Compared to the book I read before this, I have to say that the blurb that accompanies this book dramatically undersells it. Honestly, looking at it now I cannot imagine what inspired me to choose this from NetGalley, but I am certainly glad I did. I understand that this is a YA title, but for people like me who actually lived through the 80s, this is a fond trip down memory lane. I especially loved that the novel was written entirely in “letters” sent back and forth between the two protagonists; letters that have a date on top, and acknowledge things like crossing in the mail, instead of the to-the-minute time stamp of an ordinary email. Do YA readers even understand this? Ink, paper, stamps, envelopes, all of it? As someone who still has letters from her siblings, parents and friends sent during college, I hope that they at least have a sense of it. The letters here come in a range of sizes — from the dashed off note to the long, meandering, angsty questions that only a college student can ask.

 

I loved every cheesy detail of this book (especially the title origin), and it made me laugh, out loud, embarrassingly. The characters were clever and endearing, and even though the plot sometimes crossed the line of believability, it did not take away from my enjoyment. If you are a Rainbow Rowell fan (of any age), this book will have a place on your shelf. And if you aren’t (wait, really, you’re not?) try it anyway. Don’t read the blurb, just trust me.  

Copied and pasted from my review on GR:

 

A historical look at the Super Outbreak of tornadoes that hit the south/mid-west on April 3, 1974 as seen through the eyes of those living in Limestone County, Alabama.

The story is choppy, with many different people profiled from just prior to the thunderstorms through to the recovery and clean up phases of the storm. It is really hard in the beginning 25% of this book to keep everyone straight in the reader's head. There is a great story here, but too much excess on politics, the end of Vietnam, and national news (such as the oil crisis) suffocates the tornadoes story. The long science lecture on how thunderstorms and tornadoes are made I could have done without; it slowed down the story considerably. Likewise, the chapter on the different disasters happening that same year was a snooze.

I did enjoy the side journey of Mr. Fujuita, the scientist whose life-long work gave us untold information about tornadoes - this side journey eventually crossed into the story of April 3, 1974, making the two stories cohesive. The story is at times gory, with descriptions of injuries; if you are sensitive to those things, please take heed. There are descriptions of children dying and recovery of dead children.

I'm still glad I read this book, as it gave me an understanding to how natural disasters were handled before the 1990s introduction of disaster prevention and response and the birth of the Emergency Management career field.

Book: Stone Cold – Iron Tornadoes #1
Author: Olivia Rigal
Publication Date: 3/31/2014
Reviewed by: Tammy Payne- Book Nook Nuts
My Rating: 5 Stars


REVIEW
David Mayfield is a cop who is killed in the line of duty or is he?
Lisa is away in New York when she gets word that her brother has died. She heads back to Florida to be with her mom and her the man who she has loved all her life and her brothers best friend Brian turns out to be apart of a motorcycle club and not the good cop she always thought he became.

Lisa tries to find out what happened to her brother but she is getting no where as everyone including the police chief who is now dating her mom is so closed lipped. She does know the attraction she has always had for Brian is still there but after the funeral and wedding she is headed back to New York.

What is going on? Will Lisa ever find out?

I enjoyed this very short story and wish it had been much longer.
I will be looking to read more of this series.

I was gifted this book for my honest review.
I have finally had a chance to read and review it.. I wish now it hadn't taken me so long.

[a:Olivia Rigal|7278618|Olivia Rigal|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1386427473p2/7278618.jpg]

After completing , I was not sure what I was going to write in my review.
It took me quite some time to really put my thoughts on paper. When I first read the blurb I thought to myself, this sounds very exciting and as such I could not wait to sink my teeth into this book.

The premise was good, but for some reason I just could not connect with the main characters. The story did not pull me in as I expected it to. I continued reading because there were questions that I needed answers to, but unfortunately it was not to be. Guess I will have to wait for the second book in the series to have these burning questions answered.

