This reader contest will begin as soon as soon as I get my review up between now and July 29. The first THREE READERS (3) who comment on the review will win a copy of the book. Simple as that. I know many of you have probably pre-ordered this book or have plans to purchase this book on July 29. I’m sure there are readers out there who would like a free copy of this book. The contest is over as soon as I get my three winners. The contest is open to everybody - near and far away. I only ask that you email me your contact info as soon as you have been announced as the winner of the reader contest within (3) days or your status as winner is forfeit and I choose another.

Also, as with all contests, please make sure to spread the word, share your thoughts on the book — good or bad — where other readers may congregate. That’s it. This contest is mainly for my regular readers and if you read this blog on a daily basis then you are already a step ahead. I plan to do more of these types of contests for the books that I have enjoyed. Good luck to all of you and consider this as a “thank you” for visiting avidbookreader.com.

The story opens with the Grace family moving into their new home. They have left New York City to settle into the country. While the narrative is in third person, the story follows Jared, a nine-year old kid whose parents have recently divorced. His siblings include his twin brother, Simon, who keeps a menagerie of pets around him and his older sister Mallory, who is obsessed with fencing. Since the divorce, Jared has had problems at home and at school. However, it isn’t too long after they’ve moved in their new home that life offers the Grace family some interesting distractions.

It isn’t too soon after the kids have settled into their great aunt’s Spiderwick estate that they immediately begin to hear unexplained rustling in the walls at night. They explore the home only to discover a secret library and Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. It is an illustrated book about faeries, their secrets along with other supernatural creatures that seem to inhabit our world. Shortly after they are introduced to the book, we see the kids battle with goblins, fight with ogres, match wits with elves and solve riddles. They eventually meet up with the biggest and baddest monster of them all and he only wants one thing: the field guide.

The stories are very quick reads and albeit, a bit predictable. If you enjoyed Lord of the Rings then you would enjoy these stories. I enjoyed The Spiderwick Chronicles because the authors have a very vivid and creative imagination. Oftentimes there were scenes that were very suspenseful and then there were scenes that had emotional undertones, reminding the reader that despite all the fantastical stuff that’s going on, this story is about a family in transition. Holly Black does an outstanding job of blending the fantasy aspects of this story with that of modern day reality. It’s one of the reasons why I am drawn to her work.

If you enjoy fantasy then The Spiderwick Chronicles are worth a look. The stories are nicely illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi who brings depth and emotion to these characters. I especially loved the illustrated pics of the many different fey from the realm of Faerie. I know some “young reader” books have crossover appeal that can be easily read by both children and adults. I’m afraid that The Spiderwick Chronicles doesn’t seem to fit within that category to me but YMMV. My grade for this box set is a strong B. I’m sure many of you are already aware that the stories have already been adapted to film and sequels have already been published since the release of this box set.

Note:The Spiderwick Chronicles box set is comprised of the following five books: The Field Guide, The Seeing Stone, Lucinda’s Secret, The Ironwood Tree and The Wrath of Mulgarath.

Other Holly Black YA novels that I’ve enjoyed: Tithe (Book 1) and Ironside (Book 3) in her series about -what else - faeries. The stories are darker and they have a slight romantic subplot in them; and out of the three books I’ve read in this series, Valiant (Book 2) fell short for me because it was not a continuation of the first book (Tithe). One day I plan to give it another try.

The American Duchess by Joan Wolf (1983) is the tale of a penniless Duke who weds an American heiress. This is my second time reading a Joan Wolf book. Admittedly, I’ve collected her work for years but never took the time to just pick up another one and read it. Several readers have remarked upon how much they enjoyed this title and I can now add my voice to that chorus. It is a good story.

The Bodmins - William and his 18 year-old daughter Tracy, have left their New England home to mingle with the British aristocracy. An American minister friend of Tracy’s father has invited them to a political party in London to introduce them to the creme de la creme of English society. Little does Tracy know that her wealthy father has cooked up a scheme to marry her off to a proper English gentleman.

Enter Adrian, the Duke of Hastings, whose return from France after his father’s death has left his ducal coffers empty. Generations of gambling debts has finally taken its toll on the family finances . So, the Duke must find a wife who comes with plenty of money to help him restore his home and maintain his standing in English society.

