Audiobook Review: What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher

My thanks to Netgalley, Tor Publishing, Macmillan Audio and T. Kingfisher for the audiobook in exchange for a review.

Let it be known far and wide that I am a big fan of T. Kingfisher. So much so, that I have made it a goal to read all of T. Kingfisher's works and I have been slowly making my way through everything I can find for the last few years. One such series I've been following is the Sworn Soldier books featuring the character Alex Easton. Alex has been through several let's say "adventures" and each has been their own unique take on horror.

The first, What Moves the Dead, had readers introduced to Alex, who served in the army for Gallacia and has since left said army and moved on with their life. A letter from a childhood friend brings Alex to Usher Manor, where something sinister is growing, invading the lake, the land and the house. The second book, What Feasts at Night, has Alex, their closest friend Angus, and Miss Eugenia Potter, a mycologist and illustrator seen in book 1, traveling to a hunting lodge that belongs to Easton's family for the sake of rest and relaxation and as a favor to Miss Potter. Instead they find rumors of a monster that steals the breath of those that stay in the lodge and together have to discover the truth to the story and survive their stay.

I've loved each book, the second maybe a little more than the first, so the anticipation for the third book of the series has been keeping me on edge since September started. I'm happy to report that this adventure is just as good as the previous books. This novella, What Stalks the Deep, has Alex and Angus traveling to America to help their friend Dr. Denton, who was originally seen in the first book and helped Alex with what was happening in Usher House. This time around, Denton has asked for Alex to come help find Denton's missing cousin, who was studying an old mine that belongs to Denton's family. They put a team together and work to investigate the mine, the disappearance of Denton's cousin and what is hidden deep undergound in the mine.

First of all, this is a little more light-hearted in tone. The dread and horror has more to do with the confined spaces at first, which Alex repeatedly states do not bother them, and the threat of gas and explosions in the mine. When what is hidden in the mine comes to light, the desciptions reminded me of some classic horror films but if I get into namimg those, I'm afraid I'll reveal too much and the joy of this novella will be spoiled. Suffice to say, the monster of this book had its moments of being the thing that creeps in the dark but Kingfisher changes things up by also making it the hero in moments of need. All together, it was an unexpected surprise and it makes this another brilliant installment in what has become a favorite series of mine.

This was my first time listening to an audiobook and narrator Avi Roque is incredible with this story. There were accents to distinguish separate characters and the tone was the perfect voice to bring Alex Easton to life. As a result, I'm looking into other books narrated by Roque because the performance here impressed me that much. I can't believe I never truly took the time to listen to an audiobook. This production has cemented that I'll be listening to more in the future.

Rating on my scale: 9 Stars!! Honestly, I still love What Feasts at Night just that much more. It's a miniscule, tiny quibble, but enough to make me reflect that in my rating. Still, it seems there will be more in the future for Alex Easton's adevntures and I will be sitting here patiently, listening to Avi Roque narrate the previous audiobooks, until book 4 is ready for readers to enjoy. The wait will be worth it, I'm sure.

Book Review: The Holiday Hookup List by Alexis Daria

My thanks to Netgalley, Montlake and Alexis Daria for the eARC in exchange for a review of this book. 

I've been reading books by Alexis Daria since I tried You had me Hola five years ago. I also get Daria's newsletter, so I had this on my radar and when it was mentioned that it was up on Netgalley, I rushed to see if I'd get the chance to read it. I should also mention that I generally, mostly, hate Christmas, so my still wanting to read a novella that is based around the holiday should show that I'm reading this for the fact that it is written by Alexis Daria.

First of all, the dedication made me cackle. It helped set the mood for what I expected to find in this story. There was a sparkling charm to the introduction of our lead getting ready for a dance party (literally sparkling, as FMC, Valencia ends up wearing twinkling lights not long after we meet her) and I was immediately invested in the story of a workaholic lawyer trying her best to enjoy the holidays despite the year she's had. Add to that a run-in with a former classmate that Valencia used to butt heads with, lawyer Gideon Noble, and I was ready to settle in and watch the sparks between them fly.

The characters were sweet and well-developed, easy to cheer for as they navigated the tricky set-up of figuring out how to make their connection work while working through the issues they had with each other when they were in school. I was angry for Valencia when she mentioned her ex-fiancé and for Gideon when he talked about his father. I laughed at their antics and smiled as they made their list of things to do so they wouldn't spend the holdiays alone. It was all sweet and swoony and their romance was enough to keep me so  invested in the story that I read this in one sitting. Daria has a way with these shorter works that is able to provide enough dimension to the leads that allows for readers to grow to enjoy the characters and never feel like something is lacking. Everything is revealed at the best time, developed in a way that flows with the story and keeps readers hooked. I wanted these two people to be happy together, I wanted their second chance to work out, and I loved their quiet moments together as much as their spicy scenes made me want to blush.

As much as enjoyed this though, it feels slightly unresolved with the scene involving Valencia's ex. With the way the scene unfolded and the implications it made, I wanted more comeuppance to hit that guy in the head with the force of a crowbar. But I can be a little vindictive, so most likely it's just a me thing and no one else would be very happy with a little bloodshed in their Christmas novella. Also, it just stops and while yes, it had an ending, I wanted more with the happily ever after in the future. Some kind of epilogue would have been the cherry on top, but again, that's just me.

Rating on my scale: 8.5 Stars. I wanted a little more overall but it in no way detracts from the overall impression of the book. This is a sweet and spicy story about two people realizing that the past does not define them and that sometimes they belong somewhere they least expect and that's okay too. 

Book Review: He Knows When You're Awake by Alta Hensley

My thanks to Netgalley, Avon and Harper Voyager, and Alta Hensley for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. 

I'll start by saying that I did not read the first book. My hope was that I did not have to read it first and for the most part, I think I'm right in saying it's not necessary. I'll also say that I'm not the biggest fan of Christmas but the title intrigued me. The focus is not necessarily about the holiday itself though, it's more of a backdrop and occasional set piece for certain moments, think ice skating, gift shopping and looking at Christmas trees and so on. With all that said though, I'm sorry to say I didn't like this as much as I'd hoped I would.

The book follows Sloane Whitmore, a jewelry designer who is feeling stifled at her job where she is unable to design jewelry pieces that she would love. She's tried getting loans from the bank to start her own business but she keeps getting turned down. A chance encounter with Cole Asher, a billionaire and a recluse, leads Sloane to the opportunity of a lifetime: work for Cole Asher and design the jewelry line of her dreams. The catch is that she has to move into his penthouse, where he's built a workshop for her and her jewelry line needs to be done by Christmas for it to launch by New Years. Their attraction grows and soon they try their luck at being together. But Cole has other motives behind funding Sloane's jewelry line and there are people who would do anything to destroy him. Including hurting someone he has come to love.

My first issue had to do with inconsistent characters. Sloane seemed like she was tough and had a good head on her shoulders but she was quick to follow and do anything and everything for Cole. She would talk about her struggles with pleasing her mother in one breath and then in the next, mourn the fact that she wasn't going to spend the holidays with her family. Now, usually this is par for the course, the lead character has issues with a parental figure and it explains some of the character's background. But readers don't get more than just the talking about what happened in the past. It didn't have much reflection as it was being revealed and as a result, the emotional impact felt like it was nonexistent.

I can't even tell you anything about Cole's background. I think his father was a drunk and abusive? Other than that, I don't know where he used to live, why he came to the city, what he was interested in most to make himself money. He had a mentor with questionable morals and followed his way of things for a while before he made changes. He was more consistent in character but not by much.

The characters being inconsistent then lead to a lack of chemistry. I'm reading this book for the romance and it all felt very bland. Their connection felt like it was only surface level, nothing felt like true depth and as a result, I found their connection to be bland. Even their steamy scenes felt boring. It's not a good sign when the couple you're supposed to root for feels like they would be better off moving on from each other.

