Cheryl's Book Nook

Baghdad, 2003: An elite group of private security contractors is charged with protecting the American who rules IraqIn May 2003 President George W. Bush appointed Paul Bremer as presidential envoy to Iraq. Bremer banned the Ba'ath party and dismantled the Iraqi army, which made him the prime target for dozens of insurgent and terrorist groups. Assigned to protect him during his grueling sixteen-hour days were Blackwater security expert Frank Gallagher and a team of former Marines, SEALs, and other defense professionals. When they arrived, Baghdad was set to explode. As the insurgency gathered strength Bremer and the men who guarded him faced death daily. They were not in the military, but Gallagher and his team were on the front lines of the Iraq War. This fascinating memoir takes the reader deep behind the scenes of a highly dangerous profession. My Review I can honesty say that I don't remember hearing about the big Blackwater scandal. Of course, I don't follow th...

MoonBound Clan Vampires book 2 Pocket Books September 30, 2014 ISBN-10: 1476700184 ISBN-13: 978-1476700182 buy from: Indiebound | Borders | Amazon | Powell’s | B & N T HE FUTURE OF HIS TRIBE Leader of the vampire clan MoonBound, Hunter will do what he must to save his people from extinction—or worse, a torturous eternity as vampire slaves and subjects of human experimentation.To keep his enemies at bay, he has agreed to mate a rival clan leader’s daughter in return for peace between the clans and an ally in the looming war with the humans. THE LOVER OF HIS SOUL But survival comes at a price. First, Hunter must break an ancient curse by successfully negotiating three deadly tests. Then he must resist the searing passions of the gorgeous vampire warrior he despises but is bound to mate. Will Hunter stay true to his word? Or will he risk everything for the woman he really loves: the vampire seductress’s identical twin sister? My Review I have read other books by t...

      Hey, Stephanie Meyers, this is how you do a love triangle. I tried to read the Twilight books but they were not for me. OR I should clarify that I attempted to read the first book. I did see the movies but only after the second one came out. I just never really felt the romance between Bella and Edward or even Jacob. Edward made me feel uncomfortable. Yet, I really felt and experienced the passion with Layla, Roth and Zayne. The heat was coming off the pages of the book. Although this time it was more between Layla and Zayne. Not that I am complaining as these two were hot together. This book was really good. This is because the banter between Roth and Zayne was off the charts. They were whipping the one line zingers at each other so quickly I almost got whip lash. I was laughing at the insults they were giving each other. Layla's friends rocked too. They had bigger parts in the story as well. Also, it was cool to get to see the Warderns shape shift more...

Bright siblings—and amateur inventors—Nick and Tesla Holt are back in this fourth installment of their whiz-bang middle-grade series. This time, the twins are out to save science itself, as they race against the clock to figure out why a robotic assortment of history’s greatest scientists and inventors keeps going haywire. Is this sabotage, robo-geddon…or something more sinister? To unravel the mystery, they’ll have to keep adding all-new gadgets to their cyborg glove as they stay one step ahead of a hidden adversary. Together with zany scientist Uncle Newt and their friends Silas and DeMarco, Nick and Tesla won’t give up until an answer is found…but can they do it before time runs out? In this book, readers will learn how to construct a super-cyborg gadget glove that has four incredible functions: LED signal light, ultra-loud emergency alarm, handy sound recorder, and UV secret message revealer. Science and electronics have never been so much fun! My Review I first started thi...

Synopsis A new psychological thriller that will take you into the dark depths of contemporary Russia. Moscow is plagued with a series of gruesome murders. Ksenia, an ambitious young editor in the news department of a small but influential online journal decides to track down the serial killer, devising an elaborate website to entrap him and thereby boost her company's profile. She soon realises, however, that her obsession with the psychopath reflects something more deeply disturbing: her own unconscious mixture of horror and fascination with the sexual savagery of the murders. Through his riveting plot and singular characters, Kuznetsov explores the sometimes pathological fallout resulting from our instant connectivity in the emerging world of emails, facebook, twitter, and other forms of electronic “intimacy.” The novel has enjoyed a cult following in Russia. Purchase a copy My Review This book is not your typical horror/serial killer book. It reads a little slow b...

