Tag: reading

Book Review: The Last Curtain Call, by Juliet Blackwell

Title: The Last Curtain Call
Author: Juliet Blackwell
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Rating: 4 out of 5

Mel Turner can’t resist the chance to bring the Crockett Theatre, a decrepit San Francisco art nouveau movie palace, back to life. But there’s a catch for Turner Construction: Several artists are currently squatting in the building, and they aren’t the only ones haunting the once-grand halls of the historic theater….

When one of the squatters is found dead, the police department has a long list of suspects to investigate. Meanwhile, Mel and her fiancé, Landon, are remodeling an old house for themselves, and Mel finds it more challenging than she expected to be on the other side of a home renovation project.

When Mel discovers that the original owner of the Crockett Theatre died under mysterious circumstances, and that there just might be a connection to the ghost haunting her own attic, the case takes a new turn–one that could bring down the curtain for the last time.

This was my first foray into the Haunted Home Renovations Mystery series, but I had no problems feeling caught up on things. The novel’s voice is breezy and fun, and this was a quick, light read with some funny moments and a bit of a chill at times. Nothing deep or complex here, just a fun read.

Juliet Blackwell is a bestselling author. The Last Curtain Call is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Berkley in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review and Blog Tour: More Than Neighbors, by Shannon Stacey

more than enighbors — Image belongs to Harlequin.

Title: More Than Neighbors
Author: Shannon Stacey
Genre: Romance
Rating: 4 out of 5

The only thing they have in common is a property line! Cam Maguire is in Blackberry Bay to unravel a family secret. Meredith Price has moved next door with her daughter. He’s unattached. She’s a widowed single mom. He’s owned by a cat. She’s definitely team canine. All these neighbors have in common is a property line. One they cross…over and over. And Cam thought he knew what he wanted—until his family’s secret changes everything.

My favorite parts of this novel were actually the cat and how he ruled everything—including his owner. As a cat owner/manager/servant, I can verify that those bits were pretty accurate. Cam and his introduction to the “real” word (the one where you can’t just get food delivered at two in the morning) made me laugh several times. I did not care for his family and their controlling ways. Meredith and her daughter were an enjoyable pair, and I found this an easy, quick read.

Shannon Stacey is a bestselling author. More Than Neighbors is her newest novel, the first in the Blackberry Bay series.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: Dark August, by Katie Tallo

Title: Dark August
Author: Katie Tallo
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 4 out of 5

Augusta (Gus) Monet is living an aimless existence with her grifter boyfriend when she learns that her great grandmother—her last living relative—has just died. Ditching her boyfriend, Gus returns to the home she left as a young girl. Her inheritance turns out to be a dilapidated house and an old dog named Levi. While combing through her great grandmother’s possessions, Gus stumbles across an old trunk filled with long-lost childhood belongings. But that’s not all the trunk contains. She also discovers cold case files that belonged to her mother, a disgraced police detective who died in a car accident when Gus was eight. Gus remembers her mother obsessing over these very same documents and photographs, especially a Polaroid of a young ballerina.

When Gus spots a front-page news story about the unearthing of a body linked to one of the cold case files from her childhood trunk, she can’t resist following her mother’s clues. As she digs deeper, determined to finish her mother’s investigation, her search leads her to a deserted ghost town, which was left abandoned when the residents fled after a horrific fire. As Gus’ obsession with the case grows, she inadvertently stirs up the evils of the past, putting her life in danger. But Gus is undeterred and is committed to uncovering long-buried secrets, including the secrets surrounding a missing geology student, the young ballerina in the Polaroid, a prominent family’s devastating legacy, and a toxic blast that blew an entire town off the map.

But is Gus ready to learn the truths that culminated on one terrible August night, more than a decade earlier, when lives were taken, and secrets were presumed buried forever…?

I’m not sure how I feel about this novel. For me, Gus was kind of an unlikable character at times. Actually, I didn’t really like any of the characters, and that made the novel hard to read. Excellent writing and the setting was vivid—and creepy. I loved how Gus picked up her mother’s legacy and I enjoyed all the convoluted connections between the past and the present, but the overall feel of the novel unsettled me. Which is maybe the point in a thriller?

