Death Du Jour

The second book in Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan series follows Dr. Brennan as she tries to make sense of the bones of a hoped saint, a young family with twin baby boys, a woman in her seventies, a young woman who was a prostitute who was four months pregnant, two young women found on an island that is now a monkey sanctuary, a missing young woman, and there could possibly a cult that has to do with all of this. Tempe has her hands full and this isn't counting the fact that her sister Harry has recently split up with her third or fourth husband, her ex-husband makes some come ons, her cat goes missing and she thinks that Birdie might be dead, and Detective Andrew Ryan keeps getting more and more attractive by the minute. Death Du Jour does not let the reader settle down and think about what is going on for even a minute.
The nun Elisabeth is the starting point for this novel, Dr. Brennan is trying to find the grave of this young nun who selflessly tried to point the health authority in the right direction during an epidemic of the flu or smallpox or something like that. She was pensive and solitary and wrote many letter to th health authority telling them to keep people out of churches but of course this didn't happen. She nursed many people through this epidemic and is thus thought well of in Quebec. She's possibly thought of for sainthood or that seems to be what the priest and the Sisters of the Order there are thinking. They are putting her up there anyway. They do find the grave and they do find her but things aren't exactly what they seem once they get back to the lab. I'm not going to give away the secret here but hmmm, she's in the convent for a reason. Let's put it that way!
Shortly after freezing for hours, Brennan is called to a house fire where a young family has been burnt or so they think. They haven't found the bodies yet and when they do, it's not what it seems. Shockingly, the find the body of an older woman in the basement and she did not die in the fire; she was shot. Dun dun dun! The babies are missing wherever they have gotten to. Brennan starts to think about the woman in the basement but she also wants to go back to the Nun and what may have happened to her. She goes to McGill to find out what she can about the family of Elisabeth; there she meets a professor, Dr. Daisy Jeannotte who is involved with the Religious Studies department. Known as Daisy Jean for her connection with her students, Brennan finds her strangely cold and unwilling in really help. She also has a twitchy assistant that goes by the name of Anna, who later comes into it again. Because Anna is missing either the next day or the day after that and Brennan realizes this because one of the Nuns that was assisting her with the Elisabeth issue, tells Brennan that her niece is missing. Slowly the pieces come together and Brennan realizes that it's Anna.
She reports it to one of her favourite people in the world, Claudel, and then another body turns up that just might be Anna but it's not. It's a young prostitute and she has been killed in a gruesome way, dogs and scalding, I believe. It's not something that you want to hear about really. Most deaths in Kathy Reichs' books are pretty gruesome, much like the show Bones; which of course is based very, very, very loosely on the books. Though I love both! However, I'm off topic because that's what I do.
Brennan's sister Harry turns up and she's involved with some enlightenment class/course and she ends up flirting with Ryan because...that's what she does and it causes all kinds of issues because Brennan has a thing for him that she's not admitting. Brennan goes back to the South or "Dixie" as many characters like to call it.
Let's sum it up, more deaths, lots of sexual tension, and a whole lot of crazy that has to do with a cult! If you want to figure out how every death, except the Nun's, comes to pass, you better read the book because I can't summarize it. Not really. I mean look above ^; is not good! However, everything is connected and there might be nearly some bow chicka wow wow for Brennan and Ryan who I want to call Booth but he's not Booth, he's an awesome Nova Scotia boy! I think this book is slightly predictable in the mystery/thriller sense because you go through the motions with them. I didn't figure out who had actually done it, that's not the way that I meant it. It brings you through processes and since Reichs is a Forensic Anthropologist herself, she does know a lot and she brings you through many processes to get you to the solution. It's a good book! Me, I like a book that revolves around a creepy cult in the same way that I like watching 19 Kids and Counting on TLC. It's just fascinating. Murder and Cults; ah you've found my weakness. Plus I want to see how it's going to move from the point where it is, to where I know it goes with Ryan. Call me crazy but I love the way that they work together and what they have going on. Sexual tension at it's finest and it's never perfect. Reichs' does a really good job on this book and every one that I have read from her. I really like them and I'm reading the next book Deadly Decisions so that will tell ya!
This was read via scribd.com and it's an amazing site for someone like me because I have many, many books for my many many moods! And back to my loving books too much, I updated my Anne of Green Gables books, not hardcover, but still a new copy! I'm sure to love them too much as well!

EDITED: Cause I'm not the brightest crayon in the box; I give this book 8 Irish Folk Songs out of 10!

I've loved books too much!

I am going to be the first to admit that there books that I have loved so much that I killed them! My Anne of Green Gables series was so well loved that there were stains of chocolate ice cream and bits of cheesies. There were water stains, grass stains, and bits of sand; and eventually the poor books couldn't take it anymore. They fell apart but I feel like I grew up with those books.
I got them for Christmas when I was 10 and I had them for 13 or 14 years when they started falling apart. Santa brought me the boxset that I was drooling over into Chapers or Coles and I couldn't have been happier. Now I mentioned that these books were full of everything and I would like to think that it marked my passage from child to teen to adult; the chocolate ice cream stains were from summer nights reading and eating because I couldn't put the book down. The grass stains and sand were from the days of being a teen, taking the books to the beach, and laying on the grass on a blanket and reading them. That never stopped the wind from whipping the pages around, or the fog from dampening the book further. And as an adult or well a young adult; the books became stained with tears when Matthew died because I read it after losing my grandmother and then grandfather, so I could relate to the loss. I enjoyed Anne through many parts of my life and I was very sad when they started to become unreadable, oh I could have kept them I suppose and maybe I should have but they were tattered and sad. I couldn't believe that the shiny new books had become these old ones and I put them down. I was cleaning out my closet and though I hated to part with them, I couldn't keep them either.
Another set of well loved books that took the same path at the same time was The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I got those in grade 8, I think the movies had just started coming out so they had the movie covers and I know that some people wouldn't like that but I don't really pay attention to the covers too much. It was my first real descent into the world of fantasy and other worlds; I loved it. I read the books within a week and was sad that it was over. I even put them aside not wanting to know what would become of the merry band of travelers. I was so into the books that I read the whole index of what happened once the books were done, I read all about Sam's children and what he became. Who Merry and Pippin turned out to be and how Frodo and Bilbo went on adventures. These books too were battered, the covers wrinkled and the spines so bent that they could stay open in the middle. The pages were curled from where I took the books to the bathtub. There were some bits of sand and grass because I took them with me too. I fell in love with Fantasy books at that point and I don't think that I will ever look back. I didn't want to give up on my books but I couldn't keep them. Battered as they were, I was shocked that my mother hadn't thrown them out before. Battered, ratty, and honestly I think there were a few pages missing. The hardcover set came out in October of this year and I treated myself to this version, a little harder to kill them. I've opened these pages and been transported back to the time when I was 13 and falling in love with fantasy all over again.
My Game of Thrones books recently were the ones that are much loved and abused to no end. I should have learned not to take my books into the bathtub with me but I haven't. I have a steel plate in my shoulder from an accident about 4 years back and when it gets very cold, it hurts; hot water is one of the things that soothes me. So I spend a fair amount of the cold winter, in a bathtub; Game of Thrones took me out of the world and made me laugh and cry. I hated that George R R Martin killed off so many of my favourite characters but I love that I laughed as I thought I might have a bad shoulder but at least I still have a head to sit on my neck unlike Ned Stark. And I have re-read them in the bathtub partly because I don't really want to bring more books in there.
I loved all these books and I still do! I have yet to replace my Anne of Green Gables series but I will. I can't live forever without Gilbert and Anne. Their relationship makes me so happy and angry at the same time. I think every girl should want a Gilbert Blythe; he's the most patient man in the whole wide world and yes he has his faults but he's only human. Just as I can't live without the adventures of Frodo and company, I must set out on that journey every now and again. Just to relive it. To be reminded that a very small person can have a big impact on the world without really knowing it. Everyone needs to be reminded of that. As for Game of Thrones, it reminds me that my life doesn't suck and that I don't have the Lannisters ruling over me, so I'm good. I'm sure that the Outlander series will be read again and I'll probably share it with some friends, so that they too can enjoy it. So those books will eventually tell a story as well.
Chances are if you read, you've loved a book too much!

