Monday Reads: a review, kobo and a new book

11th Hour by James Patterson

Review: This weekend I finished James Patterson's 11th installment in the Women's Murder Club mystery books. I have read each and every one of this series and have been enjoying them. I can't say that after 11 books that they still have that "wow" factor. The formula is getting to be repetitive. I can usually guess within the first half of the book who the bad guy is. With mystery novels I like there to be some kind of twist that I was not expecting. The last few books in the series have been lacking that. Why do I keep reading them? I love the four main characters who make up the Women's Murder Club. I feel like they are close friends of mine and that I have grown with them. I have stopped reading the books for the mystery aspect and I now read them to get to spend more time with some of my favourite characters. If you have been following this series, I would pick this book up. If you have never read any of these books, start with the first and read a few. The first five books in the series were fantastic!

This weekend I also bought a kobo! I have had a Sony ereader for quite a while now but it's been dying on me. After sending it for repair, the battery still drains super fast. I have been searching for a new ereader for a while but wasn't desperate to get one since I often read on my iPad. The kobo was on sale this weekend for $89 so I HAD to pick one up. I read one book and started another on my new ereader and am loving it. A bonus? It has wifi so I can download books on the go. And also, my eyes are not straining after a few hours of reading. Loving it!

The book pictured on my kobo is the one I just started yesterday. So far I am really enjoying it and ended up staying up til 1am reading it. Of course anything set in NYC will attract my attention. The fact that it's short love stories about people who met and fell in love in NYC is what sold me on this book!

Heart of the City by Ariel Sabar

Synopsis: The handsome Texas sailor who offers dinner to a runaway in Central Park. The Midwestern college girl who stops a cop in Times Square for restaurant advice. The Brooklyn man on a midnight subway who helps a weary tourist find her way to Chinatown. The Columbia University graduate student who encounters an unexpected object of beauty at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A public place in the world's greatest city. A chance meeting of strangers. A marriage. Heart of the City tells the remarkable true stories of nine ordinary couples--from the 1940s to the present--whose matchmaker was the City of New York. Intrigued by the romance of his own parents, who met in Washington Square Park, award-winning author Ariel Sabar set off on a far-ranging search for other couples who married after first meeting in one of New York City's iconic public spaces. Sabar conjures their big-city love stories in novel-like detail, drawing us into the hearts of strangers just as their lives are about to change forever. In setting the stage for these surprising, funny and moving tales, Sabar, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, offers a fascinating look at the role of place in how--and whether--people meet and fall in love. Heart of the City is a paean to the physical city as matchmaker, a tribute to the power of chance, and an eloquent reminder of why we must care about the design of urban spaces.