and Marc Eliot

From a very young age Lance Bass knew that he wanted to be a star. He sang in the church choir and later on with a group called Showstoppers. When the phone call from Justin Timberlake to join a new band called *NSYNC it changed Lance’s life forever.

Within a couple of years *NSYNC was one of the most popular bands in the world with millions of screaming fans. As great as that seemed there were many things about his stardom that were not so glowing.

With one hit after another, sold-out concert tours and merchandising the band should have been earning hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars but as naïve newcomers they signed a contract that left them earning next to nothing.

Plus to add to the stress, from the age of five Lance always felt different from other boys. He wasn’t attracted to girls. His innocent crushes were always on boys. Raised as a Christian it was hard for Lance to deal with his sexuality and then when stardom hit he had to keep it hidden even more for fear of the truth damaging the band’s reputation.

I was way too old to be one of the screaming fans Lance talks about in the book but I’ve always liked *NSYNC’s music and was very interested in his story. All the turmoil behind the scenes is very surprising and my favorite part was when Lance recounted his training as a Russian cosmonaut for a trip into space that unfortunately never happened.

This was a quick and enjoyable memoir with a few goofy photos to chuckle over. I recommend it for both fanatic and casual *NSYNC fans.

Review: Out of Sync: A Memoir by Lance Bass and Marc Eliot

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/06/review-out-of-sync-memoir-by-lance-bass.html

Review: BoneMan's Daughters by Ted Dekker

While on a routine mission in Fallujah intelligence officer Ryan Evans is captured by insurgents and forced to witness the torture of children. The only way to stop the madman from killing even more children is for Ryan to sacrifice his own wife and daughter by giving up their address back in the states. After years of dedicating more time to the military than his family Ryan faces the reality that he doesn’t love his wife anymore but he could never make that choice.

When his captor is distracted Ryan escapes and gets rescued by the military but the torture has taken its toll. He has a mental breakdown and runs to the comfort of his family however it’s too little too late. His wife has moved on and his daughter Bethany has no desire to have Ryan in her life.

Then without warning Bethany is kidnapped by the serial killer BoneMan who kills by breaking every bone in his victim’s body without breaking the skin. Leading the investigation the FBI begins to suspect Ryan is the BoneMan and Ryan’s actions take on a whole new light.

BoneMan’s Daughters is an eerie thriller. The BoneMan is seriously creepy. He reminds me of Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs…a madman with a strange fascination for lotion.

I especially loved the way Dekker portrayed Bethany. She was beautiful with an emerging modeling career but she wasn’t a typical stuck up teen. She acknowledged that she was lucky to have her looks and wasn’t at all superficial. She was actually more down to earth than her mother who was very shallow. The part I like the least of this read was Ryan himself. I get that he wrestled with demons but he was also way to whiney for me. Overall it’s still an intense read and I recommend it for all thriller lovers.

Review: BoneMan's Daughters by Ted Dekker

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/06/review-bonemans-daughters-by-ted-dekker.html

Review: Immortal Outlaw by Lisa Hendrix

Author's Website

While on a mission for his father, Steinarr the Proud along with eight other men, were cursed by the sorceress Cwen with immortality and something much worse. Each of the nine men must spend either night or day in the form of an animal. For Steinarr this meant that each night from sunset to sunrise he was cursed to roam the forests of Sherwood in the form of a lion intent on hunting down and killing any living creature near him.

Amulets with the animal of each of the nine men were scattered across the lands and well hidden by Cwen. As fellow cursed Viking Ivo de Vassy proved, finding your true mate along with the amulet is the secret to breaking the curse and growing old with the one you love.

When a chance meeting in the forest brings Steinarr face-to-face with Marian Fitzwalter he feels an instant connection. Marian has always had the ability to sense animals thoughts. Sensing a man’s thoughts for the first time, Marian sets aside her confusion at this and enlists Steinarr’s help with an important task. Marian and her brother Robin are on a quest to find and interpret clues which will lead Robin to a treasure that will prove he is worthy of inheriting the title of Lord from his late father.