Tracy has a vastly different view of the English compared to that of her father. While he finds English life and living admirable, Tracy on the other hand finds the class conscious aristocracy contemptible. She has more respect for people who work hard to earn their fortunes versus those who live off of x,y and z-generations of family wealth and class standing. However, when she meets Adrian, the Duke of Hastings, he charms her despite her misgivings. Later on, during their stay in London, Tracy overhears disturbing news that forces her to wipe away her fears and doubts and thus she becomes the Duchess of Hastings.

As the title suggests, the story is mostly seen through the eyes of Tracy, who has now become an American Duchess; some portion of the story is told from Adrian’s POV, too. The author focuses much attention on the marriage and the challenges the couple is faced with in regards to their vastly different backgrounds and political views - especially since America has closed off trading with the British among other things. Anytime there is a political rift between America and Britain, this seems to put an additional strain on the marriage. Then there is the gentleman that Tracy left behind in Salem who comes calling. A self-made millionaire like her father, Adam Lancaster sails to London to visit with Tracy and to also cause mischief for the newly married couple.

The author spends much time exploring the weaknesses of this marriage. For starters, both are relative strangers to each other when they are first married. There are secrets that they both hold regretfully close to their sleeves out of fear of rejection or hurt. Both Tracy and Adrian have doubts about each other that they’ve never voiced aloud. She is worried that he married her only for money and he fears that her marriage to him was a result of her wanting to please her father. Faced with these challenges and more, the reader understands clearly that these two people - no matter how they started off - have come to love each other very much.

The American Duchess is a simply told love story. There really aren’t that many misunderstandings or superficial contrivances. It’s just a story about a marriage between a nobleman and a lowborn heiress. I didn’t expect this book to focus so much on politics but it was a nice surprise. Especially considering the fact that Adrian is a British diplomat who is often beset with the task of smoothing things over for the sake of his country and his marriage.

To wrap this up, this is a nice story but it is not a keeper for me. Such stories as these often are only a blip in the memory but they are remembered with fondness. I am glad to have read The American Duchess and hope to read more of Ms. Wolf’s regencies. If there are titles you’ve read and would like to suggest, please drop me a comment. My grade for this story is a B. The American Duchess is available as a non secure ebook and it is OOP in paper form. I must also mention that in the ebook version there were more than a few errors in punctuation and spelling.

*****

This review is apart of the TBR Day 2008 Challenge that my fellow readers and I are participating in until December 2008. I am late with my review because I didn’t write it until early this morning. Anyway, please visit the other participants of this challenge and thank you all for participating!

The story follows a quartet of friends - Riley Wilder, Merissa Vasquez, Ren Severin and Lona Lo as they start their first semester at college. Riley, who has never ventured out of her parents Brooklyn Brownstone, is a reclusive teen who makes perfect grades. Most of her social life is virtual; she spends much of her time on her smartphone, texting back and forth with her pen pals. Her older sister, Angie, is estranged from the family and Riley doesn’t know why. Her parents, who she calls “neurotic” are strict people who seem to value a good education over a social life. Meanwhile, Riley decides to reconnect with her older sister after lurking on her “My Space” page for a year.

The two sisters catch up and hang out. Angie encourages Riley to connect to people and make friends but it’s not an easy thing for her to do. Riley spots an opportunity, however, when she overhears three of her classmates lament over their lack of jobs and needing a place to stay. She introduces her new “friends” to a research group that pays well. As if that isn’t enough, she also offers to help them locate an apartment the four of them can sublet together. However, a problem arises in the form of a new pen pal, “sneakerfreak” who text messages back and forth with Riley over a hundred times a day. When he asks her for a face to face meet, the mystery guy she’s been falling for isn’t all so mysterious after all and promises to crush her future plans of freedom.

