Reading Updates:

Right now I am slowly re-reading Gone With the Wind (I say slowly because I have a ton of books in my tbr pile that need to be read this month and I keep adding to that list). I am on page 323 and remembering exactly why I first fell in love with GWTW.

 

Today I plan on starting Killer Image by Wendy Tyson. I was approved for the second book in the Allison Campbell Mysteries series (Deadly Assets) so I went and bought the first one (Killer Image) to catch up.

 

Life Updates:

WIMBLEDON STARTED TODAY!! I love watching Wimbledon and it is on my bucket list to someday go there and watch in person. Back in my senior year of high school I had this plan that I would go to Wimbledon and Rafael Nadal would spot me in the stands and fall madly in love with me. While I now don't think that will happen, I can still dream and possibly even write a short story about it. I'll be obviously rooting for Nadal to win and also cheering for Andy Murray.

Delusional by Scott Spotson is a superior psychological thriller with paranormal overtones that simply swept this reader away with its fluent style and ingenious plot.
Businesswoman Patricia Fowler leads a dull mundane life until her boss, Paul Blast joins her in a hot tub. The chemistry is startling and immediate. But Paul is married so he's a no-go area. They become friends and workout together during breaks from the tedium.
The FBI are puzzled by art thefts that are perpetrated right under security's noses. The impossibility of the crimes leave them chasing their own tails.
Then Patricia's life unravels at the seams and all the stuffing spills out. The more she falls for Paul the more her mind becomes confused with dangerous hallucinations, physical attacks and delusions as a psychiatrist puts it. Her suffering is heart-rending and well fleshed out by the author.
This reader especially enjoyed the author's talent for relationships, the should we or shouldn't we situations, the concealed look of lovers' glance, a brief touch, a passionate kiss. Then the other side of the coin rips that apart with brutal beatings, attempted murder which brings in a PI. I loved that character and the detective added so much more to the story. But most of all it is the author's intricate weaving of seemingly unrelated characters and stories that captured my attention and the ending is a classic gasp, and I did gasp.
FIVE STARS go to this brilliant thriller of the psychological kind with a hefty dose of spookiness as in X-Files.

I'm not someone who's really big on New Year's resolutions.  They're mostly empty promises that we tell ourselves in an attempt to feel better about the future.  If I'm honest with myself, I did make a resolution of sorts this year, which is to find moments of happiness and think more positively.

 

Well, two days into 2014 and I'm ready to throw the whole positive thinking goal to the wind.  While reading Attachments I quickly went into my nit-picky mode of negative thinking and couldn't let myself enjoy the unfolding love story, which was a little bit on the side of creepy (but I will get to that in a moment).  I am who I am and I cannot turn off my inner critic. 

 

Attachments, like Rowell's other books, is a quirky and well-written story.  I've enjoyed reading Rowell's other works because the characters are distinct and she tells their stories with a wonderful sense of lightness and humor.  To some degree, this is true of Attachments as well.  The one reason I will give this book any praise is due to Beth and Jennifer's friendship.  Their e-mail exchanges were hilarious, poignant, and sometimes downright heartbreaking.  I loved their friendship infinitely more than the romance, which was downright strange.

 

Which brings me to Lincoln O'Neill, the 28 year old IT guy whose job it is to read company e-mails that are flagged as inappropriate and report them to the proper authorities.  While working, Lincoln starts reading e-mails written by Jennifer and Beth that are flagged as inappropriate, but he enjoys reading them and eventually falls in love with Beth.  He can't bring himself to stop snooping and report Jennifer and Beth for breaking company policy.

 

While I like a good love story, this one didn't work for me.  It isn't cute in a You've Got Mail kind of way.  Lincoln is a reclusive young man who lives with his mother by choice even though he has a self-supporting income, he's so intelligent he has multiple master's degrees, and he spends the majority of his free time with his gamer friends playing "Dungeons and Dragons."  He is a NERD, which in itself isn't bad.  However, he's also completely oblivious to the fact that he is attractive beyond belief and "built," and he basically cyberstalks two women under the pretense that this is a part of his job.

 

No, just no.

 

For one thing, Lincoln can't be that oblivious to his own attractiveness.  While I believe it is perfectly realistic for men to be insecure about their appearance, I've never met a man who is hot and didn't know it.  It doesn't make one iota of sense.

 

What really annoyed me about this book, however, is the overall message of love.  It's the idea that no matter how weird or eccentric someone is, the ONE still exists for them and is waiting to be found.  When love doesn't lead to marriage, then this means the relationship is lesser and something better exists if you're willing to take a chance and seek it out.

 

Case in point: Beth has been dating her college boyfriend for years and knows he never wants to get married.  When he finally verbalizes this to Beth, he automatically becomes a douchebag asshole.  How dare he love her for who she is, but not want to marry her????  While the boyfriend's explanation and timing was less than tactful, I actually felt bad for the guy.  He was probably the most honest character in the book, but is portrayed as a selfish jerk because he doesn't want marriage or a traditional relationship. 

 

My rant may seem like I am against marriage, but this isn't the case at all.  I believe in marriage and want that for myself one day, but I am also okay with being single and don't believe for one second that my happiness is contingent on marriage.  I would rather be in a relationship with someone who knows who he is but can sometimes be a jerk (you know, a real person) than someone like Lincoln, a creepy stalker nerd with an unhealthy attachment to his mother who is insecure about everything and knows nothing about who he is or what he wants to do with his life.

 

Attachments is a solid and entertaining novel, but I clearly didn't fall in love with Lincoln like so many other readers. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tl;dr A pretty good story overall, but it dragged at times and was a little wordy. 

This is my first ever book review request! Quite exciting, and I must say I do love getting these requests!! Sorry it took so long to write it :( Boo holidays. Anyways. 

So overall this was a pretty enjoyable book. The beginning was a little difficult to get into though. We start out meeting Patricia while she is swimming at the gym on her lunch break. It seems like even though she is a successful woman, all she can think about it getting a man. 

So I wasn't too fond of that beginning for our main character, but thats just me. Then, when we're meeting Paul for the first time at the hot tub, it got a little too wordy. Too clinical. Like, you don't need to go into in depth detail about how "this dude is clearly fit and there are hints of muscle under his stomach which is not super defined but still fit, but has a pooch when he bends over." 

 

You gotta leave unimportant details like that to the imagination. Short and sweet and to the point. But once you get past this part, the story is pretty good. A mysterious jewel heist going on simultaneously with the love story helped keep it from getting too obsessive about Patricia's new crush in the beginning. I really enjoyed the supernatural elements to it, though I was they had been explained a little bit better than they were. Overall an interesting story and an enjoyable read!

This is a bewitching thriller - an adventure, a love triangle, and a mystery all in one. The pace is good and the characters are individuals we can all relate to. i was spellbound.