The Insider

Title: The Insider
Author: Reece Hirsch
Genre: Legal Thriller
Format: Paperback, 330pp
Author Website


Synopsis

First corporate attorney Will Connelly's colleague hurtles to his death outside his office window. Within days, Will is a prime suspect in a murder, the target of an S.E.C. insider trading investigation, and a pawn in a complex criminal scheme involving the Russian mafia and a ruthless terrorist plot. Now, to top things off, he must ensure a deadly enemy doesn't gain access to the nation's most sensitive and confidential information-that has the power to do incalculable, irrevocable harm.

Review

The Insider is not one of my usual genres but Hirsch totally knocked my socks off. This was a fast pace read, the characters very likable. This book had so many twists and turns I couldn’t put it down. I would turn the pages faster and faster, I couldn’t get enough. Then it was over, and I regretted it. The story kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I hope Reece brings more books to the table; he could easily become one of my favorite authors!

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Early Review: Kat, Incorrigible

Title: Kat, Incorrigible
Series: Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson Series , #1
Author: Stephanie Burgis
Genre: Middle-Grade Fiction (10 up)
Format: ARC, 304pp

Release Date: 04/05/11

Author Website

Synopsis

Take one part magic, two parts adventure, and a dash of cross-dressing, add two unwed sisters, a bumbling father, and a stepmother with her petticoats in a twist, and you're in for an unlikely adventure through nineteenth-century England like Jane Austen never dreamed it. 

Katherine Ann Stephenson has just discovered that she's inherited her mother's magical talents, and despite Stepmama's stern objections, she's determined to learn how to use them. But with her eldest sister Elissa's intended fiance, the sinister Sir Neville, showing a dangerous interest in Kat's magical potential; her other sister, Angeline, wreaking romantic havoc with her own witchcraft; and a highwayman lurking in the forest, even Kat's reckless heroism will be tested to the utmost. If she can learn to control her new powers, will Kat be able to rescue her family and win her sisters their true love?


Review

Let me start out by saying that this is a very cute story. It’s about 3 sisters who have just discovered they have magical powers. It’s the typical fairy tale where the mother died when the kids were young so the father marries the wicked stepmother. They have an older brother who is in over his head with gambling debts, and Stepmama has convinced Elissa that she has to marry the wealthy Sir Neville so the family doesn’t go to debtor’s prison. Stepmama arranges for them to meet at a month long house party at the Grantham Abbey. But it seems Sir Neville is more interested in magic, than finding a wife. Kat has to learn to control her new found powers so she can rescue her family and win her sisters true loves. I found the first part of the book pretty slow. It didn’t really pick up for me until about chapter 15. I feel Kat is always defending her self. She doesn’t care if people talk about but she is scared of people thinking she’s weak or scared. Every other sentence she was second guessing herself, or asking what would mama do? What would Angeline do? She’s only 12 but I don’t every remember doing that. And it always seemed like she was running away from everything, when she first found the Golden Hall, after her fight with Lady Fotherington, she tried to get home as fast as she could, the second time in the Golden Hall when Mr. Gregson asked to be her tutor she ran away. It is a very cute story but it is definitely for a younger reader.

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