Quickie Reviews

I have quite a stack of books that I’ve finished recently and just haven’t gotten around to talk about so here are some quickie reviews. A bit of a mixed bag but maybe you’ll find something here that you are interested in. And, let me know if you’ve read some of these. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

First is True Colors by Kristin Hannah. This family story is about the three Grey Sisters, Winona, Aurora and Vivi Ann. The three girls learned about the bonds of sisterhood when their mother died and they were left in the care of their father, a hard and demanding rancher. But as they grow up jealousies and misunderstandings threaten their relationships.

Winona has become a tough lawyer but still craves the approval of her father and resents how easy everything has come to her youngest sister, Vivi Ann. For Aurora, the role becomes of one of peacekeeper in the family but that’s not an easy job either.

There is certainly a lot of drama in this story and while I thought there were some good situations to explore the complexities that the author had set up, what I didn’t enjoy were the characters. I was expecting to root for at least one of them but there was a little bit too much whining for my tastes from one character in particular. So while this book wasn’t for me, maybe you’ll enjoy it.

Next up is a book I had to read after I saw a review of it on Kailana’s blog. Crank by Ellen Hopkins is the YA story of Kristina, who by all accounts seems like the perfect daughter, but on a visit to her father’s place a new, daring and more self-assured young woman emerges, Bree.

Her dad is not a good influence to say the least and neither is the guy Bree begins to meet. Through him she’s introduced to the monster, Crank. After Bree goes back to her home with her mom and step-dad nothing will be the same because all she’s interested in is scoring more of the drug to feel good.

I really liked this book a lot. I thought the author did a great job of building this hypnotic feel to it by having the novel all in verse and it really captures how Bree is not herself and there is something stronger than her making her take risks and taking her on a dangerous ride. The book also ends with a conclusion that just makes you want to read the next book soon.

Finally, there’s The Last Kashmiri Rose which I finished this weekend.

“Calcutta, 1922. Commander Joseph Sandilands of the Metropolitan Police was delighted to be going home. Delighted that his six months’ secondment from the Met to the Bengal Police should, at last, be at an end. He’d had enough India. He’d had enough heat. He’d had enough smells.”

But, Commander Sandilands won’t be leaving as soon as he thought because the young wife of an officer has died and while all signs point to suicide, there is reason to believe that this was murder. Inspector Sandilands begins his investigation and realizes he might be dealing with a case of serial murders that span decades.

You know, I was really expecting to really like this mystery and I liked the beginning but I didn’t like some other aspects, mainly the affair between the two main characters which I thought seemed a bit much given the time frame when this takes place and really didn’t seem to add much to the plot. Would I read another in the series? Maybe but not any time soon.

So that’s three for now and I’ve got a bunch more to tell you about but I’ll save those for another day.