So many words. So little time.
Tag: book review
This was a good writing week! I got in five fiction sessions, and four book reviews: The Sunflower House, by Adriana Allegri, Heist Royale, by Kayvion Lewis, On Heaven’s Hill, by Kim Heacox (review forthcoming (review forthcoming), and A Legend in the Baking, by Jamie Wesley.
Happy writing!
Title: Heist Royale
Author: Kayvion Lewis
Genre: YA
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
It’s been six months since the end of the Gambit. Instead of winning an impossible wish, Ross has the threat of her family’s execution hanging over her head. Devroe, the only person Ross thought she could trust, could wish the Quests into oblivion at any time. Shockingly, despite his betrayal, Devroe is still making a play for Ross’s heart as the two work together pulling jobs for the Organization. But Ross has learned her lesson: A Quest can only trust another Quest.
When Ross finds herself at the center of a power struggle within the Organization, she sees her chance to change her fortunes. As a new deadly Gambit develops for control of the criminal underworld, Ross strikes a risky deal to guarantee protection for herself and her family.
In this final clash, Ross will square off against a ruthless opponent who will stop at nothing to seize power, and in their corner will be not only Devroe but his mother, who wants to destroy the Quests at any cost.
This was a lot of fun to read! I actually enjoyed it more than the first one. Non-stop action, danger, and tricky situations kept me glued to the page, and the different characters and their intrigues kept me invested. This was just solidly fun.
Kayvion Lewis lives in Louisiana. Heist Royale is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of Penguin Group in exchange for an honest review.)
Title: The Sunflower House
Author: Adriana Allegri
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5
In a sleepy German village, Allina Strauss’s life seems idyllic: she works at her uncle’s bookshop, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends weekends with her friends and fiancé. But it’s 1939, Adolf Hitler is Chancellor, and Allina’s family hides a terrifying secret—her birth mother was Jewish, making her a Mischling.
One fateful night after losing everyone she loves, Allina is forced into service as a nurse at a state-run baby factory called Hochland Home. There, she becomes both witness and participant to the horrors of Heinrich Himmler’s ruthless eugenics program.
The very idea of this eugenics program is horrifying to me, but the author did an excellent job of capturing bits of hope amidst such darkness. Allina experiences true horror the night her life fell apart, and she took a long time to heal from it, but she did. I appreciated the hope that part of the story illustrated. This was well-written and so moving—and I loved every page of it.
Adriana Allegri lives in Arizona. The Sunflower House is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)
Title: The Dead Cat Tail Assassins
Author: P. Djèlí Clark
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4 out of 5
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins are not cats.
Nor do they have tails.
But they are most assuredly dead.
Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins—resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories—have only three unbreakable vows.
First, the contract must be just. That’s above Eveen’s pay grade.
Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. Eveen’s a professional. She’s never missed her mark.
The third and the simplest: once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? A final death would be a mercy. When the Festival of the Clockwork King turns the city upside down, Eveen’s newest mission brings her face-to-face with a past she isn’t supposed to remember and a vow she can’t forget.
I thought this was unique and a bit quirky, and I liked the world quite a bit. I enjoyed Eveen’s personality a lot and would be happy reading more about her. This was a solid, fun read. Honestly, my only problem with this was when the gods showed up at the end, their dialect was almost incomprehensible. I’ve seen patois done really well, and this was not it. There was some almost-contemporary slang throughout the rest of the story, so having the gods’ conversation be unintelligible didn’t really make sense to me.
P. Djèlí Clark is an award-winning author. The Dead Cat Tail Assassins is his newest novella.
(Galley courtesy of Tor Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.)
This was a very challenging week at work, so I didn’t get much reading done, and only one book review written, The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, by P. Djèlí Clark (out tomorrow). I did manage to eke out five fiction sessions as well, but that was a close thing.
Happy writing!
