About This Blog


This blog was started as a place to post book reviews. The books reviewed here will be mixed. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, General Fiction, NonFiction and more. Both positve and negative reviews will be posted, as well as reviews for books written for all ages and all reading levels.

Many of the books reviewed here are ones that I have purchased for my own reading pleasure. Some, I receive free in exchange for reviews. Beginning in December, 2009 you will know which are the free ones if you read the final paragraph of my reviews.

Also of note: I choose what I will read, attempting to avoid the books on which I would end up writing a negative review... but I have been known to make mistakes. Thus you see some one and two star reviews here. Since I don't enjoy writing negative reviews, I only write them if the review was promised, or if the book was so exceedingly bad, I just had to say so. Regardless of the percentage of positive to negative reviews on this blog, I give my honest opinion each and every time, and have never received financial compensation for posting my reviews.

Note that, except for fair use portions quoted from some of the books reviewed, all copyright in the content of the reviews belongs to Lady Dragoness.


Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Following The Rules

House Rules
By Jodi Picoult
Atria (2010)
Hardcover, 544 pages
Rated 4 Stars of 5 possible

The kaleidoscopic viewpoint used in House Rules gives the story an interesting perspective... each of the main character tells his/her part of each chapter in alternating turns, including the autistic young man who has been accused of murder. It is a pretty interesting look into Autisim spectrum disorders in general and, specifically, Asperger's syndrome.  Jacob Hunt takes everything quite literally and interprets each situation he encounters in terms of the five basic house rules his mother has taught him.

While I had previously read excerpts from several Jodi Picoult's early novels, this is the first time I've read a book of hers in its entirety. As expected, it is a page-turner. The writing is well-done and the research impeccable. The author uses suspense to draw the reader ever-deeper into the story; instilling doubt (Did Jacob kill his social-skills tutor? or did Jacob's brother, Theo, kill the young woman? Was someone else involved?) and resolving questions as the story develops. I love the way she incorporated a short synopsis of high profile, real-life cases at the beginning of each main chapter, which helped to highlight Jacob's interest in forensics.

Recommended first for the author's fans, second for those who have an interest in forensics or Autism, and third for those who haven't yet experienced reading a novel written by this author. This review has simultaneously been posted on Amazon.com, Dragonviews and LibraryThing.

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