The Choice by Jake Cross

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Content: Lots of strong language, brutal killings


‘You’ve got to help me,’ she pleads.

On a wet road in the black of night, Karl Seabury is driving home to his pregnant wife. Suddenly, caught in his headlights in the middle of the road is a woman shaking with fright.

Lately, it seems more often than not, I strike out in the mystery/thriller/suspense genre. The premise of this one sounded really good to me. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. My biggest issue with this book was that the characters kept making choices I thought were foolish. I also found it hard to believe that a crime lord would ever be anywhere without multiple body guards. I think he would have excellent security in and around his home, even if it was a seldom visited vacation home, so I just couldn't buy that this crime lord was killed so easily in his own home.

As for the characters, the main character, Karl was a weak character that grew stronger as the book progressed. I ended up liking him much more by the end of the book. Karl's wife, Katie was the most likable character, but stupidly stubborn at one point. As for Mick, the killer (no that is not a spoiler, we go into this book knowing who the killer and his henchmen are pretty much from the beginning), the author seemed to want to drum up some sympathy for him, but I had no sympathy for him at all. I also wasn't crazy about the amount of time spent in his point of view. I don't mind spending smaller amounts of time with the villain in a book, but for me, too much of this book was spent with the killer and his henchmen. Then there was the crime lord's wife. I also had little sympathy for her because she was complicit in the things her husband did.

There was a twist in the book of course. I did not really figure it out before the reveal, although I had my suspicions. I do feel like I should have and I think most people probably will. There had to be at least a little bit of mystery here, and since we go into the book knowing the killers names and reading things from their points of view this was a welcome twist. It however, was obvious to me what lay behind the killer's motivation, but not exactly how or why it all happened.

Lastly there was way too much cursing in the book for me. Too many F words and C words used. It got old. I know this won't bother a lot of people, but it bothers me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me a copy of this book.



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February 2018 Book Club: Snow Crash

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

My rating: Zero stars. I didn't get very far into it.

Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi, Fantasy
Content: Strong Language, An adult has sex with an underage girl 
(could be more but I didn't read the whole thing)


This was our book club read for February and I tried but didn't get very far into it. Right off the bat the writing style annoyed me. Why drop the first word off your sentences? This was just not what I was expecting and just not for me.

In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince.

Not one person in the book club liked this book. I think we all may have just zeroed in on that opening line in the book's description and thought it sounded interesting. Personally I know I would rather the book had just stuck with the Pizza Mafia theme - it sounded kind of kooky and fun. Instead the whole premise ended up being way too unbelievable even for a fantasy/sci-fi type book.

I ended up getting all the spoilers from my friend so I wouldn't have to finish the book. I have to add that I have a huge issue with the way a 15 year old girl is portrayed in the book. Needless to say, this was a disappointing read.

Review also posted at Writings of a Reader



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Hidden Huntress, my review from 2015.

Hidden Huntress by Danielle L. Jensen

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: One sex scene between a married couple that isn't very detailed. Would not recommend for younger teens.

Sometimes, one must accomplish the impossible.

Beneath the mountain, the king’s reign of tyranny is absolute; the one troll with the capacity to challenge him is imprisoned for treason. Cécile has escaped the darkness of Trollus, but she learns all too quickly that she is not beyond the reach of the king’s power. Or his manipulation.

Hidden Huntress was one of the books I was most eagerly awaiting to read this year. Last year when I read Stolen Songbird I was immediately hooked and loved it from beginning to end. In fact I didn't really want it to end. Hidden Huntress was a really good follow up and I enjoyed it very much, but not on the level I enjoyed Stolen Songbird, but it being a middle book in a trilogy that isn't really surprising. At times Hidden Huntress seemed really long and I felt ready for it to end about a hundred pages before it did. I think part of the reason was because I figured out who Anushka was pretty early on and thought that Cecile and Tristan should have figured it out too. Everything else about the book was great though.

I found the chapters from Tristan's point of view a bit more compelling than the chapters from Cecile's, and even though I was looking forward to Cecile taking the stage as an opera star I ended up finding those parts kind of a drag compared to the rest of the story. I mostly loved the scene with Tristan's aunt. I kind of missed the interaction with the trolls in this one, as there was not a whole lot of time spent there, but it was necessary to the story to leave Trollus mostly behind in this book so I don't count it as a negative.

Overall I liked this a lot, but didn't love it as much as Stolen Songbird. It was just missing a little something, and I feel like the series could have been wrapped up in just two books instead of being drawn out into three. At this point I don't feel compelled to read the next book, but maybe that will change.





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Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Content: Strong Language, talk of sex and sexual acts


Rose Marshall died in 1952 in Buckley Township, Michigan, run off the road by a man named Bobby Cross—a man who had sold his soul to live forever, and intended to use her death to pay the price of his immortality. Trouble was, he didn’t ask Rose what she thought of the idea.

