EveryRose's 75 book challenge for 2011

[Every Rose]

I loved this book! I was completely prepared to hate it and for months I dismissed it, without even reading it, but I was very wrong to do so. It's wonderful.

I can't even start to describe the story because nothing does it justice. I've seen it described as being like The Stand and it does have similarities.

I loved the story, loved the characters, loved the ideas and I cannot wait for the second book (The Twelve) to come out as well. Especially because the last words of The Passage include a clue to what might come next, implying that something terrible has just started to happen to some of the characters but leaving you to speculate on what the outcome was for them. Already the need to know is driving me mad and if The Twelve comes out here in hardback first I'm going to have to break my 'only-buy-Stephen-King-books-in-hardback rule'and buy it, because I can't wait for the paperback.

I was disappointed when I finished reading it because I wanted it to go on and on.

I gave this book: 5 stars

 

[Every Rose]

Another Scandinavian crime book, this one lent to me by a colleague.

Detective Harry Hole (complete with typical detective flaws - alcohol abuse, ex-partner he still loves, trouble with authority etc) becomes lead detective on a case involving missing persons reports and murders dating back several years.

All the reports have something in common. The missing or murdered person is always a mother, taken or killed following a snowfall and there has been a snowman built looking towards every crime scene.

Harry is the country's serial killer expert and works with beautiful and sexy new colleague, Katrine Bratt, to try and learn the identity of the Snowman, who has Harry's ex-partner Rakel in his sights as the next victim.

It was a good book, I liked Harry and the other lead characters, but I guessed who the murderer was very early on in the book. I would read more by this author though.

I gave this book: 3 stars

 

[Every Rose]

I liked this book, but the ending wasn't quite up to the rest of the book and I think there were a couple of loose ends I would have liked to have seen cleared up.

The Radley's appear to be a normal family, Peter and Helen are both doctors, although Helen appears to have given up her career to raise the children and take up painting. They live in a nice house in a nice village. And it's not until their teenage daughter Clara is attacked on her way home from a party that the secret Peter and Helen have kept from everyone, including Clara and her older brother Rowan, is revealed. The Radley's are abstaining vampires trying to fit into normal society. But Clara's attack leads to the arrival of Peter's brother, Will, a vampire with no intentions of abstaining from anything, and the police arrive shortly afterwards and the Radley's may not be able to keep their secret any more.

It's better than Twilight. And it has some funny moments, but at times it tries to hard. It's being made into a film and sometimes it reads as though it has been written for that purpose. But I liked the characters and it was a quick, fun read.

 

[Sarahkka]

Interesting comment about the last book. I know what you mean about some books that seem as though they were written to exploit any possible $$ opportunity in a popular market. I get it that everyone has to make a living, but it doesn't stop me wishing that the authors would get a bit of integrity?

 

[Every Rose]

I agree. I'm not sure with this author but I think sometimes you get one person who has a success with an idea, even if it's not an especially original one, and then you get a hundred people on the bandwagon looking for their share of the profits.

It annoys me very much when I'm in the bookshop and they have one small bookcase with only four shelves in it for actual horror books and yet they have an entire isle with both sides covered in Dark Fantasy, which doesn't count and isn't as good but one or two authors have done well with so now everybody is writing the stuff.

Also children's books. Everyone thinks they can write one and be JK Rowling level of successful now. BUT THEY CAN"T.

It just struck me as odd that the book has been out for about three minutes and already it's a film.

 

[Every Rose]

I liked this book but I guessed just about all the big revelations.

Tara, Emerson and Noelle have been friends from college and believe they know each other inside out. But when Noelle commits suicide Tara and Emerson are forced to confront secrets they never could have imagined she was keeping, secrets that could destroy their families and their friendship forever.

There were some loose ends and the event that sparks Noelle's decision to commit suicide at the moment she is quite minor when it is explained. It hardly seems like something that would push such a resolute woman to her death.

It was a good quick read with characters that I liked though and Noelle was interesting with all of her secrets.

I will say though, some of it was difficult reading for me though and a little upsetting in places, although those parts were not described in too great a detail.

 

[Every Rose]

Zoe and Jake are holidaying in a French ski resort when they are caught in an avalanche while taking advantage of the early morning empty slopes.

Zoe is buried under the snow and Jake manages to dig her out. They realise they have suffered only minor injuries but have lost their ski's, and when rescuers do not come they are forced to slowly make their way down the mountain to their holiday village and the hotel.

When they arrive at the village they find it deserted and realise it has probably been evacuated because of the thread of another, possibly much worse, avalanche to come.

Having tried and failed to make contact with the outside world by radio they decide that they must try to make their way down the mountain to safety. However the mountain proves to be a confusing and dangerous environment and their attempts to reach safety end with them still stranded in the holiday village.

And when they both begin to experience nightmares and strange visions, they begin to believe that something sinister and supernatural is taking place.

I really enjoyed this book, despite some jarring dialogue between Jake and Zoe that didn't ring true to me.

There was a real air of menace about the book and although I guessed an important plot point it was still quite shocking in places. I found it to be an unsettling read and really quite creepy in places. The sense of isolation and the feelings that something terrible was about to happen that both Jake and Zoe experienced really made the way off the page and into me too, I found the tone very chilling and unnerving. I felt very involved in the atmosphere and story.

In places it could have been better but all in all it was a very good book and it has made me quite keen to read more by this author.