The Guardian

Julie's husband died of cancer and left her his final gift of life, a Great Dane puppy as her guardian and as a promise to watch over her after his demise.

Four years down the road and Julie is ready to get back to the social circle. Now that she has 2 choices to choose from, a handsome and rugged construction consultant, Richard, who everytime gives her over the top experiences while on their dates, and Mike, who has been a very good friend of her since the parting of Julie's husband. Mike and Julie's husband has been friends since they were kids.

While Richard has been sweeping Julie off her feet everytime they went out, Mike has been reassuring and easy to talk with, Julie is now torn between the two man. One part of her wanted the excitement with Richard while the other part of her wanted a stable companionship with Mike.

And the guardian, Singer, the Great Dane, has always been close to Mike and even closer to Julie, has not been a great fan of Richard. Growling everytime Richard's around, Julie takes a thought or two whenever that happened. Could it be a sign?

Mike who has been a good friend to Julie has fallen in love with her as days went by since Julie's husband passed on. Looking at Julie picking her life since the inevitable, Mike's heart grown fonder each day. However, not wanting to ruin the perfect relationship that they are having right now, Mike never take the first step to ask Julie on a date.

Richard, sensing that Julie affection growing distance starting to take hints that Julie is starting a relationship with Mike. Unknown to the townsfolk, Richard has a dark side and very disturbing history. Going out with Julie apparently has a hidden agenda.

Richard has gone crazier as days went by. He stalks Julie and even tried to kill those who protected her from him. But all things went well with Singer the Guardian protected Julie the very last minute.

The reader's review:
Interesting storyline with suspense. However, the author failed to highlight Singer the Guardian more as compared to the love story between Julie and Mike.

Overall: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

A Bend in the Road

Quoted directly from book cover:
Miles Ryan's life seemed to end the day his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident two years ago. As deputy sheriff of New Bern, North Carolina, he not only grieves for her and worries about their young son Jonah but longs to bring the unknown driver to justice. Then Miles meets Sarah Andrews, Jonah's second grade teacher. A young woman recovering from a difficult divorce, Sarah moved to New Bern hoping to start over. Tentatively, Miles and Sarah reach out to each other...soon they are faling in love. But waht neither realizes is that they are also bound together by a shocking secret, one that will force them to reexamine everything they believe in - including their love.

Written in 2 viewpoint, one from the killer-driver journal sometime further in the future and another as Miles and Sarah relationship progresses.

The reader's review:
Captivating storyline, kept on flipping pages. Minus half a star as predicted the killer driver with 4 chapters to go.

Overall: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

The Lucky One

A soldier who found a missing picture in the dessert decided to find the person in the picture. As told by his best friend in the regiment, that picture was his lucky charm. And it definitely saved their lives many times.

So Logan started his journey by walking through a few states. Then in North Carolina, he found Elizabeth, who was the girl in the picture, whose brother served in the war same as Logan but died in it.

Logan pursued Elizabeth but never told her the reason he was there. Elizabeth fell for him. But her ex-husband finds Logan suspicious and started to investigate on him.

A lovely love story.

The reader's review:
Sweet love story with some suspense in it.

Overall: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce

The story started with Wilberforce being drunk and wasted his youth over a massive inheritance of a wine cellar. Then it slowly revealed how Wilberforce lifestyle changed from being a successful business owner to a wine cellar owner to a drunkard.

The reader's review:
Curios about the storyline at first, but eventually struggled to complete it.

Overall: 2.0 out of 5.0 stars

The Lovely Bones

Susie Salmon was never found.

Susie Salmon was raped and murdered by her neighbour. She was never found. Not even her body. Written in the perspective of a murdered child, the story bring us around her family, how they passed each day, trying to look for the lost child, grieving and searching for more clues apart from the little evidence left by Susie Salmon.

As days passed, Susie watched her family, her sister, her friends, her parents and her murderer grew up, apart and getting away from the murder.

The reader's review:
Very good story. Never before a was told by a murdered person's view before.

Overall: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars

The Beach House

A group of strangers wanted to take a break from their busy lives, took a holiday in Nantucket beach house and somehow found themselves interconnected to each other by some kind of relationship from the past and the present.

Nan, the free spirited beach house owner who opened her house to strangers that summer in order to earn some extra money. Together with her long time helper Sarah, she renovated the house and opened some rooms for rental.

Micheal, Nan's son, who was having a fling with his boss, came back to get himself in order somehow got romantically involved with another holiday maker Daff, who recently divorced, and having some rough time with her teenage daughter coping with the divorce.

And there's Daniel, a husband and a father, who recently came out of closet, trying to make up family time, where his wife, Bee taking summer break in Nantucket.

Here in Nantucket, all of them found love and lost love among themselves.

The reader's review:
A holiday story book.

