I’m a bit surprised that I was able to complete eight books this month. In the spirit of all things spooky and paranormal, I began watching Stranger Things on Netflix. And by watching I absolutely mean binging the entire series in a matter of a weeks. Yes, I realize I’m late to the party with the series. Better late than never? The one thing I didn’t get to read this year that I try to get to every October is the Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. Now if only I can remember to make it the first thing I read next October. Now, onto what I actually read…
A Quick Bite By. Lynsay Sands
This book was not great. The writing was juvenile and plain.
The new take on vampires and their origins could have been really interesting. Instead it was ridiculous and unbelievable.
Lissiana is a vampire with hemophilia. (So many missed opportunities with that little tidbit). For her birthday, her mother kidnaps a shrink that specializes in curing phobias, ties him to her daughter’s bed and is shocked when she finds Lissiana fangs deep in him because of course they are both mega attracted to each other. Couple that with her meddling extensive family, and, um, it got painful at time.
Now, give this concept to someone like Christopher Moore and you have a hysterical and sexy best-seller. Instead we get a dud with so many missed opportunities.
The origins of these vampires could have been portrayed as epic as I think the author intended. But then too many aspects just didn’t make sense.
Of course there has to be a villain that threatens Lissiana and Greg’s (the therapist) relationship. Enter the disappointing antagonists who just happens to be part of her extended family. There is no mystery there, he was singled out the moment he was mentioned. The supposed suspense comes from figuring out how Lissi and Greg are ever going to get the HEA.
Sure most, if not all, romance novels are predictable. As long as a reader gets lost in the journey, it doesn’t matter if you can guess the destination.
The spice is written with all the passion of an instruction manual.
For some reason I thought this was the first in the series when I read it. No matter, I wasn’t lost at all. It read like a stand alone. Which is great because it will be the only one from this series that I will have read.
The Devouring Gray By; Christine Lynn Herman
Following tragedy, Violet Saunders and her mom, Juniper, move to the immensely small town of Four Paths where Juniper grew up. But Four Paths, NY holds a secret that started with the four founding families. The Saunders being one of them.
Unfortunately, Violet has no idea about the history of the town. Which is convenient since we, as readers, learns as she does.
This books packs in a lot of information. It’s more of a foundation laying story leading into the next of this duology. One I really liked.
That being said, it is full of horror story cliches. Though I struggle to call this horror. Maybe paranormal mystery with a tinge of gore?
Since all the prominent characters have spawned from the original four founding families, they are all the same. Raised with a silver spoon shoved into them and revered as heroes. The superiority complexes, angst produced under pressures only they would understand, and 90210 level drama runs rampant. Only this drama doesn’t stick to a limited teenage universe.
The parents are just as bad if not worse. The only exception is Violet and her mother. Violet has been taught nothing of her heritage or the town. Her mother doesn’t seem to have any knowledge of anything involving the town other than it is small and as intertwined as small towns get.
To me, the story revolved around Violet trying to sort through the tangled history that was buried by the founders but kept me interested enough to want to read the sequel.
Kingdom Keepers V: Shell Game By: Ridley Pearson
I am a Disney fan. Have been since as long as I can remember. When I heard about a book series that revolved around and in the parks, I was all in. It has been a while since I read book 4, but it wasn’t hard to jump right back in.
Unfortunately, this was not my favorite. The story is progressing nicely. But the dialogue is pretty bad. And not just because I am far from the intended tween audience. My own tween constantly rolled her eyes.
Teenage hormones ran rampant in this installment. Yes the DHIs are growing up, they are officially teenagers now, pairing up and noticing others in a different light is expected. This seemed forced and put in as an afterthought to satisfy the powers that be.
It could have been that this took place mainly during a Disney cruise as opposed to the WDW parks, but there seemed to by far less magic.
The book also stopped right in the middle, trying to play it off as a cliff hanger. Still, I really want to see what happens as Maleficent builds her army and Chernabog is more heavily involved. Onto the next!
Lights Out By: Navessa Allen
“The coupe that slays together, stays together.” That tagline along with all the comparisons to Butcher and Blackbird by Brynne Weaver are very misleading. If you are looking for another pair of serial killers that revel in the gore of justice, this is not that book.
Spoiler or not, I don’t want you reading the whole thing waiting for the blood to start flowign only to reach the end and be sorely disappointed like I was.
In the aspect of hoping for another Ruinous Love Triangle-esque book, it’s not. What it is is a spicy book with two characters that harbor some morally grey traits – kind of.
Aly is opinionated and strong. Josh may look menacing and scary but he’s just an insecure teddy bear living under the stigma of his past and parentage.
I absolutely loved the banter between these two. Josh’s sense of humor and overall tone just did it for me. Aly is not as great. A little flat but not horrible.
The actual ‘slaying’ part of the book I could have done without – mostly. That event was an important developmental part, mostly for Josh. It definitely did not need to be dragged out to the extent it was. I’m talking one to two chapters at most. Instead, the debacle went on for the last third of the book if not more.
