Karen Harper- "Finding Mercy"

You know there is this new show on NBC called Revolution where the power goes out around the world and people go batshit crazy. The problem with this is one thing, people live without electricity all the time. My example? Amish people.

Thus leads me to this book. Karen Harper has a line of books about a town called Home Valley. These amish are cray cray here. Seriously, they get into all kinds of crazy shit. In this story, a man named Alex goes into hiding while waiting to testify against his old employers. While there,he falls in love with a lavender farmer named Ella. The whole time he is harassed and is forced to go on the run with Ella and her grandmother Ruth.

This book was fast paced and kept my attention all the way up to the end. Then I lost interest. I felt that it was going on forever. There wasn't a lot of suspense because you know who the bad people are the whole time. She makes it so obvious.

What did I learn from this book? Amish people are crazy asses. Don't be fooled by their aprons and suspenders.

Brenda Novak-Taking The Heat

The time has come again for me to read my bundle of Harlequin books I got in the mail. These look promising. No over the top, steamy romances with corny covers which makes me optimistic.

In Taking The Heat, a falsely convicted murderer, Randall Tucker, is trapped in the desert after escaping while being transported. He is not alone though. Gabrielle Hadley, a female guard who was in the van, chases after him. They eventually find each other and fall in love in the desert. No joke, it happens.

I am honestly wiling to look past this aspect of the story. Love does weird things to people. Having said that, I am not happy with this book. It was not balanced out. The beginning and middle felt drawn out and the end was rushed because of it. I wanted more of an investigation on Randall's innocence. There are other aspects that I don't like, but it would ruin the book and I don't like to do that. In all it was just alright. If it wasn't so lopsided and rushed at the end, it would have done a lot better on the Becca book meter.

John Grisham- The Litigators

I have found that John Grisham is one of my all time favorite authors. I have yet to find a book that I have hated by him. The Litigators actually got some poor reviews by people I know, but I disagree with them.

In The Litigators, a trio of lawyers try and squeeze out a fortune from a big pharmaceutical company and get way in over their heads. The story includes a dog named ambulance chaser and an recovering alcoholic lawyer who is the lead accuser of the company.

I honestly loved this book. It didn't have the suspense that his other books had, but it was still enjoyable. I found it was better to judge this as if John Grisham hasn't written anything and this is his first book. If you don't then you just end up being disappointed because it is not as good as his earlier books.

Host Solomon- The Legend of Speed and Time (History in the Making)

A group of smart people build a fast magnetic car and a rich man, Brian Speed,wants it for his. The leader, Justin Time, refuses to make a deal and starts a battle between Speed and Time.

This book honestly had me at the fast car. The cover looked pretty cool as well. When I got it, however, I was surprised to see a 43 page piddly book. I wasn't really disappointed at that point because there are some good short stories out there. This is not one of them.

There were pointless parts thrown in the book that didn't have anything to do with the actual story. The dialogue actually made me laugh when it was supposed to be serious. I honestly did enjoy this book just not for the right reasons. It is the novel version of a Sci-Fi Saturday movie. I recommend it, but not because it is good. I recommend it because it will make you giggle. If you want to check it out (you totally do) you can do so here. 

I received a complimentary copy of The Legend of Speed and Time (History in the Making) as a member of the Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team. Visit dorrancebookstore.com
to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team.

David Mitchell- Cloud Atlas

I read this book because I saw the movie trailer and I am too damn impatient to wait for the movie to come out. It is my way of cheating the box office. Way to go me because now I want to watch the movie even more.

One setback of seeing the movie trailer before reading is I was expecting more from the book. It is not a good thing to try and predict a book with the movie because they are obviously going to be different.

A set of stories of people who are connected to each other. It isn't really as cool as the movie makes it out to be. The connections are really a backstory to the actual different stories themselves. You don't see the connections until the end of each story. I am saying this now because I read this book expecting it to be a big scifi conspiracy story. It is not, however it is so much better. Each person has to deal with the trials and tribulations of humanity in each of it's own time. Different locations, and different times in the past and future, but they all have to face the same problem which is what connects them. Obviously, there is more to this, but that would ruin things.

I am saying the things about the story because a lot of people I know have only heard about this book because of the movie. The movie uses the same actors for different characters and it makes it seem like there is a concrete plot going on in the background. There is not. Another thing is the different styles that each story is written can be extremely difficult to read at times and it takes a while to get the hang of it.It is worth it though.

