Our Little Secret by Darren O'Sullivan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller 



A deserted train station: A man waits. A woman watches.

In the middle of the night Sarah is waiting for the train when she notices a man standing on the platform. A man who thought he would be alone at this hour. Alone so he could step under the train and end his life without any witnesses. Because he doesn't want any witnesses, Chris tries to get rid of Sarah by offering her money so she can go buy herself a cup of coffee to warm herself up while she waits for her train. She mistakes his offer as an act of kindness and instead of leaving feels drawn to him. She soon realizes that something is not right and stays until finally Chris leaves the train station. After Sarah stops Chris from committing suicide she becomes obsessed with finding out who he is and why he wanted to kill himself.

But there are some secrets that are meant to stay buried…

Our Little Secret was a quick read that was pretty engrossing even though the plot was obvious to me almost from the beginning. In fact it was so obvious that I wondered if it was supposed to be a mystery who the killer was. The book is broken mostly into two points of view, Sarah's and Chris's, with the occasional point of view from Chris's friend Steve thrown in. There are also journal entries from Chris's murdered wife. The mystery is all about who killed Chris's wife and why. As I already said though, I figured it out very early on so there was very little mystery for me in this book. Mostly just how exactly it all happened. The why was pretty easy to predict, almost as easy as who had done it.

I thought Sarah made some incredibly stupid choices at times and that really annoyed me. Sarah was not the best judge of character, especially when it came to men and her younger sister and her fiancé pretty much took on a rather parental type role to try and save her from her stupidity. This irked me a little, but I could also understand why they did this. I did not always feel like Sarah's actions were plausible. Who meets some random person and then becomes that obsessed with them? I guess the whole suicide thing played a big part in it, but still, Sarah just seemed like a glutton for punishment. From the ex-boyfriend who she kept going back to in the past, even though he treated her badly. To the way she kept going back to Chris, even when he made it clear he didn't want her there. I really can't say that I cared whether she lived or died at the end of the book, but I won't spoil that here.

Despite not really connecting with Sarah and the lack of mystery I still enjoyed this enough to give it three stars. This is one of those books that does not end happily for everyone, but the end was fitting.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher HQ Digital for giving me a copy of this book.


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The Evaporation of Sofi Snow by Mary  Weber

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Sci-fi


 
Ever since the Delonese ice-planet arrived eleven years ago, Sofi's dreams have been vivid. Alien. In a system where Earth's corporations rule in place of governments and the humanoid race orbiting the moon are allies, her only constant has been her younger brother, Shilo. As an online gamer, Sofi battles behind the scenes of Earth's Fantasy Fighting arena where Shilo is forced to compete in a mix of real and virtual blood sport. But when a bomb takes out a quarter of the arena, Sofi's the only one who believes Shilo survived. She has dreams of him. And she's convinced he's been taken to the ice-planet.

Except no one but ambassadors are allowed there.

The Evaporation of Sofi Snow is a YA sci-fi story that I thought had potential, but ended up being just mediocre for me. I thought the games in the book were interesting. The mix of real and virtual reality was an interesting concept but I was a little confused about how exactly it worked. I also felt like the part at the beginning with the games was maybe a bit too long. One of the most interesting parts of the book was the "planet" and the aliens. I'll give you one guess what the planet really was, think Star Wars. Why no one figured this out before a bunch of teens did is beyond me. I really don't care for books that make the teens smarter than the adults.

I really didn't care for any of the characters in the book. Both Sofi and her ex, Miguel had too many issues for me. Sofi is angry with her mother, with good reason, and she is acting out and doing things just to spite her. And Miguel has done some really shady things in his past. These kids are way too young to have so much baggage which is really sad. I think it would have worked better as a story if it had been written about adults. Then maybe we would have been spared the teen angst. There is also the friend Heller who initially seemed really cool, but then got super annoying with his jealousy.

The book ends on a huge cliffhanger and you definitely have to read the next book to find out what happens next, but I'm pretty sure I can predict what is going to happen and what all the secrets probably are, so I'm good leaving it where it is.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Thomas Nelson for giving me a copy of this book for review.

