The Running Bibliophile

Mind Game  is the twenty-second book in Iris Johansen’s Eve Duncan series and focuses on Jane MacGuire, Eve Duncan’s adopted daughter. Jane is on a quest to find a treasure buried centuries ago by a woman named Cira near a lake in Scotland. At the same time, she begins having vivid dreams about a girl who seems to be in danger. As the story unfolds, Jane tries to determine whether the girl is real and whether she can somehow save her. I was fortunate to receive an Advance Readers Copy (ARC) of Mind Game by Iris Johansen through a Goodreads giveaway. I received it for free in exchange for my honest review, which gave me the opportunity to read the book ahead of its official release and share my thoughts with other readers. It’s always exciting to receive a book this way, and it made reviewing Mind Game even more enjoyable knowing I could provide an honest perspective before the book hit shelves. This is only the second book I’ve read by Iris Johansen, and the other one I read wa...

Cover Girl (Sweet Dreams, #9) by Yvonne Greene is the ninth installment in the popular Sweet Dreams teen romance book series, published by Bantam Books. This installment follows high school junior Renee as she embarks on a new adventure in the world of high fashion modeling in New York City. Signed by a modeling agency, Renee begins booking modeling jobs almost immediately. But there’s a catch ... she keeps her burgeoning modeling career a secret from her boyfriend, Greg, who has strong opinions about girls who wear makeup and read fashion magazines, just like his sister. The central question of the story is whether Greg will be supportive once he discovers Renee’s secret life or if it will end their relationship. While the premise of Cover Girl is intriguing, there were a few elements that made it difficult for me to fully enjoy the book. First, Greg’s behavior felt overly controlling, even for a teenage character. He criticizes Renee’s appearance when she wears makeup and insi...

Growing up, I remember being fascinated by a teen romance book series called Sweet Dreams , published by Bantam Books. Each book in the series was mostly a standalone story featuring different characters and was written by a variety of authors. Like many long-running teen series, the books were hit-or-miss when it came to character development and plot, especially in the earlier installments. Some stories felt predictable, while others were surprisingly engaging, but the series as a whole left a lasting impression on teenage readers. As a kid, finding these books was its own little adventure. They weren’t readily available at my local bookstores, and it seemed like the only place I could reliably get my hands on them was at school book fairs, a source of constant frustration for a young reader craving her next romance. While the internet existed, online shopping hadn’t yet become widespread, so hunting down books online wasn’t really an option at the time. As an adult, curiosity got ...

A bit different from the ten previous books in the Stephanie Plum Series, Eleven On Top by Janet Evanovich is by far my favorite one by far . . . at least as of right now. The main character, Stephanie Plum, is a bounty hunter and has finally decided that she has had enough danger in her life. Stephanie quits on her cousin Vinnie, who runs the bails bonds office she works for in Trenton, New Jersey. As luck would have it, danger follows Stephanie from job to job, so Ranger offers her a desk job at his security company called Rangeman. I think one of the reasons I liked Eleven On Top so much is because it was changed up a bit from Stephanie always getting into the comical, over the top situations as a bounty hunter. Another reason is that Janet Evanovich is finally revealing more information on Ranger and making him seem more like a person. We also get to see Joe's personality a bit more and see how much he really does love Stephanie. He doesn't seem like such an...

In an effort to meet my reading challenge on Goodreads.com, Second Best created by Francine Pascal is one of four books I read in the Sweet Valley Twins book series. It is the sixteenth book in the series.  Growing up, these books targeted kids eight years old up to twelve years old and in third grade through seventh grade. However, I think they have changed the target ages to younger age groups because children are learning to read much earlier and growing up a lot faster than when I was kid. Second Best (Sweet Valley Twins #16) deals with seventh grader Dylan McKay feeling like he is second best to his younger brother Tom McKay, who is in the sixth grade. Tom is the popular kid who does well at everything he does . . . making friends, playing sports, and getting good grades. When Dylan learns that he hasn't been invited to Kimberly Haver 's party, but his brother has, Dylan decides to run away. The first thing I have to mention that I never noticed until I ...

I belong to a couple of book clubs, and one of them reads a bit of everything. It's this book club that chose It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover as one of three book selections for the December Book Club Meeting. Normally, we only have two selections, and we can choose to read one of them or both of them. I decided to go with the aforementioned book because it takes place in Boston, Massachusetts, and Boston is one of my favorite cities to visit. With that being said, I wasn't too sure I'd like this book because we had read another one of Colleen Hoover's books, and it was just okay. Anyways, despite the heavy topics in It Ends With Us , I ended up loving the book. Topics included spousal abuse, accidental death by gun, and homelessness. It does include some graphic scenes, so it may be too upsetting for people to read if they've gone through any of this in their life. At the very end of the novel, the Collen Hoover explains that the book is semi-autobiograph...

Back in October, my local library system, which has 16 libraries throughout the county, had their semi-annual book sale where all proceeds help the library system. I was originally supposed to be in Nashville for the weekend but had to cancel my plans at the last minute, so I decided to go to the library sale instead. Browsing through the books, I came across a book that I loved in middle school called Horseback Summer (Horse Crazy # 1) by Virginia Vail. I didn't even hesitate, I grabbed the book and bought it for old times sake. Now if I can only get my hands on the rest of the series! There was some drama in my neighborhood earlier this week and knowing that there might be some additional drama tonight, I decided I needed to read something that wouldn't be too dramatic or to difficult to read. It was a perfect time to read Horseback Summer (Horse Crazy # 1) . As I began, it was exactly as I remembered and brought back all those fuzzy wuzzy feelings of my childhood. ...