Book Quest #3

Here is my third set of books in my quest to read 100 in a year.  I may not make it, but it has been fun and I will keep posting until I reach my 100!

#51 Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich.  This series still makes me laugh.  I laughed so hard reading this I almost dropped the book!  Here's the synopsis: "New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum knows better than to mess with family. But when powerful mobster Salvatore “Uncle Sunny” Sunucchi goes on the lam in Trenton, it’s up to Stephanie to find him. Uncle Sunny is charged with murder for running over a guy (twice), and nobody wants to turn him in—not his poker buddies, not his bimbo girlfriend, not his two right-hand men, Shorty and Moe. Even Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli, has skin in the game, because—just Stephanie’s luck—the godfather is his actual godfather. And while Morelli understands that the law is the law, his 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. Security specialist Ranger needs her help to solve the bizarre death of a top client’s mother, a woman who happened to play bingo with Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur. 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."

#52 Eternal Bloom by Kenitra Jordan.  This book was GOOD!  I started it Thursday night and finished it Friday afternoon.  I could not put it down.  I was rooting for the main character from page one.  Here is the GoodReads synopsis: "Raised to honor her vows, "till death do you part, in good times and bad times," Aiyana Adams tries to be the perfect life compliment to her husband: prominent attorney Kalb Adams. But the facade of a perfect life, is soon shattered when Aiyana learns the sinister truth about her husband...now, how will she get out? How will she keep her children? How will she survive the adversity thrown at her, and still manage to pull her children and herself out of the fire?"  Disclaimer: This book is about domestic violence and the "f word" is used a couple times.

#53 Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.  Like Gone Girl, this was weird but good!  Here is the synopsis:  "Words are like a road map to reporter Camille Preaker’s troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camille’s first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.  Since she left town eight years ago, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed again in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille is haunted by the childhood tragedy she has spent her whole life trying to cut from her memory."

#54 The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  I had heard a lot about this book and couldn't wait to read it.  Set in WWII, Death tells the story, which I found a little weird.  Here's the synopsis: "Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

#55 Knock Out by Catherine Coulter.  This book was along the same lines as some Kay Hooper books I have read.  It has that psychic story line.  This was book 13 in the series and I haven't read the others, but didn't feel like I needed any prior knowledge to read it.  Here's the synopsis: "Seven-year-old Autumn Backman needed a hero. When she saw Special Agent Dillon Savich on TV after he'd brought down bank robbers in a Georgetown bank, she knew she'd found him.  She called Savich, but she didn't use the phone...
Ethan Merriweather, sheriff of Titusville, Virginia, a small mountain town near the Titus Hitch Wilderness, goes looking for a missing little girl. Soon after he finds her, Ethan realizes that Autumn has brought him a huge problem - a relentless madman who has the ability to control others simply by looking at them. And the madman is after her and her mom.  It's a race to stop the madness, or the madness will destroy them all..."

#56 Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan.  "Come and meet Issy Randall, proud owner of The Cupcake Cafe. Issy Randall can bake. No, more than that - Issy can create stunning, mouth-wateringly divine cakes. After a childhood spent in her beloved Grampa Joe's bakery, she has undoubtedly inherited his talent. When she's made redundant from her safe but dull City job, Issy decides to seize the moment. Armed with recipes from Grampa, and with her best friends and local bank manager fighting her corner, The Cupcake Cafe opens its doors. But Issy has absolutely no idea what she's let herself in for. It will take all her courage - and confectionery - to avert disaster."

#57 Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger by Beth Harbison.  "Ten years ago, Quinn Barton was on her way to the altar to marry Burke Morrison, her high school sweetheart, when something derailed her. Rather, someone derailed her—the Best Man who at the last minute begged her to reconsider the marriage. He told her that Burke had been cheating on her. For a long time. Quinn, stunned, hurt, and confused, struggled with the obligation of fulfilling her guests’ expectations—providing a wedding—and running for her life."