Stake That!

Okay, so you know how I have this rabid interest in teen vampire novels?  It comes from reading the Twilight series, the Blue Blood series, and the Vampire Academy  series.

I found a series that makes me change my mind.  It's the Blood Coven series by Mari Mancusi.  I actually read the second one (oops...), called Stake That! today.  It was...a romp through the modern gothic teenagers mind.  And not in a good way.

Rayne and Sunshine are twins.  Rayne is a goth, and all she wants to do is be a vampire.  She spends the first part of the book lamenting about how her twin wound up with everything she wanted (almost becoming a vampire, a vamp blood mate, being vamp queen).  Not only that, but Rayne is somehow elected to become the next slayer (think Buffy, my friends).  And then...well, then it gets complicated.  Like how she's falling in love with a moody, arrogant vampire who's just like her.  Listening to her complain about her daddy issues.  Watching her and the moody vampire.

Oh, and did I mention the whole thing is told through her blogs and then diary?  It's...wow.  Not the best thing I've ever read.  Not the worst, but it's pretty low on the list.  Yikes.

All in all?

Charade

Apparently, I'm on a Sandra Brown kick. A new Sandra Brown kick. That's impressive for me.

Okay, just I just finished Charade, a mid-90's Sandra Brown novel.

It starts out detailing the last days of 3 patients who give up their hearts for organ donation, and the first day of a heart recipient. From there it gets odd.

We're following Cat Delaney (who else used Delaney as a last name? And Gannon? I swear, repetition will make me crazy until I figure this one out...), the recipient. She's a soap opera actress before her transplant, and after does a 4 minute piece on a news show to help kids in need of adoption. He is Alex Pierce, ex-cop current writer.

While Alex and Cat are falling in love, she's being stalked by a person who has killed everyone that has had a heart transplant on the day that Kat did. He's killing them to set one heart free.

Okay, so I liked this book. A little slow at first (the first 5 chapters totally threw me...kept going in and out of characters that I didn't see the point to, plus I didn't realize it was a medical drama). After that, when it finally settled into it's rhythm, it was good. Cat is a spitfire, which is always fun (and a redhead...just like Allison from Thursday's Child...hmm...wonder how many redheads Sandra Brown writes about...), and Alex is haunted.

Anyway, they (somehow) figure out a myriad of things, which leads to the big revelation...that I'm not going to give you. Needless to say, I totally forgot about it until they brought it back up.

However, when everyone thought Alex was the killer (of course he's not...it's a Sandra Brown novel. They just have to accuse him to get the heroine alone so the real killer can find her!), I'm sitting here going, "It's not him! You're looking for the lover, it's not him! I don't care what the evidence says, you've got it wrong!"

And!! I was so excited! I knew who it was! Though, at the end, she did throw in a minor twist as to who it could have been, but instead, it was who I though! Yes!!

Anyway, I approve.

Reconstructing Natalie

I just read Laura Jensen Walker's Reconstructing Natalie, the story of a 27-year old woman with breast cancer.

It's Christian Romance Fiction (usually an ouch of the worst proportions), but this is good. A little over the top at points (Oh my gosh how they get together at the end, and the token black friend), but really good.

Good because you never think about breast cancer. I don't. I'm 22. It's not going to happen to me, at least not yet.

Which is exactly what Natalie thought.

So when her whole life suddenly falls apart, what can she do except do her best to hold it together and then rebuild?

She does both, and admirably. Natalie helps the average person relate. Not that we fully can, because without the deadly disease, nothing ever compares, but Laura and Natalie take you right into the head of a cancer patient.

I picked this up the first time because the author was coming to our store to do a book signing. I'd never done a book signing, so I was really excited when Pippa told me about it.

Then I looked at the schedule. It was the random Saturday that I had off for no apparent reason.

So I went home instead. It was a good weekend, if I remember correctly.

But I read the book anyway. It was good.

Eventually I bought it. And I randomly picked it up the other day. I was really happy I did.