Which leads to issues with the pacing. The book has scenes focused on Sloane making her jewelry, Cole watching her on cameras and then the two of them together. Wash, rinse and repeat. Which would have been fine if they were interesting together but the lack of chemistry made it difficult to enjoy them as a couple. Not to mention, the biggest threat of the book is Cole's former mentor, a character that spends most of the story off page. There was no sense of urgency, no real feeling of peril. Readers know that there is something Cole is hiding about that man but we don't get enough of a chance to feel true concern for what could befall our leads. And then it wraps up in the blink of an eye and the book is over.

I wanted to love this, really I did, but I'm left thinking this might not be the best fit for me as a reader. I might try another book by Hensley somewhere down the road but it won't be anytime soon.

Rating on my Scale: 3 Stars. I hope this book finds its audience. I'm sincerely sorry this book and I didn't click. 

Book Review: Road Trip with a Vampire by Jenna Levine

My thanks to Netgalley, Berkley Publishing Group and Jenna Levine for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review.

I have a confession to make. I actually have the rest of the My Vampires series. I remember borrowing the first book from my city's digital library and enjoying it so much that I bought myself a copy and returned the library one. Then I proceeded to get to about the 40% mark and then left it unfinished. And I bought the 2nd book not realizing that it was actually a series and left it on my tablet for another day.

I had to go searching for it on my tablet because it's been a few years and it had fallen way down on my list of things to read in my digital library. And then I went ahead and hunted down the details of the first book because I could not for the life of me remember why I put the first book down for so long. Looks like it came out around the time I was coming out of the newborn trenches, the ones so deep the Mariana looks at us floundering in the deeps and gives a nod of respect to the trench we're in. I'm in them for a second time now but I like to think I have more experience with sleep deprivation to the point that I can read all the books I want while simultaneously handling screaming tantrums and soothing lullabies.

I was tempted to read both previous books as fast as possible before reading Road Trip with a Vampire before I realized this would be the perfect opportunity to try a book and see if it could stand on its own without depending a lot on the previous installments for me to enjoy the story. I am happy to report that YES, you can read this book without having read the others. Also, you will most definitely WANT to read the other books once you're done with this one.

This was just so sweet, it made me want to curl up with my hands under my chin and just sigh and smile because awww, that was so good.

This book follows Grizelda Watson, known as Zelda, a witch who has left her bad reputation behind for a new start in California as a yoga instructor. Zelda used to hang out with vampires but has spent the last 10 years avoiding them and her magic, in favor of a new peace and being an overall better person than she was in her long and storied past. That all changes when amnesiac vampire Peter Elliot shows up, having been sent by her old friend Reggie, so that Peter can have someone to look out for him while he tries to regain his memories. Zelda decides the least she can do is help him and together they try to figure out who Peter used to be. When Peter gets a threatening note about a job left unfinished, Peter and Zelda come up with a plan: visit places mentioned in Peter's journal to see if they can jog his memories before the sender of the message tracks them down.

I loved Zelda. I loved her name, her attitude, and I even loved her past, which is that apparently she had a reputation for pulling off elaborate pranks. She made me chuckle and smile and that is everything when you're following a romatic lead through their trials and tribulations. I thought Peter was charming and enjoyed hiw flustered he got with Zelda and how the two of them would flirt and slowly learned about each other. It was all just exactly what I wanted to read after the last week of horrible weather and horrible stories on the news about the floods that happened less than an hour away from me. Zelda and Peter made me forget about worrying enough so that I could be able to fall in love with their story. I'm starting My Roommate is a Vampire in the morning because yeah, okay, I NEED to sleep, tell me what else is new.

The book is written from Zelda's point of view, allowing us to see how hard Zelda has worked to become someone better. We can see the pain she feels for mistakes she made in the past and how it drives her to choose to change. I liked how that theme, making a choice to be better, was worked into Zelda's story and into Peter's, because the more we learn about Peter, the more readers see that Peter wants to believe that change is possible, even for him. Funny enough because as is, Peter doesn't know who he used to be. All he knows is that Zelda makes him want to be better, to be deserving of someone like her, and isn't that just exactly what romance needs? It gives me fuzzy feelings and makes me smile just thinking about it. Some of the chapters start with a bit about Peter, filling in things from his past about what his job used to be and how all of it brought him to Zelda. Others have bits about Zelda's past and how her practical jokes created a reputation with a mind of it's own, practically. I liked how reserved he was and how little details like his music choices were enough to expand on who Peter was and who he chose to be for Zelda. The story just worked for me with making me love the characters and then, in turn, love the story of how they fall in love.

If I have to make any complaint, it would be about how I wanted to know a little more about Zelda's past, where she came from, who her family was, things like that. The same for Peter. I was also a little irked by the final conflict of the story, the reasoning that Zelda came up with for why she and Peter would not work out. I thought she was being way too stubborn and refusing to see the truth about what had happened and I wanted someone to tell her that earlier but she did eventually work it out, better late than never. Still, I would have slapped her upside the head because really? You were going to give up on love because you were what? Mincing words about what had happened and what you thought had happened? Ugh, romantic leads, I tell you. There always has to be something, no matter how small, to make their happily ever afters feel earned. Still, sigh, this sweet couple earned their love story ending and this author has earned a new fan. Seriously, I will be reading the rest of the series, probably within the next week, and I'll be keeping Jenna Levine on my list of automatic preorders. If the pattern holds, my hope is for a new book by this time next year. I'm looking forward to it.

Rating on my scale: Going with 9 stars because Zelda really did need a smack to head. Just a few times, nothing too violent, I wouldn't want a vampire coming after me for knocking some sense into his love. Still, this is a great book, exactly what I want to see in romance stories, and I hope the rest of the series is just as good.

Book Review: Pitcher Perfect by Tessa Bailey

My thanks to Netgalley, Avon and Harper Voyager and Tessa Bailey for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. 

Let's start by saying I have read a LOT of books by Tessa Bailey. Seriously, I think I've lost count of just how many I've read. Off the top of my head, I loved the Bellinger Sisters books. I HATED 2 out of the 3 of the Hot & Hammered series. I mostly liked the A Vine Mess duology, I didn't like Wreck The Halls. I've also read the first, let me check, 3 books of this series, and I'll be honest, I haven't been consistently rating them very high. Still, I keep coming back because when I find a Tessa Bailey book that is AWESOME, it knocks me off my axis and I decide to read the next book set for release by Tessa Bailey.

I'll be reading book 5 of this series, no doubt about it.

Okay, first off, this book can be read on its own. All that is needed to understand this world is that the books mainly focus on some kind of professional sports figure and their love interest. Book 1 followed a professional golf star, book 2 followed said golfer's best friend, a professional hockey player. That set up, the hockey team, is where the next 2 books continue, with book 3 being focused on another teammate from that hockey team and book 4, THIS BOOK, now focusing on a rookie player from the same team. The reader sees some of the team interaction from said previous leads, and the introduction of this book is a scene from a previous installment, just from a different perspective. I appreciated this because let's face it, I read that book a while back so while I figured that couple would end up the focus of a future book, I didn't remember all of the specifics about their encounter. It also helped to fill in the background of our leads and cement them as a couple I genuinely wanted to read about and see them get their happily ever after.

So Pitcher Perfect follows Skyler Paige, a senior softball pitcher at Boston University who attracts the attention of rookie hockey player Robbie Corrigan at what was supposed to be some kind of challenge between a group of baseball players versus the hockey team I mentioned before. She's a no-nonsense, tough-as-nails, one of the guys type of character who thinks Robbie is only making fun of her when he keeps calling her hot and tries to get her to go out with him. A bet leads to a short coffee date where the truth is revealed. Skyler is in love with her brother's best friend and she has no idea how to get him to notice her. Robbie volunteers to fake date Skyler in the hopes that the guy will get jealous and relaize his here to now unknown affection for Skyler. All the while, Skyler wants Robbie to tutor her in how to keep her true love's attention, starting with flirting lessons and escalating from there. At the same time, Robbie is trying hard to prove that he can be the guy of her dreams by participating in a week long competition with her family where the pair are forced to make a united front to her family, where Skyler has always felt like the odd man out.

And that's all the first quarter of the book!

