Blood Ties by Sam Hayes

No. of pages: 392
Rating: 10/10

Synopsis: January 1992. A baby girl is left alone for a moment. Long enough for a mother to dash into a shop. Long enough for a child to be taken.

Thirteen years later, solicitor Robert Knight's stepdaughter wins a place at a prestigious London school for the gifted. The only puzzle is his wife Erin’s reaction. Why is she so reluctant to let Ruby go? Doesn't she want what's best for her? As Erin grows more evasive, Robert can’t help but feel she has something to hide, and when he stumbles on mysterious letters, he discovers she has been lying to him. Somewhere in his wife’s past lies a secret; a shocking secret that threatens to destroy everything…

Review: I find it incredibly hard to believe this is a debut novel, the writing is just so fantastic! Hayes knows exactly how to lead your thoughts in a certain direction, so you assume that you know how it's going to end, but then shocks you by giving you a completely different ending. The story is gripping right from the very start, and the various secrets that are revealed will stay with you long after you've finished it. I throughly enjoyed this book and will definitely be looking out for her new book, Unspoken.

Second Glance by Jodi Picoult

No. of pages: 478
Rating: 10/10

Synopsis: When a plot of land is being developed in Vermont against the will of a local Native American tribe, strange things begin to happen - and Ross Wakeman, a paranormal investigator, is asked to get involved. He's a desperate drifter who's taken up ghost hunting in an effort to cross paths again with his fiancee, who died in a car crash eight years ago, but he has yet to experience anything even remotely paranormal. Then Ross meets Lia . . . As a seventy-year-old murder case is reopened, a shocking secret about a crime of passion long past is revealed.

Review: Jodi Picoult is one of my favourite authors, but I find her books a little hit or miss sometimes. This book was definitely a hit, I thought it was a great book, and read it in 2 sittings because I just couldn't put it down. The story is about Ross, a ghost hunter looking for the spirit of his dead fiancee, he's basically given up on life, but then he stumbles into a situation that reminds him what living is all about. One thing I love about Picoult's books are how she takes numerous seperate stories and somehow threads them all together in the end, and she does that well in this book. A few things were a little predictable, but it doesn't take away from the story in any way.

The only thing that annoyed me slightly in this book, was the character that kept using big words from the dictionary that I didn't have a clue what they meant, and I just thought it was unnecessary really, unless the aim was to have people reading the book alongside a dictionary. But other than that the book was well written, and very easy to read. I enjoyed the supernatural aspect with the ghosts, and I liked how the story flowed well, with regards to the relationships developing. This is definitely one of the better Picoult books, and may just be a close favourite to My Sister's Keeper for me now.

Bringing Down The House: How Six Students Took Vegas For Millions by Ben Mezrich

No. of pages: 293
Rating: 8/10

Synopsis: Real-life all too rarely offers stories that are quite as satisfying as fiction. "Bringing Down the House" is one of the exceptions. Cheating in casinos is illegal; and card-counting - making a record of what cards have so far been dealt to enable the player to make some prediction of what cards remain in the deck - is not. But casinos understandably dislike the practice and make every effort to keep card-counters out of their premises. "Bringing Down the House" tells the true story of the most successful scam ever, in which teams of brilliant young mathematicians and physicists won millions of dollars from the casinos of Las Vegas, being drawn in the process into the high-life of drugs, high-spending and sex. "Bringing Down the House" is as readable and as fascinating as "Liar's Poker" or "Barbarians At the Gate", an insight into a closed, excessive and utterly corrupt world.

Review: I really enjoyed this book, it's fast paced and filled with plenty of drama to keep the pages turning. Mezrich's writing style is very casual and easy to read, and he keeps up a good pace through out the book. The story itself has been likened to Ocean's 11 and I can kind of see why, only this actually happened, which made it all the more gripping. I don't think I'd ever have the guts to pull of the stunts that their MIT group did, but they sure got their reward for it, with lots and lots of money. I also think it's amazing how they counted cards, whilst keeping up an act and chatting to people around them, and to do them convincingly, it just seems crazy. There was nothing really that I disliked about the book, I just marked it 4/5 because I've read better things this year, but I'd definitely recommend it, especially to people who have an interest in the Vegas or gambling lifestyle. I'd also recommend the film which is equally as good.

Life On The Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers

No. of pages: 226
Rating: 6/10

Synopsis: Mom, I went to the store. See inside the fridge. I watered the plants. I cleaned out Peter's cage. I tidied the sitting room. And the kitchen. And I did the washing up. I'm going to bed. Your live-in servant, Claire. "Life on the Refrigerator Door" is told exclusively through notes exchanged by Claire and her mother, Elizabeth, during the course of a life-altering year. Their story builds to an emotional crescendo when Elizabeth is diagnosed with breast cancer. Stunningly sad but ultimately uplifting, this is a clever, moving, and original portrait of the relationship between a daughter and mother. It is about how we live our lives constantly rushing, and never making time for those we love. It is also an elegy to how much can be said in so few words, if only we made the time to say them.

Review: I liked the style in which this book is written, as notes that have been left between a mother and her teenage daughter on the door of their refrigerator, although it's style makes it a very quick read. Obviously with the book consisting of just small notes, there's no real depth to the story, you don't know enough to become attached to the characters, and that's a shame, because people who are living through a bad situation with cancer could find this book a great comfort if it were more 'story-like'. But I do think there's a moral in this story, that we're so caught up with rushing through life that we never take a second just to slow down and talk to the ones we love, and how it's important to do that before it's too late. It's something I was glad to have read, but probably not something I'll pick up again.

Blue Diary by Alice Hoffman

No. of pages: 283
Rating: 7/10

Synopsis: Jorie and Ethan Ford are a golden couple blessed with an 11-year-old son, Collie, living a decent, quiet life in small-town Massachusetts. Ethan is a pillar of the community--a handsome, good man, whose life revolves around his family, his work as a carpenter and his roles as volunteer fireman and Little League coach. Since he first walked into her home-town, her life and her bed 13 years before, Jorie has never lost the feeling that she is special, singled out by fate to live a charmed life with a man she still desires and a son she adores. And then, on a glorious Monday morning in June, Jorie's fate turns and her life as she knows it is changed. One wonders whether the hand of fate will offer her any kind of salvation and if she can come to terms with the unimaginable.

Kat Williams, Collie's next-door neighbour and best friend is mature beyond her years. In her short life, she has had to cope with the loss of her father, a distant mother and a sister who attracts, and dispenses with, boyfriends as flies to a light, but who has taken to self-mutilation to heal her numbness. Is Kat the only one who can instinctively feel when something, or someone, is wrong? Charlotte, Jorie's best friend since childhood, knows when something is amiss, but her own terrible losses and lack of self-worth cause her to mistrust her feelings and internalise blame.

Review: This is a book that has me torn, I almost gave up on it after a few chapters as the writing style was just so different for me, Hoffman writes so descriptively it's almost enchanting, yet 3 sentences on how beautiful a flower looks is just not for me, yet I decided to push on and I'm glad I did as the story drew me in, almost against my will. The story seemed so real, Jorie not some perfect heroine, but a woman torn about forgiving her husband for the terrible thing he did. The relationships are really put across well, even with such a range of people, issues and emotions. I was very surprised at the ending, I expected it to go in a completely different direction, but after reading it, it was the perfect ending, and you're left feeling glad it ends the way it does.

I gave it a 3.5 because I really disliked the writing style, and it's a shame, because the story is actually a very good one. If there's such a thing as being too descriptive, this is it. I just found it very unnecessary really, it was just too fussy and I felt like it slowed down an already pretty slow moving story. But the characters are really well developed, and like I said the story is a good one, so I would recommend this to people who don't mind lots of descriptive writing.

The Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose

No. of pages: 465
Rating: 8/10
Series: The Reincarnationist (Book 1)

Synopsis: This is an epic thriller of secrets, history and murder. In Rome, 2007 AD: Witness to a suicide bombing, Josh Ryder walks away uninjured, but with a terrible gift: flashbacks to a past he doesn't recognise, in centuries he's never lived. When an ancient tomb is uncovered, a priceless relic is stolen. Realising the relic is connected to his strange memories, Ryder sets out to recover it. In Rome, 386 AD: Julius races to the burning Temple of Vesta to rescue one of the last Vestal Virgins, the High Priestess Sabina. So begins a love affair that will span the centuries as Sabina and Julius vow to protect a treasure that holds the secret of the afterlife. But danger is everywhere - in the past and in the present - and there are those who will stop at nothing to reveal the secret that could alter the course of human history forever...

Review: This is the first time I've read anything by this author, and she has a fantastic writing style, she really knows how to draw you into the story right from the first page. The story is fast paced and really interesting to read, flicking between modern day and ancient Rome, as Josh Ryder is experiencing flashbacks to his past life as Julias, a priest who is trying to escape persecution. The whole plot is about reincarnation, and Josh trying to prove it exists. The book switches between the past and the present very well, and it's easy to distinguish which period you're reading, and you become just as attached to Julius and Sabina as you do to Josh, if not more so!

There were two things I disliked about this book though, and that's why I've given it a 4/5. The first thing is the random introduction of another character who has flashbacks partway through the book. She just randomly appears and you almost feel like you've missed how she's a part of the story. The second thing was the ending. I hate it when endings are left open and the storyline is not completely wrapped up. Whilst you find out the full story of Julias and Sabina in the past, the story based in the present is just left open. You don't find out the ending to the biggest plot line, which I found kind of annoying.

So overall, I'd recommend this book if you like fast paced thrillers which flick between different times and storylines, however if like me, you like the story to be completely wrapped up, perhaps this isn't for you.