Pinned by Charles W. Massie: A Book Review

This book contains mega doses of sexually explicit scenes—too many for my liking which made me keep putting the book down. That is not a good thing and did not bode well in my opinion of Pinned. In the narrator’s defence he does apologize for this at the beginning of the book, I guess he had his reasons for putting that much smut in here.

This is a story of an internet love affair or a Craig’s List love affair gone wrong. Who would have thought, someone you meet on the internet and do not get to know personally before you fall head over heels in love would turn out to be someone not trustworthy? I was shocked! I want to say something here about the age of the main character and that he should have been a bit more prudent to keep himself and his possessions safe. Upon further thought, I don’t think age has anything to do with it.

Pinned by Charles W. Massie was slow to start, however; part two picked it up a notch or two which was good because I almost did not finish reading this book. There are some good life lessons here. The first lesson of course is that not everyone you meet on the internet is trustworthy so you need to be careful, or in this case be wary. Lesson number two; trust your instincts. Too often we do not listen to our gut telling us that something is not quite right and we just keep on keeping on. Last but not least is the lesson that you find out very fast who your friends are when you are in trouble. Some of us have many fair weather friends and not enough true friends we can actually count on when the going gets rough.

The cast of characters in Pinned include the two main ones:  Mark Casey and Roxanne Patrick, (names in the book were changed to protect the guilty). There were also numerous sheriffs’ deputies who were a bit lax in their duties, Les (Marks ex-roommate) and of course there were various lawyers involved with Mark after his arrest (you will need to read the book to find out why he was arrested).

As for my opinion of this book; I was disappointed in it, not sure I liked it, but I am sure that I will not read anything from this author again. This is of course just my opinion, if you read this book, or have read it your opinion may differ from mine. My rating for Pinned by Charles W. Massie is a low 2**.

Teaser Tuesday! 5/21/13

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

As I am still reading Pinned by Charles W. Massie that is where my Tuesday Teaser sentences come from today.

“You are charged with 4^th degree Domestic Abuse, 1^st degree Possession of a Controlled Substance, 1^st degree Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and 2^nd degree Drug Trafficking. The drug charges are enhanced because there was a weapon involved; namely a shotgun.”

LEAVE A COMMENT with the link to your Teaser Tuesday post, or your own "teaser" from current read. Thank you and happy reading!

Book Quote Saturday! (7)

Welcome to Book Quote Saturday! Here is a quote that I found by Abraham Lincoln which is not a quote from a book, but a quote about books. I especially like this one and thought I would share it with you today.

“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all”

Have a great weekend!

Teaser Tuesday! 5/14/13

Well it has been awhile since I have done the Teaser Tuesday sentences, so here we go!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Tuesday Teaser sentences today come from Pinned by Charles W. Massie

“The blade of the screwdriver went through the pane as it shattered, leaving shards of glass all over the living room floor. I reached in and unlocked the window and crawled into the living room.”

LEAVE A COMMENT with the link to your Teaser Tuesday post, or your own "teaser" from current read. Thank you and happy reading!

Away by Jane Urquhart!

This is the first time reading anything by Jane Urquhart and I am very glad that I took the opportunity to read this novel. We all have families and ancestors that we may know very little about or almost nothing at all. Away captures one family’s struggle from the 1840’s on. The wording took me on a journey of memory with an ease that I have rarely felt in any other book.

The main character, Mary, has an experience with something that not quite real and it leaves her different to the point of changing her name to Moira for a time. She eventually marries and it is with her husband, Brian O’Malley, that she leaves Ireland for Canada and hopefully a better life. But in Canada there are still struggles to maintain life. Brian and Mary eventually will have two children, Liam and Eileen. Family is what holds this story together. There is a sense that everything will be alright as long as the family stays and works together.

Jane Urquhart has a way with words as is shown in Away. Her wording is magnificent and draws the reader into memories and thoughts, perhaps of better times ahead. As an example:  “She comes to the end of the orchard and slowly pivots, turning her back to the posted signs that announce DANGER EXPLOSIVES to the aluminum pier, the conveyor belt, and she begins the creeping walk back.” You can almost see the orchard and get a sense that the walk will be long and slow. Or this line is line:  “I’ve been eaten alive by the buzzing air,” the man was saying to the cows, “and sick as a dog in the halfway houses.” Can’t you just feel the air buzzing around you, alive with insects?

As I said at the beginning of this post, this is the first time reading anything by this Canadian author, Jane Urquhart and Away has left me eager to read more from her. My rating for this novel is *****.