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Pamela Kramer

Biography

Pamela Kramer


Pamela Kramer began her obsession with books by reading the entire Wizard of Oz series when she was in kindergarten and first grade. She was a lawyer for many years and is retired from her job as a dual language gifted teacher in Highland Park, Illinois. Pamela enjoyed combining her love of books and her love of animals with her teaching. She got to read new picture books to younger students and used their reactions in her reviews. Through her website, she is able to recommend middle grade and young adult books to students. All the students and former students (and teachers) know where to go for good book recommendations! She served on the Illinois Bluestem steering committee (Illinois School Library Media Association Award) for several years.

Pam also loves to read adult books, and several authors whose books she has reviewed have become friends. She has rescued a variety of animals, from dogs and cats to rats and rabbits, and she loves nothing more than reading while cuddling with one of her four dogs or two cats. She always has a foster dog in her home as well. She has reviewed books online since 2010 and began writing about books for the now defunct Examiner.com website and later as a contributor to Huffington Post. She continues to review -- mostly on her blog, PamelaKramer.com. She spends school breaks reading as much as possible while also organizing and checking the massive piles of books in her home. Her favorite thing? Seeing a quote from one of her reviews on the back of a book!

Pamela Kramer

Reviews by Pamela Kramer

by Sandie Jones - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

California, 2011: A writer knocks on Nicole Forbes’ door asking for her personal insight into the downfall of the biggest British band of the 1980s. The same day, her daughter goes missing. The school claims her aunt picked her up…but she doesn’t have an aunt. Convinced of a link between the two, Nicole is forced to revisit long-abandoned memories from her past to protect everything she now holds dear. London, 1986: Sixteen-year-old Cassie is obsessed with Secret Oktober, the hottest band of the moment. Harboring an intense crush on the leading man, Ben Edwards, she will do anything she can to capture his attention. But when Ben discovers her older sister, Nicole, singing at a local bar one night, he can’t help but feel drawn to her, setting in motion a collision course that could tear their family apart.

by Charlie N. Holmberg - Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction

Whimbrel House is changing. Merritt and Hulda are raising a family. Owein has signed a marriage contract with the magically compatible Lady Cora, a heavyweight of British nobility who’s an ocean away. And the lovely shape-shifting druid Fallon makes a distractingly fetching friend for Owein. But another change is in the air. The greatest wizard of the millennium, Silas Hogwood, is back --- after five years dead. New body, same foul scent, and driven by madness and revenge. Fearing he isn’t strong enough to fend off Silas, Owein seeks Cora’s help and influence in England. Queen Victoria dispatches her League of Magicians, including her personal necromancer, to aid in Owein’s defense. As magic, both good and evil, converges on Blaugdone Island, Owein realizes how harrowing the forces against them are.

by J.C. Cervantes - Fiction, Magical Realism

Lilian Estrada is part of a family of fiercely loyal and exceptional women, all bound together by an extraordinary secret. The Estrada women each possess a unique power, and Lily shines with the rare gift to manipulate memories. Yet not even her mystical abilities can shield her from a harrowing event at the hospital, one that sends her powers --- and her confidence --- spiraling out of control. Seeking solace, Lily retreats to her family's ancestral home in Mexico, only to find herself face to face with a ghost from her past --- Sam, the first love she never forgot. Nearly a decade since she last saw him, Sam is hardly the boy she once knew. As old flames spark to life, Lily must navigate the mysteries of their shared history and the depths of her own heart if she hopes to control her unpredictable magic.

by Patti Callahan Henry - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

In 1927, Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just 12 years old. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. By 1952, Clara is an illustrator raising her own daughter, Wynnie. One day, a stranger named Charlie Jameson contacts her from London claiming to have discovered a handwritten dictionary of her mother’s lost language. At the Jameson family’s retreat, Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her mother and the story she left behind.

