December.2015 Reads

So my December TBR turned out to be a little more ambitious than I could handle.  I guess I forgot how much time getting ready for Christmas actually takes and I only got half of the books read that were on my list.

I got through the following books:

Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning: I rated this three stars on Goodreads.  This is the second book in the “Fever” series.  I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the first book, but did enjoy it enough that I will continue on with the series.

Hell or High Water by Joy Castro:  I rated this four stars on Goodreads.  I really enjoyed this book set in New Orleans.  The mystery was interesting, the character development was good and the author did a great job describing various landmarks (well known and some not well known) in New Orleans.  The author impressed me so much by not just “name dropping” places in New Orleans.  She actually described what they looked like, what type of people went there (e.g. natives to New Orleans or tourists) and what the atmosphere was like.  So many authors just drop the names of places into books and its like they have a list of places they want to mention and they drop them into their story and then check them off their list without giving you any information about them.  Most of the places that Joy Castro mentioned in the book, I visited when I was on vacation there in 2012 and I was very impressed when she mentioned a jazz club called Snug Harbor.  This was the first time that I have ever seen this jazz club mentioned and I had actually gone there for a jazz show.  There was so much character development, it made me wonder if this was the start of a series so I did some investigation and discovered that a second book has been written.  I immediately ordered it from Book Outlet.

Poles Apart by Terry Fallis:  I rated this three stars on Goodreads.  This book was okay.  I was a little disappointed – it definitely was not as good as his earlier books (The Best Laid Plans and The High Road).

The Lake House by Kate Morton:  I rated this three stars on Goodreads.  I have written a full review in my post just below this one.

So as I said, not nearly the amount of books that I was planning on reading but those I didn’t get to will be picked up in January.