I'm a little late to the party this week, but that's okay!  The Book Blogger Hop is in full swing and I'm joining in the fun.  You can, too—just go to Crazy For Books to get all the details.  It's a good ole time, a great opportunity to find awesome new blogs and spread the word about yours.

This week's question is:

What is your favorite thing about blogging?

- Easy.  For me, it's all about mingling with other book lovers.  I love talking about what I'm reading, my favorite authors, what's new in the book world, etc. with other people who get it ('cause, you know, not everyone does).  It's just a whole lot of fun for me.  Because of this blog, I've gotten to "meet" tons of readers, authors, bloggers, publicists, booksellers—both in the virtual world and the real one.  I learn something from each and everyone one of you.  What's not to love about that?

What about you?  What's your favorite part of blogging?

If this is your first visit to BBB, welcome!  I'm so glad you're here.  Take a look around, leave me a comment (or two or three or ten) and I'll definitely return the favor.  If you've been lurking around this joint for awhile now, thank you!  Your support means so much to me.  

Have a wonderful weekend, everybody!  I'm going to be spending the next few hours watching my daughter get her hair braided, then I'll be back to do some hopping.  See y'all soon.     

Like most bloggers, I get my fair share of requests to review different products and services.  I turn down the majority of them since evaluating sunglasses or diapers or whatever isn't really consistent with what I'm trying to do here at BBB.  However, when I get an offer to try something cool and bookish, well, I'm all over it.

Naturally, then, I was thrilled to hear from Livrada, a new company that sells e-book gift cards.  These are physical cards sold at brick and mortar stores, each of which is good for the redemption of one e-book.  Like a traditional book, each card features beautiful cover art and a plot summary for the novel it represents.  The e-books are easily downloaded to all Kindle and Nook devices.  Currently, the cards are being sold at Target and are available for the following titles:  State of Wonder by Ann Patchett; Fifty Shades of Gray by E.L. James; Odd Thomas by Dean R. Koontz; Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn; The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson; and 44 Charles Street by Danielle Steele.  They're fun, personal gifts that are perfect for the booklovers in your life.

The generous folks at Livrada gave me a choice of titles.  I selected Odd Thomas.  Redeeming the gift card and downloading the e-book to my Kindle Fire was just as quick and easy as promised.  I haven't had a chance to read the novel yet, but I will soon.

So, as much as I enjoyed using my gift card, I'm not sure I would actually buy one.  Why?  Well, unless I knew a person's reading tastes really, really well and knew exactly which books they did/did not have, I would be hesitant to give them a title-specific gift card.  A generic e-card to say, Amazon, wouldn't be as personal, but it would be more practical, you know?  I would be much more likely to go that route.  I'm also not sure about how the pricing works.  I went to my local Target the other night to do a little research and couldn't find the gift cards anywhere, not in the book section, not in the gift card section, nowhere, so there also appears to be an availability problem.  At any rate, I think Livrada's come up with a fun concept.  I'm just not sure it's going to catch on all that well.  What do you think?      

I've tried about a dozen times to write an adequate plot summary for The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield, but I just can't get it right.  I'm thinking the simpler the better for this book, so here's the short-and-sweet description that appears on Barnes & Noble and Amazon:

Every first Sunday in June, members of the Moses clan gather for an annual reunion at a sprawling hundred-acre farm in Arkansas. And every year, Samuel Lake, a vibrant and committed young preacher, brings his beloved wife, Willadee Moses, and their three children back for the festivities. In the midst of it all, Samuel and Willadee’s outspoken eleven-year-old daughter, Swan, is a bright light. Her high spirits and fearlessness have alternately seduced and bedeviled three generations of the family. But just as the reunion is getting under way, tragedy strikes, jolting the family to their core and setting the stage for a summer of crisis and profound change. 

