book review

Review – The Forgotten Room by Lincoln Child

~ Erika K ~ 5 Comments

The Forgotten Room by Lincoln Child
The Forgotten Room (Jeremy Logan #4)
Random House Audio – Narrated by Johnathan McClain

Genre : Thriller
Series : Dr Jeremy Logan #4

My Rating: *** (3 of 5 stars)

I am a big fan of both Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston, whether writing on their own or together as a team. I’m always excited when one of them has a new book published, so I was really looking forward to this one. I enjoyed the first three books in this series (LOVED #1 and #2), and I really wanted to love this book too. I have to admit that I was disappointed. It is still a good book, just not the great book that I was hoping for.

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Review – Crazy Mountain Kiss by Keith McCafferty

~ Erika K ~ 4 Comments

Crazy Mountain Kiss by Keith McCafferty
Crazy Mountain Kiss: A Sean Stranahan Mystery (Sean Stranahan Mystery, #4)
A Sean Stranahan Mystery – #4
Release date – June 9, 2015

My Rating *** (3 of 5 stars)

***NOTE: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

From Goodreads:
It’s April, but there’s still snow on the Montana mountains the day a member of the Madison River Liar and Fly Tiers club finds a Santa hat in the chimney of his rented cabin. With the flue clogged and desperate to make a fire, he climbs up to the roof, only to find the body of a teenage girl wedged into the chimney. When Sheriff Martha Ettinger and her team arrive to extract the body they identify the victim as Cinderella “Cindy” Huntingdon, a promising young rodeo star, missing since November. (read more)

Crazy Mountain Kiss takes place in the Crazy Mountains of Montana. The corpse of a young girl who went missing months earlier has been found in the chimney of a rental cabin. The sheriff and her team, along with Sean Stranahan, a private detective, investigate to discover where the girl has been since her disappearance, and the events that lead to her death.

There are almost as many people trying to impede the investigation in some way as there are individuals trying to locate Cinderella’s trail. A mix of law enforcement, ranch people, and  other colorful (and at times unsavory) characters keep the story interesting. The author does a good job of casting suspicion first one way and then another, keeping me guessing all the way through. I like mystery novels that manage to keep me from figuring out who the culprit is too soon in the story, but that haven’t kept some important detail hidden up to the end. This novel is like that. You are privy to every detail Sean Stranahan uncovers as he questions Cinderella’s family and acquaintances and searches for clues.

I did feel a little confused at the main characters relationships near the beginning, but since this is the fourth book in a series (but the first one I have read) that isn’t too surprising. The author does let you in on what is going on with the main characters, but I think I might have liked the story more and the characters might have mattered a little more to me if I had started at the beginning and had more backstory for them.

All in all, this was a good mystery. I would recommend it to fans of the Longmire series by Craig Johnson.

Warning: Mature content – some language and brief sex scenes

You can find purchase links and more on Keith McCafferty’s website

Audiobook Review – Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Thomas Sweterlitsch

~ Erika K ~ 8 Comments

Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Thomas Sweterlitsch

Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Audiobook Narrated by Adam Paul

Genre: SciFi (Cyberpunk) / Mystery
My Rating: **** (4 of 5 stars)

I had a hard time deciding how to rate this book at first because of the subject matter. The story is somewhat more disturbing than what I normally read, but it is a murder mystery as well as sci-fi, so you have to expect some unpleasantness. There are some terrible people doing terrible things. There are also some not so terrible, everyday people accepting, and occasionally even enjoying, terrible things. The worst (or best depending on how you look at it) part of it all is how believable everything is. In the end though, I did enjoy the book and decided that it deserves 4 stars. It is a very well thought out and well-written story that kept me listening every minute I could until it was finished.

Tomorrow and tomorrow is set in the not-so-distant future. People use implants called Adware to email and connect with other people they run into, and to deliver streaming content right to their eyes, 24 hours a day. The targeted marketing being used by the advertisers in this book will feel familiar to anyone who has ever browsed the web, and it’s so close to current reality that you never even question the technology.

In this future America, Philadelphia has been wiped out by a terrorist attack. John Dominic Blaxton, who lost his wife in the attack, works for an agency that researches deaths for an insurance agency. There are so many cameras everywhere, that a digital archive of the city has been created, and people are able to virtually visit the city and the people who once lived there. When a claim is made against a life insurance policy claiming that someone died in the blast, Dominic’s job is to go into this archive to find the person at the time of the explosion and prove that they did actually die when the bomb that took out the city went off.