Overall: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars

A Prisoner of Birth

A twisted fate, and a twisted side of truth caused Danny Cartwright to be sentenced to 22 years of imprisonment on the act of murdering his best friend, Bernie Wilson. It all began when Danny chosen the wrong day, wrong time, wrong pub and wrong exit to propose to his girlfriend, Beth Wilson, sister of his best friend, to celebrate with Bernie about the engagement, to avoid a confrontation with a bunch of drunkards, which happened to be the key witnesses to the murder.

The four drunkards happened to be Spencer Craig, a lawyer, Lawrence Davenport, a popular actor, Gerald Payne, a successful broker and Toby Mortimer, an aristocrat, who were such involved in then but then whose stories managed to convince the court to sentence Danny to 22 years of jail life.

Perhaps Danny was really innocent until the prison officers decided to do him some good to place him the same cell as (Sir)Nick Moncrieff and Big Al. Things changed when Danny begin to appeal for his case and managed to get new evidence, but due to some techicalities, the new evidence cannot be presented to court.

Spencer Craig did not let go of the incident so easily and ordered an insider to clean up the job by killing Danny Cartwright. By a twisted fate, Nick was instead killed, by an open opportunity, Big Al managed to change their medical records and by luck, Danny looked almost like Nick. Their position got swapped and Danny was released earlier by imposing as Nick and lead a life as Nick.

Living as Sir Nick Moncrieff did not come easy as the family inheritance problem was hanging by the thread. Danny had to clear Nick's family matters before starting to plan for his revenge. Little by little by using Sir Nick's influence, Danny managed to get close to the actual killers and almost got them but somehow, as close as it got, Danny was caught imposing as Sir Nick and was charged in the high court.

As the court drama continued, more revelation were disclosed and the court overturned the charges on Danny. Instead the killers were caught redhanded in the court and charged as accordingly.

The reader's review:
A suspense thriller that make pages turned faster than ever.

Overall: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars

Handle With Care

Another great battle of childcare from Jodi Picoult. Willow was born brittle. Exactly, brittle. A slight fall will caused her to break bones more than what one's parents could have imagined. By the time she was 5, she had broken bones in almost most of her body.

Charlotte and Sean, their daughters, Amelia and Willow planned for a Disney trip for a vacation. Amelia who is several years older had never been to any vacation due to her sister's health. She was really excited and already planned which rides she wanted to go for. But the trip was cut short. Willow had a fall, and her bones break.

Charlotte, who had many heartbreaks with her child condition decided to sue her doctor for wrongful birth action. But then again, the doctor was her best friend. Now with everything at stake, her child's health, her husband's concern, her best friend's relationship and her dwindling bank account, she raised the filesuit and headed in strongly.

Written in a few characters perspective, the story unfolds slowly. But eventually it ended with a heartbreak.

The reader's review:
Another great battle of childcare. The book reader is a Jodi Picoult's fan. :)

Overall: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars

Leopard Rock: Love Goes On A Safari

A Kiwi journalist won a trip of her life when she won the first prize of a wildlife video competition. Her story "Too Fat To Fly" was about albatross chick caught the attention of the famous wildlide filmmaker, Wyk Kruger.

Roo (nickname for Oriana) was estatic when she won the prize, a one-month fully paid vacation in Leopard Rock, South Africa to make documentary with under the tutelage of Wyk Kruger. But her excitement was cut short when her current job (a top end fashion magazine) boss squeezed in a modelling shoot into the vacation. So Roo had to play the role of an assistant in her vacation which left her totally drained out for any safari trip. Plus Wyk was really pissed off when he knew there was a whole bunch of people coming instead of just Roo.

But both of them cannot denied the spark kept arcing between them. So Roo and Wyk got closer, but Wyk had a hidden secret that burst out suddenly that caused Roo to left him high and dry after that one month apprenticeship under Wyk.

The reader's review:
An easy read. Completed overnight. Speaks a little of safari adventure which is a nice change apart from the love between the two lead.

Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Rumour Has It

Rumours spread incredibly fast. Especially if it's in a small town.

Tilly Cole quit her job, moved to her best friend's small town called Roxborough where good-looking men were scarce. Jack Lucas was the one man that every woman in that small town would love to spend the night with.

And Tilly Cole isn't one of them, well, she tried hard. Until Jack Lucas focussed on her. Then Tilly couldn't let her mind off him. Especially when her new boss, Max Dineen (who was gay btw) was Jack's partner in an interior design company.

Jack had a reputation in that small town where every women seemed to satisfy with his "ahem" performance in bed. As Tilly pressed on to know about his reputation in their courtship, Jack always said he'll never tell on his dates or women he scored with.

But Tilly has a way to get to know the truth. Women just couldn't spare from spreading rumours. As the title went "Rumour Has It", Tilly started to spread rumours on how she never spend the night with Jack to her best friend in the ladies room (best place to overheard rumours btw) and it happened that some other ladies who went out with Jack never had sex with him ever. Just that they wanted to keep their reputation and Jack's so they boasted about how good he was in the bed. Turned out that Jack was just another hopeless romantic.

The reader's review:
First half was interesting. But the second half was plain torture to get to the end.

Overall: 3.0 out of 5 stars.