My Brother's Keeper by Patricia McCormick

(187 pages)



From the acclaimed author of "Cut" comes this new novel that explores the anguish of living with divided loyalties and the cost of keeping family secrets, as a young teen struggles to keep his family together when his father abandons them.


My Brothers keeper is the story of a single parent family consisting of mom, Eli who is slightly strange, has a bike called Tonto and a female cat called Mr Furry, Jake who has fallen into 'bad company' decided that his beloved baseball is uncool and started using drugs and finally Toby, a 13 year old who is going grey and whose best friend is the local shopkeeper called Mr. D (who also happens to be a pensioner). It is Toby who takes it upon himself to try and hold his family together after his alcoholic father left. He does so by covering up for his older brother Jake and hiding his moms bill because he knows she cant afford to pay them.Unfortunately Toby's best intentions dont always work out quite to plan and the family nearly enters meltdown before too long.
Patricia McCormick has succeeded in bringing to the fore the problems faced by teens today with regard to the availability of drugs and the hassles they can bring to a family. She also manages to touch upon the breakdown that can occur when one parent leaves, and the emotional turmoil that can be caused and what further problems it can lead to.
However, as good as the story was and as touching and likeable Toby appeared, the book seemed to be lacking a depth that would have allowed the reader to get more inside the world of the disintegrating family. The book is aimed at younger teenagers, so this may be the reason for the apparent surface nature of the drug abuse, but a great opportunity was missed to investigate and explore the sheer destructive nature of the problem at hand. I feel that the message could have been got across more clearly if the story had continued on further into 'what happened next'.
Overall this was an easy, likeable and touching read, bnut it was lacking some depth.

Pariah by Brian Vallee

(372 pages)



The murders begin in rural Pennsylvania, in a high rent nursing home. Then come more brutal killings in Spain, Las Vegas, Paraguay, all with a macabre trademark; a crisp new dollar bill stuffed into the mouth of each of the victims, most of them close associates of the late, eccentric billionaire Elliot R. Brodie.

this is truly one of the worst books I have ever tried to read!! the story was all over the place and the writing was so chauvanistic in infuriated me!!! LOL!

Still Thinking of You by Adele Parks

(563 pages)



New love, old relationships and a question of fidelity from the bestselling author of The Other Woman's Shoes.
Tash and Rich are newly engaged and wild about each other. They can’t wait to celebrate their wedding with their closest friends, all of whom have known each other since university, where they enjoyed a hedonistic whirl of parties, popularity, sex and success.
But is fun really as easy-come-easy-go in your thirties as it was in your twenties? How do relationships change once you leave college and have to cope with real life? And what if the love of that life were to reappear now?
As old, long buried passions are reawakened, the group realise that a lot can change in twelve years. And a lot can happen in seven days…

I did quite enjoy this. The range of chaacters was great, I am sure everyone will be able to relate to at least one of them. The story had a couple of twists and had me gasping and giggling all at once. I absolutely hated Mia at first, and then in the end I started to feel quite sorry for her.
The only fault i could find was that at nearly 600 pages it was a tad overlong, but definitely worth the read :D