This is one of the best novels I have read in a while and it challenges you to think beyond the pages.

James F. Campbell- "Shifters"

I have realized that when I am faced with a story that has such a relentless bad guy in it that seems to always get his or her way, I tend to get exhausted. This is what happened with this book. By the end of it I just was so tired.

In Shifters, Satan is disguised as the richest man in the world and is trying to start the apocalypse. He has help from these evil creatures who can shift into any form. The problem with this is that the title makes it seem like the shape shifters are the main characters when in fact Satan is. The shape shifters are just supporting roles.

Honestly, it was a good story. I was just bombarded with so much bad and evil that by the end I just was glad I was done reading it. Also the sex seemed forced to be in the book. Some of the words just made me roll my eyes. All in all I didn't really enjoy it.

If you want to read this book, which I do recommend giving it a chance, then you can go here to check it out.

    I received a complimentary copy of Shifters as a member of the    

    Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team.  Visit dorrancebookstore.com

    to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team.

Richelle Mead- "Storm Born"

Never in a million years would I have picked this book to read. I joined a book club on Good Reads and this was the book they chose. As I started reading what it was about and looked at the cover, I really was doubting my approval of it. However, I gave it a chance and I was surprised to be held captivated by the story.

Eugenie Markham banishes spirits and otherworldly things for a living. She ends up being faced with a task to bring back a girl who was kidnapped by a king from the Otherworld. Soon she finds secrets about her past and who she really is. It blows her mind and she has to deal with it.

This book seriously surprised the shit out of me. Never would I think that I would like a book. I thought it was going to be corny and make me roll my eyes, but I loved it. I should have people pick me out books more often.

Story Number Four

Camellia looks out the window of Chet’s truck. She loved the sight of the blue sky peeking out of the grey clouds on a winter’s day. It’s like the sky is reminding her that summer will arrive soon. It was snowing and the windshield looked like it was being attacked by damaged stuffed toys. She wondered how it could be partly cloudy and still snowing like it was. She almost felt like this was what it was like to be trapped in a snow globe. The blue sky was acting like the little air bubble trapped inside the globe. She could feel the heat from the sun melt her worries and sorrows away from her cold face. She momentarily forgot how much she hated her life and actually felt normal. She was happy. Camellia smiled the biggest smile and looked at Chet. She could smell the hotel shampoo that he used earlier that morning. She breathed it the scent deeply and gave a big sigh of relief. She felt safe with him. Camellia grabbed his hand and held it. The warmth of his body brought tears to her eyes. She knew what was happening and she couldn’t stop it and she didn’t want to. For the first time in months since she woke up in that mud puddle, she felt happy. She was truly happy and only tragic loss could come from that in her life. All of a sudden Chet jerked the wheel and they swerved of the road into an icy lake. The truck flipped over and started to flood with water. Camellia looked over at Chet and saw that he was unconscious. She screamed at him to wake up but he couldn’t hear her. The water was quickly coming in the vents. She unbuckled her seatbelt and smashed her passenger window and cold water came in. Each drop felt like little needles ramming into her skin. She swam out of the window and went to go up to get more air. Just as she was about to reach the surface, the seatbelt came out like a snake and coiled around her leg. She tried to get free and she could feel the air in her lungs dwindle away. She tried to swim up more, but the seatbelt just pulled her down farther. She put all her strength in trying to get some air and finally she got her head up to the surface just below her eyes. Her nose was still in the water and she started to gasp for air but all that she could breath in was water. She pulled her hand out of the water and she could feel the warmth beam down on her fingers as if it was shaking her hand to say goodbye. Camellia was about to slip into an eternity of darkness when she awoke only to be safe and sound in a cheap motel. She looks over at Chet and knew exactly why she had the dream. She was falling for Chet and she couldn’t let it happen. It would be the death of her and maybe even the death of him.

