Rated: PG-13, R; 473 minutes

When it comes to mystery authors, one of the first names that comes to mind is Mary Higgins Clark, who has over fifty novels in publication. Her first mystery novel, Where Are The Children?, was published in 1975 and is now in its seventy-fifth printing! The novel was adapted into the a feature film in 1986. Mill Creek Entertainment has recently released the 2-disc DVD set Mary Higgins Clark: Bestselling Mysteries: 5 Movie Collection, which features Where Are The Children?; The Cradle Will Fall; Lucky Day; Loves Music, Loves To Dance; and All Around The Town.

Where Are The Children? happens to be the first novel that I ever read by Mary Higgins Clark, back when I was a teenager. Though I enjoyed reading the book, I wasn't even aware that there was a movie until I heard about the DVD release. Directed by Bruce Malmuth, the film stars Jill Clayburgh, Max Gail, Harley Cross, Elizabeth Wilson and Barnard Hughes.

Similar to many book-to-film adaptions, this is more of a watered-down version or the original story. The plot involves Nancy Harmon's son and daughter going missing on the seventh anniversary (which happens to also be on her birthday) of other children's, from a previous marriage, disappearance. Of course the police believes she is the prime suspect.

Despite the R-Rating, the film is pretty tame and could have been rated PG-13. I watched the film early this morning, and it wasn't that bad of a movie. Yes, the directing was a little choppy and the music was campy, but it kept my interests for 97-minutes running time.

Cradle Will Fall was published in 1980 and was adapted into a made-for-television movie in 2004, starring Angie Everhart and Ralston. The plot involves Prosecutor Katie De Maio investigating the suicide of a pregnant woman. She quickly realizes that the woman was murdered. As she gets closer to unraveling the murder mystery, she fears that she'll be the next victim.

ASIN: B01APIXTJ0; Pages: 279

My taste for vampire tales have slowly deteriorated over the years, mostly thanks to the overrated and over-hyped Twilight Saga. Nevertheless, since I am a horror fan, I'm always open to reading a new spin on the vampire lore.

Now available to read from 7th House Publishing, Imprint of Andromeda LLC is the newest novel by author Victoria Danann, titled Vampire Hunter (Rammel Hawkings 1). It's a prequel story to the Order of the Black Swan series, featuring the fan favorite character, Rammel Hawking.

I'm not the biggest fan of prequels (books or movies) as to me they always seem unneeded and feel a little forced upon the reader/viewer. I wasn't aware that Vampire Hunter was a prequel to the author's other works (which I have read a few of her other titles), well, until I started reading it this week and, then, I quickly realized that I read about the elf, Rammel Hawking in My Familiar Stranger and The Witch's Dream.

Yes, I said an elf. Victoria Danann has created an unique world with fairies (faes), elves, vampires and other mythical creatures, all of which sometimes tangle with the lives of humans. There are no glittering vampires here, which is a good thing.

Vampire Hunter picks up when Rammel is just a royal kid who likes to run wild in the forest until he runs into Liam O'Torvall, the mayor of Black-On-Terry. Like any gentleman, Liam feeds the boy and escorts him back to his home. Little did he know that Rammel's father, the king, would later let the boy live by himself, somewhat as a hermit; leaving Liam and his wife to occasionally look after the boy.

The world has changed dramatically over the past few decades. One of the biggest reasons for the change has been technological innovations. Technology such as the modern Internet, WiFi, broadband, wired networks, cell phones, smart phones, tablets, laptops, e-commerce, GPS, and numerous other innovations have changed the world into a digital world.







The evolution into a digital world now allows people do almost any daily task online. People can go online to shop, pay bills, communicate with friends, socialize, look for a mate, listen to music, look at a movie, watch the news, watch a sporting event, download media, and a variety of other things. Twenty years ago it would have been hard to imagine the things people are doing now with the use of modern technology.


With the popularity of mobile tech, here are some statistics that are simply astonishing:

1. Roughly 6.8 billion people use mobile phones. Amazingly that is almost 90% of the World’s population.
2. 56% of Americans own a smartphone.
3. 34% of adults own a tablet device.

ISBN: 978-1401690281; Pages: 352

I've been of fan of Colleen Coble's writings for a few years now, and I was excited about her newest novel Mermaid Moon when I signed up to review it. However, after receiving the book, I left it on the coffee table and a few other books got piled on top of it, so I almost completely forgot that I had to post a review for it for today. I can speed read when I want to and that is exactly what I had to do tonight.

Mermaid Moon is book two of "A Sunset Cove" series, but you don't have to read the first book as this is a standalone story. It centers on Mallory Davis, a woman that hasn't been to back to her hometown in Maine for the past fifteen years. Well, that all changes when she gets a mysterious call from her father that sends her home to Mermaid Point to confront her past.

Unfortunately, Mallory comes to the revelation that her father was murdered. She begins her own investigation on what events lead to her father's death and she enlists the help of an old friend, game warden Kevin O'Connor. Actually, Kevin was more than just a friend, she was in relationship with him years ago and ended up breaking his heart.

As the two try to put aside their differences to solve the case, danger lurks around every corner, resulting in Mallory, as well as her teenager daughter, Haylie, receiving death threats. To unravel the identity of her father's killer, Mallory must heal her own personal wounds and learn to forgive her past.