Katie Tallo was born in Toronto. Dark August is her new novel.

(Galley courtesy of HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review and Blog Tour: Red Sky Over Hawaii, by Sara Ackerman

red sky over hawaii blog tour

Title: Red Sky Over Hawaii
Author: Sara Ackerman
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

The attack on Pearl Harbor changes everything for Lana Hitchcock. Arriving home on the Big Island too late to reconcile with her estranged father, all she can do is untangle the clues of his legacy, which lead to a secret property in the forest on Kilauea Volcano. America has been drawn into WWII, and amid rumors of impending invasion, the army places the islands under martial law. When they start taking away neighbors as possible sympathizers, Lana finds herself suddenly guardian to two girls, as well as accomplice to an old family friend who is Japanese, along with his son. In a heartbeat, she makes the decision to go into hiding with them all.

The hideaway house is not what Lana expected, revealing its secrets slowly, and things become even more complicated by the interest of Major Grant Bailey, a soldier from the nearby internment camp. Lana is drawn to him, too, but needs to protect her little group. With a little help from the magic on the volcano, Lana finds she can open her bruised heart to the children–and maybe to Grant.

Sometimes historical novels feel a bit slow for me—despite my love for classic novels, which are usually slower-paced compared to current novels—but I never felt that way with this novel. At heart, this is about a great American tragedy: not the bombing of Pearl Harbor itself, but the persecution and imprisonment of Americans with Japanese heritage.

But this is also the tale of Lana as she deals with a personal tragedy in the midst of a larger one, and steps into the person she wants to become as she finds her strength and capabilities tested by the times she lives in. This is an excellent read!

Sarah Ackerman is a bestselling author. Red Sky Over Hawaii is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin/MIRA in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review and Blog Tour: What Unbreakable Looks Like, by Kate McLaughlin

unbreakable blog tour

Title: What Unbreakable Looks Like
Author: Kate McLaughlin
Genre: YA
Rating: 5 out of 5

Lex was taken – trafficked – and now she’s Poppy. Kept in a hotel with other girls, her old life is a distant memory. But when the girls are rescued, she doesn’t quite know how to be Lex again.

After she moves in with her aunt and uncle, for the first time in a long time, she knows what it is to feel truly safe. Except, she doesn’t trust it. Doesn’t trust her new home. Doesn’t trust her new friend. Doesn’t trust her new life. Instead she trusts what she shouldn’t because that’s what feels right. She doesn’t deserve good things.

But when she is sexually assaulted by her so-called boyfriend and his friends, Lex is forced to reckon with what happened to her and that just because she is used to it, doesn’t mean it is okay. She’s thrust into the limelight and realizes she has the power to help others. But first she’ll have to confront the monsters of her past with the help of her family, friends, and a new love.

This book was an incredible read! There isn’t much that’s actually set while Lex is trafficked, as it opens with the cops showing up—but there are many flashbacks to that time. McLaughlin paints a clear, evocative picture, but she doesn’t attempt to wring a response from the reader with the horror of Lex’s situation. The horror just comes naturally, as you see how Lex has been scarred by her past.

The kids at the high school where Lex ends up are awful. AWFUL. But, sadly, completely believable. Zack and Elsa were wonderful secondary characters, and I loved them and Lex’s aunt and uncle. But those other kids…This novel was so well-done, I can’t think of anything bad to say…except its subject matter is horrific and so unbearably sad.

Kate McLaughlin is from Novia Scotia but now lives in Connecticut. What Unbreakable Looks Like is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: The Dilemma, by B.A. Parish

Title: The Dilemma
Author: B.A. Paris
Genre: Mystery/thriller
Rating: 3.2 out of 5

It’s Livia’s fortieth birthday and tonight she’s having a party, a party she’s been planning for a long time. The only person missing will be her daughter, Marnie.

But Livia has a secret, a secret she’s been keeping from Adam, her husband, until the party is over. Because how can she tell him that although she loves Marnie, she’s glad their daughter won’t be there to celebrate with her?

Adam is determined everything will be just right for Livia and the party is going to be perfect… until he learns something that will leave him facing an unbearable decision.

