Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Royally LostRoyally Lost by Angie Stanton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have to admit that I see where people are calling falling in love in one week instalove but, in my experience that is exactly what a lot of teens do, fall in love very quickly. Speaking as a teen that detested everything my mom tried to expose me to including ballets, anything that included spending time with my family and anything that took me away from my friends. Those very same things I love to do now. I also had a habit of hating my mom's boyfriend because he wasn't my dad. Later when I realized he wasn't trying to replace my dad I regretted my behavior but, as a teenager I was horrible towards him and misinterpreted everything he said and did. I never wanted to go to visit family in California and see the amazing things my family tried to introduce me to because it took me away from my friends and I would be missing the things they were doing. So, this book really resonated with me and likely wouldn't with teens that mostly behaved in a manner expected of their parents and enjoyed doing things with their family, all things I do now and regret not doing while growing up. Yes, I fell in "love" at the drop of a dime and now realize it wasn't actually love but telling me that had me convinced you did not know what you were talking about. I love seeing how our own experiences affect how we rate books. If the behavior is completely not something we can identify with we tend to give it a lower rating and if we identify with it then we give it a higher rating. This is what makes books so great! Since I saw so many of the things in Prague last October and loved it this book just brought back great memories for me. I am in armchair travel love with this book.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Boy Nobody (The Unknown Assassin, #1)Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I always get excited about secret agent/assassin books and really love it when they are young adult. I was a bit confused by the title because on my version of the book I Am the Weapon is in bold and there is nothing on it that says Boy Nobody. Once I ironed out I had the correct book as the book descriptions were slightly different also I jumped in and was very happy that I did. I have been in a weird reading slump for several months and have been reading outside of my normal genre, Urban Fantasy, now. I have spurts of time when I love anything with secret agents and assassins so I saw Boy Nobody and decided to go for it. I have to admit that I fell into deep like for this book. I am sitting here and thinking to myself "I don't remember his name!" Wow he really is good at keeping his identity a secret because it just will not come to me. For the purposes of this review I will call him Ben since that is his cover name in this story.

Ben was "recruited" at the age of 12 by the organization that he works for who also is nameless. It appears they are likely part of the government and he is constantly in the field. Outside of his covert contact with his handlers, "Mom" and "Dad" he is out in the field alone. Or is he? This story showed that even when you think you are on your own there is always someone watching. Ben, who normally followed the rules to the letter of the assassin law found himself up against some things that made him question what he was doing and how he should do it and even he began questioning his instructions.

In Boy Nobody, Ben is placed in a school full of affluent students and assigned to move in close to a very public figure in New York. He does the magic that he can do and things start to happen that make him question everything. He starts putting himself at risk and I have to admit that his skills appear to be excellent though I wish there was more action. The author did a great job of writing in the background of the mission and giving the reader great details for how Ben worked the mission but I wish there was more that showed his skills as an assassin. The scenes where he did demonstrate those were great! I look forward to the next installment!

Review can also be seen at http://LadyTechiesBookMusings.blogspo...

The Road to Murder by Camilla Trinchieri My rating: 5 of 5 stars Nico Doyle returns in the fourth book in the Tuscan Mystery series, The ...