Showing posts with label James Patterson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Patterson. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Review - Middle School: Master of Disaster

Available on AMAZON and WALMART!

When dd FedEx start delivering packages on Sunday?

I was surprised when I received the book Middle School: Master of Disaster by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts a day before its release. And, no, it's not an ARC! I had pre-ordered the book on Walmart.com last month while I was ordering a few other things.

Middle School: Master of Disaster is the 12th book in James Patterson's popular children's book series Middle School. However, this isn't your typical Middle School story starring Rafe Khatchadorian. Instead, we (and I'm referring to the readers) are getting short stories featuring characters from almost every James Patterson's children's book series, such as Max Einstein, Jamie Grimm, Jacky Ha-Ha , PottyMouth and Stoopid, The Kidds, and Rafe Khatchadorian.

Monday, September 10, 2018

Review - Unbelievably Boring Bart

Jimmy Patterson; 260 pages; $13.99; Amazon

It's been difficult for me to keep up with all the new releases, especially those written (or co-written) by James Patterson, as he practically has two or three new titles a month. Last week, I stumbled upon Unbelievably Boring Bart written Mr. Patterson & Duane Swierczynski at my local Walmart store. I didn't even know the book even existed. From my understanding, the book was released last week.

Published by Jimmy Patterson Books, Unbelievably Boring Bart centers around Bartholomew "Bart" Bean, a middle schooler who believes he's the most boring person in the universe. A few months ago, his dad, Bill, made him move from their home in Philadelphia to the hot weather of Rancho Verdugo, California. His dad is the gym teacher at his new school, which makes gym class extra difficult for Bart, as sports and exercise just doesn't intrigue him. Instead, Bart would rather be on his laptop (a hand-me-down from his mother, just before she left his father) working on the coding for his greatest invention - a video game app called Hecklr. It's similar to Pokemon Go, but with spider-like aliens.

Similar to his old school, Bart is bullied by several students. His only real friend is CyberGirl03 who he had met on the SlapTalk messaging app. CyberGirl03 is actually a girl named Aaliyah who lives in a nearby apartment building. Bart always sees her on the third-floor balcony in the afternoons, but he has never met her. She doesn't attend his school because she takes her school courses on the internet.

After sending CyberGirl03 his game to test out, he decides to make a few adjustments, which means he has to spend several late nights working on the new coding while his father is asleep. Later, somehow his game gets leaked to the public! First his classmates are all downloading and playing the game, and then the entire town begins playing it.

Now, the creator of Hecklr is the most popular person in the town, but poor Bart must keep his identity a secret.

Final Thoughts

Monday, April 10, 2017

Spring Reads: Never Never by James Patterson


Little Brown & Company; 400 pages; Amazon

Yes, keeping up with each new James Patterson release can be a little difficult with at least two books, as well as the Bookshots ebooks, being released every month. The author's thriller Never Never, co-written with Candice Fox, was released in January, and it introduced a brand new character, Detective Harriet "Harry" Blue - well sorta, since technically the character was first introduced in the "Black & Blue" Bookshots novella.

In the novel, Harry Blue is a detective for the Sex Crimes Department in Sydney, Australia. She is shell-shocked when she learns that her brother, Sam, has been arrested for the Georgia River Three murders.

Despite wanting to do anything she can to prove her brother's innocence, her boss orders not to get involved with the case and gives her a new assignment out of the city. She's assigned a simple missing-person case, but there is one catch - she has to work with a new partner, Edward Whittaker, who is more or less there to babysit her while the Feds are investigating her bother.

Final Thoughts: Honestly, it took me over a month to read Never Never, which is probably the longest it has ever taken me to read a James Patterson novel. The problem for me is that I couldn't connect with the main character, aka Harry Blue. Her, along with most the other characters, felt very flat and one-dimensional with absolutely no character development; just a wooden by-the-book character similar to the ones on television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Winter Reads: House of Robots: Robot Revolution


Jimmy Patterson; 331 pages; $13.99; Amazon

Even if you're a diehard fan of the bestselling author James Patterson, keeping up with his dozens of releases every year can be a bit difficult. Besides from his famous crime thrillers and his new Bookshots novellas, Mr. Patterson also writes (or co-writes) books for middle school readers.

Now available from Jimmy Patterson Books (a division of Little, Brown and Company) is House of Robots: Robot Revolution by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein, along with illustrations by Juliana Neufeld.

House of Robots centers on Sammy Hayes-Rodriguez, a young boy who lives in a house full of robots! Yep, I said robots. His mother, Dr. Elizabeth Hayes, is an engineer and she has created many robots and gadgets for their home. His father, Noah Rodriguez, creates graphic novels (comic books). Sammy has a younger sister named Maddie, who has SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency d), which makes it hard for her to be around germs, so she is mostly isolated to her bedroom.

The last member of the Rodriguez family is E, a robotic brother who goes to school with Sammy. Dr. Hayes created E for Maddie, who can attend school without ever leaving her bedroom by using E's sight, hearing, and communication skills to interact with her classmates and teacher.

The Rodriguez's household is turned upside in down in "Robot Revolution" when Dr. Hayes begins working on a top secret new project and neglects all the routine maintenance for her robots. All the robots, including the new electric SUV, start malfunctioning; causing a bit of chaos in Sammy's life.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

31 Days of Halloween: Cradle and All by James Patterson


Jimmy Patterson; 336; $18.99; Amazon
If a book is a bestseller, then eventually it will get a reprint, and some of those titles will also get a brand new cover art. Well, that was what was I thinking when I saw the cover to Cradle and All by James Patterson on Barnes & Nobles a few months ago. The original Cradle and All was published in 2000, and it was actually a rewritten novel called Virgin that was published in 1980. This year's release of Cradle and All with the baby stroller on the cover is in fact another rewritten version of Virgin, but this time Mr. Patterson has written the story for young adults under his children book label "Jimmy Patterson."

Cradle and All centers on a pregnant seventeen-year-old, Kathleen Beavier, in Boston who claims she's a virgin. During her pregnancy, the world is turned upside down with droughts, epidemics, floods, and epidemics.

The young girl's claim gets the attention of the Catholic Church, leading Cardinal Rooney to ask Anne Fitzgerald, a former nun who is now a private detective, to investigate the situation. Also sent in to help out in the case is Father Justin O'Carroll, who has had past relationship with Anne.

On the other side of the world, Father Nicholas Rosetti travels from Rome to Ireland in search of Colleen Deirdre Galaher, a sixteen-year-old pregnant virgin.

Are Kathleen and Colleen telling the truth? If so, is one of them carrying in The Second Coming? Or is one of the carrying Satan's child?