The Priest's Graveyard

Ted Dekker left me asking for more after this one!!!



Synopsis:

Two abandoned souls are on the hunt for one powerful man. Soon, their paths will cross and lead to one twisted fate.

Danny Hansen is a Bosnian immigrant who came to America with hopes of escaping haunted memories of a tragic war that took his mother's life. Now he's a priest who lives by a law of love and compassion. It is powerful men and hypocrites who abide by legal law but eschew the law of love that most incense Danny. As an avenging angel, he believes it is his duty to show them the error of their ways, at any cost.

Renee Gilmore is the frail and helpless victim of one such powerful man. Having escaped his clutches, she now lives only to satisfy justice by destroying him, regardless of whom she must become in that pursuit.

But when Danny and Renee's paths become inexorably entangled things go very, very badly and neither of them may make it out of this hunt alive.

Judge not, or you too will be judged.

What is this book is all about...

The characters in this story are as complex as they come, but yet they are simple enough for anyone to understand, identify with, and love. This is one story where you will love the "bad guy". As strange as it sounds, you will cheer him on and demand that he do more. Yet, for the main female character, he will be both her savior and her tormentor. This is one story where the end will leave you with more questions than answers. However, questions are good for the soul. They force us to stop and take a closer look at decisions we make. Are we making choices that only benefit ourselves, or are we making choices that will help those around us more and in turn benefit us to a much greater degree by transforming us into a better version of ourselves?

No matter where you are when you begin reading this book, you will not be the same after you have finished it. You may not notice it at first, but it will make a home in your heart and begin to influence your thoughts, your questions, your decisions, and you. It will give you a broader view of the other humans you share this plant with. It will encourage you to look past yourself and straight into their eyes for a full view of their life, their heart, and how they are not much different then you.

Jamie McGuire - Beautiful Disaster

Synopsis:

Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants—and needs—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

My Opinion:

The book Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire has been all around the Blogosphere lately. It became available on Netgalley and many bloggers are currently reading it. This book has caused many controversy and has earned some really nasty reviews, still, the book has an average rating of 4.13.

I'm not sure what to write about this book. The reviews for the book were SOOO incredibly misleading. I thought Travis was going to hit her, or come close, the way everyone was going on about the 'abuse' in the book. I get it, it was intense.

This is a book about an alpha male. Just because it's not a paranormal book and instead, a contemporary, it's not ok for him to act like that? I'm a pretty (very) conservative person and I've read paranormal books where the guys act worse than that.

Abby was the one who got on my nerves the most throughout the book for jerking Travis around all the time.

The thing that makes this story both intriguing and appalling, is Travis' obsession with Abby. He is consumed by her. She becomes his everything. Exhilarating in theory; unhealthy in reality! His obsession, at times, becomes disturbing and worrisome. In the end Travis makes some behavioral changes, albeit more surface than substance, hoping to win Abby back. He succeeds, and Abby returns to the relationship. In doing so, some readers may believe in the misconception that one person can change another.

While a part of me knows better I still loved so much about this book. I am a girl, after all! Will I recommend this books to my young rephew? No. Very few teens have either the experience or maturity to distinguish between fantasy and reality.

The Killing Place

Synopsis:

In Wyoming for a medical conference, Boston medical examiner Maura Isles joins a group of friends on a spur-of-the-moment ski trip. But when their SUV stalls on a snow-choked mountain road, they’re stranded with no help in sight.

As night falls, the group seeks refuge from the blizzard in the remote village of Kingdom Come, where twelve eerily identical houses stand dark and abandoned. Something terrible has happened in Kingdom Come: Meals sit untouched on tables, cars are still parked in garages. The town’s previous residents seem to have vanished into thin air, but footprints in the snow betray the presence of someone who still lurks in the cold darkness—someone who is watching Maura and her friends.

Days later, Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli receives the grim news that Maura’s charred body has been found in a mountain ravine. Shocked and grieving, Jane is determined to learn what happened to her friend. The investigation plunges Jane into the twisted history of Kingdom Come, where a gruesome discovery lies buried beneath the snow. As horrifying revelations come to light, Jane closes in on an enemy both powerful and merciless—and the chilling truth about Maura’s fate.

My Opinion:

In Ice Cold, Gerritsen goes a bit out of the norm for her. Dr. Maura Isles goes to a medical conference that quickly turns bad when she makes the decision to go on an adventure with a friend from college. One sketchy gas station, one scary but non-lethal car accident and more than a few bad decisions left this group of four adults and one thirteen year old girl stranded in a town whose residents seem to have completely disappeared. With no one knowing where she went, Maura was left on her own with a band of not so helpful refugees to survive in this ill fated town during a snow storm that threatens their very lives.

