The End of the Affair

Author:  Graham Greene

Narrator: Colin Firth

Publisher: Audible, Inc. (2012 audiobook)

This is the story of an affair between Maurice Bendrix and Sarah Miles set just after World War II. Their affair ends abruptly during World War II after an explosion in Maurice's apartment. After the war ends, Maurice's path crosses with Sarah's husband, Henry, and the couple is reconnected (of sorts). Maurice ends up hiring a private investigator to follow Sarah and find out what she's currently up to and, if in fact, she's having an affair with someone else. 

I purchased this audiobook from Audible based solely on the fact that Colin Firth was narrating it. What a wonderful narrator he is! I loved every second of listening to it. Firth has perfect inflections and emotions and the book just came alive with his narration. The story ends up becoming an introspection on love, hate, Catholicism and God. There's some pretty heavy stuff there that I don't know for sure that I would have been able to stick through on reading it from an actual book. But with Firth's narration, I was enthralled. I could feel Maurice's emotions - his love, his hate and his anger. 


I highly recommend this audiobook.

Wake, Watersong, Book 1

Author: Amanda Hocking

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Publication Date: 08/07/2012

Source:  ARC from publisher

Pages: 309

Sixteen year old Gemma is beautiful, athletic and lovable. She's also falling in love with the cute, geeky boy next door. Gemma's greatest passion in life, however, is swimming. She hopes to make the Olympic team. Her favorite part of each day is when she goes for her nightly swims at the cove. One night, she joins the three new girls in town, Penn, Thea and Lexi. This trio of girls is smart, beautiful, and all the guys in town fall over them. But Gemma's sister, Harper, doesn't like them and thinks there's something evil about them. When Gemma wakes up on the beach after the party with the girls, she begins to think her sister might be right. She begins changing and becomes more beautiful, a faster swimmer and stronger. 

I thought this book was OK. I wasn't sure where Hocking was going with it. I also had a hard time figuring out who was supposed to be the main character. From the back cover, it should be Gemma but she followed Harper more. Truth be told, I liked Harper better. I thought Gemma was a little selfish. Halfway through the book, I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue the series. But then Harper's relationship with Daniel started getting good and interesting and the story started picking up all the way around. By the end, I wanted more.

Dracula

Author: Bram Stoker

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

Year:  1897

Pages:  427

I'm not going to bother with a description of what this book is about because we all know the story. Dracula is the story that spawned all vampire books. It's been sitting in my TBR stack for years. Every time I picked it up I just kept thinking that it was so long and I wasn't sure what could possibly be said  about a vampire for that long but I finally bit the bullet and read it. I'm glad I did. First off, it wasn't all about Dracula which is what I thought. The hero of the story was actually Van Helsing. He worked with a terrific cast of characters to defeat Dracula. Stoker did a wonderful job of making Dracula very scary. He definitely wasn't a likable character. I couldn't imagine anybody feeling sympathetic towards him. Stoker told the story through diary entries of the different characters that really allowed me to get to know all the characters. My favorite character was definitely Van Helsing who I totally pictured as Hugh Jackman the entire time I was reading Dracula.

This was an A+ book that I can definitely see why so many people have tried to continue the tradition through the years.

Ruby Red, Edelstein Trilogie, Book 1

Author: Kerstin Gier

Year: 2011

Publisher: Square Fish

Pages: 322

Gwen has spent her life believing that the time traveling gene that runs through the female line in her family skipped over her and has been bestowed upon her cousin. So, when Gwen travels back in time, it's a big shock to her. She has no clue what to do, how to act or survive in the past. She gets inducted into the secret society her family belongs to and introduced to her time travel partner, Gideon who is an obnoxious know-it-all. Unfortunately for Gwen, he's also absolutely gorgeous.

I read this book in one sitting. I liked the premise, the time travel and the writing. I did feel like the author spent a lot of time building up the world and up to Gwen's introduction into the society and didn't give me enough actual time travel. I could tell that she was building up for a trilogy all along. I'm not particularly fond of that habit with authors but I'm willing to overlook it here because it was a really good book. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

Author: Jennifer E. Smith

Year: 2011

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

Pages:  236

Hedley Sullivan is on her way to London for her father's second wedding to a girl that she's never met and she's not happy about it. She ends up being late to the airport and missing her flight. While waiting for her next flight, she meets Oliver in the waiting room. It turns out that he's got the seat next to her. During the flight, they talk, share things and quite possibly fall in love. The entire story takes place over the course of 24 hours.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a fun, light-hearted story that was hilarious. The dialogue was sharp and just funny. By the end of the book, I was a little bit in love with Oliver myself and, maybe, just a little bit, believe in love at first sight.

Masquerade, Blue Bloods Book 2

Author: Melissa de la Cruz

Publisher: Hyperion New York

Pages 218

Year: 2007

Masquerade begins with Schuyler Van Alan in Italy searching for her grandfather to get his help dealing with the Silver Bloods that are killing Blue Bloods back in New York. When she returns to New York, Schuyler has to prepare for the prestigious Four Hundred Ball - open only to Blue Bloods. And then there's the dealing with Jack and Mimi Force.

I liked this book better than the first one. The author spent a bit of time on the other characters so we got a lot of character development all the way around. I'm not dying to rush out and buy the series or cancel all plans just so I can read these books but I am curious to see how the author develops the characters and where the story goes which is good.

A Feast for Crows: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4

Author: George R.R. Martin

Year: 2005

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages:  684

A Feast for Crows continues the battle for the Iron Crown. This was a decent entry into the series but I was kinda of upset that Martin introduced a whole new cast of characters and didn't really tell me anything about what's going on with the millions of characters he'd already given me in the first three books.