Book Reviews

This is the reverse chronological archive, with excerpts, of all book reviews published here at Colloquium. An alphabetical list of all book reviews is part of the Sitemap. Or to find a particular review, search (right sidebar, bottom) by title, author or key word.

Click here to see what books I have reviewed in conjunction with the various Reading Challenges in which I have participated or am currently participating.

And if you would like to read some of the guest posts that have been graciously written specifically for Colloquium by various well-known authors, just click here!

Book Review and Giveaway: Chasing Mona Lisa

January 25, 2012

Welcome to Litfuse Publicity’s Blog Tour for Chasing Mona Lisa Synopsis: France is in Germany’s grip, but Bernard Rousseau and his fellow members of the Resistance are determined to see France freed from Nazi control and restored to its pre-World War II glory. Bernard would do anything to secure his country’s liberation, including risking his own life […]

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Book Review: The Shadow of Your Smile

January 23, 2012

Welcome to Litfuse Publicity’s Blog Tour for The Shadow of Your Smile Synopsis: Noelle Hueston has no idea how she got to the hospital or why she is there. She believes that she is a twenty-one-year-old college student majoring in art and insists that the nurses tell her when her parents will be arriving to take her […]

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Book Review and Giveaway: The Keeper

January 16, 2012

Welcome to Litfuse Publicity’s Blog Tour for The Keeper Synopsis: Julia Lapp is twenty-one years old and looking forward to her November marriage to Paul Fisher, whom she has loved practically all of her life. Julia is confident of her feelings for Paul and their future together. They were to have married last year, but Paul […]

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Book Review and Giveaway: A Whisper to a Scream

January 10, 2012

Welcome to the WOW! Women on Writing Virtual Book Tour for A Whisper to a Scream Synopsis: Sarah Anderson loves her two young children, but feels much of the time like she has lost herself. She hesitates to tell people that she is a stay-at-home mother because of the reactions that announcement often provokes. Her […]

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Book Review and Giveaway: In Leah’s Wake

January 6, 2012

Welcome to Pump Up Your Book’s Virtual Book Tour for In Leah’s Wake Synopsis: Leah Tyler has an excellent future, full of possibilities. An accomplished soccer player — the best on her high school team — she is poised to earn a college scholarship, possibly to Harvard University. She is beautiful, has always maintained good […]

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Book Review: Innocent

December 31, 2011

Synopsis: Twenty years have elapsed since Rusty Sabich stood trial for the murder of his colleague, Carolyn Polhemus, as detailed in Presumed Innocent. Following his acquittal, Rusty’s legal career again flourished — he is the Chief Justie of the Third District Appellate Court in Kindle Countyand and a candidate for a seat on the state […]

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Book Review: Scream Catcher

December 30, 2011

Welcome to the Partners In Crime Blog Tour for Scream Catcher Synopsis: Jude Parrish is a haunted man. The demon that tortures him is sometimes just below the surface, but omnipresent nonetheless. An innocent woman and child died at the conclusion of a hostage stand-off. Convinced that he could and should have ensured a different outcome […]

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Book Review and Giveaway: Mary’s Son ~ A Tale of Christmas

December 25, 2011

Synopsis: Jared Roberts has plenty of reasons to be angry. It has been nearly a year since his father, Joe, simply vanished after being fired from him job at Stone Industries because management believed he was stealing from the factory. Now, at thirteen years of age, Jared works part-time for the same company, while his […]

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Book Review: father-mucker

December 23, 2011

Welcome to the TLC Book Tour for father-mucker Synopsis: Josh Lansky is a screenwriter with a serious case of writer’s block. Although he optioned one script a few years ago, netting enough capital to flee New York City and purchase a home in suburban New Paltz, the movie was never produced and the script is […]

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Book Review: Real

December 21, 2011

Welcome to Litfuse Publicity’s Blog Tour for Real Some are smooth, obviously well cared-for, the pigmentation even, the manicure flawless. Others are calloused, wrinkled or show age spots, the nails cracked and splintered. Some hold modern electronic gadgets, others grip more traditional tools with which they perform work, some bear the ravages of arthritis. Still others […]

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Book Review and Giveaway: Poisoned Love

December 21, 2011

Welcome to Pump Up Your Book’s Virtual Book Tour for Poisoned Love Synopsis: Kristin Rossum was an extremely intelligent, beautiful girl from an accomplished family for whom the future held literally endless possibilities. Today she is an inmate at the California Correctional Women’s Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla, California, where she is serving a life sentence […]

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Book Review and Giveaway: So Far Away

December 6, 2011

Welcome to the TLC Book Tour for So Far Away Synopsis: Christine W. Hartman is the daughter of German immigrants, Hans and Irmgard, both of whom were highly intelligent, pragmatic, and products of their upbringings. When her parents divorced, it was Irmgard who left the family home, leaving Christine and her brother to live with their […]

