Outstanding!

Michael Kortya has become one of my new guilty pleasures! Well.... his books are anyway. The latest was an amazing book. The fact that I can say that considering all of the high school football involved should tell you something. I don't love football. I know next to nothing about the game. The storyline about two brothers who have been torn apart since the death of their 15 year old sister 20 years ago drew me in. I came to enjoy the football somehow in the midst of it all! I absolutely recommend this one!

I am so cool right now!

Ha ha! So I joined Library Thing. Love it! They have a monthly chance to win a free advance copy of a book as long as you agree to review it. each month they post a list of what is available and you basically put your name in a hat and hope it gets pulled. I put in for a couple and OMG...... I won! I have here in my hand an advance copy of Fireproof by Alex Kava. WOOO HOOOOOO! It came straight from Doubleday by Fed Ex. Now I am totally feeling special.
So now I will read and then review this book by one of my favorite authors!
Here is a little excerpt provided to me by Doubleday to share. Fireproof-Excerpt

 Here is the review as posted on Library Thing:

I enjoyed this latest Maggie O'Dell book. Not so much for the mystery as it was pretty easy to figure out who done it! I did enjoy the characters and I am happy that Patrick was featured more in this book and a possible love interest was introduced for him. As for the storyline, the whole book is pretty much a red herring book for a future book in my opinion! Kind of an "oh look over here!!" while at the same time planting seeds for the next book which sounds like the better story. I just discovered Alex Kava about a year ago and zoomed through all of her other books so I am not complaining here and very much looking forward to seeing all of the characters back again soon! ( )

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

2011 Gold Dagger Award
Finalist 2011 Anthony Award for Best Novel
Finalist 2011 Barry Award for Best Novel
Finalist 2011 Edgar Award for Best Mystery
Finalist 2010 Hammett Prize
Movie in development

If all of the above isn't reason for you to give this book a try, I don't know what is! I absolutely loved this book. The setting and descriptions are amazing! The dialogue true for 1970's small town Mississippi.. 
"Is it cause I'm white?" Larry asked.
"What?"
"Why your momma don't want you to play with me?"
"I don't know"
"She didn't tell you?"
"She just say, 'Don't you go near that boy.' Made me promise I wouldn't."
"How come?"
"I done said I don't know."
 The characters were so well developed. Even from chapter one, I had to find out what was happening with Larry and then Silas came into the picture and it just got better.  I nearly finished it in one sitting but had to get some sleep in there somewhere! 

"In the 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals in a small town in rural Mississippi. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry was the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, black single mother. But then Larry took a girl to a drive-in movie and she was never seen or heard from again. He never confessed . . . and was never charged.

More than twenty years have passed. Larry lives a solitary, shunned existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has become the town constable. And now another girl has disappeared, forcing two men who once called each other "friend" to confront a past they've buried for decades". from Amazon

Mallory is back! Thank you Carol O'Connell for The Chalk Girl

 

I found this series 3 or 4 years ago and read through all nine books plus a couple of stand alones by this author. There has been an agonizing wait for this new book but it is here and in my hands!! Woo hoo!

I love how the Mallory character is so very, very broken and that the people around her either fear her or try to save her from herself.  Though it has been a long break, the characters are so well written that they popped right back into my head as if they had never left me!

This book has a charming little character, Coco, who has Williams Syndrome. After researching the syndrome on the internet it seems that Ms O'Connell has done a fantastic job of describing it. I am only on chapter 8 and it is one of those books that I hope lasts forever but I know I will finish it soon because I can't put it down.