Book Review Thursday - 6/28

I have a couple of great books for you tonight!

 I finished another novel in the D.D. Warren series by Lisa Gardner. Catch Me finds D.D. at a crime scene of a murdered child predator and as she is leaving, Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant appears to have just left a note on D.D.'s car. Charlie has a story for D.D. and tells her that she is anticipating being murdered in 4 days and just wanted to meet the detective who would be working the case. Charlie's 2 best friends from her home town have been murdered on January 21 of the 2 previous years and Charlie spent the last year in training for the fight of her life. D.D. spends the next 4 days trying to decide if Charlie is for real or if she is the real killer as well as tracking the apparent serial killer who is going after the child predators.

This novel took a few turns that I never anticipated. Charlie was constantly counting down the time that she figured she had left and asking, if you only had X number of days or hours left, "What would you do?" It was interesting to read what she did. And quite ballsy.

This was a really good book and I was on the edge of my seat quite a bit. D.D.'s personal life is advanced more than the last books and it was nice to read it. I can't wait for the next in the series!

I also recently finished Sonoma Rose, the latest in the Elm Creek Quilt series by Jennifer Chiaverini. These books usually bother me with the way they jump around in time and sometimes the main theme seems to be beating the reader upside the head throughout the book.

Rosa Barclay is living a pretty miserable life in an abusive marriage and having already buried 4 of her 8 children. As her husband is bent on ruining their farm in Southern California, Rosa is trying her best to keep her 2 sick children from dying like the others. In a fit of rage, John attacks Rosa and a neighbor and then heads off to kill Rosa's old boyfriend, Lars. The neighbor encourages Rosa to run and hide with her children until John calms down. As Rosa hides with the children trying to wait out a storm, Lars comes to find her and share the news that John has been arrested and that they have to run.

It turns out that John was participating in illegal activities relating to Prohibition and Lars had turned him in to the authorities for having alcohol. Now, Lars and Rosa were both on the run.

I think that I enjoyed this book more than any of the others in the series. Lars and Rosa were able to get a lot of help for themselves and for the children. The kids ended up having Celiac Disease and flourished once they were on the special diet. Rosa had taken a couple of satchels of money when she left the farm and it came in handy to help them hide from the gangsters and John.

I highly recommend both of these books!