By this point, I was charmed I tell you. I loved Skyler's quips and her sense of humor. I loved the sudden realization that Robbie had that his past had come back to bite him when he finally met the girl of his dreams. Their interactions were sweet and yearning and their chemistry made me almost swoon except I was smiling the whole time so it was more giggling than falling back in a faint. I can't remember the last time a couple felt like something I wanted to read. The pacing of this book just flies by because of the banter and the nature of the setting, being the family competition back at Skyler's childhood home. I read every scene and just wanted them to get on the same page but at the same time I enjoyed the journey of them getting to the right place for their relationship to work. I'm even invested in what I believe will be the future leads of upcoming books in this series. Which is funny, because as I said before, I read the other installments of this series and I have not felt quite so eager to get to the next book until now.

I could go on but I'll end this by saying I'm buying a copy of this soon to go with the other Tessa Bailey books I've loved. It deserves the place it has earned on a shelf with my other favorite romances.

Rating: I'm going to play it safe and say 8 Stars on my scale. I'd rate it higher but I worry that this might be a fluke for the series for me and then I'll have to wait for yet another Tessa Bailey book that I fall head over heels with again in the future. Best to temper my expectations and wait with crossed fingers for book 5. Here's hoping I love it to bits, like this one.

Book Review: Deathly Fates by Tesia Tsai

My thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books and Tesia Tsai for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. 

The title is what first snared my attention. Followed quickly by the eye-catching cover. So with my interest sufficiently piqued, I read the synopsis and all the pieces fell into place. I wanted to read about Kang Siying and her work as a priestess that can make the dead walk. I will say my initial impression was that this would be something akin to a romantasy story, focused on the developing relationship between Siying and Prince Ren. I'm happy to say this was secondary to the main plot of court intrigue and the precarious balance between two countries on the brink of war. Never judge a book by its pretty cover. Let it snare you but then stick around for the unexpected story. You won't regret it. 

Deathly Fates is about Kang Siying, a priestess taught by her father to raise the dead and help guide them home. When her beloved father falls ill, Siying takes a job that leads her across the border and into Wen, where the people are displeased with the King of Sian. Her task is to find a particular dead soldier and bring him back to Sian. Except, when Siying places her talisman on him, the soldier returns to a state of living. He also turns out to be the missing prince of Sian, younger son of the King. Prince Ren is living on borrowed time though and now Siying and Ren have to find ways to gather qi, or life force, to bring Ren fully back to life. Together they begin a journey back to Sian, working to restore Prince Ren's qi by purifying evil spirits along their path. As they travel, they start to uncover the truth about the state of the country and that there may have been more to Ren's death than what is seems.

I loved Kang Siying. This is the no-nonsense, level-headed priestess of my dreams. She's cool and collected, working hard to keep her family safe and to provide everything she can for them with enough of a sardonic edge to her that had me squarely in her corner from page one. Prince Renshu, Ren, is the perfect opposite of Siying, hopeful and teasing and loyal to a fault. Together they make quite the pair, working together to save Ren's life and learning to trust each other more and more with every new obstacle that comes their way. I was rooting for them together within pages of their meeting. They are the kind of couple that make hearts sing. I loved their banter, their conflicts and their hope as they came together to be a force that could change the fate of the kingdom.

One unexpected aspect of the book was the actual work that Siying does as a priestess. I understood that she could raise the dead in order to return them to their families but the actual act of it on the page was thrilling to see. The vengeful spirits needing to be exorcised for Ren were tragic and terrifying in equal measure, and the addition of these characters and their backstories helped to fill in pieces of this world. I enjoyed the vibe of mixing romance with murderous ghosts. All in a day's work for our heroes. 

The only complaint I have is with the pacing. In stories like these, a lot of the time spent on the actual act of journeying from location to location does not make it into the book. Understandable of course, as I'm sure it would make for dull reading and make the story drag if the journey is not the focus of the plot. Still, in this book it felt like the characters are here and then quickly end up there, making scene changes feel like more of a snap of your fingers type of move instead of a smoother transition. As a result, some things felt a little rushed with the development in the middle of the book. It doesn't detract too much from the story and I still loved where the characters ended up. If this is where the story leaves them for good, then I'm okay with that.

Rating on my scale: I'm going with 9 stars. The pacing just irks me a little, enough that I feel like the stars I give this should reflect that. Read this if you like romance and women who can make skeletons do their bidding. It's a surprising combination but the payoff is worth it.

Book Review: I'll Find You Where the Timeline Ends by Kylie Lee Baker

My thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group/Feiwel & Friends and Kylie Lee Baker for an eARC of this book in exchange for a review. 

I have quite the number of books by Kylie Lee Baker but life has gotten in the way and I have not read a single one of them until now. I liked this book and I feel bad saying that because I didn't really really like it or even love it. From what I understand, this is a little more light-hearted compared to Baker's other books so I'm going to chalk this one up as a it's me, not you, and try to explain the why's of it all.

So, I'll Find You Where the Time Ends follows Mina, a descendant of a dragon god who can time travel as a result of her ancestry. She is in training to work for the Descendants, an organization that works to keep the timeline safe. There are rogue agents who apparently take it upon themselves to change things in time and the Descendants go back and try to correct things in unobtrusive ways to best preserve the timeline. They have to make sure that no one notices them or what they do in order for their work to be what it is supposed to end up as. Mina is on track to become an agent, her goal being to find a sister that no one else remembers except her. While trying to finish her last requirements, Mina meets a rogue agent who claims if she doesn't help him, the world will end sometime in the future. Mina has to figure out if she wants to help the rogue agent or focus on finding the truth about her sister, and how both missions involve the organization Mina and her family have loyally followed for so long.

Okay, first of all, one star off for the development of the world which seemed a little lacking in some parts. The whole idea of the Descendants seemed interesting but I had no idea how they really worked to keep the timeline safe. There were instances every now and then to explain why this one thing, like a bug, changed things for the worst, but it didn't seem to have much bearing on the story. Mina was tasked with finding the bug, I remember that, but I don't remember why it was important. It was just something she was tasked with doing to get points to become an agent. I wanted to see more about this organization. I feel like little reports added between chapters, something explaining a task and how changing it worked in fixing the timeline, could have helped with developing the Descendants organization. The way it's presented in the book, I know there is the big boss, there is Mina's mentor, Hyebin, and there are Mina's parents who also work for the Descendants. And that's all I can tell you about an organization tasked with keeping the timeline safe. That's why it feels lacking. There could have been mentions about a big event they keep safe, how they have to run scenarios constantly to curb tampering with the timeline on that scale. I know that Mina was tasked with getting a boy to kiss her, and somehow doing this proved she could be an agent, which made no sense because I thought they weren't supposed to be noticed when they traveled in time? Ow, I think my head is spinning after that sentence.

Next, a second star off for the way the story wrapped up. For most of the book, readers are told by Mina that as a descendant, she seemed more human than the others and how this detracted from her overall self. She was supposed to be smarter, better adept at picking up languages, things like that because of her heritage. Instead, she was struggling with Calculus so she needed tutoring, and she was messing up on her assignments in the past which resulted in her mentor having to redo the missions without her. It all could have led to some interesting development if it had been a gradual reveal that Mina's self-assessment was wrong, but the ending just turns into a whirlspin and boo, that wasn't what I expected. I don't want to veer too much into spoiler territory but I think it goes without saying that a story about a girl who doesn't think she measures up to her peers would eventually find out they are more than what they appear to be. I just wanted it to feel more organic to the story. Also, if the ending was going to be that, why didn't something give earlier? Why wasn't there a system in place to recognize signs of corruption in the Descendants? It all seems like loose ends that were tied off too quickly and it makes me feel a little disgruntled about the resolution to the story.

After all is said and done, I thought this book was a sweet story about a girl who gains the power and confidence to stand up for herself and what she wants. She gets most of what she wants and is ready to move on with her life. So, okay, good for Mina.

Rating on my scale: 5.5 Stars. I wanted to like this so much more than I did and that makes me so sad. BUT, I have so many other books by Baker, and I can see that the talent is there, so I'm going to try reading everything else I have until I find a book I love. So see? There's hope for me yet.

