Mini Review: Mob Daughter: The Mafia, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, and Me! by Karen Gravano

Mob Daughter:  The Mafia, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, and Me!
Author:  Karen Gravano
Publisher:  St. Martin's Press
Publication Date:  February 14th 2012

From Goodreads:

Karen Gravano is the daughter of Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, once one of the mafia's most feared hit men.  With nineteen confessed murders, the former Gambino Crime Family underboss-and John Gotti's right-hand man-is the highest ranking gangster ever to turn States's evidence and testify against members of his high-profile crime family. 


But to Karen, Sammy Gravano was a sometimes elusive but always loving father figure.  He was ever-present at the head of the dinner table.  He made a living running a construction firm and several nightclubs.  He stayed out late, and sometimes didn't come home at all.  He hosted "secret" meetings at their house, and had countless whispered conversations with "business associates."  By the age of twelve, Karen knew he was a gangster.  And as she grew up, while her peers worried about clothes and schoolwork, she was coming face to face with crime and murder.  Gravano was nineteen years old when her father turned his back on the mob and cooperated with the Feds.  The fabric of her family was ripped apart, and they were instantly rejected by the communities they grew up in.


This is the story of a daughter's struggle to reconcile the image of her living father with that of a murdering Mafioso, and how, in healing the rift between the two, she was able to forge a new life.

--------------------------

I never miss an episode of Mob Wives..never.  I've always been fascinated with the mob, watching the movies and reading the books.  Of course I had to read Mob Daughter!

I found some parts very interesting, but mostly I finished this book thinking this Karen Gravano is seriously on a head trip.  She sure does a lot of boasting about it.  Yeah, she doesn't come outright and say "my dad was a bad ass, and we are super cool" because well she would come off as a immature and childish, but it's exactly what she's implying.  What's bad ass about the Mafia?  Karen Gravano gives us a look into what life was like for her being the daughter of a gangster.  I don't think that she held back, but I do think that she tried to rationalize things and the rationalizing was ridiculous.  If someone was killed, well they were killed because they betrayed the code. As for the writing, it wasn't bad. Her life story flowed easily, there was no going back and forth randomly.  Very easy to follow.

If you are a fan of Mob Wives then I would recommend this just because you get a better idea of who Karen Gravano is.

Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers (His Fair Assassin, # 1)

Grave Mercy (His Fair Asssassin, # 1)
Author:  R.L. LaFevers
Pubisher:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date:  April 3rd 2012

From Goodreads:

Seventeen year old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old.  Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with the dangerous gift-and a violent destiny.  If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death.  To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.


Ismae's most important assignment takes her straight into the high country of Brittany-where she finds herself woefully under prepared-not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make.  For how can she deliver Death's vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

-----------------------------

I was intrigued with Grave Mercy after reading the synopsis, then I started reading positive review after positive review so my expectations were high going into it.  I'm pretty sure that going in with those expectations hindered my overall experience reading Grave Mercy.

I liked Grave Mercy, but I certainly didn't love it.  I found that it dragged a bit for me.  I found all the politics boring and really kept reading because of the main protagonist Ismae.  Ismae is a fierce force to be reckoned with and I love that.  My all time favorite characters are strong kick ass females.  Grave Mercy definitely has that.  Ismae is trained to serve St. Mortain, the god of Death and she does it well.  But when she starts falling for Duval, the man she is suppose to be keeping an eye out for and possibly kill, the book gets interesting. My favorite parts of Grave Mercy were that pertaining to her loyalty to the convent and St. Mortain and her growing love for Duval and how those two things were conflicting with each other.  I liked that the love between Ismae and Duval  grew naturally and was warranted, I can see why they fell for each other.

For me the politics of Grave Mercy dragged on and I got bored.  The mystery of who was causing all the conflict for the Duchess wasn't as interesting as I was hoping.  There were a lot of meetings to discuss what was going on and again I found that I wanted to skim those parts, but I didn't.  Grave Mercy is a long book with over 500 pages, I hung on and in the end I'm not sure the good outweighed the bad.   The bulk of the book was about who was committing treason and the politics and I wanted more Duval and Ismae moments...moments that did not have to do with the state of the High Court.

I may be in the minority with Grave Mercy, but it really was just ok.   Did anyone else find it boring in some parts?  I do think you have to be a fan of historical fiction to really like this.  I'm just ehh about the genre, so that may be why I didn't enjoy it so much.  I will not be continuing the series.

Goodreads Rating: 3 Stars (really a 2.5)

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

The Lucky One
Author:  Nicholas Sparks
Publisher:  Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date:  September 30th 2008

From Goodreads:

When U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young women half-buried in the dirt during his third tour of duty in Iraq, his first instinct is to toss it aside.  Instead, he brings it back to the base for someone to claim, but when no one does, he finds himself always carrying the photo in his pocket.  Soon Thibault experiences a sudden streak of luck-winning poker games and even surviving deadly combat that kills two of his closest buddies.  Only his best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good; the photograph-his lucky charm.


Back home in Colorado, Thibault can't seem to get the photo-and the woman in it-out of his mind.  Believing that she somehow holds the key to his destiny, he sets out on a journey across the country to find her, never expecting the strong but vulnerable woman he encounters in Hampton, North Carolina-Elizabeth, a divorced mother with a young son-to be the girl he's been waiting for his whole life to meet.  Caught off guard by the attraction he feels, Thibault keeps the story of the photo, and his luck, a secret.  As he and Elizabeth embark upon a passionate and all-consuming love affair, the secret he is keeping will soon threaten to tear them apart-destroying not only their love, but also their lives.  

