Reading Excursions

MY REVIEW Hardcover:  384 pages Publisher:  St. Martin's Press (April 9, 2019) Language:  English ISBN-10:  1250107458 ISBN-13:  978-1250107459 “ Can you love someone to death? Some would say Becky Gerard is a devoted mother and would do anything for her only child. Others, including her husband Carl, claim she's obsessed and can't stop the vicious circle of finding a cure at her daughter's expense. Fifteen-year-old Meghan has been in and out of hospitals with a plague of unexplained illnesses. But when the ailments take a sharp turn, clashing medical opinions begin to raise questions about the puzzling nature of Meghan’s illness. Doctors suspect Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare behavioral disorder where the primary caretaker seeks medical help for made-up symptoms of a child. Is this what's going on? Or is there something even more sinister at hand? As the Gerards grow more and more suspicious of each other a...

MY REVIEW Hardcover:  384 pages Publisher:  St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (January 8, 2019) Language:  English ISBN-10:  1250133734 ISBN-13:  978-1250133731 Click Photo for Purchase Link  “ Looking to earn some easy cash, Jessica Farris agrees to be a test subject in a psychological study about ethics and morality. But as the study moves from the exam room to the real world, the line between what is real and what is one of Dr. Shields’s experiments blurs. Dr. Shields seems to know what Jess is thinking… and what she’s hiding. Jessica’s behavior will not only be monitored, but manipulated. Caught in a web of attraction, deceit and jealousy, Jess quickly learns that some obsessions can be deadly .” I received an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) from the publisher – St. Martin’s Press – in exchange for an honest review.  [ARC and promotional materials] [A "gift" and beauty tool from "Jessica"...

MY REVIEW Hardcover:  320 pages Publisher:  St. Martin's Press (July 17, 2018) Language:  English ISBN-10:  1250170753 ISBN-13:  978-1250170750 Click Photo for More Information “ MEET HANNA:  Seven-year-old Hanna is a sweet-but-silent angel in the eyes of her adoring father Alex. He’s the only person who understands her. But her mother Suzette stands in her way, and she’ll try any trick she can think of to get rid of her. Ideally for good. MEET SUZETTE:  Suzette loves her daughter, but after years of expulsions and strained home schooling, her precarious health and sanity are weakening day by day. She’s also becoming increasingly frightened by Hanna’s little games, while her husband Alex remains blind to the failing family dynamics. Soon, Suzette starts to fear that maybe their supposedly innocent baby girl may have a truly sinister agenda. A battle of wills between mother and daughter reveals the frailty and fal...

In my last blog, I talked about the library treasures I bought as a result of returning and picking up a few items. This is about the treasures borrowed. One book I had to request was one I’d used 28 years ago for a Sociology report in 10 th grade. I remember trying to track down a research book as I was doing a report on Jack the Ripper thanks to a MADE-FOR-TV movie I’d seen back in the mid 1980’s on NBC. [This is an OLD book, originally published 1988] [Came from Boulder City Library, which is part of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library system ] [Summary of the book  –  “ Jack The Ripper: The Complete Casebook ” ] My mom and I – God bless her – actually drove to Boulder City to get this book as it was one I needed for the report. The report was pretty darn successful, and one of the ones I am still very proud of (and still have some of my notes from). This book, and another one (that I can’t even remember), earned me a 92% on the repor...

Up until about the fall of 2017, there were only so many genres I would read. And, admittedly, I still do. I have my set preference. I do like Romance, Romantic-Suspense, and True Crime (Ann Rule – “And, Never Let Her Go”; “If You Really Loved Me”, etc). I also don’t stray from my tried and true authors. I didn’t get into historical fiction (still not 100% there), psychological thrillers (nowhere close to 75% liking them), or biographies (I’ve read two; have two on the TBR [to be read] list). But, anyone looking at my GoodReads account wouldn’t know that. [One of Summer 2019's thrillers - Alex North's "The Whisper Man"] [The description of it. I considered it a "Slender Man" meets "Silence of the Lambs"] So, why the change? I started getting what was called “Advanced Reader Copies” or ARCs as they are commonly called. These are usually unedited, paperback editions of the “to-be-released” book. The main idea of an AR...