Book Review: Moth Dark by Kika Hatzopoulou

My thanks to Netgalley, Penguin Young Readers Group/G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers and Kika Hatzopoulou for the eARC in exchange for a review. 

When I started reading this book, I wasn't sure what to expect. The book starts some time after a big world event and the lead came off a little weird to me. But I kept reading and slowly I was sucked in, caring about Sascia, Mooch and her darkmoths, her cousin Danny, her cohort from school, and Nugau. I loved this so much, I want to buy copies for all the readers in my family. For now, I'll settle for reading the rest of Kika Hatzopoulou's books.

Moth Dark follows Sascia Petrou, a young student who is in love with the Darkness that appeared in the world 6 years ago. Now 18, Sascia was supposed to be working with other students to study the dark but has taken a little more of a different route to her studies. That different route means Sascia is constantly exploring the Dark and one day Sascia sees a humanoid shape climb out of it. That turns out to be Nugau, and their mission is to kill Sascia. When Sascia finds Nugau again, Nugau doesn't know who Sascia is and things continue from there. Sascia realizes that the world inside the dark, Itkalin, is always at a different point in time from their world, and somehow Sascia is at the center of a war between humans and elves. As the two of them work to try to find a way to have their worlds be at peace together, Sascia and Nugau are drawn together again and again, caring for each other, willing to anything and everything to keep the other safe and with their worlds determined to fight, that connection might not be enough to keep them together.

So yes, when I started the book I thought Sascia was a little weird. She had a side hustle taking people "fishing" so they could capture dark insects to keep as pets. She'd had the opportunity to study at an Ivy League school but messed up with focusing enough time to study and was now taking remedial courses and retaking exams so she can get into Columbia. And she's seemingly obsessed with the Dark, apparently to the point that her expeditions leading people to fish for dark insects allow her to experience their wonder/awe/terror again and again when they first encounter Dark creatures. That's all in the opening chapter and I just thought come on kid, you know you're playing with fire. So when Nugau comes out of the manhole Sascia is working at and starts to chase her, I felt vindicated. And then thought okay, so that's how the story is going to work. Sascia is a kid who makes foolish decisions but then has to work to show why she's important, how she makes a difference, why we should root for her. To the point that not only had I started to root for her and but I wanted to shake everyone who told her that her differences were bad and that she needed to make other choices.

Nugau was a pleasant surprise and a truly wonderful character. Nugau is a genderfluid elf princet. The elves on the other side of the dark can change their gender, which is then depicted by the color of the Darkprints on their face. Nugau shows up time and time again as either gender or even intersex and it was great to see a society where this is considered the norm. It didn't matter to the character what gender they were because the essence of Nugau never changed and I loved their depiction. The strength they had as they tried to lead, as they tried to teach Sascia about the Dark, and the compassion they had in trying to save their world, it was all heartwrenching and I wanted Nugau to just be happy. I had violent feelings for their mother, and I adored their friends, Thalla and Orran.

All the characters are given their due thanks to the way the book is written. Danny, Sascia's cousin and best friend, is given the chance to shine in chapters showing their past. We get to see how they were as kids together, how they encouraged each other and partnered to explore the Dark and made discoveries that would help the world. They were exactly what they were shown to be, family, and I loved Danny's own love story with a fellow classmate. Tae, Andres, Shivani and Crow round out the rest of the cohort that are some of the best minds in the world working in a lab with Danny and Sascia to study and understand the Dark. They're each important, have unique talents and play important roles in the course of the book.

The way that the book is structured helped with highlighting the way the timeline works between Itkalin and our world. There are various chapters interspersed through the narrative, showing different past points in Sascia's life. Each highlights an important moment that has shaped Sascia into the person she is in the current timeline. I enjoyed each tidbit given and every question answered with this structure. 

The magic of this world, which I think it should be called because of the wonder it invokes, and because it's the word Sascia uses, is so interesting. I loved the idea of the Dark creatures that have entered our world and how Sascia and Danny have managed to work out how to help them flourish here and help people. I loved Mooch, a Darkmoth that has chosen Sascia as their person to help through thick and thin. I loved how Sascia's choice to protect the moths helped to prove how important she was in working to resolve the conflict between the two worlds. It's all so richly detailed and a wonder to behold, just like Sascia knew it was from the start.

In the end, I loved this book. I thought it was a beautiful story about how making a better choice is possible. I'll be reading more books from Hatzopoulou as soon as possible.

Rating on my scale: 10 Stars. Really, I have no complaints about this one. Read this book if you think Pacific Rim and The Time-Traveler's Wife put together sounds like a great idea. That's the best I could come up with to compare this book to and I loved both those things. I'm sure there are other things to compare this book to but I came up with those two when I was sleep deprived and now they're the only two I can come up with. Just read this book and have beautiful day. 

Book Review: Pocket Bear by Katherine Applegate

My thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and Katherine Applegate for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. 

This is my first time trying a book by Katherine Applegate but it won't be the last. I'll be buying a copy of this book and reading it to my kids. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect when I decided to try this book. Truth be told, I saw the artwork for the cover, read that the synopsis had a cat as a character and made my decision then and there to try reading this. At the time, my own cat was having health problems and I thought reading a sweet book about a cat would help. It gave me great comfort to read this and I hope my kids love it one day soon.

Pocket Bear is about a a small stuffed toy bear, named you guessed it, Pocket Bear, who has an interesting history. Pocket Bear was hand-made during World War I, designed in a way so that he could fit in a soldier's pocket and seem like he was gazing up into his soldier's face. These bears were meant to provide luck and love for their owners. Nowadays, Pocket Bear runs a home for giving other lost and thrown away stuffed animals a second chance at finding a new child to love them. He runs the place with his cat best friend, Zephyrina, who goes out at night to scavenge for food and lost toys to take home. When Zephyrina finds a teddy bear in a restaurant trash can and decides to bring it back home, it sets in motion a story about finding comfort, love and family where you least expect it.

This was a sweet story, told from Zephyrina's point of view, and I have to say Applegate nails the cat attitude perfectly. I loved the sass, the reasonings behind what Zephyrina chose to do or the moves to make. I could see the calculations that went into showing how a cat really fits into a family and how Zephyrina's choices proved that cats are intelligent and loving creatures. I believed the friendship between Zephyrina and Pocket from page 1 and I loved every moment of their sweet story together.

I thought Pocket was tragic but I understood the hope he stood for, the love that went into the making of him. I'm not a fan of stuffed bears but I recently made an amigurumi stuffed bear for a family member for their new baby. I worked hard on putting everything together into a whole toy that I hope will bring comfort to the baby when they are old enough to keep it with them when they sleep. With that in my head, each interaction with Pocket and Dasha, the child who runs the Second Chance home for toys with her mother, Elizaveta, tugged at the heartstrings just a little bit more. I also learned a lot about the history of stuffed bears that I had never heard of before. That history lends this book a feeling of maturity that I can respect as this allows for the reader to learn and grow and think with every new situation that comes up in this adventure. I love when a book treats its reader like they are smart without talking down to them. This is the kind of book I want my kids to read and enjoy but will also allow them to ask me questions about the wars mentioned and the effects they have on families. It's a great book with ideas that can make kids think and consider things in different ways than they had before and that makes it a very respectable read.

I should also add that I too have several shelves where my childhood stuffed toys are kept safe so that also endeared me to this story. And my cat that I mentioned earlier had his own tiny stuffed toy, a snowman, that he loved to bits and took with him everywhere until it was misplaced. All this to say that if you had anything like a stuffed toy when you were a kid, this story will make you remember them again and think about who they might have been once upon a time. It also makes me think about the stuffed friends I'm giving to my kids and how I hope they feel love and comfort and magic when they have their toys with them. My kid calls all of his stuffed animals his friends and after reading this book, I can believe in that just a little bit more. It's a magical tale filled with hope, which makes it the best kind of kids book, in my opinion.

Rating on my scale: I'm giving this 10 stars and pulling out my stuffed puppy I've had for almost 30 years and giving him a hug. My puppy has been sitting on my baby recliner for the last 3 years but after reading this book, it's high time he takes his place by my pillow again. You're never too old to appreciate the effects of a well-loved stuffed animal, after all.

