The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch by Marsha Moyer

On vacation I also read this interesting book. I feel like I should critique this book in two parts: the part I liked (aka the first part) versus the part I didn't like (aka the last/middleish part). First of all this story is about a 33 year old girl named Lucy Hatch whose husband of 14 years dies in a farm machinery accident. She goes to live in her small home town in Texas to be near family and tries to build a new life on her own while dealing with her husband's, who she says that she never really loved and who never really loved her, death. She meets this guy named Ash and they fall in love and etc etc. He helps her come to know who she really is and live life in a different way yadda yadda yadda.

Ok, so I liked the premise of the story: a girl suffers a life changing experience and tries to get back on her feet. Tangent alert---->She gets a job at a flower shop which I think would be the greatest job ever! If I ever get the opportunity to have a part time job that I'm not depending on to be financially stable I would LOVE to work in a flower shop. How much better could life get? You get to work amongst heavenly smelling flowers and can use your creative juices to make something beautiful. Plus you can deliver flowers to make people happy, because we all know that flowers make everyone happy, at least a little bit. ahh, I think that would be so wonderful.

Anyway, I liked where the story was going, what with getting the job and trying to find herself. I even liked the love interest, Ash. For me the story fell apart as soon as Ash and Lucy actually got together. It got way too intimate and focused on sex for a good chunk of the second half of the book. I had checked out the sequels from the library to bring with me on the trip, and from the book summary on the back cover they sound like they could be good books. But I don't want to read them because I have a suspicion that they'll be like the first: a little good story, a lot of unnecessary and inappropriate spice.

Overall I probably wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. It could have been really good but was ruined by explicit romance. And I totally did NOT get this from the romance section, it came from general fiction at the library. I'll have you all know I've never actually read a romance novel, and after reading this book I'm convinced that I shouldn't. I should probably stick to Young Adult fiction; it's more fun and generally clean.

Overall rating: 2 out of 5

Lily Dale series by Wendy Corsi Staub

Chris and I just got back from a week-long vacation to Daytona Beach, Florida where I had the opportunity to veg on the beach and read many, many books. Unfortunately we did not have access to the internet and I was unable to write a thorough review of each book. Because I'm lazy I will review this series as a whole.

Our heroine in this story is Calla Delaney, a 17-year-old girl living in Florida. She has recently broken up with her boyfriend and our story begins at her mother's funeral, who died from falling down the stairs in their home. While he father goes to grieve in California and start a new job, Calla goes to live with her grandmother in the place where her mother grew up. Calla's mother had a falling out with her mother and never liked to talk about her hometown. While in Lily Dale, New York Calla starts to see spirits/ghosts and learns that she can communicate with the dead and that Lily Dale is the birthplace for Spiritualism and is full of psychics. So the first book Calla starts to get used to her newly discovered abilities while getting settled in the local high school and community. Calla begins to learn more about her mother's past and finds out that her mother kept many secrets.

In the second book Calla is still getting used to her new abilities and uses them to find the body of a girl who was recently murdered. Calla is able to save another victim's life and catch the killer when he comes after her. Go Calla! Meanwhile she's still trying to figure out the secrets of her mom's past and learning how to interpret messages from the spirit world. She is also developing a cute relationship with a boy named Jacy. She's been going on dates with a guy named Blue, but I don't really like him much. Jacy is much better for her and I like it when there's a really good love interest.

Book 3 focuses more on Calla trying to discover her mother's secrets, in particular the details of her death. What had previously been determined to be a tragic accident, Calla finds clues that suggest her mother was pushed down the stairs. Jacy has visions of Calla in danger and there is eventually a confrontation between Calla and her mother's killer while she is in Florida searching for clues to her mother's past.

In the last book I was able to read of the series Calla seeks to learn why her mother was killed. She discovers that her mother had another child back when she was a teenager. Calla uses her abilities to communicate with the spirit world to try and find out what happened to her half-sister. Meanwhile her relationship with Jacy progresses in a slow but happy manner.

