Review: Hana - Book #1.5 Delirium Series - Lauren Oliver - December 2011 I have a confession to make. This book had been sitting on my Kindle since January 2012, quietly waiting, until now. Sometimes a story finds you exactly when it's meant to, and picking up Hana after all these years felt less like reading a novella and more like stepping back through a door I didn't know I'd left open. Reading it transported me straight back to 2010–2012, that golden era when dystopian YA ruled every bookshelf and every teenage heart. It also brought back a memory I treasure, organising a Zoom call with Lauren Oliver herself for a teen reading finale at Tauranga Libraries, right here in little ol' New Zealand. Talk about full circle. Hana gives us the summer before the cure, told from the other side of the friendship at the heart of Delirium. While Lena is pulling away from the noise and risk of the underground world, Hana is doing the opposite  chasing every last taste of freed...

Review: Recalculating - Jennifer Weiner - October 2011 If you’re used to Jennifer Weiner’s usual heartfelt chicklit , buckle up, because this one takes a sharp turn into psychological thriller territory We meet Maureen, a woman who is finally living life on her own terms. Her husband, Tony, has passed away, and she’s beginning to find her footing in her new-found freedom. We’ve all been there, right? That big "garage clean-out" phase where we try to reclaim our space. While sorting through the clutter of her old life, Maureen discovers a wrapped gift addressed to her from Tony. Inside? A GPS system . It feels a bit vintage for 2026, but she plugs it in anyway. At first, it’s just a helpful gadget. But then, the tech starts to glitch. Or does it? The GPS begins speaking to her, not in a generic robotic tone, but in Tony’s voice . And he isn't just giving her directions to the grocery store. He’s calling her names ,the same belittling names he used when he was alive. The ...

Review: Thelma the Tiny Sea Turtle - Karen May - July 2011 There's something absolutely magical about a good ocean adventure, and Karen May's Thelma the Tiny Sea Turtle delivers that magic in spades. This delightful junior fiction tale captures the heart with its brave little protagonist and the big, beautiful, sometimes dangerous world she navigates. Life on the reef isn't all sunshine and coral gardens, as young Thelma discovers. When our tiny turtle hero finds herself separated from safety, she embarks on an unforgettable journey that had me instantly thinking of Finding Nemo. Just like Nemo's quest to reunite with Marlin, Thelma's adventure takes her through encounters with a colourful cast of sea creatures—some wonderfully kind and helpful, others decidedly less friendly. Karen May does a brilliant job creating a diverse underwater community that feels both realistic and entertaining. What I particularly love about this book is how it balances adventure with ...

    Review: She Can Run - Book #1 She Can Series - Melinda Leigh - November 2011 This particular author I enjoyed and if you love authors like Kendra Elliott and Kate Watterson and Melinda Woodhall, then you will enjoy her crime reads. On the other hand, this particular series has been a hit/miss for me as I find I either enjoy them or they have been DNFs. She Can Run was up my alley with the main character leaving her husband in the middle of the night with her children after he tried to kill her in a fit of rage. Beth now has accepted a job as a caretaker, but when she turns up and learns that her new prospective employer is dead and his nephew Jake has taken over the property. Feeling sorry and knowing Beth is hiding from something and the fact that his Uncle Danny had good instincts, he hires her and she starts to care for the horses. Over time Jake and Beth will start to have feelings, but with Beth always having to be one step ahead and stay alert, she can't let herse...

          Review: Freaks - Book #8.5 Rizzoli and Isles Short Story - Tess Gerritsen - May 2011        Scrolling through my Kindle, I have made it my goal to clear my older books and felt in the mood for a bit of mystery, and what better than being reunited with the characters of Rizzoli and Isles from Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles to Barry Frost. In this short story, we have our murder scene in an abandoned church and the scene looks like it was a satanic ritual murder gone wrong as the area is set up like a scene from a Vampire film complete with a coffin that looks like someone had been sleeping in it. Turns out the victim and suspect were humans that were considered freaks of nature and thought they were vampires who could only survive on blood. Was our victim killed in a ritual gone wrong or was it something more creepy-crawly? I do have to admit the ending of this book when her murder was solved did make me giggle a little, but a fun qui...