Book Review: All of Us Murderers by K.J. Charles

My thanks to Netgalley, Poisoned Pen Press and K.J. Charles for the eARC in exchange for a review of this book.

I'll start by saying this is the first book by K.J. Charles that I have tried to read. I will also be honest that the comparisons to Crimson Peak and Knives Out both had me hooked on trying this book out. I'm happy to report that I LOVED this book. Zebedee Wyckham is wonderful and along with his partner, Gideon Grey, they were sweetness personified and the mystery was intriguing and I'm so glad I saw this cover and thought WAIT, what is this beauty?

First of all, YES, those comparisons definitely work to describe this book. This book reminded me of several other works, movies and books, but I worry about spoiling too much of what comes about in this story, so I won't mention any other titles just yet. I think it's safe to say that if you are a fan of the mystery genre and gothic romances, this is the perfect book to try. It fits right in and yet stands apart thanks to the sweetest, most earnest lead I've had the pleasure to meet in recent memory.

All of Us Murderers follows Zeb Wyckham, a young man recently let go from his job, who has finally decided to accept his cousin's invitation to come to Lackaday House for a visit. Zeb usually avoids his family but after his cousin insisted on Zeb coming to stay for a couple of weeks, Zeb thought it would be okay to go. When he does arrive, Zeb is horrified to find his estranged brother, sister-in-law, a couple of cousins and his ex-boyfriend are all in attendance. Turns out Cousin Wynn has invited everyone to the house for a reason: Wynn has decided to change the terms of who is set to be his heir. He wants to leave his fortune to whoever marries his ward, Jessamine, who is staying in Lackaday House. They all try their best to get her to agree to marrying them, except for Zeb, who wants nothing to do with the Wyckham family money. But as time passes, strange things start happening in Lackaday House. There are phantom footsteps in the halls, strange messages left on the walls, and what appears to be the ghosts of an old monastery scaring the staff and the guests. Zeb has to find a way to avoid the scheming machinations of his family and figure out how to resolve the issues that led to his break-up with a man he still cares for, all while trying to find a way to leave the property. Because the Wyckham family has a lot of skeletons in their closets and with all of them together in one house, tensions between family members is the least of Zeb's worries.

Zeb, my dear sweet Zeb, how I loved you. Honestly, Zeb is an absolute sweetheart, a young man living with ADHD in a time where it was not understood, who has been cast aside by his family and sneered at for so long, the fact that he's being forced to be in their proximity for so long made me want threaten all of them with bodily harm. I also wanted to take Gideon by the ear and give him a good shake because really, how could he believe that Zeb wanted anything to do with the fortune after repeatedly stating that he would have nothing to do with the marriage scheme? Come on, give Zeb some credit, the man is goodness and honesty and genuine compassion all mixed together. All the details given about the way his mind worked, the methods he used to keep himself focused, were all so detailed, that Zeb felt like people I know and I wanted him to get out of that house and go back home and be happy. And fine, after Gideon finally got his head on straight, I could see why Zeb cared for him and their scenes together were so sweet they nearly made my teeth ache. I sighed wistfully and smiled so much with their scenes, it was probably a ridiculous thing to witness.

As for the rest of the family, oh good grief, they were horrible. I wanted to bash brother Bram in the head, I wanted to hit cousin Hawley with a crow bar, and I wasn't sure what cousin Dash's deal was, but the fact that he was in the house too made me wary of what could be hiding behind his reasonable, affable front. Elise was the typical scheming wife, able to control her husband and be cruel at the drop of a hat. Don't get me started on Jessamine and Wynn, who were just questionable enough to keep me guessing about what side they were really on. The writing made the house feel like a separate character, filled with horrible paintings and owned by despicable people, that I felt the tension of being in that space keeping my shoulders hunched as I tried to figure out who the villains were and waited for those deserving to get what was coming to them. If I had to make one quibble, it would be that I feel like one character out of the ensemble seemed to get away with what they wanted and I really hoped that the epilogue would have turned around and given them a grisly end. I also feel like there are still a few loose threads with the character, like were they truly who they claimed they were or just someone roped in to the plot that decided to take advantage of the situation? If it was in the book, I must have missed it because I'm still trying to figure it out. Guess I'll just have to read this all over again and take some notes so I can see everything I might have missed the first time I raced through this book.

The true mystery of the book was a surprise. I enjoyed the tidbits about the original owner of the house being a writer who wrote stories about horrible villains and the heinous things they did. I was not expecting the way it all came together in the end but I will say I loved the motivations behind it. If I was in that position, I would not have taken the path that was revealed BUT I can understand the urge to do what happened in this book. In the end, this is a book about the horrible things people can do and what they decide to do about their pasts and how it affects everyone around them. I enjoyed every reveal and now I'm working out which K.J. Charles book to start next. Thankfully, there is quite a bit to choose from so I'll be a happy reader hoarding new books and adding them to my towering TBR stacks. It's a wonderful feeling to have when you finish a book you really loved, the fact that there is already more to find without waiting years for a new release.

Rating on my scale: 10 Stars for Zeb and Gideon and that plot. I hope the rest of Charles's books are just as good as this one. This one is going to have a place of honor on my favorites shelf, which let's be honest, is starting to get a little cramped, but hey, who cares? Having too many favorite books is a good thing, if you want my honest opinion.

Book Review: Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibañez

My thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press/ Saturday Books, and Isabel Ibañez for thr eARC in exchange for a review of this book.

This is the first book by Isabel Ibañez that I've tried to read. As much as I enjoyed the world, the desciptions and writing, I'll admit, it took me too long to read this book. I wanted to love it but within the first couple of chapters, the FMC, Ravenna, just started to make me grumble.

Graceless Heart follows Ravenna, a young sculptress who helps her family run an inn. When her brother ends up imprisoned, Ravenna decides to enter a contest hosted by an immortal family. Her prize would be to have her brother released and all his charges dropped. Except, in order to win the contest, Ravenna decides to reveal her magical ability, something she has only told her family about and has kept a secret for years. Her reveal makes her a target and she is kidnapped by the Luni family, taken to their home in Florence, and told they expect her perform a miracle for them, using her ability as a sculptress and her magic.

It all sounds so good, honestly. I was hooked on the cover art, the synopsis, the info at the beginning of the book about the "Pietra Magiche." I thought, definitely, absolutely going to like this book. But then Ravenna starts making some foolish decisions. The book opens with Ravenna sneaking through her hometown, carrying a ladder, so she can try to break her brother out of his cage. There's a curfew and she's not supposed to be outside at all. She also decides to enter the contest, which is frowned upon because she's a woman. At the contest, she gets ready to blurt out to the people around her about something she saw the night before and I just thought, WAIT, you are actually going to admit in front of everyone snarling at you for your audacity of entering the contest that you were out past the curfew?

But it was early pages, no bother, right? Except this continued with Ravenna. She was impulsive in a way that made her seem childish. I double-checked the synopsis and I'm not sure I would call this an "adult" book. The more I read, the more I felt that Ravenna came off as a teenager. Maybe this would have been better marketed as a "New Adult" story but I don't think that distinction really exists in Fantasy Romance. In the end, this felt more like a young adult release, which is not meant as a slight to the book. It just doesn't seem to fit with the characterization given to the main female lead and I had certain expectations for the character that did not fit with what I thought this book was going to be.

To make matters more frustrating, once Ravenna starts to interact with Saturnino, the eldest son and heir of the Luni family, most of her thought process becomes "he's so handsome, he's a killer, he's seducing me to get what he wants, but he has to care for me, even just a little, I'm such an idiot for believing his lies," etc., ad nauseum. Which again, made me think she's just a kid. Besides that, Saturnino is given barely any characterization outside of he's a knight, he's ruthless, he's in charge of keeping Ravenna in line. It takes too long to see anything more than that facade for the character and it left me feeling unimpressed by him and his connection to Ravenna. Their "love story" felt like it needed more development, more actual interactions that didn't feel like a game of cat and mouse. For a large part of the book, I truly believed that Saturnino was just stringing Ravenna along so when everything started rolling and their love story ended up being true, I was left feeling like it didn't work for me.

