What's On My Hold List?

Picture from YaBookNerd's blog,
because, though, I started this meme
she created a much cuter pic for it!

Welcome to the August 2014 edition

of

"What's on My Hold List?"

One of the most beautiful things about working in a Library is that I have the ability to put lots of things on hold and read them *before* I buy!! These are some of the books that I'm currently waiting for, though I may buy one or two of them after reading, as well.

These are the books I'm waiting for right now:

Gates of Thread and Stone 
by Lori M. Lee

Starglass
by Phoebe North

Top Secret Twenty-One
by Janet Evanovich

Trial By Fire
by Josephine Angelini

You can click on each title to go to their Goodreads page for a description...

So, these are the books I'm waiting anxiously to get my hands on...what are you waiting for??

Mini Reviews: Stephanie Plum Catch-Up Edition

So, since I've taken my professional reviewing down a notch and I've had some free time, I've been playing catch up with some of my favorite adult series.  One series I love that I had fallen sadly behind on was Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. They are just SOO much fun... and since I'm driving a lot more now (back and forth to Roller Derby practice!), I decided to listen to these books which is an even more hilarious experience...

Explosive Eighteen
by Janet Evanovich
Stephanie Plum series, book eighteen

Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 from Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, she’s flying back to New Jersey solo, and someone who sounds like Sasquatch is snoring in row 22. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead and the FBI, the fake FBI, and guns-for-hire are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.

Only one other person has seen the missing photograph—Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can. Over at the Bail Bonds Agency it’s business as usual—until the bonds bus serving as Vinnie’s temporary HQ goes up in smoke, Stephanie’s wheelman, Lula, falls in love with their “largest” FTA yet, lifetime arch nemesis Joyce Barnhardt moves into Stephanie’s apartment, and everyone wants to know what happened in Hawaii?! All Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is . . . It’s complicated. (description from Goodreads.com)

I had forgotten how much this series made me laugh.  Listening as everyone tried to drag the tale about Hawaii out of Stephanie and then finally hearing the tale, bit by bit, as Stephanie recounts how exactly things went down...So good. I love the strange balance she struggles to keep in her personal *and* professional lives with Joe and Ranger. 

Notorious Nineteen 

by Janet Evanovich 

Stephanie Plum series, book nineteen 

New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is certain of three truths: People don’t just vanish into thin air. Never anger old people. And don’t do what Tiki tells you to do.

After a slow summer of chasing low-level skips for her cousin Vinnie’s bail bonds agency, Stephanie Plum finally lands an assignment that could put her checkbook back in the black. Geoffrey Cubbin, facing trial for embezzling millions from Trenton’s premier assisted-living facility, has mysteriously vanished from the hospital after an emergency appendectomy. Now it’s on Stephanie to track down the con man. 

Desperate for money—or maybe just desperate—Stephanie accepts a secondary job guarding her secretive and mouthwatering mentor Ranger from a deadly Special Forces adversary. While Stephanie is notorious for finding trouble, she may have found a little more than she bargained for this time around. (description from Goodreads.com)

Oooh. The baddies in this one were just plain creepy!  A "Yeti," a special forces freak-show hunting Stephanie down...and a Tiki "influencing" people into doing things they just shouldn't do... This one was very entertaining and like Stephanie, for a solid minute, I really thought perhaps she should just quit her job! Thank goodness that she always manages to escape just by the skin of her teeth. 

Takedown Twenty 

by Janet Evanovich 

Stephanie Plum series, book twenty

When powerful mobster Salvatore “Uncle Sunny” Sunucchi goes on the lam in Trenton, it’s up to Stephanie to find him. Nobody wants to turn him in—not his poker buddies, not his bimbo girlfriend, not his two right-hand men, Shorty and Moe. Even Joe's old-world grandmother, Bella, is doing everything she can to throw Stephanie off the trail. It’s not just Uncle Sunny giving Stephanie the run-around. Before Stephanie knows it, she’s working side by side with Ranger and Grandma at the senior center, trying to catch a killer on the loose—and the bingo balls are not rolling in their favor.

With bullet holes in her car, henchmen on her tail, and a giraffe named Kevin running wild in the streets of Trenton, Stephanie will have to up her game for the ultimate takedown. (description from Goodreads.com) 

Can I just say that I spent the majority of this book solely focused on Kevin. A GIRAFFE running around Trenton, New Jersey?!  Janet Evanovich you just made my reading YEAR. Love.  This was spectacularly funny and I know I have a little bit of a bias here (read that as a huge bias based on my love of giraffes) but I cannot wait to see where the bounty hunting hijinks take Stephanie Plum next. I don't think I'll ever get tired of this series. 

