Showing posts with label Supernatural. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Supernatural. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Dark One: Forgotten by Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells

  

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Paranormal
Content: Mild language

 

Every year in the United States there are fifteen thousand murders, give or take a few hundred. Of those, nearly forty percent go unsolved.

In this six-part audio series, Christina Walsh is determined to change that. After struggling with the loss of her father, she sets out on a journey to bring the justice that has eluded her to the families of other victims. And she starts with a particularly strange case. The murder of world-renowned violinist Leona McPherson who mysteriously disappeared years ago after a concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. As Christina digs deeper, the story gets stranger. Leona was a prodigy, someone too good to be forgotten, but that’s exactly what has happened. She’s been forgotten. Entirely. By everyone who knew her. From the gushing music critic in her hometown to the detectives investigating her murder, even her own mother.

So Christina embarks on a cross-country mission, with her roommate Sophie, to figure out what happened to Leona. In the process, she uncovers a trail of similar victims who have suffered the same fate. But if no one can remember the victims, how can the killer possibly be caught? Christina’s only leads come from a crazed homeless man’s ramblings, a mysterious glass eye, and an otherworldly totem. Is Christina crazy or has she stumbled upon something so implausible it must be true?

 

This was an interesting audio book that's set up to feel like you're listening to a podcast. I really got into this and was enjoying it until I got to the part where the main character's roommate gets involved. I've got to be honest, she almost ruined this book for me. She was so immature and annoying. I think she was supposed to bring some comic relief to the story but I didn't find her funny. She felt like a character that should have been in a YA novel. Thankfully, I was able to ignore her enough to enjoy the rest of the book, but this could have been a 4 star read instead of a 3.5 star read if she hadn't been in the story, or if she had been written as a more mature character.

The mystery itself was good and I liked the supernatural aspect of the story. Apparently this is a prequel to a graphic novel, but I've never read it and I don't plan on reading it. This worked well enough on it's own.




Tuesday, November 22, 2022

The Haunting of Brynn Wilder by Wendy Webb

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My rating: 4 of 5 stars
 
Category: Adult
Genre: Supernatural, Paranormal, Romance
Content: Strong language

 

After a devastating loss, Brynn Wilder escapes to Wharton, a tourist town on Lake Superior, to reset. Checking into a quaint boardinghouse for the summer, she hopes to put her life into perspective. In her fellow lodgers, she finds a friendly company of strangers: the frail Alice, cared for by a married couple with a heartbreaking story of their own; LuAnn, the eccentric and lovable owner of the inn; and Dominic, an unsettlingly handsome man inked from head to toe in mesmerizing tattoos.

But in this inviting refuge, where a century of souls has passed, a mystery begins to swirl. Alice knows things about Brynn, about all of them, that she shouldn’t. Bad dreams and night whispers lure Brynn to a shuttered room at the end of the hall, a room still heavy with a recent death. And now she’s become irresistibly drawn to Dominic—even in the shadow of rumors that wherever he goes, suspicious death follows.

In this chilling season of love, transformation, and fear, something is calling for Brynn. To settle her past, she may have no choice but to answer.

 

“A century of souls inhabiting a place will leave an imprint that lingers long after they’re gone, and it lingered here. Not in a bad way. It felt well lived in.”   

 

I was wanting to read a creepy ghost story for Halloween, and this one sounded like it would be creepy, and from the cover, it looked like it would be creepy. However, this was not that kind of ghost story. Normally that would be disappointing. I didn't get what I was wanting, but in this case I ended up being ok with it. I wasn't expecting the many different emotions this book had me feeling. It was a bittersweet read that included a lot of tragedy. I don't always like those kind of books, but this one left me with a lot of feelings to think about. I figured out what was going on somewhere in the middle of reading the book, but that was ok. I very much enjoyed this romantic, bittersweet ghost story. 

I do think that the title and cover misrepresent the type of book this is. Or, maybe it's the two combined that do that. I think if the cover was changed to something more fitting the kind of book it is, then the title would work ok. I actually like the title because it doesn't exactly mean what you think it means. That's all I'm going to say about that though.

I'm interested in reading more books by this author. She seems to write nothing but books set on Lake Superior that have ghosts in them. Apparently one of them—Daughter's of the Lake— is loosely related to this one, as in they share one character in common. 


“Everyone is haunted by something. A road not taken. A hurt, carried deep inside. Harsh words that echo long after the sting of them is carried away on the wind.”






Wednesday, November 2, 2022

October 2022 Wrap-Up

I had five books on my list for October and I read four of them. 

 

A Stroke of Malice (Lady Darby #8) by Anna Lee Huber

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
 
Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Content: Strong Language

 

 

Close to Home (Tracy Crosswhite #5) by Robert Dugoni

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
 
Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Content: Strong Language

 

 

Three Act Tragedy (Hercule Poirot #10) by Agatha Christie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
 
Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Content: Clean

See my review here.

 

 

Monster hunter International (Monster Hunter International #1) by Larry Correia 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
 
Category: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Content: Strong Language, Off page sex

See my review here.

 

 

I'm still working on the fifth one, Empire of Exiles by Erin M. Evans. I'm having a hard time getting into this book. It's really slow, and there are character names that are annoying to try to pronounce. I think mostly though, that the writing style is just not clicking with me, and that's a shame because I love fantasy and mystery and this book has both. I'm still plugging away at it, but it may end up being a DNF.

 


I didn't include the books I had intended to read for the monthly challenge, but I should have. If you missed my post about the Owned in October Challenge, these are the books that I read for the challenge in October:

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
 
Category: Adult
Genre: Women's Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary Fiction
Content: Strong language, Off page sex, Infidelity
 
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Sanditon: Jane Austen's Last Novel Completed by Jane Austen, Another Lady (Anne Telscombe)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
 
Category: Adult, Classic
Genre: Fiction, Romance
Content: Clean
 
Sanditon: Austen's Last Novel by [Jane Austen, Another Lady] 
 
 

Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin Mckinley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
 
Category: Adult
Genre: Fairy Tale, Romance, Fantasy
Content: Clean
 
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Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
 
Category: Adult, Classic
Genre: Mystery
Content: Strong Language, Racial Slurs

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I also ended up reading a few other books that weren't planned at all. 

 

Planetside (Planetside #1) by Micheal Mammay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
 
Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi, Mystery, Space Opera
Content: Strong language

See my review here.

 


Junkyard Cats (Junkyard Cats #1) by Faith Hunter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi, Post Apocalyptic
Content: Strong language

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The Haunting of Brynn Wilder by Wendy Webb

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Supernatural, Paranormal, Romance
Content: Strong language
 
Review to be posted soon. 

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Overall, October was a good reading month! I ended up reading more than I planned, and getting to a few books that I've had on my list for a while.