What do you do in your teenage years when you realize what your parents taught you wasn't enough? You must go out and find books and poetry and pop songs and bad heroes—and build yourself . It's 1990. Johanna Morrigan, fourteen, has shamed herself so badly on local TV that she decides that there's no point in being Johanna anymore and reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde—fast-talking, hard-drinking gothic hero and full-time Lady Sex Adventurer. She will save her poverty-stricken Bohemian family by becoming a writer—like Jo in Little Women , or the Brontës—but without the dying-young bit. By sixteen, she's smoking cigarettes, getting drunk, and working for a music paper. She's writing pornographic letters to rock stars, having all the kinds of sex with all the kinds of men, and eviscerating bands in reviews of 600 words or less. But what happens when Johanna realizes she's built Dolly with a fatal flaw? Is a box full of records, a wall full of posters, and a head f...

On a hot summer night in a Midwestern town, a high school teenage prank goes horrifically awry. Alcohol, guns, and a dare. Within minutes, as events collide, innocents becomes victims—with tragic outcomes altering lives forever, a grisly and unfortunate scenario all too familiar from current real-life headlines. But victims can also become survivors, and as we come to know each character through his/her own distinctive voice and their interactions with one another, we see how, despite pain and guilt, they can reach out to one another, find a new equilibrium, and survive. Told through multiple points of view in naturalistic free verse and stream of consciousness, this is an unforgettable, haunting tale. My Review I have to say that when I first picked up this book and saw that it was written all in verses I had my reservations. I thought ok, this is going to be a bust and I am going to put this book down in in a few pages. Well I did not put the book down. In fact, I actually real...

  Pink® in Honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Support the Next Chapter in Innovative Research Penguin Random House Marks Five-Year Partnership Milestone and $125,000 in Donations to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation® What’s black and white and pink all over? The initiative by Penguin Random House called Read Pink® in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October)! Today the scientific community has left behind the "one-size-fits-all" breast cancer treatment to emerge with targeted, more effective therapies. As a result, after remaining stagnant for more than 50 years, the death rate from breast cancer has decreased by 30 percent. The Read Pink® initiative by Penguin Random House is proud to be part of this exciting new chapter in the fight against breast cancer, supporting the bold research of The Breast Cancer Foundation® (BCRF), while leveraging its passionate readers to help increase awareness and education about the disease. This l...

Beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber celebrates the most wonderful time of the year in this heartwarming Christmas novel of romance, hope, and the comforts of home—coming soon as a Hallmark Channel original movie! Hardcover , 256 pages Expected publication: October 7th 2014 by Ballantine Books Harry Mills is a guardian angel on a mission: help twenty-four-year-old Addie Folsom get her life back on track—and, if the right moment strikes, help her find love. Posing as a teacher at a local college in Tacoma, Washington, Harry is up to the task, but not even he can predict the surprises that lay in store. After trying to make it on her own, Addie has returned home to Tacoma for the holidays, but this time she plans to stay for good, enrolling in the local community college to earn her degree. What she doesn’t plan to do is run into Erich Simmons. Addie and her next-door neighbor, Erich, are like night and day. Growing up, he was popular an...

Hardcover , 320 pages Expected publication: January 6th 2015 by Gallery Books A heart-wrenching debut novel in the bestselling tradition of P.S. I Love You about a young woman with breast cancer who undertakes a mission to find a new wife for her husband before she passes away. Twenty-seven-year-old Daisy already beat breast cancer three years ago. How can this be happening to her again? On the eve of what was supposed to be a triumphant “Cancerversary” with her husband Jack to celebrate three years of being cancer-free, Daisy suffers a devastating blow: her doctor tells her that the cancer is back, but this time it’s an aggressive stage four diagnosis. She may have as few as four months left to live. Death is a frightening prospect—but not because she’s afraid for herself. She’s terrified of what will happen to her brilliant but otherwise charmingly helpless husband when she’s no longer there to take care of him. It’s this fear that keeps her up a...

About the Book “Brian” is a composite of the many children who attended the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind (AIDB) in our hometown of Talladega, Alabama. My husband Ken and I had the privilege to know and work with children who had to learn to live life with one or more disabilities, making us intensely aware of some of the difficulties that accompanied eyes that did not see or ears that did not hear. We also wondered how parents of these children dealt with the challenges that the entire family faced while accommodating necessary differences in daily life for their child with disabilities. For example, how does a parent teach a child about concepts that are difficult to grasp even without disabilities? How can parents share emotions, morals, beliefs and concepts such as patriotism, charity and forgiveness to a child who cannot hear their explanations? As Helen Keller had to learn, once she made the “connection” between flowing, wet water and the sign for water, her lea...