Honestly, I am in no rush to read the next in the series coming out next year. I might have loved Josh’s tone and humor, but he’s not the focus of the next book.
Out of My Mind By: Sharon M. Draper
This book jumped into my hand while perusing the library. After reading the back copy I was immediately reminded of Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman.
The books are very different. Both MCs are bound to wheelchairs and unable to verbally communicate. But there is a reason Disney chose to turn this into a movie and not Terry’s novel.
Melody still has some motor function which ultimately gives her the ability to communicate in her limited way. People being people and ultimately succumbing to human nature – this story seems true to life.
Different is scary. Different inherently deviates from the norm so it must be treated in a biased and unfair manner. Of course not everyone in Melody’s life is synonymous
with ‘the norm’.
Nonetheless, Melody is stashed away in special education. Not because of her mental or intellectual abilities though. Again, people don’t always know how to handle different.
I greatly appreciated the subtle deep dive into assumptions about disabilities and those that have them. Even once Melody gets a computer that allows her to communicate as ‘normal’ as she ever will, still, most see her disabilities first and foremost.
The ending was particularly poignant. Showcasing shameful human nature. I would recommend everyone over the age of ten read this story.
I have not seen Disney’s adaptation yet. I am curious to see if they keep the ending as is or Disney-fy it. This book is a the first in the series. Disney could have also pulled from the other novels as well.
Scythe By: Neal Shusterman
This series has sat on my TBR list for far too long. Honestly, it landed on there without really knowing what it was about.
In a future world where we have conquered death and ‘the cloud’ has essentially become self-aware (benign, unlike what Skynet predicted) and is now the overseer of the entire world as the Thunderhead.
Since no one is dying anymore, all can be revived in most cases, population needs to be regulated. Using statistics from the ‘mortal age’ a group called the Scythedom, has been tasked to maintain that balance. As the bringers of death, they are to execute their job as such, not from pleasure.
The concept and the story line was really well done. But, the two MCs, Citra and Rowan, didn’t really care about them. They were just the vessel bringing us into the
scythe world. They didn’t detract from enjoying all the small twists, turns, and growing plot. It is evident from the beginning that this was just the beginning. Even if I didn’t know this was the start of a trilogy, it was evident from early on that a bigger plot was just starting to brew.
Shadow Rider By: Christine Feehan
A mafia book without mafia and occasional magic.
Francesca is running from her past and hiding from the bad guys responsible for her sister’s death. A friend, Julie, convinces her to start over where she can help Francesca cope. Julie just happens to live in the territory that is protected my Stephano and his extensive familia.
But they are not the mafia. They act as such out of the kindness of their hearts for protection, not extortion. Oh, and they can use shadows as portals and manipulate them.
We never learn anything about why this family (and possibly others) have this ability. They are exceedingly rich and just do what they do to ensure there is some sense of justice in the world. It’s a bit weird.
Stephano is an overbearing a-hole.
There are some background stories and a ton of men parading around with plenty of power and ego. Francesca is far too self-righteous and annoying to the point that she is simply oblivious. Francesca is not a heroine I could get behind. She is incredibly weak and boring. While she spends a good amount of the story completely against Stephano’s alpha-hole, domineering behavior she still thinks he’s hot so it’s okay to just give in.
There was just too much about this story that didn’t work. There was only one character that I found remotely interesting and that was Stephano’s sister. But she was not worth continuing the series.
Wool By Hugh Howey
I had never heard of this series before, despite it being a newly released series (or is it a movie?) on Apple TV+. A friend recommended this to me and I am so very glad he did!
I guess this was first penned as a self-published short story that was then later expanded into a full-length novel and published in 2020. Several of the reviews I read covered the short story and were not too kind. Having only read the full novel, I can say with confidence that I was absolutely enthralled!
In a post-apocalyptic world where supposedly we, as humans, have completely made Earth uninhabitable. The hows and whys have become fables known only to those that have long been dead.
Humanity is now forced to live in a silo built hundreds of feet into the ground. In order to maintain order, there are some very strict rules that everyone must live by. Break
any of these rules and you will be destined to ‘clean’. A task that forces the offender outside the silo, into the toxic world, to wipe the cameras along the outside of the top of the silo. None survive. It seems those that have been sent out to clean have something in common, they all claimed to have discovered the truth.
When Juliette, from Mechanical, becomes the new sheriff, she begins an investigation that leads to her own cleaning sentence. Because of her exhaustive investigation, Juliette survives the task opening her eyes to even more startling truths.
This story was on its way to a top rating but a few things fell a bit short for me. The main romantic relationship for one. Another was the people as a whole. Sure, the majority of people don’t want to cause ripples in the water let alone entire waves. They are fed, housed, paid, clothed, and cared for – as far as they know. But people aren’t generally that stupid. Voluntary denial? Absolutely. Its human nature to choose life over death. The level of obliviousness was most likely intentional but didn’t quite work to me.
While I found getting to know individual characters to be completely moot, the story itself kept me glued to the page. Anticipating the nugget to be revealed and lifting the wool that had been pulled over all their eyes. After all, what are silos usually used for?