-----------------------------

The movie adaption of The Lucky One starring Zac Efron as Logan Thibault will be coming out this month and I wanted to read this before I watch the movie. For me, I usually enjoy Nicholas Sparks movies better than the books.   I find that I fall in the middle with Nicholas Sparks books.  I find that I'm not terribly impressed with his romances, but they do entertain me...a little.

Likes:

Logan Thibault Character- I enjoyed Thibault.  Being in his head and knowing his thoughts, I truly can say he is a perfect "the one".  Crush-worthy character.

Iraq War flashbacks-  I thought these parts of the book were the most interesting.  Made the character of Logan much more real.

Zeus, Logan's Dog-  Seriously, my favorite dog in a book, though I haven't read many.  Zeus plays a big part in this book.



Dislikes:

Logan's love interest, Elizabeth-  Seriously, she was too good.  I can't stand "perfect" characters.  I couldn't relate to her, at all.

The picture- That damn picture!    I hate Elizabeth's reaction when it "all" comes  out.

Annoyances-  There were quite a bit of small things that annoyed me.  Elizabeth never freaking ate.  And when she did it was half a toast and she was satisfied.  Whatever! Also, the character Clayton.  Everything he did was annoying.


I'm really looking forward to the movie.  I usually like the movie adaptions of his  books.  I'm glad I did read it before I watched the movie and it was enjoyable so it was worth the read.  I do recommend that you borrow this from your local library instead of spending your money.

Deadline by Chris Crutcher

Deadline
Author:  Chris Crutcher
Publisher:  Greenwillow Books
Publication Date:  September 18th 2007

From Goodreads:

At the beginning of his senior year, Ben Wolf discovers he has an aggressive form of leukemia.  Ben decides to tell no one; he wants his last year of school to be normal.  Only, not telling the truth is the same as lying, and it takes Ben almost a year to figure that out.  And what a year it is.

------------------------------------

I don't know why I thought that Deadline would be humorous considering it is a story about death.  It isn't.  Most of it was great, awesome, it just had one tiny little flaw.

First let me praise this book.  I seriously really love this book.  Deadline is about the journey of Ben Wolf's last year alive.  He has leukemia, a aggressive form, that is going to kill him with or without treatment.  All it would do is maybe prolong his life a little.  The Fault in Our Stars is still very much in my thoughts, I read it last month so I was a little worry that the topic was too similar for me to give Deadline a real fair read.  Would I compare it too much, I wondered?  It's different and the same.  Ben's approach is to live his life to the fullest and try to experience as much as he can.  He becomes brave where he was afraid, he becomes confident where he was unsure.  I love the character of Ben, so much.  I understood his reasoning behind his actions, though I didn't agree and as he is talking to Hey-Soos in his dreams he is growing spiritually, as well as seeing things so much more clearly (some great moments).  Ben is opening his eyes to the way of the world, and we are right along for the ride.  We love when he triumphs, we cheer him on when he asking his crush out.  He's a protagonist I dare you not to like.  Deadline is a much more serious book than I imagined I was getting when I bought it.  It was depressing yet had it's moments when your smile couldn't get any bigger.  I think Chris Crutcher has a way of bringing so many different angles to story.  I am a now a fan.

My only problem with Deadline is a secret that comes to light.  It seems that though Ben is keeping a huge secret to himself, two people in his life decide to reveal theirs to him.  One of those secrets I don't know what purpose it had in Deadline.  I wonder why Mr. Crutcher put it in there?  Am I missing something?  There seem to be no reason for it, it didn't change the story, it didn't do anything storywise, so why put it in.  If you have read Deadline and can give me a understanding of it's purpose that would be great. Oh, and it's secret number one told to him that I don't understand.

Despite the one small thing I didn't understand, I absolutely love Deadline.  I thought it was a thought provoking novel with an awesome main character.  Yes, I cried.  I love Ben Wolf.

Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars (really a 4.5)

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books to Read in a Day

A weekly meme hosted by the Broke and Bookish.

This week's top ten:                                                  

Books to Read in a Day


1.  Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2.  Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

3.  One Day by David Nicholls

4.  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Men I've Dated by Shane Bolks

5. Night Swimming by Robin Schwarz

6.  A Student of Weather by Elizabeth Hay

7.  Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber

8.  Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean

9.  A Girl Like You by Gemma Burgess  

10.  Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

What I Will Be Reading in April

My TBR pile for the month of April.

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks  (movie set to release this month)

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Mob Daughter by Karen Gravano  

Looking for Alaska by John Green

 The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

Deadline by Chris Crutcher

               

Have you read any of these? Did you like it/hate it?

March gets Shelved

In March I read 10 books.

• The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey
• Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeffrey Lindsey
• The One That I Want by Jennifer Echols
• The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross
• Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
• Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
• Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci
• Between the Lines by Tammara Webber
• The Girl in the Park by Mariah Fredericks
• Red Heart Tattoo by Lurlene McDaniel

--------------------------------

March Favorite:

Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci

Review (4.5 Stars)

----------------------------------------

March Miss:

The One that I Want by Jennifer Echols

Review (2 Stars)

-------------------------------------------

Blogging and Vlogging News

I've decided to open up a Youtube channel.  I had already started and had loaded up five videos, but they got deleted in a drunken state.  My plan is for me to choose 5 books in the beginning of every month and make a TBR video, and then have reviews on those books.  I will also be doing book hauls, book discussion videos and tags. At the end of the month I will make a wrap up video.  I am also going to start doing the same thing here at Coffee, Books and Laundry.  Some months I will have a theme month.  If I finish all five books chosen for that month ( and I know I will) I can then pick up whatever.  I did this for March on my Youtube channel and it worked out great for me.  My April TBR post will be up tomorrow.

Youtube Channel

Booksandlaundry

Happy Reading!