WW28: SEIZURE

WW28 book offering: Seizure by Kathy Reichs and Brendan Reichs

"Just hear me out!" I shouted.

"I don't wanna!" Shelton whined. "You'll start talking, and pretty soon we'll all start nodding, and then the next thing you know, I'm hang gliding off the Eiffel Tower at midnight being chased by ninja vampires. No deal!"

By the way there are no vampires in this book. And that sentence is not anywhere near page 28 at all, but it's my favourite, so it gets posted :)

About Seizure:

Ever since Tory Brennan and her friends rescued Cooper, a kidnapped wolf pup with a rare strain of canine parvovirus, they've turned from regular kids into a crime-solving pack. But now the very place that brought them together - the Loggerhead Island Research Institute - is out of funding and will have to shut down. That is, unless the Virals can figure out a way to save it.

So when Tory learns of an old Charleston legend about a famous she-pirate, Anne Bonney, whose fortune was never found, she can't believe her luck - buried treasure is exactly what she needs to save the Institute on Loggerhead! Trouble is, she and her friends aren't the only ones looking for it. And this time, the Virals' special powers may not be enough to dig them out of trouble . . .

Source: Info in the About Seizure was taken from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8709640-seizure on 26/02/2013.

WW28
A chance to showcase your favourite!

• First you grab our Wicked Wednesday pic.
• Then you grab a book. Turn to page 28. Take the first sentence. And then you post it in your site with a link back to WW28.
• Come back to Cherry Mischievous - WW28 and give us the url of your post (in a comment at a WW28 post) so that other WW28 readers can find your WW28 offering.

Review: CODE

Code by Kathy Reichs and Brendan Reichs
Book 3 of the Virals series
Read by Cristin Milioti
Genre: YA science fiction thriller
Format: hardback & audiobook

About Code:

The Virals are put to the ultimate test when they find a geocache containing an ornate puzzle box. Shelton decodes the cipher inside, only to find more tantalizing clues left by "The Gamemaster." A second, greater geocache is within reach — if the Virals are up to the challenge.

But the hunt takes a dark turn when Tory locates the other box — a fake bomb, along with a sinister proposal from The Gamemaster. Now, the real game has begun: another bomb is out there — a real one — and the clock is ticking.

Source: Info in the About Code was taken from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7744611-code on 11/03/2013.

Review:

I know I promised that I would not buy this book until it got cheap in the secondhand market... well, the library beat the secondhand market to it. I placed my request for this book at the library not so long ago. Then the library emailed me that the book is ready for pick up! I wasn't expecting it to be so soon since I was, what, tenth in the queue of requests, or something?? I wasn't sure whether that was a good or a bad sign. Did people read this book that quickly? Or did not want the book after all and so I was bumped up the queue? But for some reason it went faster than anticipated. So there I was reading Code after all. Besides, after reading Deadly Decisions, Tory is not as stupid as Dr. Temperance Brennan. Heck, compared to Brennan, Tory barely registers on the richter scale of stupidity! However the stupid vibes is still annoying as hell! I was also not very impressed with the plot in this book. It depended on the characters acting stupid to create the story's dilemma so that the Virals can show off and save the world. Pretty weak plot. I hope they would improve on the plot and the stupid factor because this series has a beautiful and really soound world building!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3
Character development = 3
Story itself = 2.5
Ending = 4
World building = 4
Cover art = 2
Pace = N/A (10 hrs and 48 mins of listening time)
Plot = 2.5
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 cherries


Thank you to RCT Libaray for the lending me the hardback copy of this book.

FTC Disclosure:
The hardback copy was borrowed from the library. The audiobook edition was purchased with private funds. No money received for this review.

Review: DEADLY DECISIONS

Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs
Book 3 of the Temperance Brennan series
Read by Lorelei King
Genre: crime fiction
Format: paperback & audiobook

About Deadly Decisions:

It is a beautiful Spring day and in the quiet woods of the FBI's headquarters at Quantico, forensic anthropologist, Dr. Temperance Brennan, is teaching a body recovery course when she is urgently called back to Quebec. A gruesome duty awaits her: a biker war is raging and two of the foot soldiers have blown themselves up. The only person qualified to make sense of what remains is Tempe. When the body of a nine-year-old girl is wheeled into the morgue - slain in biker crossfire - Tempe vows to lend her skills to fight this evil, and enters the dark underworld of the bikers.

Source: Info in the About Deadly Decisions was taken from Goodreads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17566551-deadly-decisions on 04/03/2013.

