'Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy by Leslie Langtry

YOU CAN'T PICK YOUR FAMILY... 
Death by Chocolate is her favorite dessert. And those knitting needles aren't just for craft projects. To most people, Gin Bombay is an ordinary single mom. Then again, they don't know she's from a family of top secret assassins. Somewhere between leading a Girl Scout troop for her kindergartner--would nooses count for a knot badge?--and keeping their puppy from destroying the furniture, Gin now has to take out a new target. 

BUT YOU CAN PICK THEM OFF
Except this target has an incredibly hot Australian bodyguard who knows just how to make her weak in the knees. But with a mole threatening to expose everything, Gin doesn't have much time to let her hormones do the happy dance. She's got to find the leak and clear her assignment...or she'll end up next on the Bombay family hit list.

There isn't too much to say about a book that is less than 200 pages long (in ebook).

This was a cute, fun and fast read.

It's not an exceptional book. The writing wasn't great, the plot was ridiculous and it was incredibly predictable yet I still enjoyed reading it. I laughed out loud on several occasions and I liked the characters, Ginny especially. It was a great light read to get me out of a funk.

I will probably read the rest in the series.

3 out of 5 stars GET IT HERE:'Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy (Greatest Hits Mysteries)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Merricat Blackwood lives on the family estate with her sister Constance and her uncle Julian. Not long ago there were seven Blackwoods—until a fatal dose of arsenic found its way into the sugar bowl one terrible night. Acquitted of the murders, Constance has returned home, where Merricat protects her from the curiousity and hostility of the villagers. Their days pass in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears. Only Merricat can see the danger, and she must act swiftly to keep Constance from his grasp.

It has been over 24 hours since I finished it and I still can't figure this book, or all it's high ratings, out.

My first reaction after finishing the book was, "What the hell?!" I have no idea what I was expecting from this book but I can tell you, I didn't get it.

First off, the book is filed under, horror, suspense and mystery on Goodreads. I don't understand how it could ever fall into those categories. There was absolutely no horror or suspense or mystery. I guess it is supposed to be a psychological thriller? I didn't see that either. Yes, there is a plethora of psychological disorders in it, ranging from agoraphobia to OCD but a thriller? No.

Secondly, there were so many threads left dangling and questions unanswered. A lot of books do this but nothing was really explained in this one. Nothing. Also, the one part that was supposed to be the shocking twist was seen from a mile away and the drama was lackluster.

We Have Always Lived let me down. I still can't say I hated it though, which is the confusing part. The one saving grace of the story was that there were a few fantastic prose throughout. They would come out of nowhere and take me by surprise.


2 out of 5 stars

A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary by Anonymous

For eight weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the Russian army, a young woman kept a daily record of life in her apartment building and among its residents. "With bald honesty and brutal lyricism" (Elle), the anonymous author depicts her fellow Berliners in all their humanity, as well as their cravenness, corrupted first by hunger and then by the Russians. "Spare and unpredictable, minutely observed and utterly free of self-pity" (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland), A Woman in Berlin tells of the complex relationship between civilians and an occupying army and the shameful indignities to which women in a conquered city are always subject--the mass rape suffered by all, regardless of age or infirmity.

This is a review I don't want to write. I don't think I could ever truly describe the haunting beauty of this book.

This is a heart-breakingly uninhibited account of Russian occupied Berlin by a German woman. She writes of day to day life which happens to be filled with bomb raids, pillaging for food and, once the Ivans invade, rape and murder.

The author, who was later revealed to be Marta Hillers, was once a journalist and you can see it in her writing. As I said before, I don't think I can give it any justice so I will just say her writing is beautiful and intelligent and so straight forward. It's actually because of the straight forwardness that it took me so long to read it. To read her writing about so many terrible incidents without malice really hurts your heart.

This is not a fun book to read. It is very difficult in most parts but it speaks frankly of how society adapts in extreme danger, how it all becomes about survival of the individual and then how it struggles to build itself back up in the end.

I highly recommend this to anyone.

5 out of 5 stars

GET IT HERE: A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary