Caught

Caught
by Harlan Coben

Genre:  Mystery/thriller
Pages:   464
Published:  3/22/11 by Penguin Group
Format:  ebook

My Rating:
3 out of 5 stars







Caught by Harlan Coben is about a TV reporter named Wendy Tynes who specializes in trapping pedophiles and bringing them to justice.  Wendy's latest culprit, Dan Mercer, swears his innocence and is eventually let go.  However, angry parents want to see him brought to justice and take the law into their own hands.  Meanwhile, a teenage girl is missing, and after three months with no leads, a clue to her disappearance is finally discovered.  The story is full of twists and turns as these two events are linked together and secrets from the past are uncovered.

I enjoyed the story and the suspense, but I didn't find anything to love about this book.  The story was pretty complicated, and by the end, I felt like there were a few too many twists.  Several subplots run throughout the story, and just when you think the story is over, another twist is revealed.  That worked one time, but after the third time, I was just annoyed by it!

I was surprised by the moral message found in this story.  Themes of forgiveness and revenge run throughout the story, demonstrating the power and freedom of forgiveness and the destructiveness of revenge.  This story also examines the influence of social media on our world today.  Caught was more thought-provoking than I expected from this genre.

My final thought:  while not a book I would highly recommend, it was entertaining and meaningful enough to make for a decent read.

Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies
by Isaac Marion

Pages:  256
Published:  12/25/12
Format:  ebok

MY RATING:
4 out of 5 stars







Warm Bodies is not my typical genre of choice...it's a zombie romance! But R, the zombie narrator in this story, is not your typical zombie. He thinks deep thoughts and wonders about the meaning of his (un)life. Then he meets (and falls in love with) a human named Julie, and he discovers that there may be more to his zombie existence than just grunting and eating brains.

It really is about zombies! They really do eat brains! And it really is a great book! I would not normally pick up a book about zombies, but this one caught my attention after seeing the movie preview and reading some great reviews.

I enjoyed it a lot. It was smart and darkly humorous. The first 75 pages or so are just hilarious. I laughed out loud multiple times, and I don't laugh out loud while reading very often. Marion has a dry sense of humor that worked so well in this story.

Soon, this novel turns into a Romeo and Juliet-esque story of forbidden love, with some zombie adventures thrown in as well. It is a sweet story, and one that is deeper than you would expect from this genre.