This is a thoroughly researched and wonderfully imagined story, a match-up between two of history's most fascinating and mysterious men. The author makes skillful use of the known historical details of Houdini's time in Russia and the rise of Rasputin to weave a plausible tale of a clash between the two larger-than-life figures—a clever book and a great read!

I expected to love this book. I liked it, kind of. It starts with a great premise, but it moves so slowly. I know I'm in the minority here, but at times I was so bogged down I had a little trouble finishing it. For a book that begins with time travel and offers so much promise of action, it spends an awful lot of time in the everyday domestic sphere. And really, how many pages of a book should be devoted to sex between a married couple? Not to spoil anything, but Diana Gabaldon seems to think a whole lot of them. I doubt I will read more in the series, but I suppose I'm glad to be among the initiated who have at least read the first.

Revisited this classic as a family read-aloud this Christmas season. Truthfully, my kids are a little old for such things, but we all enjoyed it anyway. Such a wonderful story!

This is a fun, light mystery. Cece is facing life on her own after her jerk husband up and leaves her. Struggling to make ends meet and maintain her relationship with her teenage and grown daughters while dodging the judgment and interference of her wicked mother-in-law, CeCe finds herself cleaning crime scenes. Soon she finds she's in the middle of a murder investigation herself, one that may implicate her oldest daughter and her daughter's closest friends. And then she finds herself with a complicated crush the lead detective on the case. The pacing of this novel is about perfect and it's great to watch CeCe emerging as a self-reliant and determined woman.

My sons have both loved this series and have been pestering me to read it for quite a while. It's pretty much everything they promised. Well imagined, well written, and completely charming. A little scary, too. It's taken me a couple of books to fully embrace the character of Seth, but he got to shine a little bit in this one, and stepped briefly out of his role as the annoying younger brother who messes up everything. A great second book. I will eventually get around to reading the entire series. I know I won't be disappointed.

I really enjoyed this story and getting to know these characters. I did find the present tense distracting as well as the inconsistent POV, but these are artistic choices made and well-executed by a skilled author, so I can get over that. Fikry develops from an extremely unlikable, closed off character into an emotionally deep and sympathetic one as he becomes a father to a precocious little girl left on his doorstep and welcomes an unlikely love into his life. Well done. Good read.

This is a visually stunning book and a beautiful way to explore the life of the woman who created one of the world's greatest literary monsters.

This is a wonderful story, full of humor and sorrow and redemption. It features a great cast of quirky characters, most of whom are easy to root for. I was a little disappointed in the character of Portia who is just almost too awful to really be believable, but I can forgive that. The author has made several unusual choices with this novel, the most obvious of which is the little stories embedded within the larger. These are lovely and add quite a bit to the overall feel of the novel. I did feel a little cheated a few times when the narrative takes the reader right up to a big scene and then cuts away from it to backfill the details later in the next chapter. This occurs at least three times in the novel. And then there's the choice to switch POV frequently and without pattern. Occasionally within the space of a paragraph or two the POV shifts from woman to dog to man and back again. It's a little confusing at times, but somehow it all works. It's a heartwarming book that left me with a sense of gratefulness. And also craving a lovely cup of tea.

This is really probably more of a 3 1/2 star book for me. It came highly recommended and I'm glad I read it, but I didn't love it as much as I wanted to. The world building is really well done, but the misdirection and insanely lucky planning of Kaz, the ringleader of this likeable gang of thugs, gets a little tedious after a while. I found myself skimming at times through the action because even though it took place in an unfamiliar, and well-imagined setting, it wasn't remarkably different than most heist stories I've read or watched. But, the characters are well-drawn. I don't know that I'm feeling compelled the read the next book. Still, I enjoyed this one.

This book was worth finishing, but it wasn't really for me. It centers on a plane crash in a remote part of Utah in winter so it is a story of survival. That part of it works fairly well. Clearly the author has done the research and given his characters plenty of obstacles to contend with, maintaining a believable balance between their successes and their inevitable failures. There were times when I questioned both the amazingly lucky knowledge and skill set of the main character and also the occasional strange gaps in his knowledge that didn't make sense given his profession as a surgeon. But I can forgive that. The survival story did get a little tedious at times, the descriptions of the characters' actions maybe a little too drawn out, but a reader more interested in wilderness survival than I am would probably appreciate the attention to detail. My biggest problem with the book came toward the end. The backstory of the main character and his wife (from whom he says he is separated) is revealed slowly, but at about 2/3 of the way through the novel it became obvious what the portion of his story left untold has to entail. So then when the grand reveal (which I won't spoil here) comes at the end it feels overwritten and a little unsatisfying. Still, I enjoyed rooting for the survivors to overcome the obstacles they faced in the aftermath of the plane crash and I felt their disappointments when their plans didn't always go well.