It’s been more than sixty years since that night, and she’s still sixteen, and she’s still running.

They have names for her all over the country: the Girl in the Diner. The Phantom Prom Date. The Girl in the Green Silk Gown.

Sparrow Hill Road is the first book I've read by Seanan McGuire and I liked it. The story is original for an urban fantasy and I really appreciated that about the book. The combination of ghost story and urban fantasy was what really made me want to read this book in the first place and the book really delivered in that aspect. Rose was pretty likable as the main character and I also really liked some of the supporting characters.

The book had a couple of weaknesses for me, one being the format. It's written as a bunch of different stories instead of one continuous story with some connecting threads running through the whole book. It is Rose's story after all, so she is relating different things that have happened since she died, with a small part being dedicated to what her life was like before she died, and also how she died. I wasn't too crazy about the way it jumped around from one time to another, sometimes in the middle of one of the stories. It wasn't a complete turn off, but it isn't one of my favorite types of storytelling.

There was also the whole bit about Rose paying her way sometimes with sex. This was the one thing in the book that bothered me the most. Because Rose died on the road in a car accident, that resulted in her becoming a road ghost who hitchhikes her way across the country. If she can convince the driver to loan her his jacket or coat (any type of outwear will do) she can borrow a bit of that persons mortality for a little while. This results in her being able to actually have a mortal body for a short time period. Sometimes Rose would hitch a ride and the driver would expect something in return and she would trade sex for the ride. That's just too close to prostitution for my liking. However it was only mentioned a couple of times in the book and no details were given.

The ghost world in this book feels a lot like a purgatory. Rose can't see past it because she is stuck there and it is her reality. She knows a lot of ghosts end up traveling the ghost road, sometimes with her help, onto another place, but she doubts that it is any better than where she is. She has lost any faith that there is a better place, or that there is a God, although she does pray to the God she doubts exists several times in the book. I enjoyed this aspect of the book and under the circumstances, could understand why Rose felt the way she did, even though at this point, I think there is a lot she doesn't know or understand.

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

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Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

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


Jenny Cavanaugh, the ghostly landlord of 826 Augur Lane, has enlisted the services of her detective-agency tenants to solve a decade-old murder--her own.

After reading the first two books in this series and finding them delightful, sadly I found Ghostly Echoes to be a disappointment. I'm not sure what happened but the charm and humor from the other two books was greatly missing in this one. Maybe it was that this one is darker than the others and that didn't leave room for humor. Whatever the reason, it was just a rather dull read that I found hard to get through. To top it off the author decided to add in a modern day social issue that was out of place. I would rather the soapboxing be left out next time.

I did like that we learn more about Jackaby's background in the book, but I can't say I would really recommend reading this one other than to just get through the rest of the series. There is still one more book in the series and after feeling so disappointed in this one, I'm not sure if I'm going to read it or not.



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Beastly Bones by William Ritter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal, Mystery
Content: One curse word that I noticed, other than that clean.


I've found very little about private detective R. F. Jackaby to be standard in the time I've known him. Working as his assistant tends to call for a somewhat flexible relationship with reality . . .

In 1892, New Fiddleham, New England, things are never quite what they seem, especially when Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, R. F. Jackaby, are called upon to investigate the supernatural.

Why did I wait so long to continue with this series? I forgot how much I enjoyed Jackaby. This time around Jackaby and Abigail deal with some mysterious deaths and some mysterious bones that have been unearthed out in the country. I still love Jackaby and the book made me laugh quite a few times. Jackaby in personality is sort of like Sherlock, but there is some Dirk Gently thrown in there as well.

When I read the first book I thought of a Sherlock and Doctor Who mashup, but I think Dirk Gently is a better example. There are some seriously crazy and off the wall things that happen in these books. Not Dirk Gently crazy, but still there is that element there. In fact the whole opening part of this book reminded me a lot of something from the first season of Dirk Gently, but that's all I'm going to say. I don't want to spoil anything.

Overall this is a fun book and a fun series so far. It is a rather short book at 296 pages but I think it is just the right length for the story, and the perfect length for me to continue on to the next book in the series right away, without feeling like I need a break from the characters first.


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Girl in Disguise by Greer Macallister

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
Content: a mild sex scene


For the first female Pinkerton detective, respect is hard to come by. Danger, however, is not.

In the tumultuous years of the Civil War, the streets of Chicago offer a woman mostly danger and ruin-unless that woman is Kate Warne, the first female Pinkerton detective and a desperate widow with a knack for manipulation.

When I picked up Girl in Disguise I was expecting a mystery novel, but this turned out to be more solidly in the historical fiction category. I also wasn't aware that it was about a real person. Kate Warne really was the first female Pinkerton detective and very little is actually really known about her, besides a few of the cases she was instrumental in solving. She also played a part in seeing President Elect Abraham Lincoln safely to Washington D.C. for his inauguration when there were threats on his life, and acted as a spy during the war.

