The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest by Stieg Larsson Review 3/5

Overall Impression: A slow burning, gritty crime novel with an ultimately satisfying ending.

(To read my review of the previous book from Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire click here.)

I’ve been having a face off with this novel from its position on my bookshelf for over a year. Most of you will know that I don’t have a particularly good relationship with thriller/crime novels, yet something about this series did keep me hanging on. Having said that, it has taken me over a year each time to bolter myself up enough to pick up the subsequent books. Once I got into this novel though, I did enjoy it! The Millennium Trilogy was originally planned as a ten book escapade, but since the author died while writing the fourth and before any of them were published, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest is the final installment in this famous series. While a bit shaky in places, overall I though it provided a fitting end to the trilogy.

Please note: For those of you that haven’t read the previous books in the Millennium Trilogy skip the blurb as it contains spoilers about previous plots and characters from that book. The rest of the review will contain no major spoiler about The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.

J.K. Rowling’s New Book is the Talk of the Town!

             
I’m sure everyone is almost sick of hearing about this already, Twitter has been in a storm, Goodreads close behind and the book in question has zoomed straight to the number one spot on the Amazon bestsellers list.
So what does one more little blogger’s opinion matter? Not that much, but this is a book blog after all and like many I am a childhood J.K Rowling fan, so it would be criminal not to even mention it, right?!

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The Cuckoo’s Calling was originally published in April with the author name Robert Galbraith. Masquerading as a debut novel the story was said to follow a war veteran turned investigator who looked into the death of a famous model.

It wasn’t long though before people became a little suspicious, 

My Trickster by Seraphima Bogomolova Review 1/5

Overall Impression: A disorganised and confused narrative that was unfortunately impossible for me to follow.

I was intrigued by the idea of My Trickster, I had never read anything with a Russian setting before and the blurb seemed mysterious. I wasn’t sure which genre the book was going to be, romance, thriller or adventure so I was interested to get started. Unfortunately my hopeful interest for the book soon faded and by the end of the third chapter I was wincing.
Ohh dear, ohh dear… this is the first one star review I have done on my blog and I do not do it lightly. I tried so hard to get into this book, I kept waiting for it to get better but it just didn’t and I struggled to finish it.
My Trickster was kindly offered to me in exchange for an author interview, book giveaway and an honest review.

When enigmatic Angela Moreaux, a woman he thought he had exorcised from his brain, calls and asks for his help, reluctant, but unable to resist, a hedge fund owner and an expert in stock market manipulation, Juan MacBride flies out to Moscow. On his arrival a bitter disappointment awaits him as he finds out that Angela fails to show up for their meeting in the Ritz. Instead, Juan is greeted by an elderly Swiss gentleman, who passes a mysterious note to him embarking Juan on a journey of discoveries that he wishes he never made…

My main problem with this novel is that I was utterly confused from start to finish and I have never really encountered this before. I couldn’t expand on the blurb because I have mostly no clue what went on in any detail, which probably sounds weird. 

The Brutal Art by Jesse Kellerman Review 4/5

Overall Impression: Finally a thriller I enjoyed! Smart, sophisticated and classy.

I’ve had this novel on my bookshelf for a long time. At school I went through a phase of researching books when I was bored in ICT class, and I found The Brutal Art mentioned a lot with rave reviews. So, I eventually purchased a second hand copy from ebay. After one failed attempt to read it while waiting in a Thorpe Park queue with friends (too full of nervous anticipation) it made it’s way back to my shelf soon forgotten. Until now.
I am also using this book as part of the Eclectic Reader Challenge for the Crime/Mystery category. 🙂

In a New York slum, a tenant has mysteriously disappeared – leaving behind a huge collection of sick but brilliant paintings.
For art dealer Ethan Muller, this is the discovery of a lifetime. He displays the pictures in his gallery and watches as they rocket up in value.
But suddenly the police want to talk to him. It seems that the missing artist had a deadly past. Sucked into an investigation four decades cold, Ethan will uncover a secret legacy of shame and death, one that will touch horrifyingly close to home – and leave him fearing for his own life.

