Masquerade by Gayle Lynds ** 2 Stars

Masquerade by Gayle Lynds


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
In a nut shell, I would say that if you are at one of those camp grounds that has a lending library and you are without a really good book, this book is finishable.

In it's honor the last 1/3 was pretty good and did keep me coming back to the end. If a book is all out horrible I quickly move on to something better. However the good part was working to wrap up and make sense out of the first 2/3 of the book.

For me a book revolves around the characters and the plot. While the book did start off as promising, the characters seemed too random as the story tried to include them all for the big reveal at the end. To me it seemed as though the book was written with the end in mind and then the characters were worked in through out the book so they could be used later. As the ancillary characters pop up in the book, it's not very clear as to why you would even care about these people and then they get dragged into the whole conspiracy at the end.

The plot has an interesting premise, but was not fully executed in a way that builds much suspense or great intrigue. Scenes seemed a bit pat and already done and lead me to understand much of it in the first half. However, it was an easy read and I was curious to see exactly how it would work out. Although I was hoping for a surprise ending (which I didn't get) it wasn't the worst book I have ever read.

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Challenge Stats:
100 Book Reading Challenge: 1
Mystery/Thriller Challenge: 1
Read Your Bookshelf Challenge: 1 (gave me the inspiration to keep going, typically I would have jumped ship)
Genre Challenge: 1 Mystery

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
2 Stars -Dropped it after 100 pages

I went back and forth, back and forth in terms of what I should do with this book. All of the hype of Dan Brown that went along with the DaVinci Code just did not meet my expectations.

The premise is a good one. The ancient battle of science over creation. One that has led to many deaths during the Enlightenment Period. I was intrigued with the philosophy of the Illuminati. Well that's about as much as the book has to offer.

Sure the insights into the history of Catholicism is interesting. Having been born and raised as Catholic, I could relate to the rigidity of the church. However, I feel that many of the ideals and beliefs shared during the first 100 pages were extremely anti-Catholic, glaringly so...which was annoying.

When does one know when to call it quits? When one is eyeballing their every growing stash of to-be-read books. Usually I like to read a book before I watch the movie, but in this case I think I will just rent the DVD.

Happy Reading!
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