#17 and #18

First I will get rid of the sorry excuse of a book that Dean Koontz put out in his "Odd Thomas" series. "Odd is on Our Side" ended up being the biggest waste of $10.99 that I've ever spent for a book. I don't know what he was thinking. It's a great series but suddenly he's writing his books in comic book fashion and it was horrible. Don't take something that's been successful and try to change it. If it was a true Odd Thomas book it would have followed the story line in timing which it didn't. Suddenly Odd's girlfriend is back among the living. Just awful! And shame on you Dean Koontz.

I did read Kristin Hannah's "Winter Garden." I enjoyed the history portion but the ending was so far fetched that it was disappointing. I guess if you need happy endings it was okay. The author kept taking us from 2000 to WWII in Russia and Stalin's rule. Conditions were deplorable and Vera is a young woman living in Leningrad and suffering through those conditions. Move to 2000 and she's an elderly woman who's life should have been wonderful but she can't let go of what happened during the war and she's made her family suffer for it. Okay read, but I won't purposely pursue other books by this author. If I'm given one, I would read it.