It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (27)

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through Books.

In the past week I read:

Jo Nesbo - The Snowman 4.5/5

At the moment I'm reading:

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets

In the next week I hope to read:

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban

Terminal Care by Christopher Stookey

No. of pages: 333
Rating: 8/10

Synopsis: Phil Pescoe, the 37-year-old emergency physician at Deaconess Hospital in San Francisco, becomes alarmed by a dramatic increase in the number of deaths on the East Annex (the Alzheimer's Ward). The deaths coincide with the initiation of a new drug study on the annex where a team of neurologists have been administering "NAF"—an experimental and highly promising treatment for Alzheimer's disease—to half of the patients on the ward. Mysteriously, the hospital pushes forward with the study even though six patients have died since the start of the trial. Pescoe teams up with Clara Wong—a brilliant internist with a troubled past—to investigate the situation. Their inquiries lead them unwittingly into the cutthroat world of big-business pharmaceuticals, where they are threatened to be swept up and lost before they have the opportunity to discover the truth behind the elaborate cover-up.With the death count mounting, Pescoe and Wong race against time to save the patients on the ward and to stop the drug manufacturer from unleashing a dangerous new drug on the general populace.

Review: Phil Pescoe, an emergency doctor at Deconess Hospital is called in for a code blue, a patient is dying and it's up to Phil to try and save them. The odd thing is though, that the code blue is for the Alzheimer's unit, where the patients are never resuscitated. Phil finds out that they're doing a drug study on the Alzheimer patients, but he seems to be the only person alarmed by the dramatic increase in deaths. That is until he meets Clara Wong, who is also incredibly suspicious, so together they are determined to find out what is really happening in the East Annex.

I love medical thrillers, especially ones such as this, where you get a bit of romance mixed with a gripping storyline. I really liked the characters of Phil and Clara, and thought they were well developed and interesting. The medical trials storyline was something new to me, and it seemed really well researched, with a lot of detail, but with it all explained so a non-medical person could understand easily. That's what I love so much about medical books, as well as a great story, I also enjoy learning about the medical side of things which has always interested me. I would definitely recommend this to fans of Tess Gerritsen's earlier works, it has a very similar feel to it, and is just as great a read. Very hard to believe this is a debut novel! Will definitely be looking out for more by this author in the future.

I was given this book as part of a book tour by Pump Up Your Books in return for my honest opinion.

Halloween Read-A-Thon Summary

I had great fun participating in the Halloween Read-A-Thon over the weekend and I'm even happier that I managed to reach my goal of 4 books considering how much I've been struggling to read lately. All in all I finished:

Jeremy De Quidt - The Toymaker
Meg Cabot - Love You To Death
Meg Cabot - High Stakes
Pittacus Lore - I Am Number Four

And I also read a 1/4 of The Snowman by Jo Nesbo, so it was great!

So I have 7 book reviews coming your way in the next few days, so be sure to come back and check them out! :)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (26)

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through Books.

In the past week I read:

Christopher Stookey - Terminal Care 4/5
Rosamund Lupton - Sister 5/5
Jeremy De Quidt - The Toymaker 2.5/5
Meg Cabot - Love You To Death 4/5
Meg Cabot - High Stakes 4/5
Pittacus Lore - I Am Number Four 4/5

At the moment I'm reading:

Jo Nesbo - The Snowman

In the next week I hope to read:

Dean Koontz - Relentless
Karen Rose - Don't Tell

Halloween Read-A-Thon Day 3

Managed to finish both Meg Cabot books yesterday, so I'm really pleased with that! I'm now starting my fourth book - I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore - so it's looking very likely that I'll hit my 4 book goal which I'm really pleased about :)

So my goals for today are to finish I Am Number Four, and possibly start something else, but I'm not sure if I will or what that will be yet, I shall see how I feel after book 4!

How is everyone else doing?

In My Mailbox (23)

In My Mailbox is a meme created by The Story Siren, and sums up my past week in book purchases!

So this week I bought just 1 book:

Jill Mansell - Solo

When Tessa Duvall, a struggling artist, reluctantly agreed to accompany her best friend Holly to a party at the elegant Charrington Grange Hotel, she had every intention of sneaking off early. For parties full of strangers bored the knickers off Tessa and this one proved to be no exception - until she encountered Ross Monahan, whose wicked reputation was as high profile as the hotel he owned and ran with such panache. But whilst Holly set about ensnaring his reluctant brother Max, Tessa simply accepted Ross for what he was, a sensational one-night stand...until she realised, weeks later, that one-night stands can have far-reaching consequences...

Halloween Read-A-Thon Day 2

Well yesterday I didn't do quite as well as I had wanted due to the fact The Toymaker wasn't as gripping as I had hoped. However I did move on to a great second book in Meg Cabot's Love You To Death, and I managed to get half of that read before I went to bed.

Today's goals are to finish Love You To Death, and start (and hopefully finish) the second in that series which is High Stakes. If I managed to get through both of them, I think I'm going to start either Shadowland or Percy Jackson And The Lightening Thief.

