Fiction

Review: The Promise by Robert Crais

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22169495I loved this series when it first came out. However, I soon found I didn’t much care for Elvis Cole…Joe Pike? Now that’s a different story! So I was very excited to see this one listed as a Joe Pike book. If you’re the same, don’t be. This isn’t a Pike novel. He’s only mentioned a few times and really plays no vital parts…if those scenes were erased the book would have read the exact shame. It’s pretty shameful really for the publishers to present it as a Pike novel as well as a Cole novel….

The story was good. We also come in contact with another interesting character, Joe Stone. Will be very interesting to see him in follow-up books. My feelings of Cole remain the same though. He just doesn’t inspire much in me. It’s only because I’m above downgrading a book simply because I hate a character (EASE UP, PEOPLE….that was a joke!!!!!) that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. I was hoping that after a long break from this series (I do still try to pick up the Pike novels) that I would fall in love all over again with Crais…sadly that didn’t happen. This is an enjoyable read, but to be fair, it won’t be one I give another thought to now that I have finished the last page, ask me in two weeks what the finer points are and I won’t be able to say…Maybe it’s just because I’m older now, but I try to look for more in a book these days…

Until next time…

Urania

ARC provided by Netgalley for an honest review

Buy it now The Promise by Robert Crais

Review: Sugar Scars by Travis Norwood

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Before your eyes glaze over at the word “apocalyptic” just wait.  It’s good. Really.  Yes, I know the genre has been way overdone the last several years. And I myself have strategically avoided many books described as such because I was just that burnt out on end of the world stories.  But this one caught my attention.

A virus has wiped out most of the population.  Only a handful (relatively speaking) of survivors remain, trying to forge their way in a new world.  But there’s no scavenging to be had in this story.  You see, humankind was wiped out so quickly that unlimited resources remain for the survivors.  Grocery stores are fully stocked, gas tanks are full, houses and cars are available for the taking.  But there’s one thing that isn’t as easy to come by…

“Sugar” is nineteen, without family, and a loner at heart.  So a world without people suits her just fine.  As a diabetic, however, a world without the insulin she needs to survive is a death sentence.  There’s enough for the immediate future, but what about after that?  So she sets out on a journey to save herself.  And she’ll need the help of others along the way.

Parts of this story, heck most of this story, were so unbelievable.  But isn’t that what fiction is?  If I’m being completely honest, the main character wasn’t even particularly likable due to her lack of emotion.  For some reason, though, I kept reading.  And at the end of the book I realized that it really was a pretty good story.

So go ahead, suspend your disbelief and your sense of rationality for the duration of this story.  It’s just different enough to be enjoyable.

~Thalia

Buy It Now:  Sugar Scars

Review: Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

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Detective Cormoran Strike’s assistant Robin receives a special delivery – of a severed leg. And that’s the impetus for following around dangerous and seedy characters from Strike’s past. 

This book is way more gory and psycho than the first two – and definitely too much so for my tastes. But it’s a beautifully written book with just enough clues to make you feel like you should have known who the culprit was all along. Personally, I liked the side stories of Robin’s fiancé and Cormoran’s superficial love life. I also liked traipsing around city and country alike, accompanying Robin in shadowy doorways and looking out for the bad guys. 

Excellent read. 

-calliope

Buy: Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike Book 3)

Review: The Passenger by Lisa Lutz

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26154406I stayed up until half past one in thee morning to finish this one. I read over 60% of it in one sitting. That never happens anymore. I can’t remember that happening in years. What an amazing read. I loved every word!!!!!!

This is a story that grabs you from the first page and just tightens its hold on you as every single page speeds by. The ending doesn’t disappoint either. The main character is a woman who goes on the run after she finds her husband dead. We soon figure out that this isn’t the first time she’s ran. As the story continues we start to see correspondence (emails) between her and a mysterious man from her past. It’s obvious that they love(ed) one another. It’s also obvious that they both have secrets. The emails they send back and forth made this a 5 star read for me. They were always short. They never gave much away. But man oh man, did they have your imagination racing out of control.

