Angels Fall by Nora Roberts

I can't remember if I've ever read any of Roberts books before. Back in high school my mum used to like her but I labeled her books as romantic nonsense. Angels Fall was one of the books my aunt left behind and I decided to give it a try. Especially since it seemed to have more to it than just romance.

Angels Fall follows Reece Gilmory who is the sole survivor of a brutal crime. What that crime was isn't revealed for a while which kind of frustrated me because I'm a curious person. I wanted to know what made this woman so scared and paranoid she couldn't stay in one town for a long time and kept changing her identity. She couldn't even sleep unless she was sure all the doors and windows were locked and there was a chair pushed against the bedroom/apartment door.

At the beginning Reece ends up in a town called Angels Fist. She gets a job as a cook in a diner which is owned by a tough woman called Joanie. While working there Reece meets eyes with a broody but irresistable Brody. When Reece goes on a hike and witnesses a murder that no one else sees, Brody is practically the only one to believe her. Soon after the incident weird things start happening to Reece that make other townies to believe that she is just a jittery newcomer seeing things that aren't there. With Brody she starts figuring out if the murder really did happen and who were the people involved.

I read this 500 pages long book in 2 days. It was just easy to get into it for hours and I really got interested in all the characters. From the diner owner and her waitress to the real cowboy customer, sheriff and the doctor they were all interesting people contributing to the story. What bugged me the most however was Brody. He was dealing with a woman with panic attacks due to the brutal crime and I didn't like how he handled it. Everytime Reece was getting upset or started hyperventilating Brody told him to quit because he doesn't deal with fragile or soft women. He only likes tough women. If I had an anxiety attack and my boyfriend told me to quit just because he doesn't like weak women I doubt I'd be dating him for long. That is just my opinion though as Brody's approach seemed to work in the book.

The plot was interesting enough and I really rooted for Reece as she didn't have an easy life. Especially after witnessing murder and thinking all the weird things happening around her was something she was doing unconsciously . Instead of someone trying to mess with her.Also as always the romantic plot moved forward ridiculously fast but that's a problem I feel like most romance novel have. For me it's hard to buy a romance where you say I love you and practically move in together in 2 months because you just know your relationship is the real deal. Maybe I'm just cynical but it would be nice to see slower romances where sex isn't the only thing keeping them together at the beginning.

Overall Angels Fall was an easy read and it was a pretty good book. The ending was fine and even though I figured out the murdered before the reveal I still enjoyed it. I probably won't read this book again but it provided nice 2 days in a small American town where people know each other and help each other. I wish there were more of those types of towns in real life.

The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett

This is definitely my favourite of the books I've read lately. Terry Pratchett has been one of my favourite writers well over 10 years and his Watchmen books just always make me happy. Who couldn't love Sam Vimes? Or creatures like black ribbon vampires who have sworn off human blood? Never a boring time with these guys.

This time Sam Vimes has to stop a war involving vampires and werewolves. It is an intense story but as always there is some humour in it. What really amused me was Igors. They are a clan of servants that all share the same name. Somehow they always know which Igor they are talking about though which confuses Vimes and causes some lovely breaks in the story. 

I had a hard time putting this book down which meant reading until I fell asleep. Sam Vimes and his wife Sybil are just so great together. Just because Sybil has  grown up proper doesn't mean she's anyway frail. She also always seems tok now what to do no matter how weird the situation is. I wish I more like her.

Sergeant Angua is very deliciously werewolf and I learned things I hadn't even thought of before. She is a big part trying to prevent the war as one of the hotheads is her brother. What I didn't realize was that werewolf is kind of like an half elf. Not accepted by either side. They are too human or too wolf. It's a sad situation to be in. Also can you imagine how horrible a bad hair day is for a werewolf?

Discworld books are the type of books I can read ten times over and not get tired of them. It's sad there won't be any new stories to read but at least we got a huge world to live in. Pratchett did an amazing job with it and reading one of his books feels like going home every time. I will definitely need to hunt down the books I'm missing.

Queen of babble in the big city by Meg Cabot

To start, I wish I'd known this is a part of Babble series. Without knowing until I googled ( thanks to ending) I had read second book in a trilogy. The book ends in a question so unless you read the last book you are out of luck. I think I'll survive though.

Queen of babble is a book my aunt left behind when she moved and I figured I'd read it if I had nothing else. Well, book jar figured this was a good time. I don't read a lot of romance novels unless I've read something so terrifying that I need a palate cleanser .

The star of the book is Lizzie who is aspiring wedding gown specialist. I've never planned my own wedding or really dreamed about it so this was already a meh start. I did however like the little tips that started of a new chapter with. They could be useful from deciding on a wedding gown design to after party. Which wasn't really the case for me but it gave the book a little character.

Lizzie doesn't have a job or a place to live and she has been crashing with her boyfriend of few months. This guy, Luke, happens to be a French prince that seems to mean nothing but money since the monarch isn't recognized anymore. Predictably the money part does create tension between flat broke Lizzie and Luke's parents.

Reading this book I felt like Lizzie's only aspiration in life was to marry Luke. They had only been dating less than six months but the girl was determined. She does seem passionate about her career but she just literally has wedding in the brain. It got tiring for me. I couldn't really relate to Lizzie at all and I didn't really care whether or not Luke pops the question. The book wasn't hard to read so I decided to finish it but it was just not for me. I cared more about Lizzie's friend who wasn't a big part of the story but I liked where her storyline went. I just wasn't happy how Lizzie treated her or how she did not really pause to think that maybe Shari wasn't doing so well. Lizzie had her selfless moments but she seemed very obsessed and self centered to me.