The Shipping News

The best way to describe this book is weird. Very strange but so good at the same time. The main character he's just not that interesting, he kind of hates himself if I'm honest about it but that's what makes him so life like. Quoyle doesn't really have a clue about much in his life, he doesn't like his brother, his parents committed suicide, he got married but his wife was always screwing around on him, he has two daughters but he says one of them (Bunny) is homely looking; so Quoyle's life is a lot like a lot of ours but even more crappy. His wife takes off, takes the daughters with her, sells them to a pedophile, and gets killed in the process. Quoyle needs to change, he really does, and he moves to Newfoundland; which is where his father came from to find it!
Let's talk Newfoundland shall we? Best people in the whole wide world, I'd know I'm one of them! We have the cutest accents, beautiful landscape, lots of history (good and bad), the best music, the most bars on one street in North America, and we're the toughest! We have to be to live here where the weather will change every five minutes and that's not a joke! Now there are times where we can be the butt of the joke to some people in some parts of Canada but don't ever listen to a stupid Newfie joke, I'm sure that there are some Newfoundlanders that aren't the brightest crayon in the box but isn't that everywhere? I don't believe that there is one place in this world where there's not a stupid person! So stop it; it's not funny! We have a great sense of humor but that's not very funny for many people. Hey we have a place called Dildo and then there's South Dildo and if you're not for the um cruder named places although I think our Dildo came first; how about Cupids, Hearts Delight, Heart's Desire, or Angel's Cove. Yeah, they're all beautiful! Come to the province, we have fish!*

All these pictures are mine by the way! Just in case you were wondering! They were all taken in my home town! I'm lucky, I know! 

This isn't about how beautiful Newfoundland is though. But isn't she beautiful? Rugged and ahhhh! Something else! However, if you should read The Shipping News, think about these pictures because this is what Quoyle would have seen when he was coming across on the ferry; I think this takes place on the West Coast but it's quite similar! Now someone from New York coming here who have seen and tried to adjust to this world, the one where people aren't as fast paced and are maybe a little bit eccentric and are into everyone's businesses. Quoyle met quite a few characters and I will be the first to admit that I could see people that I know in a lot of them. They are people that you would meet around here every day. And they're all absolutely fantastic, salt of the earth people, who are nar bit grand!** Life here is pretty simple and Quoyle, I think he likes that and comes into his own, he finds out that the family that he comes from are a bit odd and perhaps he shouldn't connect to his roots but I think more than anything he finds himself. In the beginning he wants no part of a boat and toward the end, I don't think he loves them but he definitely gets used to them. He quickly becomes a part of the community and maybe it's because he does the shipping news and makes a place for himself that he realizes I'm worth it. Or maybe it's something else entirely.
I think anyone can admit that they have been in over their head, you're waist deep in it before you even realize what you're doing and that's the way that it was with Quoyle and Petal; he was married to her before he really knew what happened and when she dies in a car accident, he's sad but honestly I think he's better off. Things turn out better in the end when he has his aunt, and his girls. Sure there's bad things that continue to happen but generally speaking it all turns out well in the end. It really does.
My Thoughts
I didn't think that I would like this book; I saw it on Scribd and was like it's about Newfoundland, how can I resist? That's not saying that I like all books about Newfoundland, I don't. I have to re-read Random Passage because I'm sure that I didn't give that a fair review in the past, but I was in Grade 11 when I read it. I think this one was interesting because the characters were easy to relate to but at the same time it was strange and a bit hard to get into at first. And after a while you're thinking this is boring and then slowly you become immersed in this book and the characters and then you're there with them and you want to know what happens and you want a happy ending and in the end, you kind of get one. You don't really know that everything is going to turn out alright but you know that it's better than it was before. A lot better. I didn't get into this book a lot and basically tell everyone what it's about because it's one of those ones that if I tried to summarize it, I'd just screw it up because there is wayyy too much going on. But I will say that I liked it a lot and it was a good read, if you pick it up and you're not sure about it, push through because once you get past a certain point, you can really get into it. I give it, 8 Sunken Boats out of 10! 

*Fish means Cod. Any other fish is called by name; Halibut, Tuna, Flat Fish, etc.
**Put on no airs

