"Mind of Winter" by Laura Kasischke is Fantastic!

Mind of Winter by Laura Kasischke takes place on Christmas day!  Due to a blizzard, a family Christmas does not come off.  At home is just the mom and her teenage daughter.  What makes this book so good is the writing.  Mind of Winter hooked me from page one and did not let me go with a shocking ending I did not see coming at all.  This is a fantastic read I highly recommend! 
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

Tuesday Teasers: Four Today

Gerard's:

Instead, they'd all overslept on Christmas morning, and Holly had woken up with this little horror in her mind, that something had followed them home from Russia.

Something evil?

Well, perhaps not evil.  But it had sapped them.  It continued to sap them.

From page 5 of Mind of Winter by Laura Kasischke..

My brain feels divided, my thoughts bubbling over with fear and curiosity.  What do I know about this country I'm being driven into?

 
From page 4 of A Sliver of Light by Shane Bauer, Joshua Fattal & Sarah Shourd.  (My review was up yesterday.)


Karen's:

Beneath her was blinding light, the kind of light you'd see just before you died.  All the people had merged with shadow, and for a second she was afraid she had died, that she was all alone on a tiny, bare surface, with an endless fall into the dark on either side of her.

From page 41 of Panic by Lauren Oliver. (See Gerard's review)

It angered and hurt me to see him be so brutal to her.  I tried to rationalize it as "the stroke," but she was still "my mom" and deserved better.

From I Will Never Forget--A Daughter's Story of Her Mother's Arduous and Humorous Journey through Dementia by Elaine C. Pereira.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should  Be Reading. Anyone can play along, so I thought  I  would play for fun! Just do the following

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page (well, we cheat and choose specific ones)
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on  that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away!   You don’t  want  to  ruin the  book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can  add the book to their TBR  Lists  if they  like your teaser.   

Happy Reading!

"A Sliver of Light" by Shane Bauer, Joshua Fattal & Sarah Shourd

A Sliver of Light by Shane Bauer, Joshua Fattal & Sarah Shourd is an incredible tale of three people on a hike in Iraqi Kurdistan and then crossed over into Iran.  The border patrol arrested them and they were in a situation they will never forget.  This is a great story told by all three people in a way that reads like a novel except it was real life!  This was an eye-opening book for me that I won't soon forget.  Thanks for sharing! 
 (Gerard's review, 5 stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

"Too Close To Home" by Lynette Eason

Too Close To Home by Lynette Eason drew me in quickly and kept my interest throughout.  It is a Christian fiction thriller about a widower detective, Connor, with a 16-yr-old daughter, Jenna.  As Connor tries to hunt down a serial killer who keeps killing young teens, his daughter gets drawn in to the guy's scheme of finding girls on the internet and offering them a modeling interview.  Connor's partner, Andrew and computer geek, Samantha, working the case with him are both Christians who try witnessing to Connor.  Samantha resembles his dead wife and Jenna is immediately drawn to her.  Jenna blames her dad for her mother's death and deep down, he kind of blames himself too.

I really enjoyed this book even though you are introduced to the killer early on and it didn't take much to figure out who it was.  I could feel the frustration of the detectives as the killer seemed to keep one step ahead of them.  I recommend this highly to teens as there is a good warning in it not to meet up with people from the internet.  
(Karen's review, 4 stars, read this on Kindle so sorry no cat pictured with the book)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

"Panic" by Lauren Oliver -- An Entertaining Y/A Read (Updated 4/4/14)

Panic by Lauren Oliver is good right from the start and keeps getting better as it progresses!  It’s about a tradition in a small town where any senior who wants to participate in the Panic challenge at the end of the school year pays $1 a day into the pot.  After graduation, the winner and two judges who made up the challenges split the pot.  The pot was $67,000 that Heather, Nat and Dodge were competing for.  Each of the main characters had a different motivation for participating.  Most all of the class participated, which I found unbelievable considering the challenges were illegal or life threatening.  (No way would I have participated, but it made for a good read though!  The ending was great!  

I loved the suspense each challenge created and it was fun trying to guess the winner.  I’d recommend this if you are looking for an entertaining YA read.  

(Karen's review, 4 stars)

Panic by Lauren Oliver is a Y/A novel that happens in a small town.  Every year after the school year ends, the graduating seniors who want to play a game called "Panic."  The winner gets a lot of money.  The book focuses on Heather and Dodge who each have their own reason for wanting to win.  The people in the story are very true to life. 

I loved this book because I got into it really fast and it was hard to put down.  
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)
 
Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!