61 Hours, by Lee Child

So, after finishing How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls, by Zoey Dean, I started the next book in the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child, 61 Hours, on January 8.  I finished it on January 24.  What can I say about the Reacher books - they are highly entertaining.  They follow a certain recipe.  They are action packed.  They usually have a twist or 2.  He usually gets the girl.  Then he rides off into the sunset in search of the next small town where he can save the day in some way, shape, or form.  I still don't get the casting decision of Tom Cruise in this role - he is decidedly NOT Jack Reacher.

So, 61 Hours begins with Jack Reacher on a tour bus filled with old people making its way to Mount Rushmore in the dead of winter.  He isn't dressed appropriately (i.e. he does not have a warm coat or anything that a normal person would wear in a snowstorm).  He's asleep in the back of the bus, trying to not stand out, to not blend in, to be invisible.  He never stays that way for long.  The bus crashes in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a gigantic blizzard, and he is fearful that the passengers, and he along with them, will freeze to death if they don't get help.  Some law enforcement people from a nearby small South Dakota town come and help them - they send a bus (a prison bus to be exact) to move the passengers to the town, and the townsfolk volunteer to host the old people until the weather clears, they get a new tour bus, and are able to continue with their tour.

Reacher is immediately eyed suspiciously by the chief of police and his second in command.  He eventually learns that there is an older lady in town who is the main witness in a trial of suspected drug dealers, and the local police is on protective duty to keep her alive until she can testify.  There are "sinister forces" at work threatening the life of this lady, and the police will stop at nothing to protect her.  To a point.  There is a new federal prison in town, and one of the agreements the local police had to make in order to get a ton of funding for the force is that if there is a riot at the prison, EVERY cop has to drop everything and high tail it to the prison until the riot has subsided.  This includes leaving the witness.

Well, you guessed it - a riot happens.  The police head to the prison.  The witness is left alone.  Reacher protects her - she comes out unscathed, this time.  The police "hire" Reacher as a consultant to protect the witness and help them figure out what is going on and who the "bad guys" are.  Reacher uses some of his old army contacts to help figure out what an old government compound is (that is currently being used by suspected drug dealers).  He regularly talks to a woman, Susan Turner, who holds Reacher's old post - there is an immediate chemistry between Reacher and this woman.  I suspected that Susan would be the girl that Reacher gets.

I obviously don't want to spoil the various twists and turns of this book - but this is one book where Reacher doesn't get the girl.  I really thought he would get the girl - but he doesn't.  Things don't get completely wrapped up with a big red bow like they do in some of the other Reacher novels.  But, by the end of the book, most things get figured out, most things resolve, and Reacher moves on - just like clock work.  

This book is an easy read, highly entertaining, and I really enjoyed it.  As always, I look forward to the next adventures of Jack Reacher.

How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls, by Zoey Dean

So, after finishing Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child, I picked up How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls by Zoey Dean.  I started reading this on December 26, and finished it on January 1, 2015.  The husband and I were down in Southern California for the holidays, and when we got to my parents' house, inevitably we looked through their ever-growing "we're-done-reading-these-books-so-they're-free-for-the-taking" pile.  There were all kinds of books in that pile, some that have been there for a while, and some new ones.  My eye was drawn to the cover of this book.  I've picked it up on other occasions when I've been home, but Sally gave it only a lukewarm review, so I never committed to reading it.  But, for some reason, this time I did.

the cast of the TV Show
"Privileged"

After only a few pages, something about the book sounded vaguely familiar.  As soon as I got to the place in the book where Zoey Dean introduced one of the characters, Laurel Limoges, I remembered that this book used to be a TV series called "Privileged" and was on the CW in 2008/9.  It didn't last long, but I remember watching it on occasion and having a sort of love-hate relationship with it.  Regardless, I got into the book and enjoyed reading it.

In a nutshell, this book is about a young journalist, Megan, who is down in the dumps - she has a job she's not particularly good at, her apartment in NYC has just burned down, she has no money, and sadly loses the job she has but can't stand.  Her boss who fires her recommends her for another seemingly unrelated job (as a tutor) - a job and an opportunity Megan just can't pass up.

"A leap of faith.  I wasn't really a leap-of-faith kind of girl.  Watch carefully from the side and suss it out - yes.  Big leap - no.  But what were my options, really?  And even if she had just fired me, for some reason, I didn't want to let Debra down.  Weirdly, I still liked her.  "Okay, I'll do it." ...As I shook her hand and then left her office for the last time, I felt like Alice heading toward that damned rabbit hole."

So, off she goes to Palm Beach, Florida to be the tutor to two high-school-aged twin sisters whose parents died when they were younger, and are currently being "raised" by their workaholic absentee grandmother, the head of a cosmetics empire which the twins will inherit.  Megan was thrown into a world full of money and riches the like she's never experienced before.  And, of course there is a developing love interest.

Megan's main job is to help the twins (Sage and Rose) get better grades, do well on the SATs, and get into Duke, their college legacy.  Sage and Rose are set to inherit a gagillion dollars on their 18th birthdays, or so they think.  They are less than receptive to the idea of working with Megan.

     "What do we care?" Sage asked, although she clearly wasn't looking for an answer.  "We're already rich and we're almost famous.  Come on, Rose."  She got to her feet.  "We're out of here."
     Laurel shrugged again.  "Depart if you want.  But understand this, Sage: You are not rich."
     Sage sighed wearily.  "Yet.  We aren't rich yet.  But we will be next month, on our eighteenth birthday.  Eighty-four million dollars rich.  That's what the trust says."
     "No, that's what the trust used to say," Laurel corrected.  "It was revised this morning."
     Sage's pale face drained of what color it had.  I watched her reflection in the silver tea set across the room.  "What are you talking about?" she managed.

This was a cute book, book candy, book fluff - nothing too serious, nothing too heavy, nothing too complex - but entertaining.  There were a few things that made me cringe, however.  Typos, including once where the author referred to one of the main characters, Laurel, as Lauren (the editor AND author should have caught that one), and a few other generic typos and grammatical errors.  That kind of stuff drives me a little insane.  I know, I know - no one is perfect, but when a publisher is paying an editor to edit a book, these things just shouldn't happen, especially referring to a character by an incorrect name.  I guess I don't expect too much from an author whose "about the author" sentence on Amazon is:  "ZOEY DEAN is the author of the New York Times bestselling A-LIST series. She grew up in Beverly Hills and now lives in Palm Beach, where she is working on her next novel and dreaming of a Pulitzer--Lilly Pulitzer, that is."  She is correct though, if all of her books are similar to this one, she's destined to a world of Lilly Pulitzer. 

A cute read, but no need to drop everything and run to the bookstore.