The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend

The book by Kody Keplinger was an audible.com pickup because I was intrigued by the title, the more I listened, the more my mind wandered. I'm not in high school so obviously the world of teenaged boys doesn't interest me anymore, I'm not a cradle robber or a pedophile. However, the word DUFF and what it stood for now that did intrigue me. So what is a DUFF? To be exact it's the friend in a group of friends that just doesn't add up to the standards of the group that she is with or is the one that makes everyone look that much better. So maybe she's not as pretty as her friends or she's a little plumper or whatever but guys tend to agree who the DUFF of the group is. The main male character Wesley doesn't seem to mind using it anyway. Mostly this book had me cringing a bit going why couldn't I be like that in high school? I was no where near as confident and I don't care what people think about me as Bianca did. I wish.
Bianca Piper is the main character and the protagonist, she's a high school senior and for the most part is very cynical and a bit bitter about the things that have happened to her. She has two best friends, Casey and Jessica, a huge crush on a guy names Toby Tucker, a mother who is always gone doing self esteem seminars and talks, and a Dad who calls her bumblebee and hasn't drank since before she was born but was an angry drunk. Bianca isn't exactly like Casey and Jessica, she doesn't like dancing or being out, she would prefer to be home but she doesn't think too much of the whole situation until one night that she is sitting at the bar of The Nest. The Nest is a bar for high school students, they obviously do not serve any alcohol but she's enjoying a cherry coke. It's here that the resident manwhore Wesley Rush, takes a seat next to her and informs her that she is the DUFF of her friend group. He then tells her that friends of the DUFF love it when guys are sweet to her, it would make them fall into his arm and into his bed. The only thing that Wesley gets is a cherry coke into the face and Bianca walking away.
Things continue to go downhill from there for Bianca; she finds out that Toby has a girlfriend and has for a while now, her Mom sends her Dad divorce papers, Jessica's brother comes back into town and he is Bianca's ex. Jessica's brother who has some generic name that I cannot for the life of me remember had Bianca as the girl on the side and now he's back in town with his fiancee and Bianca feels like shit. She has too much stuff going on and then she's paired with Wesley Rush for an english project and things go completely down hill from there. "Working on an Essay"is just code for having sex with Wesley and she uses him for the escape, to get away from all that is going on. And it works, at least for a little while. Ok things aren't going so good with her friends, she's blowing them off but Dad has started drinking again and Bianca is struggling to deal with it. One night she has Wesley over and they are playing scrabble because they were doing something else but that's not the point. They go downstairs and it's here that we find out just how angry Bianca's Dad is when he's drunk, he calls her a whore and ends up slapping her. Wesley punches him in the face and they go back to his house where Wesley just listens. Bianca has learned something about Wesley in her time with him too, his parents are never home, his sister stays with his grandparents but he can't because his grandmother doesn't approve of his lifestyle. Earlier that day, they had dropped his sister off at his grandparents house and his grandmother told Wesley to stay away from Amy. Wesley was far from pleased and Bianca just felt like a slut or a whore. So twice in the one day!
The next morning, Bianca realizes that she can't use Wesley to escape anymore; she calls Casey who isn't really speaking to her to come and pick her up. She has an awkward conversation with Wesley about why she can't do this anymore and she leaves. The real reason is because she has feelings for him but Bianca can't admit that. She makes up with Casey and Jessica and starts to avoid and move on from Wesley, Before this drama with Wesley went down, Bianca was sorting Valentine's Day stuff with Toby Tucker and they talked and became friendly, she even found out that he didn't have  a girlfriend anymore. And she was the one that he came to open his Harvard acceptence letter and then he hugged her. Which causes issues with Casey because Bianca was supposed to be talking to her. So soon after she cuts Wesley out, Bianca starts dating Toby and Casey is all for it because Toby includes them and she doesn't like Wesley at this point. Bianca and her Dad have talked and he has agreed to go back to AA and start talking to a sponsor again and she was supposed to thank Wesley for him but you know...avoidence is a thing. So one bright, sunny afternoon when Toby and Bianca are in her room, getting ready to knock boots; Wesley shows up knocking on her room door and flings it open. Awkward! They go downstairs and he admits that he has feelings for her and she tells him that it hurts her when he calls her the DUFF and shouts at him that he's afraid to tell his parents that he doesn't like to be alone and he wants them to come home. All stuff that is probably true but it hurts Wesley's feelings.He leaves, she goes back up to Toby, and they do homework and that's not code for anything.
Wesley doesn't give up that easily though and he starts leaving her notes and flowers telling her that he's in love with her. Bianca is stuck between a rock and a hard place; she really doesn't know what to do but she knows that she shouldn't go for Wesley. He does seem to be changing though, he's refusing girls and he's chasing her. Bianca's Mom comes back and they have a heart to heart, they go to the Nest, Toby tells Bianca that Wesley has been watching her all night and she has been watching him and that she needs to go to him if that's what she wants. Toby then admits that he's not over his ex and Bianca tells him to call her. Bianca walks over to Wesley, falls down in the process; ugh who hasn't been there and they have a heart to heart. He tells her that she was right and that he called his parents and they are making it better. She tells him about her Dad and they start making the rules for their relationship and he wont' call her the DUFF anymore. Although Casey has started using it.
My Thoughts
I liked this book! I liked it a lot. It had a lot of funny moments and generally it's about something that every girl thinks about and the point that is made that everyone feels like the DUFF. Every girl feels like she is the ugly one of her friend group at some point but that doesn't mean that someone else won't think that she's beautiful. Everyone has different tastes and what might be the DUFF for one guy will be someone else's princess. Now I'm not saying that you should constantly feel down one yourself and accept anyone that likes you because you're the DUFF. No matter who you are, you shouldn't settle for less than what you think you deserve. Beauty is only skin deep and if you've got a great personality then you've got it good. I'm a lot like Bianca, I'm cynical and sarcastic and a little bit pessimistic, I keep a lot of things to myself and sometimes, I'm the DUFF but that's ok. This book also has a lot of sex in it, it never really goes into a lot of details but we know that they are having sex and that they are safe. Which is a good thing; there is talk about an unplanned pregnancy but it's just people talking and it makes Bianca feel bad for judging a girl who sleeps around a lot. Sex doesn't make you a bad person but it doesn't make you a good or better one either. It's just sex; now don't go and sleep with everyone and their sister or brother but don't worry so much about it either. Oh god I'm preachy. Enough said! The DUFF is the kind of book that makes you think and if you're in high school, it's a good read. Hey! I thought it was good and I'm 26! 26 going on 12 most days though! I give this book 7.5 cherry cokes out of 10! 
Also; this book is going to be a movie! It comes out February 20th at least in the US. I don't know much else about it.
Oh! And also this book was read by Ellen Grafton who did a really good job. She had the teenaged girl voice down pat!