In a nutshell (and to keep myself from giving away anything important), Dominic uncovers things he was never meant to find and ends up running for his life. While trying to stay alive, he is also trying to piece together the last moments of a murder victim’s timeline, and find the person responsible for deleting another woman’s images from the archive.

The narrator, Adam Paul, did a great job and I’m really glad I listened to this one. The first few minutes, I was annoyed by his voice, but it grows on you, and his style fits the story well. (If anyone has listened to William Gibson reading Neuromancer, you’ll probably understand what I mean!) He also did a great job of expressing Dominic’s anguish, shock, and frustration when appropriate.

Whether you prefer to read or listen to your books, I would recommend this one to scifi fans, as long as you don’t have a weak stomach. 🙂

WARNING (in case you prefer not to read this sort of thing): There are some graphic descriptions of violence, and graphic descriptions of corpses along with some vulgar language.

Visit Thomas Sweterlitsch’s website (be sure to check out the Adware page)

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Review – Eden at the Edge of Midnight by John Kerry

~ Erika K ~ 1 Comment

Eden at the Edge of Midnight by John Kerry
Eden at the Edge of Midnight

The Vara Volumes Book 1

***NOTE: I received a free copy of this book from StoryCartel in exchange for an honest review***

Genre: YA / Fantasy
My Rating **** (4 of 5 stars)

Synopsis from Goodreads:
The Vara of Yima, the original Garden of Eden, sealed from the rest of the world and populated with the fittest of men and women. A secret paradise that 150 years ago became ravaged by smog that choked out the skies.

Now the Vara exists in a permanent state of darkness and its people need a champion, a chosen one to save them from the smog that threatens to fill the realm…(read more)

Finally finished – I didn’t want one more What-Are-You-Reading-Wednesday post featuring the same book! 🙂

This was a well-written fantasy with well defined and realistic characters. That always makes it so much easier to be concerned for their well-being, and I did care what happened to Sammy and her companions. Sammy is an average human teenage girl who finds herself alone on a strange world, trying to survive and find her way home. Along with her new-found companions Mehrak, and his dinosaur/house Louis, Sammy has to escape the crabmen, figure out whether or not she might be the golden haired child of prophecy, decide which of those claiming to be trying to help her are actually on her side, and find the book that might show her the way to get back home to Earth.

I started to panic about 20 pages from the end because I knew there was not enough time for everything that I wanted to happen, to happen! Thankfully book 2 is on the way, but now I have to wait until October to read Back to the Vara.

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Audiobook Review – The 6th Extinction by James Rollins

~ Erika K ~ 8 Comments

The 6th Extinction
by James Rollins

18679381

Sigma Force #10
Genre: Thriller
Audiobook read by Christian Baskous
My Rating **** (4 of 5 stars for the story, 2.5 out of 5 stars for the narration!!)

I just finished this audiobook, and while I love James Rollins and the Sigma Force series, I did not care for this narrator. His voices and accents were strange, and he does not pronounce some words the way I would pronounce them. He also made some of the dialog seem stilted and unnatural. Having read all of the previous Sigma Force books in print, I’m sure it wasn’t written that way!

Narration aside, I still enjoyed the story and the exotic locations – the story takes place across the globe from the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, to the remote tepuis of Brazil, and all the way to Antarctica. It was a very fast-paced thriller, with less investigation and more “diving-right-in-and-doing” than some of the other books in this series. The returning characters from previous novels were a nice surprise, but I won’t names in case you are a fan of the series and haven’t read this one yet. Jenna, Nikko, and Drake were nice additions to the team, and I wouldn’t mind seeing them pop up again in future volumes. I do wish that Seichan had a bigger part in this one though.

As always with James Rollins’s books, be sure to read / listen to the Notes to the Reader at the end of the novel. He always explains what out of the book is science, and what is fiction. In this novel particularly, that is the scariest part of all.

Forsaken by J.D. Barker

~ Erika K ~ 6 Comments

Forsaken
by J. D. Barker

Forsaken (Shadow Cove Saga, #1)

Genre: Horror
My Rating **** (4 of 5 stars)

***NOTE: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Book 1 of The Shadow Cove Saga

Forsaken is a book partially based on characters and events from the Salem witch trials. Some of these events find their way into the latest novel by best-selling novelist Thad McAlister.

