Snake Skin by CJ Lyons

Amazon.com Product Description:
Just your average Pittsburgh soccer mom, baking brownies and carrying a loaded forty-caliber Glock...

Lucille Teresa Guardino. A woman of many identities. Lucille to her doting mother, Lulu to her devoted husband, Mom to her pre-teen daughter, Lucy to her friends, LT to her co-workers, and Supervisory Special Agent Guardino to the criminals she captures for the FBI's Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement squad.

A loving mom and wife, dutiful daughter, consummate professional, and kick-ass federal agent, Lucy is living the perfect life.

Until the day she comes up against a predator more vicious and cunning than any she's ever tackled before, one who forces Lucy to choose between the life of the young victim she is fighting to save and her own daughter's....and Lucy's dream life is shattered.

Once again, a CJ Lyons book I could not put down. I read it in one sitting and it was at once terrifying, thrilling, and a look into what is normal in the lives of FBI agents. It is also a look into the life of the girl that FBI Agent Lucy Guardino is trying to find and of the choice she faces when confronting the man who has kidnapped the girl.

There are scenes featuring snakes that are not recommended for those who may have issues with snakes (even reading about them), they fit the story and give it an extra oomph.

I look forward to reading more of Ms. Lyons' books.

(Cross-posted to: Amazon.com, LibraryThing.com, GoodReads.com, and BarnesandNoble.com)

A couple outlets where Snake Skin may be purchased:
Amazon.com (Kindle format also available)
Barnes & Noble (Nook format also available)

Mr. Memory by John D. Rhodes

Amazon.com Product Description:
A NEW wickedly funny novel by John D Rhodes

Dave’s mind is thick with fog but something is holding the doors shut tight. What’s more he's blind, trapped in hospital, tortured to distraction by a beautiful nurse and accompanied by Lenny a quite stinky tramp come wizard of dubious origins. What more could a man want? Who can help him escape all three and will he really like the answers once his mind returns to normal?

At least things can’t get any worse… can they? Come along on Dave’s voyage of discovery and revenge, just where did the disease ridden cat come from, who are, Fate, Degradation, Famine and Hope and can he really win back the love of his life?

The answers, strangely, may lie within this story, where the struggle for ultimate power, mystical ageless beings and the delights of office party sexual politics meet in a headlong car crash of magic, good versus evil and some odd, (very odd in this case) talking beasties.

Reading the blurb, the book sounded interesting and I was fortunate enough to receive a review copy from Mr. Rhodes.

Whether or not the majority of the book lives up to the blurb, I do not know as I was only able to get through about 11% or so of the book due to issues I had with it.

The primary issue I had with the book is proofreading. While some of it may account for grammar differences between British English and American English (and I do take into account spelling differences), it does not account for all of it. As an example, in "....once been some flash mavericks joy...", the word mavericks is plural as is, when I believe the singular version was meant. In another example, "...could have bottled and sold as quant.", I think 'quant' was meant to be 'quaint'; "worse for ware" should be "worse for wear"; "coke" was not capitalized and in lower case is something else entirely than what is meant; etc. One instance of "greenie" meant for eye color, but when I looked it up, the term as is came up defined as an informal term for someone who campaigns for the environment. There are a few more examples that fall into this category up to the point I was able to read. Quite frankly, even though I do not mind seeing the odd error in a book I am reading, I do mind a bit if I am constantly going back and forth to a dictionary to double check spellings.

The other issue I had with reading Mr Memory I do not think would have been as much of an issue if not for the proofreading is the character himself. There was a certain almost stream of consciousness about the character that was more of an irritant than something that worked for my tastes.

Even though I did not find the book to my taste, I do wish Mr. Rhodes success with it and any future endeavor he has.

(Cross-posted to: LibraryThing, GoodReads, and Amazon.com)