Then add to that Ravenna's driving motivations for everything she does, the salvation of her immortal soul and the love of her family. Seems reasonable enough for motivation except that nothing given in the book made me like her family. Ravenna has spent YEARS making herself indispensable to her family, doing absolutely anything and everything she can with running the inn and taking care of her siblings so that her parents will love her in spite of her magic. Which right away raised so many red flags for me. But then, on the morning of the contest, Ravenna goes to give her mother a kiss goodbye because it is highly likely she won't see her again any time soon and the woman flinches before Ravenna touches her. NO, just no, I don't see family devotion, in any way shape or form. Later in the book, Ravenna claims that she and her brother Antonio are "best friends" and I thought, since when? You have literally never spoken of him like that. There have been no reminiscences about childhood antics, about how he spent time with you, helped you with chores, encouraged your sculpting. Nothing at all and yet, when Antonio enters the story again, we're supposed to feel Ravenna's anguish at trying to reason with her brother and I thought, nah, I don't buy it. There is just not enough to convince me that this girl should be so motivated by the love she has for her family.

I also had an issue with the pacing of the book. The story felt like it had nothing happening except for the same scenes over and over again. Ravenna tries to do her task, the Luni family threatens her family back home, Saturnino watches her work, and Ravenna struggles with her attraction to him. Wash, rinse, repeat. I had to put the book down and do something else because I was getting tired of the same scenes again and again. Ravenna has a deadline to complete her task, she has multiple people demanding that she work for them OR ELSE and yet I felt no urgency to her dilemma. I didn't care about her family or where she came from, I didn't believe her growing connection to Saturnino, I didn't care for the side plots involving the villains motivations. In the end I was left feeling a bit, I guess underwhelmed, is the word I'm looking for.

I wanted more from the world building, about the magic system but because Ravenna was raised to believe her magic is a sin, readers aren't shown anything more than what we are given at the start of the book. We're told other magical creatures exist, vampires, witches, the fae, but they have no real bearing on the story. Again, I was expecting more than what was given based on the book description. The world is so wonderfully detailed, from the descriptions of the colors to the architecture but it's just background. The characters and their troubles just fell flat on their face. I wanted to like them more than I did and that is not a good feeling to end a book with when all is said and done.

Rating on my scale: 4.5 Stars. This book has so many ingredients that should have worked and for me but it just left too much of a sour taste and a feeling of just being disgruntled overall. So many people were against Ravenna and it left me feeling frustrated and in the end, I'm left analyzing everything I had issues with as opposed to remembering everything I enjoyed about the book. I'm glad Ravenna got everything she wanted, it was the least that could come about for her in the book. I might try another book by Ibañez in the future, maybe, hopefully. Fingers crossed, and all that jazz.

Book Review: The Second Death of Locke by V.L. Bovalino

My thanks to Netgalley, Forever (Grand Central Publishing), and V.L. Bovalino for the eARC in exchange for a review of this book.

You know that feeling, when you are reading/watching/listening to something and the emotions are welling up inside you, just pushing and growing in every passing moment? They're growing so much that you pull your knees up and hug them because you have to do something to hold yourself together before it bursts out of you. Your hands are up over your mouth in case you let out some unseemly sound and alert other people in the room to your presence but at the same time, it is meant to hide the maniacal grin on your face because teeth lit up in a smile in the dark is an unsettling sight. You're ready to hide sniffles in your knees if it comes to it and to wipe tears from the corners of your eyes because *ahem* it's just an eyelash, leave me alone. And when it comes down to it, you lift your arms and CHEER quietly because that is all you can do when that everything becomes too much.

THAT is the overall feeling I had to wrestle with as I made my way through the journey of this book. By the time I got to the last portion of it, I had two reigning thoughts in my head. One: there are more books to come, right? I know I've seen something about it, another two books? Someone confirm this for me as soon as humanly possible. And Two: I immediately pre-ordered both of Bovalino's upcoming releases, which includes this book and a YA release set for January 2026. I also ordered hardcovers of each of the books I do not currently have from Bovalino's backlist of titles. I want to read everything I can find, Bovalino has a reader/fan for life now. This book has cemented that for me.

The Second Death of Locke is about a world at war, where Mages wield magic and they have their Hands, people with a well of magic inside them that Mages tether to, working together as two pieces of a whole, side by side through thick and thin and everything in between. Grey Flynn is the dedicated Hand to her Mage, Kier, her childhood friend and her everything now as an adult. Together they have risen in the ranks of their nation's army, to the point that the pair are tasked with an impossible mission: protect a child that the army has taken from enemy forces and return that child to those who want them back. Grey and Flynn put together a small group of soldiers and set out to cross the country, hoping to complete their task and avoid all enemies along the way, all while trying to hide the truth: Grey is the lost heir of Locke, an island nation that was lost to the seas nearly two decades before. It was the source of all magic and it's loss was the catalyst that started the war in the first place. Magic has been fading since Locke was lost and Grey could possibly be able to bring magic back if she could figure out how to bring the Isle back. On the other hand, if Grey dies, all of the magic in the world dies with her.

I'd heard of this book in Bovalino's newsletter so I was already on the lookout for it to pre-order when I had the chance. When I saw it was available on Netgalley, I leapt at the chance to read it. Bovalino's writing style is engaging, showing readers everything they need with character interactions and settings, snark in the dialogue and such depth of emotions from Grey and her companions. I loved all of the characters before the book was over, even characters I didn't think I'd like when they were first introduced. Grey was a force, prickly and snarky and so devoted, my heart ached for her at each turn the story took. I loved her connection to Kier, and how entwined they were and yet so wholly independent of each other, they were pig-headed and brash and determined to save each other even if it meant sacrificing themselves and I cheered them on through every battle.

Each character is given their due, from Brit, Ola and Eron, the soldiers chosen to aid Grey and Kier on their assignment, to Sela, the child they are transporting, to even the leaders of the nations they are fighting for and against. Grey would die for her new friends and I echoed that sentiment. Each time Grey made a decision to keep her people safe, I wanted to take up a sword and fight with her. They are all so unique and pushy, and important to Grey and to us readers that I waited with bated breath as I read this story, hoping my favorites would make it through to the end.

Readers are given little asides at the end of each chapter, whether it be letters from characters that have passed before the events of this story, journal entries or even historical texts about the war and the history of the Isle of Locke. There is so much information that I can't even remember if I had any questions sitting in my head because everything readers need to know is given at the right time for the most emotional impact (I'm not kidding, my emotions feel like they've run a gauntlet, I might need time to recover by returning to page 1 and starting the whole journey over again).

The world is filled in enough to feel how it has changed since war has taken over and a map is provided at the start of the book (love me a map in my books, seriously, I sincerely love when a map is provided). Readers learn about who Grey and Kier fight for and who the enemies are and how each are with the others. We learn about how other nation's use their magic and how Mages have certain affinities that they use magic for on the battlefield. It's all so rich with detail, I wanted to stay in this world longer and I truly hope there are more books to come. I have to know if the characters I came to love in this story get everything they want in the future.

And that ending. Ugh, that ending was everything I could have wanted and yet so much more I never would have thought of and it can't end there, it just can't, there is so much more to come, I can feel it. It might hurt in the long run but I have to know how this will all come together by the last page of the last book. I will stand vigil and wait for the return of Grey and her family, new and old, and hope for the best for these characters.

Rating on my scale: 10 STARS. I loved this book. I want more from this world. I can't wait for it's release and for the sequels that just have to happen, they have to. Read this book so it can have sequels, please and thank you. 

Watching the Weather

It's been sitting in my mind since the holiday weekend started and I just have to put something here to see if I can get it out of my head.

I'm here in the heart of Texas, probably less than an hour south of where the devastating floods have hit with the Guadalupe River. My area has just had weather update changed to a Flood Watch until 7pm on Monday. I'm telling my husband in the morning that in the abundance of caution, I'd prefer that he avoid going in to the office for work this week until all the rain passes. I'm looking up what kind of life vests are the best and where I can get them for my babies. I'm working out what to pack in a flood emergency kit.