I’m sure a lot of teens can probably relate to Riley and her crippling shyness. Even I could relate and it’s been years since I’ve been this young and gullible. Er, moving on. The author attached a couple of your typical college problems to his characters and readers are supposed to sit back and watch how they “work it out.” Needless to say that I was disappointed not only in the characters but also in how they handled their problems. Everything was neatly tied up in a nice big bow for them. And the ending left little to be desired. I actually groaned inwardly at the denouement. I’m sure the author wasn’t aiming for that reaction but that’s all I could come up with when faced with that silly cliffhanger [groan].

Another criticism would be that the graphic novel had nothing really going for it. There was very little substance here. No kernel of truth to share or enlighten us except to give insider blurbs on the cool and hip places to visit in New York. What did I learn here? Let’s see. That it’s sad that one would want to only make virtual friends and not want to make real friends? Or that having overprotective parents will make you a recluse? I don’t know what kind of message the author was going for here but it certainly wasn’t an original one.

On the whole, this story and how it was structured was weird and superficial. The story is nicely illustrated as always by Ryan Kelly. I am very familiar with this duo because I so enjoy their serial graphic novel - Local, which has only one recurring character who travels to small towns across America. Anyway, I had high expectations for The New York Four but unfortunately, this is not this author’s best work. Riley does come out of her shell a bit and the new mystery man in her life wasn’t difficult to figure out. Overall, The New Your Four was a disappointing read that had very little going for it besides name recognition, a C. This graphic novel is set to release July 22, 2008 and retails for $9.99 (USA).

I went to the mall yesterday and saw a line that was a mile long outside the Apple store. That was just to get inside the store. Supposedly, the iPhone is being activated in the store and already there are reports online stating that some stores were not able to activate the iPhone on the new 3G network. Well, I upgraded by installing the new 2.0 update to my old iPhone and it feels brands new. Oh, the reason why I went to the Apple store was to get a new case for my phone but picked a bad time to do it because they no longer carry the old iPhone cases or anything related to the old iPhone. Really stupid move, IMO. Moving on. Well, the new ebook apps that are available for the iPhone are nice but they are still lacking in functionality.

eReader. First up is the eReader app for the iPhone. DRM on this format is unlocked by a credit card, too. The books rendering on the iPhone is nice but there are no arrow buttons to touch to turn the pages, no highlighting function that I could find and you can only bookmark chapters (unless someone can tell me otherwise). You can also increase font size, change font family and search text but that’s it. Edited to add: if you download a dictionary, it will allow you to look up words that you may come across in the story.

Edited for clarification: the ereader software does support not only the iPhone but Palm OS, Pocket PC (2002 or later) and so on and so forth. I clearly need to proofread my writing before submitting. Sorry if this caused confusion. What I was wanting to say and did so - very badly - was that I don’t think that I would like to commit to this format because it is very limiting and DRM on it is not very user friendly. The downloading of these ebooks are fairly easy once you have access to your library. Just input your Login ID and password for your account - I have Fictionwise - and you have immediate access to your library. You can scroll through your books and download them to your iPhone individually.

Bookshelf. This was the first ebook reader for the iPhone and now it is a paid book app (9.99). It reads multiple formats for plain text (.txt), .html with images, FictionBook2 with images (.fb2), Palmdoc (Aportis), Plucker with images and non-DRM Mobi files. The shelfserver didn’t work for me out of the box. I had to follow the instructions at the website to get it working. Once you’ve launched the shelfserver, you should be able to add a directory by browsing through the files on your computer. When I launched the shelfserver I received a warning that it didn’t complete so I had to uninstall Bonjour (which is used as a discovery device) and re-install it from iTunes and launch the shelfserver again. This time it worked.

Once rendered, it really isn’t all that impressive BUT the fact that you can read almost your entire library on your iPhone is enough for me. Hopefully more features are coming soon like scrolling as I didn’t see a scroll button and if you’re able to increase or decrease the font, as yet I haven’t had that work and you are able to change the background and change font family and bookmark. Jane should have a more in-depth review coming for these apps and hopefully more stuff to share on her new 3G iPhone. As for me, I like my original iPhone better actually. I saw and held the new one - it feels feather light and uh plastic. Edited to add: you can increase the font by selecting a numeric value with the accompanying font family. I really miss that scroll button and I still haven’t figured out how to bookmark yet.