by Laura Anthony - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

Dublin, 1969: Maura has just married Dr. Christy Davenport, and they look forward to growing their family. But as her husband’s vicious temper emerges, Maura worries that her home might never be safe for a child. Meanwhile, her close friend Bernie, a mother of three, learns the devastating news that if she conceives again, her health complications could prove fatal. Dublin, 2023: A close call makes Saoirse realize that she may never want to be a mother. Little does she know that only a few decades ago, a group of women made this option possible for her. And she’s about to meet one of them.

by Alice Henderson - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When wildlife biologist Alex Carter is tasked with locating jaguars on a vast desert preserve in New Mexico, she is ecstatic. While jaguars once roamed throughout the Southwest, they are now endangered, and Alex hopes that some of the sleek and elusive creatures have found their way to the protected sanctuary. Meanwhile, an archaeological team is excavating the gravesite of a 16th-century Spanish conquistador on a neighboring piece of land. While learning about their discoveries, Alex encounters a dangerous group of anti-immigrant vigilantes roaming the area, threatening the team and demanding they leave. And when the militants learn of Alex’s mission, they become bent on stopping her. And then there are the strange holes that keep appearing on the preserve. Who is digging them, and what are they looking for?

by Lauren Willig - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Just before Christmas 1799, Elma Sands slips out of her Quaker cousin’s boarding house --- and doesn’t come home. Her body is eventually found in the Manhattan Well. Handbills circulate around the city accusing a carpenter named Levi Weeks of seducing and murdering Elma. But privately, quietly, Levi’s wealthy brother calls in a special favor. Aaron Burr’s legal practice can’t finance both his expensive tastes and his ambition to win the 1800 New York elections. To defend Levi Weeks is a double win: a hefty fee plus a chance to grab headlines. Alexander Hamilton has his own political aspirations; he isn’t going to let Burr monopolize the public’s attention. If Burr is defending Levi Weeks, then Hamilton will too. As the trial and the election draw near, Burr and Hamilton race against time to save a man’s life --- and destroy each other.

by Deanna Raybourn - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller, Women's Fiction

After more than a year of laying low, Billie, Helen, Mary Alice and Natalie are called back into action. When they receive a summons from the head of the elite assassin organization known as the Museum, they are ready to tackle the greatest challenge of their careers. Someone on the inside has compiled a list of important kills committed by Museum agents, connected to a single, shadowy figure, an Eastern European gangster with an iron fist, some serious criminal ambition, and a tendency to kill first and ask questions later. This new nemesis is murdering agents who got in the way of their power-hungry plans, and the aging quartet of killers is next. Together the foursome embark on a wild ride across the globe on the double mission of rooting out the Museum’s mole and hunting down the gangster who seems to know their next move before they make it.

by Sandra Brown - Fiction, Romance, Romantic Suspense, Suspense, Thriller

Recently divorced and slightly heavy-handed with his liquor, Detective John Bowie does all that he can to cope with the actions taken (or not taken) during the investigation of Crissy Mellin, a teenage girl who disappeared more than three years prior. But now, “Crisis Point,” a long-running true crime television series, is soon to air an episode documenting the unsolved case. Beth Collins, a senior producer on “Crisis Point,” is convinced that Crissy’s disappearance was not an isolated incident. A string of disappearances of teenage girls in nearby areas has only one thing in common: They took place on the night of a blood moon. In a last-ditch effort to find out the truth, Beth leaves New York City for Louisiana to enlist Detective Bowie in helping her figure out what happened to Crissy and find the true culprit before he acts on the next blood moon --- in four days’ time.

by Kelley Armstrong - Fiction, Mystery

Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are starting a family now that they’ve settled into their life at Haven’s Rock. As Casey nears the end of her pregnancy, she lets nothing stop her from investigating what happens in the forbidden forest outside the town of Haven’s Rock. When one of the town's residents is drugged and wanders too close to the edge of town, she’s dragged into the woods kicking and screaming. She’s saved in the nick of time, but the women of the town are alarmed. Casey and Eric investigate the assault just as a snowstorm hits Haven’s Rock, covering the forest. It’s there that they find a frozen body, naked in the snow. With mixed accounts of the woman's last movements, the two begin to question who they can trust --- and who they can't --- in their seemingly safe haven.