A quick light weight read -- reminds me of a Hollywood B movie ...
581809
Like a Hollywood B movie -- exactly like it was the script for one!  You know the kind -- where the hero gets the girl and everything turns out fine for him against all odds.  LOL.  It was a cute, light weight sorta' corny read but that doesn't mean it was not enjoyable.  Just used to eyeing this particular type of corniness on the big screen.  Almost a tear jerker if I could have gotten past the one dimensional character presentations and story lines.  But I did ultimately think that it was a cute story.
3116613
This was a very short book with a rather predictable story - but I did enjoy it.
1636480
Easy read without much intellectual stimulation. Hardly a thriller, but more like an average Lifetime movie. Little attention was given to character description, other than the Marilyn Monroe lookalike, but a lot given to the scenery. The criminal was fairly easy to identify. The book synopsis was actually much more interesting than the book itself.
2267649
Wambaugh churns out another LAPD cop novel and produces a mildly entertaining read.  I could see how the novelty of the specific details of police work and the vulgarities and humor of the amusing Hollywood characters would appeal to a first-timer, but for those of us who've read Wambaugh before know that his earlier works were better.  Wambaugh has a knack for police jargon and creating colorful characters as well as judiciously mixing the two.

However, the narrative in "Hollywood Crows" was the weak spot.  The convergence of the characters and the main crime wasn't surprising and the ending left you feeling empty.  The banter of the cops and the other LA lowlifes is always fun and doesn't disappoint -- for instance when Flotsam tells his surfer cop partner Jetsam how he was "...ripping on that juicy when I got shut down" (aka "a total wipeout inside the barrel") and "...the most excellent Betty" came to see if he was alright, but he "...barked the dog"  (aka "blew chunks") all over her so "she screamed and jumped into the surf to wash off the spooge and I never saw her again."  Yet this fun banter and characters when mixed with the somber finish gave the novel a split personality.  Going deeper into fewer characters may have been able to hit a more serious tone that could have proved to be more effective overall.

All in all, one could make worse reading choices, but don't expect too much.
4949889
light reading, not as witty as Sweet Potato Queens, predictable, not much resolution - kind of a flat ending
862309
This is a rather short read and something that is a bit different for this author which was fine with me because I have never been a big fan of his `thrillers.'  Overall this was a quick and mellow read and I must say that I enjoyed it.

The basic story is of a NFL Quarterback; a very, very poor quarterback who has completely disgraced himself by loosing his teams one and only shot at a super bowl slot.  No one will hire him.  Finally an obscure Italian team who is shooting for the Italian Super Bowl hires him...very little money but plenty of beer and pizza.  At the end of his line (he is only 28) he takes the job.  The book is about his adventures playing American football in Italy; a nation not all that interested in this American passion.

There were amusing scenes in the book and I found myself smiling several times.  Rick, the main character in the book is rather a shallow fellow with several major character flaws. The story movies quite well but the plot is actually secondary.  I more or less treated this work as a travel book and food book about Italy and therefore was not all that disappointed as apparently some readers were.  Yes, there were episodes of romance in the book but as far as I was concerned they were rather lukewarm and never really went anywhere which is I suspect, what the author was shooting for.

While this work is most certainly not at the top of any of my `best ever' lists, neither is at the top of my `worse ever' lists either.  I enjoyed it.  It was better than anything on T.V. for two evenings (which is not saying much, I know) and I did not feel cheated after reading it.  Will I give this one a reread down the road?  No, most certainly not but then again I am not sorry I read it.  On the other hand I am somewhat grateful that I did not buy it either.

This was a library find.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks
2679540
A pleasant read with some laugh out loud moments. This story read to me like a long-ish magazine article or a rom-com script, it was quick, the tone of the writing was light, witty with as many movie and pop-culture references as could be stuffed in, which kept bringing me out of the story that was supposed to be about love, I think. It was like a long internal conversation, being the narrative of the hero as things happen. I did not find this book romantic at all, it was predictable and fairly monotonous, there were really no highs or lows here.
Once I passed the first chapter, I realized that it was more about the philosophy of Drew's life which was all about sex and instant gratification, yet told with a sense of humour. Although he seemed to have good female role models in his life, he treated women with a fair amount of disdain, which is what happens when you live a charmed life with endless wealth and opportunity. Kate was forgettable so the romance did not work for me, I have to like the heroine for the romance to work.
517884
I am reminded of Jack Nicholson in "As Good as it Gets" when he is asked how he writes like a woman. I wonder if these two male authors used a similar formula when creating a female homicide cop who ignores the fact that she knows her husband murdered her lover and then breaks all the rules to protect him? The book  is a quick read, with super short chapters that work well with the many plot twists. It moves along at a pretty fast clip. Still, Lauren Stillwell doesn't fit the mold of James Patterson's usually smart and conscientious characters, and it's hard to be sympathetic to her dilemma. An OK beach read, but not the caliber of the Alex Cross or Women's Murder Club books.
45007
This is a short story that takes me back to my past in Ohio. Not that I heard anything quite as detailed as the narrator is relating, but similar in tone... It seems that all small towns have their "cemetery" ghost stories and widows tales designed to intrigue, frighten and encourage gossip and speculation. It was a form of entertainment long before TV came along.

The narrator is a woman who was a teen in the fifties when her family lived across the street from a seamstress named Mrs. Hill. As an adult now, she tells the story of Mrs. Hill: "a perpetual widow who buried five husbands within twelve years. Her marriages were so brief that the friends and neighbors never bothered to learn the true name of the new spouse; therefore, all of Mrs. Hill's husbands were identified as Mr. Hill. She had the sympathy of all her neighbors - all but one."