I read this one with my sons as their choice for a family read-aloud and though we loved the premise and ultimately enjoyed the story, it really wasn't great for that. The dialogue, though at times very witty, was awkward and repetitive and even my ten-year-old was bothered at times by the excessive tags that made reading the book aloud particularly tedious. Most of the characters, too, struck all of us as fairly one-dimensional and terribly shallow. But the book did place the characters in some really interesting moral quandaries that sparked some great conversations. We all agree that we will continue to give the series a chance and are hopeful that as the characters develop further, we'll discover more to love.

Really this book probably deserves more stars. It is a compelling read with richly imagined characters and plenty of hard-earned redemption. This book is not easily put down, but it's also not easily read. There are wonderful things in it, but there's far more ugly. Readers sensitive to stories about abuse will probably find it an unmanageable read, but I find I am glad I read it and spent a little time in its dark and dangerous world. Greenwood masterfully shined unexpected light into the darkness and tugged at my heart when I wouldn't have thought it possible.

Hmm. I definitely wanted to like this book more than I did. Despite the various dialects that sometimes made it a little annoying to read, and the bizarre fonts that occasionally signaled the NOISE (the disease state of the male characters, the symptom of which was that their every thoughts could be heard), I kept reading because it was definitely intriguing. In the end I don't feel like it delivered on the promises it made, and that ultimately the plot was a little weak. But I LOVED the character of Manchee, the main character's dog, whose thoughts could also be heard and were generally funny, and sometimes quite sweet. All in all, this is a pretty unique take on the Dystopian genre and I could see a lot of fans of the genre really liking it. It just wasn't really for me.

I've loved Tyler's books since I was a kid and this was the best one I've read in a long time. Wonderful, quirky characters who are just so strange and so easy to love at the same time.

I'm a big fan of Dystopian fiction and there was a lot to like in this book. I was particularly drawn in by the first part of the book in which we meet the main character Darrow, a grunt laborer in the underground of Mars, whose eyes are soon opened to the realities of an advanced civilization in which he and his people serve as the lowliest of slaves within an oppressive caste system. The setting is vivid and strange, the characters compelling, and their lives sort of beautiful and heart-wrenching. That fascinating background takes up the first 50 pages of the book.

Then there is a sharp turn in which Darrow is removed from that life by a well-organized group of rebels that have him "carved," or surgically altered, to fit the characteristics of the highest class of society. He's given a new identity and tested for an elite academy with the hopes that he can achieve success within the upper class, and eventually serve the rebellion's purposes as it attempts to dismantle the brutal caste system. So then in the rest of the novel Darrow finds himself at this academy fighting for position in a deadly game of war strategy, reminiscent at times of the Hunger Games. This is all interesting, too, but I did find myself craving more of a solid connection to Darrow's background story. I felt like once the story moved on to the academy war game part, Darrow as a character got harder to pin down and this was sometimes frustrating, as was the large cast of characters in general that I show more sometimes had difficulty keeping track of.

But I did finish the book, and enjoyed it. I will read the next one, because as the two storylines that make up the character of Darrow come back together I think there are a lot of really interesting possibilities to explore. Fans of Dystopian fiction probably won't be disappointed with this first book. It delivers on all the elements that I would say define the genre, and as a start to a trilogy, it is definitely promising. show less

This is a captivating story within a story, with the emphasis on the aftermath of what appears to be a grisly murder committed by a talented illusionist. I loved this book, with its just right balance of fascinating historical figures and details along with fully imagined characters, intriguing plot twists, and just a hint of real magic.

Loved this book. So witty!

This is a sweet little romance, a great light read for summer, with plenty of intrigue, a little danger, some shady characters, a troubled teen, and the most precious pitbull ever. And a bonus for this reader, it's set in the city of St. Louis. I enjoyed this one!

Fun book. We listened to the audio on a family road trip and everyone got plenty of chuckles from it.

This is a beautiful book. It's a little difficult to grasp initially because the pov reads as an omniscient third person with the occasional reminder that the narrator is actually a spirit character who chimes in from time to time in the first person. But as the stories of the three main characters unfold and eventually intertwine, the novel becomes a little easier to piece together and the narration becomes pretty stunningly effective. It's a meandering exploration of myth and history and what it means to be free. Well balanced and gracefully nuanced, Moore has written a wonderful story.

