The Land of Mango Sunsets by Dorothea Benton Frank (#30, Fiction)

I had extremely low expectations for this book.  It seemed like it would be a lousy beach read, and I wasn't even on the beach.  But, I was pleasantly surprised.  No prize winning writing found here, but the characters and plot were definitely more complex and interesting than I anticipated.

2.5 out of 5.

That officially closes out 2013.  I will certainly not be finishing the behemoth of a novel I've recently started before the stroke of midnight tonight.  In 2014 I'd like to continue reading a variety of books, and keep the quality and quantity to high levels.  Happy New Year!

Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson (#29, Fiction)

Talk about a page-turner.  Before I Go To Sleep came highly recommended by a trusted reader friend.  Even when she compared it to Gone Girl (a book that I was not a fan of) I went ahead took the chance. 

I loved it.  It took me less than 24 hours to finish and I was all in from the start.  Because my friend did tell me it was "like" Gone Girl, I think I was reading it with an extra critical eye.  Who was the culprit? Who was the bad guy? No one was free of my questions, very similar to that of the narrator, Christine, who wakes up every day with no recollection of the previous day, week, year, decade--neither she nor I knew or trusted anyone.

I highly recommend this one.  It's an easy read, but also well-written and has a nice conclusion, which I feel often fall short in page-turner type books.

4.5 out of 5.

Devil in the Details by Jennifer Traig (#28, Nonfiction Memoir)

I really hated this book.  Somewhere I saw a review that compared her to Augusten Burroughs.  NO FREAKING WAY.  You want to say they both had fucked up childhoods, sure, but this girl was just damn annoying.

When you write a memoir about childhood, things aren't going to always be 100% accurate, I get it, but I just can't swallow a whole chapter of her talking about how since she was a toddler she looked down her nose at all those who weren't Parisian, or how she wanted to wear makeup since then as well. I'm sorry, a toddler?  I don't remember shit from last year, let alone when I was three.

Another review said her antics were hysterical.  Her antics while certainly OCD, and over the top as she is very much is aware of, were not funny.  Maybe it was cathartic for her to write about a childhood of having to deal with OCD before it even had a name, but gosh, I wish I hadn't been subjected to reading about it.

Terrible.  1 out of 5.

The Twelve by Justin Cronin (#27, Fiction)

Book number two of another trilogy complete.  This one was extremely satisfying.  I read the first book, The Passage, at least a year, probably longer ago, so it took me much longer than I anticipated to get into The Twelve.  I was hazy on the details and characters, and the exact timeline of the first book, but it didn't take long to hook me regardless of my fuzzy memory. 

A lot of people say they liked The Twelve better.  I can't really say which I preferred, because I do know that I really enjoyed following along very closely to Amy in the first book, and although she was still an integral character, the second book introduced us to many new story lines and jumped around in time. I missed Amy, but I also formed a bond to the new characters as well.  It was great how all the new story lines were interesting on their own, but then all very simply tied in to the bigger picture of characters at the end.

And nice twist with the actual "twelve." I suppose we all saw it coming, but from the get-go I was confused why the book wouldn't be called The Eleven.

4 out of 5.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth (#26, Fiction)

This wraps up the Divergent trilogy.  Another entertaining, but not so great young adult, post-apocalyptic series.  The third book at least wrapped things up and answered questions, but it sort of felt anti-climactic and I didn't get the "we must save the world" feeling as much as I think they wanted me to. 

I did see the trailer for Divergent the movie and was intrigued.  It seemed much more intense than I expected out of a teen-based movie, so we'll see how it turns out.

Overall 2 out of 5