It so happens that when the teen girl sees the fifth husband being placed in the ambulance, she starts thinking back. On a rare occasion when she's in their home, she remembers the latest Mr. Hill complaining about the lemonade "tasting funny" and other clues. But it isn't until Mrs. Hill finally passes on and her great-grandson inherits the house that she comes to the conclusion that perhaps the "poor, grieving widow" had somehow killed her many husbands and gotten away with it.

<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Mrs-and-Mr-Hill/dp/B006NAXSM8/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Mrs. and Mr. Hill</a>&nbsp;is an intriguing story that doesn't reach any positive conclusions, but makes one wonder what really happened back then in the fifties when, as the narrator says "Let the Blacks kill themselves seemed to be the consensus of opinion of the police department." Thus, they never investigate Mrs. Hill.

No one knows that Mrs. Hill has a daughter and granddaughter, so what happens when they suddenly show up? And why do she and the daughter fight all the time? What does the teen narrator hear the daughter scream at her mother just before stomping away? How does that fit into the girl's speculation? And what does she learn from the great-grandson years later when he visits the house he inherits?

Kudos to author Elaine T. Jones for answering those questions and many more. She's a rare gem who manages to tell a story that makes one feel they're sitting beside her, listening raptly to every word, reminiscent of the greatest storytellers of ages past.

Reviewed by Betty Dravis, February 26, 2012
Author of award-winning "1106 Grand Boulevard"
2928641
Vanessa Michael Munroe, a gender-bending bad-a** James (or Jamie?) Bond, is on the case of The Doll Maker- a human trafficker specializing in captured-to-order women.
High octane, violent, and  cinematic, this was a quick pulse-pounder, but the plot lacked meat and direction- this was the literary equivalent to a Michael Bay film- lots of explosions, not much characterization.
For a better (and more realistic, and therefore more disturbing) look at human trafficking, read&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Box-21-A-Novel/dp/B00969KHHM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Box 21: A Novel</a>.
1195794
This was a quick read and good for passing a lazy afternoon, but don't expect anything deep or paradigm-shifting. It felt more like the first episode in a mainstream crime series on TV than a standalone novel.
2314126
An easy "chick lit" book about a busy working mom commuting to NYC from NJ. I really enjoyed some of the characters in this book, but every time I started getting into a story/plot line the author would drop SO MANY brand names that it was distracting "He wore Warby Parker glasses", "in his OP shorts and Ray Bans", "Wearing an Orla Kiely sheath". Like almost every other paragraph. It came off as pretentious and lazy.

The parts of the story that seemed the most believable were the parts about her father and nuclear family - those characters seemed very real. Her husband and children seemed a little 2 dimensional. Overall, I enjoyed the book, it was just a little cheesy and over the top in parts and came off as a thinly veiled story about her own life (which apparently, it was). Definitely worth picking up from the library, but I wouldn't spend money on this one.
4589147
This was my first Hornby book, although I've seen the movies that were based on some of his books.

I guess my expectations were a bit high. I thought there would be some kind of 'message' in the book. That might be unfair, but it did seem like "About a boy" had a strong redemption theme.

Anyhow, this book was amusing, but very, very light. The POV in the book changes between several characters, but the star of the book is Barbara/Sophie. I wasn't really convinced that she was a nineteen year-old in early 1960s Britain. I wasn't really convinced that she was a female a lot of the time.

I expected Barbara would have to struggle a bit to get onto TV and fulfill her dream, but it happened quickly -- too quickly in my opinion. She tells us how hungry she is for a chance to be on TV, and suffers for a bit working in a department store, and then walks into an audition and meets director, writers and co-star and within a few hours they write an entire series around her. Huh.

I'll be honest, I found her bizarre roommate Marjory a much more compelling character. Barbara is just too difficult to identify with: an amazing beauty queen who people stop on the street -- even before she's a star -- because she's so gorgeous? Yeah, life is a bummer for those people. The author throws a bit in about her mother, who abandoned her, but the information he provides is too tepid and too late. You don't learn about how tragic this was for Barbara until after she's already become a star.

I don't mean to be a jerk, but this story kind of reminded me of some of those made-for-TV Danielle Steele movies that I watched back in the 80s. Particularly the ending of the book, which I will not disclose.

I read the whole thing quickly, it was a light, fairly enjoyable read. But I kept thinking, "where's the angst, here? The struggle?"

I think 3 stars is fair for a light-hearted book. I read it, I liked it, and I am quickly forgetting most of it.
3425419
This book was a very quick read. I've mainly given it three stars because it read like part of a book and not a full book which left me feeling a bit cheated. In fact I felt like I'd read the opening section of a larger novel - not the first book in a trilogy - about a real villain who has done time for his crimes. He comes out of jail not exactly reformed but willing to give being a bad guy a second chance as he doesn't see any other option only to find himself in a frame for a crime he doesn't want to be associated with. The book was rather similar to&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Confessions-of-a-D-List-Supervillain/dp/B004WE0D3E/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Confessions of a D-List Supervillain</a>&nbsp;without the sense of humor.
1811442
For what it is---the COVER ART is only the last few seconds of the flick---a "B"-horror movie, it is effective.
Twists and turns. Cheap entertainment. Maybe more of a rental than a keeper, but, what-the-hell, I enjoyed
it.
1242926
It was a light read with short chapters that made the story fly by.  It would be a great beach read.
4487393
Overall this was a comfortable and easy read. The beginning half of the book was overall quite good and maintained the reader's interest. Then things seemed to go downhill. The plot reminded me of a B-class movie towards the end. A pet peeve of mine is when chararacters in books or movies do stupid, illogical things like neglect to call the police in an obviously hazardous situation. This was one of those books where I had to cringe at situations like this.