Story Number Three Part Two

As news vans and fire engines swarmed around the house, miles away in the mountains, a man was listening to it all happen on the radio in his truck. It was snowing and he could barely see the road. As he reached his destination, his cheeks were wet with tears. He pulled off the road, grabbed his shotgun and got out of the car. He walked into a meadow that was covered with cattails and blanketed with snow. It was so quiet that he could almost hear the snow land on the ground. It would be a beautiful sight to see if it wasn’t in the middle of the night. He said a prayer and aimed the gun towards his head. Just as he put his finger on the trigger, a huge wave of heat hit him and threw him on the ground. He got back up and walked towards a ball fire that had miraculously started. When he got to the fire he saw that the cattails were not on fire, but a body. All around him he could hear faint screams. Then as fast as the fire started it fizzled out and all was quiet again. He looked down at the body, dumbfounded. He couldn’t explain what had just happened. There before him was a body of a beautiful woman without a single burn on her body. The woman took a gasp of air and her skin started to get its beautiful glow back. The air suddenly smelled of flowers. The man felt a slight sense of happiness strike him as he looked at the beautiful girl. Camellia opened her eyes and looked at the amazed man standing before her. Her whole body felt like it was on fire and she was literally steaming. She shakily got up and realized that she was naked. She quickly asked for the black tuxedo suit jacket that the man was wearing. He just stood there with his mouth open. She asked him again saying that she couldn’t walk around naked and finally he shook his shock off and took off his jacket and handed it to Camellia. She told him that she was starving and walked past the man, towards his truck. They both got in the truck and headed for some place to eat.

At a little diner in some small town, Camellia tells the man that found her all that had happened to her and how she was betrayed by the man she so stupidly fell in love with and how exactly she ended up in that cattail infested meadow. After she was finished she told him that he never told her his name and why he was in the meadow in the first place. He apologized and explained that he was still in shock of not just of the finding of her, but of what he was about to do before he found her. He said his name was Chet and started to share the events that unfolded before his discovery of her. He explained that today or rather yesterday was his wedding anniversary. He was happily married to his wife, Helena, for 7 years and they were going to go have a midnight picnic at the meadow where he was. Unfortunately while getting ready he suddenly blacked out and when he awoke he found his wife dead in their rose garden. The sprinklers had come on so blood had pooled all around the ground. What had happened next, he explained, he was not proud of. He took his wife’s body and buried her in the rose garden. He couldn’t explain why he didn’t call for help, but he knew that his wife loved that garden and she would be at peace there. He went on to say that he was so full with grief that he felt like he couldn’t live another day without his beautiful wife. So he went to the spot where they first met. He was going to go there and he was going to kill himself. He told Camellia that he was about to pull the trigger when, whatever it is that happened, happened. He said that he couldn’t quite explain what changed between the time he was going to pull that trigger and now. He had a new lease on life and felt rejuvenated. He wasn’t a religious man, but seeing what happened to Camellia and the predicament she was living in, made him think twice about what was real and what was not. If Camellia can live all these lives, then maybe there are even such places like heaven. And maybe his wife was there and if in fact she was then she would not want to see her husband take his on life because of what happened to her. No he couldn’t do that to her, she couldn’t see that. He finally said to Camellia that he felt like she saved him, and because of that he would forever be in debt to her. So he was going to follow her and help her however he can. He felt like it was something that needed to be done. He then asked her exactly what was she planning on doing next. She told him that she was going to get her ring back that her ex-fiancé took from her.

Days later back in L.A. , Greg Wilkinson was giving his eulogy to a group of mourners at Camellia’s supposed funeral. He was amazed at how great he could act. He should have been an actor instead of a director. He was so great at putting on a show. He still couldn’t believe that everything was going according to plan. No one suspected that he was the one who started the fire and the body was to burned for the police to realize that she was shot as well. They would eventually figure it out, but it didn’t matter because he would be miles away on a beach no one knew about. He shook hands with people who didn’t matter and cried with people he didn’t care about. After he was satisfied with his dubious performance he climbed into his limo. To his surprise he was hit with the scent of flowers and sitting across from him was a beautiful woman holding a gun. Before he could say anything, Camellia calmly asked him where the ring was. He told her that he was sorry for what he did and if she let him go, he would turn himself in and confess to anything. She responded by asking where the ring was again. He begged for forgiveness. She asked again where the ring was. He said that he would show her where it was if she put the gun away. She asked again, this time cocking the gun, where the ring was. Finally he broke down and said that he sold it at a pawn shop. She asked what pawn shop and he claimed that he didn’t remember. She then said to him that she couldn’t believe that she fell in love with such a stupid bastard. She was amazed at the fact that he had even heard of her and her legendary status. Not a lot of men and women do. She was flabbergasted at the fact that he thought he was going to get away with what he did. He actually thought that she was going to forget what he did and not come back to seek revenge. She explains to him that there is only one certain instance that she forgets everything when waking up in a new body. That instance is that if someone tries to save her while she dies. The curse has no loopholes. So it is at his own fault that he is dieing today. If he had started the fire and saved her from it, she wouldn’t be in the limo at that moment holding a gun at him. This was his own fault. And at that same second she spoke those words she pulled the trigger. The bullet hit Greg in the head and he slumped in the leather seat of his million dollar limo. She then put the gun in his hands, wiped the blood from her face with no emotion whatsoever and climbed out of the car. Chet was standing beside the door in a driver’s uniform. He asked her if she wiped the gun down and she explained to him that she had no fingerprints. She wasn’t human enough to have an identity. She then put her sunglasses on and they both walked down the street of the cemetery. Chet asked her if she got her ring and she said that it’s never that easy for her. So they head off in search for the ring that is the only thing she has to being safe.