Trial By Fire

Trail by Fire is the first book in Josephine Angelini's new Worldwalker trilogy. I read her Starcrossed series and I was absolutely blown away by it! I thought that it was so good, I like the idea and I thought that she did a really good job with it. Now I've had Trial by Fire on my Kobo for a while and I started it but didn't really get into it. Lily wasn't Helen and Tristan just wasn't Lucas; I guess I just needed time to let go of the Starcrossed universe before I fully sank myself into Trial by Fire and the Worldwalker's gang. Now Lily is not Helen but Helen had her struggles too upon finding out what she was and Lily suffers from a number of allergies and has a lot of troubles. Tristan is one of her only friends and well of course she falls for him. How could she not? Her sister Juliet is someone that she is very close to and her Mom, Samantha, is a bit out to lunch. She keeps talking about other Lily's and other worlds. However, Lily moves past that and she decides that she is going to a party and Tristan is her boyfriend but he's still treating her like she's made of glass and that she will break in a thousand bits. So long story short, he cheats on her with some trollop, and she has a seizure where she hears herself talking to her.
Now, Lily thinks that she is dying but she ends up in a completely different place where people keep calling her Lady. She meets up with Juliet and Juliet treats her with so much love but yet, something's not right and she ends up running through this city banging into someone who is hot and ok I can admit it's good to meet the good guy. Cause Tristan just ain't him, pardon my use of the hated ain't. We later learn that his name is Rowan and he takes her out of the city and into the woods, or the forest, whatever. He doesn't believe that she is not Lillian, as the Lily of this reality refers to herself. Despite many people telling him otherwise. She meets the Tristan of this world and discovers that much like her Tristan he loves to flirt and he loves the ladies.  But she is also meeting shamans and a guy named Aleric, and they all seem to be a big deal but she's very confused because they don't seem to have things the way that the do in her world. Although she's still very confused and all she wants to do is go home. So she reaches out to Juliet because when you're confused, you do accidentally talk to those you love through your mind, that's just want you do. When Juliet shows up she accidentally brings the bad guys with her and the bad guys are known as Gideon and Carrick. Rowan, Tristan, and Caleb separate and Rowan takes Lily with him because he's the strongest. Lily sees Gideon, not that she knows his name at this point, torturing a man because he taught science. She then learns that science is not something that is taught or learned in this world because of her or well her double Lillain.
On her trek through the forest with Rowan, she learns that she's known as a crucible, an untrained witch basically. Her body gives off heat and energy and Rowan can take that from her which is why he doesn't need to eat or drink when he is with her. He can also tell what she needs from touching her. Around this time they start to talk about the stones that everyone wears around their necks. Rowan tells her about them and how everyone has one and that they all have their own frequency. They're called Willstones and if a crucible or a witch touches them they can take over the minds of the person wearing them. They own them in a sense and it's different. Lily doesn't really understand this and I didn't either and I don't think that she truly understands it until she has a willstone of her own. They are a bit like pieces of yourself living on your neck, they make you very vulnerable and if people grab them or handle them roughly it hurts you. And of course it's used in a sexual way as seen later but that's besides the point right? There are 13 cities in this world and the remainder of the people are known as Outlanders (uh huh, I laughed) and they seems to be like the Native Americans type of a thing. Also there are the Woven who were created for a purpose, maybe farming, but they just got out of control and are so dangerous and would eat you whole, like leave nothing but the fricking bones! So the Outlanders are dealing with the Woven and the Coven/The 13 Cities are dealing with the Outlanders, the diseases that they are getting, and the Woven as well. Basically Lillian is the head witch and she makes all the rules but right now she's very sick and is continuing to get sicker. Lily doesn't understand this world and may be getting in over her head.
Lily and Rowan are wandering around the woods, go into a cabin, share a moment but he totally hates her because he hates Lillian because they had a thing but she turned evil and had his father killed. But she has a reason, that's the thing with this book, Lillian seems to be all knowing and has a reason but Lily is trying to do the right thing. Home girl is a vegan, and I would never be a vegan, but that's the thing about it, I can't help but wonder if she will do more damage trying to do good and in a way she does. She ends up claiming Rowan to fight off the Woven and they sneak her into the city by dying her hair and having her hide out in his apartment. He and Tristan start to train her, all the while they are looking for a shaman to get her back home. Rowan is really standoffish because of the whole Lillian thing and he's falling for her, Lily. Obviously, what would this book be without dram and romantic drama is the best. (Sarcasm). Caleb's partner dies while they are trying to sneak them out of the city, Lily claims Caleb, Tristan gets angry and feels left out, she claims Tristan. They try to dig out a tunnel and uber skank Esmeralda rats them out. Gideon takes Lily, all the while he's scheming about how to get Lillian out of power and get some for himself. Carrick is discovered to be Rowan's half brother and he's angry and hurts Lily while she's in jail by playing with her Willstones which isn't cool. Rowan uses Juliet, who is growing real tired of her sister's crap(Lillian),  to talk to Lily and using Carrick he discovers where she is. She thinks that she is being taught to spirit/worldwalk by a shaman and it is later discovered that said shaman is dead.
Lillian arrests scientists who are trying to cure children and sentences them to death, Juliet finds out that she has no intention of helping children and ends up getting arrested herself. The three muskateers save Lily and help her get through her weakness. She realizes that she is being used by a lot of people including the Outlanders but decides to help them get the scientists out anyway. They do a jail break and to get Juliet out, Lily must claim a lot of people, but she does get her out. This means war and war means stepping onto the pyre and firewalking so that she can send energy to her armies. Big battle, yadada, talk to other self, fight with other self, and then haul loverboy into your world because you can suddenly do that!
Thoughts 
It's a lot isn't it? A whole bunch of new worlds and new terms. I have a headache from this book but it's in a good way. I got into it and though I don't find it to be as good as Starcrossed and that series I think it has a lot of potential. I think there will be a whole lot of doublecrossing and trying to figure out the world before Lily figures out her place in it all. We know that she's not supposed to be there and that she should go home. The shaman said so but let's be honest, in the end Lilian will probably take Lily's place and Lily will take hers because Lillian will be able to be cured in Lily's world and Lily will want to stay with Rowan and Tristan will have some heroic deed that will be very useful much like the guy from Starcrossed who ended up in the underworld. Orion? Yes I can figure out the end and it will be interesting to find out if I am indeed right but we're not there yet. I like the series and I like the way that Angelini builds worlds and how detailed she is about it. I think this series has a lot of potential and yeah it's a bit typical of YA Fantasy/Fiction but if you want something like that, then you want it. You don't always want the Game of Thrones, everyone dies; so don't like everyone. You don't want the typical romance, you want somthing different and you get it! Which is why I like this genre. I'll admit that Greek Gods appeal to me more than witches but I'm sure I will get over that. 
I'd give this 6 Willstones! Not bad at all.. Lots of potential and it will be interesting to see how close to the ending I will get! 

Also isn't John Proctor a character in The Crucible by Arthur Miller? 

The Slow Regard of Silent Things

This is a novella by Patrick Rothfuss that is written about a character who appears in his series "The Kingkiller Chronicles." Auri is a girl who lives underneath the university that Kvothe, the main character in this series, is attending and making a name of himself in. Kvothe is the smartest and brightest person there and that causes issues but he has a soft spot for the girl that clearly is mentally ill. Kvothe is the one who gave her the name Auri and we are not yet sure what it means, Kvothe thought that it meant one thing but Master Elodin told him that what he believed wasn't true. Elodin also seems to know about Auri but doesn't have the friendship that Kvothe has with her. He brings her food and clothing when he can, he's very poor, so he can't always manage it but he does the best that he can.
We don't know anything about Auri but I think that it's very likely that she was a student at the University and it drove her mad. She has a good knowledge of things and it shows that she does things in her own time and knows the world around her but she is unsure about other people other than Kvothe. If you want an exciting book about one of Kvothe's many adventures you won't like this book because it is one of those books that you have to read slowly and understand that this is the story of someone who might not be completely sane or maybe she's just a little broken, whatever way you want to put it. There's not much of a plot and nothing much happens but we discover that Auri is making a place for Kvothe in the "Under Thing" as she calls her home. It's clear that she cares for him and she wants the best for him. If you've read The Name of the Wind or The Wise Man's Fear you know Kvothe's story and you can tell that he probably does need someone to take care of him from time to time because there are times where he has more ego and pride than he does sense. Auri is very dependent on him and in a way he depends on her. It's a weird friendship and they both seem to get something out of it.
We don't know what happens to Auri and we won't truly know what happens to Kvothe until the next book comes out and I am rereading the books and waiting for that day but the date hasn't appeared yet and I am just waiting. The book was a good substitute but it's not for everyone, it's not for people who want a straightforward story, you're dealing with an unreliable narrator and that's fine. I took this book slowly because I had to. To absorb what was going on and meander my way through the book and get in Auri's mindset, it had to be a slow regard, perhaps that's the reason why the title is what it is. Auri spends most of this book looking for the perfect present for Kvothe. That's ok too. If that's what you want to read.

I still find these words beautiful and perhaps that's why I liked the book so much because I looked at those words first and realized that maybe I had a few chips in me and maybe I was a little broken in a small sense but that's ok. There are more people out there like me. It's not just me. I think that every now and again you need to have an author's note like that to remind you that the world is not a perfect place and we are not perfect people. We're all a little broken in our way way and that's alright. 

I give this book 6.5 Foxen(s) out of 10! It's not perfect but it's well written and well that's all that you can ask for! 