Saving Grace by Michele Paige Holmes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Historical Romance
Content: Clean


Saving Grace is a Regency romance set in the latter part of the Regency period. Just like in most of these type books there was a lot of second guessing how the other person feels and being foolish about it, but for some reason I just keep enjoying these anyway. They are mostly great for when I don't have a huge attention span for reading, but just want to breeze through something light and easy. And they also warm the heart and make me feel good, sort of like a Hallmark movie. This one had a very grumpy love interest whose heart needed melting after the loss of his sister and father.

The novel started out a bit shaky, but got much better as it went on. At one point I wasn't sure if I liked the protagonist when she was so willing to ruin other people's reputations without seeming to give them much thought, even if it was to save her sister. But later she seemed to realize what she had done and she grew on me until I really liked her. This is a clean romance and can be read by teens as well as adults. There are two companion novels that I also read and enjoyed that I'll post about later.

Sweet Little Lies by Caz Frear

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery


 
What happens when the trust has gone?

Cat Kinsella was always a daddy's girl. Until the summer of 1998 when she sees her father flirting with seventeen-year-old Maryanne Doyle.

When Maryanne later disappears and Cat's father denies ever knowing her, Cat's relationship with him is changed forever.

I was expecting Sweet Little Lies to be suspenseful, but it was more of a police procedural. Although I thought the mystery was rather intriguing at times, ultimately I did not find it all that compelling of a read. Parts of it felt really drawn out and I had a hard time wanting to pick it up and read it when that happened. The main character, Cat was not all that likable to me either. The good thing about this book is that I did not figure all the details of the mystery out. On a random note, since finishing this I've had the Fleetwood Mac song stuck in my head.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Bonnier Zaffre for giving me a copy of this book for review.


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June 2017 Book Club: The Aeronaut's Windlass

The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Steampunk



Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity. Within their halls, the ruling aristocratic houses develop scientific marvels, foster trade alliances, and maintain fleets of airships to keep the peace.

Jim Butcher is one of my favorite authors and I thoroughly enjoyed the Aeronaut's Windlass. The world is interesting; a great steampunk and traditional fantasy mix, and I am looking forward to more world building and character development in the next books in the series. The characters were all great. I can't think of one that I didn't like. If you like cats you will love this book. I loved the addition of Rowl the cat, and I think this book would be appropriate for my teen daughter to read even though it's written for adults. I ended up reading excerpts aloud to her when the point of view shifted to Rowl.

I think besides Rowl, what I liked the most about this book were the airship battles and the quirky Etherealists. I loved the Etherealists and can't wait to read more about them in coming books. I'm looking forward to reading more and hopefully also finding out a lot more about the world on the ground.

In the After by Demitria Lunetta

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Sci-fi, Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian
Content: Clean


They hear the most silent of footsteps.
They are faster than anything you've ever seen.
And They won't stop chasing you...until you are dead.

I was really glued to In the After during the first part of the book when it was sort of like reading a mash up of I am Legend and Falling Skies. Amy is left on her own after everyone around her has been killed by "Them". The news has reported that they are aliens who have landed to take over the earth. Soon there is no more news and as far as Amy can tell no other people. She observes how the aliens behave and figure out how to hide from them and get around them. I thought it was different that they were day time creatures instead of night time creatures and I liked that about the story.

One day while scavenging for food in a grocery store Amy finds a 3 or 4 year old child who she names Baby. There is never an explanation as to how Baby got there in the first place, although we learn some other important things about her later. I kind of thought this was a hole in the story. I loved Amy and Baby and I think their relationship is one thing that made the book work so well. However, in part two the post-apocalyptic survival story turned into a dystopian society story. From then on I thought it lacked something. The interaction between Amy and Baby became sparse and we are introduced to a lot of other characters that I really didn't care about.

Amy was mostly pretty smart while she was living on her own, but after she was brought to New Hope I thought she kind of stopped being smart and started doing some really stupid things. Knowing that the doctor didn't trust her and had his eye on her, you would think she would have been quieter about her suspicions and rebel in a more covert manner. Unfortunately she makes stupid mistake after stupid mistake for the whole rest of the book.

While I liked this book ok, I wish it had ended with this one instead of being a duology. At this time I feel like one book is enough so I'm not planning on reading the next one.