Ethan Muller is a hot shot living in New York. He has money to burn, a no strings attached relationship and a successful art gallery. He has everything he could ever need. Or at least he thinks so, until he comes across Victor Cracke’s paintings. Disturbed and intoxicated by the work he sets up an exhibit which is an instant success. Desperate to know more he searches for the missing painter; interrogating neighbours, shuffling through boxes and reading the mans diary, but gets nowhere. So when 

Book Haul: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue.

First off, how awesome is that title? I’m quite proud that my little brain came up with that, and it totally fits as well! 😛 Much more interesting than just book haul don’t ya think?

Ok, so the book ban is well and truly desecrated. How long did I last? *checks blog* Well I announced it May 19th 2012 so that’s *counts on fingers* not even three months!!!! *hangs head in shame*. And since the ban I’ve only gotten three books off my TBR pile so ummm…..yeah, the Maths doesn’t add up, I’m actually worse off than when I started. But you know what? I’ve never been all that fond of Maths.

So errr, ignoring my pathetic failure, lets move on to the books, because we all love the books! That’s why we’re here right?

Something Old:
I went into town with a bookish friend of mine and we spent about two hours just looking around Waterstones. After a thorough rummage (in which I found a beautiful hardback copy of The Complete Sherlock Holmes but made myself put it back because of the price) he told me about these two second hand book shops a short walk away. So of course, I had to go and investigate!

Die Trying by Lee Child Review 3/5

Overall Impression: A solid book, better than its predecessor.

(To read my review of the first book from the Jack Reacher series, Killing Floor click here)

Jack Reacher, alone, strolling nowhere.
A Chicago street in bright sunshine.
A young woman on crutches.
He offers her a steadying arm.
And turns to see a handgun aimed at his stomach.

Chained in a dark van racing across America, Reacher doesn’t know why he’s been kidnapped. The woman claims to be FBI. She’s certainly tough enough. But at their remote destination, will raw courage be enough to overcome the hopeless odds?

Again I won’t bother expanding on the plot with this book, it’s thriller genre means it’s best not to know more than the blurb.

I approached this book feeling positive, but also wary. Those of you that have been following my blog for any length of time will probably have noticed my qualms with the thriller genre, as well as the author’s previous book. So after reading the first 100 pages or so I was very pleased to see that Lee Child had already fixed several of the complaints I had about the first. For starters, his writing style is far more readable. Previously he used an endless array of short sentences with little variance in an attempt to create tension and a military precision feel, that linked back to his lead character. While it made sense in theory, I found it somewhat irritating. (Probably because as Nisha suggested: Repetitions of any nature will become exhausting.)  His sentences in Die Trying however, are far more varied, and although he still has a preference for short sentences it is no longer detracting from the story he is trying to tell. However, that being said, his writing style still doesn’t really do anything for me, and I am not that keen on it. He tends to go more for precision and math’s in his description whereas I tend to prefer the inventive and creative ones, but that is just my personal preference.

Killing Floor by Lee Child Review 3/5

Overall Impression: Chilling, compelling and clever, but also with a number of flaws I found difficult to overlook.

A friend of mine recommended this book to me for the thriller category of the Eclectic Reader Challenge I’m taking part in, and consequently very kindly lent me the book. This will be the second book I have read for this challenge. If you want to find out more or participate in the challenge yourself you can check out the original creator at Book’d Out or you can visit my post here. 🙂
I will admit straight away that I am not the biggest fan of thriller/crime type books. Not only because of the annoying stereotypes found in them but also because they rarely manage to capture my attention from start to finish. I often find my mind drifting when I reach the middle point. However, the whole point of the Eclectic Reader Challenge is to read outside of your comfort zone, “and who knows” I thought, “maybe I’ll even enjoy it!”

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson Review 4/5

Overall Impression: A gritty slow paced crime novel. Some will love it. Others will hate it.

The Girl Who Played With Fire is the second book in the vastly talked about Millennium series that began with the book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The books were released after the author Stieg Larsson passed away. Since then over 27 million copies have been sold, and the books have been adapted into films in both Sweden and the UK.
Some people absolutely love these books, others say there completely useless. Continue reading to discover my opinion…..