Voyager (Outlander Series #3) Diana Gabaldon

I hate remembering which book was which. Damn. I really should blog when I finish but I finished this a few days ago and jumped straight into Drums of Autumn, seemed like such a good idea because I was completely in the mode of must find out what happens with Jamie and Claire but now um I can't really remember what happened where. To quote Gilmore Girls "Oy with the poodles already!" And to add to the confusion, I've finished Drums of Autumn and have now jumped into The Fiery Cross I'm only on page 7 so I shouldn't mix that up with anything, I don't think!
Back to Voyager; this is the one where Claire goes back again! Ok I slightly remember. Ohhh dear. I'm not perfect with this especially when they all get muddled. At the end of Dragonfly in the Amber, Roger Wakefield tells Claire that Jamie did not die at Culloden and we discover that he awoke on the field with Black Jack Randall on top of him, dead. Jamie is carried to a farmhouse and they are discovered by English forces and told that they will be shot. However, it turns out that the guy who is in charge is Harold Grey an Earl, brother of Lord John Grey. Now he knows that he has a debt to "Red Jamie" and he lets him go. Jamie goes back to Lallybroch and deeds the house to his young nephew Jamie, so that the land won't be seized because he's a traitor or Ian's a traitor. He then goes to hide in a cave. He becomes known as Dunbonnet, a Scottish legend, because he wears a bonnet or a hat to cover his red hair; known as "Red Jamie" because of his redhead, he's going to have to hide himself someway. This legend is a way of tracking Jamie Fraser for Claire, Roger, and Brianna; Brianna quickly realizes that he would have wore said hat because of his red hair. Having red hair herself and knowing that it would have made him quite visible, makes her claim that Dunbonnet must be Jamie Fraser.
Eventually Jamie gets turned in so that his tenants will get the gold and therefore they will not starve. He arrives at Ardsmuir prison and is reacquainted with Lord John Grey, who believes that Jamie knows where the French gold is. They strike up an odd kind of friendship and Jamie tells Lord John that he does know where it is but says that after an escape that he threw it into the ocean. Later turns out to be the truth, or partially the truth. Lord John then has Jamie sent to a friend of his in England, when the prison closes up and the rest of the men are transported to the USA or the colonies in this case. Jamie's time at Lord Dunsay's is ok but the elder daughter Geneva becomes quite infatuated with him and she is betrothed to an elderly Earl, Lord Ellsmere. She blackmails Jamie into spending the night with her when she takes hold of one of the letters that he sends home to Jenny. Geneva then marries the Earl and nine months later gives birth to a baby boy named William, who is the son of Jamie Fraser. Geneva dies in childbirth and Jamie kills the Earl when he threatens to kill Jamie whne he realizes that the baby is not his. Jamie stays with his young son and with the family until it is wise for him to go because the boy is resembling him too much. He asks Lord Dunsay to give him the pardon that was offered to him six years before and then returns to Lallybroch.
Roger and Brianna track Jamie through Scotland, prisons, caves, and England and once Claire actually comes to terms with the fact that he did not die in battle like he wanted to, she starts to struggle with the feeling that she should go back and tell him that he has a daughter. Brianna and Roger support this and on Halloween night, Claire goes back. She finds the printer Alex Malcolm  that she knows is Jamie and is reunited with him, Fergus, and the rest of the merry crew. Young Ian comes along and gets them all into a tangle along with Mr. Willoughby, Jamie's little chinese friend. A smuggling mission goes wrong and it brings Ian, Jamie, Fergus, and Claire back to Lallybroch where there are mixed feelings on Claire's return. Ian, the first Ian, seems to be ok with it but Jamie's sister Jenny, not so much. They accept the story that Claire returned to her people in France when she thought that Jamie had died but Claire soon realizes that a lot of things have changed since she's been gone. One thing, Jamie's married to Laoghaire and she's none too happy that Claire is back and calls her a lot of nasty names. Now to be honest, if I were Claire I would have drawn back and smacked her in the face. How dare she call Claire names when she knows that she nearly got her burnt however many years ago with Gellie Duncan. What a skank! Laoghaire clearly shows the quote "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" because she comes back and shoots Jamie. Claire leaves Lallybroch after finding out that Jamie had married the trollop and is called back after Jamie had been shot and is dying. Now he's dying from an infected gunshot wound and Claire has sneaked some penicillin in with her and stabs him in the arse and away with him! He deals with the tramp (how many words do I have for lady who gives freely of her pleasures...good question) by telling her that he'll pay her 1200 pounds until she gets remarried.
Because of this the French gold comes back into play, turns out it's buried on an island that you have to swim to and Jamie can't swim because of his injury. Ian goes to do it and gets kidnapped by a ship. I swear to god Ian is a tangly (Someone who is always in trouble) because if there's a scrape, then he's in the middle of it. Between smugglers and getting kidnapped by unknown ships, god help him. Now Jamie and Claire have to go looking for him because they're the ones who got him made off with. So they head to France and with the help of Jared, find out that the ship is headed to the West Indies. They board a ship and are not long on her when another ship comes, Claire gets taken to take care of the sick and Jamie follows her but she doesn't know this. Claire deals with the sick and the dying and is told that the next Governor of Jamaica is on the ship and he cannot get sick. She has a break down over the amount of men dying and meets this man who soothes her. It's none other than Lord John Grey and I will say that this is the best that they get along for a while because Claire finds out that Lord John has a thing for her husband and it's not in the bromance way. But that's besides that point, he never abused his power in prison though he could have and honestly, I like him and I'm looking forward to reading his books because I have them! Claire finds out by searching the young Captain's cabin that there's someone looking for Jamie and because he was a smuggler and if you get caught smuggling you get hanged, she jumps overboard to warn Jamie. Only problem is that Jamie is on this ship, The Porpoise, with her she just didn't know it. More tangles, she meets a Naturalist and a then a priest on this island and is rescued by Jamie who had been captured but gets out of it. As always.
They get to Jamaica, there's drama because Mr. Willoughby might have killed someone and they can't find Ian. They get their best idea that Mrs. Abernathy might be keeping young boys hostage and they discover that it's none other than Gellis Duncan who isn't dead. Turns out that she is delighted to find out that Claire has a child in the future because she needs Brianna for some satanic ritual that she wants to go through. She needs the last of Lord Lovat's line and so far, that's Brianna. She summons Brianna and then there is a huge struggle, Brianna talks through some missus that Jamie knew in Culloden and Claire treated in Edinburgh, Margaret something or other, she's mental it doesn't truly matter. Gellis/Gillian and Claire talk about time travelling and Gellis is surprised to know that if you concentrate on someone you can go to their time because she was working with stones and the blood of her husband. Gellis wants to travel to the 20th century to get Brianna because of her connection as being the last but Jamie and Claire interrupt this and she threatens to kill Ian, she tells them not to come any closer and when he does, she shoots him and then Claire takes her head off with an axe. They end up being shipwrecked and end up in Georgia, which is where this ends!
My Thoughts
Well let's be honest, if you got through the first two books and didn't want to continue and see what happened then this book wouldn't be for you. There's drama and at times I had to reread because I became confused, a lot happened in the end and I came out still unsure. I thought that Gellis was dead but I had to wikipedia it to be sure. Now mind you she'll probably turn up again, the snake. I don't believe anyone is dead. Although she is the body that Claire and Joe were examining so we can think that she probably is dead. I liked this book though. It goes the way of the rest of this series, if you don't like sex and violence this will not be the book for you. If you can deal with all of that and the sort of wacky turn of the plot, then it is the book for you. If you don't like time travelling and can't focus out of reality, not for you. I don't like that there seemed to be so much crammed into the end of this book but I understsand that the book couldn't go on forever. I have problems with ending things too and I like cliffhangers so I can see where Gabaldon was going with it. I like that Claire went back and I like that she took pictures of Brianna so that Jamie could see her. I hate that Jamie married Laoghaire but I loved seeing the word fetch in it. Not in the Mean Girls way but I grew up believing in fetches and if you saw them walking toward you that was fine or if you saw them face on it was fine but if you saw them walking away from you that it meant that the person was going to die. Jenny saw Claire facing her at the wedding so it would seem to me that she should have known that Claire was still alive. Now all of this makes me wonder who Frank saw at the start of the book, was it Jamie himself? He's never travelled as far as we know but it could be a ghost. The ghost of Jamie Fraser knowing when Claire would come to him. Creepy as it seems, that would be a bit cool as well. I'm sad the way that things turned out for Claire and Frank and I'm sad that he found out that he was sterile and that he could never have children. I wonder how things would have gone for them if Claire hadn't been out among the stones. Would there have been bitterness about the lack of children? Who knows. There's not an alternate reality, at least not yet! I give this book 7.5 virgin teenaged boy sacrifices out of 10. Bad boy Ian! Thankfully Fergus kept an eye on him. Oh I never mentioned the Fergus drama! 
Fergus
There should be books just about Fergus and the Fergus was of life, I swear I love him more in each book. He takes Jamie's stepdaughter with him, from the trollop, when they went to france and later the Indies. They want to get married and Jamie eventually allows it despite the age difference and the fact that Fergus has no hand. All turns out well because of course it does. Fergus reappears in Drums of Autumn  and we discover that he's going to be a Daddy, therefore there will be more Scots/French Fergus like children in the future! The world is better for it! And Jamie gives him Fraser as his last name because he didn't have one! I might have shed a tear!