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Bonecaller: Book One by Logan Keys

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Clean

Raven doesn’t know she’s the most important player in a magical war.

Raven is a servant girl to the cruel witch Esme. She doesn't remember much about her life before. A young wizard cursed with old age also lives there. Raven and the wizard Sim become close friends and help and support each other through the witch's cruelty. One day Raven accidentally steals an old magic that the witch has been looking for. This sets off a chain of events that finally leads them away from the witch who has kept them captive for so long, but that doesn't mean they are going to be safe.

Across the sea John is a ship captain who has been running from his past. One day John finds the witch Mira stowed away on his ship and little does he know how drastically his life is about to change. Eventually the lives of these characters intersect and quite a few secrets are revealed.

Bonecaller is a young adult fantasy that could pass for adult as well. The writing style is easy to read, but the characters feel more grown up than most characters in young adult books. With the exception of maybe Raven who has to be at least 17 or 18 they all seem to be adults anyway so I'm not sure why this ended up being a young adult book.

I was drawn into this story from the very first page. The witches reminded me a little of the Fae at times with their elemental characteristics stemming from the seasons. I also really liked the romantic elements of the story. The relationship between Raven and Sim was a sweet one and I couldn't help but think of Howl's Moving Castle with the whole aging curse. However the relationship between John and Mira was more tumultuous, and though I liked them together some of the things John said and did irked me a little. Despite that I still couldn't help but like him.

At only 200 pages this is a very quick read and it was just what I needed after reading a very long fantasy. This ends with some of the characters still in bad situations and I have no idea when the next book will be released but I definitely want to continue on with the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book for review.



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The Legion of Flame by Anthony  Ryan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong Language, implied sex


For centuries, the vast Ironship Trading Syndicate relied on drake blood--and the extraordinary powers it confers to those known as the Blood-blessed--to fuel and protect its empire. But now, a fearsome power has arisen--a drake so mighty that the world will tremble before it.

What? No!!! No no no! That ending is killing me! To say that I didn't see that coming would be an understatement. And the way we leave Clay at the end of the previous chapter...Ugh! Anthony Ryan has definitely mastered the cliffhanger chapter. This time around I did resist the urge to peek ahead though.

After reading The Waking Fire back in December I was looking forward to reading this sequel, and happy that I wouldn't have to wait too long for it. This book was everything I was hoping it would be, except maybe for that ending! There is never a dull moment in these books and I enjoyed catching up with Clay and Lizanne and the rest of the characters. I think the only thing I didn't like so much were the chapters from the Spoiled's point of view, but it did give us more insight into the Spoiled and the drakes. Out of the different story lines in the book I think I liked Clay's the most. The journey he goes on was full of interesting revelations and he just continues to grow on me as a character.

I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series. I really need to know what happens next! But unfortunately it won't be released until next year.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for giving me a copy of this book to review.



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Spirit and Dust by Rosemary Clement-Moore

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Mystery, Paranormal
Content: Clean


Daisy Goodnight can speak to the dead. It’s not the result of a head injury or some near-death experience. She was just born that way. And she’s really good at it. Good enough to help the police solve the occasional homicide.

I was pretty disappointed in Spirit and Dust. It's a companion novel to Texas Gothic but it was nothing like Texas Gothic. All of the things that made me adore Texas Gothic were missing in this book. This book lacked the charm that was present in that one. There were no quirky, eccentric characters, unless you count Daisy herself and the rest of the Goodnight family was absent for the most part. Where Texas Gothic was light-hearted and funny, Spirit and Dust was more tense and serious.

Honestly though, this wasn't a bad book. It was a pretty good mystery that contained a few good twists and had it been a separate novel with nothing to do with Texas Gothic I probably would have liked it better. Even though this one disappointed me I would still love for Rosemary Clement-Moore to write more books about the Goodnight family.

One thing worth mentioning is a certain scene in a museum in Chicago that contains a dinosaur named Sue. Anyone that has read The Dresden Files will feel a certain deja vu.



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Mistaken Kiss by Kathleen Baldwin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Romance
Content: Clean


Willa is nearly blind, but she knows trouble when she trips over it.