I loved the cover of this book. But that’s all I loved. I found Livia to be almost completely unlikable. She is such a self-centered person and all she’s focused on is herself and her fortieth birthday party…which she knows is over the top. But she does it anyway, ignoring the little voice in the back of her head that tries to point out how selfish she’s being. I never did like her, and her attack on Adam at the end was it for me.

Adam was a much more sympathetic character, although I think him keeping Livia in the dark was a bad call. He must have been an awful person at the beginning of their marriage/parenthood, but at least he’s now aware of that and trying to change it. The writing was solid and vivid, but my dislike of Livia completely ruined this book for me.

B.A. Paris is a bestselling author. The Dilemma is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: Birth of the Fae: Locked Out of Heaven, by Danielle Orsino

Title: Birth of the Fae: Locked Out of Heaven
Author: Danielle Orsino
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3.2 out of 5

The Fae have been abandoned by their Creator. Queen Aurora is crowned Queen of the Court of Light. King Jarvok is the King of the Court of Dark. Throughout the novel, We see Aurora and Jarvok each speaking with their councilmen about the abandonment of their Creator and what will result because of it.

King Jarvok proposes that Queen Aurora either stay in her palace, denounce the humans, and live, or meet him in battle and join Arceria in Oblivion. If she chooses the first option, the humans will no longer worship any member of the Court of Light, leaving all worshipping rituals for King Jarvok and the Court of Dark. She chooses war. During the war, the Weepers (fighters from the Court of Dark) have backed up the Light Fae to the banks of the Red Sea. There is nowhere left to go. Aurora hovers in a tornado made of water. She is giving the Fae a chance to escape. The water begins rising where the Weepers are standing. The Weepers are given an order to retreat. They march into their portal.

For the next few weeks, Aurora watches a group of Egyptian slaves from afar. One day, she sees Him, the Creator. She is upset that He answered to these humans, but not to the Fae. He had abandoned them and ignored Aurora even after she demanded His attention. It seems that He wants to be the humans’ one true God, taking away her livelihood and her kin’s mode of existence. Aurora channels all of her rage and hurt onto King Jarvok and the Court of Dark. She makes it her mission to destroy Jarvok and the Court of Dark.

I was intrigued by the synopsis of this novel. The fae were originally angels? I haven’t read that before, so I was interested to read this. However, I found the execution to be a bit erratic. There’s frequently no sense of time passing in the novel, yet in reality, thousands of years have passed. That’s jarring for the reader. To make that more pronounced, we’re thousands of years in the past–before Noah—but the characters use modern phrasings (“hired muscle”) and flip people off. This took me completely out of the story and made it impossible for me to believe in what was happening.

There are also frequent introductions of things/people, like the Illuminasqua, who appeared at convenient points without prior mention, as if the author either thought of a cool idea and randomly threw it in, or if she wrote herself into a corner and had to invent something to solve her dilemma. And the four bishops, who were barely mentioned before, are suddenly against the queen and doing things that don’t even makes sense. If the reader keeps tripping over mechanical issues in the writing, the story itself fares poorly. While I appreciate the unique premise of this story, it felt more like rough draft than a finished, polished novel.

Danielle Orsino is a nurse and a martial artist. Birth of the Fae: Locked Out of Heaven is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of the author/publicist in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: The Mountains Wild, by Sarah Stewart Taylor

Title: The Mountains Wild
Author: Sarah Stewart Taylor
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 4 out of 5

Twenty-three years ago, Maggie D’arcy’s family received a call from the Dublin police. Her cousin Erin has been missing for several days. Maggie herself spent weeks in Ireland, trying to track Erin’s movements, working beside the police. But it was to no avail: no trace of her was ever found.

The experience inspired Maggie to become a cop. Now, back on Long Island, more than 20 years have passed. Maggie is a detective and a divorced mother of a teenager. When the Gardaí call to say that Erin’s scarf has been found and another young woman has gone missing, Maggie returns to Ireland, awakening all the complicated feelings from the first trip. The despair and frustration of not knowing what happened to Erin. Her attraction to Erin’s coworker, now a professor, who never fully explained their relationship. And her determination to solve the case, once and for all.