While most of the Rizolli and Isles books were murder mysteries where we followed detective Jane Rizolli and Dr. Maura Isles solve a murder (that generally winds up being a serial killer) in " The Killing Place", we were instead following Isles as she struggled for survival after one terrible decision.

The book did,of course, have mystery to it, though the dead bodies really don't start piling up until closer to the end.  I enjoyed reading it...

Broken

Synopsis:

When Special Agent Will Trent arrives in Grant County, he finds a police department determined to protect its own and far too many unanswered questions about a prisoner’s death. He doesn’t understand why Officer Lena Adams is hiding secrets from him. He doesn’t understand her role in the death of Grant County’s popular police chief. He doesn’t understand why that man’s widow, Dr. Sara Linton, needs him now more than ever to help her crack this case.

While the police force investigates the murder of a young woman pulled from a frigid lake, Trent investigates the police force, putting pressure on Adams just when she’s already about to crack. Caught between two complicated and determined women, trying to understand Linton’s passionate distrust of Adams, the facts surrounding Chief Tolliver’s death, and the complexities of this insular town, Trent will unleash a case filled with explosive secrets—and encounter a thin blue line that could be murderous if crossed.

Spellbinding and keenly paced, Broken is Karin Slaughter at her best. Here is an unforgettable story of raw emotions, dangerous assumptions, the deadly and layered game of betrayal, and a man’s determination to expose the most painful of human truths—no matter how deeply they’re hidden . . . or how devastating.

My Opinion:

Karin Slaughter always gives a pretty good thrill, but I'm getting a little tired of the whole Grant County scene. I absolutely love Will Trent, and I'd like to see him well away from Angie and preferably with Sarah, but all these serial killer-type situations in one tiny, minuscule, happy, joyous (as Slaughter delights in reminding us) town is getting a bit old, frankly.

It was entertaining, especially the interaction between Lena and Frank in the beginning. I was really sort of looking forward to a showdown between Sarah and Lena, but I think it was a good call on Slaughter's part to just leave out all the drama that would have ensued. In short, I like Slaughter's writing, I just really wish she'd branch out a bit more. Maybe change up the characters and the setting. I really like Will, but if dropping him is what it takes to add some spark to this constant whirlwind of Lena-Sarah-Jeffrey's issues, then I wish she'd just get on with it. Strangely enough, I don't like the stories about Will and Faith, either; she reminds me too much of Lena - harsh and forceful. You can certainly see how these characters have personality and come alive, but Will and Sarah by contrast come across as sweet, innocent angels to Faith and Lena's unhinged, unexpected rage. It's just kind of cynical and depressing to read. Amanda Wagner (Will's boss) could be added to this number too. Why can't the girls be more... balanced?

But I digress. 'Broken' is quite good if you're reading this author for the first time; not so good if this is your eighth experience with the books in this series.

The Bride Collector

Synopsis:

FBI Special agent Brad Raines is facing his toughest case yet. A Denver serial killer has killed four beautiful young women, leaving a bridal veil at each crime scene, and he's picking up his pace. Unable to crack the case, Raines appeals for help from a most unusual source: residents of the Center for Wellness and Intelligence, a private psychiatric institution for mentally ill individuals whose are extraordinarily gifted.

It's there that he meets Paradise, a young woman who witnessed her father murder her family and barely escaped his hand. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Paradise may also have an extrasensory gift: the ability to experience the final moments of a person's life when she touches the dead body.

In a desperate attempt to find the killer, Raines enlists Paradise's help. In an effort to win her trust, he befriends this strange young woman and begins to see in her qualities that most 'sane people' sorely lack. Gradually, he starts to question whether sanity resides outside the hospital walls...or inside.

As the Bride Collector picks up the pace-and volume-of his gruesome crucifixions, the case becomes even more personal to Raines when his friend and colleague, a beautiful young forensic psychologist, becomes the Bride Collector's next target.

The FBI believes that the killer plans to murder seven women. Can Paradise help before it's too late?

My Opinion:

Women of the Denver area are being targeted by a killer the FBI are calling The Bride Collector. The killer leaves his victims naked except for panties and a veil. The body is glued to the wall and the blood is drained from the victims.

FBI Special Agent Brad Raines is at a dead-end in his investigation. Nikki Holden, a forensic psychologist, working with Brad is of the opinion that the killer thinks of himself as the groom and that his preparations of the body are done out of love. When the killer leaves a note in the heel of his victim Brad and Nikki are at a loss to figure out the message that the killer is trying to convey.