Synopsis from Goodreads:
From the witch trials of centuries past, an evil awakens.

Inspired by Actual Events
Excerpt from the Journal of Clayton Stone – 1692
She was examined today without torture at Shadow Cove township on the charge of witchcraft. She said she was wholly innocent of the crime and has never in life renounced God. I watched as they brought her out. A poor, sickly thing, worn by her time behind the walls of her prison. Her bared feet and hands bound in leather, her clothing tattered to that of ruin. Despite such condition, her head was held high, her eyes meeting those of her accusers. She still refuses to provide her name so we remain unable to search baptismal records, nor has her family stepped forward to claim her as their own. We have no reason to believe she is anything but an orphaned child. I find myself unable to look at her directly in the moments preceding her trial. She is watching me though; with eyes of the deepest blue, she is watching me.
Thad McAlister, Rise of the Witch

When horror author Thad McAlister began his latest novel, a tale rooted in the witch trials of centuries past, the words flowed effortlessly. The story poured forth, filling page after page with the most frightening character ever to crawl from his imagination. It was his greatest work, one that would guarantee him a position among the legends of the craft. (read more) 

Throughout the story, the author allows you glimpses into the past via excerpts from Clayton Stone’s journal, showing you important events that happened in 1692. These journal entries give you just enough information to keep you guessing and add to the suspense when you are reading about the present. There were some good twists and a nice salute to Stephen King (one of my favorites) that made this even more fun to read. This was a great stay-up-all-night-reading type of spooky story, and I recommend this book to any fans of horror novels, witches, or things that go bump in the night. I will also be on the lookout for book #2 of the Shadow Cove Saga, to find out what happens to Ashley and Rachael!

Visit J.D. Barker’s webpage

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Review – The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy

~ Erika K ~ 1 Comment

The Dead Lands
by Benjamin Percy
The Dead Lands

***NOTE: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Genre: Horror / SciFi / Fantasy
My Rating **** (4 of 5 stars)

The Dead Lands is at its core a story of survival in the face of apparently insurmountable obstacles – survival not just of a few individuals, but of humanity itself.

Synopsis From Goodreads:
In Benjamin Percy’s new thriller, a post-apocalyptic reimagining of the Lewis and Clark saga, a super flu and nuclear fallout have made a husk of the world we know. A few humans carry on, living in outposts such as the Sanctuary-the remains of St. Louis-a shielded community that owes its survival to its militant defense and fear-mongering leaders.  (read more)

The story starts out in Sanctuary, and then hops back and forth between there and the group of escapees who have set off in the hopes of discovering something better. Each member of the scouting party has his or her own personal reason for fleeing Sanctuary. For some, the struggle with their decision to leave causes them almost as much grief as the monsters, inhospitable climates, and other people they meet along the way.

This book had both the horror-road-trip feel of The Talisman, by Stephen King and Peter Straub, and the find-other-survivors-and-keep-the-human-race-going vibe of The Passage, by Justin Cronin. (Both of which I highly recommend if you have not already read them!) It was a suspenseful, thought-provoking tale and I really enjoyed it.

I do think that the way the story wrapped up, there might be a possibility of a little more Lewis and Clark (not to mention Gawea) in the future. I’m not sure that’s what the author was getting at, but I can hope….

Visit Benjamin’s Percy’s website
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Review – Blue Labyrinth by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

~ Erika K ~ 3 Comments

Blue Labyrinth
by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Blue Labyrinth (Pendergast, #14)

Pendergast Series, #14
Blackstone Audiobooks, 13 CDs, narrated by Rene Auberjonois

My Rating **** (4 of 5 stars)

This was another audiobook I listened to during my commute back and forth to work, and Rene Auberjonois continues to do a great job narrating this series. Sometimes I don’t even mind the nearly-hour-long drive! 🙂

Lincoln and Child are two of my favorite authors, whether they are writing together or individually, but I really enjoy their Agent Pendergast novels. If you haven’t read anything in this series however, Blue Labyrinth might not be the best place to start. There are returning characters from previous novels, and reading some of the earlier books (especially Relic, #1 in the series)  will make this one even more enjoyable.