The plot of the novel is difficult to describe, probably because there isn't much of one, especially not at the beginning of the book.  In fact, yesterday, I was reading it while waiting for the dentist to examine my teeth.  I was about 100 pages into the story when he asked me what The Homecoming of Samuel Lake was about.  My response?  "Um, hm, now that you mention it, I have no idea."  Which isn't to say the tale isn't interesting.  It is.  It's just that the author takes her time setting the stage for the main conflict of the story (which doesn't present itself until around Page 150).  With a less skilled writer, this could have been a problem.  But, Wingfield's lush, tantalizing prose charmed me so much that I almost forgot about plot altogether (until my dentist reminded me, that is).  Also, because the author gives the reader time to really get to know her characters before abusing them with savage plot twists, the reader cares and cares deeply about what happens to them.  The book's finale is an excellent case in point—I sobbed through the majority of the last 100 pages, because by then, the Moses Family felt like my own kin, their tragedies seemed like my own.  The Homecoming of Samuel Lake isn't a perfect book, mind you, but it's one of those you'll-laugh-you'll-cry-you'll-jeer-you'll-cheer kind of stories, the kind that touches your heart and makes you believe that no matter how much ugliness exists in this world, it will always be trumped by the beauty that lives here, too.     

(Note:  Although this review will not contain spoilers for Bones Are Forever by Kathy Reichs, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from earlier books in the Temperance Brennan series.  As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.)

Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is used to dealing with grisly crime scenes.  It's part of her job.  But, when she finds three dead infants hidden in the walls of a rundown apartment in Montreal, she can hardly stand it.  Tempe's shocked, horrified and filled with an anger so hot she can barely see straight.  What kind of monster kills babies?  Was it the children's mother?  If so, why?  What could possibly have driven her to do such a horrific thing and not once, but thrice?  Tempe cannot even begin to imagine the answers, so she does what she does best:  she reads the bones.

Based on evidence Tempe discovers, police track the mother to Yellowknife, an isolated diamond-mining community deep in the Northwest Territories.  Tempe's invited along for the manhunt.  The last thing on Earth she wants to find is more tiny corpses, but she's determined to bring the babies' killer to justice. Tempe needs to focus on the case, but travelling with two former lovers makes concentration a bit difficult.  The situation is awkward enough:  Tempe's working with Detective Andrew Ryan, her sexy on-again-off-again (currently off) boyfriend and Ollie Hasty, a sergeant with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with whom Tempe had a long-ago dalliance.  The men's constant bickering only adds to the tension—sexual and otherwise—already crackling between the three.

As the case gets even more complicated, Tempe finds herself embroiled in a mess that involves not just dead babies, but also prostitutes, drug dealers, the lucrative diamond business and, of course, a cold-blooded killer.  The closer she gets to the truth behind the infants' deaths, the closer she comes to unmasking the murderer.  And becoming his/her next victim.

It's no secret that I'm a huge Kathy Reichs fan.  Ever since reading Deja Dead, the first novel in her popular Temperance Brennan series (which inspired the hit tv series Bones, by the way, although you really don't want to get me started on that ...), I've been hooked.  Tempe's a smart, funny heroine with an admirable passion for her work.  I love her character as well as the way Reichs makes forensic anthropology accessible for those of us whose only background in the science is the hundreds of hours we've logged watching CSI.

As much as I love the series, though, I have to admit it has—at times—lagged a little.  Well, no more!  Bones Are Forever (available August 28, 2012), the 15th Temperance Brennan book, just may be the very best.  With a unique locale, an intriguing mystery and a whole lot of sparks zinging between one of my favorite literary couples, the novel kept me thoroughly engrossed and wholly entertained.  Bones Are Forever injects new life into one of my favorite series, reminding me just how much I adore Kathy Reichs.  I seriously cannot wait to see where she takes Tempe next.

(Readalikes:  Other books in the Temperance Brennan series, including Deja Dead; Death du Jour; Deadly Decisions; Fatal Voyage; Grave Secrets; Bare Bones; Monday Mourning; Cross Bones; Break No Bones; Bones to Ashes; Devil Bones; 206 Bones; Spider Bones; and Flash and Bones)

Grade:  B

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  R for strong language, sexual innuendo, violence and adult situations

To the FTC, with love:  I received an e-ARC of Bones Are Forever from the generous folks at Scribner (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) via Edelweiss.  Thank you!