Bump Key Proof — will protect you the lock

VIA «Bump Key: safety of the lock under the threat»

Lock of architectural hair

Contextual conformity

VIA «Figurative facade for a beauty salon»

Dermot Nolan is a New York Times bestselling author who is suffering from a bit of writers block. He's already spent the million dollar advance he received from his publisher His bestselling book is being made into a movie. All of this success should be inspiring, but his creative juices are tapped out.

Then one day, Nolan notices an old man depositing something into his mailbox. It's a manuscript detailing a series of horrific murders. Each murder is described in such vivid detail Nolan begins to wonder if they are real. The killer refers to himself as the The Dream Healer, and his Web site promises individuals relief from their nightmares. Unknowing victims log on to this site and reveal their nightmares, in real time, to The Dream Healer. Those suffering from nightmares due receive a release from their nightmares, but not the way they intended. The Dream Healer hunts them down and kill them by reinacting their nightmares.

Nolan's wife, Neela, and his long-time friend Nick encourage Nolan to use the manuscript as a basis for his new novel. Nolan begins to research this crimes and discovers evidence the crimes were real. He allows the book to be published and it's an instant bestseller. However, The Dream Healer hasn't stopped killing. When a number of crimes detailed in Nolan's novel take place, he becomes a person of interest. His life and the lives of those he loves are put in danger. What will it take to stop The Dream Healer?

I was lucky enough to meet Shane Briant at BEA. He took the time to come up and introduce himself to me at the blogger signing booth. He wanted to thank me for agreeing to review his book. I have to admit, I was a bit stunned at first. Never had I been thanked before writing a review. What if I didn't like the book!? In the end, I did...I loved it. It was an honor to have met him!

I read Worst Nightmares

while on vacation. It's not a short book, 352 pages, but I literally read it in one sitting. Briant's writing is chilling, his descriptions are so vivid and detailed that I literally had to stop and catch my breath. Not for the weak at heart, but a must for someone who craves excitement and a thrill. Be sure to lock your doors first though!

Shane Briant is definitely an author to watch. I hear a sequel is in the making and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy! And like Nolan's bestseller, I hope this one hits the movie screen!

I happen to have an extra copy of Worst Nightmares

to give away to one lucky reader.

To enter, you must answer the following question: What is your worst nightmare (I promise I won't send THE DREAM HEALER after you!)?

The rules:

• entries must contain an email address. Entries that do not will be deleted
  
• for an extra point, blog and/or tweet about it. Be sure to include a link to your post/tweet in your comment.
  
• US and Canadian residents only.
  
• Contest will end Friday, July 31st.

  A winner will be announced on this blog on Saturday, August 1st.
  

Snow has finally blanketed the fair Iowa City, just in time to lock me inside my house to study. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I won't be doing that today as the literary magazine I'm on is having a big meeting today and it could go for several hours. Hopefully I still manage to finish at least one paper today!

I had a party last night and several friends came over to play games and eat cookies. I made 100 cookies! Including the cookies Kim talked about at Sophisticated Dorkiness. They were delicious, a big hit. I actually used hugs and kisses for mine, and I think I preferred the hugs but I'm a sucker for white chocolate. The party was especially great because there was freshly fallen snow, cookies and warm drinks, a bright Christmas tree, and lots of laughter with good friends. It was very atmospheric, I would say. If someone from the outside were to look into our frosty windows I think they would smile at the good time we had.

I also got 500 Handmade Books from my friend Michael as an engagement/Christmas present, which was lovely. Although there is a book I saw in there that had human hair on it, which I thought was odd. It was one of the first books I looked at so I'm interested to see what can top that. In all reality, I'm really excited about bookbinding right now. Michael and I are taking a bookbinding class next semester and on Friday I went to see what students in the University of Iowa's Center for the Book made this past semester. There were so many amazing books, paper, and boxes that I feel I couldn't have seen everything even though I walked through it all. I hope some of my projects turn out as beautiful as the ones on display. I'm sure you can all expect posts about that next semester!

I'm off to continue writing about Sarah Silverman and eat some breakfast (brunch?).

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Saylor Oz is a Brooklyn-based sex therapist. She spends her days curing couples of their sexual woes. But when the brother of her long-time friend gets arrested and convicted of serial murders, Saylor feels obligated to put on a detective hat and hunts for the true killer.

The murder victims were all models found around New York City. Each victim has a lock of hair missing. Saylor, a connoisseur of films of a sexual nature, realizes that she's seen this somewhere before: an old movie entitled Bad, Bad, Babydoll. Saylor immediately begins investigating the cast of this movie and discovers some startling similarities to the crimes. She vows to stop at nothing, even putting herself in harms way, to help find the true killer.