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

I listened to this book via Audible and Wilson Bethel's soothing tones immersed me in the story quickly. Although it is a bit hard to picture the confident guy who plays the charming Southern bad boy Wade Kinsella to be an awkward 13 year old with a strange Mom and a Dad who has a new family without him with a son who is not technically his but who is a better son than Henry is. Henry that's our thirteen year old protagonist and he sees this labour day weekend in the typical thirteen year old way, good but not so good because it's not really all about him. And yes I spell labour with a U because I'm Canadian that's why, this title annoys me, I'd add a U and yes I do know that it's the British system that leads us to spells things with a U.
Labor Day starts normally, well sort of normally, as normal as things get for Henry I guess. He's going to the store with his Mom and that doesn't happen very often, his Mom doesn't like to go out and if they go out now they won't be going out to a store for six more weeks.So Henry is figuring out that he should say that he doesn't need new shoes because then he might get to go out again soon. That's fine, I imagine that I would do the exact same thing if I were him. So while they are at the store, once Henry has gone to the bank and got money, he is trying to figure out how to buy a Playboy without his Mom catching him when he is approached by a man wearing a PriceMart(?) shirt that say Vinny and asked if Henry could help this guy. Henry notices that the guy is limping and bleeding and he's not quite sure what to do with him but when his Mom shows up, he introduces her to this guy who says that his name is Frank, not Vinny. They bring him home with them and they soon discover that Frank is an escaped convict, he jumped out of a window after having appendectomy. I've had an appendectomy and this was many years since this book was set and I didn't want to get out of bed, let alone jump out of a window. Frank is a badass!
So because of this Frank ties up Henry's Mom, Adele is her name, and they start talking about lots of different things and to Henry it doesn't really seem like Frank is holding his Mom hostage but that's ok too. Henry doesn't really know what to make of the whole situation and because of that the reader ends up being a little bit confused because Frank seems to be a good guy, he doesn't want to hurt anyone, but as we later learn in the book; he's a murderer. But, he teachers Henry how to really play catch and he teaches him how to make peach pie when a neighbor drops over with the peaches, talking mostly about the crust because that's what he truly learned from his grandma on the Christ,as Tree farm where he grew up. When Adele's only friend Evelyn and her son Barry, who is disabled and in a wheelchair, comes over; Frank treats Barry with so much care. He takes Barry out to the porch and lets him watch them play catch, he gives Barry a bath, and treats him with all the respect that a human being could ask for. Evelyn and Adele met in one of Adele's failed attempts to do a class, something about dance, but I can't really remember. It wasn't one of the facts that stuck with me. Much like Evelyn's name which I had to google, generally I'm good with these things.
Things change, however, when Henry realizes that his mother and Frank are falling in love. Now it's slightly weird that he talks about hearing the sex sounds of his mother and Frank, and that when they don't have sex he misses it. But it's a 13 year old boy and his mother doesn't date, let alone have someone like that, and it's different. Plus he's coming into his own, he's struggling with his own feelings about girls and sexuality and feeling like he doesn't live up to his stepbrother Richard because he's not as masculine as him. Frank and Adele continue to fall deeper and deeper in love and the search for Frank is getting more intense, there's a big reward if you should have a tip that leads to his arrest and when they start talking about going to Canada, Henry becomes worried. He doesn't want to be left with his father and he's angry that his Mom is leaving without him, for Frank. Now Frank isn't a good guy but he still is. Henry has a lot of conflicting feelings about Frank and that's such a characteristic of being that age. You love things one minute and you absolutely hate them the next, you spend so much time figuring out who you are and being angry about what you aren't. Henry is right there and he's struggling so much because people see him as a freak because of his Mom and he has no self-confidence.
Now to the back stories; why is Frank in jail? Did he actually murder someone? Yes, he did. Frank served in Vietnam and went because he wanted to get a degree. However, before he left he had a girlfriend and just before he was scheduled to come back, she started writing him again and he thought it was strange but didn't really think about it too much. This Mandy missus was kind of a skank or a trollop whatever you should want to call her and she got around. Now when Frank got back she met him at the airport and immediately had sex with him at his grandmother's house. Soon after she was pregnant (suspiciously soon) and they were married and living with his grandmother. She had the baby named Frank Jr, who looked nothing like Frank and soon after that he found out that she was cheating on him and wanted to leave him. On the night that she told him this, she laughed at him and told him that she couldn't believe that he thought that the baby was his. He pushed her and she hit her head and died. Now Frank was very invested in Frank Jr, and whispered a lot of hopes and dreams to that child. Said baby was upstairs with his grandmother and he was shocked when he heard the water still running and went upstairs to find grandmother and baby both dead. His grandmother had a heart attack and the baby drowned. So Frank went to jail. He was eligible for parole in two years at the time that he escaped. He never stopped looking for his opportunity to get out.
Adele was a different story, she was a fun loving, full of life, passionate dancer who met Henry's father and fell in love with the way that he could dance. They spent time going across the country and enjoying life but settled down once they realized that Henry was on the way. Six months after Henry was born Adele discovered that she was pregnant again but Henry's father thought that it was too soon and they could not support the baby, so she had an abortion, though she didn't really want to. They started having miscarriages after that and Adele firmly believes that because of the abortion they would never have another child but she gets pregnant and once they get past the danger stage, she believes that she has been forgiven. However, when she has the baby, a girl that they named Fern, she has died, strangled by her umbilical cord. We learn that this is why Adele does not go out in public because she cannot stand to look at babies. Henry's Dad left her and they divorced, he still lives in the house that they lived in with his new family and they have a baby girl named Chloe that is not Henry's sister according to Adele. Henry struggles with this because he does sort of like Chloe.
When the talk of moving to Canada continues, Henry is sent to the library to look for books about the Maritimes because Frank wants to farm. He does find them but he also finds Elanor, an anorexic, bored, nasty thing(but he doesn't realize this until later), whom you as a reader will know is nothing but trouble. She has just moved there, hates her parents, and all she wants to do is go back to the big city, Chicago. She eggs on Henry's anger and he eventually tells her that his mother's boyfriend is the escaped convict and she becomes obsessed with what Henry will do with the reward money because he has to get back at his mother for this. Henry struggles with this, he loves his mother and doesn't want to punish her, but he's angry that he's being left behind.
When he discovers that he's not being left behind, that's a whole different thing. Of course there's anger and resenetment but I think that he does sort of get over it. Not really but he's not completely Holden Caulfield yet. There's hope for Henry. In anger he meets Elanor at the playground and when he refuses to have sex with her, she becomes angry and even angrier when he says that he's not going to report Frank to the police. Henry has been fighting with his mother over his hamster, Joe, who was basically the only friend that he had and they evnetualy decide to take him with them. The next morning when they are going to leave, Joe is found dead and Henry blames his mother for it. In anger he goes to his father's house and is going to tell his father what happens but instead leaves a letter in the mailbox because his father only picks up the mail in the evening. It's raining and a policeman insists on taking him home and when he gets there, there's an awkward encounter because of Frank. Then Evelyn comes over furthering hampering them leaving and with time the police show up. Frank ties them up and then surrenders, knowing full well that he will have way more time to serve. Henry does feel guilty. Adele goes to pieces, meaning that Henry goes to live with his father for some time.
Henry finds himself during the time that he is with his father and realizes that he is good at baseball though he insisted that he wasn't and finds a real passion in cooking especially desserts, which is what Frank loved. When he's in high school, he still looks at perfect families in apartment windows and I guess in a way he is mourning what he would never have because I think he's back with his mother at this point but one night he sees Elanor and realizes that it is this spiteful human being who hates herslef who reportted Frank. But later sees her at a high school party doing cocaine and he feels sorry for her. She seems to carry around a lot of hate.
Henry goes to culinary school and falls in love with a woman, whose name I don't remember, he lsot his virginity to a girlfriend that he had in high school and was glad that it was with someone that he loved. He is in a magazine talking about pie crust and his pies and it leads to the story of Frank without saying that it's Frank. He is then contacted by Frank who has served his time and he wants to know about Adele. When he does get out, him and Adele move up to Maine and Henry, his wife, and their new baby often go up to visit them. Henry talks of how he soothes his daughter when she cries and how he talks to her, how she will know that she is loved.
My Thoughts
I loved this book and people may compare it to Catcher in the Rye but the only similarities that it is has is that it's a coming of age story, Henry is not an out and out liar like Holden or at least he doesn't admit to being it. It's tough to be at that age and see your mother falling in love and to think that she doesn't need you in the way that she did. Henry was struggling so much with himself that yes he lashed out and he told Elanor and was betrayed but he couldn't have known that it would happen. He was naive; because of Adele, because of her fears. He didn't have the experience to know that some people are just plain bitchy. I think Frank is a good person and that you have to feel bad for both him and Adele because they did fall in love and they did lose time togehter but then again they got together in the end. Who doesn't like a happy ending? Because of what happened Henry found himself and yes Adele did break down but she probably would have done that anyway. She later found herself, she worked with seniors and she was good at it. Henry also became closer with his father and understood him a little better! The cycle wouldn't have changed if Frank hadn't shook up their lives and it would be nice to think that they could have run to Canada but honestly, it probably wouldn't have worked, they would have gotten caught and it would be worse because there would be no excuse. As flimsy as it was that Frank had theme coerced, they had the fact that they were tied up and that was enough to keep them out of jail. I loved this book and I think that because I listened to the soothing tones of Wilson Bethel that I was better able to enjoy it. There are just certain books that are easier to listen to than read. Maybe this is one of them! I give this book ten perfect pie crusts out of ten. It's not actually perfect but it was perfect for me. 