Determining that the killer is both mentally ill and a genius the FBI turns to the Center for Wellness and Intelligence. The center is a private home for gifted, mentally ill residents. When Brad and Nikki visit the center, they meet residents Roudy, Andrea, Enrique and Paradise. People have their own set of personal problems but each is highly intelligent. Although the mannerisms of the group could be considered at times comical their mental problems are very real. The group works hard to decipher the meaning behind the message left by The Bride Collector and manage to reach a solution that is a big help to the FBI.

Brad suffers from a mental problem of his own in that he cannot forget his first love who killed herself because she didn’t think she was beautiful enough. The killer leaves a note that indicates he has taken a personal interest in Brad that makes Brad fear for anyone close to him.

Paradise seems to have the ability to see the final moments before a person’s death by touching the body. Brad works to gain Paradise’s trust and soon he is fascinated by Paradise who refers to herself as a skank because she feels she is ugly.

This is a fast-paced book and not your usual serial killer story. The Bride Collector ended too soon for me.

Nineteen Minutes

Synopsis:

Sterling is an ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens--until the day its complacency is shattered by an act of violence. Josie Cormier, the daughter of the judge sitting on the case, should be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened before her very own eyes--or can she? 

As the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show--destroying the closest of friendships and families. Nineteen Minutes asks what it means to be different in our society, who has the right to judge someone else, and whether anyone is ever really who they seem to be.

My opinion:

Jodi Picoult's books are always the same: something bad happens, we don't get to know all the details, and then there is a trial. And over the course of the trial and a series of flashbacks, the truth - and the true characters of the people involved - are revealed.

This one is no different. One morning, Peter Houghton walks into Sterling High and opens fire. Nineteen minutes, ten dead people and many wounded later, the shooting is over. But the aftermath has only begun.

The story spins together the strands of Alex Cormier, a county judge with an increasingly distant relationship with her teenage daughter Josie, who was unharmed with present during the shooting. Jordan McAfee, a defense lawyer from Picoult's previous books, is defending Peter. Patrick, the lead detective, tries desperately to piece together the aftermath of a horrible crime. And Lacu Houghton, Peter's mother, tries to figue out where she went wrong and how to keep loving a child who is a murderer.

It's a fascinating, heart-rending portrayal of people under stress, and while the buildup is intriguing, the big reveal at the end fell a little flat for me. Still a decent read, though.

The Neighbour

Synopsis:

This is what happened …

It was a case guaranteed to spark a media feeding frenzy-a young mother, blond and pretty, disappears without a trace from her South Boston home, leaving behind her four-year-old daughter as the only witness and her handsome, secretive husband as the prime suspect.

In the last six hours …

But from the moment Detective Sergeant D. D. Warren arrives at the Joneses’ snug little bungalow, she senses something off about the picture of wholesome normality the couple worked so hard to create. On the surface, Jason and Sandra Jones are like any other hardworking young couple raising a four-year-old child. But it is just under the surface that things grew murkier.

Of the world as I knew it …

With the clock ticking on the life of a missing woman and the media firestorm building, Jason Jones seems more intent on destroying evidence and isolating his daughter than on searching for his “beloved” wife. Is the perfect husband trying to hide his guilt-or just trying to hide? And will the only witness to the crime be the killer’s next victim?

My Opinion:

Sandra Jones, a young wife, mother, and teacher has disappeared. When her husband returns from his job, reporting for a Boston paper, late one night his wife is nowhere to be found, and their 4-year-old is alone in the house. After searching the house and yard for her he calls the police.

Detective Sergeant D.D. Williams is called in to the case by the local police and immediately begins to suspect the husband, Jason. She doesn't think that he is responding in the right and expected way. Instead of being frantic about his wife, he is completely focused on their daughter Ree.
Before long there is another suspect offered up, a convicted sex offender who lived just five houses down, Aidan Brewster. And once they go to her school to talk to her fellow teachers, it would appear she has a passionate defender in a grade-seven student who has been helping her with Internet research.

As the police gather suspects rather than eliminating them, and both they and Jason agree that Ree knows more than she is saying, things get more and more tense.

We learn that both Sandra and Jason are fleeing from monsters in their past, and they haven't shared the specifics with each other. We learn the terrible sorrow of the young sex offender. Things are revealed to us little by little by the different voices, and just as quickly new questions are raised.

What was Jason doing on the Internet and what shocked Sandra into taking her concerns to others? What did Ree see? Why was Sandra so scared of her father? What is Jason running from?

