Without Fail by Lee Child

Without Fail by Lee Child is one of the older Jack Reacher stories (#6) - in my process of clearing out my Kindle I found this book.  I do love the Jack Reacher books - he's a character I've grown to know and love.  This story was good - it drug a little in the middle - but was a good thriller.  I'd give it 3 1/2 stars and will continue to read Lee Child's books.  I would not recommend this for book club.

Editorial Review from Amazon:

What better way to test the security surrounding a U.S. vice president-elect than to hire someone skilled in the killing arts to penetrate his protection? Assassination strategy, though, is only part of the assignment facing Jack Reacher in Without Fail. This restive, blunt-edged ex-military cop must also determine whether recent threats against VP-to-be Senator Brook Armstrong are legitimate or are primarily intended to embarrass the perfectionist head of Armstrong's new Secret Service detail, M.E. Froelich, who happens to have been a girlfriend of Reacher's late brother.

If Without Fail lacks the emotional urgency of Lee Child's previous novel, Echo Burning, it still barely lets the reader catch a decent breath between plot crests. Jack and his fetching yet formidable colleague, Frances Neagley, must figure out how warning letters to Armstrong are being delivered into the Secret Service sanctum, whether the senator is at risk because of something political or personal, and who staged the demonstration murders of two innocent men also named Armstrong, first initial B. Unfortunately, a few twists (including the source of a thumbprint applied to the threats against Armstrong) can be figured out in advance, and the story is light on character development. A tiny breach in Reacher's reclusive carapace opens as Froelich transfers the love she once felt for his brother toward him, and there are suggestions that Neagley may have depths of feeling just waiting to be plumbed. However, other players are mere ciphers--the sacrificial victims of an action-oriented yarn. --J. Kingston Pierce

The Beach House by Georgia Bockoven

The Beach House by Georgia Bockoven was one of those reads I had leftover from my summer reading list I did not get too.  I'm in the process of trying to catch up with books on my Kindle and this was one of them.  I really enjoyed getting to meet the different characters and families that are renting Julia Huntington's beach house throughout the summer.  Not every story was tied up with a bow and I liked that.  I will definitely be looking for more by this author and will recommend this book - 4 stars.
Not sure it would be a good book club book but just a good read.  Looking on Goodreads - Georgia Bockoven has two more books in this series - guess I will check them out!

Book Description from Goodreads:

Georgia Bockoven aims straight for the heart in a tale as timeless as waves beating against the shore. The beach house is a peaceful summer heaven, a place to escape mundane troubles. Here, four families find their feelings intensified and their lives transformed. With equal measures of heartbreak and happiness, this unforgettable story tells of the beauty of life and the ...more

It Happened One Wedding by Julie James

It Happened One Wedding by Julie James was a quick read - very predictable plot and ending.  I am trying to clear my Kindle of books that have been on it for awhile - this was one.  I would not recommend it.  Two Stars.

Book Description from Amazon:

Special agent Vaughn Roberts always gets his man on the job and his woman in bed. So Sidney’s refusal to fall for his charms only makes him more determined to win over the cool and confident redhead. Only what starts out as a battle of wills ends up as a serious play for her heart. Because the one woman who refuses to be caught may be the only one Vaughn can’t live without…

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Wow - Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn is a creepy book.  This book was a little dark for me.  The book was a fast read but I did not enjoy the storyline.  I would not recommend this book for my book club -
2 1/2 stars.

Book Description from Amazon:

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.

Gray Mountain by John Grisham

I run to buy John Grisham's books when they come out - I absolutely inhale his legal thrillers!  I didn't even care about his latest scandal about his comments about a friend in prison and child pornography as I figured the press had overblown the issue.  I do however take offense at trying to read a boring book - Mr. Grisham - you have let me down!  This was a boring book!  I learned more about strip mining, coal, black lung, etc. than I ever wanted too.  I tried to put it down and not finish the book but I decided I had to finish it to see where the story would go.  It was okay - but nothing compared to his earlier work.  Definitely a disappointment!  2 1/2 stars.  Not a good book club book - too boring - predictable plot.

Book Description from Amazon:

The year is 2008 and Samantha Kofer’s career at a huge Wall Street law firm is on the fast track—until the recession hits and she gets downsized, furloughed, escorted out of the building. Samantha, though, is one of the “lucky” associates. She’s offered an opportunity to work at a legal aid clinic for one year without pay, after which there would be a slim chance that she’d get her old job back.