P.S: Wilson Bethel is Joyce Maynard's child? Poof! Mind blown! D'aww he read his Mommy's book! He's some good boy! 

This is the man behind the voice that read me this book. I just pictured this and tried now to drown in my own puddle of drool! <3

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

House Rules tells the story of Jacob, an 18 year with Aspergers Syndrome who is obsessed with forensic sciences, he lives with his devoted Mom (Emma) and his younger brother Theo. His Dad has left and started a new family in California because he couldn't deal with the way things were at home and how much time Emma was giving to Jacob. Jacob has a social skills tutor named Jess who he has a bit of a crush on or at least thinks that he would be a much better boyfriend than her current boyfriend Mark. Jacob asks Jess out in front of Mark causing a cringeworthy scene that I must admit I couldn't get through, Jess gets mad and tells Jacob that she doesn't want to see him again. Jacob of course doesn't realize this is serious. Jess is later found dead and Jacob is accused of murder because he wrapped the body in a quilt and posed the scene.
I can't write a full analysis of this book yet because I am just too mad! There is no end! We never find out what happens because as Picoult states at the back of said book, Jacob already knew he was innocent. Well that's great but I would still like to know what happened to said characters. We have no idea about any of it! UGH! That's just not acceptable. It's not acceptable at all.
So rewind before my rant and I will get into more details. Theo is sort of the forgotten child, and when he tells his part of the story you can see that he is acting out because he wants his Mom to pay attention to him, he's breaking into houses and stealing people's things because he can and maybe just maybe he wants to get caught. Theo breaks into a house and it says that he sees someone showering and he gets out of there as fast as he can. It then goes into Jacob's perspective where he is upset that Jess did not show him pictures of the professor's house that she has been housesitting at. It's important to know that Theo had broken into a house that he knew belonged to a professor and that he had broken into before. Jacob comes home quite anxious and it's hard for his mother to calm him down and Emma is worried about him and worried that something happened with Jess but he says that it didn't and Jacob can't lie. So she doesn't worry about it too much, until Jess is said to be missing. She worries that it might have been Jacob but then she puts that out of her mind. The detective comes over and asks questions and Jacob admits that he had cleaned up the crime scene and organized it all. Jacob had previously been at a crime scene with said detective and solved a case for him. Jacob is also sort of happy because he can talk about forensics but not much more is said about it.
Jacob has Jess' phone though and this makes the reader uneasy but she left it at the restaurant and that's normal but he keeps calling to listen to her voice and then...he goes to her body and dials 911 and lets the police find the body. I don't know about anyone else but I suddenly thought, oh god he did it and now he wants the police to think that he's smarter than them. However, at the same time you can't figure out why he would do it. So obviously his mother calls the police when she realizes that it's his blanket and because she can't go with him, she ends up going to a young lawyer who doesn't really have a clue what is going on. His name is Oliver.
So Jacob is arrested and his trial is quite a fiasco because of the whole he needs sensory breaks and Oliver doesn't really have a clue what is going on. Theo takes off and tries to run to  be with his father and Oliver and Emma sleep together. Oliver is helping her out in a lot of ways and eventually the Dad shows up after they sleep together for the first time and it makes it very awkward. It comes out in the end at Theo's birthday that Jacob had seen Theo coming out of where Jess was staying and he was covering for his brother but Theo hadn't done it either. Turns out that he shocked her in the shower and she fell and hit her head. So it was a big ole accident and well...we don't find out anything else because there is no end!
My Thoughts
You means other than the fact that there is no end? I think Jodi Picoult is a good writer, I like her books. My Sister's Keeper did hook me on her and I find them to be a bit...well they can be stereotypical in a way because she goes with an ending that you don't really expect. Like in My Sister's Keeper. However, that being said I read this book quickly via Scribed but...it wasn't amazing. It was just alright. If you want to read a mystery with a kid that's on the autism spectrum that's fine, read it and enjoy it. It's not bad but it's not great. It's just meh. I think that's the best way to put it and then the lack of end, the fact that I don't find out what happens to his mother and Oliver, that just ughhhhh! Puts it a little less than meh. I'm going to give it four sensory breaks out of ten! 