But you know, once the iPhone apps really get going, we should see some good stuff come the Fall. Hopefully, there will be more book apps or updates to make the iPhone the one phone to use for everything. Eventually, the day will come when most ebook readers will be saying, Kindle what?

Daniel Vartanian of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations just recently returned from leave following the death of his evil brother Simon and the burial of his parents who were murdered by Simon. He is thrown immediately into the investigation of a recent murder of a young woman whose body was found during a bicycle race.

The similarities between the recent murders and the murder of Alicia Tremaine are very apparent. The killer is using the same MO as was used thirteen years ago. Daniel fears that Simon is connected to these recent murders. After Simon’s death Daniel found photos his brother had of young women being raped and the young woman whose body was recently found was a photo in Simon’s stack of pictures.

Alex Fallon returns to Dutton, Georgia searching for her step-sister, Bailey Crighton who is missing. Alex takes custody of Hope, Bailey’s young daughter. Hope is traumatized by her Mom’s disappearance. When Alex hears about the murder she thinks the body is Bailey. When she goes to meet the investigator on the case she meets Daniel Vartanian. When Daniel meets Alex, he is shocked because Alex looks like one of the girls in his collection of photos of women who were found raped and murdered. He soon finds out that Alex is Alicia’s twin sister.

Alex becomes Daniel’s constant companion as she searches for Bailey and he searches for the killer. Daniel seems to be smitten with Alex from the beginning. His mind constantly strays to other things when she is around. The sexually charged tension between them grows day by day. When the bungalow where Alex is staying is trashed by an unknown suspect she moves in with Daniel for protection. Here in Daniel’s home, in his bed, their nights are filled with all consuming passion as the investigation continue.

This book is a chapter too long. Pages could have been cut for a tighter storyline. The book left a few things unanswered that I felt should have been answered in this book. The ending of the book did not fit the whole premise of the storyline. In fact, it was way out there, but the sex scenes were hot! I’d rate Karen Rose’s hardcover debut, Scream For Me, a B+.

When Lauren Stillwell discovers her husband leaving a hotel room with another woman, she decides to beat him at his own game. But while she’s sneaking around, her husband is hatching a plan of his own. After a torrid quickie with a co-worker, Lauren hears a struggle outside her window and looks out just in time to see her husband loading her lover’s limp body into the trunk of a car. When the body shows up in a pool of shallow water, she races to the scene of the crime. But Lauren Stillwell is no regular wronged woman. She’s a NYC cop — and she’s just been assigned to this case. Unable to tell anyone what she saw and unwilling to turn her husband in, Lauren is paralyzed by a secret that will tear her life apart. But as she attempts to point fingers away from her husband, she uncovers something shocking: her husband didn’t have an affair — what he did was far worse than she could have ever imagined. A gripping story of secrets and infidelities that begins where Adrian Lyne’s movie Unfaithful leaves off, THE QUICKIE will have readers’ hearts pounding to the very last page.

Self-preservation is a powerful force and for Lauren Stilwell, a married NYPD Cop, there is no exception. Lauren is involved with another NYPD cop, Scott Thayer. When Scott is found dead, Lauren is asked to investigate. From the beginning she is propelled on a course that keeps the reader/listener enthralled. This story is so compelling with a lot of unexpected twists and turns that when Lauren heart races so did mine. When I thought there were no more twists to the story, another unexpected surprise hits full force.

I was pleased with the ending. James Patterson is a master of suspense and this story is no exception with his co-author Michael Ledwidge. This book has some romance, but this story is definitely a mystery. The selection of Mary Stuart Masterson as the reader is great. Her dramatization of the story is well-done. Even though The Quickie is about a year old, it is worth reaching back for. Rated: A.

The Quickie is currently available in the following format(s): paperback reprint, Kindle, audio (abridged, unabridged) and hardcover and large print. This book was also recognized as reader favorite on Amazon.com.

Maxine Kiss is by nature, a loner. A woman without family or roots. A woman trying to outrun her future. However, Maxine does decide to settle down in Seattle, with an ex-priest and man of faith, Grant Cooperon. He’s a flute-player who can see people’s auras and has the ability to change them into something good. He runs a homeless shelter where demons have inhabited the bodies of many of the residents. He experiments with them, using his flute-playing to change their souls.