Full disclosure: All audio books borrowed from my Library. 

What's On My Hold List?

Welcome to the November 2012* edition

of

"What's on My Hold List?"

*I just realized I never did an October edition...*face palm* MY BAD!!*

 

One of the most beautiful things about working in a Library is that I have the ability to put lots of things on hold and read them *before* I buy!! These are some of the books that I'm currently waiting for, though I may buy one or two of them after reading, as well.

 

Notorious Nineteen

by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum, book nineteen

 

Rebel Heart

by Moira Young

Dust Lands, book two

 

Sapphire Blue

by Kerstin Gier

Ruby Red Trilogy, book two

 

Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible

by Tim Gunn

 

 

Bad Yeti

by Carrie Harris

Kate Grable novella

 

Breathless

by Sophie Jordan

Firelight novella

 





You can click on each title to go to their Amazon page for a description...

So, these are the books I'm waiting anxiously to get my hands on...what are you waiting for??

Smokin' Seventeen

Smokin' Seventeen
by Janet Evanovich
Stephanie Plum, book seventeen
(*not counting the in-between novels)

Dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. No one is sure who the killer is, or why the victims have been offed, but what is clear is that Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list.

Short on time to find evidence proving the killer’s identity, Stephanie faces further complications when her family and friends decide that it’s time for her to choose between her longtime off-again-on-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger. Stephanie’s mom is encouraging Stephanie to dump them both and choose a former high school football star who’s just returned to town. Stephanie’s sidekick, Lula, is encouraging Stephanie to have a red-hot boudoir “bake-off.” And Grandma Bella, Morelli’s old-world grandmother, is encouraging Stephanie to move to a new state when she puts “the eye” on Stephanie.

With a cold-blooded killer after her, a handful of hot men, and a capture list that includes a dancing bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life looks like it’s about to go up in smoke. (description from Amazon.com)

OMG. How do I love this series? Let me count the ways!

1. Stephanie is both incompetent and surprisingly good at her job...
2. Ranger
3. Morelli
4. Lula...her crazy diets, her crazier wardrobe, and her propensity for shooting at suspects
5. Grandma Mazur...who doesn't love a "cute" little old grandma that carries a giant gun in her purse and wreaks havoc at funeral homes for fun?
6. Mooner...stoner extraordinaire
7. Stephanie's love of food...which will overcome the most extreme circumstances!
8. Bulgari body wash (Ummm...and the man who uses it...did I mention him already? Oh I did. Well...*sigh*)
9. Connie...the "connected" woman behind the scenes at the bail bonds office
10. Just to round things out --> RANGER. *omg*

These books make me snarf out loud! Every single time. I love poor Stephanie's propensity for blowing up cars, accidentally catching bad guys, and her understandable trouble choosing between two HOTT guys that want to be with her...

This particular volume caused me to laugh out loud so hard that I cried...within the first 50 pages! It doesn't get better than that. Let's just say that the perps Stephanie has to round up in this book are definitely hilarous (including a senior who thinks he's a vampire). The relationship drama heats up again...and I for one, LOVED it. The best part, though, is how even with all of the guy drama in Stephanie's life, she still knows that her girls mean more...the girlpower ending made me grin!

In My Mailbox - June 26, 2011

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme, hosted by Kristi at the Story Siren, inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie. Every week bloggers can share what they received in the mail or at the bookstore or at the library. The goal is that everyone can be exposed to more books this way!

From the Library:

Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich

I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend by Cora Harrison

Hit List by Laurell K. Hamilton
The Fallen by Celia Thomson

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

More adult books than YA this week, but new books in two of my absolutely favorite series came out this week, so I'm stoked!! Off to read...

One For the Money Movie Info

For all you Stephanie Plum fans out there...the movie info is finally out!! My friend, Sharon, over at I Mainline Fiction, managed to scoop this, and then I told her I had to post it, too!!

The movie comes out on July 8, 2011. Katherine Heigl, Jason O'Mara, and Daniel Sunjata are starring. More cast info can be found here. I agree with Sharon...I LOVE this series and I'm just not sure that a movie version, especially this one, can live up to my hopes...

What do you think?

Top 5 Favorite Books...at the moment, that is!

Okay, so far my top 5 favorite books are:

1. The Looking Glass Wars - Frank Beddor

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling

3. Poison Study - Maria Snyder


4. Finger-Lickin' Fifteen - Janet Evanovich


5. Kindred in Death - J.D. Robb