This is a book that will keep you on the edge right until the end. A good read.

The Pact

From Jodi Picoult, one of the most powerful writers in contemporary fiction, comes a riveting, timely, heartbreaking, and terrifying novel of families in anguish—and friendships ripped apart by inconceivable violence.

 ♥ Synopsis ♥

Until the phone calls came at 3:00 a.m. on a November morning, the Golds and their neighbors, the Hartes, had been inseparable. It was no surprise to anyone when their teenage children, Chris and Emily, began showing signs that their relationship was moving beyond that of lifelong friends. But now seventeen-year-old Emily has been shot to death by her beloved and devoted Chris as part of an apparent suicide pact—leaving two devastated families stranded in the dark and dense predawn, desperate for answers about an unthinkable act and the children they never really knew.

 ♥ SMy Opinion ♥

Easily one of my favorite Picoult reads. I loved the style of the book - writing in the past and the present. The way the past tense writing ended up being what actually happened the night Emily died and how that met up with the present writing of what was going on in the trial was brilliant. One of the things I love about Picoult is that she keeps you guessing until the end. This is one of the book that turned into a beautiful, yet heart-breaking, love story about the kind of love a rare few experience.

✿JuLiE JaMeS's Novels ✿

Julie James...It's the name that comes to my mind  when anyone tell me about comtemporary romance genre.I absolutely LOVEs her writing - her novels make me laugh so hard. Here are some her novels which I have read and enjoyed!!

You know it's a FUN book when you have a big goofy grin on your face, the entire time you read this books. Simple,silly, humorous...fun fun fun..

♥ Something About You ♥  

FATE HAS THROWN TWO SWORN ENEMIES…

Of all the hotel rooms rented by all the adulterous politicians in Chicago, female Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Lynde had to choose the one next to 1308, where some hot-and-heavy lovemaking ends in bloodshed. And of all the FBI agents in Illinois, it had to be Special Agent Jack Pallas who gets assigned to this high-profile homicide. The same Jack Pallas who still blames Cameron for a botched crackdown three years ago—and nearly ruining his career…

…INTO EACH OTHER’S ARMS

Work with Cameron Lynde? Are they kidding? Maybe, Jack thinks, this is some kind of welcome-back prank after his stint away from Chicago. But it’s no joke: the pair is going to have to put their rocky past behind them and focus on the case at hand. That is, if they can cut back on the razor-sharp jibes—and smother the flame of their sizzling-hot sexual tension…

♥ Practice Makes Perfect ♥  

WHEN IT COMES TO THE LAWS OF ATTRACTION…

Payton Kendall and J.D. Jameson are lawyers who know the meaning of objection. A feminist to the bone, Payton has fought hard to succeed in a profession dominated by men. Born wealthy, privileged, and cocky, J.D. has fought hard to ignore her. Face to face, they’re perfectly civil. They have to be. For eight years they’ve kept a safe distance and tolerated each other as co-workers for one reason only: to make partner at the firm.

… THERE ARE NO RULES.

But all bets are off when they’re asked to join forces on a major case. At first apprehensive, they begin to appreciate each other’s dedication to the law—and the sparks between them quickly turn into attraction. But the increasingly hot connection doesn’t last long when they discover that only one of them will be named partner. Now it’s an all out war. And the battle between the sexes is bound to make these lawyers hot under the collar . . .

♥ Just the Sexiest Man Alive ♥  

COOL. CALM. COLLECTED.

Nothing fazes Taylor Donovan. In the courtroom she never lets the opposition see her sweat. In her personal life, she never lets any man rattle her–not even her cheating ex-fiancé. So when she’s assigned to coach People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” for his role in his next big legal thriller, she refuses to fall for the Hollywood heartthrob’s charms. Even if he is the Jason Andrews.

CONFIDENT. FAMOUS. IRRESISTIBLE.

Jason Andrews is used to having women fall at his feet. When Taylor Donovan gives him the cold shoulder, he’s thrown for a loop. She’s unlike any other woman he’s ever met: uninterested in the limelight, seemingly immune to his advances, and shockingly capable of saying no to him. She’s the perfect challenge. And the more she rejects him, the more he begins to realize that she may just be his perfect match. . .

✿The Apprentice: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel ✿

The bestselling author- Tess Gerritsen  returns—and so does that chilling novel’s diabolical villain. Though held behind bars, Warren Hoyt still haunts a helpless city, seeming to bequeath his evil legacy to a student all-too-diligent . . . and all-too-deadly.