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Book Review: Remembering You

November 29, 2011

Welcome to Litfuse Publicity’s Blog Tour for Remembering You Synopsis: Ava is hanging on by a thread. Nothing seems to be going right at work lately and she is concerned about keeping her job as the producer of a popular morning news and variety television program in Seattle. She remains lonely and heartbroken a few months […]

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Book Review and Giveaway: It’s Simple

November 28, 2011

Welcome to Pump Up Your Book’s Virtual Book Tour for It’s Simple Synopsis: Chase Daniels and Tia Madisson dated in high school, but their friendship was always most important to them and remained strong throughout their college years. Now they have both graduated and embarked upon high-powered careers. Chase was the Los Angeles Lakers’ number […]

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Book Review and Giveaway: Absolute Obsession

November 21, 2011

Welcome to Pump Up Your Book’s Virtual Book Tour for Absolute Obsession Synopsis: Rose Gerbaldi has a loving husband, grown children, and a couple of grandchildren. Still, she experiences periods of time when, as she describes it, she shuts down and needs “me” time. At the age of forty-two, she suspects that she may be […]

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Book Review: Triangles

November 20, 2011

Synopsis: Three women — Holly, Andrea, and Marissa — all stand at crossroads in their lives and relationships. Holly has long been a stay-at-home wife and mother, dabbling in various hobbies that she quickly abandons. Her latest? Writing erotica. She has recently dropped sixty pounds and become obsessed with her physique and new-found ability to […]

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Book Review and Giveaway: Conversations and Cosmopolitans

November 14, 2011

Welcome to the TLC Book Tour for Conversations and Cosmopolitans Synopsis: Robert Rave was just twenty-one years old when he struck out on his own in New York City after growing up in the Midwest, the youngest of three children raised by typical middle-class parents. He could no longer hide the truth of who he […]

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Book Review and Giveaway: Her Sister’s Shadow

November 12, 2011

Welcome to the TLC Book Tour for Her Sister’s Shadow Synopsis: George and Blythe Niles were raising their four daughters — Bea, Charlotte, Lilli, and Dori — just outside the small town of White Head on the Massachusetts coast in a beautiful house where Blythe tended the lush gardens and painted vines running up the […]

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Book Review and Giveaway: Saint Sebastian’s Head

November 8, 2011

Synopsis: Weeble grew up in a home that she was ashamed to bring friends to after hearing her cousins complain that it always smelled of cat urine. Her motorcycle mechanic father, Frank, spent a lot of time in his recliner drinking beer and watching television. Her mother, Mona, expected her family to fend for themselves. […]

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Book Review and Giveaway: The Smartest Woman I Know

November 4, 2011

Welcome to the TLC Book Tour for The Smartest Woman I Know It is said that there’s nobody as smart as an old woman. The old woman at the center of author Ilene Beckerman’s delightful memoir, The Smartest Woman I Know, is her grandmother. This story is mostly about Ettie, all 4’10″ of her. She was […]

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Book Review and Giveaway: The Pub Across the Pond

November 3, 2011

Welcome to Pump Up Your Book’s Virtual Book Tour for The Pub Across the Pond Synopsis: Carlene Rivers has never been lucky. That’s what her brutally honest best friend, Becca, tells the gentleman selling raffle tickets at the Irish fair. But Carlene is undeterred, so she throws in twenty dollars on the chance to win Jimmy’s […]

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Book Review and Giveaway: Everything We Ever Wanted

November 2, 2011

Welcome to the TLC Book Tour for Everything We Ever Wanted Synopsis: Silvie Bates-McAllister has lived her life steeped in family history. For many years, she has served on the Board of Directors of Swithin, the private school that her grandfather rebuilt and reestablished after it was destroyed by a fire. Both of her sons, […]

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Book Review: When No One Is Watching

October 31, 2011

Welcome to the Partners In Crime Blog Tour for When No One Is Watching Synopsis: Blair Van Howe and his partner, Danny Moran, were celebrating the biggest victory of their legal careers when both of their lives were forever changed. Danny had enjoyed a three-month period during which he managed to stay sober, but the evening’s […]

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Book Review: Baby, It’s Cold Outside

October 25, 2011

Welcome to Litfuse Publicity’s Blog Tour for Baby, It’s Cold Outside Synopsis: Dottie Morgan lost the Christmas spirit five years ago when her only son, Nelson, was killed in combat. She discontinued local traditions in the little town of Frost, such as her annual reading of a Christmas story at the library where she is the […]

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Book Review: Moonlight Rises

October 22, 2011

Welcome to the Partners In Crime Blog Tour for Moonlight Rises Synopsis: Dick Moonlight hasn’t had much business as a private investigator lately, so he’s been devoting his attention to his bar, Moonlight’s. That’s where he meets Peter Czech, a paraplegic who hires Moonlight to find his biological father. Czech, a nuclear engineer of Russian descent, […]

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