But there is more than one person hoping Robin doesn’t succeed and after years of seeking solace from her defeat by Ivo the evil witch Cwen is back to ensure Steinarr’s animal side conquers over his growing love for Marian.

You can read all about Ivo’s story in Immortal Warrior. In Immortal Outlaw the basic premise of the curse, finding your true love and amulet is the same but the story is a completely different one. The interactions of Stienarr and Marian are not as hot as Ivo and Alaida but still pretty tantalizing.

What I especially loved is how Lisa wove in the beginnings of the Robin Hood and Maid Marian legend. It was an entertaining side story to the main plot line and I thought Lisa did a wonderful job at tying the two together.

I halfway wish that I wouldn’t have known about Lisa’s books until the ninth book is released so I could gobble them all up at once. From Lisa’s Q&A I learned that each book will be set in a different century leading up to the present. The wait for the next book in the Immortal Brotherhood Series, Immortal Champion, is going to be unbearable! You absolutely have to read this series if you love paranormal and historical romances. Be sure to visit Lisa’s website to enter to win a reproduction Viking amulet just like Steinarr's.

Review: Immortal Outlaw by Lisa Hendrix

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/06/review-immortal-outlaw-by-lisa-hendrix.html

Review: My Cat Hates You by Jim Edgar

Author's Website

Another fun kitty picture book from Jim Edgar who also wrote Bad Cat which I also loved. You can read my review here but the pictures of my own bad cats in that post were lost when my computer fried (it took losing all my special photos to learn to back up. lol) Lucky for you I have a new picture of my special kitty Rocko as he was helping to motivate me during my workout.

Back to my review... My Cat Hates you has more than 245 fun filled photos including INFAMOUS FELINE MUGSHOTS, DISOBEDIENCE SCHOOL YEARBOOK photos and cute hand-drawn illustrations by Beth McNelley.

Cats have such unique personalities and you can never convince me that dogs are smarter. You can clearly see what they're really thinking in lots of these pictures. Also there are some down right scary looking cats in this book but it's offset by plenty of oh so cute ones too.

Be sure to visit Jim Edgar's website. There is a gallery, a store, cat news and even a forum all to keep you entertained for hours. This is a must read... for cat lovers of course.

Review: My Cat Hates You by Jim Edgar

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/06/review-my-cat-hates-you-by-jim-edgar.html

Review: The Blue Pen by Lisa Rusczyk

Heading off to work one morning, magazine reporter Parker Towne gets into his car and finds a surprise in the back seat. A homeless woman was sleeping off her hangover in his car. Shocked by finding her there he treats her very badly but after she’s gone he starts to think about her circumstances and tries to find her soon after. When the search leads nowhere he writes his next article about her and soon Cleo shows up at his apartment window to tell him her story.

Cleo begins her with life as teenager in love for the first time. When he’s sent to war and dies overseas Cleo’s comfortable life is disrupted and things begin to change. She heads off to college and loses touch with her sister then marries a childhood friend and has a daughter to fill her days.

Years later at her husband’s urging she tracks down her sister and learns some startling truths about her family including both her parents, her aunt and her sister. When her sister takes her to an underground club where the drinks are free and visitors are encouraged to let their inner spirituality shine on an improv stage life changes yet again for Cleo.

After Parker’s initial story is published a television reporter tries to entice him to share more of his interaction with Cleo on air but he’s hesitant. Entranced by Cleo’s life Parker knows there something more to her story that the reporter knows and he doesn’t. Then another woman comes forward claiming Cleo is her mother Parker is torn between keeping Cleo’s whereabouts a secret and thinking he needs to get her help because she might be in danger both physically and mentally.

Wow. This must be my lucky month for reading books that keep me up past my bedtime. The Blue Pen is another tale that I didn’t want to end. The anticipation of learning Cleo’s secrets and finding out about the path that lead her from a wealthy background to homelessness left me almost agitated that I couldn’t read faster.

Rusczyk gives us such eccentric and wondrous characters I was totally absorbed by this extraordinary tale of love and friendships. I highly recommend this one to all fiction lovers.

Review: The Blue Pen by Lisa Rusczyk

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/06/review-blue-pen-by-lisa-rusczyk.html