Review: Take A Bow

Title: Take A Bow
Author: Elizabeth Eulberg
Publisher: Point
Genre: Growing up
Publication date: Feb 2013
5 Stars

Summary:  Emme, Sophie, Ethan, and Carter are seniors at a performing arts school, getting ready for their Senior Showcase recital, where the pressure is on to appeal to colleges, dance academies, and professionals in show business. For Sophie, a singer, it's been great to be friends with Emme, who composes songs for her, and to date Carter, soap opera heartthrob who gets plenty of press coverage. Emme and Ethan have been in a band together through all four years of school, but wonder if they could be more than just friends and bandmates. Carter has been acting since he was a baby, and isn't sure how to admit that he'd rather paint than perform. The Senior Showcase is going to make or break each of the four, in a funny, touching, spectacular finale that only Elizabeth Eulberg could perform.

Review: I just absolutely loved this book right away. I couldn't put it down! I loved Emme, disliked Sophie, Adored Carter and was always a bit unsure of Ethan. I always say I hate when authors write from multiple characters POV's but this time not so much Elizabeth Eulberg nailed it right on the head. I had finished  reading "The Girl With The Great Personality" right before I started to read this. I absolutely loved both books! I'm thinking of starting "The Lonely Hearts Club" next.

Quality of writing: 8
Pace: 8
Plot development: 8
Characters: 9
Enjoyability: 8
Insightfulness: 7
Ease of reading: 8
Illistrations: 10

Free today only!

Here's the blurb:

Sixteen-year-old Tyler’s big dream of becoming a top immunologist
could come crashing down if he doesn’t manage all of the little things
right now. But when this obsessive-compulsive science geek confronts a
school election, a demeaning job, needy tutees, a first girlfriend,
and the possible extinction of honeybees, there are suddenly too many
things to manage.

Tyler’s catastrophically humorous run for high school student council
convinces the principal that he’s a troublemaker, while it wins him
the admiration and desire of Rachel, a smart and iconoclastic reporter
for the school paper.  A new night job at a nursing home puts Tyler on
a collision course with his new foster parents, a childless
middle-aged couple with an agenda and a tragic past of their own. And
the pain of his mother’s death becomes too big for him to ignore.

Set on the mean streets of suburban Las Vegas, The Genius of Little
Things is about how you can’t always get what you want. But sometimes,
well, you know...


Here are the author links and Amazon:

http://www.larrybuhlbooks.com
http://www.facebook.com/larrybuhlwriter
http://www.amazon.com/The-Genius-Little-Things-ebook/dp/B00B1KN99C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1360186376&sr=8-2&keywords=larry+buhl+genius

Fatal Decree

Title:†Fatal Decree
Author: H. Terrell Griffin
Series: Matt Royal Mystery (#7)
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Publication Date:††January 15, 2013
Reviewer:†Ethan

Summary: When a serial killer shows up on Longboat Key, Florida after a twelve-year absence, Matt Royal is stymied. The first woman killed on Longboat Key has ties to a secretive government agency for which Matt's best friend Jock Algren works. Was this a coincidence or was she a targeted kill? Matt's friend, Longboat Key detective Jennifer Diane (J.D.) Duncan investigates the murders but also seems to be a target of the killer. Why? And where has the killer been for the past twelve years? And why has he come to Longboat Key when his earlier kills were all in Miami? The mystery deepens when Guatemalan gang-bangers try to kill Matt and J.D. and suspicions grow that Mexican drug cartels are somehow involved. The director of Jock's agency orders him to do whatever is necessary to find the killer because of the death of the woman with connections to the agency. Will Jock simply take out the murderer or allow J.D. and the law to arrest, try and convict the bad guys? Matt's life is further complicated by J.D.'s growing dissatisfaction with island living and her thoughts of returning to Miami.

