What's not to like about a Stone Barrington book! Stuart Woods has created an interesting series.

I got this book from the library.

It has the usual cast of characters: Dino, Stone, Joan, Herbie Fisher ... and much of the action takes place, as usual at Elaine's, the restaurant Stone and Dino frequent. Or at Stone's house -- and in the bedroom.

Herbie has won a fortune in the NY lotto and that provides both humor and pathos. Why Herbie! And he pays Stone $1 million to represent him. Delusional or not, he thinks he is being pursued, and he might be, since he is determined to marry a prostitute (who still has a pimp) and carries a brown bag full of money. He has even less money sense than he does sense, if that is possible, though he has paid off his bookie and the gambling debts he has incurred. He also has incurred their wrath because he is no longer gambling -- after all, when it is real money, not paper loans, it feels more real.

Additionally, Dolce makes an appearance again. She is the murderous ex-wife (or kinda wife, since the paper they signed has been returned to Stone) who, after a mental breakdown of the worst sort, has convinced her mafia father and her handler that she is safe on the town. But she knows how to knife a man without killing him. And she seems bent on killing Stone -- or at least scaring him, and she is one to be feared.

The lucid intervals refers to moments of lucidity in Herbie's crazy life, and the moments of lucidity (which have disappeared) in Dolce's.

And who's to say which intervals are lucid when the world has gone crazy.

Into this mix comes Dame Felicity who offers the sex interest in this book -- nearly all of which occurs off page and by innuendo -- and a job for Stone. She wants him to find a missing rogue agent, Stanley Whitestone, who may or may not be alive. She refuses to tell him much of the reasons why (and she may not know herself) and Stone keeps his confidences to himself also.

The fun is in the humor between the characters and in the denouement, and the fact that you know Stone will come out on top. There are a few surprises along the way, one of which I was not happy with, but it shows the world's craziness, and perhaps it shows real life spy scenarios where safety isn't always possible. The reason is given as a surprise, no hints along the way.

Now what will these characters find themselves into in the next book?

Do you read this series or this author? Do you have a favorite?

Buy: Lucid Intervals: A Stone Barrington Novel (Kindle Edition)

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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Originally posted 2010-05-04 06:57:43.

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Stuart Woods has written a lot of books, nearly all of them good. They are peppered with interesting characters, a bit of humor, some cynicism, some romance, some intrigue. And some of them cross characters from one of his series into another.

Reckless Abandon has some of my favorite of his characters: Stone Barrington, ex-NYPD, now lawyer; his friend Dino, still on the force, married to a mafioso's daughter; Holly Barker, ex-military, now police chief in Orchid Beach, FL (crossing over from her own stories -- or bringing her story, because this one is her's and bringing in Stone and Dino, take your pick). Throw in Lance, who is CIA and recruits both Stone and Holly, and Holly's ex-sometime-lover who is FBI, and you have a story with a lot of twists and turns. Factor in Herbie, the audacious photographer, Ham (Holly's dad) and other assorted characters and you get the ridiculous with the sublime.

The setting moves from NYC to Orchid Beach to Santa Fe to NYC, including the dinners at Elaine's and other assorted restaurants, all on a hunt for a killer with mafia roots. Holly, along with her trusty attack dog, Daisy, is determined to bring him to justice, dead or alive. Along the way, she and Stone are nearly killed. But you know they will survive to see another day.

There's not a lot of gore. There's honor among thieves (thankfully for Stone and Holly.) Bad things happen to bad people who did bad things to good people.

Have you read any of his books? I read them as I find them, not always in order, but the books give enough detail to pick up stories that have occurred before. Holly's fiance (in another book) was killed in a bank robbery the day they were to marry. A cult is involved and she has yet to catch the cult leader. There's always another book. That's a good thing!

I like the series, so I give it a 4.

Karin

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Originally posted 2008-06-07 17:59:39.