Willa, the vicar’s little sister knows full well that her prospects are bleak. When she accidentally kisses Alexander Braeburn, her dull predictable world turns upside down. Logic dictates that she should stay away from the handsome Corinthian. He’s the black sheep of their village. But how can she resist?

I got Mistaken Kiss for free from Amazon. It's probably one of the best free books I've ever read. I really liked Willa who is practically blind without her glasses and still has a hard time seeing with them on. Will's brother's best friend Sir Daniel asks her to marry him, out of charity of course since she has no other prospects and her brother is his best friend. Willa is reluctant to agree to this marriage but asks Sir Daniel to kiss her. Only she doesn't realize that she has just asked the wrong man to kiss her. The man she thought was Daniel is in fact his brother Alex. What follows is a delightfully funny story. I especially liked the last chapter. I really liked Willa and Alex and the supporting characters were all good too, although I wanted to slap her brother Jerome for being an insensitive, clueless jerk at times.

This book was just the kind of fluff I needed between my more serious reads. There are companion books to this one and I enjoyed reading those as well, but this one is my favorite of the three. If you like regency romance with some humor you may like this one.



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The Dogs by Allan Stratton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Paranormal
Content: Clean


Mom and I have been on the run for years. Every time he catches up with us, we move to a new place and start over.

But this place is different.

This place is full of secrets. And they won't leave me alone.

Cameron and his mother have moved four times in five years. His mother has kept them on the run, hiding from his father whom she says is hunting them. Cameron was only 9 when he last saw his father and he wonders if his mother is telling the truth about his father or if she's just crazy. After seeing a mysterious car parked out on the street several times, his mother decides it's time to move again because she is convinced it's Cameron's dad. They move several hundred miles away to a dilapidated farm house in the middle of a corn field. Cameron isn't happy to be moving out to the middle of nowhere, but he soon finds some disturbing drawings in the basement that seem to have been made by a boy who lived there long ago, and suddenly he is occupied with unraveling the mystery of what happened to him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch something moving by the barn.

When I look, it disappears. Wait. There it is again, at the cornfield.

Some movement, some thing. 

The Dogs is a ghost story, but it's also a story about domestic abuse and the aftermath of it. Cameron is affected by the life he's lived on the run and by things he remembers from his past. He's grown up with a mom who is paranoid that his father is going to catch up to them, and it shows. Cameron begins seeing the ghost of the boy named Jacky who lived in the house, but disappeared back in the 60s. He is convinced that Jacky and his mother were victims of domestic abuse and he sets out to prove it. But is Jacky's ghost really there or is Cameron just imagining him? You are left wondering a lot whether Cameron is really seeing and talking to a ghost or whether he is just mentally ill because of the trauma he's experienced in his life.

I liked Cameron as a character. His behavior wasn't always likable. He said some mean, sarcastic things to his mom, and kind of blamed her for their situation at times. He also wasn't very nice to the one boy at school who befriended him, but it fit the fact that he was a teen boy who was confused and hurting emotionally, so I think he was very realistically drawn. I picked this book up because it looked like a good creepy, thriller with ghosts added to the mix. While it's not all that creepy, I did like it a lot and I thought it packed a good emotional punch.



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Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category:Adult
Genre: Fantasy 
Content: Clean



Elantris was a place of glory.

The capital of Arelon, the home to people transformed into magic-using demigods by the Shaod.

But then the magic failed, Elantris started to rot, and its inhabitants turned into powerless wrecks...

But there are secrets in Elantris, the dead and the ruined may yet have a role to play in this new world. Magic lives.

When I first picked up Elantris I was immediately drawn into the story, but after about four chapters it started to drag a little. I thought for a while there that I would probably end up giving it three stars. I admit I was impatient for something big to happen. However I did begin to realize that the part in the middle that seemed to drag was necessary for the rest of the story. There was a lot to be learned about the characters in the story from those pages in the middle. Eventually the plot did pick up in pace and I was rewarded with plenty of fast paced action.

One thing I liked the most about this book was that while it's fantasy, it is different from the run of the mill fantasy story. I liked the idea of the Aons and it reminded me of the rune magic used by the Sartans in the Deathgate Cycle, another fantasy series that I very much enjoyed reading. I’ve heard a lot about this book not being as sophisticated or well written as Sanderson’s later books, and that may be true, but this was the first Sanderson book I read and I liked it a lot despite some of it's flaws.

