The Kari AnnAlysis

Archive for August, 2009

It took me two weeks to read Dracula  and it’s taken me a day and a half to read this. When I finished it, my fiance looked at me and said, “Already? You just started.” What can I say, it was a cute, easy read and I love me some Janet Evanovich. That’s probably obvious since half the books I’ve reviewed have been by her.

Naughty Neighbor is before the Stephanie Plum era, but I see a lot of similarities. The lead female is always witty, the lead male(s) is always dreamy and the family is always a riot, especially the grandma. Definitely rang true in this book as well. I almost forgot to mention the great use of animals. Yes, there is a pig on the cover of this book for a reason

I also like that I can relate to many of Evanovich’s stories. In this one, a former journalist (Pete) is trying to break a crazy story about a politician. Right down my alley.

It starts with Pete and his neighbor Louisa. They know everything about each other before meeting because the walls are thin. They hate each other in the beginning, but in the end … yeah right. You know I don’t like spoilers.

I will leave you with a couple of parts of the book that I loved though.

“The table was set for two with a white linen tablecloth, wineglasses and lavender candles. There was a daisy on her plate. It only had one petal left. Without thinking, she automatically played the game and plucked the remaining petal, silently chanting ‘He loves me.’”

How sweet is that?? Fellas, if your still reading my mushy post, definitely steal this idea

And in true Evanovich fashion, the love for donuts:

“Maybe she wouldn’t starve to death, she decided. Maybe she’d eat herself into obesity and explode. Death by doughnut.”

That’s what I’m talking about

Let me tell you though, this is a steamy book. It doesn’t take it too far and isn’t vulgar, but it’s hot!

I didn’t intentionally go to the store to get this book. I had 7 letters to fill for my  A to Z Challenge and stumbled upon this for N. I am really glad I found it because it was a good book. And I like to see Evanovich’s early stuff.

There is one MAJOR drawback for this book though. One three different pages, I found errors. One page said “stick for dinner” instead of steak. One page  had a set of squiggly lines between words. This may be something I don’t know about, but since there’s not one on my keyboard, I’m doubting it. And finally, there was a missing apostrophe. And it completely changed the sentence. It was supposed to be he’ll leave grease spots but was “hell leave grease spots.”

As much as I liked this cute love story, I absolutely can’t stand typos. If anyone else has read this book and thinks I’m reading wrong, please let me know.

If you can overlook the typos, pretend there are four bookmarks. If you’re anal like me, stick with the three.

What is going on in Brazil? I normally am up to all the crazy news stories, but my fiance actually brought this one to light.

The Sun reports a 17 year old girl was arrested at a street fight and gave them more information than they expected. She confessed to killing 30 men in the past couple of years. She said she started when she was 15 when a man threw a glass of brandy in her face.

They’re not sure why she continued killing, but some believe it may have been mob oriented.

Either way, 30 men in 3 years? Shoo, that’s almost one a month!

Oh, and she killed them all with the same knife. And they say she even smiled when rattling off the names. To this, The Sun says “which is feared to make her the world’s most prolific teenage serial killer”.

Why did she confess now? She is getting ready to turn 18 and didn’t want to be tried as an adult. I’m going to have to do some research and see if they’re system is anything like ours where age ain’t nothing but a number. If you commit a crime so heinous, you still may be tried as an adult.

That’s not all in Brazil either. At the bottom of that story, it talks about a Crime TV Show host who allegedly was staging killings to boost ratings. WOWZA! Maybe he never took an ethics class!

If you know me at all, you know I love me some vampire tales. My first was Twilight. I got the books for my 22nd birthday and read them all in a week. I borrowed The Historian, from a co-worker and loved it so much I went out and bought it to save for another Halloween!

Yes, I love Halloween. I’m the nerd who watches all the scary movies on AMC’s Monsterfestand the ones I can’t watch, I DVR and stay up super late to watch them. I don’t sleep the whole month of October without a nightmare, but I deal.

I started the A to Z Challenge earlier this month. Since I blog about all the books I read, I knew which ones I’ve read this year. I had all but 7 done. D and I were books I didn’t have. I automatically knew Dracula and Interview with the Vampire were my choices.

You know what you are getting into when you start this book. Obviously it’s about a vampire so that doesn’t surprise you. The layout of the book reminded me a lot of The Historian. A lot of it is in letters too. I really like that because you get to see everyone’s point of view.

When it came to the writing of the book, there were some parts that I flew through, there were others that drug on for weeks. This book took me two weeks to conquer. I read when I get home from work and wind down for bed and read on the weekends whenever I have a moment to sit down. I’d like to say the wedding has my mind out of whack, but I honestly think some of the book just didn’t appeal to me. I loved the first hundred few pages then lost interest. It came and went from there.

The book was very descriptive which always makes for a good read. I love to be able to close my eyes and imagine the characters and the scenes. It always got me major kudos with my Teaser Tuesdays (1 and 2).

The characters in this book remind me of chivalry. Michael (my fiance) is very chivalrous, but it seems to be dwindling away over the years. These 5 men put a lady before all of them and fight to the death for her.

I must admit while all these men won my heart, Mina is my favorite character. She’s a strong, very intelligent woman. And she’s a fighter. She never gives up and she helps the men from start to finish. Without her, the ending of this book would probably have been very different.

At times during the book, I was VERY confused. Like when Dr. Seward kept talking of his patient, when the first ship came when Lucy and Mina were in town and all of the suitors for Lucy. They all made sense in time, but when I first read them, I remember thinking “How can this possibly fit into this book?”

It’s taken me a couple of days to think about this review. I admire the book for its history and for all of the vampire lore that was inspired by this book. I love the creativity and the story, but I didn’t love all of the writing. It was a tough read and there were many parts I had to read and re-read.

I give Dracula  3 bookmarks.

 This week’s Booking Through Thursday question asks “What’s the best book you’ve read recently?”.

I have read a lot of good books lately, so I had a hard time choosing this one. The last book I gave 5 bookmarks too was Twelve Sharp. But I haven’t read that since April, so I’m going to do this scientifically.

The last book I read that got 4 bookmarks is Plum Spookyby Janet Evanovich.

This is the 4th “Between the Numbers” book in the Stephanie Plum series. I haven’t been too huge of a fan of the other “Between the Numbers” books because they have more a of a sci-fi feel that I like. I love this series because it could be real. It pushes the limits to reality, but in the crazy world we live in, it could happen to a very unlucky woman. These have taken away from that … until Plum Spooky.

This book had GREAT characters and some classic quotes. It was an easy read and I really liked it.

 It’s Tuesday, which means I have another tease for you. I hope you don’t get your panties in a bunch over this one, I am still on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. My interest in it comes and goes and I’m having a hard time getting through it. I REALLY hope to have it does by next time this week, but in the meantime, here’s where I am.

Page216: “The Thing in the coffin writhed; and a hideous blood curdling screech came from the opened red lips. The body shook and quivered and twisted in wild contortions; the sharp white teth champed together til the lips were cut and the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam.”

Hope you enjoy!

To take part in Teaser Tuesday and other fun weekly activities, check out Should Be Reading.