Moving on. As the last line of women Wardens who were sent to protect mankind from the demons who have escaped the prison veil, Maxine is the last one of her kind. Her mother died when she was twenty-one. The story includes quite a few scattered scenes of Maxine’s mother and her life before she died. Maxine is well aware of her destiny. She knows that one day, she must pass down “the boys” as she refers to them, to her future generation one day. When that happens, an order for her death will be rendered and like her mother before her, she will die by the hand of her enemies.

The story starts off with the murder of a private investigator who was searching for someone who wasn’t supposed to be publicly known to anyone. At least that is what Maxine Kiss thought until she is questioned by the cops about her connection to the recently deceased private eye. She denies knowing him and decides to do a little detecting of her own to find out why he was searching for her. She is eventually led to an elderly gentleman, an anthropologist, who seems to have an interest in many disciplines and seems to have many secrets. The rest of the plot is somewhat hard to summarize but it involves real life folklore and myth, a bit of time-travel and the threat of the apocalypse at the hands of the supernatural.

I have absolute respect for an author who thinks outside the box but there are criticisms worth noting and discussing about The Iron Hunt. Let’s start with the narrative voice: it just didn’t flow well for me. Too many abrupt sentences and comma splices. True, I had experienced that writing style in the anthology but it wasn’t as bad (I thought) as it was in here. Second problem is the plot: too complicated, overblown, convoluted, complex, repetitive and ambiguous. Lastly, the characters failed to live up to their stated potentials. Maxine and her “boys” get shot at, ran over and sucker punched. For the armor that she has, it wasn’t very impressive. All the “boys” ever really did was eat inanimate objects and sing along to rock tunes while they remained idle for most of the book.

The bad guys, while entrenched in a convoluted plot that ran in circles, they managed to eek out some scary moments. Especially, Oturu, a demon made up of flesh and blood with feet made of knives who danced when he delivered a killing blow. No doubt this author has a vivid imagination with an interesting premise but I think it was poorly executed. The Iron Hunt was a disappointing read. There were a handful of scenes that were interesting but overall the book tanked for me. There is much about this plot that I have not discussed and will leave for you to discover on your own if you choose to read this book.

Honestly, after reading the anthology (that I hope you have read), I got what I expected. I was just hoping that Ms. Liu would surprise me with her different and unique story but she didn’t. As for the romance, I almost didn’t mention it because guess what? There really wasn’t much of one in here. Most of the romantic plot was wrapped up in the anthology so no sex, no romance, no chemistry and I still don’t much like the hero. My grade for The Iron Hunt is a D. Read at your own risk.

I’ve come up with a list of authors who I used to read but who have disappeared. If you have any info to share about their current status in the publishing field, do drop me a line as I am curious to know if they are still writing. Also, this post gives me a chance to spotlight the books I’ve read and enjoyed that maybe some of you have never heard of before. A trip down memory lane. I haven’t reread them so I don’t know if I would enjoy these stories today. You’ve been warned.

First up is Katherine Sutcliffe. Despite my half-hearted search on the ‘net for her status as an author, I have nothing to report. I personally thought she wrote excellent romantic suspense novels. Her heroines oft proved to be controversial but she wrote with plenty of verve and atmosphere. My first Sutcliffe novel was actually a historical romance called Dream Fever. It’s been years since I read it but I remember the hero was tortured. She wrote a lot of historicals and was just getting started with romantic suspense and then - nothing. Ms. Sutcliffe’s last published work was Bad Moon Rising. She had another book that was due to come but it never saw the light of day.

Penelope Williamson. If you’ve read this blog or know me or visited my about me page, her book, Heart of the West sits at the top of any list I put together. I love that book even though it is not perfect. Heart of the West is a frontier book and it just resonated with me on a level that is hard to explain. In case you didn’t know, Ms. Williamson wrote a couple of suspense novels set in New Orleans, featuring detective Daman Roarke. The books are Mortal Sins and Wages of Sin. The books do have a romantic subplot but I’ve only read the first book and have the second on my bookshelf. From what I remember, the romantic relationship in the novel was not the focus but the chemistry was nice. I’d always heard wonderful things about her historicals especially Once In A Blue Moon which sits on my bookshelf as well. I loved her contemporary novel, The Passions of Emma. Ms. Williamson always wrote with grace and style. Her books were always emotionally rich and I really miss her voice in romance fiction.