Readers of Jenn's Bookshelf know that I can't stand when one author's writing is compared to another. However, in the case of Babydoll

, I can't help but compare it to Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels. Saylor has the same no-holds-barred attitude as Stephanie Plum. I It's not Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction, but an excellent read nonetheless. Several times I found myself laughing at loud. The emotions the reader experiences ranges from sorrow and hatred to tears-rolling-down-your face humor. The characters are stellar. Each has their own faults, but you can't help but love them. And if that's not enough, the storyline is very suspenseful. Just when you think you've solved the case, Roy throws in something from left field and forces you to reconsider.

While Babydoll is technically the second in a series of books, you lose nothing by not reading the first of the series, Aphrodisiac

. Obviously, since the main character is a sex therapist, there is a good deal of sex in this book. It's not overly graphic or raunchy in any way and completely appropriate for this book.

I highly recommend this one! A steamy thriller for your steamy summer evenings!

About the author:
Allyson Roy translates into Alice & Roy, husband and wife collaborating authors. Roy, a graduate of the University Of The Arts in Philadelphia, has a background in theater, art and standup comedy. Alice, dancer/choreographer/teacher, double majored in dance and philosophy at the State University of New York. They spent many gypsy years living and working in the different neighborhoods of New York City and Philadelphia. Aside from being marriage and writing partners, they are also best friends, which is reflected in the heartfelt, go-the-distance friendship of their two main characters.

Thanks to TLC Book Tours for allowing me to take part in this tour. And thanks to the publisher, Penguin, for providing a copy of this book for review.

Check out the other blogs participating in this tour:

Tuesday, August 18th: The Eclectic Book Lover
Wednesday, August 19th: Jenn’s Bookshelf
Tuesday, August 25th: Jen’s Book Thoughts
Wednesday, August 26th: Cheryl’s Book Nook
Thursday, August 27th: Reading With Monie
Monday, August 31st: Bookluver-Carol’s Reviews
Wednesday, September 2nd: Chick With Books
Thursday, September 3rd: Stephanie’s Confessions of a Book-a-holic
Tuesday, September 8th: GalleySmith
Wednesday, September 9th: Bookgasm
Thursday, September 10th: I’m Booking It

Now to the giveway! To enter, comment on this post. To earn extra entries, blog and/or tweet about it. Please include a direct link to your tweet or blog post in your comment. All comments must contain an email address. Comments received without email address will be automatically removed. Open to US and Canadian residents only. Winner will be announced on this blog on Friday, August 28th.

After my post on Thursday about avoiding finals I gave studying on Saturday the good old college try. I got some of my paper done, but not nearly enough. This afternoon I'm going to lock myself up in the library and I won't come out until I have at least 1.5 papers done and my reading for Monday. But this morning I'm going to relax a little bit, do some reading and eat some food. Maybe after a little relaxation I'll feel better equipped to plunge into paper writing. Maybe I'll pick up a peppermint latte or something to make myself feel extra prepared.

I'm not sure how other students are, but I really have to coax myself into studying for finals. The week before finals is probably about the worst week because the end is so close. I love actual finals week because you don't have to go to class, so you can just relax and study all week! This is especially true for me this semester because I only have one big final exam (anthropology, the bane of my existence) so for the entirety of finals week I will just work, relax, and study for that stupid exam, which have to do very, very well on. Don't be surprised if I start tweeting about skulls all the time.

If you haven't yet, check out my review of Heart with Joy. I really enjoyed this book and my review doesn't do it justice. I also did a post about Gifts for English Majors you should check out for your holiday shopping. Yesterday I did an Awesome Essays post about and essay called Speaking American, which I think all of you will enjoy because you love language!

Thanks everyone for your overwhelming congratulations about my engagement. I'm obviously very excited about it! We're not planning to get married until after we graduate so it will be a year and a half, and for now I'm just excited about being engaged.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

I am going to preface this review of The Moonstone

by acknowledging the fact that I read this book for class. By the time I read this book, I had already read four other sensation fiction novels and I had pretty much had my fill of them at this point. So while my overall experience with this book was not so great, I think if I would have read this book at a different time I might have enjoyed it more. Therefore, I gave it a little more lenient of a grade than my actual feelings about it and my review will probably be largely negative because my experience was not the best.

