I took my Kindle on holiday with me last week – that’s the
beauty of the Kindle. I can take SO MANY books on holiday and not have to worry
about any kind of overweight charges whatsoever. It’s glorious. A ski holiday
doesn’t lend much time to reading (I’d say sadly, and it is
kind of sad, but then I totally love spending 7 hours a day flying down a
mountain so you know, not that sad) but
what time I did have, I decided to spend catching up on some the ARCs that the
lovely people at Headline/Lake Union Publishing had sent me via NetGalley. I managed
3, which isn’t terrible going for a week I don’t think.
Crash and Burn is the first of
Lisa Gardner’s books I’ve read; it won’t be the last. I love me a good mystery.
From the blurb I was half expecting a Rizzoli and Isles-esque procedural (I
love me some Tess Gerritsen, FYI) but this wasn’t that. Not that I was
disappointed because I also love me a good mystery and this was that.
Nicky Frank pulls herself out of the wreckage of her car
late one night, crawls to the top of the ravine her car has plunged into and
frantically searches for a child called Vero, a child that Nicky’s husband
later tells the police doesn’t exist. DUN DUN DUN. As the investigating officer
(along with the help of his girlfriend who I believe to be a recurring
character of Gardner’s)
well, investigates we realise Nicky is not all she seems and that her car crash
might not have been as accidental as it first seemed: someone, for whatever
reason, might be trying to shut her up. Permanently.
Crash and Burn took a while to get going, which is never the
best when you’re reading a thriller, BUT, once it picked up I really liked it.
There were twists and turns and slow reveals and OMG I didn’t see that coming’s
and once I got past the first 20% or so, it was well-paced and gripping. The
main characters were all nicely developed (although I’d have liked a little
more insight into Nicky’s brain injuries) and all in all it was a fun and
thrilling holiday read.
Crash and Burn was published by Headline on Feb 3rd 2015
I still don’t really know what to say about Holy Cow. I wanted to read it, mostly, because David
Duchovny and X-Files and my crush from years ago and I’m shallow. Does that make me a terrible person?
I don’t know. Anyway, I read it last week and I still don’t know what to say. I
think I liked it? It was weird. As in, really weird. It’s about this cow – Elsie
Q – who escapes from her paddock one day, leaves her cow BFF flirting with the
bulls in the next field and heads to the farmhouse where she watches tv through
the window – a documentary that tells her about humans eating cows and suddenly
Elsie has a light bulb moment: that’s where her Mother went. She decides to escape
the farm and go to India
where cows are sacred and hatches a plan with Shalom the Jewish pig and Tom the
Turkey.
Like I said, weird. & totally unbelievable and utterly utterly bonkers. 
It left me totally confused and yet still here I am thinking
I actually kind of liked it. I liked Elsie, and I liked her BFF Mallory and I
even liked Shalom and Tom, and parts of it made me chuckle and parts of it were
such a combination of amusing and insane that I had to read them aloud.
You will never have read a book like this before; you will likely
never read a book like this again but for all it might be ridiculously
far-fetched, it’s also kind of heart-warming. It’s worth a read – just, just
make sure you go into it knowing it’s a bit nuts.
Holy Cow was published by Headline on Feb 3rd 2015
This was a quick and easy read – just what I needed for a
long journey. It’s not my kind of thing, usually and I doubt I’ll send all my
pals out to buy a copy. The actions and reaction of the characters seemed a
little over the top and out of the blue and I found myself a little bit
frustrated by some – a lot – of choices that were made. Or maybe, not so much
the choices as the reasons behind them. There wasn’t enough background; it was
a little bit shallow.
That said, I Queen of napping on the plane, read this
instead of taking said nap and finished it yesterday when I should have been
doing Other Stuff so you know, make of that what you will.
The Secret Life of Wishful Thinking will be published by Lake Union Publishing on Feb 10th 2015