Review: Last year, I stumbled upon the Matt Royal series by author H. Terrell Griffin. The novels follow Matt Royal, a middle-aged lawyer who, fed up with the state of the legal system, retired to the small island of Longboat Key, Florida. But small town life didn't stop Royal from finding excitement. Over the course of six novels, Matt found himself directly involved in conspiracies that rocked his hometown. Through his friendship with Bill Lester, Longboat Key's chief of police, and with the help of his drinking buddy Logan, and his friend Jock, who conveniently works for a top secret, high ranking government agency, Matt became a kind of extension of the local law enforcement.

Things seemed to change when J.D. Duncan, a female detective from Miami, joined the Longboat Key force. Her addition, and insistent moral code, caused Matt to not only re-evaluate his actions, but to discover emotions he thought he would never feel again.

In Fatal Decree, the latest novel to feature Royal, we find the characters facing the biggest mystery they have ever faced. When the body of a local woman is discovered floating in the bay, Matt is immediately called by J.D. †It turns out, the body has a whale tail earring in her ear, and the initials KKK carved into the back of her neck. Even more terrifying, this is the signature of a serial killer from Miami who J.D. investigated, and who hasn't been active for years. Now Matt must help solve the case before more islanders or killed. He hates to imagine the worst, but he is scared that the killer may target J.D. next.

I was completely invested in this series the moment I began reading. Unlike other series authors, Griffin has managed to maintain his standards of both quality and content. Seven books in, he still manages to explore unique cases and take his characters into different emotional territory. It was really nice to see Matt and J.D.'s budding relationship come to a head, especially because it didn't play out in the predictable way I feared it was going to. Griffin love of Florida and the people who inhabit it is made obvious by his detailed descriptions of settings and the inclusion of small town characters that give the sometimes-outlandish story a much needed dose of reality. With Fatal Decree, Griffin proves that he is very much at the top of his game. Any fan of fast paced and original mysteries is sure to enjoy this novel.
-Ethan
I currently have 2 autographed copies of this novel to giveaway! Follow the link to my blog to enter. Entries will be accepted through 2/14.

Review: Jeeptown Sockhop

Title: Jeeptown Sockhop
Author: John Harrigan
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Publication Date: March 19, 2012
Reviewer: Annie

Summary: (From Amazon) The story of four teens who seek to bridge the racial and class gaps that splinter their gritty 1950s industrial town. It is narrated by altar boy Charlie, who lives in a sea of chaos marked by an alcoholic father, a brother at war in Korea, a town fractured by a violent strike at his father's workplace, and a trusted adult who sexually abuses him. In this sea of chaos, his one island of tenderness is a black gospel singer, Clarice, with whom he develops a deep attachment. After they are spotted sharing a kiss, Charlie gets punched out by one of her other admirers and she gets a beating from her father. To create a reason for being together, they start a dance band and organize a Sock Hop that will bring the town together. Can they pull it off?

Review: Set in the 1950s in the Midwest this story centers around a boy who is going through a lot. His brother is off to Korea, his dad’s union is on strike, and his best friend is black. All he really wants to do is play music with his friends, and show that an integrated band can work, but so much of life gets in the way.

It seems like I haven’t read a recent historical book in a while. So this was a great change from some of the other books I’ve been reading. Since it was a genre I don’t read a lot of, I was worried the story would be slow and it would take me a while. But this book caught me right away and I felt like it read at a great pace. I loved the setting, the time period and everything going on at that time. I really felt for Charlie, he is a character who is hard not to like. I could feel his anger for Mr. Jackson, and even though he wasn’t always sure about the details of the strike I really liked how he stood by his father. All the characters seemed very genuine and real. This book was sad, and happy, and sad again but I enjoyed it the whole way through.

I thought this was an interesting look at a different time of union strikes and how it really affected families back then. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants a good down to earth book about normal kids growing up in the 50s. It reads pretty fast and I think it is a nice book to mix into a diverse to be read pile.

~ Annie

Happy 2nd birthday blog!

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Pushing the limits by Katie McGarry
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