We might not know if the main character is innocent or not from the start of the tale, however, she soon finds herself in countless situations where she is far from innocent. I realise that these situations will put many off this book. I also sense that this is a love it or hate it book. If you live in a black and white world I don’t think you’ll enjoy this as much as I did. However, my moral compass has never been so clear. I don’t use the end result of a situation to determine the right or the wrong. Would this main character have resorted to some of the things she did if the circumstances were different? If she hadn’t resorted to them would she still be alive? Would others still be alive?

I hope I have you intrigued enough to give this book a try. It won’t take you long to figure out if it’s for you or not…

Also, please, Ms Lutz, can we have more of Blue? I can’t say I loved her. Hell, I don’t even know if I liked her. I was certainly a bit scared of her. I think her moral compass was navigated by completely different ways than the main characters, however, she did intrigue me and I would love to hear more of her story…

Until next time…

Urania

ARC provided by Edelweiss for an honest review

Buy it now The Passenger by Lisa Lutz

Review: How Many Letters Are In Goodbye? by Yvonne Cassidy

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9780738747453I love stories told in alternate writing styles. When you read as much and for as many years as I have, you gotta mix things up from time to time! Sometimes it doesn’t work, sometimes it does. In this case, it’s a bit of the first but much of the latter.

Rhea’s had a rough life by anyone’s standards. Her mom dies before she can hardly remember her, a tragic accident causes the loss of her arm, her dad drinks too much, she’s struggling with her sexual identity…the list goes on and on. When her dad dies and she’s sent to live with an aunt she hardly knows, it’s just too much. So she runs away, fleeing to New York City? Why New York? Because that’s where she feels closest to her mother, where she can immerse herself in her mom’s past as she tries to come to grips with her loss.

She copes by writing letters to her mom. Letters that she’ll never send, of course. Letters that she’s been writing since she was a little girl, way before her life went so far off course. She writes about her grief over her dad’s death. She writes about her confusion and pain over being gay. She writes about living on the streets and all that encompasses. And as she digs deeper into her mom’s past, she writes about buried secrets from long ago.

This is how the story is told. Each chapter is a letter in itself. It works for the most part. The story is easy to follow, and the narrative of Rhea’s letters are plausible and heart-tugging at the same time. The only fault I can find is that, towards the end, they seem to be a bit long-winded and drawn out more than is necessary. But still, a great story!

~Thalia

Buy It Now: How Many Letters Are In Goodbye?

Review: The Secret History by Donna Tart

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29044I really liked this story. This is a story of 6 friends. It is the telling of the events that lead up to the death of one of the friends, the death itself, and the aftermath of that death. There are layers and layers of nice, dark, deep, pathological juicy bits to go though. So much to keep you up late at night to think about. You’ll be thinking about this book all the time you read it…but you won’t stop thinking about it during the times you have to set it aside for the *real* world.

But let me be honest here….as much as I loved the story, and no matter how much I enjoyed these very…errr…unusual characters, I just don’t care for Ms. Tartt’s writing style. It’s tough for me. I absolutely loved “The Goldfinch”. Much more than I liked this one. However, I felt the exact same. I love books that go into great detail. I loved longer books. But having said that, the details I think Ms. Tartt goes into just aren’t the ones I need to know. I find bits of her stories very very very VERY repetitive. The bits I want more details to, I think she just skims over them or gives us just the barest of bit of knowledge she can to get on to the boring bits. I find myself just tapping tapping tapping my feet, waiting for her to get all those nonsense words out of her mouth and get back to the really relevant bits.

So many of these characters are so fascinating (or were to me). I can almost forgive the bits I felt dragged on for way long…almost….but not quite…

Until next time…

Urania xx

Buy it now The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Review: Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

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What can I say about Ruta Sepetys other than she’s amazing?  She has this amazing ability to take a piece of history and weave a complex, compelling piece of fiction around it.  Her latest masterpiece is no exception.

The year is 1945, the place is Prussia.  The war is winding down, but the horrors of it are not.  As thousands of refugees attempt to make their way to safety, we are introduced to several of them.  They each have a story to tell, and secrets to keep.  Their paths converge as one in an attempt to survive.