How is everyone else doing? :)

Halloween Read-A-Thon Begins!

I've been trying to decide all week which book to start with, and have finally decided to read The Toymaker by Jeremy De Quidt first. Not sure what will be up next, but I'm excited to get going with some good books! :)

If you're interested in participating, you can still sign up here. There are some great prizes to be won for taking part!


Mini Challenge - Spookiest Read
Well I'm not one to generally get creeped out by books, but when I was around 14 I read a book called The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, which is about what would happen if the Ebola virus started to spread throughout the population. Would be scary stuff if it ever happened!

Halloween Read-A-Thon

Anyone who follows my blog regularly will know that lately I've been in a big reading slump, which has not been fun at all. So I have been looking around for a read-a-thon that hopefully will inspire me to get going again and I'm pretty sure I've found it in the Halloween Read-A-Thon which is happening this coming weekend!

For this readathon: read Halloween themed stuff. Not necessarily with the day of Halloween, or even the month. None of that (unless you want to). What I am thinking is examples like this: vampires, ghosts, witches, werewolves, shifters, immortals, urban legends, zombies, anything horror or paranormal related.

Sounds fun, right? I'm also going to be using it as an excuse to hopefully read some books that have been on my bookshelves for quite a while. Here's a list of books that I think fit in with the theme and from which I'll be picking my reads:

Rachel Vincent - Shifters series
L.J. Smith - Nightworld series
Rick Riordan - The Lightening Thief
Pittacus Lore - I Am Number Four
Jeremy De Quidt - The Toymaker
Darren Shan - The Vampire's Assistant
Derek Landy - Skullduggery Pleasant series
Claudia Gray - Evernight
Meg Cabot - Love You To Death & High Stakes
Alyson Noel - Shadowland
Jessica Verday - The Hollow
Stephenie Meyer - The Host
Various Authors - Buffy The Vampire Omnibus 1 & 2
Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl - Beautiful Creatures
John Connelly - The Book Of Lost Things
John Ajvide Lindqvist - Let The Right One In

I guess I could also include my re-read of the Harry Potter series too, but I'm not sure yet what I'll feel like reading, so I'll be choosing as I go along! I'm really hoping to finish 4 books, so that will be my aim for the weekend.

I'm really looking forward to this beginning, and hope some of you will also join in too :)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (25)

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through Books.

In the past week I read:

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone 4/5 - review (re-read)

At the moment I'm reading:

Christopher Stookey - Terminal Care

In the next week I hope to read:

Rosamund Lupton - Sister
Karen Rose - Don't Tell

In My Mailbox (22)

In My Mailbox is a meme created by The Story Siren, and sums up my past week in book purchases!

So this week I bought 2 books:

Jo Nesbo - The Snowman

The night the first snow falls a young boy wakes to find his mother gone. He walks through the silent house, but finds only wet footprints on the stairs. In the garden looms a solitary figure: a snowman bathed in cold moonlight, its black eyes glaring up at the bedroom windows. Round its neck is his mother’s pink scarf. Inspector Harry Hole is convinced there is a link between the disappearance and a menacing letter he received some months earlier. As Harry and his team delve into unsolved case files, they discover that an alarming number of wives and mothers have gone missing over the years. When a second woman disappears Harry’s suspicions are confirmed: he is a pawn in a deadly game. For the first time in his career Harry finds himself confronted with a serial killer operating on his turf, a killer who will drive him to the brink of insanity.

~~~~~

Rosamund Lupton - Sister

Nothing can break the bond between sisters...

When Beatrice gets a frantic call in the middle of Sunday lunch to say that her younger sister, Tess, is missing, she boards the first flight home to London. But as she learns about the circumstances surrounding her sister's disappearance, she is stunned to discover how little she actually knows of her sister's life - and unprepared for the terrifying truths she must now face.

The police, Beatrice's fiance and even their mother accept they have lost Tess but Beatrice refuses to give up on her. So she embarks on a dangerous journey to discover the truth, no matter the cost.

Character Inspired Outfits

I got this idea from Jillian over at Random Ramblings, after she posted her version of some character inspired outfits. I thought it seemed like a fun idea, so headed over to Polyvore to have a go myself and this is what I came up with. This is merely my interpretation to how I imagine certain characters might dress and the accessories they might have.

Hermione Granger (Harry Potter series)



Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter series)



Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games series)



Sookie Stackhouse (Southern Vampires series)



Bella Swan (Twilight Saga)



Clare Abshire (The Time Traveler's Wife)



Eve Rosser (Morganville Vampires series) - You can find the item links here.



Susie Salmon (The Lovely Bones)



Grace Brisbane (Wolves Of Mercy Falls trilogy)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (24)

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through Books.

In the past week I read:

James Dashner - The Maze Runner

At the moment I'm reading:

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone

In the next week I hope to read:

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter series (re-read)
Christopher Stookey - Terminal Care