If you want schedule next week's post, click here to find the next prompt question. To submit a question, fill out this form.

What to do:

1. Post on your blog answering this question:

  This week's question is submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver's Reviews!

Do you think you will ever get tired of blogging?

2. Enter the link to your post in the linky list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in removal of your link).


3. Visit other blogs in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new follower.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.

  

My Answer: 

  Probably not. However, there have been days where I dreaded writing a review or whatever post was scheduled; mostly because I just wasn't in the mood to write on that particular day.

ISBN: 978-0060785918; Pages: 128

As promised in my first Thursday ReReads post, I'm featuring Rotten School: The Great Smelling Bee by R.L. Stine this week. It's the second installment in the children book series that was published by Parachute Press in 2005. I grew up reading Mr. Stine's Goosebumps and Fear Street series. If I remember correctly, I received the first two or three books in this series as a Christmas present in 2005 (or 2006).

The Great Smelling Bee continues the misadventures of Bernie Bridges, who's basically the craziest kid at the private school called Rotten School. He lives in the third floor of the Rotten House with his very own room. His best buddies Feenman and Crench live in the same house as well as Belzer, a kid with a very big nose that will do anything Bernie tells him to do.

Out of nowhere, Bernie receives a huge crate from his parents. Could it be a computer, a TV or even a car? No not even close. Actually, inside the crate is his Bernie's pets, his rude parrot Lippy and his very smelly dog Gassy. And I really mean smelly; the dog literally clears out the room as nobody can stand his smell.

It seems Bernie's parents are going on a trip for awhile and can't take care of his pets anymore, so Lippy and Gassy are now his responsibility. However, there's a slight problem - no pets are allowed in Rotten School!

If you want schedule next week's post, click here to find the next prompt question. To submit a question, fill out this form.

What to do:

1. Post on your blog answering this question:

  This week's question is submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver's Reviews!

Have you made any improvements on your blog since your started your blog? Did you change the format? Did you change your header? Did you add or remove items from your side bar?

2. Enter the link to your post in the linky list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in removal of your link).


3. Visit other blogs in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new follower.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.

  

My Answer: 

  When I first started this blog, I just used a free layout that I found on the internet. Since then I've changed the the layout two more times (including the headers, sidebars, colors, etc.), but this time I had everything made by a blog designer. 

Pub. June 2015; Pages: 128

I'm sure we all have many books on our bookshelves that we would love to reread, but we just never have to time to get to them. Well, that's how I felt every time I glance at my bookshelves. For my New Year's Resolution, I've decided to attempt to reread those books, and to keep me on track, I've started a new weekly post called Thursday ReReads.

There are many titles that I wanted to reread, but after a long debate with myself, I decided to start with the Rotten School series. It's written by one of my favorite authors, R.L. Stine, and it lasted for 16 books.

The first book in the series is titled "The Big Blueberry Bark-off!" and was originally published in 2005 by Parachute Press. The book (and the entire series) is set at the private school called Rotten School, and centers on Bernie Bridge (Big B), a kid that has a million schemes up his sleeves throughout the school. He's kind of like the younger version of Saved by the Bell's Zack Morris.

Bernie lives in the Rotten House with his best friends Fennman & Crench, their dorm mother Mrs. Heinie and a few other students (Belzer, Beast, etc.). His newest scheme is selling T-shirts that are made out of rope to the third-graders.

His archenemy is Sherman Oaks, a rich kid that lives in the Nyce House. Sherman is always trying to showoff his wealth, which in this book, includes his new watch with a gold band (worth $500) that has forty-two different functions (plays DVDs, pops popcorn, etc.). Bernie want's to outshine Sherman, and impress his love, April-May-June, who doesn't actually have the same feelings for him, by being her dancing partner at upcoming dance class.

Retail: $15.99; Pages: 400

Yes, I'm well aware that Christmas is officially over; though some of you might be wondering why I'm reviewing a Christmas title. To tell you the truth, I signed up to review Amish Christmas at North Star the week before Christmas, but it didn't dawn on me that Blogging for Books wouldn't be shipping it until after holidays. The book arrived in my mailbox right before the 1st of the year, which should explain everything.

Published by WaterBrook Press, Amish Christmas at North Star features four romantic novellas by five wonderful authors -  Cindy Woodsmall, Mindy Starns Clark and Emily Clark, Amanda Flower, and Kate Ganshert.

The first story is titled, Guiding Star, and is written by Katie Ganshert. It's centers on Noelle (Elle) McAllister, a young woman living in Iowa who gets some shocking news when the Englischer Chase Wellington steps into her life. He has been investigating a twenty-five-year-old mystery involving the disappearance of an Amish baby, and he believes that Elle is that baby.


Mourning Star is written by Amanda Flower and centers on Eden Hochstetler, who is just your typical Amish girl who happens to work at her parent's candy store. Her job is pretty much boring, well, that is until one of their best customers (Issac) is found dead, and Eden suspects foul play is at hand.

In the Stars is written by Cindy Woodsmall and centers on Kore Detweiler, a heartbroken man who plans on avoiding North Star at all costs. It seems that Savilla Beiler had ripped out his heart and stomped on it, so he doesn't want to go back home. Then the unexpected happens and Kore must return to North Star.