The cases that were included in the book were all interesting, but since there isn't a whole lot known about Kate Warne's personal life there was a lot of creative license taken by the author with her story. Of course that was necessary to create a book and this is fiction, but I'll be honest and say that I'm not always crazy about reading made up things about real people, even if we do know very little about them. I wasn't completely on board with the way Kate was portrayed in this book, but there were things I did like about her. Despite that, this book was very readable and at times difficult to put down.

If anything, reading this book made me want to know the real stories behind the Pinkerton agents mentioned in this book. I had to look them up and find out which ones were actually based on real people and how the book diverged from the real stories .

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The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Dystopia
Content: Some drug use, sexual predators, a couple of brutal killings


Nemesis is a Diabolic. Created to protect a galactic Senator's daughter, Sidonia. There's no one Nemesis wouldn't kill to keep her safe. But when the power-mad Emperor summons Sidonia to the galactic court as a hostage, there is only one way for Nemesis to protect Sidonia.

She must become her.

The Diabolic is a Young Adult fantasy/sci-fi with a dystopian aspect to it as well. This is closer to fantasy to me because the sci-fi is very soft with really no explanation behind how any of it works, because much of it wouldn't work. The book is set sometime in the far future out in space. I will say that I think this is for older teens as there are some themes in the book that are too mature for younger ones. There is some drug use and a couple of sexual predators that are dealt with at one point. There is also some killing and brutality in this book.

For the most part I really liked it though. It was very readable and hard to put down. It was interesting to read from Nemesis's point of view as she learns and grows and realizes that she is more than just a diabolic - which is a genetically engineered person created to protect, like a bodyguard, and not really considered a person by society. I enjoyed reading as Nemesis came to the realization that she was, in fact, a person with her own wants and needs. I also enjoyed the romance between Nemesis and the person she ends up falling in love with (I won't spoil who that is here).

The political machinations in the book were interesting but not too complicated. This is where I would have liked to have gotten more than one point of view. It would have made Tyrus's decisions more interesting if we had witnessed his thought processes instead of being told from Nemesis's point of view, but that's the downside of first person narration.

I had a hard time believing in the religious aspect of the book where learning new technology is outlawed. I could see if it was outlawed for the lower class citizens, but with the elites having access to that knowledge. That would have been more believable. It would have kept the masses in check and under the Emperor's thumb, but for the Emperor and the whole upper class to also not have this knowledge, was silly. How would they expect to be able to maintain what they already had? And yes, I know we are told in the book that they think the bots will maintain it, but even bots break down eventually and someone has to know how to fix them. Surely they would know that and wouldn't want to lose what they already had, especially since they are living out in space and depend on that tech. So this part of the story was completely implausible to me.

There were a couple of other things that slightly annoyed me. First, there were some inconsistencies in the story. One example of this is the fact that Nemesis doesn't have tear ducts but there are parts of the story where her eyes blur when she is upset like they are filling with tears or something, and her eyes are crusted over when she wakes up once. That can't happen without tear ducts. Plus can you imagine what it would be like to not have tear ducts? Your eyes would be extremely dry. The other is a spoiler so I won't talk about it here. 

There were a few twists in the book that didn't surprise me at all. I predicted every one of them, but I didn't mind that because I enjoyed reading the book so much. As I said, this book kept me glued to it. The sci-fi and space fantasy aspect was very appealing to me, as well as the slow burn romance, which I didn't feel was too overdone. I always like a little bit of romance in the books I read. So in spite of the negatives I've pointed out, I would still recommend this, because I liked it anyway.

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A Song Unheard by Roseanna M. White

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult, Christian Fiction
Genre: Historical Romance
Content: Clean


Willa Forsythe is both a violin prodigy and top-notch thief, which make her the perfect choice for a crucial task at the outset of World War I—to steal a cypher from a famous violinist currently in Wales.

Lukas De Wilde has enjoyed the life of fame he's won—until now, when being recognized nearly gets him killed. Everyone wants the key to his father's work as a cryptologist. And Lukas fears that his mother and sister, who have vanished in the wake of the German invasion of Belgium, will pay the price. The only light he finds is in meeting the intriguing Willa Forsythe.

A Song Unheard is the second book in the Shadows Over England companion series, and I loved this book as much as I loved the first one in the series. We met Willa in the first book and I was happy that she was the main character here. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her and Lukas and seeing their romance develop. Willa's growth as a person was especially wonderful and I love that the author actually had someone write and perform her song that is at the end of the book. Here's a link to the book trailer, which I think was very well done, that features the music: http://bit.ly/ASongUnheardTrailer

This is a Christian historical romance with some intrigue added in with spies during WWI. I liked the historical aspect of the story a lot, and found the author's note at the end of the book really interesting. It turns out that the Davies sisters who are featured in the book were actually real people and they really did put together an orchestra composed of Belgian musicians, among other things. I'm looking forward to reading the third book in the series, and I hope it isn't the last one.

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

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