Avid Reader

My name is Keishon and I'm an avid reader of romance, crime fiction and graphic novels. I tend to read all over the map and prefer the older romances from the 90's rather than the new romances of today. I enjoy reading and discussing books and I hope you enjoy your visit here. Some of my favorite authors include but are not limited to Laura Kinsale, Penelope Williamson, Kathleen Eagle, Michael Connelly, Julia Spencer-Fleming and my latest crush is on Nordic crime novelist, Jo Nesbø (start with The Redbreast if interested).

Homepage: http://avidbookreader.com


Posts by Avid Reader

TBR Challenge Today!

Jul 21st

Posted by Avid Reader in Avid Musings

9 comments

Dear read­ers,
Yes, I’ve been remiss with blog­ging lately espe­cially at this blog. If you are not aware, I am now run­ning two blogs now. One for mys­tery and one for every­thing else. I am right now more inter­ested in read­ing mys­tery than romance these days but will def­i­nitely try to tackle some of the romance nov­els that

Thank You, Hurricane Alex [Not Really]

Jul 3rd

Posted by Avid Reader in Avid Musings

6 comments

Even though Hur­ri­cane Alex didn’t exactly make land­fall in Texas, the storm did man­age to dump a lot of rain just as a hello and to make sure we didn’t feel left out. It took me almost 3 hours to get home after I left work yes­ter­day. One hour was spent in traf­fic that went nowhere and the other

Adam’s Fall, Sandra Brown [1988 Romance]

Jun 16th

Posted by Avid Reader in B- Reviews

5 comments

Adam’s Fall, San­dra Brown [Fan­fare 1994 Reprint, 208 pages] is an early romance that actu­ally reads well today out­side of the dat­ed­ness that is inher­ent in con­tem­po­rary romance nov­els. It’s a real shame that this book isn’t avail­able in ebook as I think it would do well. San­dra Brown is a favorite author of mine. I tend to

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The Best Revenge, Justine Davis

Jun 3rd

Posted by Avid Reader in C- Reviews

6 comments

The Best Revenge (Sil­hou­ette Roman­tic Sus­pense 2010) by Jus­tine Davis is apart of her Red­stone, Inc, minis­eries. I had no idea how far back this series ran. The author has her own web­site, too. I’ve only read two titles in this ongo­ing minis­eries: the one I’m review­ing now and Deadly Temp­ta­tion. Cover com­ment: The hero looks

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The Three Evangelists, Fred Vargas

May 29th

Posted by Avid Reader in B Reviews

No comments

The Three Evan­ge­lists (Vin­tage 2007) writ­ten by Fred Var­gas and trans­lated by Sian Reynolds. The Three Evan­ge­lists takes place in Paris, dur­ing the mid-1990’s. The story intro­duces three his­to­ri­ans turned ama­teur sleuths. The author’s back­ground in his­tory and arche­ol­ogy are evi­denced in the story.
This was a good read that started off well enough. The first mys­tery that’s

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Favorite Book(s)/Scenes: Almost Heaven

May 25th

Posted by Avid Reader in Avid Musings

5 comments

My very first Judith McNaught book that ended up mak­ing me a fan of her books was Almost Heaven (1991). It’s a his­tor­i­cal romance set in 19th Cen­tury Eng­land and the sequel to Some­thing Won­der­ful (haven’t read that one yet). The hero­ine, Count­ess Eliz­a­beth Cameron, finds her­self in dis­grace with the ton after she is caught in

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Separation in Romances: Does It Work For You?