 

 ♥ Synopsis ♥

It is a boiling hot Boston summer. Adding to the city’s woes is a series of shocking crimes, in which wealthy men are made to watch while their wives are brutalized. A sadistic demand that ends in abduction and death.

The pattern suggests one man: serial killer Warren Hoyt, recently removed from the city’s streets. Police can only assume an acolyte is at large, a maniac basing his attacks on the twisted medical techniques of the madman he so admires. At least that’s what Detective Jane Rizzoli thinks. Forced again to confront the killer who scarred her—literally and figuratively—she is determined to finally end Hoyt’s awful influence . . . even if it means receiving more resistance from her all-male homicide squad.

But Rizzoli isn’t counting on the U.S. government’s sudden interest. Or on meeting Special Agent Gabriel Dean, who knows more than he will tell. Most of all, she isn’t counting on becoming a target herself, once Hoyt is suddenly free, joining his mysterious blood brother in a vicious vendetta. . . .

Filled with superbly created characters—and the medical and police procedural details that are her trademark—The Apprentice is Tess Gerritsen at her brilliant best. Set in a stunning world where evil is easy to learn and hard to end, this is a thriller by a master who could teach other authors a thing or two.

 ♥ My Opinion ♥

The Apprentice is the second novel in Tess Gerritsen's Jane Rizzoli/Maura Isles series. About a year after Rizzoli solved "The Surgeon" case and sent Warren Hoyt to jail, another hot Boston summer sees another serial killer on the loose. This killer is mimicking many of The Surgeon's actions, but with some differences. As Warren Hoyt is safely locked up, is this a copycat? As well as dealing the with the psychological scarring the Surgeon inflicted on her, Rizzoli is once again up against her male chauvinist colleagues, but now there's also an (extremely attractive) FBI agent, Gabriel Dean, who has involved himself in her case .

The autopsies are performed by the very efficient Maura Isles, often dubbed "The Queen of the Dead". Soon, to everyone's dismay, Hoyt is no longer in custody, and it seems the killers are a team.Plenty of suspense: another page-turner. I'm looking forward to reading The Sinner.

✿TwenTies Girl and Can You Keep A SecRet ✿

Sophie Kinsella is well-known for her easy-to-read-breezes and hilarity throughout her novels -- this exactly what is brought to the table in her novels such as Twenties Girl and Can you keep a Secret.

Clever, funny, and genuine, both the books has all of the characteristics of basic "chick lit" category.

♥ Twenties Girl♥

Synopsis:

Lara has always had an overactive imagination. Now she wonders if she is losing her mind. Normal twenty-something girls just don’t get visited by ghosts! But inexplicably, the spirit of Lara’s great aunt Sadie – in the form of a bold, demanding Charleston-dancing girl – has appeared to make one last request: Lara must track down a missing necklace Sadie simply can’t rest without.

Lara’s got enough problems of her own. Her start-up company is floundering, her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, and she’s just been dumped by the love of her life.

But as Lara spends time with Sadie, life becomes more glamorous and their treasure hunt turns into something intriguing and romantic. Could Sadie’s ghost be the answer to Lara’s problems and can two girls from different times end up learning something special from each other?

My Opinion:

If you've ever read Sophie Kinsella, then I don't need to tell you Twenties Girl is laugh out loud funny! This is a story of Lara Lington whose dead great-aunt Sadie, shows up to have Lara find her missing dragonfly necklace so she can rest in peace. Sadie appears as a twenty something year old spirit and throws Lara's already out of control life into a tailspin.

Lara wants nothing more than to have her feisty fun loving spirited great-aunt leave her be! As Lara embarks on a quest for looking for a necklace, she ends up learning a lot about life and love from Sadie.

This book was so much fun to read. I loved both Lara and Sadie. Sadie at first seemed to be such a bother (though fun to read), but she really opened up Lara's eyes to seeing who she could be and to love life. Lara is even able to return the favor to Sadie as she stumbles upon the truth behind the darkest days of Sadie's youth. This is definite read.

♥ Can You Keep a Secret?♥

Synopsis:

Emma is sitting on a turbulent plane. She’s always been a v. nervous flyer. She really thinks that this could be her last moment. So, naturally enough, she starts telling the man sitting next to her – quite a dishy American, but she’s too frightened to notice -all her innermost secrets. How she scans the backs of intellectual books and pretends she’s read them. How she does her hair up like Princess Leia in her bedroom. How she’s not sure if she has a G-spot, and whether her boyfriend could find it anyway. How she feels like a fraud at work – everyone uses the word ‘operational’ all the time but she hasn’t a clue what it means. How the coffee at work is horrible. How she once threw a troublesome client file in the bin. If ever there was a bare soul, it’s hers.