Dragonfly in Amber- Diana Gabaldon

Book Two of the Outlander series! It was a good one. I will say that! In book two of this series, we discover what happened to Claire Randall Fraser and her husband Jamie Fraser or well what has happened.
By the way I have noticed that I did not give an overall rating of Outlander which sort of seems stupid but I won't just say four stars or five stars. I think I will have it have something to do with things that go on with the book! Oh and it will be out of ten! So let's say that Outlander was 8 Generations of the Randalls our of 10! 
Twenty some years after her disappearance, Dr. Claire Randall and her daughter Brianna make their way back to the Highlands of Scotland. There they meet Roger Wakefield, the adopted son of the Reverend Wakefield; the little boy that Claire meets on the stairs in Outlander. Frank Randall has died and Claire is said to be making a trip with Brianna to show her the past. They find their way to Culloden and when Claire sees the headstone of one James Fraser, the story of what truly happened when she disappeared comes out and we find out what happens to Claire and Jamie once they left England to go to France.
It seems that Claire and Jamie tried everything to keep Bonnie Prince Charlie from leaving Rome and then France to go to Scotland but once it was in his arrogant little head, he had to go. Knowing the time, despite Jamie being a Laird, I really don't think that there was anything that could have kept Charles Stuart in France. No matter what knowledge Claire had, she wasn't going to manage that. However, if the point of this book was to make me research Charles Stuart, Flora MacDonald, and spend time researching things that my Canadian education did not teach me, good job on that! So despite the best efforts of Claire and Jamie, Charles Stuart or Bonnie Prince Charlie whatever you want to call him was not staying in France especially not when his mistress said that his child was her husband's. Non, non, non! However, much happens before this. Claire makes an enemy of an enemy trader of Jamie's cousin and this causes quite an underhanded row of sorts. Jamie spends a fair amount of time with King Louis and picks up a little French pickpocket named Claudel from a brothel that he names Fergus. Fergus is told to keep an eye on Claire and steal the mail of Charles Stuart.
Claire becomes a healer in France and volunteers at a hospital despite being pregnant with their child. It is here that she meets Mary (quick google search to remember her last name, all I can think is Mary with the stutter) Hawkins who will apparently have the child of Black Jack Randall who is apparently dead. She is scheduled to marry some marquess or some high ranking lord but she falls in love with Alex Randall, the brother of Black Jack Randall, whom Jamie nearly kills. Claire has forgotten about the row with the other trader and because of that when she and Mary are in the alley they are attacked and Mary Hawkins is raped. Which causes Mary to slightly lose her mind and while Jamie and Claire are trying to hide it, she accidentally tells a whole dinner party leaving them in a pickle. However, it does blow over with time.
However, the biggest blow is yet to come for Jamie and Claire because Black Jack Randall is not dead and when he shows up in Paris, Jamie goes mental. He challenges him to a duel and Claire ends up losing her child because of showing up at it. It's a daughter; Jamie ends up in the Bastille for dueling and Claire thinks that he has abandoned her because no one bothers to tell her that Jamie has not left but is in jail. She gets him out by using her body, in other words having sex with King Louis (ugh) and Jamie feels very bad for this but they abandon France and head back to Scotland because that is the condition of setting Jamie free.
They head back to Scotland and start to lead a quieter life at Lallybroch until a letter arrives from Bonnie Prince Charlie stating that the rebellion has started via Jamie's signature. Jamie has no choice but to start moving his troops and he does. On the way they meet up with an English soldier, a young English Solider, by the name of Lord John Grey. He sneaks to the woods trying to save Claire from the Scottish barbarians but gets caught, Jamie breaks his arm, they negotiate and Jamie decides to let him go after Claire patches him up. From that point on it's battles and army talk while Jamie and Claire try to figure out how to stop it. Before Culloden, Claire says to Jamie that they should assasinate Charles and Dougal McKenzie overhears them and it ends with Jamie killing Dougal and then sending Claire back to her time because he knows that she is pregnant and he has every intention of dying at Culloden.
Back to 1968; Claire tells Brianna of her parentage and tells Brianna and Roger, who had suspected this, that Frank told her to never tell Brianna that until after he had died. Brianna of course refuses to believe that the man that she thought was her father was not. Claire then drops a bomb on Roger by telling him that she believes that he is a descendant of Dougal McKenzie and Gellis Duncan, the other time traveller who was burned as a witch. Roger says nothing about it really but they agree that they numbers 1 9 6 8 that Claire were given by Gellis meant 1968 and they try to track her down. They do find Gillian Edgars but only after she has killed her husband and travelled back in time. Roger then leaves us with a cliffhanger when he says that Jamie Fraser did not die at Culloden.
My Thoughts 
It seems like a while since I read this book and I guess it was last year but I think that it was really good. I will give it 7 duels out of 10. I especially liked the parts where we met Jamie's grandsire Lord Lovat and all the badness that he managed to get up to. He was definitely a sneaky old man who wanted his land back. I think Claire is a strong woman to keep her memories of Jamie close all these years and not let anyone tell her that she made them up or that she was crazy. Brianna I think had a normal reaction to the whole your father was a Highland outlaw in the early 18th century. No one is going to take that well. I would say you're crazy but it's a nice story. I think it's interesting that Lord Lovat doesn't play such a big role in this book but his name is brought up again in Voyager and it seems that he has a bigger role to play or at least his line does. The fact that I know what happens and that I have purchased all 8 of these books and the Lord John Grey books besides tells you that I am intrigued by what will happen with Jamie and Claire. I'm not saying that they are the best books ever and they will probably never be classics but they're good. If you want to go back in time and imagine that you are a part of the Highlands with a handsome strapping, Scottish man then read them to your hearts content. If you don't like sex or violence it's not your style. If you can't follow an out there storyline that is a bit topsy turny at times, this series will not be for you. If you like Historical Fiction and can appreciate a well researched book that might be a little bit out there, it is for you. I would advise you to read it! On that note I'm going to go watch Downton Abbey!