Children's Fiction: Alphabet Woof!, by Sherrie A. Madia

Alphabet Woof! is about a dog named Moxy who takes advantage of a food mishap that leads to him being able to express his every thought. And, boy does he have a lot on his mind!

I read this book with my two younger daughters. Both enjoyed the story and the wild possibilities presented. We all enjoyed the very colorful illustrations.

My oldest daughter and I agreed that this book was difficult to read aloud. The author tries to tell the tale with rhyme and meter. The flow often gets broken up with difficult transitions and half rhymes that don't quite make the cut. We both feel that the story concept was really well done, but the prose needed to be simpler.

There were definitely some good rhymes in the book. However, making the whole book lilt in the telling was not quite achieved. In order to incorporate the rhyming, it would have been best to have only the dialogue rhyme, while the storytelling itself be of normal pacing.

On a scale of 1-4, I give this book a 3. I really liked the story concept and artwork, but had a hard time with the overall flow. My girls, on the other hand, really enjoyed the fun adventure.


This book was published by MommyDaughter Productions, a division of Basecamp Communications.
ISBN: 978-0-9826185-0-9

A portion of the proceeds from this book will benefit the SPCA. For more information, visit http://www.alphabetwoof.com/.

Romance: Back in Black, by Lori Foster

Back in Black, by Lori Foster is a romance novel about Drew Black, the president of an MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) organization, and Gillian Noode, the publicist hired to "clean up" his act. In a side story, fighter Brett Bullman gets entangled with Audrey Porter, founder of WAVS (Women Against Violent Sports). Both couples find themselves caught in the twisted plans of a psychopath who is trying to ruin their lives.

As with most romance novels, this was an easy read. The story lines flowed nicely, and the transitions were fairly smooth. The sex scenes weren't overly drawn out, and were mostly believable. There was a nice, not too obvious twist to the plot, which was refreshing. I also found the main characters to be fairly dynamic.

I found some awkward moments in the book when the characters' realizations about each other just didn't fit. The "I love you's" seemed rushed and tacked into the end story, and I feel the ending itself could have been a little stronger.

Overall, I really liked this book. On a scale of 1-4, I give this book a 3. The sex scenes weren't raunchy or too sensationalized, and the characters were fairly dynamic.

This book was published by Berkley Books, a division of Penguin Group.
ISBN: 978-0-425-23298-9

Crime Thriller: Shadows Still Remain, by Peter De Jonge

Shadows Still Remain, by Peter De Jonge is a fast paced story about a female detective, Darlene O'Hara who is trying to make it into the Homicide Division. She catches a case involving a missing NYU student, and quickly learns that the girl is not really missing, but dead.

As O'Hara and her partner follow the clues, they also bump heads with the lead investigator on the case, Lowry. Because of their dislike for each other, O'Hara keeps information from Lowry and gets herself into all kinds of messy situations. All the while, an interesting and shocking case unfolds before O'Hara and she finds herself examining parts of her own past.

This book was fast paced and easy to read, for the most part. It was written in the present tense which made it a little less enjoyable for me. I found myself re-reading several sentences because the tense didn't seem to fit the flow of the story.

The character development was done really well for most of the characters, and the conclusion of the case is surprising. However, the ending of the story left a bit to be desired. After solving the murder case, O'Hara found herself obsessed with who the victim was before she was killed, but never learns the answers she wanted. Even though the lesson was that she won't always get all of the answers, I still felt like I was left hanging...just a little.

On a scale of 1-4, I give this book a 3. I liked the main characters, the storyline, and the pace. I would have preferred it to have been written in past tense, and I would have liked to have learned the answers to the questions O'Hara was trying to find.


This book was published by HarperCollins.
ISBN: 978-0-06-137354-1