The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (↑)

Finished Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I had started it before in hard copy, but couldn't stomach the first 40 pages, so I stopped, got rid of the hard copy, and then got all three of the books in epub format, and put them on my ereader. Everyone I know who has read them recommends them, so of course, I decided to read them. Not to mention C.L. has been hassling me to watch the movie, but I refused because I hadn't read the book yet. Anyway, I've read it, and honestly, once I got about 100 pages in, I didn't want to stop reading it! At first I wasn't sure how Salander fit in to the story line, but I just had to keep reading. The only thing is that Salander is so mysterious, I really want to know more about her past! I've started the second book so maybe it will explain it a bit more. I guess I'll find out soon enough!

Anyway, this book follows Mikael Blomkvist, a financial journalist who was ruined by a larger company (serving time in jail for libel, etc.) as he sets off to a lonely, out of the way island to solve a long ago family mystery for the Vanger family. He solves it, but he's in for a ride along the way.

Honestly, this mystery isn't spectacular, and the characters aren't all that well developed, but the reason I gave it such a high rating is because it kept me hooked the whole time, and I really enjoyed reading it. I would recommend it to anyone, but I would encourage them to keep reading it even if they found the first 40-100 pages to be extremely boring or random. Anyway, I'm going to continue to read the 2nd book in the trilogy, so until I finish that one, Happy Reading!

One For the Money (~)

Pretty quick in finishing up this book. It's One For the Money by Janet Evanovich. It's a simple read. I guess it could be called a mystery. Well a chick mystery. It's not quite chick lit, but it's not quite mystery either. It didn't exactly grab my attention, but it was easy enough to read that I didn't exactly have to focus in order to follow the story line.

This book followed Stephanie Plum who becomes a bounty hunter because she was unemployed and had no idea where her next income was going to come from. Anyway she was given the file for a man who had been in and out of her life multiple times and seemed to be a 'slippery' character. It follows her 'adventure' to capture this guy with a lot of hijinx along the way.

This book really wasn't anything special, but I must admit the characters were pretty funny at times, especially Stephanie's grandmother. I will probably continue to read the series only because they're easy reads, but I unno if I'd recommend them. I bought the first 3 in the series, so most likely I will read all 3 and then move on to another series. Anyway, until next time, happy reading!

The Postcard Killers (~)

I've finished yet another book, this one was a mystery by James Patterson and Liza Marklund called The Postcard Killers. It was an alright read, not a favourite, but certainly not terrible. The plot development is okay, but not intricate like most mysteries I read. It makes it easier to follow, but for a mystery, it solved the mystery part quite early for a book that is 420 pages. The characters weren't all that well developed either coming away from this novel, I felt that I hadn't really gotten to know the characters, and I certainly didn't feel for them. I guess you could almost say the characters appeared emotionless. Although they tried to make the American detective seem angry, I just didn't feel it.

So basically this book is about murders that have been occurring in Europe where the killers mail postcards to local reporters, and then polaroid pictures of the murder victims after they have been killed. An American detective becomes involved when his daughter and her fiance is one of the victims. He becomes obsessive and tracks the killers and attempts to stop them from killing again. In the end, you can guess what happens, and voila, it's the end!

Interesting plot-line, and if it had actually had a bit more thought put into it, I probably would've given it a higher rating. I'm not sure if I'm interested in reading another James Patterson, especially with how this one is written, but I suppose I could always blame it on the fact that there are in fact 2 authors, and perhaps James Patterson by himself is a little better. I guess we'll see, and I will attempt to read another one of his novels later!

Not sure what I will be reading next, but until then, Happy Reading!