Title: All’s Fair in Love and Treachery
Author: Celeste Connally
Genre: historical fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5
June, 1815. London may be cheering the news of Napoleon’s surrender at Waterloo, but Lady Petra Forsyth has little to celebrate after discovering that the death of her viscount fiancé three years earlier was no accident. Instead, it was murder, and the man responsible is her handsome, half-Scottish secret paramour Duncan Shawcross—yet the scoundrel has disappeared, leaving only a confusing riddle about long-forgotten memories in his wake.
So what’s a lady to do when she can’t hunt down her traitorous lover? She concentrates on a royal assignment instead. Queen Charlotte has tasked Petra with attending an event at the Asylum for Female Orphans and making inquiries surrounding the death of the orphanage’s matron. What’s more, there may be a link between the matron’s death and a group of radicals with ties to the aristocracy, as evidenced by an intercepted letter. Then, Petra overhears a nefarious conversation with two other men about a plot to topple the monarchy, set to take place during three days of celebrations currently gripping London. As the clock counts down and London’s streets teem with revelers, Petra’s nerves are fraying as her past and present collide. Yet while all’s fair in love and war, she can never surrender, especially when more orphaned girls may be in trouble. And to save their lives, the monarchy itself, and even her own heart, Lady Petra must face her fears with the strength of an army of soldiers and fight with the heart of a queen.
This blurb isn’t strictly accurate, as Petra and Duncan’s relationship isn’t exactly a secret. And…I had trouble believing that Petra found a random anonymous scribble that’s less than two sentences long and suddenly believes that Duncan, who she’s known her entire life, murdered her ex-fiancé/his best friend. Nope. Not believable. Apart from that, this was a solid Regency mystery read, and I enjoyed it for the most part, although it felt very contemporary.
Celeste Connally is an Agatha Award nominee. All’s Fair in Love and Treachery is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)
Title: Midnights With You
Author: Clare Osongco
Genre: YA
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
“Where were you thinking of going?”
“Nowhere.”
“Great,” he says lightly, putting the car in gear. “Then we’ll go there.”
Seventeen-year-old Deedee’s life is full of family ghosts and questions she can’t ask. She longs for an escape, but guilt holds her back—that, and the fact that her strict Filipino single mom won’t let her learn to drive. But one sleepless night leads Deedee down a road she never thought possible: secret driving lessons with the new boy next door, Jay, whose turbulent family life also keeps him up until sunrise.
As midnights stretch into days, Jay helps Deedee begin to unravel her past, and as shared secrets blossom into love, Deedee starts to imagine a life where happiness is possible. But the deeper she digs into the trauma that has shaped her, the more that trauma threatens to tear Deedee and Jay apart. Together, these two must decide if the pain they’ve both inherited has the power to choose their fate, or if they have the power to choose for themselves.
Deedee’s mom was pretty horrible through most of this—and a liar, to boot. I didn’t care for that, but Deedee wasn’t entirely a sympathetic character either. She was self-absorbed and selfish and had moments of bitterness that were off-putting. I felt like this was very slow in some parts, and was never really fast paced, so my attention wandered a bit. I liked Deedee, but she was sometimes hard for me to read.
Clare Osongco lives in L.A. Midnights With You is her debut novel.
(Galley courtesy of Disney Hyperion in exchange for an honest review.)
Title: Rules for Camouflage
Author: Kirstin Cronn-Mills
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5
Evvie Chambers is doing her best to skate through the last month of high school to graduation. The only thing standing in her way is a biology report on foxes—and her teacher, Mrs. Audrey Dearborn. The same Mrs. Dearborn who’s been a thorn in Evvie’s side for years, refusing to acknowledge or accommodate her neurodiversity. Evvie would much rather be doing her report on Aretha, the octopus she cares for when she volunteers at the Minnesota Zoo but deviating from the exact assignment isn’t allowed—and Mrs. Dearborn isn’t going to make following the rules easy.
Evvie’s only escape from high school hell is the Lair: a safe haven for kids whose brains need some time away. But when Mrs. Dearborn refuses Evvie’s pleas to finesse the final report assignment to her strengths, and persistent bully Vandal McDaniel directs his harassment toward Lair members, Evvie finds herself more desperate than ever for stability and support.
