Sickness sucks!

Due to unforeseen circumstances, or rather due to an injury, I am unable to sit for long periods of time at a computer. That being said I am reading a lot and will post reviews when I get a chance to type them up. I am sorry. I have a back log of them to post. :(

Eyes Of Prey (Lucas Davenport #3) by John Sandford

Title: Eyes of Prey
Author: John Sandford
Series: Lucas Davenport
Published: 1992
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 358

Synopsis: Lucas Davenport is depressed. He deals with it by charging full speed into a death investigation when a wife is murdered. He ends up in a cat and mouse game where he knows the husband had something to do with it, but can he prove it?

This case was crazy. I love the cat and mouse and knowing that Bekker was involved, but not really knowing how that could be. The Bekker character was scary as hell. His "beauty" side was the scariest aspect to a person I have ever read. Lucas being depressed is not a shocker really, but a good thing to see in him as it makes him actually seem more like a human and less like an asshole. This seems a lot more like a character development in Lucas than about the killings. I will say that Druze and Bekker were good adversaries and it was very worth reading. I did not see the ending coming at all either.

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Shadow Prey (Lucas Davenport #2) by John Sandford

Title: Shadow Prey
Author: John Sandford
Series: Lucas Davenport #2
Published: 1990
Genre: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 342

Synopsis: A small band of American Indians have started a vendetta against the white men that have oppressed them. They are ceremonially killing them with a stone knife. Lily Rothenburg comes from New York and works with Lucas and it all gets interesting. Can Lucas outsmart Shadow Love and his band of crows.

I am going to start this review by saying that I do NOT like Lily. I had reservations about Jennifer in the first book and this one didn't make me like her anymore. Lucas is only making me like him a little more. This book was pretty fascinating, and I loved it. I love reading this series as it takes place in the city I grew up in. Shadow Love was a sick individual and what he did in the end was crazy. I am liking this series. This one was a little on the obnoxious side with Lily and Lucas though.

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The Undertaker's Daughter by Kate Mayfield

Title: The Undertaker's Daughter
Author: Kate Mayfield
Published: January 13th 2015
Genre: Memoir, Nonfiction
Pages: 350

Synopsis: What if you grew up in a funeral home? This book takes you on the journey of a little girl who grew up in the 50s and 60s in a funeral home in the south. It was the first home she ever knew, and a fascinating story.

This was a fairly fascinating story of life in the 60s and into the 70s in Jubilee, Kentucky. Kate lived in a world where she knew about tragedy and loss before most even thought about it. Reading about her secretly dating black kids and breaking the rules. It was fascinating to read about her life and how she dealt with it, and reading about how the vision of her father was shattered when she found out things she didn't know about him. Also reading about her sister Evelyn and her bipolar disorder before they knew about, or diagnosed it was crazy. Her sister holding her at knife point and threatening to kill her little sister. It was all very interesting and I recommend it.

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The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson

Title: The Bookseller
Author: Cynthia Swanson
Published: March 3rd 2015
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 338

Synopsis: A woman who owns a bookstore keeps having dreams about another life where her life went drastically different. In her daily world she is alone and lives with her cat, in her dream world she is married and has three kids. But, which world is real?

Very interesting book and well worth reading if you like Historical Fiction. I am a little saddened by the reality that won out, but not entirely surprised. I love Kitty or Katharyn and loved her and her partner in the bookshop Freida; in fact I loved Freida a little more than I liked Kitty if I am honest. I feel a little lukewarm on this one, but it's a little more chick lit than I normally read.

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Unforeseen Circumstances.

I will not be posting a review every day. I will be posting as many as I can, but I have had some health issues that have taken president over my reading and whatnot. I will be posting as many as I have ready and the scheduled ones will post, but I have to take care of my health first.

Thank you for understanding.

Rules of Prey (Lucas Davenport #1) by John Sandford

Title: Rules Of Prey
Author: John Sandford
Series: Lucas Davenport
Published: 1989
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 479

Synopsis: Introducing Lucas Davenport in the first book in a giant series. Meet that "maddog" murderer and he is hunting women in the twin cities. The two face off in a cat and mouse chase.

The "maddog" killer is a very good foe and makes an intriguing subject. His victims are "The Chosen" and he is "The One". I have to admit that I am not a giant fan of Lucas. Well, not initially. I have a huge problem liking men who are womanizers, and Lucas is a big one. I love the writing style and while it felt a little long, it was all for the good of the story. I can tell you that I didn't like Jennifer at all. There is something about her that is annoying as hell to me. Maybe it's her cutthroat attitude or something, but I can't stand her and I don't see why Lucas would be with her, except that he is also a bit of an asshole, so it makes sense.