May 24th

Posted by Avid Reader in Avid Musings

5 comments

Sep­a­ra­tions in romance: does it work for you? Because it most cer­tainly works for me. Only if done the way that I like it and that is it must have two things: 1) a good rea­son for the sep­a­ra­tion and 2) a damn good reunion scene. I think romances today are in a slump. Many are just too damn predictable.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit [vol.4], Motoro Mase

May 23rd

Posted by Avid Reader in B+ Reviews

No comments

Ikigami: The Ulti­mate Limit (2010), vol.4 is writ­ten and illus­trated by Motoro Mase. It is rated M: Mature read­ers. List price is $12.99USA. Ikigami: The Ulti­mate Limit was orig­i­nally seri­al­ized in Young Sun­day manga mag­a­zine. After read­ing four vol­umes, this series is still cap­ti­vat­ing to me for sev­eral rea­sons 1)character dri­ven sto­ries and 2)

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Author Spotlight: Melina Marchetta

May 22nd

Posted by Avid Reader in Avid Musings

7 comments

I have found a new author that I’m really excited about and her name is Melina Mar­che­tta. She’s an Aus­tralian author who writes pre­dom­i­nately teen fic­tion and her sto­ries are con­tem­po­rary and set in Aus­tralia. The teens in her books have to deal with social issues like ille­git­i­macy, alco­holism, the bur­den of parental expec­ta­tions & disappointments

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Favorite Book(s)/Scenes: The Vizard Mask

May 18th

Posted by Avid Reader in Avid Musings

10 comments

Before Ari­ana Franklin started her Mis­tress of the Art of Death his­tor­i­cal mys­tery series, she wrote excel­lent his­tor­i­cal fic­tion nov­els under her real name of Diana Nor­man. I found out about Diana Nor­man from Jayne at Dear Author a long, long time ago. I went and bought up her back list. Many of her older fic­tion books are

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Cover/Plot: Moonlight Mile, Dennis Lehane

May 15th

Posted by Avid Reader in Avid Musings

6 comments

Moon­light Mile is the sixth book in the Patrick Ken­zie and Angela Gen­naro series is sched­uled to be released on 11/2/10. Plot syn­op­sis is below:

Amanda McCready was four years old when she van­ished from a Boston sub­urb in 1997. Des­per­ate pleas for help from the child’s aunt led savvy, tough-nosed inves­ti­ga­tors Ken­zie and Gen­naro to take

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Saving Francesca, Melina Marchetta

May 15th

Posted by Avid Reader in Grade A Reviews

2 comments

Sav­ing Francesca by Melina Mar­che­tta is the author’s sec­ond pub­lished work set in her home­town of Syd­ney, Aus­tralia. I am work­ing my way through her back list. I know she has recently released a fan­tasy novel, Finnikin of the Rock. Quite a big step away from the com­ing of age sto­ries that she does so well. I can tell right

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Romance Rollback: The Rainbow Season by Lisa Gregory

May 14th

Posted by Avid Reader in Avid Musings

9 comments

This is not a review but a quick and dirty overview. I read this book years ago and enjoyed it. The Rain­bow Sea­son by Lisa Gre­gory (1989) was one of those most talked about books on mes­sage boards at the time. It’s a his­tor­i­cal romance with a tor­tured hero. Lisa Gre­gory still writes under Can­dace Camp today. Here is a teaser

Random Reader Remarks: The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk

May 13th

Posted by Avid Reader in Avid Musings

2 comments

The Dark Days of Ham­burger Halpin by Josh Berk (Feb 2010) is a YA novel that fea­tures a kid who is deaf and over­weight. He decides to leave his “deaf school” to attend “pub­lic school.” I ran­domly came across this title look­ing through someone’s Ama­zon list of “real­is­tic” YA nov­els of which Melina Mar­che­tta was apart of the

Memorable Characters or Scenes: Kurj Skolia from the Ruby Dynasty Series

May 12th

Posted by Avid Reader in Avid Musings

No comments

I got off to a late start but here it is. I thought it would be fun to share mem­o­rable char­ac­ters that I’ve run across in my read­ing. In my 18+ years of read­ing for plea­sure, I have a few books/scenes/characters I’d like to share with you.
In 18+ years, some char­ac­ters have stamped them­selves indeli­bly into my brain

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