I was on facebook today checking on things and notice alot of people participate in Throwback Thursday which is things from long ago that you share or mention and decided to incorporate it here. So todays throwback will be my first post and Simay's first post when she joined us!
Title: Long Time Gone
Author: J.A. Jance
Pages: 448
Publisher: Avon
Series: J.P. Beaumont
Description:
Two family tragedies 50 years apart challenge J.P. Beaumont, Seattle investigator for the Washington Special Homicide Investigation Team, in bestseller Jance's taut, colorful 17th entry in a series that started 20 years ago with Until Proven Guilty. The state attorney general assigns Beaumont a cold case after a nun, Sister Mary Katherine, reports horrific dreams that indicate a long-repressed memory of witnessing a murder. But he's distracted when the former wife of his best friend, Ron Peters, is killed and suspicion falls on Ron's family, causing havoc. Jance is smart enough not to combine the two disparate cases in anything but locale, but she forces Beaumont to choose between friendship and duty—his relationship with the distraught Peters family forbids him from working their case, but he aches to help. The clever and complex plot line involving the nun shows Jance at her best, revealing a coverup that still threatens after many decades. The Peters plot is a frightening lesson in miscommunication, and though the reader may suspect the murderer early on, the stunning motive is only slowly revealed. While Jance writes without the humor of an Ed McBain or Robert B. Parker, fans of those authors will appreciate Beaumont.
My Thoughts:
This is a great book it really has you turning just when you think you have it solved there is another twist that you aren't expecting. The main character is J.P. Beaumont who has been around for a while. He has moved up from Seattle P.D. to a special team
known as S.H.I.T squad. He has been put on a very cold case which proves to have many twists and turns through out the book. Should be a great read for anyone who likes a good story with twists and turns and a major surprise ending. I definitely give this book 5 cups!
Title: Anna Dressed in Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Pages: 369
Publisher: Tor Teen
Format: ebook
Source: Kindle Store
Description:
Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story...
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.
So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.
And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.
My thoughts:
Anna Dressed in Blood is the story of the 17-year-old ghost hunter, Theseus Cassius Lowood (I can't continue without mentioning that no matter how big a Shakespeare fan you are, you should never name your child this). When you read the synopsis, you can't help but hear this music in your head. Then you start reading, and it reads very much like a Supernatural episode. I love both these things, so, of course, I didn't have a problem with it.
Anna Dress in Blood was different from the other YA books I've read in many aspects. First of all, I liked that the narrator was male. Everyone calls him Cas for short because he has an impossible name. His father was a ghost hunter, and one can say that Cas is carrying on the family business. His mother knows what he does, and she helps him out, which was another thing that made this book different than many others. I was quite glad that there was no "what if mom/dad finds out?" drama this time. Cas and his mother move from city to city, wherever the dangerous ghosts lead them.
One day Cas goes after Anna Korlov's ghost. However, Anna isn't like the ghosts he's encountered before; she's not stuck in the moment of her death, unaware of what she's doing. In the end, as expected, Cas helps her get rid of the urge to kill, and they fall in love. I'm not sure how a human and ghost can be together really, but I have a feeling we will find out.
My favorite part about the book was Cas being portrayed as a regular 17-year old. Unlike most main characters in YA, he's not the odd-one-out or the most popular, the most lusted-after. He uses a special knife to kill ghosts, and it comes up more often than I like. And sometimes the "am I in love?" parts seem to continue for too long, but overall it's an enjoyable, quick read.
The next book in the series, Girl of Nightmares was released last month. I must admit I'm very curious about how Cas and Anna's relationship will continue, so I will be reading this one as well.