Rating:

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Eat Slay Love (Living with the Dead #3) by Jesse Petersen

**Warning: might have small spoilers, proceed with caution**

Title: Eat Slay Love
Author: Jesse Petersen
Series: Living With the Dead
Published: July 2011
Genre: Horror, Urban Fantasy, Zombies, Romance
Pages: 277

Synopsis: In this final installment we see Sarah and David trying to get to the "Wall". Dave has some weird abilities that are worrisome and then run into a reported with an ulterior motive and a hapless rocker junkie who is more zoned out than the zombies around them. They hope they can make it to the wall and will be able to enter the safe zone. That is, if there is one.


This wasn't too bad. It was not as good as the first one, which had it's own charm. I love the aspects of them running into more crazy people and finally getting to their destination. David and Sarah are still together and still alive, well mostly. I think that Nicole is a tad annoying but otherwise a good addition to the story. I am sincerely not sure why McCray was in the story and I wanted to punch him the entire time. The commentary of them getting to the wall and finding out the government is being a giant cover-up machine should be no surprise to anyone. Kathleen was a breath of fresh air that came in almost too late. Not a bad finish for the series, but it fell a little flat in the end. She has some great lines and quips, but as the series goes on I like Sarah less and less. That shouldn't happen in a series. To each their own I guess.

Favorite Quote: "Savor your own good life. Or even just life in general. Especially when the zombies are coming" (Chapter title on page 52)

Rating:

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AsapScience by Mitchell Moffitt, Greg Brown

Title: AsapSCIENCE: Answers to the Word's Weirdest Questions, Most Persistent Rumors, and Unexplained Phenomena
Author: Mitchell Moffitt, Greg Brown
Published: March 2015
Genre: Nonfiction
Pages: 256 Pages

Synopsis: Answers to random scientific questions from guys who run a YouTube channel.

This is a very good book if you are scientifically inclined. They don't beat around the bush and admit when they don't know an answer. Everything from why we get a brain freeze, to if it hurts worse to give birth or get kicked in the balls. Honestly many questions you always wanted to know the answers to, and even some questions you may have never thought to ask.

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Cat Out Of Hell by Lynne Truss

Title: Cat Out Of Hell
Author: Lynne Truss
Published: March 3rd 2015
Genre: Fiction, Horror, Fantasy
Pages: 256

Synopsis: For people who both love and hate cats comes the tale of Alec Charlesworth, a librarian who finds himself suddenly alone: he’s lost his job, his beloved wife has just died. Overcome by grief, he searches for clues about her disappearance in a file of interviews between a man called "Wiggy" and a cat, Roger. Who speaks to him.

What the actual hell did I just read. I am not sure what to say about this book. I had trouble getting into it because the formatting was weird to me and I think I just couldn't get into it. Maybe you can make heads or tails of it, but my mom had a similar reaction.


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Silver Screen Fiend by Patton Oswalt

Title: Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film
Author: Patton Oswalt
Published: January 6th 2015
Genre: Nonfiction
Pages: 240

Synopsis:

I have no idea what I actually read. I mean I get his love of film and that it was a great period in his life, but still I am not sure what that was about. I think that most that I really got out of this was the bit about the Night Cafe. That was what made reading this entire book worthwhile. I loved the entire section on the night cafe and it was a very good and what I needed right now. Sometimes you have a book come along that you don't realize the potential it has until you read it and when you read it you think it's bad. I loved it.

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Welcome to the new White Shark Book Reviews!

This is the relaunch of this website! I have finally gotten it ready and it is open for business. Everyday for the mighty month of June we will be posting a review a day. Each day of the week will have a theme that goes with it.

Schedule:

• Monday: Memoir Mondays. Books that are memoirs or biographies.
• Tuesday: Tome Tuesdays. Books that are fiction of any flavor.
• Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday. Anything goes in any genre.
• Thursday: Teenage Thursdays. Young adult books.
• Friday: Freaky Fridays. Books in the paranormal or horror genres.
• Saturday: Series Saturdays. I will be reading a series in order.
• Sunday: Sentimental Sunday. Books that are historical fiction.

I hope you enjoy and come back more often!

Now relaunching on June 1st!

This blog will be officially relaunching on June 1st. You will notice changes to it if you stop by before then, but it will be ready on June 1st.

New features or changes you will likely notice (unless I change my mind):

• Making new banner and buttons
• Changing the formatting of the reviews.
• Probably a new logo.
• New graphics for the ratings.
• New ratings explanation page.
• New about me page.
• Separate FAQ Page.
• Review pages list will separated into fiction, nonfiction and young adult.
• Updating the look of twitter and Facebook page.

There could be more, but that is the basic. Also I will begin posting reviews new reviews to the website starting the day of the relaunch. 

Pushing back the relaunch...