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Unwind by Neal Shusterman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopia
Content: Clean


Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

Unwind is one of those rather disturbing stories that stick with you for a while. The part where one of the characters is unwound is pretty disturbing. Shusterman is an excellent writer and his stories really make you think.

My main reason for only giving this three stars is simply because I find the whole premise of the book highly unbelievable. One of those reasons being that I can't see either side of the reproduction rights argument ok with it as a solution to anything. Pro-lifers would never be ok with killing their teens. The whole idea of being pro-life is being against killing children even before they are born. Why would they be ok with it afterwards? Pro-choicers wouldn't be ok with it either. I don't think the pro-choicers would want to go through the pregnancy, give birth and half raise the child. The whole pro-choice stance is that it's not a person yet and a woman shouldn't have to give birth to a baby she doesn't want. So why would they be ok with this as a solution? Maybe I could see the government deciding this was the way things should be and imposing it on people's lives, but I don't see most parents volunteering to do this to their kids.

Despite the implausibility of the story I still really enjoyed this book. I appreciated the fact that the author didn't take a stance on either side in this book, but rather just wrote a "what if things ended up this way" story and let the reader think for themselves. I like Shusterman as a writer and I loved his Everlost trilogy. I highly recommend reading that one and I don't not recommend this one. If you like dystopias you should try it. It does successfully do what a dystopian novel is supposed to do; make you think and make you appreciate your freedoms.



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The Magician's Lie by Greer Macallister

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction, Magical Realism, Mystery
Content: Strong Language and a few mild sex scenes


The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. One night in Waterloo, Iowa, with young policeman Virgil Holt watching from the audience, she swaps her trademark saw for a fire ax. Is it a new version of the illusion, or an all-too-real murder? When Arden’s husband is found lifeless beneath the stage later that night, the answer seems clear.

The Magician's Lie kept me hooked pretty much from start to finish. It's historical fiction and magical realism with a touch of mystery thrown in. I was actually expecting much more investigation of that mystery, but instead we get the back story of the main character after she is arrested as she tries to explain what happened and why. The story was very interesting and I got sucked into it right along with the police officer in the book, it kind of felt like Scheherazade spinning her tale all through the night to save her life. It really left me wondering throughout most of the book whether or not she was telling the truth and what the lie is that the title eludes to.

Probably the biggest flaw of the book for me was the police officer didn't seem very competent. Nothing he did seemed very much in line with what a police officer would do, even back in the early 1900s. I could also probably pick the book apart and say that the way men and women acted around each other wasn't always in line with the way they would have behaved around each other during that time period, but it really didn't bother me in this particular story. I'm happy to say that this one lived up to my expectations.



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Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. Sullivan

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Thriller



Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she keeps a meticulously crafted existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs—the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store’s overwhelmed shelves.

But when Joey McGinty, a young, beguiling BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore’s back room, Lydia’s life comes unglued.

The suicide in the bookstore is what really drew me to this book. Had Joey MGinty killed himself anywhere else I may not have been interested. I liked that the suicide triggered a part of Lydia's past that she had buried and run away from. But while the plot sounded intriguing, I felt the book fell a bit flat. There were some big coincidences and the murder mystery from Lydia's past was easy to figure out. I knew who did it right away if not why.

I would have enjoyed the book more if I had found the characters more likable. While Lydia wasn't unlikable, I really didn't like some things that she did. I did like her boyfriend David, but he was mostly just a background character, and I disliked the way Lydia ended up treating him. I could sympathize with Lydia's father in the beginning but that changed later in the book. Raj was just ok and honestly came off a little creepy the way he fixated on Lydia so much. And the things that some of the people did in this book were pretty awful and sad. For the most part this was a book full of unhappy people, and that was just sort of depressing. In the end it left me feeling kind of blah.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Scribner for giving me a copy of this book.



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The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Content: Clean


She’s been six different people in six different places: Madeline in Ohio, Isabelle in Missouri, Olivia in Kentucky ... But now that she’s been transplanted to rural Louisiana, she has decided that this fake identity will be her last.

