Book review: Premier Jour by Marc Levy

Author: Marc Levy
Original Title: Premier Jour
Country: France
Rating: 5 cups


If you remember, in February I decided to have a little personal reading challenge to help me get out of the "I don't want to read" phase, Book Around the World. The first stop was in Italy, with Federico Moccia's Three meters above the sky.

This week's stop is France, with a very well known French author, Marc Levy. If his name doesn't ring any bell, you might have seen the movie Just like heaven, with Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo. This movie is based on Levy's first novel, If only it were true (original title Et si c'était vrai...), which I believe it was WAY better than the movie.

The novel Le Premier Jour (The First Day) was published in 2009 and it has a really interesting plot. An astrophysicist and an archaeologist team up and find a strange object inside a volcano, object that might change history as we know it.

Adrian, the astrophysicist, has one big dream: to find out where the dawn begins. He's just returned in England after a 3 year research project in Chile when he reconnects with an ex-girlfriend, Kira.  After they spend the night together, she leaves him, leaving behind a note and a necklace. After searching for her, he finds out she's in Ethiopia, conducting some archaeological research.

As an archaeologist, Kira wants to find out who the first human being was, how many years ago he/she lived and how different was he than what humans are nowadays. Kira is convinced that the answers to these questions can be found in Ethiopia.

When Adrian arrives in Kira's camp, he convinces her that the necklace she left him is very special and that they need to find out where it comes from and if there are other object similar to it. At the same time, a secret international organization that wants to make Adrian and Kira to give up their research and the people in that organization doesn't stop from anything, whether it's murder, bribe, lying or stealing. The people in this organization are convinced that humanity is not ready yet for the secrets that the fragments could uncover if they are brought together.

I think this book is a mystery of sorts, a romantic mystery, a genre that I think fits very well with Levy's writing style. What I love about Levy's novels is the fact that each of them has a lesson. For example, in another of his novels, My friends, my lovers (original title: Mes amis, mes amours), the lesson is that real friends are there for each other always.

The book is light, easy to read. The ending is kind of surprising, but that is because the book has a second part, The First Night (Le Premier Nuit) which I am currently reading.

I just hope someone will make it into a movie.

Teaser Tuesdays

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!


My teaser today is from Kresley Cole's Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night.

“If I slake you, in return I get a smiling lass. I like this deal, kitten.”
“Damn it, MacRieve, if you keep calling me kitten, then I’m going to start calling you something equivalent, like hound dog—and then we’ll both be losers.”

What's your teaser this week?

Book review: Live Wire by Lora Leigh

Author: Lora Leigh 
Rating: 4 stars


Blurb (from Goodreads) :

"Meet Captain Jordan Malone. For years he has been a silent warrior and guardian, operating independent of government protocol or oversight, leading his team of Elite Ops agents to fight against terror at all costs. A legend in the field, Jordan’s true identity has remained a mystery even to his own men...until now.
Tehya Talamosi, codename Enigma, is a force to be reckoned with A woman this striking spells nothing but trouble for Jordan. Armed with killer secrets-and body to die for-she’ll bring Jordan to his knees as they both take on the most deadly mission they have ever faced. Because this time, it’s personal..."

 Today I am sad. I'm always sad when a series ends, when I know there probably won't be another story to wait for, another glimpse to the characters I love with all my heart. And no matter how many times you reread that series, it's not the same as the first time, when you were waiting and counting days till the publishing date of the newest book or when you spent countless hours on the author's forum, trying to see if there are new details, new hints or even rumors about the upcoming books.

I tried to avoid reading Live Wire as soon as I got it for these reasons. For six years Lora Leigh's fans have waited for this particular book, for big, bad Jordan Malone to finally find his match, his soul-mate. I have a feeling that maybe we were all hoping that the end would never come. And yet here it is.

Jordan Malone, a.k.a. Live Wire, always seemed untouchable, detached, almost cold. He was always the logical one, the one with all the plans, the one who had an answer for everything and the one who didn't mind stepping on a few toes if that got the job done. He never believed that love could last a lifetime, considering that love was just another name for lust.If in the other books from the Elite Ops. series I thought he was a cynical bastard, his story confirmed it. But he also is a very good friend, one that would risk his own life to help the ones he cares about.

Tehya Talamosi is the daughter of a terrorist. We first met her in Killer Secrets as the young girl trying to escape the fate that awaited her if her father ever found her alive. I liked her character very much and I always hoped that she would be the one who ended up with Jordan. I like way she evolved from the first time we met her. She's more confident, more daring than before.

I like the fact that we get to see the other guys too. I was a tad disappointed at first because the scenes with the others were few and short, but I think the ending scene made up for that. I like seeing all the couples being brought together and I think it was a good ending, even though bittersweet.

I also noticed that there were a few loose ends and that makes me hope for a new series tied to this one, but I'll just have to wait and see.

I didn't like was the editing. I hope maybe St. Martins will do a better job at editing in the future, because there were times when it was seriously annoying. Though I'll probably reread the book again and again, no matter the editing errors, because I loved the story.

I hope Lora Leigh will once again surprise us with a spin-off, a newer version of the Elite Ops. series and I hope it will happen soon. But if that never happens, I'm glad to have read this series. It was a very good one.

Sorry folks

Between friends visiting me and personal problems, I haven't had much time to post around here. The last weeks have been really weird and such. But now I'm back and I have tons of reviews to write. I'll give you a sneak peak on what you can read here next week.

On Monday I'll review Lora Leigh's latest  book, Live Wire 

 On Tuesday I'll review Marc Levy's Premier Jour. 

On Wednesday I'll be reviewing Kresley Cole's A Hunger Like No Other

On Friday I'll review Brendan Connell's Metrophilias

 

So that's it for next week. Have a great weekend!