I am pushing back the relaunch of this site mainly so I can work on graphics and the like. I am working on queuing up book reviews that I have already written so they will post on a regular schedule. Just give me a week or so and I will update as I am closer to ready.

I will post when I have a better idea of when I will be done.

Relaunching May 15th!

I am going to be relaunching this blog to try and make it bigger and better. I will be changing the look and feel of the blog, as well as some of the content.

My aim here is to make it a nicer looking blog with easy to use features and integrate it with several other sites such as my personal and writing blogs and various social media pages.

My bigger goal is to make book reviews easier to follow, more informational and give you a better look into the books themselves and how I feel about them. I can't guarantee that you will like the new reviews, but I am trying to do my reviews more justice and help you more as a book reader.

Please follow me on my journey as I begin posting new book blogs in the middle of May and have everything updated by then.

I am also debating a name change, but we'll see about that one.

Oh My Goth

by Gena Showalter

This was a cute story and I loved it. It was sort of like freaky friday only with virtual reality instead of magic. I loved Jade and her friends and it must have been weird to see everyone in a town dressed as goths.

I think that as a young adult title this is pretty good. The end was predictable and should not surprise anyone. I would recommend it, especially if you need to try and get a message across to someone you know that needs to be nicer to people different from themselves.

My rating:

A Short Guide to a Long Life

by David B. Agus, MD

This is a short and concise guide to things you should bear in mind for your health. It is very simple and well worth reading. This is definitely a guide that you would want to have around and make it so you can grab it as your body changes.

My Rating:

Hitler's Furies

by Wendy Lower

This was a very good book. It was better in the beginning. For some reason I had trouble finishing it, but the information was good and well put together. Some of the atrocities in this book perpetrated by women are incredibly hard to believe, even if you consider the time and location. It is also pretty insane that they got away with it as much as they did because their crimes were generally overlooked. It makes me want to know more about this seemingly hidden part of history.

My Rating:

The Goddess Test

by Aimee Carter

I loved this book. It was an easy read and I think this is one of the first retellings of Mythology with Gods and Goddesses that I have read in ages. I liked Kate and how she just is in the general sense. I am not sure where this series is going in the next few books but I thought it was lovely and I would recommend it if you asked me about it.

My Rating:

What Does The Fox Say?

by Ylvis, Christian Løchstøer, Svein Nyhus (Illustrations) 

I am sorry but this is one of the cutest things ever. I love the illustrations and the fact that they made a book out of this is also more funny than it should be. I really loved it. If I have kids I would share this with them. I want to share this with all my family and friends because they all love this song in one capacity or another. Why does this make me laugh so hard?

My Rating:

A New Year, A Few Small Changes

So I have made a few small changes on the site. They are listed below.

First off I am making the book covers a little smaller in the reviews.
Secondly I am making a schedule for posting books because I would like to post on a regular basis.
Third I changed the background and am changing a little of the content.
Lastly I will be doing a few new things around here that you may enjoy like blog tours and interviews.

I would always love feedback from you and if you have any insight I have a new e-mail for this website that is for contacting me if you want to talk or have me read your book. It is whitesharkbookreviews@yahoo.com. Please feel free to contact me for any reason.

Enjoy my fellow readers and sharks!
-Amy

Etoile (Mannequin, #1)

by Olivia Best

*I was given a free a copy of this book for a fair and honest review.*

I will start this review by saying that this isn't a genre that I read very often, but I thought I would give it a chance. I really couldn't get into this book. The characters were flat to me and the story and sex scenes were just not that interesting to me.

I liked the opening with Etolie and her being found and whatnot but it just went downhill from there and the stereotypes grew to the point of being annoying. I finished reading it, but I had to put it down about 16 times just to get it done.

My Rating:

Judge Dredd: Year One

by Matt Smith, Simon Coleby

* I won a copy of this on netgalley.com in exchange for an unbiased review*

I don’t really know a lot about this comic series and I loved this. It was beautifully drawn and the story was amazing. It was a little hard to read on my computer in the format they provided it in, so it too several days to read it which made me sad. Overall I just loved it.

My Rating:

Theocracide

by James Wymore

*I was given a free copy of this book from netgalley.com for a fair and unbiased review*

I am not really sure what to say about this one. It was great, but I was rushed in reading it and feel that meant I did not get to enjoy it as much as I otherwise would have. It was fairly simple to read and I enjoyed it a lot, but I wish I didn’t have to read it in a rush. I would recommend it to those who love stories in this genre.

My Rating:

Fat Girl

by Carlos Batts

* I won a copy of this on netgalley.com in exchange for an unbiased review*

I will start by saying that this book was not what I expected it to be. I expected it to be a celebration of being a bigger woman. What I got was pornography and snippets into the life of one April Flores. Not that I am complaining, and some of the photos were nice, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. You’ve got to love the devotion of a man to his woman though.

My Rating: