Wednesday, March 2, 2016

"What I'm Reading" Wednesday #12

       This week I've read a few different genres of books. Right now I'm diving into...

Remembrance (A Mediator Novel) by Meg Cabot
Blurb:
Fifteen years after the release of the first Mediator novel, #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot returns with a deliciously sexy new entry to a fan-favorite series. Suze Simon—all grown up and engaged to her once-ghostly soulmate—faces a vengeful spirit and an old enemy bent on ending Suze's wedded bliss before it begins.

You can take the boy out of the darkness.

But you can’t take the darkness out of the boy.

All Susannah Simon wants is to make a good impression at her first job since graduating from college (and since becoming engaged to Dr. Jesse de Silva).

But when she’s hired as a guidance counselor at her alma mater, she stumbles across a decade-old murder, and soon ancient history isn’t all that’s coming back to haunt her. Old ghosts as well as new ones are coming out of the woodwork, some to test her, some to vex her, and it isn’t only because she’s a mediator, gifted with second sight. 

From a sophomore haunted by the murderous specter of a child, to ghosts of a very different kind—including Paul Slater, Suze’s ex, who shows up to make a bargain Suze is certain must have come from the Devil himself—Suze isn’t sure she’ll make it through the semester, let alone to her wedding night.

Suze is used to striking first and asking questions later. But what happens when ghosts from her past—including one she found nearly impossible to resist—strike first?

What happens when old ghosts come back to haunt you?

If you’re a mediator, you might have to kick a little ass.

Why I Chose This Book:
I love Meg Cabot's books and believe me, I've read a lot of them over the years. When I saw on her twitter account that she was signing copies of this book to be sold at an independent bookstore in Michigan that would be available to purchase online I knew I needed to order a copy. Though I've just started the book, if the first line is any indication then I know I'm going to love this book as much as I've loved the other books I've read by the author. 

Here's a look at what else I've read since finishing Shiver by Kristen Middleton last Wednesday...

Low Pressure by Sandra Brown
Blurb:
Bellamy Lyston was only 12 years old when her older sister Susan was killed on a stormy Memorial Day. Bellamy's fear of storms is a legacy of the tornado that destroyed the crime scene along with her memory of what really happened during the day's most devastating moments.

Now, 18 years later, Bellamy has written a sensational, bestselling novel based on Susan's murder. Because the book was inspired by the tragic event that still pains her family, she published it under a pseudonym to protect them from unwanted publicity. But when an opportunistic reporter for a tabloid newspaper discovers that the book is based on fact, Bellamy's identity is exposed along with the family scandal. 

Moreover, Bellamy becomes the target of an unnamed assailant who either wants the truth about Susan's murder to remain unknown or, even more threatening, is determined to get vengeance for a man wrongfully accused and punished.

In order to identify her stalker, Bellamy must confront the ghosts of her past, including Dent Carter, Susan's wayward and reckless boyfriend -- and an original suspect in the murder case. Dent, with this and other stains on his past, is intent on clearing his name, and he needs Bellamy's sealed memory to do it. But her safeguarded recollections -once unlocked-pose dangers that neither could foresee and puts both their lives in peril.

As Bellamy delves deeper into the mystery surrounding Susan's slaying, she discovers disturbing elements of the crime which call into question the people she holds most dear. Haunted by partial memories, conflicted over her feelings for Dent, but determined to learn the truth, she won't stop until she reveals Susan's killer. 

That is, unless Susan's killer strikes her first...

What I Thought of This Book:
Wow... I loved this book. Low Pressure is my first Sandra Brown book but I can already tell you it won't be the last. My grandmother was gifted this book as a belated birthday present from my sister last summer. She read it and enjoyed it and recommended it to me. I'd planned to read it sooner but I had a large to-be-read stack and just now got to it. Ever since Bellamy Lyston released Low Pressure, the book that she hoped would give her clarity to the truth behind her sister Susan's murder eighteen years earlier and her true identity became known she's found an enemy. Someone who will stop at nothing to silence her. But who is it? Is it Susan's true killer? Someone that she painted in an ill light in her novel? Susan's boyfriend at the time of her death, Denton Carter? All she knows is that someone is after her. As her and Dent's lives become entwined and she pursues the truth from that awful day eighteen years prior she learns more and more about the family and the sister she thought she knew. And once revealed it can never be unlearned. 
I loved Dent and Bellamy together. I couldn't get enough. This book reminded me a lot of a couple of my other favorite authors' - Nora Roberts and Lisa Jackson - writing style which helped me to fall so easily into the storyline. It really was a thrilling read that hooked me and kept me its' captive audience until the last page. I never saw the stunning ending coming.
My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars!

Hotel Ruby by Suzanne Young
Blurb:
Stay tonight. Stay forever.

When Audrey Casella arrives for an unplanned stay at the grand Hotel Ruby, she’s grateful for the detour. Just months after their mother’s death, Audrey and her brother, Daniel, are on their way to live with their grandmother, dumped on the doorstep of a DNA-matched stranger because their father is drowning in his grief.

Audrey and her family only plan to stay the night, but life in the Ruby can be intoxicating, extending their stay as it provides endless distractions—including handsome guest Elias Lange, who sends Audrey’s pulse racing. However, the hotel proves to be as strange as it is beautiful. Nightly fancy affairs in the ballroom are invitation only, and Audrey seems to be the one guest who doesn’t have an invite. Instead, she joins the hotel staff on the rooftop, catching whispers about the hotel’s dark past.

The more Audrey learns about the new people she’s met, the more her curiosity grows. She’s torn in different directions—the pull of her past with its overwhelming loss, the promise of a future that holds little joy, and an in-between in a place that is so much more than it seems…

Welcome to the Ruby.

What I Thought of the Book:
I stumbled across this book one day recently when I was at Barnes and Noble. The title sounded familiar, I believe a book blog I follow featured it a month or so back, so naturally I picked it up to take a look. The description drew forth thoughts of an old Disney movie, Tower of Terror, that I'd seen when I was younger, then rented on Netflix just days before finding this book, so I bought Hotel Ruby. This book is fantastic. I really loved it. I kind of had a premonition about what the secret of Hotel Ruby was from about a quarter of the way in but it was still a gripping book that I couldn't bear to put down. I won't spoil the secret but partway through the book you begin to wonder - Is the Hotel Ruby and its' guests even real? As real as the 13th chapter? You'll have to find out for yourself. ;)
My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars!

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