Booking Through Thursday and some news

btt button
Do you multi-task when you read? Do other things like stirring things on the stove, brushing your teeth, watching television, knitting, walking, et cetera?
Or is it just me, and you sit and do nothing but focus on what you’re reading?
(Or, if you do both, why, when, and which do you prefer?)
Great question!  This really depends on the books and what is going on in my life.  I have been known to multi-task but I also have been known to just sit and read completely focused.  I will watch TV and read more read and have the background noise.  I also have been known to play the Sims just letting them run and read at the same time.  No way I could ever walk and read.  That would just be a very bad combination.  If I totally need to check out and just relax, reading is what I do.  
 
Okay I was going to do two posts but I just changed my mind.  My news – my husband made me a button for my blog last night. Here it is:
 
 

Lisa's World of Books

Review: High Stakes

High Stakes (Vegas Vampires, Book 1)

Product Details

  • Pub. Date: January 2008
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
  • Format: Mass Market Paperback , 320pp
  • Sales Rank: 135,377

Synopsis

Unlike other politicians, Ethan Carrick is a nice guy-and a hot, casino-owning vampire. And with elections coming up, he’d like to find his First Lady-if his opponent’s hit men don’t find him first.

My Thoughts

This was a nice light read.  I enjoyed the witting characters and the life that Erin McCarthy brings to them.  I felt like I was dropped right in the middle of their world in Vegas and completely understood what was going on.  I enjoyed this lighter view of vampires and their habits.  Most vampire books are a bit dark but this one was really not.  The relationship between Alexis and Brittney was interesting and helped to me really understand each of these women.  There were some VERY hot sex scenes in this book.  Contraryy to the synopsis above this book was much more about the growing relationship between Ethan and Alexis that this political election.  The politic did add a bit of drama to the book but did not seem to be the main focus.

My Rating

Overall , this was a good fun read.  I give it 3 out of 5 stars.  I would recommend this as a great book after some in depth stressful reads or just to pass the time.

Audio book Review: Falling Awake

Falling Awake (Brilliance Audio on Compact Disc)

Overview –

Falling Awake

Product Details

  • Pub. Date: September 2009
  • Publisher: Brilliance Audio
  • Format: Compact Disc
  • Sales Rank: 522,807

Synopsis

A red scarf. A roller coaster. A tidal wave of blood.
Isabel Wright spends her days at the Belvedere Center for Sleep Research analyzing the dreams of others. Dr. Martin Belvedere, a pioneer in the field, recognized her unique talent for what he calls Level Five lucid dreaming – and rescued her from a dead-end job at the psychic dreamer hotline. It’s satisfying, lucrative work, but it can be emotionally draining at times. Especially when one of her anonymous subjects, known only as Client Number Two, captures her imagination through his compelling dream narratives. Secretly, she thinks of him as “dream man.”
Client Number Two’s real name is Ellis Cutler. A loner who learned long ago not to let anyone get too close, he works for a highly classified government agency with an interest in the potential value of lucid dreaming. And he has just been ordered by his boss to make contact with Isabel, who’s been fired after the sudden death of Dr. Belvedere. Heading to California, he pushes his own fantasies out of his mind, determined to maintain a professional relationship with the woman who reads his dreams, the mysterious figure he has come to think of as “Tango Dancer.”
But when they meet in the flesh, the dream becomes real enough to touch. And a waking nightmare begins – when a suspicious hit-and-run leads them into a perilous web of passion, betrayal and murder, and forces them to walk the razor-thin line between dreams and reality. . . .

My Thoughts

Another great audio book.  If you have read any of my previous audio book reviews you will know that the read makes or breaks an audio book for me and this reader, Laurel Merlingtion, was wonderful.  She got into the story with different voices and inflections for different characters.  It helps to keep it interesting and keep the story moving.  
 
I really enjoyed this story because I never able to quite pin the story down.  Every time I though that I had figured a piece of it out, something changed and I was headed in a whole new direction.  Great job for keeping me hoping.
 
I love this main characters in this book, Ellis Cutler and Isabel Wright.  I was able to connect with Isabel right away.  She spends her days, or rather nights a lot of the time, analyzing the dreams of other, in what seems to be her dream job, after working for the Physic Dreamer Hotline.  She finally feels as though she has found a successful career and the pieces are falling into place, she might even be able to look for her dream house!  That is until she finds her boss, Dr. Martin Belvedere, dead in his office. His son, Randolph takes over the business and she is hoping that she will be promoted to the director in her department, however just the opposite happens and she is fired.  Isabel is out on her own again, upset that she has to let her dream job go and client #2 who she has deem “dream man”.  She ends up with a job for her brother-in-law’s business as a motivational speaker, kind of.
 
Speaking of Client #2, we find out that this is Ellis Cutler and Client #1 is his boss Jack Lawson, who runs a government funded business that uses level 5 lucid dreamers to research and solve crimes.  Jack sends Ellis to Isabel after they find she has been fired to bring her into the business.  Jack thinks that this is good opportunity to distract Ellis from his obsessive ideas that a former co-worker is still alive even though he was reported dead.   Ellis has a second part of the this, he has lost his “tango dancer” and wants to get her back.  There are sparks between Ellis and Isabel from the beginning even though Isabel doesn’t know who Ellis really is.  Isabel decides that she is going to go into business for herself and be a dream consultant.  There is a quick change of events when a former co-worker of Isabel’s ends up dead in an odd hit-and-run while he is trying to sell Isabel information about the antonymous clients. 
 
The story progresses through this interesting crime spree and Ellis and Isabel’s growing romance.  This was a great story on both the crime level and romance level.  It is well written and interesting.   The book leaves you want to know more about Level 5 Dreaming and Isabel and Ellis and what will happen from here.
 

My Rating

4 of 5 stars