In a matter of days Samantha moves from Manhattan to Brady, Virginia, population 2,200, in the heart of Appalachia, a part of the world she has only read about. Mattie Wyatt, lifelong Brady resident and head of the town’s legal aid clinic, is there to teach her how to “help real people with real problems.” For the first time in her career, Samantha prepares a lawsuit, sees the inside of an actual courtroom, gets scolded by a judge, and receives threats from locals who aren’t so thrilled to have a big-city lawyer in town. And she learns that Brady, like most small towns, harbors some big secrets.

Her new job takes Samantha into the murky and dangerous world of coal mining, where laws are often broken, rules are ignored, regulations are flouted, communities are divided, and the land itself is under attack from Big Coal. Violence is always just around the corner, and within weeks Samantha finds herself engulfed in litigation that turns deadly.

                        

We were Liars by E. Lockhart

I've had this book on my Kindle for awhile - must have been on someone's summer reading list to catch my attention.  I then saw this book on Goodreads as a contender for the 2014 Book of the Year so I thought I better read it!  I read this book in one day on a long car ride home from Colorado & New Mexico - kept my attention.

We Were Liars was an interesting book - I'm not sure I loved it  - it will make for an interesting discussion because of the unexpected ending.   I don't think I would recommend this book for my particular book club as I don't think they would like it.  I'd give it 3 1/2 stars.

Book Description from Amazon:

E. Lockhart’s novel, We Were Liars, is clever, alluring, and wildly addictive. Each summer the wealthy, seemingly perfect Sinclair family meets on their private island and We Were Liars is the story of what happened there; particularly one year the protagonist, Cadence, can’t seem to remember through her migraine haze. Prejudice, greed, and shifting patriarchal favoritism amongst the three adult sisters chafes against the camaraderie and worldview of the teenage cousins and their friend Gat, who also spends summers on the island with them. Sticky lemonades on the roof and marathon Scrabble games to twisty suspense, true love, and good intentions gone horribly wrong--We Were Liars begs to be read in one sitting.

Mean Streak by Sandra Brown

I used to love everything by Sandra Brown but lately her books have kinda fallen flat so I wasn't sure I wanted to read Mean Streak.  The blurb on the back cover got my attention - sounded interesting.  I read this book in a couple of days on vacation and enjoyed it.  A good thriller and vacation read.  I do not think it would be a good book club book because there would not be much of a discussion.  I'd give it 3 stars but Goodreads readers give it 4 1/2 stars.

Book Description by Goodreads:

Dr. Emory Charbonneau, a pediatrician and marathon runner, disappears on a mountain road in North Carolina. By the time her husband Jeff, miffed over a recent argument, reports her missing, the trail has grown cold. Literally. Fog and ice encapsulate the mountainous wilderness and paralyze the search for her.

While police suspect Jeff of "instant divorce," Emory, suffering from an unexplained head injury, regains consciousness and finds herself the captive of a man whose violent past is so dark that he won't even tell her his name. She's determined to escape him, and willing to take any risks necessary to survive.

Unexpectedly, however, the two have a dangerous encounter with people who adhere to a code of justice all their own. At the center of the dispute is a desperate young woman whom Emory can't turn her back on, even if it means breaking the law.

As her husband's deception is revealed, and the FBI closes in on her captor, Emory begins to wonder if the man with no name is, in fact, her rescuer. 

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

I was lucky enough to hear Jodi Picoult speak last year at a luncheon as she has always been one of my favorite authors.  She didn't discuss Leaving Time very much because it had not been released yet but I wish I could hear her discuss this book!  I absolutely loved it!  I learned more about elephants than I would ever want to know but it was very interesting. I absolutely did not see the ending coming.  I loved Leaving Time and The Storyteller - seems like she is getting back to writing great books!  This would be a great book club book when it is released as a trade paperback.  I'd give it 5 stars.


 Book Description from Amazon:

Throughout her blockbuster career, Jodi Picoult has seamlessly blended nuanced characters, riveting plots, and rich prose, brilliantly creating stories that “not only provoke the mind but touch the flawed souls in all of us” (The Boston Globe). Now, in her highly anticipated new novel, she has delivered her most affecting work yet—a book unlike anything she’s written before.
 
For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe she was abandoned, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice’s old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother’s whereabouts.
 
Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest: Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons, only to later doubt her gifts, and Virgil Stanhope, the jaded private detective who’d originally investigated Alice’s case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they’ll have to face even harder answers.
 
As Jenna’s memories dovetail with the events in her mother’s journals, the story races to a mesmerizing finish. A deeply moving, gripping, and intelligent page-turner, Leaving Time is Jodi Picoult at the height of her powers.