Honor's Flight by Lindsay Buroker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Space Opera
Content: Strong Language



After spending four years fighting for the Alliance, fighter pilot Alisa Marchenko only wants one thing: to reunite with her young daughter. But she may find that more questions await her than answers, and that her late husband kept a startling secret from her, one that could change her life forever. And it doesn’t help that her passengers are stirring up trouble of their own…

This second book in the Fallen Empire series was just as fun to read as the first. I'm loving the action and adventure, plus the characters are fun to read about as well. There were a few times I would have liked a bit more character development, but the rest of the story makes up for it. I like the growing relationship between Alisa and Leonidas and can't wait to see where that goes and how it eventually gets there.

I felt like Mica was a little lacking in this book compared to the last one, but I love the creative ways she and Alisa find to get themselves and their crew out of sticky situations.

If you enjoy light space opera then you should really try this series.

Raven's Strike by Patricia Briggs

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong Language


 
Seraph is among the last of the Travelers, those who strive to destroy the dark magic released by their ancestors’ mistakes. Seraph tried to escape her people’s duty and live a quiet life, until evil found her…and her family.

Ok, so I really enjoyed the first book in this duology. I liked that it included a whole family that worked together to defeat evil. I liked the different personalities of the children and their different abilities. I expected to like this one just as much, but this book fell pretty flat for me. Mostly it was just boring. There wasn't enough happening besides a lot of research on how to defeat the Shadowed. There were some good moments and I came to really like the relationships that were built between certain characters, but it wasn't enough to carry the book and make me want to keep reading. Mostly I slogged through this anticipating when it would be over, and I could move onto the next book, which is never a good thing.

I wouldn't say that I regret reading this duology, especially since I really liked the first book, so if you are really into Patricia Briggs and want to read everything she has written, then I would definitely read it. Just keep in mind that this is one of her earlier works and it could have used some improvement.

Wild Country by Anne Bishop

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Content: Strong Language, A non-descript sex scene, Off page torture and rape 



There are ghost towns in the world—places where the humans were annihilated in retaliation for the slaughter of the shape-shifting Others.

One of those places is Bennett, a town at the northern end of the Elder Hills—a town surrounded by the wild country. Now efforts are being made to resettle Bennett as a community where humans and Others live and work together.

But as they reopen the stores and the professional offices and start to make lives for themselves, the town of Bennett attracts the attention of other humans looking for profit.

I enjoyed this book, but not quite as much as the previous ones set in this world. As this story focuses on the resettlement of the town Bennett there were a lot of different character points of view. That in itself wasn't bad, but it did take the story a while to find it's footing. This book was definitely an ensemble cast without a true main character and I have mixed feelings about that. In general I felt like I got to know the characters I wanted to get to know the most, but there were others that felt more like window dressing that could have been shone more. Some of them just seemed to have been added to create a little more drama or tension and little else, like Maddie and her family. Even though they were likable I just didn't see the need. I felt like the character of Abigail could have been left out of the story altogether as well. I just didn't really feel like she added all that much to it.

Yet again we have a book where the humans think they can overcome the terra indigene, and of course are sadly mistaken. Tolya summed it up pretty well in this book...

"But you are cattle in a pen, Mr. Blackstone, "Tolya said.

The wild west feel that permeated the book was kind of fun, and I liked the build up to the "showdown" but I was a little disappointed at how long it took the terra indigene to act in this book, and a couple of the human outlaw deaths were not as gruesome as I had hoped they would be (yes I know, call me morbid), but overall this was a pretty good read. I'm not sure what direction the author will go in other books in this series, but I'm still interested.

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.

Terminal by J.L. Bryan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Ghost Story, Paranormal
Content: Clean


 
Ellie Jordan and her apprentice Stacey investigate a house in an elaborate planned community that was only half-built before it went bankrupt, leaving an instant ghost town with only a few residents. Unfortunately for Ellie, this is no simple haunting, but just one symptom of the cursed land on which the suburban community was built.

After liking the last book so much and thinking it was an improvement over the first two, I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately this one was a disappointment. The story fell flat and was just plain boring at times. The idea of the ghost train with all the ghost passengers was kind of cool, but there was no real tension, and none of the ghosts were creepy to me. The whole point of reading a ghost story is for it to scare you at least a little bit. So yeah, this one fell flat.

Then there was the lack of any chemistry in the relationship between Ellie and Michael that was beginning to build in the last book. I was really happy that Ellie was dating someone and had a personal life other than just solving cases. There was huge potential there, but this time around she is ignoring Michael's calls because apparently she is scared of getting into a relationship. It felt like needless drama to me. Eventually she ends up talking to Michael after Stacey forces her to, and makes a date with him. A really weird cheesy date in which they double with Stacey and Jacob. There was some of the fun banter between the two of them that I liked in the last book, but that was about it. Then he ends up joining her on her ghost hunt. At times it felt like it did when reading Nancy Drew when Ned tagged along on one of her cases. Needless to say, I was disappointed that there wasn't more spark between them.