The Rules for Disappearing starts out with a 17 year old girl and her family, who are in witness protection being moved from one location to another. We soon learn that this isn't the first move, but that there have been 6 moves so far. The main character, who is now going by the name Meg knows her own mess up caused them to be moved from one location, but she doesn't know why they have been moved every other time or why they are in witness protection in the first place. Tired of making new friends only to leave them yet again, she's getting increasingly desperate to know the truth. No one will tell her anything though, not even her own parents, so Meg decides it's time for her to uncover the truth on her own.

This was an ok read. I expected it to be filled with a lot more danger, a lot more suspense, and well--be a lot more thrilling. The author instead, chose to focus too much (for me anyway) on the teen romance and the high school drama, which included the standard mean girl and her posse of cheerleaders, and a couple of parties with underage drinking and other shenanigans. Honestly I could have done without most of that. What I really wanted was to feel danger creeping around every corner. I wanted to wonder who Meg could trust and who she couldn't. There was very little of that feeling of danger and I knew right away who she couldn't trust. It was staring me in the face like a flashing neon sign.

Meg really wants to have her old life back through most of the book. In the beginning she doesn't like who witness protection has caused her to become, but from the bits that are revealed about her in her past life, I think I like the new Meg a lot better than the old one. There is no way she can ever go back to being the same person she was before, at least not completely, and in some ways that's a good thing. In the end she realizes that too.

While I liked the “witness protection” Meg and I thought her sister was ok too when she wasn’t acting like a brat, Meg’s parents were a different story. They annoyed me with the way they wouldn't talk to her, and her mother completely failed them by becoming a drunk. I just wanted to slap her. And back to the sister acting bratty, she was an 11 year old who was traumatized by all the moves so I was mostly able to cut her some slack. Ethan, the love interest was ok, but didn't make my heart flutter or anything. I'm not really into farm boys that go to restaurants with mud all over them. Couldn't he have cleaned up first? I did find it hard to believe that he was the only person Meg befriended out of the whole 6 moves that knew something wasn't right about her.

I liked that this book was set in the town of Natchitoches, Louisiana. When Meg first finds out she is in Louisiana all she can think of are hurricanes and oil spills. I'm surprised she didn't add swamps to that list as well. But for a nice change there was no mention of a swamp in a book set in Louisiana. I liked that this book was set in the cute, little, historical town of Natchitoches but I do wish that we had gotten more description of the town. It's the town where Steel Magnolias and several other movies were filmed, and it would have added a nice atmospheric touch to the novel if there had been more description of it.

This looks to be book one of a duology. It could easily have been a stand-alone. It ends nicely and leaves the reader wondering about who one person really is and what their motivation was. This is not enough to make me want to read the next book though. I'm fine being left with that slight little mystery.



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The Moon Shines Red by Pamela Sparkman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: fantasy, Romance
Content: Clean


Lord Lochlan was cursed in the womb, condemned by the perceived crimes of his parents.

I should have stayed away from him. But I couldn't.
HE was my love...my life. And he just might kill me.
So I guess that means...he may also be my end.

The moon Shines Red is a clean historical fantasy romance that has a bit of a fairy tale feel to it. I loved this book and the beautiful messages within it about love and perseverance so much. I haven't felt this way about a book since I read The Bird and the Sword earlier this year. There are a couple of heart-pounding romantic scenes in this book and I fell in love with the tortured Lochlan right along with our leading lady.

Lochlan is a tortured soul who has lived cursed for 500 years unable to touch anyone without killing them, so he has isolated himself from most other people. One day Elin is out walking in the forest and she sees a beautiful white owl. She starts following it until she ends up at a clearing and there she meets Lochlan. They are immediately drawn to each other, but Lochlan warns her to keep her distance. They part and Lochlan plans to never see her again but fate has different ideas.

I liked Elin as a character a lot. There is a secret about her that is eventually revealed and while it's pretty easy to predict, I still really enjoyed the story. The only complaint I have about her is that she is pretty defenseless in the beginning and stays that way throughout the whole story, even after she begins to learn how to protect herself she never has the opportunity to use those skills. I really would have liked it if she would have had the opportunity to come into her own in that aspect.

