Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Mini HP6 Review:
Did not disappoint. The story reaches a crescendo through Book 6 of the HP series, and I raced through the latter 400 pages.

Let's see, what "happens"... Ron and Hermione grow up a little bit, Harry grows up a lot, Ginny becomes a "young lady," and we can see why she's so popular. Professor Snape shows some true colors and perhaps some strength. Professor Slughorn shows more colors and perhaps some strength. We see Draco's pressure. We see Hagrid's pain. We see Dumbledore's love and we hear Fawkes' pain.

We laugh, we cry, we hope, and we feel anger.

Although I love this series, i feel that Book 6 is where Rowling takes a step up. This is the best book in the series (in my humble opinion) because the characters show the most dynamics and the storytelling shows the most range. So much happens in a "mere" 600-some or 700-some pages (depending on your version).

Eager to finish the series again!
I will be taking my time w/ Book 7 this time around...

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

I'm not going to say too much about this... but I read it at the perfect time... about a month after leaving my busy-all-the-time, perma-attached-to-phone, high-stress law job for a wonderful job working for the courts.

This was my first Kinsella, and I will definitely read more! She's funny and at times poignant and flippant and thoughtful and easy. Although of *course* not everything in the book is realistic, including sort of one of the underlying premises (it is a *fiction* after all), but Kinsella does a good job of capturing the essence of both perspectives.

What was most impressive to me was that I noticed that my pace of reading the book matched the pace of what was happening in the book.. i.e., it was a little frenetic at the start and again at the end, but slowed down to enjoy the roses in between.  I think this is a mark of a good story teller - the ability to control your reader's flow.

Definitely recommend to ANY female lawyers (and probably a fair few male lawyers as well), or anyone who has a lot of job-related stress or used to have a lot of job-related stress, or anyone who just wants to be entertained. A super quick read, and fun to boot.

FOUR of five stars.

Three-fer: Daughter of Smoke and Bone; The End of Mr. Y; and Shades of Grey

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Briefly: This book was highly recommended.  One of those articles with recommendations for people who liked other popular books, like The Hunger Games or Twilight.  I don't remember the exact comparison...

Regardless, coming off of the Hunger Games trilogy and even Divergent, Daughter of Smoke and Bone was quite the let-down.

What's good: the idea! kind of. It's sort of a new mythology, explaining so-called angels and demons. It's a God-less world; there's another explanation. Ok, I can dig some creativity. And there's this long-time war between them, and of course your protagonist and her love interest are caught in the middle somehow. I'm not going to say how, because that's sort of the book.  But suffice it to say there's a lot of romeo & juliet influence in here.

What's bad: the romantic aspect. it was rather predictable and just a whole lot more of the same that has already supersaturated the market.

It wasn't terrible, it was just terribly annoying. UNLESS you really dig teen-romance. In which case, you will love this book!  So... yeah. It was fine to pass the time. I was eager to be done. I will likely read a synopsis of the other 2 because I really don't think I could justify the time to read the other 2 in the series...

THREE AND A HALF of five stars

The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas

Briefly: I've been meaning to read this book for a while. It just sounded so interesting.  This book had GREAT promise when it started. And I think the height of its promise partially resulted in the fall of its disappointment. I loved this book when I started it and through about half of the book. I felt attached to it in something akin to the way I had felt attached to Ready Player One. And then it just took a nosedive.  I don't know what happened.

You know when you read a book that's interesting and creative and smart, and the author puts a lot of intellectual stuff in there that's also interesting, and it doesn't weigh the book down? and you feel like you're learning new things, and it's just wonderful? that's the first half of the book. All the additional science information and philosophical information was good, interesting, and appropriately "lengthed."

And then it was like the author felt like this was her chance, she was going to EDUCATE her readers, darnit, whether they wanted to be educated or not. The science and/or philosophical information stopped being relevant to the plot, stopped assisting with the movement of the story, and started feeling like the author's own opinions and soliloquies, rather than those of the actual characters.  And it was too much and weighty and created disappointment.

The story of the book is about a book called The End of Mr. Y, written by an author who engaged in "thought experiments" (considers some hypothesis, theory,[1] or principle for the purpose of thinking through its consequences), and who is supposedly brilliant. Supposedly, because all copies of the books, save 1 in a vault in a foreign country, have disappeared. Supposedly, because anyone who has ever read the book has allegedly succumbed to the curse and died. Supposedly, because no one really knows. Then, our protagonist stumbles upon the book and finds herself on a rapidly accelerating roller coaster to the ultimate thought experiment.

