About Me

About Me

When I was teen, I was on a heavy Stephen King and Peter Straub reading jag. I couldn’t get enough of these authors. Today I still have my collection of these books residing on a shelf of my bookcase. Sometime in my early twenties I became less enamored with King’s readings. I don’t know if my taste just changed or I had burned out on his style. I have to say though that The Shining by King was the first novel I read of his and my favorite out of all his books.

I then started leaning more toward suspense and thrillers and less of horror. Some of the authors I followed were Mary Higgins Clark and James Patterson. My favorite Patterson novels were The Beach House and When the Wind Blows. They were other suspense authors peppered into the mix, but this is the one genre where I mostly stuck to favorite authors.

When my children were in grade school, the Harry Potter craze was all the rage, and I was just as engrossed in reading the books as they were. I found out at that time how much I enjoyed fantasy and many young adult novels. It seemed that YA authors were more creative in many ways than most adult novel authors. My sister-in-law is a YA librarian at a high school, so she would advise or buy certain books for me to read. For young adult reads I didn’t really stick to one author, but would go off recommendations and reviews for great YA books. Yes I devoured the Twilight series, but I can’t say this was my favorite YA read. The best young adult novels I have read are Jellico Road by Melina Marchetta and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

I still enjoy reading suspense and thrillers as well as many young adult books, but in the last few years, I have also started reading many gentle reads that pull at the heart strings. Again there is no specific author that I stick to, but mostly go off recommendations and reviews to select reads from this genre. Some of my favorites in this category are: Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards.

I am not much of a non-fiction reader unless I’m forced to read it. In addition, I a little romance goes a long way in a book, so I’m not a big romance novel reader.

Friday, January 29, 2016

Thriller Annotation: Honeymoon by James Patterson and Howard Roughan


Honeymoon
By
James Patterson and Howard Roughan

Synopsis

Nora Sinclair is a successful interior designer with the beauty of a goddess.  Although she is highly desired by men and envied by women, she leaves an ominous trail of wealthy husbands and lovers who one by one mysteriously end up dead.   Large sums of money are disappearing from her deceased husbands’ accounts, and FBI agent John O’Hara is assigned to follow her every move.  John takes on various aliases as he pursues Nora in this cat and mouse chase.  With many unexpected twists and turns, James Patterson and Howard Roughan have created this fast-paced, page-turning thriller of the ultimate black widow who entangles her victims with her charm leading down a road of demise.


Elements of a Thriller

Pacing –This novel is fast-paced with very short chapters consisting of mostly dialogue among the characters.

Characterization – The characters’ physical appearance is described, and there are moments when a character’s thoughts are revealed; however, these thoughts are only used to boost the plot.  Therefore, the book is not character based where the reader develops an attachment to the protagonist.

Story line – Multiple plot lines are going on during this action packed story that twist and turn but all come together for a resolved ending. 

Frame/Tone – The back and forth chase between John O’Hara and Nora Sinclair provides a menacing and suspenseful tone to the story line.   Conversations are gritty with language that is straight-forward without any elegance and peppered with swearing.

Style – This book is complex with many plots occurring at the same time along with characters taking on aliases.  Some of the relationships among the characters are not understood until the end of the story.  


Read-A-Likes

Bad Games by Jeff Menapace

IMMORTAL FEAR: A Medical Thriller (A Dr. Powers Mystery) by H.S. Clark

Second Honeymoon by James Patterson



















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6 comments:

  1. knell17January 30, 2016 at 11:16 AM

    This sounds like an interesting book. It is fun reading about black widows. It reminds me of the Lifetime movie, Dark Beauty. It is about a woman who dates rich men and kills them for their money. She puts on a goody exterior, but she is really a killer. I liked how you included the elements of what a thriller is. Nice job!

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 31, 2016 at 9:43 AM

    These books are so popular where I work! Nice to have some other read-a-likes. You did a great job with explaining the elements of a thriller!

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  3. SharonFebruary 2, 2016 at 6:42 AM

    This book sounds really fun. I like the sound of the cat-and-mouse element.

    I looked at those readalikes on Amazon and Bad Games sounds amazing.

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  4. Erin CataldiFebruary 6, 2016 at 7:47 AM

    Great job on your annotation! Full points, I like that you really described the elements of the thriller genre that this book showcased! Makes me want to read it!

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  5. Christina KingFebruary 12, 2016 at 9:02 AM

    Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Christina KingFebruary 12, 2016 at 9:03 AM

    Thank you!

    ReplyDelete

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