After being this disappointed I'm having to reevaluate this series. Since it is so hit or miss I'm not sure if I want to continue.

A Gathering of Secrets by Linda Castillo

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Content: Strong language, A gruesome death 


 
When a historic barn burns to the ground in the middle of the night, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called in to investigate. At first, it looks like an accident, but when the body of eighteen-year-old Daniel Gingerich is found inside—burned alive—Kate suspects murder. Who would want a well-liked, hardworking young Amish man dead?

I'm now caught up on this series, with the exception of book 11 which I've got an advanced copy of. For the most part I'm still enjoying this series, but I still have the same complaints as usual. It would be nice if the books in this series would not all follow the same formula. Can we have one where Kate doesn't get ambushed alone somewhere? It happened twice in this book, and for me it has gotten old. One part seemed rather random and it didn't really make sense to me that this person would have lured Kate out somewhere and started shooting at her. And the way Kate parks in front of the truck with its headlights blinding her so she can't see clearly into it wasn't a very smart thing to do. Circling around and parking behind the truck would have been much smarter. It just seems like as a police chief it would have occurred to her to do that. Yet again in this book Kate has to tell us how good she is at her job. I think the author really wants us to believe that, but she isn't showing it. Those things aside I thought the mystery was pretty good. It did keep me guessing for quite a while.

This book had another gruesome death in it. I found it hard to read about someone burning alive. I don't really recommend this series if you are squeamish about things like that. What I continue to like the most about this series is the relationship between Kate and Tomasetti, and the little details about their life together at home. There isn't a lot of that, but it adds a nice touch to the series. I also enjoy continuing to learn more about the Amish community. This time around we have characters that are part of the Beachy Amish sect, that actually drive cars and use more modern day conveniences.

Star Nomad by Lindsay Buroker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Space Opera
Content: Strong language, An attempted rape



When system-wide civil war broke out, fighter pilot Captain Alisa Marchenko left her family and accepted a commission in the Alliance Army to battle the empire’s tyranny. Four years later, the empire has been toppled, but chaos and anarchy now rule the system. Alisa, after being injured in the final battle, is stranded on a dustball of a planet billions of miles from home. She learns that her husband died during the bombings, leaving their daughter on Perun, a planet that has become the last imperial stronghold.

Alisa must find a way to Perun, even if she has to steal a dilapidated ship from a junkyard overrun by murdering savages to do it.

This was great fun! It reminded me a lot of Firefly, and there was definitely a nod to it which made me smile. What I liked most about this book were the characters. I really liked all of them, but especially Leonidas, Alisa, and Mica. The rapport between Alisa and Mica was great right from the beginning. Mica and her pessimism was amusing.

“Pessimism is an admirable quality in an engineer. Pessimistic people check their work three times, because they’re sure something won’t be right. Optimistic people check once, trust in Solis-de to keep the ship safe, then blow everyone up.” “I think you’re mistaking the word optimistic for inept.”

Beck with his portable grill and BBQ was also amusing, as well as Yumi and her chickens. I came to care about every one of the characters, except for maybe Alejandro. I'm not sure about him or his motives yet. And there is a certain item that he has in his possession that had me thinking of Gollum in Lord of the Rings. I could see him petting it and saying "My precious!"

This book wasn't all humor. It had its tense moments. The beginning especially had me on the edge of my seat. There was also another part with space pirates that had me really worried about a couple of the characters. I thought it was the perfect balance of tense storytelling and humor.

Finding Spring by Bridget E. Baker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Romance
Content: Clean



Life's never perfect, but sometimes love can be.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and I think it's my favorite so far in the series. I loved both Trudy and Paul. I found them both to be relatable characters. Trudy and her son, Troy stole my heart. I liked that Trudy wanted to do certain things for herself before she got into a relationship, and I loved that Paul gave her the space to do that.

This series is pure escapism with hot rich guys, beautiful women, and everything always gets tied up in a nice neat little bow of happily ever after. At times I couldn't help think of how easy things seemed for Trudy being in the situation she was in as a single mother who went back to school, and then had to find a job. It seemed far too easy for her to find the perfect job, and then get the subsequent promotions. But as I said, this is pure escapism and I'm able to mostly ignore the things that I find unbelievable. I also appreciate that these are clean romance books that focus on romance instead of sex, and they remind me a lot of Hallmark movies, which are also pure escapism. If you enjoy escaping into these sorts of books then you will probably like it.

Thanks to the author for giving me an advanced copy of this book.