My rating: 2 of 5 stars
#41
Ick ick ick. Perhaps this just is not my genre because I know there are SO MANY who adore Dean Koontz, but I wont be one of those. For the first time that I can remember I skipped whole chunks of the book. Why ever would you need over 300 pages to describe a 36 hour time frame? Was it even 36 hours? I don’t know because I was bored with the detail which lent NOTHING to the story. Did I really need to know the color and texture of every knic knac & piece of furniture in the house? The only compelling parts were the conversations between the monster predator and the prey/eventual heroine. Yet even with all the skipping around I still ended up having a nightmare about the guy the night I finished it! And that right there is another reason not to read any books like this again – if they are going to be THAT scary that they disturb my sleep – well some folks might like that but I really don’t.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
#42
I really enjoyed this – probably not the least because I had just finished a disappointing book so this one was a welcome feast of light, somewhat humorous fare! Still – I had previously enjoyed the Bridget Jones Diary books so I knew I would like Helen Fielding’s writing style. There were similarities here with her heroine who is ridiculously attracted to a rather awful man who keeps her utterly imbalanced. But the story of how she ends up finding herself and her self respect is much more dramatic and deep than anything in Bridget Jone’s life. The time spent in a refugee camp in Africa is riveting & heart rending and even finally serves to break through the selfish hard core of some of the celebrities she is forced to ask for help, including her romantic nemesis. I love tales of women figuring out how to find their own way and NOT rely on a man for their day to day existence or happiness.
Trees & Flowers & Birds! 
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