I can't control the weather but I can be prepared should the worst come. My oldest is going to be 3 this year, my youngest will be 1. I want them to be safe. I told my husband I'd die saving them if it came to that so if life vests and emergency kits and evacuation plans and knowing which roads to take will help, I'll do all the research and be ready.

Too many are gone because of something simple like rain. We've gone from droughts and water restrictions to buidlings and people being washed away. It's too much.

My thoughts and prayers are with the people who have lost someone or who are still searching. May they all be found.

Stay safe out there, people. Make good choices, think things through. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Book Review: The Fall of Linda Waters by R.E. Kurz

My thanks to Netgalley, Soncata Press and R.E. Kurz for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review.

I've never read a story about Jack Frost before. I know the general idea but I can honestly say that I do not seek out any book, show or movie that has had Jack Frost as a character. I don't know why, you'd think it'd be right up there with things that interest me and yet no, I've never sought out Jack Frost. So this book caught my attention because it sounded intriguing enough that I thought, first time for everything, why not?

This book follows the Linda Waters from the title, a high school student in Maine who is mourning the loss of her best friend. She meets a new student at school who turns out to be Jack Frost. Frost is in this particular small town and attending high school because he's trying to find a book that could be used to destroy everything about existence. Linda and Jack have to work together to find the book and the one who wants to use it for revenge.

First off, I liked this book. I didn't love it BUT I certainly liked it. I'll admit, I almost decided not to finish this story but I liked Linda so I stuck it out. Also, I learned things I've never heard of before, in the sense that I didn't know the correct names to things, like how the pigments in leaves are anthocyanin and carotenoid, or the term "blue field entoptic phenomenon" (look it up; I had to, and now I've learned something new). Little things like this made Kurz intriguing to me as a writer. I didn't think a high school student would necessarily know these things though, and I wished it was weaved into the story more about how Linda knew these things so easily. It would have rounded the character out more.

As is, I liked Linda because she tried. Every day was a day where she had to try. She had to try to get through school with horrible classmates, she had to try to help teachers she liked, she had to try to get through the days while grieving her best friend who died in a horrible accident. It was that attitude of getting through the worst that made me want to stick with Linda. Jack Frost was interesting in the sense that he was able to be the friend Linda needed when she needed something to help her. He was a stable presence and a constant for her to depend on while also becoming a bit of a defender for other students in need. I liked Lavender and Mr. London but I feel like the book didn't spend as much time with them as it could have to make their struggles feel more important to the reader.

I hated how Lavender was treated but at the same time, because Lavender wasn't necessarily the main character, her struggles felt like they were just there. The book doesn't have enough resolution to her issues at school so I feel like I don't get to see her end up in a good place. Same thing with Mr. London, there were things set in place to suggest happier times to come but again, the book moves on so readers are left wondering about their outcomes. I wanted more for them and I didn't get to see it.

The book is written as 3rd person omniscient, so readers see things from several character viewpoints as the story needs it to go. However, my main issue was with the PACING. Every chapter seems to stand as its own little story, almost as if they don't tie together as a whole. Things would happen in a chapter and then just continue on to something else in the next, without flowing together. As a result, the plot didn't feel like it was important enough as a driving point for the book. It felt like every chapter was Jack and Linda at school, dealing with obnoxious classmates and homework, helping Jack understand the nuances to human existence and whatnot, and it took a while for the search for the missing book to even become relevant. I wasn't sure how much time was passing and because of that, it felt like the characters relationships weren't developing as they should. When Lavender was added to the story, it felt a little jarring to see her demand answers from Jack and Linda when she felt excluded because she wasn't on the page enough with them. The same thing happened with Mr. London, where it felt like for the relationship to be what it seemed on the page, we needed to see more of it. Almost as if passages had been left out that needed to be seen to help the flow of the story stay on track and to show how the characters all interact with each other.

Also, it just ENDS. That's it, there's nothing else. I kept flipping pages thinking where's the rest of the book? It finished up in a few pages and for the length it took to get there, it felt like not enough of an ending. I always say that I wanted more at the end of the books I read but in this case, it NEEDED more. I still have questions about plot points that were never answered. I don't know if the plan is to write more in this world but for me, a lot is left unresolved so I'm left sitting here a little bereft, if I'm being honest. Not the best way to leave a book, when all is said and done.

Rating on my scale: 6 Stars. I wanted more. The book kind of feels unfinished in a way. It'll probably sit in the back of my mind where in the future I might wonder what happened to Linda and her best friend, Jack Frost. I hope they get their happy ending, eventually. That's the feeling I have about the everything of this book.

Book Review: No Body No Crime by Tess Sharpe

My thanks to Netgalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Tess Sharpe for the eARC in exchange for a review of this book.

Let it be known, far and wide: I adore mysteries.

When it was available to me for streaming, I used to put Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries on repeat and never get bored. I read and watch almost everything that is somehow Sherlock adjacent, from Enola Holmes to the Mary Russell books, and everything in between. I took a literature class in college called "Detective Fiction and Film" where I read classics about hard-boiled detectives and wrote my final paper on this new movie that was out at that time, Brick, Rian Johnson's directorial debut (I think that's showing my age, now that I look at the year that was released.)

Yes, I'm a fan of some of the major murder mystery shows that have been released in the last 5 years and I have a list of other mystery/thrillers books and movies and shows I still need to try from the last, well, let's say 30 years, just to be on the safe side. I even have those Murdle books, that are just a logic puzzles with murder mysteries attached to each puzzle. If it's somehow, some kind of mystery, I pay attention to it. 

Which is why when I saw the title of this book, No Body No Crime by Tess Sharpe, I knew I had to read it.

This is my first Tess Sharpe book but it won't be my last. I already have copies of The Girls I've Been and The Girl in Question that I've moved up in my TBR towers to get to faster. No Body No Crime follows Mel Tillman, a PI, and Chloe Harper, her high school sweetheart she's been hired to track down after Chloe disappeared 6 years earlier. Mel and Chloe bonded after a night in high school that left a classmate dead and buried. Now that they're reunited, Mel learns that there was more to the story about their classmate and who he worked for, and how those people have kept Chloe on the run since they graduated high school. They have to work together to get the truth out and make it possible for Chloe to finally get to come back home for good.

This is a mystery/thriller with some grit and teeth that can stand perfectly well on its own compared to other thrillers out there. It follows two women who were forced in different ways to become tough and cunning in order to survive. The writing style is fairly to the point, nothing flowery. There are several character point-of-view chapters in addition to Chloe and Mel that help to round out the story. It's a strong voice that helps build each character, filling in parts of everyone through their interactions with other characters. Also because of this book, I'll be smiling at peacocks for the foreseeable future.

The timeline goes back and forth at the start to show what happened in the past when Mel and Chloe were teenagers and in present time, when Mel has finally tracked down where Chloe is currently living off the grid. There are lots of questions at the start that get answered with time and patience. There was one plot point I expected to happen and the build-up and reveal hit the right notes to make it a meaningful part of the book. I honestly waited for this moment, was really hoping it was going to happen, and even if it seemed like an obvious outcome, I still wanted that moment and was happy when it happened. It showed how much I cared for the characters that this moment hit the way it did. Signs of good writing, for sure.

The writing kept me engaged, the reveals worked at keeping me turning the pages to find out what happened next. I liked Mel's attitude and I liked Chloe's determination and I liked how the two of them together made them stronger against the villains of the piece. I look forward to reading more of Tess Sharpe's books as soon as possible. 

Rating on my scale: 9 Stars. I really liked this book. If anything, it felt a bit short. I kind of wanted more time with the characters but I am happy with where they were left.

Book Review: Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher

My thanks to Netgalley, 47North and T. Kingfisher for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. 

I want to live in T. Kingfisher's brain.

Within reason, course. Preferably where the fairytales live, where I can see where all the magic takes shape and forms into these worlds that Kingfisher lets readers live in for a short time in each of her books.

