#5Books: These are the books you SHOULD be reading

I freely admit to choosing two recs this week because 1) I loved the location and I wanted to read a book set here. And 2) the series is called Wylie Coyote. Seriously, that’s the character’s name and I’m being utterly ridiculous, but a name like that promises humour right?

The third book, I wouldn’t even have put on here if I didn’t accidentally see a different summary on a Book Buzz Brochure. Seriously, people, way to take out all the exciting things and put in the crappiest blurb in the history of ever for what is a really interesting novel. SIGHS. Blurbs.

I’m a sucker for a good cover, title and blurb — which in reality, you kind of have to be, right? Anyway, this title and cover kind of won me over (#noregrets!) and, what is arguably the oddest summer job for our YA main character.

And the last is a mystery that doesn’t seem to want to let me go considering how often I keep running across it!

The Place that Didn’t Exist: Dubai. A murder mystery. Right there are the two reasons I have to read this. Alright, mostly Dubai for I am hoping the location makes what seems to be a straightforward murder mystery not so straightforward.

I don’t like where this is going (A Wylie Coyote novel): Given we’re talking about Wylie Coyote here, that title made me giggle because Wylie never really likes where any of his chases are going! This is book 2, so yes, I’m getting pretty lax on my never start in the middle of a series rule but, I figure book 2 is still conceivably the beginning of a series right? Anyway, the blurb to this promises dark humour — count me in — and a mystery set in Vegas. Wylie, a forensic consultant on the run because I think book 1 happened, sees a woman fall to her death outside a hotel and starts to investigate her death when there’s a cover up. Also Vegas. I seem to have a travelling theme to my recs this week don’t I?

The Things We Have in Common: The blurb at the link is so frustrating. This is it:

Yasmin would give anything to have a friend . . .And do anything to keep one.

The first time I saw you, you were standing at the far end of the playing field. You were looking down at your brown straggly dog, but then you looked up, your mouth going slack as your eyes clocked her. Alice Taylor. I was no different. I used to catch myself gazing at the back of her head in class, at her silky fair hair swaying between her shoulder blades.

If you’d glanced just once across the field you’d have seen me standing in the middle on my own, looking straight at you, and you’d have gone back through the trees to the path quick, tugging your dog after you. You’d have known you’d given yourself away, even if only to me.

But you didn’t. You only had eyes for Alice.  

What this blurb doesn’t tell you is that this is the story of 15YO Yasmin who is a social outcast at school: she’s obese, obsessive and the kid everyone calls a freak at school. She’s an outsider who finds comfort in food, but she’s also lonely. And she wants a friend. Enter Alice: Alice is the popular, pretty girl everyone wants to be friends with, including Yasmin even though Alice thinks her a freak. By chance, Yasmin sees someone watching Alice from the school fence and thinks he’s going to abduct her. So, Yasmin investigates the guy to be ready to rescue Alice and become friends. Except the guy is kind to Yasmin. Definitely not the abducting type she assumed. And it’s then that Alice disappears. Now all this is in the Book Buzz thing and on the back cover? Is a too-vague blurb with no context for the most powerful bits — this is a 15-year-old social outcast speaking.

Just Kill Me: YA. Contemporary. Humour. To be more exact, the kind of deadly humour you’d get when your main character is a ghost tour guide. Who it seems is willing to commit murder to help her boss make their company a success, but also investigate the murders of other prominent people in the ghost tour industry. It’s an odd, ODD summary, but I am intrigued. How is the author going to pull this all off??

What Remains of Me: I’ve seen this one off and on and I keep finding it, and every time I do, it seems to grow on me even more. It’s the story of a murder, and the woman who went to prison for it — Kelly, who murdered John McFadden, an Oscar-nominated directors. Thirty years later she is accused of the murder of her father-in-law — killed just like his friend John McFadden. Kelly is a suspect again, but this time she has allies that think she’s innocent — of both murders. But is she? There are a couple of points here that I keep playing over: where is her husband? The blurb doesn’t say former father-in-law. Is her husband dead or is he an unexpected ally? The blurb says she was 17 when she killed John McFadden, and never shared her motives — why wouldn’t she to save herself? Would it be to save someone else that she kept silent? Wait, is it even legal for a 17 year old to be married? See, lots of things percolating with this one!

Which title grabbed your interest this week? I have to admit, I have not been able to stop thinking about The Things We Have In Common!