Story Number Three

Kevin and Camellia stop to talk on a hill that overlooks the beautiful city of Las Vegas. As they sit, Kevin offers Camellia a sandwich. He then begins to tell her that there are some things that she should not know because she would not understand at the moment. One of those things is why he is there and why he is taking her to Las Vegas and why he picked her up in the first place. When she is ready to understand, he will come back and explain everything. Until then she was to go to Vegas and see where it takes her. He then gives her a ring made of pearl with ruby letters inscribed in it. He tells her that it will protect her as long as she had it on.

As they pull up to one of the hotel casino’s in Vegas, Kevin gives Camellia a credit card and tells her to buy her something nice to put on. She looked like she just got out of a horror movie. She got out of the car and he tells her to stay out of trouble and drives off. Camellia walks into the casino and never looks back. She felt like she was being given a second chance and she was going to make the best of it. She went into the nicest stores and bought only the best dresses and shoes. She then went and checked into the best room they had. She then proceeds to go into the high rollers area of the casino to put her luck into play. She knew that she had abilities that had evolved over the years and she was going to use it to her advantage. The high roller rooms were in several private rooms in a separate hallway from the casino. She had managed to sneak into the hallway without suspicion and tried to get into one of the closed off rooms. Unfortunately most of them were locked. All of them, but one. She opened the door to the unlocked room and found a man in a chair tied up and bloody.

He asks for her help and she goes over and unties him. He then tells Camellia that they need to get out before the pit boss gets back and finds him untied. They then sneak out of the hallway and out of the hotel. They end up sitting at the fountains at the Bellagio. As the man wipes the blood from his face, Camellia asks him why he was tied up in the first place. He tells her that he had been playing high stakes poker with a well known mob boss and had won all of the guys money. The mob boss accused him of cheating and was going to teach him a lesson. The men were taking a break from beating him up when she walked in. He then introduced himself. His name was Greg Wilkinson. He was a Hollywood director and he wanted to know how he could pay her back for saving his skin. She said that it wasn’t necessary, but he refused to take no for an answer. He then thought of an idea. He had an upcoming movie and she was going to be the star. She of course agreed and they shook hands that after she became famous that she wouldn’t forget about him.

Fast forward six months of movies, magazines and award shows. Camellia is one of the most respected actresses of her time. She ended up getting engaged to Greg and they bought a house in L.A. She was getting ready for The Golden Swan Award Show. It was one of the greatest award shows of the year and the greatest actors and actresses would be attending. Camellia is nominated for the award for breakthrough actress. As she was putting on her earrings, she looked in the mirror and saw Greg standing behind her. Before she could say anything, he knocked her out with a perfume bottle. When she wakes up she finds herself tied to a chair in their living room. Greg is sitting on the couch staring at her waiting for her to wake up. When he sees that she is awake, he welcomes her back and tells her his devious plan. He said that when she walked into the room at the casino, he knew instantly who she was. Something that she didn’t know about him was that he was a huge fan of legends and one of his favorite legends was the one about the girl who was cursed to live in a cycle of dieing and falling in love over and over again. He knew that she was this girl because the cursed girl supposedly smelled of lush flowers. It was a very powerful scent and it was hard to miss if you got close to the girl. So when she walked into the room he knew she was the unfortunate legendary girl and he formed a plan to make millions off of her. He would simply make her famous and take a life insurance policy on her. Then one day an unfortunate fire would take her life and he would move to Tahiti as a poor widowed man. He then lit a match and threw it in a wastebasket beside the drapes. He then took out a gun and pulled her pearl and ruby ring off her finger. He shot her in the stomach just to be sure that she would sit tight. As she started to bleed, he laughed an evil laugh and said that he couldn’t believe a woman that has lived for so long was so naïve to how evil people can be. As the fire started to spread and the flames made their way up the drapes, Greg looked in the mirror, straightened his bowtie and bid farewell to his fiancé.