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I really enjoyed this book and give it 5 ***** out of 5. It is almost a YA book, but not quite.

It is only available for Kindle (but you can read it with a free app):

I purchased it from Amazon, when I heard about it.

The story involves two different time frames, and the book alternates chapters, pretty much, between the two of them. In the earlier story, we learn of several teens who are bullied at school. Ultimately they band together as super heroes against their tormentors. Each one has a particular expertise, and we learn how each one honed theirs.

Some is improbable, but what the hey! It makes a great story.

In the alternate chapters, the modern time frame, the teens are grown up. Theo Phillips has graduated from Harvard with a journalism degree, which doesn't get him a job. He is back in Houston with heavy college loans. The only job he can get is with a franchised burger place. He is a whiz with numbers and before long, the suggestion box is full of his innovations, which net the company mega bucks, and they begin to court him for bigger things. But he enjoys his co-workers, one of whom is trying to extricate himself from one of the two rival gangs that control the drugs in Houston.

When the gang targets his co-worker (and himself) in a brutal attack, Theo vows to fight back. He gathers his old friends together, and they take on the gangs while protecting themselves and the co-worker (who is hospitalized.)

The book is very well written. Syers self-published it, thinking he could do better than most self-published books. I think he succeeded. He says he has more stories in this series, and I look forward to them. He says he was bullied as a kid until he took up karate and learned to defend himself. He is an accountant in his other life.

He has developed the personalities clearly and well. I liked the relationships between the co-workers and between the Whiz Kids, later known as The Brainiacs.

I think it would make a terrific movie! If he sells it, you heard it here first.

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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Jim Butcher has another hit on his hands with his latest in the Dresden Files series, Turn Coat. Once again, Harry Dresden, the last wizard in Chicago is pitting his wits against the dark forces marshaled against him and the White Council. This is book 11 in the series, so if you like a good series, this is one to really consider.

The White Council of Wizards [is] the governing body for the practice of magic in the world, and made up of its most powerful practitioners...God help the poor practitioner who broke one of the Laws. p 8

I admire the way Butcher has constructed an entire universe around more or less believable lines. We have Harry, the wizard detective, with his loyal cohorts: the fairies (with courageous Toot toot again); the pack of werewolves; even a sort of alignment with Lara, the scary vampire queen of the White Court, the 'better' vamps. We can be pretty sure Harry survives in each book, even if it is by the skin of his teeth, but that is at least one thing we do not need to worry about.

And since I'm not expecting the Never Never land to open up, I'm not worried about the rest of the dark forces showing up some day or night either. So it is pure (that's an oxymoron) escapism, with lots of clever dialogue and clever thoughts in the narration voice of Harry, who has been compared to Phillip Marlowe, and twists and turns, and always a hanging end at the end because, after all, the fight with evil never ends...and there is a next book.

I understand there was a TV series, which I never saw as I didn't learn about it until after I started reading the series. I wish they had made a movie out of each book instead, as they are doing with Twilight and with Harry Potter. Perhaps they will do this in the future. I'd be first in line to buy tickets.

Harry is thrown into the deep end when Morgan, the Warden who has been sure Harry should be curtailed (dead) shows up on his threshold covered with blood, asking Harry to hide him from the Council. He has been charged with murder, having been caught with the bloody knife in his hand. Of course, in getting away he has killed several other Wardens, and the Council of Wardens are understandably after him. Harry knows a bit about being unjustly targeted, so he takes him in, against the better judgment of anyone who knows him.

There is a mole in the Council. Can he or she be found?

And then there's his brother (half-brother) Thomas, the vamp who runs a salon instead of running the night, who is taken by an especially powerful and evil shapeshifter. Not everyone knows that Thomas is Harry's brother, so there is some consternation at how much Harry undertakes to get him back.

There is just such an interesting mix of characters. It doesn't take long to figure out who the cast is and how they fit, and even to care about them and to wonder what's next. I don't think it is necessary to read the books in order. Frankly, book 1 is probably my least fave and I read it about 3rd.