From a remarkable new voice in suspenseful women's fiction comes an emotionally searing drama about a woman who risks her life to discover the devastating truth about her family… Humanitarian aid worker Gia Andrews chases disasters around the globe for a living. It's the perfect lifestyle to keep her far away from her own personal ground zero. Sixteen years ago, Gia's father was imprisoned for brutally killing her stepmother. Now he's come home to die of cancer, and she's responsible for his care—and coming to terms with his guilt. Gia reluctantly resumes the role of daughter to the town's most infamous murderer, a part complete with protesters on the lawn and death threats that are turning tragedy into front-page news. Returning to life in small-town Tennessee involves rebuilding relationships that distance and turmoil have strained, though finding an emotional anchor in the attractive hometown bartender is certainly helping Gia cope. As the past unravels ...

Sheltered since birth at her Kentucky home, Rowena Ballantyne has heard only whispered rumors of her grandfather Silas's vast fortune and grand manor in Pennsylvania. When her father receives a rare letter summoning him to New Hope, Rowena makes the journey with him and quickly finds herself in a whole new world--filled with family members she's never met, dances she's never learned, and a new side to the father she thought she knew. As she struggles to fit in during their extended stay, she finds a friend in James Sackett, the most valued steamship pilot of the Ballantynes' shipping line. Even with his help, Rowena feels she may never be comfortable in high society. Will she go her own way . . . to her peril? With her signature attention to historical detail, Laura Frantz brings 1850s Pennsylvania alive with a tender story of loss, love, and loyalty. Fans will cheer for this final installment of the Ballatyne saga. Review by Blanche Mancuso I loved this book s...

Title: Reticulum Author: Marta Salek Genre: NA Fantasy Release Date: September 2014 Matthew’s life has one focus: magic. Pleasure, for him, is achieving the unachievable, learning that which has never been understood before. The Reticulum is a dream come true—a magic that promises him everything. With it whispering in his mind, what other companion does he need? Andrea is determined to take on the world and her talent is such that she might just succeed. But an apprenticeship with an unscrupulous wizard shatters her self-confidence, leaving her friendless and alone.   When the two meet, they learn that isolation is not inevitable, after all. That being able to break the laws of the universe means little if there’s no one to break them for. That when you allow yourself to need, and trust, and love, you can take on anything.       Marta lives out in the hills of Australia with her partner and assorted fluffy roosters, chickens...

Caroline used to have it all: she was madly in love with her husband, Peter, and they worshiped their beautiful baby girl. But as Lily grows into a toddler, Caroline notices that her daughter seems to live and act with a disconnect, and soon the perfect future Caroline had envisioned, along with her marriage, begin to crumble. Now she and Peter are no longer lovers, they're plaintiffs in the throes of divorce while still struggling to care for Lily. After years of blame and overwhelming despair, Caroline's chance encounter with a stranger at University Hospital opens her eyes to the prospect of accepting new support, new loves, and new dreams. From the acclaimed author of "The Final Piece" comes a story of a family broken and unable to cope with a daughter's disability. And a mother who finds that letting go of the life she imagined may be the only way to get to the life she was meant for. My Review Lily Love is an awesome book. The author drew me into C...

Title:   Savaged Author:   Nacole Stayton Genre:   Contemporary Romance 18+ Publication Date:   September 12, 2014 Cover Design :  Sommer Stein Event Organized by:  Literati Author Services , Inc.     ~Synopsis~ The twist of a knife shredded Niko Kincaid’s world all around him, leaving him with two choices—accept his fate and die, or fight to live. He chose to fight, but the aftermath became a daily reminder, carved into his once flawless flesh. Despite years of self-imposed solitude, Niko hungers for companionship and suffers from an aching loneliness that the darkness cannot satisfy. He temporarily soothes his pain with women, hired women, whose only purpose is to service him.  Easy. He didn’t expect a complication like Cambree Evans, but desperation corrupts even the most innocent. Whe...