Intriguing concept, and partially excellent executed. Thomas creates a few very vivid characters, and although her protagonist, Ariel, has been criticized by some readers as non-realistic, I strongly beg to differ. I know her -- I've spent many hours having those types of conversations with her. She is realistic, even if she's not your "typical" heroine. And I love Adam, one of her co-stars. I mean, he was expertly drawn. The idea was great, the characters were great, and the execution was, therefore, disappointing.

If you're super philosophically read, you might enjoy this anyway. But for most people, it became more of a task than an enjoyable reading experience. Ultimately, it is a good book -- an intellectual modern sci-fi/fantasy. But not great.

Overall, THREE AND A HALF of 5 stars.

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

This is another one I've been meaning to read for a while.

The book is classic dystopian; yet, although the narrator (Edward Russett) is only 20, it's not a YA book. Another great idea. In the future, you are what you see. Vision and perception have "evolved" to the point where people can see only the brightest versions of all colors; but, otherwise, they can only see their color. Color is distributed by a central city and paid for, and people marry "up" or "down" in order to increase their stance on the chromatic scale, to make money (marrying down usually means you get paid by the family you're marrying), or, on rare occasion, for love.

Eddie Russett is a red. His life is on the eve of taking the adulthood test that determines just-how-red-are-you. If he scores above 70%, he will become a prefect, his dream. In such a case, he will also get to marry Ms. Constance Oxblood, up on the chromatic scale and societal standing, to whom he is partially betrothed. (i.e., he's committed to her, but she has not yet made a commitment to him).

Eddie Russett, however, has a curious mind that has gotten him into a bit of trouble. He has decided to take his punishment (rather than pay his way out of it), and goes with his father to a small town on the ouskirts to learn humility whilst purportedly completing a chair census. His father will be replacing the town (East Carmine)'s "Swatchman" -- which is their version of a doctor.

After arriving in East Carmine, Eddie learns that things do not always exist as they appear, and his curiosity begins to get him into more and more trouble. Add to the mix Tommo, a sneaky untrustworthy friend, Jane, the gray who he's started to fall for, Violet, the purple he is supposed to want, a murder, a national figure snooping around, ghosts, deathly swans, people who don't exist, and carnivorous plants, and you have Shades of Grey.

It was enjoyable to read. At times, it was quite the page turner -- particularly in the last third-to-quarter.  I didn't love Eddie, though I'm not sure we're supposed to. I didn't love Jane, but again, maybe that is by design. I didn't love Tommo... I didn't love... yeah, I didn't love any of the characters. They were all so realistically flawed. But I cared what happened to them. And how.

And I REALLY wanted to know what was happening and why and how and... I completely got caught up in Eddie's curiosity.
This is not a mindless novel. Recommend to people looking for a slightly more complex dystopian novel.


Note: this is the first in a trilogy! (I didn't know that until I finished the book!) However, it ends satisfyingly enough that it can stand on its own.

FOUR of five stars.

'Til the Wells Runs Dry by Lauren Francis-Sharma

Review based on ARC.

Oh man, how even to review this one.  I signed up to get this one because it had something to do with Trinidad.  That was really all that motivated me.  Otherwise, it sounded kind of trite... ya know, "multigenerational" "multicultural" "blah blah blah."  But my mom is from Trinidad and, unlike the author of this book, I have NOT heard much from her about her home-country.  I was hoping the book might give me even the slightest of inside looks... And boy did it.

I would not describe this book as "multigenerational" or "multi-cultural," even though those are both accurate descriptions.  The issue I have with those phrases is that they tend to accompany stories that don't offer much else beyond the obvious "that generation doesn't get it" dynamic or "look how different and yet the same these cultures are!"  And those can be fantastic books, but I find that relying on the cheap tricks often make the story seem... well, a little cheap.

That was NOT the case here.  Lauren Francis-Sharma created a compelling, interesting, fast-paced, deep, involved story with an undercurrent of.. like, gut-truth.  I didn't feel as if I were reading some fantasy creation of someone with no idea of what real life was actually like.  I felt like... I felt like I was maybe sitting at a kitchen table somewhere with someone's grandmother who was telling the story of her life.