This was an enjoyable read. It is a straight up mystery with a thought-provoking exploration into the power and danger of predictive mathematics. Some of the leaps taken as the main protagonist was putting together the clues, I found a little implausible, or at least not entirely well-supported, but the author took some clever, unexpected turns as well. All in all a good read.

I adored this book. I haven't read a whole lot of steampunk so I don't really know if this is a good representative of the genre, but I definitely think I need to read more. What wonderful, imaginative world building. Boneshaker is a wild, vivid, delightful read from the first page to the last.

This book was so lovely and funny and just kind of perfect. The premise alone might be enough to recommend it: an IT guy tasked with policing misuses of work email ends up regularly reading the correspondence of two office gal pals and in the process falls madly in love with one of them. What to do? The storytelling is sharp and witty and the characters utterly adorable.

A haunting story, well put together.

Fun book! Jam packed with information that will make you squirm, and also make you question every health fad you ever hear of. And that's something you should definitely do. Seriously.

This was a good read. Daughter of the Cimarron is the fictionalized story of the author's mother Claire. She survives heartache and divorce to find a fresh start with a new love at the beginning of the Great Depression. Challenged by the stresses of a career change, financial hardship, messy family dynamics, and an uncommunicative husband, Claire struggles to find the happy ending she always expected.

In some ways this is a familiar story of everyday struggle, but Hall's characters are rich and compelling. I found myself rooting for Claire, struck by both her strengths and her imperfections. I often avoid books shelved as Christian fiction because the call to salvation that characterizes them tends to strike me as contrived. That's not the case in this book. Claire wrestles with a faith that seems just beyond her reach, but her day-to-day struggle is more human than spiritual. Claire is not particularly glorified, but is simply drawn as a woman on a journey. By the end of the novel, that journey looks promising, but also realistically incomplete.

I really enjoyed this book of personal essays, beginning with the author's childhood in a quirky small town in Idaho, reminiscent of my own beloved hometown. At times very light, and at other times more serious, the essays cover both the time the author's mother wore the most embarrassing shoes ever and the devastating realization that the author's baby had suffered abuse at the hands of a trusted nanny. The reader gets a front row seat as the author adjusts to life as an expat in Asia to then be faced with even bigger culture shock as her family settles in Texas. Later she barely survives the horrendous world of working retail only to fall into a position in the shady world of surveillance, where she attains a fabulous wig and perfects the art of quickly changing clothes in the back of a speeding car. The perfect combination of fun and poignant, each essay is such a pleasure to read that I was probably only half way through the book when I bought a second copy to give as a gift.

As a Central Illinoisan turned Missourian I have been surrounded by the tales of Jesse James my whole life. He's the handsome soldier-turned outlaw on a mission, who slipped through the fingers of law enforcement as he continued to fight for the Confederacy during Reconstruction. He was a hero to some, a villain to most, and has become a Missouri legend. But I didn't know anything about the quieter part of his life. He was also a husband and a father. And he had to be hard to love. The heroine of this novel is Zee James, whose love for her husband Jesse never faltered, even when she wasn't sure what he was up to, or when she had to live under an assumed name and fear for the safety of her children, or when she just wished he might give up his life as an outlaw and settle in a home they could truly call theirs. Wahler has given Zee a voice in the Jesse James legend, and has woven an emotional tale of complicated devotion in this well-researched and fascinating novel.

This is a work of World War II era military fiction and the author, a US Navy veteran, seems to hit all the right notes, guiding the reader through a vivid and realistic view of life aboard a Navy vessel. The World War II history enthusiast will find a lot to love about this novella as the protagonist Preston Katt experiences the attack on Pearl Harbor and then finds himself thrust into nearly every battle to come in the Pacific.

But the best part of the book is the fully drawn character of Preston Katt himself. A young Seaman Second Class on the USS Callahan, Katt leaves behind a youth spent with a mother who wouldn't know how to love him even if she wanted to. Aboard the Callahan and in the midst of war, Katt finally finds purpose, belonging, family, and home.

This is a fascinating book that follows a century's worth of generations of witches through one family, their stories each compelling and intertwining nicely. It was a bold choice in the last section to assign the practice of witchcraft to Queen Elizabeth (the queen mum, not the sovereign), and I found myself a little uncomfortable at times in the ways in which the craft was used. I also wasn't sure the fear of discovery always seemed particularly genuine given the widespread interest in the occult through much the 19th century. I would like for that to have at least been addressed. But overall, an enjoyable read.