Elizabeth Elliott. Remember The Warlord? That was the only book from her that I read and I loved it. There is also Betrothed (1996) and Scoundrel (1996). I own her entire back list — short as it is and glancing through used bookstore shelves, you’ll find a title or two but The Warlord is hard to find around these parts. Ms. Elliot wrote historical romances during the 1990’s. I remember The Warlord was such a hit back then. I haven’t read any of her other historicals and I don’t know when I’ll ever read them but I always wonder what ever became of her.

Annette Reynolds. Ms. Reynolds penned a contemporary romance that I loved, titled, Remember the Time. It features a best friends to lovers theme and it was Ms. Reynolds first book and the only book she published. I remember being so engaged in the story that I just couldn’t put it down. Yes, it’s melodramatic and flawed but overall the novel was a page-turner for me. I’d heard from the author one time - a few years back that she was working on a project but I haven’t heard from her in awhile. She would be what I would classify as a “one hit wonder.” The reason why she left the publishing world was due to an editor disagreement.

Laura Leone. Ms. Leone still writes only she just doesn’t write romance. She doesn’t have an audience she says. Well, with the Five Star release of Fallen From Grace, a book about a male prostitute, romance fans were raving left and right about the book. Some even went looking for her backlist. Alas, she still doesn’t write romance. Her books tend to be a bit controversial with readers. It’s not everyday you have a hero as a male prostitute and even with Fallen From Grace, she still held back. Yes, the romance world would welcome Ms. Leone I say but you all may say something different. I loved her road romance, Fever Dreams, which is getting more difficult to find around these parts.

Alina Adams wrote two contemporary romance novels, Annie’s Wild Ride and When A Man Loves A Woman. She no longer writes romance. She’s now writing cozy Ice skating mysteries under the same name. I’ve read three of the books thus far in the series and find them entertaining with a mystery that is not very challenging. I only mention her because I remember how popular her first book was or should I say how controversial the hero was in the book of Annie’s Wild Ride. I think it was a marriage in trouble type theme. I’m too lazy to look it up. I never read her romances but just in case readers were ever curious about her, she writes cozies now.

Judith Ivory/Judy Cuevas - MIA. Love her voice and miss it. One of the best writers of romance fiction and she no longer writes. It is depressing to even say out loud. Top favorites: Bliss, Dance, Beast and The Proposition.

Laura Kinsale is the standard of which I compare all historical romance writers. She is the queen of angst and of character flaws. Her prose is lyrical and her novels are to be devoured and reread again and again. Her heroes are tortured and flawed or as one reader said “too flawed.” Kinsale’s last book was released back in 2004 and that book was, Shadowheart, the sequel to For My Lady’s Heart. My favorite Kinsale novels are Flowers From the Storm, Prince of Midnight and The Shadow and the Star. She is currently without a publisher and that is too disheartening to say out loud, too. I still haven’t read Dream Hunter but I will. *I did email Ms. Kinsale and she said that she is currently working on updating her website and if there is any news to be shared it would posted there.

Maggie Osborne, as I heard it has retired. She wrote many historical romances but I loved The Wives of Bowie Stone. Love. That. Book. I don’t often list it on a top ten list but it’s up there. The heroine in the book is an alcoholic and the hero she saves from being hung, is already married. The hero was sentenced to death and could only be pardoned through marriage. It was due to some kind of law where men were needed for labor. The book has long since been out of print but it’s worth finding it.

I could go on and on as there were many, many excellent writers from the good ole days. The Golden era of romance where it seems that every book was a hit. Sigh. I still have quite a few books from that era sitting in my TBR pile. Ok, talk to me. What authors do you miss most? What authors from the 90’s do you still enjoy today? What up and coming authors are you excited about today? I wonder if readers will reflect on the books of today with the same nostalgic feeling of greatness and fondness of the 90’s?