Let’s call this one: Romeo and Juliet and Frankenstein’s Monster.

Part epic love story, part science experiment gone haywire, Eternal has all of the plot elements of a fun, fantastic read. It doesn’t quite pan out perfectly but still a fun ride.

The curtain opens on recent grad Julia Jones, science whiz  and California cutie. She is playing assistant to the brilliant but delightfully batty Dr. Caleb Bertel on what appears to be a dangerous but undisclosed experiment of potential genius. They just so happen to be considering the science of life after death when lo and behold, Dr. Bertel accidentally offs himself only to be saved by Julia’s brilliance.

Great, right? Well, the trouble really starts when Bertel goes missing from the hospital, his disappearance followed immediately by someone following and harassing Julia with cryptic, esoteric messages. The police get involved, enlisting a hunk to match Julia’s hotness by the name of Austin Moore. We’re pretty much guaranteed some sort of love connection as Nadel repeats ad nauseam, that the two likely lovers seem to find the other familiar.

The writing was a little spotty, though that’s not to say hat it was bad; it just had moments of beauty and then moments of boredom. I also always have a bit of a problem when the protagonist is too perfect. Julia is California cute in a beautiful blonde way and extra, super duper smart. I always like a heroine with a bit of a social hurdle somewhere. Even though much of the plot and writing hit hard (albeit hardly surprising) the book was a fun read. I had to let go of my reader perfectionism and just enjoy the adventure.

About H. G. Nadel

H. G. Nadel was born in Paris and has spent most of her adult life in the United States. She began her professional career as a SAG/AFTRA agent and later started a successful acting school in Orange County, California. Nadel has written numerous screenplays, but her first love is novel writing. Her expertise in young adult drama has allowed her to write captivating coming-of-age stories in both English and French.

You can find Nadel onFacebook and Twitter.

Find out more about the characters in Eternal at www.abelardandheloisenovel.com.

Check out her other tour stops, below:

Tour Stops

Thursday, January 31st: Sara’s Organized Chaos

Tuesday, February 5th: Books, Books Everywhere!

Wednesday, February 13th: Bibliophilia, Please!

Tuesday, February 19th: So Many Books, So Little Time

Monday, February 25th: Boekie’s Book Reviews

Tuesday, February 26th: Iwriteinbooks’s blog

Thursday, March 7th: A Dream Within A Dream 

Wednesday, March 27th: My Guilty Obsession

There are few things in life that I enjoy better than wine and a good, old fashioned scandal. For those reasons, I am pleased to present you now with my new best friend, Charles Todd (who is actually a mother-son duo!) and their newest book Proof of Guilt.

Adding complexity to the run of the mill whodunit, Todd begins, not only with seeking out the murderer but also seeking out the victim. An unidentified body is dropped off on a London street with less than adequate leads pointing to his origin. As promised above, the only tie they are able to find, plummets them toward the deep, dark past of a rural winery with a few secrets of its own.

I was a little bit hesitant in receiving this book for the tour as it is the bookend of a fairly lengthy series in progress. Never fear, dear readers! Though there is a fair amount of office politics in play (that I am sure were built up in previous volumes), for all intents and purposes, they serve as stand alone plot pieces quite nicely.

Now, I’m sure that when I go back and read the entire string from the beginning (which I am sure to do promptly!) I’ll think that this last statement was absurd since Todd (who is actually a mother/son team!) has crafted, even in this book, such an intricate, well drawn world, that the rest of the package reads likewise. For those who have read the series up until now, this either follows his excellent writing or is the best book he’s written.

Check out the rest of the tour, below:

About Charles Todd

Charles Todd is the New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries, the Bess Crawford mysteries, and two stand-along novels. A mother and son writing team, they live in Delaware and North Carolina, respectively. Visit their website atCharlestodd.com and like CharlesToddNovels on Facebook.