So there Camellia sat, tied to the chair unable to move and in great pain from the gunshot. She was still in shock from what had just happened. As the fire spread around her and the flames flurried in front of her face like red snowflakes, she swore that she would seek revenge for what Greg did to her and more importantly, she was going to get that ring back. And as she took in her last breath in the dream house in Beverly Hills, her eyes filled with anger and frustration as she realized that the curse had won yet again.

Story Number Two

On a calm morning, in a wooded cemetery, a hand comes out of a muddy grave. Seconds later, a head of a bloody, muddy, girl emerges gasping for air. The girl claws at the mud trying to get out of the hole. When she does get out, she rolls over and starts crying. After she gets done celebrating, she heads into the woods to find the guy who buried her. When she arrives to the cabin, she sees that the RV is gone and the cabin is empty. So she goes down the road to find the nearest town.

Several hours of walking, she finds a truck parked on the side of the road. The truck is empty, but the keys are in the visor. As she gets in, she notices a red tent out in the woods. As she walks up to the tent, she finds bodies of some campers. Before she could do anything, a police car pulls up. A man gets out of his car and begins to yell at the girl. Suddenly he stops and lowers his gun. He calls her by a name that she has never heard of. He then climbs back in the car and starts talking on the radio, calling in the crime and insisting that the sheriff come over immediately. He then gets out of his car and opens his trunk pulling out a blanket. He goes back to the girl and wraps her up, telling her that it was alright and places her in the front seat of the cop car.

While waiting for the rest of the cops to arrive, the girl convinces the cop that she didn’t remember anything and that she woke up in the woods and stumbled on the campsite while looking for help and that the blood all over her was her own. Finally, when sheriff arrives, he gets out of the car and runs up to the girl and starts kissing her. He asks if she is okay and if she remembered what happened. That was when the girl realized that she was in the body of his wife.

The sheriff tells the cop who found her that she could be questioned after she got home and took a shower. He didn’t want to bring her to the station in fear of people seeing her covered in blood. The way to his house was quiet and the girl, being relieved that she was finally safe, fell asleep. They got to the house and when she saw what it looked like she was hit by a wave of jealousy. It was a one story brick house with flowers and a picket fence. As she walked up to the house, she stopped to smell the flowers. As she looked into the purple tulip, she imagined how at peace the woman must have been when planting the garden. She was incredibly jealous of the dead wife. She wished that she was the wife, still back in the mud puddle. She wished that she could have the peace and silence the death offered instead of having to hear the hellish screams of her past lives.

In the shower, the girl decides to pretend to be the wife and try to live a normal life. She liked the house and the husband seemed nice. She didn’t want to ruin the poor man’s life by telling him the truth. No, she was going to let him believe that she was his wife. She was going to live dangerously and hope for happiness. Meanwhile, while she is in the shower , the sheriff goes into the living room. He pours himself a glass of brandy and pulls his gun out for when the girl comes into the room. He knew that she wasn’t his wife. He killed his wife and left her in a ditch in the woods. Whoever or whatever that girl was, he was going to find out.

When the girl gets done in the shower she goes into the living room to talk to the sheriff. When she gets there, she is shocked to see the man holding a gun towards her head. He then asks her if she would like a glass of brandy. She says no and he says it’s a shame because it’s the best brandy the town has to offer. He then tells the girl that they both know that she wasn’t his wife. He says that his wife cheated on him with one of her coworkers and was going to leave him. He refused to let her go, not because of the love he had for her, but because he would not have her squash his pride “like a ripe tamata”. So naturally he killed her. He hit her with a shovel when she was gardening in the backyard. He hated that garden, she loved that garden more than she loved him. So how appropriate for her to die in the garden that she loved so dear. He then drove deep into the woods and dumped her body in a ditch. So she could see to his surprise when he got called down to a murder scene where his wife was alive. He then demands the truth from the girl.