And what a story.  Ever so briefly:  Marcia Garcia ("Mah-see-ah Gah-see-ah") lives in "the Bush" in Trinidad (i.e., the wrong side of the tracks...) with the boys she cares for.  Her mind is nowhere near romance or the other frivolities of life when Farouk spots her and determines he must have her.  Farouk is, of course, from the right side of the tracks, but he's young and impulsive and makes no mind of the potential cultural impact of his choice.  And so begins Marcia's life.

I mean. It covers so much ground. Years, peoples, families, children, parents, siblings, crime, countries, slavery, passion, anger, etc. etc. etc.  And Francis-Sharma manages to give each element her full attention.

As with all truly excellent books, describing it too much would do it injustice.  This truly excellent book is being sent to my mom... maybe we can have a little Trini discussion once she's read it...

Highly recommend!  For all of the reasons indicated above and because it's just a good book.

The Swiss Affair by Emylia Hall

Review based on ARC.

I was intrigued by this book because of the description:  "For Hadley Dunn, life has been predictable and uneventful. But that is before she spends her second year of college abroad in Lausanne, a glamorous Swiss city on the shores of Lake Geneva. Lausanne is imbued with the boundless sense of freedom Hadley has been seeking, and it is here she meets Kristina, a beautiful but mysterious Danish girl. The two bond quickly, but as the first snows of winter arrive, tragedy strikes." (from BookReporter.com)

So, Switzerland, new perspective and adventure, friendship, and then a mystery.  Sounds great!

And, you know? It was.  Hall did a really impressive job of bringing her characters to life - every one of them.  From sweet and innocent Hadley to brash and fun Kristina to deep and brooding Joel to all the peripheral characters.  SO much brought to life, in fact, that when the tragedy did strike, I was actually affected by it.  My husband asked why I was so sad... I had to explain about the book. ;)

Hadley is a simple girl, living with her parents still, in a smallish town in England.  She decides to apply for a study abroad program and goes to Lausanne, Switzerland to spend her 2nd year of college (University).  There, she meets the exotic and full-of-life Kristina, who quickly becomes Hadley's best friend.  She also meets Joel, her American Literature professor, a charismatic and dark personality that she is drawn to.  And she meets Hugo, an elderly man who frequents a fancy hotel cafe and who imparts love, hope, and wisdom onto Hadley.

And then, yes, tragedy strikes (and heck no, I won't ruin it by stating what the tragedy is).  And Hadley sets out to discover the truth about what happened, how, and about herself.  It's a sort of growing-up novel, a sort of love affair novel, and a sort of mystery novel, all neatly wrapped into one.

In my opinion, the biggest downside to the novel (and it's not such a big downside :)) is that the romantic tension and lovey-dovey portion were a little run-of-the-mill in the midst of the rest of the excitement.  Hall did such an impressive job bringing Lausanne to live, bringing her characters to life, bringing Hadley's obsession to life... and yet the romance was flat and uninteresting (to me).  It served a purpose to moving certain aspects of the plot forward, but mostly I was just eager to get back to the real story.  As I said, it's not such a big downside -- I appreciated Hall's tact in her presentation of the love affair (not "affair" in that sense -- I just mean "a happening"), that she didn't resort to cheap tricks in the bedroom, and the scenes were soft and romantic... just wasn't my favorite part of the book.

Overall, I definitely recommend to readers -- those who want to visit Lausanne, if only in their minds, those who have romantic notions about life and love, those who want to venture with Hadley as she discovers "the truth."

Light Shining in the Forest by Paul Torday

Review based on ARC.

This was my first Torday, and (1) I will definitely read more! and (2) I'm sad he's (apparently recently) deceased, so what's out there is what's out there!

So, as my first Torday, and having read a handful of other reviews on this book, I understand that this one is not "standard Torday" -- most of his novels are funny, I think.

This one is not remotely funny.  I don't mean to say there are no moments of humor -- those definitely exist, particularly dark humor in his analysis of civil servants in Britain, but it's not a funny book.  The book is not a satire.

Torday manages to work mystery, thriller, drama, a touch of romance, lite-horror, psychological thriller, and spiritual all into about 340 pages.  And well.  It is almost an everyman type of story, an analysis of faith and how most people these days respond to the potential for spiritual involvement in our lives.  Torday has been criticized by some of his fans for delving into the spiritual, but he did SUCH a good job of evaluating the various perspectives his everyman characters can have to the potential of divine involvement that, really, it makes those reviews just sound defensive in nature.  Torday definitely does not shove religion down everyone's throat and, in fact, his characters are such that there is an acknowledgement that most people ridicule those with strong faith.  This is a truth that was well explored in Torday's novel.