The antagonist Zeph ended up being more layered than I initially thought and I liked the story behind him and what was revealed about him. I don't always sympathize with the bad guy in books, but this was one of those times where I could feel badly for him to an extent. The next book is going to be about him and I do wonder how he can be redeemed after some of his actions. He just went too far and so I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about him in the next book.

As for the fantasy aspect of the story, I thought it was pretty well done. The story involves the Seelie and Unseelie courts in the faerie realm. We don't actually get to see too much of the faerie realm in the book as it takes place mostly in the human world, and that's something that I would have liked to explore a little more. I'm pretty sure that will happen in the next book though, since it will be about Zeph.

Thanks to NetGalley, Book Enthusiast Promotions, and the Author for giving me a copy of this book.



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Snowed Inn by Heather Horrocks

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Clean


Mystery buff Vicki Butler plans to kill someone this weekend. Nothing personal, just business.

The killer grand opening weekend at her new Who-Dun-Him Inn is all fun and games---until an unplanned dead body makes an appearance.

Snowed Inn is the first book in a cozy mystery series. I thought it was cute, but just a little dull at times. Not enough really happened for me to rate it more than 3 stars. The best thing about the book is the Who Dun Him Inn, which is a Bed and Breakfast with a mystery dinner theater, and where every room is named and decorated after a famous mystery detective. I really liked some of the rooms, like the Sherlock Holmes room and the Miss Marple room, but others, like the Magnum P.I. room seemed a little cheesy.

I'm mildly curious about where the series goes next and it's pretty good brain candy, so I will probably eventually read the next book.



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Cadáin's Watch by Daniella Bova

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult, Christian
Genre: Dystopia
Content: Strong Language


Michelle and Jason escaped the wreckage of their beloved hometown and are determined to live free. Though they are hunted by the totalitarian bureaucracy, they vow to resist oppression no matter the cost.

Cadain's Watch is a Christian dystopia set in our world. I must admit that I don't read a lot of dystopian novels so I'm probably not the best audience for this book, but I did end up enjoying it a good bit. This is also the third book in a trilogy and though I wasn't lost at all story-wise, I did feel a certain disconnect from the characters that I don't think would have been the case had I read the first two books.

There is a pretty large cast of characters here, but the story line mainly revolves around Michelle and Jason who are in hiding, with Michelle's brother Brad being a very close second. While the story revolves around both Jason and Michelle I felt like Michelle didn't really get enough page time. I really would have liked it better if she and a couple of the other women in the book had been more actively involved in things instead of being sort of background characters for most of the book, but this is the third book in the series and that may have happened in the previous two.

The story got a bit wordy and slightly repetitive at times. I also personally would have preferred less cursing, name calling, and smoking in the book as those things don't appeal to me, but for the most part the writing was pretty solid, and the characters were interesting. There are a lot of nostalgic type things from the 70s and 80s in this book, from cars to music to cologne. GTOs, Firebirds, Led Zepplin, Springsteen, Drakkar Noir (sorry but that cologne reminds me of a jerk I dated once. I never want to smell it again! Haha.) And a few that are older than that, like Elvis. I enjoyed this stuff to a point. I felt like it would have been nice to include some more modern things in the mix as well since we are talking about the not so distant future from where we are now, but I did think the author included most of these things in the story in a way that felt right. She was good at writing the male characters and the things they liked and were interested in; better I think than she was at writing the female ones at times

This being a Christian novel, it involves a lot of prayer and church, and even an angel. I liked the addition of the angel, Cadain to the story, but I would have liked it even better if he had taken a more active part in the events that were going on instead of mostly giving warnings. I think I was expecting something more like Castiel from Supernatural, without Castiel's flaws of course. But that's just a personal preference, probably stemming from my love of urban fantasy. There was one part however, where Cadain did get more involved and it was pretty darn good. That was one of my favorite parts of the book.