I've been slowly making my way through Kingfisher's books because each and every time I finish one, I wish there was more to it. I bought several for my Dad and he just started reading What Moves the Dead. I want to give copies to every reader in my family and tell them there are so many more awesome books by Kingfisher, they'll thank me later. I have every book set for release this year already pre-ordered and the one for next March. I'm going to start collecting her children's books so I can have something that I want to read for my kids at bedtime. If that doesn't show how much I admire and enjoy her books, well, then, I'll work on it. There's always room for improvement. 

Snake-Eater follows Selena, who has moved to Quartz Creek in search of a place to stay for a while, hoping to live with her Aunt Amelia. When she arrives with her dog Copper, she discovers that her aunt passed away a year earlier but she's encouraged to check the house over and stay for as long as she needs. Selena feels out of place, certain she can't remain for long but surely it couldn't hurt to make some money and then move on? While Selena and Copper start to settle in, Selena sees something in the garden helping her new plants grow and is suddenly having to accept that Quartz Creek has more than just the usual people she'd expect to live in a small town. There are spirits and gods around the town too, and one has ties to Selena's aunt. Now that she has moved in, it thinks Selena will take over for Ameliabecause they were kin. Selena has to figure out what the spirit wants with the help of the new friends she's made and hope that she can stay in the new home she has found.

Selena felt familiar the moment her inner monologues started. Selena works through conversations in her head, trying to come up with practiced answers for any and every variation of how talking will go in every encounter she has. She worries about if her answers will offend, if she's made her points clear enough, if she's sounding stupid, if she needs to try harder or how she can get out of conversations faster. I've never felt such a kinship to a character before because I do the EXACT SAME THING. I practice what I'll say to cashiers at the stores so I can seem friendly but hopefully not annoying because they've been on their feet for who knows how long. I work out stories in my head to tell for family gatherings so relatives will think I'm well-adjusted and so they won't make comments about my being too "shy" to talk to people when I just want to sit to the side and read a book or watch others while being on my own. When Selena used the word "shy" to describe herself and then went into all the facets of what "shy" was supposed to encompass I thought yes, that's exactly it. "Shy" isn't the right word, but it's the best people can come up with. Don't get me started on the over-analyzing I do when talking is done.

Selena felt like a version of myself in book form and because of that, she was immediately endeared to me. I would take up arms for Selena and for Copper, which is why Grandma Billy and I would get along so well. Grandma Billy is Selena's closest new neighbor, who goes above and beyond to help Selena get settled in her new home, setting up the garden, bringing supplies, introducing her to neighbors and even staying with Selena when spirits start to heckle her. Grandma Billy was tough, sassy, quick to give a helping hand and I LOVED her. Then there was Father Aguirre, the local Catholic priest who helps Selena understand the ins and outs of the town. I thought it'd be difficult to like a priest for a character, but Father Aguirre is no ordinary priest and the fact that he was another character with knowledge of the spirit world around Quartz Creek was surprising and yet, it just worked so well in the long run. Father Aguirre provided the last stable presence needed for the quartet of characters and I wanted to follow them anywhere. They showed Selena that she could be herself, no second guessing her words necessary, and when she needs help figuring out what to do about Snake-Eater, they picked up everything they needed in order to help her.

The world is so interesting. The ideas of how spirits are formed and how they interact with our world was intriguing. The details about the desert and the animals that lived there made everything feel real (the house search for black widows in hidden places when Selena first moved in gave me chills and then made me think, yeah, I've been there). Quartz Creek felt like somewhere I've been, somewhere I've heard of, and somewhere I want to go in the future. If it's at all possible, I hope Kingfisher tries setting up another book in this town. I'd love to learn more about these characters in another adventure. The spirits that are seen, Snake-Eater in particular and others readers eventually find, were detailed and yet vague enough to allow for their existence to seem like something that could have been true once upon a time. Like I said, I want to know more about this world. A sign of a great book in every respect, I assure you.

Rating on my scale: 10 Stars, obviously. I don't think it's possible for me to give anything less to a T. Kingfisher book. I've loved all the ones I've read so much and I look forward to every book to come. Thankfully, I have some of her horror novels to get to. Considering her talent as a writer, I fully expect to end up with some kind of nightmares before I'm finished reading. I'll make sure to have excuses ready for just why I needed to leave a light on at night. And keep my baseball bat by my pillow. And....you get the picture.

Book Review: The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

My thanks to Del Ray/Random House Worlds/Inklore and Silvia Moreno-Garcia for an eARC of this book in exchange for a review.

There's a thing we do in my family. For some reason, my parents insist on going out instead of staying in for the evening when we are all together. So we all pile into the car and where do we go? A bookstore. Doesn't matter that we all scatter to the four corners of the world inside that bookstore, we are together in a store, and that is apparently enough. Sometimes we go to 3 or 4 bookstores in an afternoon, if they're visiting me, and 2 if I'm visiting my hometown. It was one such visit to a bookstore when I found the jeweled red cover of a book, Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I'd heard of this author, so when I found that book I thought, sure, why not? I've bought every Silvia Moreno-Garcia book since.

I've been looking forward to The Bewitching and this book did not disappoint me. The book follows three separate storylines, Minerva in the 1990s, Betty in the 1930s, and Alba, Minerva's great-grandmother, in the 1900s. Minerva is a graduate student working on a thesis with a focus on the works of Beatrice Tremblay, Betty, who attended the same college that Minerva is enrolled in. Betty is a woman who wrote a novel based on the disappearance of her college roomate, and her storyline recounts the events leading up to that tragic event. Alba's story follows her experience of encountering a witch when she was a young woman and living to tell the tale to Minerva, who sees similarities between her Nana Alba's story and Betty's as she delves into her thesis research at the start of the book. As Minerva works to uncover as much personal information as she can on Beatrice Tremblay, she starts to realize that whatever force went after Tremblay is still at the school and now it is following Minerva. Turns out, the stories her Nana told her might be just what Minerva needs to fight back and figure out what happened to the missing girl before something happens to her.

There is so much in this book. The atmosphere is a bit eerie, the different settings serve to highlight the difference in timelines and the struggles each woman has to deal with, each story has a distinct voice, enough so that they stand apart but meld together. I wouldn't say this is a scary story but while I was reading this book on my phone it started to ring, which was enough to make me jolt and gasp, but the word engrossing is better, I think, to describe the effect this book had on me. I wanted to take my time reading but at the same time I wanted to rush to the ending.

Things felt familiar with the stories about the little spells that Minerva learned from her Nana, and for the things that Alba did as well. My family has roots in Mexico and things like praying over someone with an egg, putting red thread on a baby's forehead to cure hiccups and wearing safety pins during a solar eclipse are just a few of the things that were a part of my childhood. So when Moreno-Garcia put similar ideas in her book, it felt like a story that could be something told in my family. It's connections like these that keep me coming back to read books by Moreno-Garcia. I want to give copies of this to my mom, my sister and my Tía, for that sake alone.

I will say I've read a LOT of mysteries, so I knew the who of the story from nearly the beginning. It was the how and the why that kept me turning pages. I wanted comeuppance and I got that, so the little vindictive bone in my body does not want to hiss and spit at a lack of punishment for the villains of the book. I'm sitting here almost pleased as punch because HA, not laughing now, are they? I especially enjoyed the Afterword by the author at the end, because again, the stories felt familiar and I see a lot of my family in the pages of this book. Also, I have several bracelets and necklaces to ward off the evil eye. It's just what we do in my family and I'll most likely pass it on when the time comes. 

Honestly, every year when it comes time to preorder books, I search to see if Silvia Moreno-Garcia has a new release for the year and then immediately add it to my shelves when it's released. Every book I've read has yet to disappoint me as a reader. I don't see that changing anytime soon. I'm planning to hound my sister into reading this book as soon as I'm finished writing this review. She loved Mexican Gothic and had been trying to get more books by Moreno-Garcia once upon a time. Need her to read this one ASAP. It'll give us something to talk about at night when we both can't sleep.

Rating on my scale: 10 Stars. This book reminds me of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix, The Haunting of Payne's Hollow by Kelley Armstrong and A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher. If these books appeal to you as a reader, grab The Bewitching and enjoy.