If all you need is some brainless romance novel to take your mind of your daily life, I'm sure there is better ones than this. But if you aren't picky this one did have it's moments. I did read some reviews and it looks like the first book was good. Then it was downhill from there but it's better to judge it yourself. I do not have the other books and I probably won't look for them, but there certainly been worst books than this. At least this means my bookshelf will be one book lighter.

A whisper of blood

I wasn't sure what to think of this one when jar chose it for me. It says on the back that the book is a compilation of modern short stories that share the theme of vampirism. Also that theme is very stretched and you can't just find bloodsuckers here. Even dreams and monster like family members can take the role of a vampire. I don't really read short stories so I was rather nervous.

Now I lay me down to sleep is the first story to start of this book and I have to say I loved it. The vampire here is a ghost of an elderly lady who is scared of judgement waiting for her. She is told to get people's permission to drink blood from them in order to stay in material form and delay the judgement. The horror she feels seems very real and I can relate to it easily. Her journey as a newborn vampire is a delight to follow if not a little sad. It's definitely one of my favourites.

Snail was a rather weird story for me. Vampire was anyone who would interrupt artist while working and prevent their creative juices from flowing. You can tell what an awful toll it took off the poor writer.

Warm man was also one of my favourites. It's a story about empath through the eyes of the townies. In the beginning when this warm man finds his way in the town everything seems fine and everyone is happy. But this happiness is quickly destroyed as it usually is.

There is too many stories to just tell about them all but let's just that in whole I did like this book. There were few that I didn't really understand or care for and probably wouldn't read again. Then there are few that really disgusted me and made me hope that even though we live in a rather dark world that nothing like this happens.

One of those disturbing stories was Mother. It's about family that is formed by adults that used to be in foster care or up for adoption as kids. They needed the discipline from that time in their adulthoods, they needed Mother. All I can say is that this isn't a warm fluffy story to warm your heart before bedtime. People do desperate things to feel safe, to feel like they belong.

I would recommend this for anyone who is tired of vampire tropes and the glitterfying of mysterious dangerous vampires we seem to get these days. If none of the stories doesn't stay with you after reading then I'd say you've seen too much horrible stuff in your life.

I'll leave this with an old English poem that the last story used as inspiration. I grew to love it.

Quhen thow art ded and laid in lyme
And Raggtre rut thi ribbis ar
Thow art than brocht to thi lang hayme
Than grett agayn warldis dignite.
                                                      (around 1360)

The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder

I remember finding this book when I was spending the night at my grandma's as a kid. I was bored as I wasn't really ready to go to bed at 9 pm so I decided to give this book a go. I didn't get far. It was just too boring and weird for a young me. When my jar of books gave me this one to read I hesitated a bit as I remembered the struggle I had with it before. But I gave in as I didn't want to cheat and get another book.

The main plot I guess you can say, follows 12 year old Norwegian boy, Hans Thomas, and his father on their journey from Norway to Greece to find Hans' mother. She had left years ago to find herself. Only clue the guys have is a cover of a magazine with the mom's face on it as she seems to work as a model. During the journey the dad likes to drink and talk about philosophy and make his son think in a way he hasn't before. Dad also collects jokers from playing cards which Hans is used to be but embarrassed by when dad asks strangers for them. Hans acquires a magnifying glass from a dwarf and a tiny book that was baked inside a bun. The story inside this book is amazing and weird and addictive to young boy and he reads the book in secret while his dad is sleeping or off drinking.

I'm surprised by how much I actually liked this book. Dad's philosophical thinking took me back to high school classes and I actually enjoyed it. His theory of how he himself is a joker and how those are rare in this world intrigued me. If joker is someone like a child, who still thinks this Earth is amazing and full of wonders and actually has philosophical thoughts about simple things, then yes I can see how they can be rare. I also know that I'm not one of them. In almost 30 years on this planet I've gotten used to it. It is a shame how granted we take everything just because we aren't surprised by nature anymore.

I can also relate to Hans Thomas when it comes to that tiny book. Just last night I was up late to finish a book I was reading. That tiny book has a whole new world inside it. Tiny dwarves that have no names like we do but are named after playing cards. There is the beautiful and blonde hearts, hard working spades and so on. Everything in that book really happens in an island and everything in that island has something to do with playing cards. I loved finding out why that was the way and why event hough these cards can speak they are rather slow and can't say a lot. Also who is the master they talk about? Will Hans Thomas and his dad find the mom and actually bring her home? This book was about 350 pages of delightful reading and I can see myself reading it again in the future. After I've finished all those unread books in my shelves...

Misery by Stephen King

This is definitely one of my favourite books from King. It is cruelsome and disgusting but it is also gripping and it truly sucks you in. I read the last 70 pages half asleep in one go because I just couldn't put it down.
The plot centers around two very different people. Author Paul Sheldon who gets into a car crash and wakes up in an unknown place. He was "rescued" by his number one fan Annie Wilkes, ex-nurse. He soon discovers how truly sick mind Annie has and how little changes he has of escaping. Annie forces Paul to write her a very own book about her favourite character, Misery,  a journey that won't be easy or forgettable.
The book was also made to a movie where Kathy Bates plays a very believable number 1 fan, Annie. James Caan as Paul is close but to me Bates truly steals the movie.
You can't help but root for Paul while feeling hopeless during the book. Just when you think something is going well, Annie is there to cut off your wings. And bodyparts, literally.
I will come back to this book every now and then, just hopefully I'll find a better copy of it than my half broken book with ripped off pages.