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(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other sci fi thrillers, although no specific title is coming to mind.  Suggestions?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for violence and brief, mild sexual innuendo

To the FTC, with love:  I borrowed my son's copy of Invasion.  Thanks, bud!

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Only one thing could have enticed homicide detective Lizzie Snow to move from Boston to tiny Bearkill, Maine.  And it's not her new job as a community liaison officer.  Or the fact that the man who broke her heart, but still makes it beat faster than anyone else ever has, lives only a couple counties away.  No, she moved to the edge of the Great North Woods for only one reason—to find her niece, who went missing from Eastport eight years ago.  An anonymous tip hinting that Nicki may be in Arostook County brought her to the wilderness area.  Lizzie won't leave it until she combs every inch of the remote region in search of her only living relative.  

While Lizzie has her own, personal reasons for taking the job in Bearkill, Sheriff Cody Chevrier hopes her homicide experience will help him solve a string of mysterious deaths involving former police officers.  It's the main problem on his mind, but Bearkill has plenty of others.  If he can convince Lizzie to stick around, he's sure she'll prove the perfect person to set his town to rights.

Despite her boss's warnings, Lizzie can't believe anything more sinister than schoolboy pranks really goes down in Bearkill.  She's wrong.  Evil is already stalking the little town—and it's landed right on Lizzie's doorstep.  Can she stay alive long enough to solve Bearkill's mysteries?  Already occupied with town business and worried about the blizzard that's blowing in, will Lizzie be able to achieve her real goal?  With everything else that's going down, can she follow the clues she's been given and find her niece?  Or will a killer stop Lizzie before she ever gets the chance?

Have you ever wondered what I consider the perfect formula for a mystery series?  I'm sure this burning question has been keeping you up at night, so I'll answer it for you.  First, you need a small town setting with dark secrets simmering below its benign surface.  Add in a cast of compelling townspeople hiding skeletons in their closets; a nosy detective/reporter/P.I. with an intriguing back story; and a gripping plot that keeps me guessing.  Bind it all together with solid prose and, voilá, I'm hooked!  Easy cheesy, right?  Not so much.  That's why finding a new series that fits the bill makes me happy, even giddy.  

So, when I heard about the Lizzie Snow series by Sarah Graves, I knew I had to check it out.  I'm so glad I did.  Winter at the Door, the first book, introduces the intrepid Detective Snow.  She's an understated heroine, though a complex and fully developed one.  Which isn't to say we know everything about her right off the bat.  Not at all.  Graves doles out the policewoman's details slowly, strategically, carefully reeling readers in until she's got them hooked.  Bearkill also comes alive in the book, giving the story a strong sense of place.  While the plot of Winter at the Door doesn't offer a lot of surprises, it definitely kept me reading.  That, coupled with a likable heroine and an atmospheric backdrop made this novel enjoyable for me.  I hadn't even reached the middle of the series debut before I was on my library's website reserving the next installment.  If you're looking for a captivating new mystery series, give this one a go.  Personally, I can't wait to see what the tough, but kindhearted Lizzie Snow does next. 

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of Julia Keller's Bell Elkins series [A Killing in the Hills; Bitter River; Summer of the Dead; Last Ragged Breath; and Sorrow Road] just less edgy)   

Grade:  

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (1 F-bomb, plus milder expletives), violence, blood/gore, and references to illegal drug use

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

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When people see Julia, Avery, and Becca together, they seem to think only one thing: Chinese.  It's true the girls were all born in China, even lived in the same orphanage, but that doesn't mean they're all the same.  Or that they're any less American just because they weren't born on U.S. soil.  Avery and Becca might not care if people only see their Asian-ness, but Julia wants to blend in.  She doesn't want to learn Mandarin, eat with chopsticks, or cool herself with a Chinese-style fan.  The last thing on Earth she wants is to stick out more than she already does.

