Not My Type - 2011 Book #90

Not My Type by Melanie Jacobsen was a great read. It's told in first person by Pepper Spicer, the character the story is about. Pepper has a really fun, quirky personality. In the first chapter, she comes home from work at the sandwich shop she manages to find that her family has planned a surprise family birthday party for her. She was in a bad mood already from work, but when she finds out that her dad let her little sister pick chocolate cake, which she despises, she goes over the top. She tips the cake off the counter onto her other sister's new shoes and storms out of the room.

Her dad comes to talk to her after that and she complains about her terrible life. She's 23, she hates her job, she's single and still living at home, she shares a room with her 7-year-old sister, and she's still paying off the debt for a wedding that never happened.

Her dad challenges her to change it. He challenges her to start thinking about other people occasionally instead of herself all the time, and if she doesn't like something about her life, then change it. He tells her he wants her to write at least one thank you note a week and to at least try to get a new job that she enjoys or move out of the house.

She knows that moving out of the house isn't an option, so she agrees to her dad's idea. She applies for a bunch of journalism jobs, and after bombing out on an important interview, she finally gets a job offer to write a dating column. For the job, she has to do online dating, and go on one date a week and write about it.

This book is a fun read as Pepper tells about all her many escapades as she tries to succeed at her dad's challenge. From her first journalism interview, to several interesting dates, to discussing her parents' idea to name all her siblings after spices (Pepper, Coriander, Ginger, Mace, and Rosemary), this book will keep readers reading until they've finished it.

Royal Target - 2011 Book #89

The most recent book was one my grandmother loaned me. I decided to read it so I could return it to her before I started on some of the other books I got from the library. Royal Target was written by Traci Hunter Abramson. I've read several books by her that were all really good, so I was excited to read this one. In this story, the main character, Janessa Rogers, works for the CIA as an intelligence officer. Her new assignment is to work to protect the royalty of a country called Meridia, who, at the time, was attempting to make a concrete alliance with the United States. The royal family had been receiving many threats from anonymous people, and Janessa was sent to help them up their security and help investigate who was behind the threats. Her cover for why she was there? The second prince's fiance.

This book is an adventure, romance novel. As Janessa tries to assess the security of the royal chateau, there are numerous bomb threats along with other threats, and although her engagement to the prince is supposed to be just for show, at times the prince acts like it's real.

It's a great read, and has lots of action packed in. The author, uses her experience from working with the government, so she has great insight into the life of an American spy.

The only downside to this book is at the very ending. (Don't worry, this won't give anything away.) The ending is just one of those endings that a lot of writers actually use. It ties up lots of the little things in the story that you have to know about, but then, it just lets you assume what happened to some of the main characters. Personally, I would rather know what happened to them than just make an assumption, but that's just my opinion.

Mrs. McGinty's Dead - 2011 Book # 88

I recently renewed my interest in reading Agatha Christie books. These books are adult mystery books that I had read a lot in junior high. The books I had been reading were good books, but most of them were rather predictable. I wanted to read something that I knew would not be predictable at all. So I went to the local library and grabbed a bunch of Agatha Christie books. The latest one I read was Mrs. McGinty's Dead.

This book starts with the famous detective Hercule Poirot receiving a visit from a member of the police that he has worked with before. This officer tells him of a murder that was committed several months ago that he had been in charge of investigating. All the clues pointed toward one person, who was arrested, tried, and condemned to be hung. However, this officer honestly believes that the man is innocent. So he convinces Hercule Poirot to try to discover who the real culprit is.

This book is a great read. With every new clue that was discovered, I changed my mind about who the criminal was, and when it finally got to the end, it was the person I had never even suspected. It was unpredictable to the end, which made it great. Also, at the end, it explains how everything happened and how he came to make that discovery. All the clues were there, but they are presented in such a way that it makes the reader think a different way.

Happy reading, and there should be more Agatha Christie books on the way.