She survives the flight, of course, and the next morning the famous founding boss of the whole mega corporation she works for is coming for a look at the UK branch. As he walks around, Emma looks up and realises…

It’s the man from the plane.

What will he do with her secrets? He knows them all – but she doesn’t know a single one of his. Or… does she? 

My Opinion:

Can You Keep a Secret is one of the most funniest, entertaining books I have read in a long time. Basically, this book is about a young entry level marketing rep who ends up spilling all of her secrets to a male stranger on a plane, when she thinks they're going to crash and die as a result of strong turbulence. Well, they don't crash, and this "stranger" ends up being the owner of the company she works for but who no one has ever seen-until after that flight. The book then proceeds to ponder the question, Should we keep secrets? And is there a price? in a most hilarious way.

✿The Surgeon: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel✿

Tess Gerritsen left a very successful career as an internist to raise her children and devote more time to writing. After several books that have had moderate success, Gerritsen has now written a gruesome and frightening story that should put her among the top women thriller writers working today.

One of her best work to date is her first novel titled " The Surgeon".

 ♥ Synopsis ♥

He slips into homes at night and walks silently into bedrooms where women lie sleeping, about to awaken to a living nightmare. The precision of his methods suggests that he is a deranged man of medicine, prompting the Boston newspapers to dub him “The Surgeon.” Led by Detectives Thomas Moore and Jane Rizzoli, the cops must consult the victim of a nearly identical crime: Two years ago, Dr. Catherine Cordell fought back and filled an attacker before he could complete his assault.

Now this new killer is re-creating, with chilling accuracy, the details of Cordell’s ordeal. With every new murder he seems to be taunting her, cutting ever closer, from her hospital to her home. And neither Moore nor Rizzoli can protect Cordell from a ruthless hunter who somehow understands—and savors—the secret fears of every woman he kills.

 ♥ My Opinion ♥

"The Surgeon' sucked me in from the first page, and kept me riveted from one shock to the next. With a plot as sharp as a scalpel, and a villain as nasty as Hannibal Lector, `The Surgeon' succeeds at being a terrifying read all the way up to it's explosive climax.

Tess Gerritsen proves to be nothing less than SUPERB at creating tension filled medical thrillers. This is an excellent thriller that keeps the reader on the edge of the seat while reading. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more Rizzoli and Isles thrillers from Tess Gerritsen.

Dark, twisted, and disturbing `The Surgeon' is a MUST read!

✿ Ted Dekker - Adam ✿

Synopsis:

FBI behavioral psychologist Daniel Clark is a man on a mission. After over a year of tracking a mysterious serial killer known as Eve, he feels closer than ever to discovering the murderer's true identity when he finds Eve's latest victim still alive.

In an effort to save the girl, Daniel narrowly escapes becoming another casualty on Eve's list. Despite seeing the killer with his own eyes, a gunshot wound to the head leaves him with amnesia, unable to remember any details from the incident. His drive to find the killer takes on a whole new meaning when Eve takes yet another victim, one Daniel knows all too well-his estranged wife Heather.

Determined to bring her back alive, Daniel takes his obsession to a dangerous new level, even recreating his own near-death experience in attempt to recall anything from his encounter with Eve. Soon enough he finds himself fighting for Heather's life, and, in the end, his own.

My opinion:

Adam was one of the first book by Ted Dekker which I read. The books format begins with a newspaper article detailing the life of a serial killer that was eventually captured. The article was spread out over nine pieces, so you could read different portions between five or six chapters. This was an interesting addition and I think it worked nicely for the story.After this I will not miss any of Ted Dekker's novels for sure...Thumbs up!!

✿ Ted Dekker - Thr3e ✿

Synopsis:

Enter a world where nothing is what it seems. Where your closest friend could be your greatest enemy.

Kevin Parson is alone in his car when his cell phone rings. A man calling himself Slater offers a deadly ultimatum: "You have exactly three minutes to confess your sin to the world. Refuse, and the car you're driving will blow sky high." Then the phone goes dead.

Kevin panics. Who would make such a demand? What sin? Yet not sure what else to do, Kevin swerves into a parking lot and runs from his car. Just in case.

Precisely three minutes later, a massive explosion sets his world on a collision course with madness. And that's only the first move in this deadly game.

My Opinion:

Thr3e by Ted Dekker starts as a typical crime story, with a psychotic stalker choosing a young seminary student Kevin as his next victim. With each chapter the intrigue gets more sophisticated, the characters better defined, the story spiced up with elements of psychological horror. Kevin and the agents working on the case are forced to ponder the definition of sin, to understand how their own past affects their current actions, and soon they need to face not only a serial killer on the loose, but their own personal daemons as well.

The plot keeps making sudden twists, making it impossible to put the book down. What really stands out, is how solid and well thought the plot is. Even though the twists are unpredictable and show that nothing is what it seems to be, there are no contradictions and all the tiny details always match up. In this regard this novel is a true masterpiece.

I sincerely recommend this book to everyone, with a warning that once you start reading it, you may not be able to stop until the very end .

✿ ShutTeR IsLaNd + GoNe BAbY GoNe ✿

Fear, obsession, paranoia...Dennis Lehane's "Shutter Island" is the stuff nightmares are made of. It is noir psychological suspense at its finest.

 ♥ Shutter Island ♥

Description: 

The year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this remote and barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades -- with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. But then neither is Teddy Daniels.Brutal, chilling, compelling, darkly honest--full of human emotion. This book will cause you to question the lines you've drawn between right and wrong, good and bad. You'll be faced with the fact that there are two sides to every story, and neither of them has to be pretty. 

 ♥ Gone Baby Gone ♥

Description:

The tough neighborhood of Dorchester is no place for the innocent or the weak. A territory defined by hard heads and even harder luck, its streets are littered with the detritus of broken families, hearts, dreams. Now, one of its youngest is missing. Private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro don't want the case. But after pleas from the child's aunt, they open an investigation that will ultimately risk everything -- their relationship, their sanity, and even their lives -- to find a little girl-lost.

✿KaReN SlAuGhtEr's NoVeLs - PaRt 2 ✿

This is the continuation on the Karin Slaughter's novels...

Indelible - 2004

An officer is shot point-blank in the Grant County police station and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver is wounded, setting off a terrifying hostage situation with medical examiner Sara Linton at the center. Working outside the station, Lena Adams, newly reinstated to the force, and Frank Wallace, Jeffrey's second in command, must try to piece together who the shooter is and how to rescue their friends before Jeffrey dies. For the sins of the past have caught up with Sara and Jeffrey -- with a vengeance ...

Faithless - 2005

A walk in the woods takes a sinister turn for police chief Jeffrey Tolliver and pediatrician Sara Linton when they stumble across the body of a young girl. Incarcerated in the ground, she has quite literally been scared to death. Detective Lena Adams is called in from vacation to help with the investigation, and the trail leads to a neighbouring county - and to a long-buried secret in Sara's mother's past. Forced to go undercover to protect the people she loves most, Sara - along with Jeffrey and Lena - soon learns that nothing comes without a price.


Beyond Reach - 2007

In a stifling jail cell in a hardscrabble Georgia town, Detective Lena Adams sits in stubborn silence: bruised, angry, and the only suspect in a horrific murder that left a woman incinerated beyond recognition. A hundred miles away, Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver has gotten the call that his young detective has been arrested. Jeffrey's wife, pediatrician and medical examiner Sara Linton, has little patience for Lena or her dramas. Fighting a heartbreaking malpractice suit, struggling to pick up the pieces of a shattered career, the last thing Sara needs is to see Jeffrey playing Lena's knight in shining armor. Sara cannot guess that within days she herself will be at the center of a bizarre and murderous case. For Lena has fled back to the place where she grew up hard, careening back through the shadows of her past and into a shocking underground world of bigotry and rage. The man who raised her is slowly killing himself with drugs. The man who beguiled - and beat - her is reaching out from prison. And now only Jeffrey and Sara can free Lena from the web of lies, betrayal, and brutality that has trapped her - as this powerhouse of a novel races toward its shattering climax…and a final, unforgettable twist.

✿ KaReN SlAuGhtEr's NoVeL ✿

Karin Slaughter..it's the name that have changed my perspective of a crime novel.Karin Slaughter (born 1971), is a US author who debuted with her novel Blindsighted in 2001. It became an international success and made the Dagger Award shortlist for "Best Thriller Debut" of 2001. Published in 23 countries.

I am PROUD to say that I have her entire novel collection..yes I do MEAN all of it!!! I will tell you that her books has detail graphic descriptions of crime and may make some people very uncomfortable. But if you like Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwell, etc. and your stomach can take a lot of gore, I think you'll love Slaughter's writing. This book definitely led me to buying the rest of the series.