Butcher has an ability to write really interesting fight/war scenes with a lot of paranormal thrown in. This is Harry Potter grown up and to the nth.

Have you read any of these books?
This is a series I'd like to own (and reread) for the pithy dialogue and interesting insights into human nature. I can't say that about many books.

Have you ever listened to any of the series?
I would love to hear an audio book, assuming there are some. Yes! there is:

I wonder who the reader is. James Marsters -- hmmm, who is he. I'm going to have to check one out.

Get thee down to your nearest library and check the book out. (It's in modern dialogue, even if that last sentence is not.)

My take: I rate it a 4 out of 4.
Karin

Originally posted 2009-08-06 09:09:56.

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Once in a while a very clever idea comes along that I bet a lot of people will copy. This book is a tie-in to the TV show Castle. I got this book from the library. It is the third in the book series.

It is easy to picture the characters in the book because of the characters in the TV show.

"Richard Castle's" picture is used for the author of the book, but this is clearly not true, because Castle is a fictional character. No one is clear as to who the real author of the books is, or authors are, but it is thought that it might be the writers of the TV show.

The book is so intertwined with the TV show, that it is as if the success of one guarantees the success of the other. If you like the book, you'll try the TV show; if you like the TV show, you will likely read the books, so it might guarantee both a best seller and a long runny TV show. Very clever marketing.

Have you read any of the books?
I rate this 5* out of 5.

It starts with a murder in a New York bondage club and moves at a fast pace from there. The murdered man is a popular Catholic priest. He seems to be a legit kind of guy, not mixed up in something as seamy as a bondage club.

Before Nikki Heat can get to the parsonage, Captain Montrose has been there and done a thorough search of his own.

Nothing is what it seems. Corruption reaches to the highest level of the NYC police. And more than one person is out to kill Nikki, as she gets too close to the truth.

It is also available for Kindle

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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Janet Evanovich is in high form in Explosive Eighteen. I've found a couple of the latter books to be rather lackluster, but this one is full of our favorite characters, with a laugh or two on every page, with both ridiculous situations -- and dangerous ones, and the quandary of which lover would best suit Stephanie. She is such a likeable character that the morality issue really never quite comes up. Would that we all had such a dilemma!

The story
Well, you know Stephanie is going to be after the bad guys and the not-so-bad guys (and women.) She gets herself into some serious jams, but she has Ranger to have her back, and Morelli is on call, when he isn't working. (I think he works too much and isn't really there when she needs him, to the extent that Ranger is.) (OTOH, she says she loves him. And she feels Ranger has his own issues to deal with.)

Grandma Mazur is up to her old tricks, and this time she is with Annie Hart (and another love potion...)

We are dropped in the middle of the story when Stephanie comes back from Hawaii early, leaving Morelli and Ranger to fight it out. We learn more about the whys and wherefores later in the book. (And I'm not telling.)

On the plane, the fellow she sits next to either gives her an envelope containing a picture on purpose, or he inadvertently drops it in her bag, thinking it is his, as they are identical. And then he is found murdered.

And doncha just know that a lotta bad guys are after that photo, all thinking that Stephanie has it, but she threw it out at her parents' and the trash has already been picked up. And Stephanie can't get the picture right, when she sits with a (two) sketch artist(s.) (It turns out the picture is not at all what we suspect and very clever indeed.)

Meantime Joyce Barnhardt shows up at Stephanie's apartment, when everyone thinks she has been crushed in a car at the junkyard.

And Lula is exactly what is needed to give this book all the breeze and humor you could possibly want -- and interesting costume getups. Not to mention that it is easy to picture her now that Sherri Shepherd nailed the part in the movie.

Have you read it?
I rate it 5* out of 5. It is definitely a keeper. I got the book from the library (waiting for it, because I was number 180 something on the list or so...and will pass it to Book Girl and a friend before it is due back.) It is seriously good to have so many laughs.