A beautiful and mysterious diamond called the Moonstone has been stolen from India and ended up on Rachel Verinder's neck by the hands of her crush, Franklin Blake. Even though she is warned that if she wore the diamond in India her life would be worth nothing (yeah that's right, those Indians would kill her), Rachel still flaunts her new diamond at a party. And even though everyone tells her she should lock the diamond up, she puts it in her Indian cabinet because it's the perfect spot. The next morning it is discovered that the diamond has been stolen, but who stole it? Rachel stubbornly refuses to talk to anyone about it. This makes a detective wonder if she stole the diamond or if she knows more information.

The storyline is pretty good, and it begs the question who should end up with the diamond? Rachel, who loves the diamond and received it as a gift, or the Indians who it rightfully belonged to in the first place? Modern day reader probably don't have to consider that question too much, but in the Victorian era it was a little more complicated than that. What makes this dynamic even more interesting is the three Indian jugglers that show up on the night the Moonstone is stolen. Hmmmm?

My favorite part of this story, however, was Rosanna Spearman, the disfigured maid who is also in love with Franklin Blake. She has a shady past and was once a thief, although now it is clear she should be trusted. She loves to go out to the quicksand and she follows Franklin Blake like a puppy even though he never notices her. Rosanna is sad, but also kind of entertaining. She has such a good heart but no one trusts her. Betteredge, one of the narrators of the novel who is a butler of sorts, thinks of her like his daughter. His real daughter Penelope thinks Rosanna is weird though. Do people think she is weird because she was a thief? Because she is disfigured? Because she is in love with Franklin Blake who is way, way out of her league? Who knows, probably some combination of the three, but I have a sinking feeling that was kind of a Rosanna Spearman when I was sixteen. I pitied her.

Okay, so this wasn't as negative as I thought it would be. Here is my burst of negativity: After reading five sensation fiction novels in a little over three months I can assure you that, yeah, they're all pretty much the same. I wouldn't suggest reading five in such a short time span unless you really, really like mysteries. Also, Wilkie Collins does this thing that frustrates me to no end. He always says things like, "A normal man would do this, but such and such character did not do this, he did this instead." I don't know why this bothers me but after reading three of his books and seeing this appear on every third page I really started to get fed up. Can he not think of any way to describe a person other than he did something a normal man or most men would not. Argh! Sorry, but I wanted to say that in class all semester and now I've finally gotten it out of my system.

So I suppose this book is really up to you. I think I would probably suggest it over Armadale (another Collins novel) if for no other reason than it is shorter and the twist to the story is about as engrossing. Armadale has better characters though, I will admit that.

For me, this novel was more of a C, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt for you and giving it a B.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

The Third Child: a fill-in from author Maureen McGowan There was an old woman who lived in a Birkin bag. She had 3 children, the bane of her existence. The first was a thick-headed, doltish son, who was prone to buying magic beans and geese that laid strange orange eggs. The 2nd was a beautiful but haughty daughter, who stared at herself ceaselessly in any reflective surface, speaking in rhyme to the reflection there. But the 3rd child, Pandora, she was the worst of all. The first 2 children gave her endless grief, but it was Pandora who drove the old woman to distraction, for Pandora was always greedy.

The old woman had no choice but to lock Pandora high in a tower — from which Pandora promptly escaped, climbing down a ladder made of hair and fleeing in a giant pumpkin carriage. (The old woman’s fault, you see, for braiding hair-ladders and growing what were surely mutant pumpkins...)

The 3rd child traveled night and day, finally reaching the Great City. When Pandora reached the City, she opened a manhole and discovered the sewers flowed with gold. It seemed too good to be true. So Pandora promptly stole a bucket from a poorly attended vendor’s stall nearby, and set off to climb into the sewers.Pandora‘s quest was not an easy one, and before long, she discovered the bucket had holes. Not knowing what else to, Pandora did what any greedy 3rd child would do: using her skirt, she plugged the holes. This of course caused her to run through the streets half naked, which led to her arrest for stealing a bucket filled with yellow paint. Which is exactly what one would expect of such a 3rd child.Pandora lived infamously ever after, of course. But to this day, when ever someone says Fool’s Gold, everyone thinks of Pandora , the 3rd child of the old woman who lived in a Birkin bag.

Thanks, Maureen! Maureen McGowan is the author of the Twisted Tales series, including Cinderella: Ninja Warrior and Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer, as well as a short story in The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance.
Make sure to check back with us in late May, when Misty and Ashley will both be a part of Maureen's blog tour.
Ashley will be reviewing Cinderella: Ninja Warrior. Misty will be reviewing Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer.