Cole has moved back to his hometown with the best friends of a lifetime.  Now that he is here, however, finding someone to appreciate him as he is may prove difficult.  Until he gets the surprise he never saw coming.

Aiden has grown up with Cole, though he has family problems of his own.  Making a name for himself by going out on his own with his bar - he takes chances others won't.  Then one night he takes the riskiest change yet.

These men are so good together it is almost too sweet for words.  I love the comraderies and friendships that bring humor, love, and joy in this story.  The heat is also turned all the way up as the unexpected sparks and keeps the fire burning bright.  Could not finish this one fast enough.  I give this a 5/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

April May discovered a scripture and she considered it pop-art. She called her friend Andy to make a video of it, thinking it is an art piece.

Turned out there are many similar incidents and her video is a the first one posted. So she become an Internet celebrity. She wanted to own this thing and used this as a opportunity to have a voice. Andy's father is a lawyer and they are started to earn for the video footage. Then she did something else, she discovered a code. Following the clue, she do something else and activate part of the statue. She also started dreaming of puzzles and found many people are doing the same thing.

This is about a robot and how we deal with being sudden celebrity. Hank did a really good job in dealing with that part.

TITLE:  The Thing About Jellyfish

AUTHOR:  Ali Benjamin

________________________

DESCRIPTION:

"After her best friend dies in a drowning accident, Suzy is convinced that the true cause of the tragedy must have been a rare jellyfish sting--things don't just happen for no reason. Retreating into a silent world of imagination, she crafts a plan to prove her theory--even if it means traveling the globe, alone. Suzy's achingly heartfelt journey explores life, death, the astonishing wonder of the universe...and the potential for love and hope right next door."

_________________________

REVIEW:

A well-written but sad book about loss and growing up, with a plethora of interesting facts about jellyfish.

by R.J. Barker

This one starts out a little 'bitty', with quotes and false starts before the prologue, which itself is separated in time from the story that begins in chapter one.

To be honest, it was a slog. I wanted to DNF it every time I picked it up. It seemed to have trouble deciding what genre it is and the overlay of Dickens' Great Expectations (one of my favourite stories of all time) didn't really work. It felt very contrived and I would have given up when Miss/Mrs Oliver gave Jack her speech in the graveyard except that I always finish books I've requested from Netgalley, even when they're painful.

The sentence structure was fine, the problems were in dialogue and plot. The sort of scifi sequences with some mysterious entity observing could have been left out altogether and improved the story as well as shaving off some over long filler.

The characters themselves, while not evoking sympathy, were at least defined personalities but Jack himself was pretty wet and the naming of many of them again I felt insulted Dickens. Still, the book seems to have a lot of good reviews so maybe it just has its audience.

This will be a short review. This novel was awesome. It took my breath away at times at how good it was. I do have to say though that parts of it dragged, (why I gave it 5 stars and did not favorite it) and I totally figured out who the serial killer was at 30 percent which was a slight letdown since I like to be surprised. I also felt like Connolly shoved two separate stories together into this one novel. I'm not mad at it, but it was a lot to digest in one sitting. This book haunts you all the way through up through the ending. I loved the characters of Charlie, Angel, and Louis. Connolly does a great job of capturing New York, New Orleans, and other locations in this one. You feel the weight of the dead through the whole book and one wonders how Charlie will go on after this. 

"Every Dead Thing" follows ex-detective Charlie Parker. Charlie (otherwise known as Bird) comes home one night after getting drunk to find his wife and young daughter murdered by a serial killer called "The Traveling Man." Charlie disappeared to reemerge and start chasing down jail skips. Doing one of these leads him to wind up in the middle of a mysterious case where a wealthy widow wants Charlie to look up a young woman (Catherine Demeter) that her stepson was involved with. Charlie is also getting calls from "The Traveling Man" and is hell-bent on tracking the killer down. 

Charlie travels from Virginia and back to New York looking for Catherine. He feels himself pulled to her backstory and wanting to keep her safe. Charlie though finds out about a little town and the secrets that they hid. While doing that the Traveling Man taunts Charlie which has him going to New Orleans to track the killer down. He gets aided by a couple of criminals and a profiler (I guess I can call her that) that makes him wonder about a future.

I have to say the ending was wonderfully done though I guessed the serial killer. This book does feel dated at times (it was published in 1999) but it wasn't enough to ruin my enjoyment though.