And yeah, now that I'm writing all this out, it sounds kind of boring. It is NOT boring.  It's a well-paced psychological thriller, mystery, evaluation of society and spirituality without being preachy... Just very well done.

So what's it about?  Remembering that this is an everyman take, there's (and these are my descriptions -- he just named the characters :)): The Civil Servant (Norman), The Young Semi-Ambitious Lazy Investigative Journalist with Big Ideas (Willie), The Smart Cute Assistant Who's More than Meets the Eye (Pippa), and then there are a handful of equally important characters who I won't define because this book is *definitely* one of those books that is better to discover while being read.

Norman has spent a life in civil servantry, working his way into more and more powerful positions, and has finally been promoted to Children's Czar in a small'ish town.  However, once he's appointed, the job comes to a standstill and Norman is left with a lot of time on his hands.  Lo and behold, a few months into his stalled Czarship, young aggressive and annoying Willie, trying to make a journalistic career for himself so he can get out of said small'ish town, confronts Norman with the existence of two missing children, and just WHAT, Willie wants to know, is the Czar going to do about the missing children?  The Czar position is not meant to be a hands-on type of job, and Norman is initially reluctant.  However, events proceed, family members are met and conversations are had, and his pushy smart little assistant Pippa gets involved... HOW are we going to save the children?  When a third child goes missing, there's no stopping the newly created team as they rush time to try to find the Children before they suffer any longer.

It's an interestingly paced novel... It starts off quite slow -- descriptive and scenic.  It never becomes a rush from one adrenaline-packed scene to the next, but Torday writes a story and establishes characters that invest the reader in the story... And once you are invested in the story, well it's just hard to put it back down.  It moves and you, the reader starts to rush... You must read more quickly... you must save the children!  The physical undercurrent is palpable.  There are so many elements involved (discussed above), and the characters, serving their everyman purpose, are engaging and well crafted.

It's hard to review this book because it was so good, so worth an involved review, but SO the kind of book that shouldn't be ruined by reviews.  Definitely recommended to open-minded thinkers, to people looking for a smarter mystery, for those who consider the possibility of "Maybes".

And, despite the fact that this was an unusual-for-Torday novel, I look forward to reading more of his writing.

FOUR AND A HALF of five stars.

The Chase by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

Review based on ARC (NetGalley) - originally via publisher contest.

I'm a pretty big fan of the One for the Money series by Evanovich, so I was excited to hear she'd begun a new series involving a tough heroine who is a highly trained FBI agent.

I'm a pretty big fan, I say, but I don't think that Evanovich's writing is "high literature."  So I'm not coming into this with heightened expectations as far as the writing is concerned.  I like the One for the Money series because we can't take Stephanie Plum too seriously, because Stephanie Plum doesn't take herself too seriously, and because she finds herself in all kinds of awkward, entertaining, humiliating, and interesting situations.  They're fun and quick reads.

I know nothing of Lee Goldberg... far as I was concerned, I was reading an Evanovich.  And I also didn't know that this was the Second in a series until rather near the end of the book.  This was just the first I'd heard of this new series, and yes please! I'd love a free copy to review!

So all of that is to essentially say that I don't really know what went wrong here.  It's not terrible at all.  Really.  But it's not particularly good.  There isn't that spark that Evanovich has in her Plum series.  It's just kind of blase meandering from one high-action, high-stakes heist in one country, to another high-action, high-stakes heist in another (or, sure on a plane in mid-air...).  Right?! It sounds interesting!  It sounds like you're going to read this fun and engaging book, a step or two up from Plum, about a badass FBI chick and her quarry, flying to fun and dangerous places, doing fun and dangerous things.  And technically that is this book.

But, I don't know, it just kind of fell flat.  The humor that works so well with Plum didn't work for Kate O'Hare, the tension that works so well with Joe Morelli just didnt' work for Nicholas Fox.

But it wasn't bad either.  There was a lot of activity, a lot of punching, some interesting new plot-twists, some interesting new characters (I like the peripherals a bit), and it went pretty quick.  And I commend the authors for writing a 2nd in a series that was not so dependent on the 1st that I constantly felt like I was left out of the inside jokes or plot... As I say, I didn't even realize this was a 2nd in a series until near the end.

So, overall, I'd recommend to fans as Evanovich-Lite.  This'll get you through to the next Plum release, but it's not going to be your new favorite... you're definitely going to want to go back to Plum.

THREE of five stars.