When a shocking act of violence pushes the whole mess over the edge, Evvie, with the help of her friends and the others who love her, will have to figure out how to find her place in the wide world, while remaining true to herself.
I enjoyed this read—especially the scenes with Aretha, who was absolutely magical. I liked seeing how Evvie’s mind worked, and to a certain extent, the other kids in the Lair, too. I didn’t really care for a couple of scenes where Evvie and some of the other kids thought their neurodivergent brains meant the rules didn’t apply to them. While I didn’t care for Mrs. Dearborn and her ugly personality, Evvie’s refusal to follow the rules of the assignment was glossed over and made to seem sympathetic, but, yea, it’s not. This was a solid, entertaining read.
Kirstin Cronn-Mills lives in Minnesota. Rules for Camouflage is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review.)
This was a fantastic writing week! I got in five fiction sessions, and four book reviews, all forthcoming: Rules for Camouflage, by Kirstin Cronn-Mills, Midnights With You, by Clare Osongco, and All’s Fair in Love and Treachery, by Celeste Connally will all be live this week. The Keeper, by Charles Martin, won’t be live until mid-March, but it was a wonderful read!
Happy writing!
Title: The Gardener’s Plot
Author: Deborah J. Benoit
Genre: Mystery
Rating: 3.8 out of 5
After life threw Maggie Walker a few curveballs, she’s happy to be back in the small, Berkshires town where she spent so much time as a child. Marlowe holds many memories for her, and now it also offers a fresh start. Maggie has always loved gardening, so it’s only natural to sign on to help Violet Bloom set up a community garden.
When opening day arrives, Violet is nowhere to be found, and the gardeners are restless. Things go from bad to worse when Maggie finds a boot buried in one of the plots… and there’s a body attached to it. Suddenly, the police are looking for a killer and they keep asking questions about Violet. Maggie doesn’t believe her friend could do this, and she’s going to dig up the dirt needed to prove it.
This wasn’t a bad read, although Maggie veered over the line to nosiness as opposed to investigating at times. To me, it wasn’t believable that apparently so many people in this town had land lines instead of cell phones, and that no one ever carried their cell phones with them. Not realistic. The small town feel was well-done, and I enjoyed the gardening aspect, but I probably wouldn’t read any more books, if this were a series.
Deborah J. Benoit is from Massachusetts. The Gardener’s Plot is her debut novel.
(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)
Website: https://penpaperplant.com/author/djbwriter/ Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CQHLJP9T/ref=x_gr_bb_kindle?caller=Goodreads&tag=x_gr_bb_kindle-20 Title: The Gardener’s Plot Author: Deborah
J. Benoit Genre: Mystery Rating: 3.8 out of 5 After life threw Maggie
Walker a few curveballs, she’s happy to be back in the small, Berkshires town
where she spent so much time as a child. Marlowe holds many memories for her,
and now it also offers a fresh start. Maggie has always loved gardening, so
it’s only natural to sign on to help Violet Bloom set up a community garden. When opening day
arrives, Violet is nowhere to be found, and the gardeners are restless. Things
go from bad to worse when Maggie finds a boot buried in one of the plots… and
there’s a body attached to it. Suddenly, the police are looking for a killer
and they keep asking questions about Violet. Maggie doesn’t believe her friend
could do this, and she’s going to dig up the dirt needed to prove it. This wasn’t a bad read,
although Maggie veered over the line to nosiness as opposed to investigating at
times. To me, it wasn’t believable that apparently so many people in this town
had land lines instead of cell phones, and that no one ever carried their cell
phones with them. Not realistic. The small town feel was well-done, and I enjoyed
the gardening aspect, but I probably wouldn’t read any more books, if this were
a series. Deborah J. Benoit is
from Massachusetts. The Gardener’s Plot is her debut novel. (Galley courtesy of St.
Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.) Book Review: The Gardener’s Plot, by Deborah J. Benoit
Tomorrow Is Another Day 