Book Review: Career Of Evil (Cormoran Strike #3), by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)

Genre: Detective Mystery
Date Published: October 2015
Publisher: Mulholland Books
# Of Pages/Listening Time: 492 pages/ 18 hours

Goodreads | Audible

Synopsis: When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.
Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible – and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.
With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them…
Career of Evil is the third in the series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott. A mystery and also a story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives

My Rating:

 ★★★★ 1/2

.....For Being A Great Re-read!

Book Review: The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1), by Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling

Genre: Contemporary Mystery
Date Published: April 2013
Publisher: Mulholland Books
# Of Pages/Listening Time: 455 pages/ 16 hours

Goodreads | Audible

Synopsis: The Cuckoo's Calling is a 2013 crime fiction novel by J. K. Rowling, published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
A brilliant mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide.
After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.
Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.
You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this.

My Rating:

 ★★★★★

.....For being a highly enjoyable re-read

Book Review: Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone (The Illustrated Edition), by J.K. Rowling with illustrations by Jim Kay

Genre: Children's Fantasy
Number of Pages: 246 pages

Goodreads | Leafmarks

Synopsis: The beloved first book of the Harry Potter series, now fully illustrated by award-winning artist Jim Kay.

For the first time, J. K. Rowling's beloved Harry Potter books will be presented in lavishly illustrated full-color editions. Rowling herself selected artist Jim Kay, whose over one hundred illustrations make this deluxe format as perfect a gift for the child being introduced to the series as for the dedicated fan.

My Rating:

★★★★★

....for always being a wonderful story, now with awesome illustrations!

Book Review: The Tales Of Beedle The Bard (A Wizarding Classic From The World Of Harry Potter), by J.K. Rowling

Title: The Tales Of Beedle The Bard
Author: J.K. Rowling
Date Published: December 4th, 2008
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Length: 109 pages
Genre: Children's Fantasy
My Rating: ★★★★★

Synopsis: The Tales Of Beedle The Bard, a Wizarding classic, first came to Muggle readers’ attention in the book known as Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows. Now, thanks to Hermione Granger’s new translation from the ancient runes, we present this stunning edition with an introduction, notes, and illustrations by J.K. Rowling, and extensive commentary by Albus Dumbledore. Never before have Muggles been privy to these richly imaginative tales: “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot,” “The Fountain of Fair Fortune,” “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart,” “Babbity Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump,” and of course, “The Tale of the Three Brothers.” But not only are they the equal of fairy tales we now know and love, reading them gives new insight into the world of Harry Potter.

My Review In A Sentence: 

A fun continuation in the Harry Potter world

Book Review: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter Year 7), by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter Year 7), by J.K. Rowling
★★★★★ and a ♥

Synopsis: (From the book flap of the U.S. 1st edition) We now the seventh and final installment in the epic tale of Harry Potter (I found this sooo aggravating when I first read this!)
In A Sentence: Officially my favorite of the entire series

Book Review: Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter #6), by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter #6), by J.K. Rowling
★★★★★ and ♥

Synopsis: The war against Voldemort is not going well; even Muggle governments are noticing. Ron scans the obituary pages of the Daily Prophet, looking for familiar names. Dumbledore is absent from Hogwarts for long stretches of time, and the Order of the Phoenix has already suffered losses.
And yet…
As in all wars, life goes on. Sixth-year students learn to Apparate—and lose a few eyebrows in the process. The Weasley twins expand their business. Teenagers flirt and fight and fall in love. Classes are never straightforward, though Harry receives some extraordinary help from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince.
So it’s the home front that takes center stage in the multilayered sixth installment of the story of Harry Potter. Here at Hogwarts, Harry will search for the full and complex story of the boy who became Lord Voldemort—and thereby find what may be his only vulnerability.
In A Sentence: My least favorite of the Harry Potter books, but still amazing

Book Review: Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (Harry Potter #5), by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (Harry Potter #5), by J.K. Rowling
★★★★★ and ♥

Synopsis: There is a door at the end of a silent corridor. And it’s haunting Harry Potter’s dreams. Why else would he be waking in the middle of the night, screaming in terror?
Here are just a few things on Harry’s mind:
• A Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher with a personality like poisoned honey
• A venomous, disgruntled house-elf
• Ron as keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team
• The looming terror of the end-of-term Ordinary Wizarding Level exams
…and of course, the growing threat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. In the richest installment yet of J.K. Rowling’s seven-part story, Harry Potter is faced with the unreliability of the very government of the magical world and the impotence of the authorities at Hogwarts.
Despite this (or perhaps because of it), he finds depth and strength in his friends, beyond what even he knew; boundless loyalty; and unbearable sacrifice.
Though think runs the plot (as well as the spine), readers will race through these pages and leave Hogwarts, like Harry, wishing only for the next train back
In A Sentence: Hello, my name is Lisa and I’m a Potterholic….

Book Review: Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (Harry Potter #4), by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (Harry Potter #4), by J.K. Rowling
★★★★★ and a ♥

Synopsis: You have in your hands the pivotal fourth novel in the seven-part tale of Harry Potter’s training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup with Hermione, Ron, and the Weasleys. He wants to dream about Cho Chang, his crush (and maybe do more than dream). He wants to find out about the mysterious event that’s supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn’t happened for a hundred years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard. Unfortunately for Harry Potter, he’s not normal—even by wizarding standards.
And in his case, different can be deadly.
In A Sentence: A reread that still pulls at my heartstrings.

Book Review: Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, by J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter #3)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (Harry Potter #3), by J.K. Rowling
★★★★★ and ♥

Synopsis: For twelve long years, the dread fortress of Azkaban held an infamous prisoner named Sirius Black. Convicted of killing thirteen people with a single curse, he was said to be the heir apparent to the Dark Lord, Voldemort.
Now he has escaped, leaving only two clues as to where he might be headed: Harry Potter’s defeat of You-Know-Who was Black’s downfall as well. And the Azkaban guards heard Black muttering in his sleep, “He’s at Hogwarts…he’s at Hogwarts.”
Harry Potter isn’t safe, not even within the walls of his magical school, surrounded by his friends. Because on top of it all, there may well be a traitor in their midst.
In Sentence: How could anyone not love this book?!

Book Review: Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (Harry Potter #2), by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (Harry Potter Book #2), by J.K. Rowling
★★★★★ and a ♥

Synopsis: The Dursleys were so mean and hideous that summer that all Harry Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he’s packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.
And strike it does. For in Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls’ bathroom, and the unwanted attentions of Ron Weasley’s younger sister, Ginny.
But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble begins, and someone—or something—starts turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects…Harry Potter himself?
In A Sentence: A book I’ve been reading since I was 12, and I never get tired of it!

Book Review: Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter #1), by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter #1), by J.K. Rowling
★★★★★ and a ♥

Synopsis: Harry Potter has never played a sport while flying on a broomstick. He’s never worn a cloak of invisibility, befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon. All Harry knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley. Harry’s room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn’t had a birthday party in eleven years.
But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to a wonderful place he dreamed existed. There he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great destiny that’s been waiting for him…if Harry can survive the encounter.
In A Sentence: A huge favorite of mine!

Thursday's Favorites Spotlight: Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling

It's Thursday already!  Time for my Favorites Spotlight!  And this week it's my all-time favorite series:

I belong to the generation that grew up with this series.  The first time I read this book, I was 11 years old and the third book had already come out.  I didn’t know much about the series, except that everyone in my school seemed to be reading these books, and the book covers looked really cool.  So I asked my mom if I could have a copy of The Sorcerer’s Stone to read.