She sat down and took a big breath in to start the story, but before she could exhale, there was a gunshot and the man slumped in the chair dead. She then spins around and sees a man in a black suit holding the smoking gun. He introduced himself as Kevin and said that they better get out of there before the cops came. Kevin wouldn’t tell her who he was or why he shot the man, not that he didn’t deserve it. She didn’t know where he was taking her and she didn’t care. She oddly felt safe with him. She knew somehow that he wouldn’t hurt her. And so they both drive off into the Nevada desert to their next destination, Las Vegas.

Stories that I wrote- Story number 1

I have written a story a long time ago and I honestly don't like them being on Facebook since Facebook likes to do whatever the hell it wants to. I will post them on here. I have no where else to put them. Grammatically they suck as do all of my writings. I need to go back to school.

Anywho, this is the first story. It is a rough draft for sure. Looking back there are some things that I hate, and some that I love.

A girl wakes up in a muddy puddle, unaware of who she is or how she got there. She gets up, wipes herself off, and starts walking down the road that she was beside. She notices that it’s a deeply wooded area and there are no signs of civilization, other than the road, anywhere.

She keeps walking and finally she sees a little cabin with a R.V. in front of it. The cabin is owned by a man and his two sons. They tell the girl that they will take her to the sheriff on their way out of town. It is the youngest son’s birthday and they are celebrating by going camping in the desert. They give the girl something to drink. Minutes after she is done, she passes out.

When she wakes up, she finds herself in the RV on the couch. She looks out the window and realizes that they drugged her and took her with them to the desert. The father notices that she is awake and tells her to eat some cake with his son at the table. When she refuses and begs for them to let her go, he pulls out a gun and tells her that it’s rude not to eat cake on a person’s birthday when requested to. So she gets up and goes to the table and starts to eat the homemade chocolate cake with messy yellow frosting that says “Happy Birthday”.

While she eats, the father tells the son how much he is going to love his birthday present and how much fun they are going to have while camping. Apparently it’s an old family tradition to camp in the desert when the son is old enough. The father calls it “the final step toward manhood”. When the girl gets done eating, the eldest son knocks her out and ties her up.

When she wakes up again, she is laying down in the dirt. She is outside, in the cold desert, and the RV and the family are nowhere to be seen. She tries to get her arms free, but before she can, the father and eldest son shows up with the youngest not far behind. The father doesn’t have the gun, which makes the girl breathe a sigh of relief. She then looks at the eldest and sees that he is holding an ax.

It is then and there that the father reveals what the boy’s birthday present is. It’s the girl and the final step towards manhood is killing her. The girl screams and swears at the men, but it doesn’t matter because they were in the desert and no one was there to hear her screams. As the son approaches, the girl tries to scramble free. As the son raises the ax, the girl can see a little bit of her reflection. The reflection of a poor, helpless, tied up girl with tears in her eyes. It is in that moment where she remembers who she is and what she has become.

She flashes back to when she was a teenager. She is at home and is about to go to the carnival. Just as she is about to go out the door, she looks in a mirror and sees that she is in a completely different person. At the carnival, she sees a man working one of the booths and its instant sparks. They spend the rest of the time that the carnival is in town, together. When it was time for the carnival to leave the man tells his mother that he was staying with the girl. The mother lashes out and later that night she kills the girl and curses her to an eternity of an unhappy, loveless life and nothing the girl could do to break the curse. If she tried to break the curse it would just get worse. So the girl went through time falling in love and dieing and coming back to life in another body, just to do it all over again.

She then flashes back to the present, where the boy is holding the ax that has her pitiful reflection in it. In that second, she decides to embrace her immortality. She was going to try and save what little humanity the world had left, and she was going to start with this family.

As the ax comes down, the girl kicks the ax back and it hit’s the boy in the face, breaking his nose. As the boy cradles his bloodied broken face, his father and brother only looks in shock as to what just happened. Before they can collect themselves, the girl grabs the ax, cuts the ropes that were around her wrists and runs into the desert canyon lands.

