Timothy Carrier is sitting in a bar one night when a man comes in, sits down next to him, slides over an envelope full of cash and a picture of a woman, and tells him he’ll get the other half of the money after he kills the woman. At first, Tim thinks the man is joking, but it quickly becomes apparent to him the man has mistaken him for a killer-for-hire. The man leaves before Tim can explain he isn’t a killer, and before he can go after him, the door opens again and the real killer walks in and takes the vacant seat next to Tim. Realising the killer and the man who hired him don’t know each other, Tim decides to pretend he is the man who hired the killer. Removing the picture from the envelope, he slides the cash over to the hitman and tells him that he’s changed his mind, he doesn’t want the woman killed after all, and he should take the money as a no-kill fee for his troubles. (more…)

New Moon is book two in Stephenie Meyer’s series about Isabella Swan and her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen. It’s been a few months since Bella and Edward got together, and things are going well until the Cullen family decide to throw Bella a birthday party.

Bella doesn’t want her birthday acknowledged because this birthday, her 18th, is the year she gets older than Edward, who will always be 17. She doesn’t want to age, so she doesn’t want to make a big deal about her birthday. But the Cullens want to celebrate , so they plan a birthday party, complete with flowers, cake and presents. (more…)

… of Ann Brashares’ The Last Summer (of You & Me) is Kailana from Kailana’s Written World. I used a very scientific method for choosing the winner… I asked someone to pick a number from the number of entries. Very clever, no? Anyhoo… thanks to everyone who entered to win!

Many thanks to Yolanda at FSB Associates for gifting me another copy of Ann Brashares’ new book, and while it’s a very good book, I don’t actually need 2 copies :) So! I’m running a giveaway contest. The only condition is that you have a blog and you review the book on your blog when you finish reading it.
To enter to win The Last Summer (of You & Me), leave a comment or e-mail me with your name and blog URL. The contest closes at midnight my time (UTC -6 hours) on Monday, June 18th, 2007.

It seems to everyone that it’s unfortunate little Star Sullivan was born into the family she got. So friendly, easy-going and full of hope and optimism, she is nothing like the rest of her family: her gambling father, Shay, her overworked and oblivious mother, Molly, her sister Lilly with the eating disorder, her selfish brother Kevin, and her other brother Michael, who prefers to operate on the wrong side of the law.

With so many problems in the family, Star is full of worry and tries to be nothing but easy for everyone to get along with. She listens to her father talk about the next race he’ll lose all their money on, but won’t chastise him because he already knows he has a problem. She helps her mother, who works so many long hours to support the family, and doesn’t say anything when Molly can’t find it in her to muster up the energy to push her other children in the right directions. Star won’t tattle on her sister for refusing to eat because Lilly promised her she’s fine and doesn’t want to make a fuss when the family has enough problems. She won’t deflate her overly ambitious brother Kevin’s hopes and dreams because it’s better for him to have them than to not. And she’ll lie for her brother Michael when the police come looking for him because he’s too young to go to jail and she’s confident that he’ll set himself straight sooner or later.

So to everyone, Star is the sweet, trustworthy Sullivan girl. They all think there is little more in store for Star than to grow up and work in a meaningless job and be a good wife someday to someone that hopefully won’t take advantage of her simpleness and easy ways. But all these people are about to learn there’s more to Star Sullivan than they thought, and it starts the day Owen Hale and his son Laddy move in next door. (more…)

This is Ann Brashares’ first book for adults (for those not in the know, she’s the author of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants YA series). I had great hopes and expectations for this book based on my experiences with the Sisterhood books, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Alice and Riley are sisters who have been coming to Fire Island with their parents every summer of their lives, and Paul is the rich boy whose family owns the mansion next to their modest summer home. The three of them are best friends, spending every possible minute of their vacations together. But one year, Paul doesn’t come back to the island for the summer, and then he doesn’t come back for the next and not even the one after that. The girls wonder about him and worry about him, until one summer when he just comes back, acting as if the last 3 years away didn’t mean anything. (more…)