There’s Joana, a selfless nurse whose only goal is to save people.  There’s young Emilia, harboring a secret far beyond what we are led to believe. And Florian, the knight in shining armor who saves her.  And Alfred Frick…what can I say about him?  He’s shady and secretive and more than a bit unstable.  Is he really going to help save the others from sure death?

Time and again, tragedy strikes in one form or another.  Until finally, towards the very end, the biggest tragedy of all befalls Joana and Emilia and Florian and the others.  And yes, even Alfred Frick.  Some will survive, some will not.

Yet again, historical fiction written by a gifted author has given me new knowledge while telling an outstandingly brilliant story.  The tragedy of the Wilhelm Gustloff  was a real thing, while the tragedy of our characters was not.  But the author makes us feel as if the entire story truly happened.  And that’s exactly what exceptional books do…

~Thalia

Buy It Now:  Salt to the Sea

 

Review: From Bags to Riches by Sandra D. Bricker

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I like these Jessie Stanton novels. Jessie is a young woman who was burned by her no-good cheating ex husband, but made a new life for herself based on her love and talent for fashion merchandising. 

This third installment is probably my favorite– mostly because it’s the most romantic! The love stories don’t necessarily take a front seat, because there’s a lot going on in Jessie’s life; but the romance doesn’t take a back seat either. Besides the ex husband, Bricker writes men who adore the women in their lives, who blow off steam by getting back to nature (surf’s up), and who serve others as a way of serving God. 

Not a preachy novel by any means, Bricker uses upheaval in Jessie’s life to show how a faithful circle of support can make all the difference. Jessie’s girlfriends love her unconditionally and help her focus on her business. The God-fearing men who surround Jessie help her focus on her heart. 

In the end, the good guys win in ways we don’t usually think about, and the heroine learns to lean on a new person for the really important things in life. 

-calliope 

Buy FROM BAGS TO RICHES

Review: A Girl’s Guide to Moving On by Debbie Macomber

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A Girl’s Guide to Moving On is a REFRESHING look at getting over someone, developing a support system, and meeting new people. 

I so appreciated that Nichole and her mother in law Leanne leaned on each other and really loved each other. Making them live so close to each other was a little forced, perhaps, but it made the rest of the story flow: Nichole running into Leanne during a tough time, Leanne babysitting Nichole’s young son, etc. 

The ex-husbands are slimeballs, but I guess even slimeballs have redeeming qualities. Macomber does a good job allowing for situations where the reader might sympathize with them, yet not quite take their side. 

As a romance fan who adores a good happily ever after, I’ll tell ya that Nichole’s friend Rocco was a terrific hero. He may not have outwardly shown sophistication or refinement on a regular basis, but he certainly demonstrated it at the end when it truly mattered. Likewise for  Leanne’s friend Nikolai. Nikolai knew when to step back and when to step up, and I could’ve just cried over all the bread baking going on. Read it, you’ll see. You might want to start baking bread for – and breaking bread with – someone special, too. 

-calliope

Buy A GIRL’S GUIDE TO MOVING ON

Review: Where I Lost Her by T. Greenwood

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All authors tell a story, using their written words to weave a tale. And many are really very good at it. But it’s the rare author who creates a narrative so compelling, so lyrical, that the reader simply cannot pull away. T. Greenwood is one of those authors for me.

Something tragic happened to Tess many years ago.  We know it involved a child, and we know that it’s forever changed her.  But other than that, we are left to find out as the story progresses.

So when she claims to see a lost child out on the road one evening, the reader isn’t sure what to think.  Is it her imagination playing tricks on her yet again?  Or did she really see a disheveled, bleeding four-year-old on a dark country road?  She had been drinking, after all.  But everyone believes her.  At first.  A search commences, but when nothing is found, not even a body, doubts start to creep in.  Still, Tess knows what she saw and is steadfast in her commitment to find the child.  At all costs, even.  Her marriage and reputation are at stake, but she won’t be swayed in her determination.

I’ve loved absolutely everything from this author, and her newest book is no exception. Her stories are always captivating from the beginning until the very end. Full of life experiences that could happen to anyone, they make you think “What if…” So grab this one. Enjoy. And then go read her others!

~Thalia

Buy it Now:  Where I Lost Her