Title:   The Paradox Hotel
Author:   Rob Hart
Genre:   Fantasy
Rating:  3.0 out of 5

 January Cole’s job just got a whole lot harder.

 Not that running security at the Paradox was ever really easy. Nothing’s simple at a hotel where the ultra-wealthy tourists arrive costumed for a dozen different time periods, all eagerly waiting to catch their “flights” to the past.

 Or where proximity to the timeport makes the clocks run backward on occasion—and, rumor has it, allows ghosts to stroll the halls.

 None of that compares to the corpse in room 526. The one that seems to be both there and not there. The one that somehow only January can see.

 On top of that, some very important new guests have just checked in. Because the U.S. government is about to privatize time-travel technology—and the world’s most powerful people are on hand to stake their claims.

 January is sure the timing isn’t a coincidence. Neither are those “accidents” that start stalking their bidders.

 There’s a reason January can glimpse what others can’t. A reason why she’s the only one who can catch a killer who’s operating invisibly and in plain sight, all at once.

 But her ability is also destroying her grip on reality—and as her past, present, and future collide, she finds herself confronting not just the hotel’s dark secrets but her own.

 I kind of wish I hadn’t bothered to finish reading this. I think the only reason I did was for the velociraptors. (Yes, really.) January was a horrible person. Seriously terrible to everyone she interacted with. Every single time she opened her mouth, I knew something ugly was going to come out (and she knew it but did it anyway.). She was the worst, so I felt basically no sympathy for her. I didn’t care about anything going on in this story—except the dinosaurs—and the ending felt like…no resolution was reached, things just stopped.

Rob Hart lives in Staten Island. The Paradox Hotel is his newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Random House/Ballantine in exchange for an honest review.)

Title:   Starcrossed
Author:   Katie Jane Gallagher
Genre:   Fantasy
Rating:  4.0 out of 5

It’s all very well to make out with an alien prince. A few kisses should be harmless—right?

 Yet that alien prince is the only male present on the spaceship that serves as Corinne Kaminski’s gilded prison. Faced with a thorny status quo, Corinne begrudgingly keeps plotting her escape, despite her growing feelings for Del.

 Complicating matters even more is the sudden, grand entrance of Del’s sisters onto the ship. The two cunning princesses would be most unhappy to learn that their brother, heir to the throne of Ailopt, has his eye on a human girl from Montana—and that said human girl returns his affection.

 Then a chance at freedom becomes tantalizingly close, just when things are heating up behind closed doors. Corinne will have to decide what’s more important: returning home for good or taking a chance on cosmic love?

This was another entertaining read. The two sisters, or at least one of them, were definitely mean girls. I’m always interested in how an author portrays aliens:  will they be humans in a different form, or will their mindset and personalities truly be alien? I found these aliens to be humans in a different form, but that didn’t make this read any less interesting. I’m looking forward to where the author takes this series next.

Katie Jane Gallagher was born in Illinois. Starcrossed is her newest novel, the second book in the Beauty and Her Alien series.

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

• Title:  Rabbits
• Author:  Terry Miles
• Genre:  SciFi
• Rating:  4 out 5

It’s an average work day. You’ve been wrapped up in a task, and you check the clock when you come up for air–4:44 pm. You go to check your email, and 44 unread messages have built up. With a shock, you realize it is April 4th–4/4. And when you get in your car to drive home, your odometer reads 44,444. Coincidence? Or have you just seen the edge of a rabbit hole?

Rabbits is a mysterious alternate reality game so vast it uses our global reality as its canvas. Since the game first started in 1959, ten iterations have appeared and nine winners have been declared. Their identities are unknown. So is their reward, which is whispered to be NSA or CIA recruitment, vast wealth, immortality, or perhaps even the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe itself. But the deeper you get, the more deadly the game becomes. Players have died in the past–and the body count is rising.

And now the eleventh round is about to begin. Enter K–a Rabbits obsessive who has been trying to find a way into the game for years. That path opens when K is approached by billionaire Alan Scarpio, the alleged winner of the sixth iteration. Scarpio says that something has gone wrong with the game and that K needs to fix it before Eleven starts or the whole world will pay the price.

Five days later, Scarpio is declared missing. Two weeks after that, K blows the deadline and Eleven begins. And suddenly, the fate of the entire universe is at stake.

I’m not sure what to say about this book. It was kind of like watching Alice in Wonderland—the Johnny Depp version. I never had any idea what was actually going on, but I was completely fascinated. The patterns and logic leaps involved in the game were a bit mind-boggling, but again, fascinating (in a now-I-feel-dumb sort of way). I wouldn’t say this is a well-rounded novel, but it’s definitely entertaining.

Terry Miles was born in Saskatchewan. Rabbit is his newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Random House/Del Rey in exchange for an honest review.)