Check out the rest of the tour, below:

Tour Stops

Tuesday, January 29th: 5 Minutes for Books

Wednesday, January 30th: Bookfoolery and Babble

Thursday, January 31st: A Bookworm’s World

Monday, February 4th: Peppermint PhD

Tuesday, February 5th: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

Wednesday, February 6th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Thursday, February 7th: Between the Covers

Monday, February 11th: Dwell in Possibility

Monday, February 18th: Speaking of Books

Friday, Februay 20th: Iwriteinbooks’s blog

TBD: Short and Sweet Reviews

TBD: I Read a Book Once

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

He couldn’t remember, later, what had taken him down to the harbor.

~ p.1, Proof of Guilt by  by Charles Todd

A few things.

I finally finished Jeffery Eugenides’ slowest book to date.

I am nearly done listening to my first audio book. While I’m really enjoying the actually book, I can’t say that this is enticing me to grab another one. More on that, this week, though.

I’m getting seriously pumped about Beautiful Creatures hitting the big screen in a few weeks. I’m stalling out on the last half of Beautiful Redemption because I just don’t want the series to be over. Alas, a review shall be up, later this week because I can’t stop reading.

I also have a book tour and a Junot Diaz coming up for review so get your excitement panties on! Hope everyone else is having a Super Sunday (even if you are, like I am, banning the Super Bowl since it SHOULD have been a Pats v. Falcons game.)

The underlying message for me?

Love over corporations.

I usually hate movies.

Period.

I mean, even if there isn’t book to defile on screen, I tend to be a little wary of screen time. I just can’t sit for that long. This has, as you might expect, proven slightly problematic over the years as my husband was a film major. We’ve worked through it, though and I’ve actually come across a few films, recently, worth checking out. I approved, mostly, of The Hunger Games, though, of course, I had my personal critiques. I also thoroughly enjoyed The Hobbit and can not wait for the second and third installments.

I am excited about one more book to movie production, though, and I just have to share. God, it’s so southern and so good.

The first is Trailer #1 but I actually prefer #2.

Enjoy, y’all!

Do you lend your books? Are any out on loan right now? Do you have any that have been loaned to you? Do you put a time limit on these? Do you think people should make an effort to read the loaned book quickly?

My books have been returned within a day, sometimes, more often several weeks and on the frustrating minority, never. I hate when that happens but I can usually track them down. I’ve gotten much more stringent about who I lend what to. If it’s a toss away book, I’ll give it to a total random but if it’s a precious one, I’ll only lend to trusted borrowers. If I really need someone to read a book but I love my own copy, I’ll usually buy said reader copy of his or her own.

I know I seem a little snobby but it also means that I have lent and do lend a lot and I’ve learned (sort of) over time to have my own rules.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

There’s nothing to try, Ethan. It’s over. It’s too late.

~ p.20, Beautiful Redemption Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

I have loved each book Jeffrey Eugenides has written.

I will say, however, that I have loved each one in a very different way. This makes sense as they’re all pretty darn different.

The Marriage Plot was perhaps my least favorite of his three books but still it rises above many an ordinary tale. The story centers around 80′s Jersey girl Madeleine Hanna and her life beginning at Brown. The writing is fantastic, of course, but the plot is often disjointed as it bumps from Madeline to one and then the other of her two collegiate suitors, the Lurch-like Leonard and the mystical Mitchell. I believe the intention is to create a fairly Victorian plotline of traditional courting and heartbreak through modern scenarios as this is Madeline’s study focus. For that, it works and is tied up nicely in all areas.

In terms of the character development, something I’m not usually prone to discussing, I think that Eugenides has done better. As I said, I’m not usually a “character development” chick but I do feel as though it’s worth mentioning in this capacity as it was the kind of story that seemed as if it should, really, be driven by the characters coming into some sort of self discovery. I despise when people complain about characters especially when the story given clear indication of why each character is as annoying or strange as the writing allows. However, again, I have to make note that I found Madeleine tiresome and Leonard a bit of a caricature of mental illness. Mitchell, my favorite of the three, was sadly pushed to the side for most of the book. I think I would have read an entire four hundred page novel about Mitchell but I suppose that’s neither here nor there.

I did not intend for this to be such a wet noodle of a review. I really did enjoy the book for its own uniqueness, philosophy and literature references and, of course, Eugenides and his famed writing. Like I’ve said, there are definite critiques to be made in the characters but I think, over all, it was a worthwhile reading adventure.