Review:

I like it that the book series gives me an alternative scenario to a well-loved story. An alternate Bones story. What remains to be seen is whether I would like that alternate story or not...

After the disappointment with Death Du Jour I wasn't planning on reading this book. However Deadly Decisions is already loaded into my smartphone and the paperback is already sitting in my TBR (to be read) shelf. So it got read... I really did not like Brennan's unprofessional tendency of divulging information of an on-going investigation in Death Du Jour. And unfortunately that persisted into this book which leads me to believe that this kind of behaviour might be something that can be expected through out the series on top of her TSTL (too stupid to live) tendencies.

So our heroine knows exactly how dangerous the bikers are. She saw the results of their handiwork on her slab table. Not only that, she'd read/saw the Carcajou files on them. So what does she do? Runs headlong into their den with no back-up, on her own, without telling anybody endangering not only herself but people around her. Stupid much?

And I really do not like that. At all! It does not endear the main protagonist to me! And that also earned the character development's rating, a nose dive into the depths of the ocean. I wasn't so harsh in previous books' reviews maybe because I wasn't feeling too miffed. And maybe because Sergeant Detective Andrew Ryan wasn't too bad. Or the entire book just wasn't that annoying. Anyway, in this book, it had it!

Would I recommend this series? No. But I would recommend the Bones TV show.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 2.5
Character development = 1
Story itself = 2.5
Ending = 3
World building = 3.5
Cover art = 1.5
Pace = N/A (9 hours & 35 mins of listening time)
Plot = 3.5
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 cherries

Review: DEATH DU JOUR

Death Du Jour by Kathy Reichs
Book 2 of the Temperance Brennan series
Read by Bonnie Hurren
Genre: crime fiction
Format: paperback & audiobook

About Death Du Jour:

Assaulted by the bitter cold of a Montreal winter, the American-born Dr. Temperance Breman, Forensic Anthropologist for the Province of Quebec, digs for a corpse where Sister Elisabeth Nicolet, dead over a century and now a candidate for sainthood, should lie in her grave. A strange, small coffin, buried in the recesses of a decaying church, holds the first clue to the cloistered nun's fate. The puzzle surrounding Sister Elisabeth's life and death provides a welcome contrast to discoveries at a burning chalet, where scorched and twisted bodies await Tempe's professional expertise. Who were these people? What brought them to this gruesome fate? Homicide Detective Andrew Ryan, with whom Tempe has a combustive history, joins her in the arson investigation. From the fire scene they are drawn into the worlds of an enigmatic and controversial professor, a mysterious commune, and a primate colony on a Carolina island.

Source: Info in the About Death Du Jour was taken from Goodreads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128756.Death_du_Jour on 25/02/2013.

Review:

After the disappointment with Book 1, I wasn't sure I was going to read this book but it was already sitting in my TBR (to be read) shelf so it got read, eventually. Plus the fact that I still couldn't let go of the hope that I would find an Agent Seeley Booth counterpart character in there somewhere... For some reason, a romantic dalliance between Brennan and Ryan doesn't ring true to me. Maybe it is yet still to grow on me. Maybe it might make better sense a few books down the line... Maybe...

When I started reading this book I was really, really hoping that Brennan's TSTL (too stupid to live) would abate with this book. It seems I was wrong. Majorly annoying!! So Brennan divulges confidential information about an ongoing investigation to a potential suspect because she's feaking out. The death and destruction she encounters with her work is getting too much and is stressing her out. I'm sorry, but looks to me like she is no longer professional enough to work at her job, good forensic skills or not. And like in Book 1, she hightails it to the rescue with no thought to proper planning thus getting herself bashed in. Again. Consequently needed rescuing. And I am expected to root for that stupid git? However this book is not all that bad. There is a good layering of plots making the story unpredictable. Unpredictable is good in a crime fiction. Then there is the fantastic world building. And I like the way Bonnie Hurren reads. But I don't think I would be reading anymore books in this series even though I got the next 8 Temperance Brennan books in my TBR shelf already. Not anytime soon anyway...

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 2
Story itself = 2.5
Ending = 3.5
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 1.5
Pace = N/A (12 hours & 51 mins of listening time)
Plot = 3.5
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 cherries

Review: SEIZURE

Seizure by Kathy Reichs and Brendan Reichs
Book 2 of the Virals series
Read by Cristin Milioti
Genre: YA science fiction thriller
Format: paperback & audiobook

About Seizure:

Ever since Tory Brennan and her friends rescued Cooper, a kidnapped wolf pup with a rare strain of canine parvovirus, they've turned from regular kids into a crime-solving pack. But now the very place that brought them together - the Loggerhead Island Research Institute - is out of funding and will have to shut down. That is, unless the Virals can figure out a way to save it.