Julia is definitely not happy about spending the summer with Avery and Becca at a sleep away camp in Wisconsin.  Worse, she's expected to not just bond with her "Chinese sisters," but also to write about her experiences in a journal for Ms. Marcia, the director of the agency that facilitated the girls' adoptions.  As if things aren't bad enough already, Julia, Avery and Becca get stuck with two snotty cabin mates.  Cabins are supposed to work together to win various competitions and earn prizes.  There's little hope of White Oak winning anything, given how little cooperation goes on between the mismatched girls.  Between the constant talk of China and adoption, the obnoxiousness of the other girls, and Julia's already sour attitude, it's going to be a very, very, very long summer ... 

It may not sound like it from my description, but Just Like Me by Nancy J. Cavanaugh is a funny, upbeat story about finding yourself in the most unlikely of places.  It's a quick, thoughtful read that teaches some great lessons about embracing what's unique about yourself.  Adopted children and their parents will be relieved to see common misconceptions about adoption addressed in the story in sensitive, even humorous ways.  As an adoptive mother herself, Cavanaugh has in-the-trenches experience that radiates through this novel.  While the story didn't blow me away or anything, I enjoyed it, especially the way Cavanaugh brings it all to a realistically imperfect end.  

(Readalikes:  I've read a lot of books about adoption, but I can't think of anything really similar to Just Like Me.  Can you?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

To the FTC, with love:  I received an ARC of Just Like Me from the generous folks at Sourcebooks.  Thank you!

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If someone else was footing the bill (which can run in excess of $70,000) and you were given a year to train, would you be willing to make a go at climbing to the summit of Mount Everest?  Keep in mind that topping Earth's tallest mountain (above sea level) takes around two months and requires great skill and strength.  Despite increasing safety measures, people still die every year while trying to reach Everest's top.  They expire because of altitude sickness, exposure, heart attacks, exhaustion, falling, and being caught in blizzards and storms (In 2015, Everest's deadliest year, 21 were killed because of an earthquake-triggered avalanche).  Many of the dead bodies are never found; even when they're located, the difficulty of removing corpses at such high elevation means that many remain on the mountain.  Considering all of this, would you do it?  Would you risk life and limb to try to achieve something only a few thousand people in the world have done?  Would all this be worth it to you, just to be able to say you've summited the highest mountain in the world?

For me, the answer is an unequivocal no way, nuh uh, never, ever, ever.  If your answer is more like, "Heck, yeah, I would," or even, "maybe," may I suggest that you're completely off your rocker you pick up a copy of Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer's unforgettable memoir about his experience on Everest?  In vivid, compelling prose, the Seattle journalist describes what happened before, during, and after his life-changing climb.  The elaborate preparation (financial, physical, and emotional) that goes into planning and executing a "normal" Everest summit is mind-boggling all on its own.  Just that would have made for fascinating reading, especially told in Krakauer's engaging style.  But, the writer's trip would turn out to be anything but ordinary.  Krakauer, who was 42 at the time, staggered to the top of Mount Everest on the afternoon of May 10, 1996.  Unbeknownst to him, that day would come to be known as the deadliest in the mountain's history.  On that momentous day, he would lose teammates and friends in a terrible tragedy that haunts him to this day.

While some might romanticize their triumphs over Everest, Krakauer does nothing of the sort.  His account is honest, harrowing, and heartbreaking.  He talks frankly about common Everest issues like overcrowding, trash accumulation, unsafe climbing, and man's ridiculous hubris in the face of nature's supremacy. Krakauer also admits that "...climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain" (140).  In a 2015 interview with a Huffington Post reporter, he stated:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language, violence, scenes of peril, and a few references to sex and illegal drug use

Note:  Everest the movie, which is based on Into Thin Air, is actually rated PG-13 for disturbing images and scenes of peril.  Surprisingly, it has little—if any—profanity (unlike the book).  

To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of Into Thin Air at Costco with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.