Grant County Series: Blindsighted - 2001

The sleepy town of Heartsdale, Georgia, is jolted into panic when Sara Linton, paediatrician and medical examiner, finds Sibyl Adams dead in the local diner. As well as being viciously raped, Sibyl has been cut: two deep knife wounds form a lethal cross over her stomach. But it's only once Sara starts to perform the post-mortem that the full extent of the killer's brutality becomes clear. Police chief Jeffrey Tolliver - Sara's ex-husband - is in charge of the investigation, and when a second victim is found, crucified, only a few days later, both Jeffrey and Sara have to face the fact that Sibyl's murder wasn't a one-off attack. What they're dealing with is a seasoned sexual predator. A violent serial killer ...

Kisscut - 2002

Saturday night dates at the skating rink have been a tradition in the small southern town of Heartsdale for as long as anyone can remember. But when a teenage quarrel explodes into a deadly shoot-out, Sara Linton - the town's paediatrician and medical examiner - finds herself entangled in a horrific tragedy. What seemed at first to be a terrible but individual catastrophe proves to have wider implications. The autopsy reveals evidence of long-term abuse, of ritualistic self-mutilation, but when Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver start to investigate, they are frustrated at every turn. The children surrounding the victim close ranks. The families turn their backs. But when a young girl is abducted, it becomes clear that the first death is linked to an even more brutal crime, one far more shocking than anyone could have imagined. And unless Sara and Jeffrey can uncover the deadly secrets the children hide, it's going to happen again...

A Faint Cold Fear -2003

Sara Linton, medical examiner in the small town of Heartsdale, is called out to an apparent suicide on the local college campus. The mutilated body provides little in the way of clues - and the college authorities are keen to avoid a scandal - but for Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, things don't add up. Two more suspicious suicides follow, and a young woman is brutally attacked. For Sara, the violence strikes far too close to home. And as Jeffrey pursues the sadistic killer, he discovers that ex-police detective Lena Adams, now a security guard on campus, may be in possession of crucial information. But, bruised and angered by her expulsion from the force, Lena seems to be barely capable of protecting herself, let alone saving the next victim...

✿ The Switch and Mirror Image ✿

Sandra Brown is a author who has written more than 60 novels. New York Times bestsellers, including RAINWATER (2010), TOUGH CUSTOMER (2010), SMASH CUT (2009), SMOKE SCREEN (2008), PLAY DIRTY (2007), RICOCHET (2006), CHILL FACTOR (2005), WHITE HOT (2004), HELLO, DARKNESS (2003), THE CRUSH (2002), ENVY (2001), THE SWITCH (2000), THE ALIBI (1999), UNSPEAKABLE (1998) and FAT TUESDAY (1997), all of which have jumped onto the Times bestseller list in the number one to five spot.

I have read many of her books..not to mentioned that I enjoy reading her novels. Here are some of her best work ..in my opinion.

♥The Switch♥

It isn't the first time that identical twins Gillian and Melina Lloyd have switched identities. Yet it's the first time as adults that they've even considered the childhood prank. Melina, the more impetuous twin, proposes that her circumspect sister take her place as a media escort to NASA astronaut and national hero Colonel Christopher "Chief" Hart.
Although it's an enticing offer, Gillian declines for a very personal reason-she's preoccupied with whether or not the artificial insemination she underwent that day will be successful. Besides, she warns Melina, such a switch could have unexpected consequences.

Media-savvy Chief turns out to be an easy assignment for Melina-in fact the evening with him is as much pleasure as business. But the following morning police arrive at Melina's door with the worst possible news: her beloved twin has been brutally murdered in her own bed. And on the walls, scrawled in blood, are obscenities directed at Gillian, along with insults toward Native Americans that indisputably link Chief to the crime.
Dissatisfied with the official police investigation, Chief and Melina form a grudging alliance, strike out on their own...and find themselves uncovering more questions than answers. Mistrusting even the authorities claiming to protect them, on the run with their lives in danger, the two are soon following a crooked and bloody trail that inexplicably leads to Gillian's attempt to conceive a child...and to the threshold of an inner sanctum, where a megalomaniac hatches horrific schemes and lies in wait for Gillian's replacement, her identical twin-Melina.

♥Mirror Image♥

The crash of a Dallas-bound jet wasn't just a tragedy to TV reporter Avery Daniels; it was an act of fate that handed her a golden opportunity to further her career. Mistaken for a glamorous, selfish woman named Carole Rutledge, the badly injured Avery would find that plastic surgery had given her Carol's face, the famous senatorial candidate for a husband, and a powerful Texas dynasty for in-laws. And as she lay helpless in the hospital, she would make a shattering discovery: someone close to the senator planned to assassinate him. Now, to save the life of the man she loved, Avery must live another woman's life - and risk her own.