I tend to stay away from dystopian novels because they can be dark and depressing, but that is also the thing that worked in this book's favor. I think the author did a great job of conveying that feel in this story. For the most part this is a tense story with everyone wondering if they will be caught and how they are going to survive what the world has turned into. Jason is just a regular person trying to do what is right amidst the chaos that the world has become. Sometimes what is right isn't always clear in the situations he and his friends and family find themselves in. While I didn't always like the way they handled things I could understand what they were going through, and I would never want to have to be in their shoes. Some of the things that happen in this book are truly terrifying and I wouldn't want to live in that world. The bad guys-and girls-in this book were very evil and a few of them were even demon possessed. There is a certain one in this book that for some reason I kept picturing as a cross between Ursula the sea witch and a certain politician that will go unnamed here. I have to giggle to myself a little every time I think of that.

If you like Christian fiction that features the Catholic religion and dystopian fiction you might like this one. The biggest downside of the book for me was that it was very message heavy and I tend to like a more subtle hand with that sort of thing.

Thanks to the author Daniella Bova for giving me a copy of this book to review.



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The Mirror King by Jodi Meadows

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Clean


Princess Wilhelmina is ready for her crown, but declaring herself queen means war.

Caught between what she wants and what is right, Wilhelmina realizes the throne might not even matter.

The Mirror King had all the elements I love in a fantasy; soaring highs, a few heartbreaking lows, tough moral decisions, masked vigilantes, some romance, and even a map. While the magic and how it worked wasn't all that detailed, and we've seen this type of story before in several other fantasy novels, (the wild magic escaping a barrier and ruining the land kind of thing) I honestly didn't care. This was a perfect conclusion to the duology, and while I'm happy this didn't get dragged out as a trilogy, I do feel like I need more Black Knife!

If you read this duology I recommend reading the short prequel stories between book one and book two. There are four of them and they offer some insight into Prince Tobiah and Black Knife that you don't get in the books.



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The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Clean


When Princess Wilhelmina was a child, the Indigo Kingdom invaded her homeland. Ten years later, Wil and the other noble children who escaped are ready to fight back and reclaim Wil’s throne. To do so, Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate the Indigo Kingdom palace with hopes of gathering information that will help them succeed.

But Wil has a secret—one that could change everything.

This ended up being one of my favorite YA fantasies. What can I say, I love reading fantasy about displaced royalty, spies, and vigilante heroes with secret identities. The Orphan Queen certainly isn't anything new as far as high fantasy goes but I still found it completely enjoyable. So I just plain loved everything about this book, even if a lot of it has been done before. For me there was never a dull moment. The characters were great. I loved everything about Wilhelmina. The parts when she interacted with Black Knife set my heart to fluttering every time. I guessed Black Knife's identity early on, and most readers probably will but that didn't ruin the book for me. That ending though was devastating. It was truly one of the worst cliffhangers ever! If you enjoy YA fantasy and you're looking for a fantasy that includes some romance then this one might be for you. Just make sure you have the next book readily available.



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The Window by Jeanette Ingold

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Mystery, Paranormal
Content: Clean


Mandy survived the terrible accident that killed her mother, but she was left blind and alone. Now she lives with relatives she doesn't know, attends a new school, and tries to make friends--all the while struggling to function without sight.

Her unpredictable life takes its strangest turn when she begins to hear the oddest things through the window of her attic room. In fact, what she hears--and seems to "see"--are events that happened years ago, before she was even born. . . .

I enjoyed this book. The main character, Mandy loses her mother in a car accident and also loses her sight. She goes to live with relatives that she didn't know she had. While there she deals with her blindness and with meeting new friends and going to a new school.

Mandy chooses the attic room on the third floor of her aunt and uncle's old farm house and soon she begins to hear voices outside her window that no one else can hear. I thought this would be on the creepy side, but it isn't creepy at all. The paranormal elements are like visions of the past. The window in Mandy's room is sort of a portal that lets her see back in time even though she is blind.

This wasn't a very long book, but it was a sweet story and I liked Mandy even though at first she could be a little prickly and grumpy. I thought it was realistic considering her situation and it wasn't overdone to the point that she pitied herself too much. I could sympathize with her instead of find her annoying. The friends that she makes in Hannah and Ted were also nice touches to the story and I was glad to see that there were no mean girls or high school bullies included in this book.

I liked the development of her relationship with her aunt and uncles and how she learned to trust them and let them help her. She learned that sometimes it's ok to admit that everything isn't alright.



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