It is available for Kindle:

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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I think I'm getting a little tired of this series, although it still reads fast and is familiar. I got this from the library.

This time Stone and Dino are called to D.C. by Holly and Lance to investigate, at the behest of the president, two deaths deemed suicides -- first the wife, then her husband.

As the bodies mount up, it is apparent there is a serial killer on the loose. But who it is and how to catch him or her is in question.

It turns out the husband was not who he appeared to be. He has regularly been seeing multiple lovers, and appears to be a sex addict.

Stone and Dino share a suite in a hotel overlooking the White House.

Stone does his usual amoral thing of bedding every woman he comes in contact with, including Holly (again.) He is coming out of being widowed. I don't find these scenes erotic or even particularly interesting; they are so truncated. You know the drill: about two sentences, fade into the next chapter.

Dino also has a lover in this book. You never see any of this in any detail.

The foursome are quite chummy, discussing much of the case and the results of the investigation. And there has been a leak somewhere.

Meantime there is a rogue agent after the fugitive Teddy Fay. I think Teddy would simply like to live his life with Lauren Cade, but it is not to be. Unfortunately, he is forced to play a hand he knows all too well.

There is a bit with both Stone's son and Dino's son. Very little, not even enough to whet your interest.

Have you read it?
I rate it 3 star. There is a lot of serious violence, some on the page, some off the page as it is discovered, and the amoral bedding of nearly every female by Stone. I didn't care for either of it, but it is hard to put down, because the interest in the characters has been set up in previous books.

It is beginning to have elements of fantasy, as far as I'm concerned. Would that we were all so wealthy!

It is available for Kindle:

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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It's been a while since I've read one of this series, so I will have some catching up to do on the middle books, but I was glad to get back into the series.

Sue Grafton is a master at her genre. And this story has a surprising number of story lines that all come together, woven impeccably.

In the beginning, I had a hard time sorting out what was happening, but shortly thereafter, it began to make sense.

The characters and situations
Kinsey Millhone, the private detective, who witnesses blatant shoplifting in Nordstroms
Phillip, a young man awash in gambling debts, who takes a high dive off a building in Las Vegas
Audrey, the older woman, caught shoplifting, who jumps off a bridge to her death
The younger woman, Audrey's accomplice, who isn't caught with her
Marvin, Audrey's fiance, who can't believe she is an accomplished thief
Dante, the loan shark, who has a kind heart
Cappi, Dante's vicious brother
Nora who finds out her husband has been having an affair...
Channing, Nora's husband

How they intertwine
Well, I won't give anything away, but the above list would have helped me sort it out in the beginning.

I will say, how they intertwine is very well done, as is the scene where everything falls apart and guns are blazing.

My take
I'd give this book a 5 out of 5, if it weren't that I was confused in the beginning, which might be my fault entirely. I give it a 4.

Have you read it?
I got it from the new book section of my library.

It is also available for Kindle

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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I thought I had reviewed these books already, but evidently not. I have read all of these in Kindle format, and I bought them -- they were not given to me to review.

This is an intriguing series. There are now 3 books, and I can't wait for the fourth Beside Still Waters. It should be soon! Publication date is March 2012.

The Lord is my Shepherd
I shall not want
Lie Down in Green Pastures.

The characters
Rabbi Jeremiah Silverman's synagogue is next door to First Shepherd Presbyterian where Cindy Preston is church secretary. Both main characters have their own pasts to deal with. Jeremiah may very well have been in Israeli secret forces (or something else) and Cindy has her own ghosts to lay to rest. Jeremiah wants no publicity; he's started over with a congregation. You get the feeling that he doesn't want to be found.

