THE HUNGER GAMES WORLD PREMIERE

Last night saw the highly anticipated World Premiere of the Hunger Games movie.

Josh Hutcherson (Peeta), Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss) and Liam Hemsworth (Gale) delighted fans with their presence at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.  Here are some of the the stars' interviews.

Jennifer Lawrence interview with Yahoo Movies:

Josh Hutcherson interview with Yahoo Movies:

Liam Hemsworth interview with Clevver:

Collage of interviews with the cast, director etc...

With the World Premiere over and done with, the rest of the world can officially get excited.  March 23rd is only nine days away.

MY NEXT BOOK TO REVIEW FOR THE TYNDALE BLOG NETWORK

The time has come to select my next book for Tyndale review.  As I was browsing my way through the possible selections for March, Candace Calvert's Trauma Plan caught my eye.  The description of the book just about had me convinced to give it a shot, but what totally tipped the scales in its favour was when I saw on Candace's Facebook page that the cover model is South African! :)

Proudly South African, I have selected Trauma Plan as my next Tyndale review.

TRAUMA PLAN (Grace Medical #1)

Sidelined by injuries from a vicious assault, nurse chaplain Riley Hale is determined to return to ER duties. But how can she show she’s competent when the hospital won’t let her attempt even simple tasks? Determined to prove herself, Riley volunteers at a controversial urban free clinic despite her fears about the maverick doctor in charge.

 

Dr. Jack Travis defends his clinic like he’s commander of the Alamo. He’ll fight the community’s efforts to shut its doors, even if he must use Riley Hale’s influential family name to make it happen.

 

As Riley strives to regain her skills, Jack finds that she shares his compassion - and stirs his lonely heart. Riley senses that beneath Jack’s rough exterior is a man she can believe in. But when clinic protests escalate and questions surface about his past, Jack goes into battle mode, and Riley wonders if it’s dangerous to trust him with her heart - Candace Calvert website.

NOW READING: WILDFLOWER BRIDE ~ MARY CONNEALY

This week I'm in the mood for something a little old fashioned and romantic.  Enter Wildflower Bride by Mary Connealy.  This is my first book by this author, so we'll see how it goes.

Glowing Sun, a white woman raised by the Flathead tribe, has never met a man she didn't want to pull a knife on, including the man who's determined to marry her.

Glowing Sun has vague memories of her former life, including a name—Abby Lind. When she’s forced to sever all links with her adopted Indian family, Abby wonders if she’ll ever find a home again.

 

Tenderhearted Wade Sawyer, responsible for Abby’s survival during the village massacre, convinces the knife-wielding woman to return with him to the Sawyer Ranch, never realizing danger lurks behind every corner. Can they survive long enough to fall in love?

REVIEW: A KILLER AMONG US ~ LYNETTE EASON

New in town, hostage negotiator Detective Kit Kenyon is partnered with Detective Noah Lambert – against his will. Feeling guilt over the death of his previous partner, Noah isn’t quite ready to take on a new one, but doesn’t have much choice. Within mere weeks of working together, Kit and Noah are thrown into a serial killer case. On top of dealing with the pressures of the job and getting to know (and falling in love with) her new partner, Kit is also getting to know her family. Having recently found out that she was adopted at birth, Kit left her adoptive family and home behind to get to know her birth family. Dealing with extreme feelings of rejection on one hand and guilt on the other, questioning her place in the world and her relationship with God, Kit is forced to take a hard look at her life when the killer focuses his attention on her, and she starts wondering how long she might have left to live.

As previously mentioned, I wasn't blown away by Lynette Eason's Too Close To Home, and sadly I didn’t find A Killer Among Us to be much better. The writing is a little too light for my taste, and at times a little too cutesy. The way the characters speak sometimes came across very unnatural to me. I also got very annoyed with the investigators who didn’t immediately connect the deaths (could it be any more obvious they are related?), and that they didn’t immediately make the connection that all the victims (save one) were in the graduating class from the same Law School. This is supposed to be a detective novel – I need the detectives to be sharper and not catch on much later than I do. About halfway through the book: “They’re all law students. I wonder if that’s the connection somehow?”. Really?! You think?! The response: “Possibly.” My word…

 

There are also a lot of little inconsistencies in this novel. First, a piece of evidence is a diamond and ruby tennis bracelet. Later it magically turns into a diamond and emerald tennis bracelet. Kit’s signature scents are initially said to be vanilla soap and strawberry shampoo. Later, it is combined into vanilla shampoo. At one point Kit reflects something along the lines of “So she was killed sometime this morning”, when by my calculations it should have been “sometime yesterday morning”. Readers pick up on these things! Ms Eason and her editor should have been much more observant. Impeccable details are what make a great novel.  Furthermore, Kit and Noah are partners, yet when she gets shot and it is decided she has to stay in the hospital overnight, he doesn’t even come back to check on her. She later decides to take a couple of days leave during a serial killer investigation, but doesn’t bother to tell her partner. Unrealistic! Partners always have each other’s backs. In real life, they wouldn’t do things like that.

On the positive side, Kit’s internal struggle at dealing with finding out she was adopted, attempting to accept it and get to know her birth family and get over her anger towards her adoptive family, was very realistic and heartbreaking at times. Her need to hold onto self righteous anger is very convincing. Kit’s need for a relationship with God, and her gradual submission in giving God her heart is the most beautiful and best written part of the story. Since the spiritual aspect is ultimately the whole point of the novel, I guess that makes up for the other little issues.

If you enjoy books about building bridges with God, you won’t be disappointed in this one.  Just don’t focus too hard on the police work details.  It’s not a hardcore crime drama, so don’t expect to have to work hard to connect the dots, but if you’re in the mood for a quick, light read, this book might be the way to go.

Product information:

Title: A Killer Among Us

Author: Lynette Eason

Number of pages: 352

Publisher: Revell

Year: 2011

ISBN-10: 0800733711

ISBN-13: 978-0800733711 

NOW READING: A KILLER AMONG US ~ LYNETTE EASON

So I have finished Randy Singer's The Last Plea Bargain, but my official Tyndale posting date is April 16th, so I'll withhold all comments until then.

I have now started reading A Killer Among Us by Lynette Eason.  It's the third book in the Women of Justice series.  I read the first one (Too Close To Home) a couple of months ago, and wasn't terribly crazy about it, but it wasn't a horrible book, and I like to give authors second chances, so we'll see how this one goes. 

It seems I missed book 2 altogether as the stores don't even seem to stock it anymore (well, let's not get carried away, I tried three stores), but it doesn't seem to have had a major influence on book 3.  All the important information has been relayed already, so it's no problem to read these books individually.  At least that's something.