The girl runs until she finds a suitable hiding spot to collect her thoughts. She decides that she is better off getting the gun that the father had and figures that they left it in the camper. She then climbs up to where she can see if she can find where the camper is at. Luckily for her, they left the lights on and it was not far.
When she finally gets to the camper, she goes inside and starts searching. While looking for the gun, she opens a drawer that has photos of past victims. She closes the drawer in disgust and looks in the front seats. She finally finds the gun on the dashboard and sees that the family is back. She then barges out the door, and opens fire. The father gets shot in the chest and the youngest boy gets shot in the leg and neck. Before she realizes that the eldest isn’t there, she gets knocked out.

She wakes up again in the camper, on the couch. She asks the son where he was taking her. He then explains that weather she likes it or not, she is getting buried with all the others. When they finally get to the cabin, the son gets out and is gone for a while. The girl doesn’t try to get away because her legs and arms are chained up. Later on the son comes back with a ladder and a shovel. He then unchains her and says that they are going out for a romantic stroll.

They get out and head towards the woods. Several hours later, there is an opening in the woods. It was a cemetery. As the girl waits in horror, she realizes that no matter how hard she could fight back, the curse would always win and she might as well let whatever was going to happen, happen. So she sits in the dirt watching the son digs up a used grave. It starts to rain and the dirt turns to mud and the man stops digging. He hops out and smiles an evil smile. He tells the girl to hop in the coffin beside the dug out grave. She refuses and he picks her up and throws her in the coffin.

As he is nailing the coffin shut, the girl is pleading saying that she can’t die. The man tells her that in a few minutes she will be wishing that she would die a fast death like the ones she gave his father and brother. He drags the coffin to the hole and drops it down. He shovels the dirt in the grave until he can no longer hear the screams and pleas of the girl.

So the girl is left in the silence under several feet of dirt trying to figure out a way to get out. She knew that she had plenty of time because until she fell in love again, she had all of forever to stay alive.

Ray Bradbury- "Something Wicked This Way Comes"

I have heard of this book for forever and have been meaning to read it. Finally I got around to doing it and I was not disappointed. The one thing I loved about this book is that it is creepy, yet it teaches a good life lesson at the same time.

A storm is coming to a small town in Illinois and it is in the form of a carnival. On the night of the grand opening, two boys witness a frightening event on one of the rides. Soon they are being chased by the evil behind the carnival and learn that getting what you truly desire in life can be more than what they bargain for.

One of the great things about this book is the fact that it is timeless. It doesn't have anything in it that really sets it in any era of time. It could have taken place now or 30 years ago. I love books like that. It lets you decide when it takes place. Another is the lesson of just enjoying life and being happy with what you have. That is always an issue that hits home with me. This book is really for all ages. It is creepy, but not enough to really traumatize a child.

I have found that I love Ray Bradbury's books. This is only the second book I have read, but it definitely will not be the last.

Alice Sebold- "The Lovely Bones"

I have certain things that just hit an emotional nerve. Children being robbed of their innocence or children having to grow up. Elderly people being unhappy or scared. It is because I feel like I can relate. I am a mix of an old person and a child. I am not in between. This book explores moving on from someone when they go away. That has always hit a nerve with me. Having to move away and go on from a loved one. 

Susie Salmon narrates this story as she watches her family from her heaven after she was brutally murdered by a neighbor. Her family slowly starts to heal, but never all the way. It depresses me with each sentence I read. 

I put myself in her shoes and I instantly have tears in my eyes. It is rare that a book or movie hits a chord with my emotions and this book does it well. That is saying something because it is rare that I can relate to things in this world. However, I will never read this damn book ever again because it tortures me so. 

Lucy Ferriss- "The Lost Daughter"

People always say don't judge a book by it's cover. I am always guilty of doing this. So when I picked up this book with the photo of the back of a little girls head with flowers in her hair, I was expecting a peachy keen story. I was wrong within the first sentence. It definitely tricks you at first, but the good thing about this book is that it sets the tone of the book right away. So if you were smart and read the first page of the book before you bought it, you wouldn't get pissed about feeling tricked. 

In this story Brooke is being haunted by a secret traumatizing experience from her high school years when her sweetheart comes to town to pay her a visit. Of course, all hell breaks loose after that and she must face her skeletons head on. 

I have to say, I hated everyone in this book as I started to read it. As the story went on, however they grew on me as they started to change. A warning for people who are pro life, this book doesn't say that it is wrong. That tends to piss pro lifers off. 

For everyone who judges a book by it's cover, don't do it to this one because you will wind up angry.