I'm pretty sure that the author, Wendy Corsi Staub, is going to write more books for the series. When she does I will definitely be checking them out from the library. I really enjoyed reading these supernatural stories during my beach vacation. They were easy and entertaining reads and kept me engaged during all my down time. I read approximately one book per day. I would recommend this series to anyone who wants a fun, easy, and mildly suspenseful experience. One thing that annoyed me was that Calla and sometimes Jacy would have difficulty working out clues that were totally easy; it frustrated me when I could figure out the mystery in seconds and it took them pages or chapters even to solve. Annoying. And unrealistic. The heroine is supposed to be clever. I just don't like working out an easy mystery way before the main character does. But otherwise I really enjoyed the series. Not particularly thought provoking in any way but definitely entertaining. Fun read!

Overall: 3.5 out of 5

Fang (A Maximum Ride Novel) by James Patterson

I just read the newest installment of the Maximum Ride books by James Patterson. For those who have not read these books, this is a Young Adult series about a group of kids who were experimented on by evil genetic engineering scientists who basically combined human DNA with bird DNA to create people with wings and some other cool stuff like super strength and speed. (whew! how's that for a run-on sentence??) Max is the leader of the family of bird-kids and throughout the series they are constantly on the run and fighting their way out of disasters. It's pretty exciting and full of action. In the last couple books there was a bit of a love connection between Max (who is in fact a girl) and Fang (the tall, dark, and handsome guy in the flock) and this book really focuses on that connection. In the beginning of the story the youngest sister Angel (she has some special powers including mind reading and some kind of future telling ability) predicts that Fang will be the first of all of them to die and he will die soon. dun dun dun... Max is really upset to say the least. She meets this crazy doctor who wants to save humanity from an upcoming apocalypse by giving people superhuman abilities with a drug that he tests on human children. He wants Max to join forces with him, which she clearly refuses. This guy has a hard time accepting 'no' for an answer so Max and the flock go into hiding for a bit. The story focuses in more on the Max and Fang relationship and the flock decides that Max should no longer be the leader because she's too distracted. She's basically banished and Fang comes with her. They go to Las Vegas together and are confronted by the evil doctor again. They hear on the tv that the rest of the flock is in trouble and they go to the rescue. I'm going to cut the details and just say that there's more fighting and trauma where Fang's life is in serious jeopardy. Even though I found this book to be fairly predictable and very similar to the other books in the series, I definitely teared up at the end. Oh I forgot to mention that the love connection between Max and Fang is strained by the addition of a new character who was genetically designed to be Max's perfect other half. He's perfectly charming and tries to win over Max. He doesn't really succeed by the end of the book but I have a feeling he'll be a consistent character in any upcoming books.

I really really enjoy the Maximum Ride books; all of them. This one followed suit with the others and was fairly predictable, but I feel like each book is a single episode of a television series that I love, like LOST or Heroes or something. I only wish that these books were a little longer, a little more complex. I read Fang in a single afternoon/evening. Started around 4 pm and finished by bedtime at 10:30 pm. Probably could have finished it sooner without dinner, bathroom, or internet breaks. My point is that I read the book quick and I wanted more. Definitely a fun read but it ended too quickly, like all the rest of the Maximum Ride books.

4 out of 5 stars

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

So! I just read the Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. It was funny and new, but I was a little confused through out the story. Turns out this is a "middle" book. It is a "Discworld" book and there are some 37 or so books in the Discworld series. Within Discworld there are 4 books about a girl named Tiffany Aching. I think The Wee Free Men is book 2... but I'm not sure exactly. Like I said, I got a little confused.

But from what I understood from the story and the characters, The Wee Free Men is about a girl named Tiffany who lives in the country of chalk on a sheep farm. Turns out little Tiffany has the makings of a witch! The evil queen of Fairyland kidnaps Tiffany's little brother and Tiffany goes off to rescue him. Along the way she meets the Nac Mac Feegle, aka the Wee Free Men, who are 6-inch blue men who like to drink, steal, fight and speak like Scotsmen. They are definitely the funny part of the story! Together Tiffany and the Wee Free men fight their way into and through Fairyland to find her baby brother and return home. The confusing part of the story is in Fairyland because the landscape keeps changing and they keep entering these crazy dreams that I found hard to follow.

This definitely wasn't a gripping book, but it was fun and interesting enough. I have the next book in the series checked out from the library but I haven't decided if I'll read it yet.

3 out of 5 stars