Then the body count begins (in each book.) The two are drawn together to solve the mysteries. Each saves the other, Jeremiah hiding his capabilities, until this latest book. I believe and hope there will be a romance between them. Jeremiah's secretary is dead set against him having anything to do with Cindy. But in the long run, it is God/Adonai who is drawing them together for his own purposes.

And Cindy has a nose for murder, for thinking it is murder, when no one else does. And the police urge her to leave it to the professionals, which she doesn't, and she lands herself in trouble more than once. But she is compelled; she can't lay it to rest. She is gutsy, forthright, and courageous in facing her own fears. She rocks!

Lie Down in Green Pastures is the latest book, and it is more intense than the others. Jeremiah is forced to use his skills to save a group of kids at Green Meadows Camp. The kids are on a sharp learning curve when a bomb is set at the camp, when the river is rising, and they must do exactly as he says, because there are trained assassins in the forest with an agenda of their own.

Peripheral characters in each book are Cindy's mother (who sees only her brother) and her brother (who is always trumped over Cindy) and the police detective Mark Walters and (and in this book) Paul. Also, Joseph, the wealthy man from GSP, and his now girlfriend Geanie who works with Cindy.

I give the series a 4 out of 4, and this one is a 5. It helps to know you won't lose any of the main characters, even if they are hurt. There is a surprise in this one at the very end, but I won't give it away. I wonder if that is where the next book will go...

Have you read any of them?
Debbie Viguie has written other books and other series. She was herself a church secretary at one time.

Here's the scoop on book 4 -- doesn't it sound great!

Cindy travels to Hawaii over Memorial Day weekend for her long-planned vacation. Her dream vacation quickly becomes a nightmare though when she becomes swept up in sinister events and is kidnapped by ruthless men who will stop at nothing to keep her from talking to the police. When Cindy fails to return home Jeremiah must travel to Honolulu to search for her. It will take all her wits to survive and all his skill to find her before it’s too late. http://debbieviguie.com/

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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Saving Grace by Norah Wilson is another perfect book from this author. Guarding Suzannah is the other one of hers that I have reviewed. Both are in her Serve and Protect series, available from Smashwords.

Full disclosure: I was given a pdf file for review. It is available in many formats, including mobi for Kindle.

My rating
I rate this 5* out of 5*. They just don't get any better than this. There is nothing that I would change in it. It is one of my favorite genres to read, romantic suspense. And it has the perfect mix of romance and suspense, without getting gruesome in any details, though there is some violence. And the romance aspects are well done. There is always love.

The Story
The story opens with Police Detective Ray Morgan drinking himself into a stupor. His wife Grace left him for another man. She told him that night, then took off. But a phone call from John Quigley (the hero from Saving Suzannah) rouses him (barely) from his anger and self-pity. Grace has had a serious accident. It's a wonder she is alive. She has a serious concussion, with gaps in her memory. She has basically lost a week's worth of memory. She doesn't remember leaving Ray; she doesn't remember another man; and her doctor tells Ray he is not to tell her.

Meantime Quig tells him to take 2 weeks off to get his marriage straight, though Quig doesn't know any of the details. That is just about the last thing Ray wants to do. He is still in love with his wife.

The plot thickens when Grace realizes she no longer has her job as a reporter. And there is a chunk of cash. Then the bullets start to fly, and she and Ray have to use their wits to survive, especially since internal investigations thinks Ray enticed another officer to the bullets.

What I liked
I really did like it all. There was a perfect mix of romance and suspense.

I liked the relationship between Ray and Grace. Ray learns how much he had neglected his wife, unwittingly, and that she wants more from their marriage. I was glad Quig knew Ray wouldn't have gone rogue, so he helps Ray at a crucial point. I loved Grace's strength and her desire to gain back her memories no matter what.

I liked that there wasn't gratuitous violence, and there were no deaths.

Have you read any of Norah Wilson's books?
She is a 3-Time Golden Heart Finalist and winner of New Voice in Romance contest.

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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Originally posted 2011-01-15 17:09:21.

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