Stone Cold tells the story of Lisa, a law student who was forced to forgo her internship due to her having to return home to take care of funeral arrangements for her brother, David, who was killed in the line of duty. She was determined to find out how he died and who was responsible for his death.

In the midst of grieving for her brother, she comes face to face with Brian, her brother’s best friend and her first love. The chemistry between them was quite intense, however Lisa became wary of him when she found out he is a member of the notorious motorcycle gang the Iron Tornadoes,The writer decided to get things more heated by introducing Ernest a police officer who was likewise drawn to Lisa. I can’t wait to see the route this love triangle is going to take.

There is not much I can say without giving away the story so I would recommend that you get yourself a copy. For me this was an ok read, it took me less than two hours to complete, because
1. It was very short
2. I so badly wanted to see the direction the author was taking.

DISCLOSURE: I RECEIVED A COMPLIMENTARY COPY IN EXCHANGE FOR A HONEST REVIEW.

Taken from www.books2day.com: 

 

 

Did you know that racial diversity was a significant part of speculative fiction? Apparently the news media is just figuring this out a hundred years after Burroughs introduced us to green-skinned martians. Oh wait, we’re talking just here on earth? That’s different. Here’s an article from LA Times (which actually has a pretty good regular section on comics and science fiction) on the emergence of African-American authors and readers. Apparently they’ve been around a while, but no one really noticed before. So typical. http://herocomplex.latimes.com/books/beyond-game-of-thrones-exploring-diversity-in-speculative-fiction/#/0

 

Adding to the overcrowded list of “coming of age” stories are these ten new books for the teen market. The stories are aimed at helping the delicate flowers to understand the world around them and emerge unscathed as snarky 20-somethings. Many parents are learning the hard way that the Brits have the right idea of sending kids off to school until they reach 21, at which point they can make their own way. If you have a teen who actually reads books, here are some suggestions for summer. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2013/06/10/10-coming-of-age-novels-for-summer/

 

If you are you are out of bookshelf space and want to make your room look even more cluttered, now you can buy wallpaper with Penguin Library covers from Osborne & Little, purveyors of fine wall coverings. I would have hoped the selection of books would be more appealing, but they decided to go with the standard imprint look from the past that they describe as “iconic.” Honestly I think just plain “ick” would describe it just as well, but what do I know.

 

Do you like film noir? Do you like gritty detective stories with lots of twists and turns and hard-hitting action? Do you like cute little animals as characters? You can have it all with these three new graphic novels. Using anthropomorphic (say that three times fast) animals in human roles has been around a long time. Disney, for one, built an entire entertainment empire around talking animals, and of course many earlier examples exist from authors like Lewis Carroll (who was actually Charles Dodgson) and Kenneth Grahame. Now the animals take on a darker tone and solve crimes in an interesting twist on two old themes. http://www.npr.org/2013/06/09/189300048/badger-bunny-and-black-cat-blues-3-tales-of-animal-noir

 

Banning things that it deems harmful has been something the US Government has been doing for much longer than the past few decades. According to this article the government banned the word “tornadoes” from weather reports from 1883 until the 1950s because it was believed that reaction to the word would cause more panic and harm than the weather itself. I will avoid modern comparisons, but this is a pretty good review of books on tornadoes for anyone wanting to know what the Midwest has been experiencing lately. http://www.boston.com/arts/books/2013/06/08/selected-books-tornadoes/MUW20TuS32OOY6Ny7qe4AL/story.html

 

Gartner Research analyst Andrea Di Maio discusses one of my favorite topics: the demise of print books and the rise of e-books. He talks about a recent online conversation he had (in Italian) with author Umberto Eco, who claims e-books will never replace print. Di Maio mentions the experience of visiting a bookstore and how, with e-books, people can no longer see what others are reading while out in public. The debate will continue for some time, so here are some points for your next cocktail party discussion. http://blogs.gartner.com/andrea_dimaio/2013/06/09/the-dark-side-of-e-books/