I love revisiting old friends and old places in this series, and the New York Museum of Natural History is by far my favorite place in Pendergast’s New York. Blue Labyrinth opens with a dead body in the museum, and Margo Green called in to assist with the police investigation. Full of danger and Pendergast family drama, this installment moves along at an incredible pace, and is a great addition to the series.

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Rememberers Review

~ Erika K ~ 2 Comments

Rememberers
by C Edward Baldwin

Rememberers

My Rating ** (2 of 5 stars)

***I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Kallie has been experiencing sensations of deja vu. Fearing that she may have a brain tumor, she is at first relieved when Dr. Frost asks her to participate in a Deja Vu / Memory study her class is doing, and after undergoing an MRI session she is told that she has epilepsy. The more she considers this, however, the more convinced she is that it isn’t true. She doesn’t just seem to remember things, she actually sees them happening a few moments before they actually do. Once her talent is discovered, Kallie is visited by a Catholic priest who tells her that she is a “rememberer”, and that she has a talent that needs to be developed so that she can do great things. Kallie not only has to develop her new-found abilities, but she also has to decide who she can trust.

I was excited to read this one based on the synopsis, but I really had a hard time getting into it. Especially near the beginning, there was a lot of jumping back and forth between different sets of characters and different locales. This was a little confusing, since even the characters you were becoming familiar with weren’t always in an expected location when you went back to them. I also felt that Kallie acted immature even for a college student, and her interactions with her new boyfriend Seth were somewhat strange. All of these things made it difficult for me to stick with and finish this one. Overall, the writing style just did not keep me engaged, or motivate me to finish the book. I think the last straw for me was when Seth incorrectly quoted John 3:16, and his father, a reverend, acknowledged the verse, not noticing that he said “for God so saved the world” instead of “for God so loved the world”. If you’re going to quote such a widely-recognized Bible verse, it’s important to get it right.

The main idea, that time is circular rather than linear, and that there are those who can remember past life cycles, was promising at first. At some point though, the story changed it’s focus to demons on Earth and it went from something resembling YA fiction to something much more vulgar. I managed to skim through the last 25% or so of the book just to see what happened, but was very disappointed. The demons appear with very little fanfare for such an important event, and the fight scenes with them are glossed over so that there is little or no buildup of tension. I didn’t really care what happened to the main characters; I just wanted it to end. As much as I dislike giving a book a really bad review (I’ve tried NaNoWriMo twice, I understand that it is VERY hard work to complete a novel, and scary to put your work out there for others to see),  I just can’t recommend this book.

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Musseled Out by Barbara Ross

~ Erika K ~ 3 Comments

Musseled Out
by Barbara Ross

Musseled Out

Available April 28th, 2015

Book #3 in the Maine Clambake Mysteries Series

Rating **** (4 of 5 stars)

***NOTE: I received an advance copy of this book for review through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Julia Snowden is in Busman’s Harbor, Maine, wrapping up the tourist season for her family’s Clambake business and trying to decide if she will be headed back to her job in New York now that summer is over, or if she will be staying in Maine full-time. When a potential competitor turns up dead in the water, Julia’s brother-in-law Sonny finds himself high on the list of suspects. Making matters worse, he is obviously hiding something from Julia, her sister Livvie, and the police. Julia is afraid that her boyfriend, Chris, is hiding something from her too. Since he’s one of her reasons to stay in town, the decision to stay or go is just that much harder.

Once again I started a series somewhere other than at the beginning. While you won’t be lost reading this book without having read the previous installments, in this case I do wish that I had read books one and two first. I think having a better understanding of the interpersonal relationships beforehand would have been nice, but the author does a good job of keeping you informed without totally rehashing everything that has already happened. With that aside, I really liked the story. There were enough characters and sub-plots to make it hard to guess “whodunnit”, yet without being confusing. I felt like I should already have known who did it once Julia finally figured out who the murderer was, but while the conclusion was logical, it was not obvious.

This book is part of a series of culinary mysteries, and recipes like Lobster, Shrimp and Fennel Scampi, Hot Lobster Dip, and Grandma Snowden’s Pumpkin Whoopie Pies are sure to make your mouth water.

I will be heading back to Busman’s Harbor to read the beginning of this series, and I’m looking forward to more books to come.

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