I was engrossed in this novel from the very beginning. I loved that most of it was set in Ireland, and the author managed to capture the unique beauty and charm of the country. The parts set in Maggie’s past were a bit frustrating, as she kept poking her nose into all sorts of things when she shouldn’t, but her determination to find her cousin was strong.

Excellent and evocative writing, with Ireland itself coming to life on the page, as well as the characters. I never did figure out who was behind it all, so I was just as surprised as Maggie with how it played out. Definitely a solid and thrilling read.

Sarah Stewart Taylor grew up on Long Island. The Mountains Wild is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones, by Daven McQueen

Title: The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones
Author: Daven McQueen
Genre: YA
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

It’s the summer of 1955. For Ethan Harper, a biracial kid raised mostly by his white father, race has always been a distant conversation. When he’s sent to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle in small-town Alabama, his Blackness is suddenly front and center, and no one is shy about making it known he’s not welcome there. Except for Juniper Jones. The town’s resident oddball and free spirit, she’s everything the townspeople aren’t—open, kind, and full of acceptance.

Armed with two bikes and an unlimited supply of root beer floats, Ethan and Juniper set out to find their place in a town that’s bent on rejecting them. As Ethan is confronted for the first time by what it means to be Black in America, Juniper tries to help him see the beauty in even the ugliest reality, and that even the darkest days can give rise to an invincible summer.

This is an excellent read! I was by turns horrified (by people’s treatment of Ethan) and enchanted (by Juniper and her personality) throughout the entire book. I’m sure the portrayal of life in small-town Alabama in 1955 is accurate. Sadly. But it’s interesting to see how far we’ve come as a society—and how far we still have to go.

Juniper is such a quirky, spirited character, and I enjoyed her antics so much! It was sad seeing Ethan’s realization of how life in Alabama was different from what he’d known. I loved this read!

Daven McQueen lives in Boston. The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones is her new novel.

(Galley courtesy of Wattpad Books in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: The Woman in the Green Dress, by Tea Cooper

Title: The Woman in the Green Dress
Author: Tea Cooper
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 4.0 out of 5

1853 Mogo Creek, NSW

Della Atterton, bereft at the loss of her parents, is holed up in the place she loves best: the beautiful Hawkesbury in New South Wales. Happiest following the trade her father taught her, taxidermy, Della has no wish to return to Sydney. But the unexpected arrival of Captain Stefan von Richter on a quest to retrieve what could be Australia’s first opal, precipitates Della’s return to Sydney and her Curio Shop of Wonders, where she discovers her enigmatic aunt, Cordelia, is selling more than curiosities to collectors. Strange things are afoot and Della, a fly in a spider’s web, is caught up in events with unimaginable consequences…

1919 Sydney, NSW

When London teashop waitress Fleur Richards inherits land and wealth in Australia from her husband, Hugh, killed in the war, she wants nothing to do with it. After all, accepting it will mean Hugh really is dead. But Hugh’s lawyer is insistent, and so she finds herself ensconced in the Berkeley Hotel on Hunter St, Sydney, the reluctant owner of a Hawkesbury property and an old curio shop, now desolate and boarded up.

As the real story of her inheritance unravels, Fleur finds herself in the company of a damaged returned soldier Kip, holding a thread that takes her deep into the past, a thread that could unravel a mystery surrounding an opal and a woman in a green dress; a green that is the colour of envy, the colour buried deep within an opal, the colour of poison…

Usually I have a preference for one timeline over the other in a dual novel like this one, but this time I didn’t. I enjoyed both thoroughly! I will say, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book about a taxidermist, much less a female one, so that was an interesting twist.

Della was quite an intriguing character and I enjoyed how her story intertwined with Fleur’s. I have to confess, I enjoyed the secondary characters the most, and I loved their character development as well. I did not like finding out what happened to the characters in the earlier timeline from Fleur’s viewpoint, but that’s my own preference. This was an enjoyable read, although it started off a bit slow.

Tea Cooper is an award-winning author. The Woman in the Green Dress is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Thomas Nelson in exchange for an honest review.)

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