Hold Tight by Harlan Coben

Once again the author writes a novel with plots that crisscross and keep you on your toes to see what’s going to happen next!

This story involves a teen’s suicide and “Pharm” parties where teens get high with adult supervision.   Crazy!!

Adam’s best friend Spencer committed suicide.  Adam then tries to set up the club that hosts Pharm parties, but his father shows up and a fight breaks out.  A cop’s son introduced Adam to the club. Imagine that!

The next twist is the schoolteacher who makes some inappropriate comments to a young student and she is best friends with Adams sister.  When the parents approach him, he gets his crazy brother in-law involved and people start dying.  That’s all I’m saying – read the book!

The Lord of the Rings - Trilogy

I have seen the movie(s) over and over and over and over and then some, and over again!

Enjoyed the books!  Different twists and turns in the book than in the movie, but still great!

The best line: quoted from Bilbo Baggins: “I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

The Woods by Harlan Coben

County Prosecutor Paul Copeland is working on one of the biggest cases of his career  At the same time, a crime that was committed 20 years ago surfaces to threaten his career.

Twenty years ago his sister went missing. After his parents separated, he never saw his mother again.  Why did she leave him without saying goodbye?  Why did his now-deceased father tell him to keep looking?  Did his girlfriend know what was going on???

Paul has a lot to deal with.  His sister went missing, his mother went missing and his wife dies. All over a period of time, but still!

All these answers unravel, or maybe not, at the end, but in the middle, you have no clue whodunit!

This was a great story set-up!  One of Harlan’s best!

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Brother and sister, Leisel and Werner Meminger are on their way to being left with a foster family by their mother.  

Rosa and Hans Hubermann are barely making a living but will receive a small monetary subsidization for Leisel and her brother. Only Leisel makes it to the door.

Leisel becomes best friends with the neighbor next door Rudy Steiner.  She grows to love her "Papa" and at some point even her "Mama" who calls her names from the onset.  When they hide Max in the basement, Leisel makes a new friend.

I was half way through the story before I realized who the narrator was.

I saw the movie and liked the book much better.  The book talks more about her book thievery.  Maybe for sake of time, that was not dwelt on as much in the movie as it was in the book.     

Even though Leisels’ book thievery is what the story is about, the underlining tale is about Germany during the reign of Hitler and how small towns coped.

Just One Look by Harlan Coben

I read this book in 2014, but forgot what happened and re-read it this past May (2016).

Grace Lawson’s husband goes out one night and never returns.  Someone slipped an old photograph into some photos that she had developed and no one knows where it came from. When her husband disappears after seeing the photo a wicked plot unravels. 

Grace tries to find out who the people are in the photo and along the way people related to the people in that photo end up dead.

Grace is in for a shock at the end of this story!

The Innocent by Harlan Coben

After spending 9 years in jail, Matt is attempting to live a good life.  His wife Olivia is expecting a baby.  This will be their first child together.  Olivia convinces Matt to upgrade their phones to camera phones so they can capture special moments.  Unfortunately, the first picture he receives is of his wife with another man.  No way!!!

This leads Matt on a hunt to find out what’s going on. The hunt takes him from New Jersey to a seedy bar in Nevada.

Harlan knows how to engage a reader.  His plots thicken and you never expect the ending result!