So when Tory learns of an old Charleston legend about a famous she-pirate, Anne Bonney, whose fortune was never found, she can't believe her luck - buried treasure is exactly what she needs to save the Institute on Loggerhead! Trouble is, she and her friends aren't the only ones looking for it. And this time, the Virals' special powers may not be enough to dig them out of trouble . . .

Source: Info in the About Seizure was taken from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8709640-seizure on 26/02/2013.

Review:

Like in Book 1, I like Cristin Milioti's narration. I like her style and she sounds real professional! However, Kathy Reichs' propensity for TSTL (too stupid to live) protagonist reared it's ugly head again in this book. Majorly annoying! So much so that I needed frequent breaks from the stupidity. Consequently it made this book feel like it's a whole lot longer than the ten or so hours it is suppose to be. And also because of that I am scrapping my plan about buying Code straight away. If ever, I think I will wait until it gets really cheap in the secondhand market or borrow it from the library. The stupid factor made the book not worth the money of buying it brand new. Then there is the non-realistic and inconsistent fight scenes. If Ben is suppose to be the strongest in their pack, why can't he tackle Chris Fletcher on his own? So Chris is stronger than a Viral on a flare? Non-realistic. Inconsistent. Brought the suspension of disbelief a notch down. It's not all bad though. The plot was convoluted enough to make this book exciting enough to hook a reader's interest and keep it. It was just the stupid factor which annoyed me to hell and back!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3
Character development = 3
Story itself = 2.5
Ending = 4
World building = 3.5
Cover art = 2
Pace = N/A (10 hrs and 48 mins of listening time)
Plot = 4
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 cherries

Review: VIRALS

Virals by Kathy Reichs and Brendan Reichs
Book 1 of the Virals series
Read by Cristin Milioti
Genre: YA science fiction thriller
Format: paperback & audiobook

About Virals:

Fourteen-year-old Tory Brennan is as fascinated by bones and dead bodies as her famous aunt, acclaimed forensic anthropologist, Tempe Brennan. However living on a secluded island off Charleston in South Carolina there is not much opportunity to put her knowledge to the test. Until her and her ragbag group of technophile friends stumble across a shallow grave containing the remains of a girl who has been missing for over thirty years.

The question is, did whoever was responsible for the girl's death have anything to do with the sick puppy they rescued from a secret laboratory on the same island? With the cold-case murder suddenly hot, Tory realises that they are involved in something fatally dangerous. But events take a turn for the bizarre when they escape some would-be attackers by using physical powers more akin to a dog than a human... Could the puppy hold the key not only to the murder, but also the strange changes that are taking place in their bodies?

©2010 Brennan NextGen, LLC. (P)2013 Random House AudioGo

Source: Info in the About Virals was taken from http://www.audible.co.uk/pd?asin=B00AWSA7DU on 25/02/2013.

Review:

The reason I picked this book up was because I wanted to give Kathy Reichs another go after the disappointment with Deja Dead. And once again we see snarky and humorous remarks here that I liked about Deja Dead. In fact we see more of it here than there ever was in Deja Dead, so not a bad start. Not bad at all! I don't know whether that was Brendan Reichs' influence or Kathy Reichs just upped the humour. Or a combination of both. Either way, it brought this book's rating up a notch. By the way, speaking of Brendan Reichs, he is credited to be a co-author of this book and of this series by some sources but my paperback copy of this book does not mention him at all. Maybe later editions of this book bears his name and I must have bought an earlier edition or something. But it sure feels weird though that my book does not have his name in it. Whether or not it is Brendan's influence, this book has restored my faith in Kathy Reichs' work. Maybe Deja Dead was not her best and hopefully she improved as a writer as she wrote along, so I would read another of her work again.

Another thing good about this book is the narration. I like Cristin Milioti's voice. It sounds young and fits a YA book. The words are clear and the diction perfect. She also reads with her own brand of pizzazz which adds an enriching flavour to the listening experience! At the end of it, I enjoyed this book and looking forward to reading the next book in this series.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 3
Pace = N/A (9 hrs and 41 mins of listening time)
Plot = 4
Narrator = 5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries