Tag: general fiction

The Toilet Papers: Places To Go, While You Go by Jaimie Engle

The Toilet Papers: Places to Go, While you Go

Title: The Toilet Papers: Places To Go, While You Go

Author: Jaimie Engel

Publisher: JME Books

Date of publication: July 6th, 2017

Genre: Short stories, Fiction

Number of pages: 181

POV: 1st person and 3rd person

Where you can find The Toilet Papers: Barnes and Noble |  Amazon

Book synopsis (from Goodreads):

Have you ever noticed that reading a book on the toilet takes forever?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have stories suited to your specific potty needs?

From the mind of the critically acclaimed author, Jaimie Engle, comes The Toilet Papers: Places to go, while you Go. This collection of short stories ranges from 50 words to more than 50 pages, separated in categories labeled to fit your bathroom needs: NUMBER ONE, NUMBER TWO, and FARFROMPOOPIN. The idea is to give you, the reader, a great deal of material to read, tailored and categorized to the needs of your intestines and bladder. So go ahead, get comfortable, pull out your Squatty Potty® and enjoy some fantasy, science fiction, horror, adventure, and humor from the comfort of your own throne…the john…the latrine…your office…the bathroom, whatever you want to call it. Just be sure to wash your hands once you’re done.

Continue reading “The Toilet Papers: Places To Go, While You Go by Jaimie Engle” →

Who Is Rich by Matthew Klam

Who Is Rich?

Title: Who Is Rich

Author: Matthew Klam

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Random House

Date of publication: July 4th, 2017

Genre: General Fiction, Humor

Number of pages: 336

POV: 1st person

Where you can find Who Is Rich: Amazon

Book synopsis (from Goodreads):

Every year, Rich Fischer leaves his family behind to teach a class on cartooning at an annual week-long summer arts conference. Amy O’Donnell is a student in narrative painting, the mother of three, married to a brutish Wall Street titan who runs a multi-billion dollar private equity fund. Rich and Amy met at the conference a year ago, shared a moment of passion, bonding over the shock at how their lives had turned out, then spent the winter exchanging hot texts and emails. Now they’re back.

On the first day of the conference, at the annual softball game, Amy trips on second base and breaks her wrist, and is taken off the field by paramedics. Beside himself with guilt and longing, torn and confused about how to comfort her, Rich wanders into a jewelry store and accidentally buys a bracelet, wiping out his family’s checking account, which is also their savings account and was supposed to pay for his daughter’s preschool in the fall. He then accompanies Amy through a near-death country-doctoring to complete the most arduous seduction in history. At this point, Rich comes to realize that all anyone needs for wild sex are two people who know each other just well enough to feel safe but don’t share a kitchen. In the delightfully wicked events that follow, these people entirely unravel.

This is an unforgettable tale of love and adultery, set against the landscape of a New England fishing village, with pornographic sunsets and The Sea Breeze Motel. Because of its location, the conference has an easy time attracting poets, skittish teenagers in search of illicit pleasures, old guys, driftwood sculptors, printmakers, actors, and playwrights. On the faculty are Nobel Prize-winning storytellers, talented performers, biographers, addicts, drunkards and perverts, one hit has-beens, mid-list somebodies, and legitimate stars. There is a kind of heated, inordinate bonding that happens among grown-ups, forced out of their decorous privacy, into visceral closeness, that has the feeling of an open-air loony bin.

Who Is Rich? is a study in midlife alienation, erotic pleasure, envy, and bitterness in the new gilded age. But the novel also addresses deeper questions of family, monogamy and the intoxicating beauty of children within a confusing domestic alliance.

My review:

  I am at an impasse here. I really don’t know what to write for the review of Who Is Rich. This is one of those rare books that I can’t find any words for. And believe me, for me not to have words to describe a book is very rare. I am going to keep this review short and sweet.

Continue reading “Who Is Rich by Matthew Klam” →

The Silent Corner (Jane Hawk: Book 1) by Dean Koontz

The Silent Corner: A Novel of Suspense (Jane Hawk Book 1) by [Koontz, Dean]

Title: The Silent Corner

Author: Dean Koontz

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine

Date of publication: June 20th, 2017

Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller

Number of pages: 464

POV:

Series: Jane Hawk

The Silent Corner – Book 1

Where you can find The Silent Corner: Amazon

Book synopsis (from Goodreads):

A dazzling new series debuts with a remarkable heroine certain to become a new icon of suspense, propelled by the singular narrative genius of #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz.

I very much need to be dead.

These are the chilling words left behind by a man who had everything to live for but took his own life. In the aftermath, his widow, Jane Hawk, does what all her grief, fear, and fury demands: find the truth, no matter what.
People of talent and accomplishment, people admired and happy and sound of mind, have been committing suicide in surprising numbers. When Jane seeks to learn why she becomes the most-wanted fugitive in America. Her powerful enemies are protecting a secret so important so terrifying that they will exterminate anyone in their way.
But all their power and viciousness may not be enough to stop a woman as clever as they are cold-blooded, as relentless as they are ruthless and who is driven by a righteous rage they can never comprehend. Because it is born of love.

My review:

I had an ultimate fangirl moment when I saw that The Silent Corner was available for review on NetGalley. See, I am a huge Dean Koontz fan. Huge. I started reading his books in my sophomore year of high school, Ticktock was the book, and I was hooked. I have read every single book of his up to The Husband. Then I stopped. I had two children almost back to back, moved 3 times and honestly, didn’t have the time to read. In 2011, I got my first Kindle and started reading again. I missed reading his books (mine got lost in one of the moves we had). So when I saw The Silent Corner for review on NetGalley, I applied. I was not expecting to be selected and when I got the email that I had been selected, I got up and did a happy dance.

I wasn’t disappointed in The Silent Corner. It was everything that I have come to expect from his books. Plenty of intrigue, action and a hint of paranormal. From the beginning of the book, I was hooked in because I had to find out what Jane was doing and how she was going to do it. Believe me, when a book does that to someone, it is worth reading and keeping (I am talking my SO into buying me the hardcover when it is published).

From the opening scene to the end, which was really creepy, I was kept on my toes. You never knew where the story would end up or what Jane would do. I loved it. Normally, I don’t like it when the author plays mind games or switches to other characters point of views. But in this book, it worked and it helped build the story up to the climax and when the two main storylines intertwined.

What I liked about this book is how realistic it was. What was happening to these people on that scientist’s Hamlet list….that could happen. It is possible that some nut with a God complex could design something like what is outlined in the book and then use it in the same way. As with all of his other books, there is a hint of truth running through it and it makes you think….what if?? Could it really happen??

The end of the book was pretty intense. All of the storylines were brought together in a way that ended all but the main one. Doing that also left the book wide open for book 2….which I will be waiting with bated breath to come out.

How many stars will I give The Silent Corner: 5

Why: Great plot lines, great characters, and overall a great book

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Violence and language

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

The Party bv Robyn Harding

The Party: A Novel by [Harding, Robyn]

Title: The Party

Author: Robyn Harding

Publisher: Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books

Date of publication: June 6, 2017

Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller

Number of pages: 352

POV: 3rd person

Where you can find The Party: Amazon

Book synopsis (from Goodreads):

In this stunning and provocative domestic drama about a sweet sixteen birthday party that goes horribly awry, a wealthy family in San Francisco finds their picture-perfect life unraveling, their darkest secrets revealed, and their friends turned to enemies.

One invitation. A lifetime of regrets.

Sweet sixteen. It’s an exciting coming of age, a milestone, and a rite of passage. Jeff and Kim Sanders plan on throwing a party for their daughter, Hannah—a sweet girl with good grades and nice friends. Rather than an extravagant, indulgent affair, they invite four girls over for pizza, cake, movies, and a sleepover. What could possibly go wrong?

But things do go wrong, horrifically so. After a tragic accident occurs, Jeff and Kim’s flawless life in a wealthy San Francisco suburb suddenly begins to come apart. In the ugly aftermath, friends become enemies, dark secrets are revealed in the Sanders’ marriage, and the truth about their perfect daughter, Hannah, is exposed.

Harkening to Herman Koch’s The Dinner, Christos Tsiolkas’s The Slap, and Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies, The Party takes us behind the façade of the picture-perfect family, exposing the lies, betrayals, and moral lapses that neighbors don’t see—and the secrets that children and parents keep from themselves and each other.

My review:

The Party is one of those books that when I finished, I exhaled and thought “What the heck did I just read”. I thought it showed perfectly how relationships can be destroyed when pressure is put on them….more so if they are already fracturing. It was an intense read and I did just sit there and think about the book for a while after I read it. It got that under my skin. As a mother of an 11-year-old girl, I often wonder how high school is going to be for her and if she is going to feel like she is going to have to be something she’s not to fit in. I will tell you this, I will not be like Kim or Lisa. Too extreme on either end. One wants to control her daughter and the other letting her daughter having too much freedom.

I am going to admit that Kim bugged the crap out of me the entire book. She was self-righteous. Everything that she did had to be better than everyone else, she was extremely condescending to her husband and kids and she basically thought that she was above everyone. She rubbed me the wrong way. Even when I was supposed to feel bad for her, I didn’t. I almost felt that she brought this on herself by being the stuck-up snob that she was. But then again, greed was a reason in the lawsuit too.

Lisa, however, I did feel bad for, at first. Her daughter was disfigured and hospitalized. But her greed started showing very early in the book and by the time they went to court, I felt disgust for her. She had convinced herself that her daughter wouldn’t be able to do anything in life because of her injury and she refused to listen to Ronni when Ronni begged her to drop the lawsuit. At that point, Lisa was out to ruin Kim and Jeff, professionally and publicly, because they didn’t offer to pay for Ronni’s hospital bills right away (which they should have done right off the bat, to be honest). Even her boyfriend got clued in when she declined a settlement….because she wanted the full amount in the lawsuit.

Honestly, in my eyes, Ronni was the only one who lost in this book. She was mercilessly bullied by people she had once considered friends and didn’t have any friends, she lost her eye and her mother had turned into someone who she didn’t even know. So when certain events happened in the book about her, I truly wasn’t surprised. I actually figured that what happened would happen and expected it to happen earlier.

I am really not going to get into the storylines because they all crisscross with each other, but I will say that I found them all very compelling. Actually, the storyline with Lauren and Jeff creeped me out….a lot. But I did think that he did the right thing in the end.

The end of the book wasn’t a happy ending. While some storylines were resolved, other’s weren’t and that is what made the ending good. I was taken by surprise by the slight twist at the end. I actually wished that there was an epilogue or something because I wanted to see what happened.

Now my questions for the book:

Why were certain events about that night not revealed until almost until the end of the book? I mean, it makes sense with what happened but I wish that the author made those characters make their scenes sooner

Why the total 180 with Lisa? I mean, I kinda liked her as the laid back, pot smoking mom. But when she morphed into Ms. Greedypants, I just lost interest and empathy for her.

Why didn’t Hannah try harder with Ronni? She went to the same school and she had to of seen her. If she missed her that much, she should have tried harder. But, then again, she is a teenager and we all know how they are.

How many stars will I give The Party: 4

Why: I really liked the story and the messages that it got across. Even with my dislike of Kim and Lisa, the story was beautifully written with compelling storylines and hot topics. I couldn’t put the book down.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Language, violence. Also, triggers for bullying

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova

Title: The Shadow Land

Author: Elizabeth Kostova

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine

Date of publication: April 11th, 2017

Genre: General Fiction, Historical Fiction

Number of pages: 496

POV: Mainly 3rd person but Stoyan’s story is in 1st person

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Book synopsis (via Goodreads):

From the #1 bestselling author of The Historian comes an engrossing novel that spans the past and the present and unearths the dark secrets of Bulgaria, a beautiful and haunted country.

A young American woman, Alexandra Boyd, has traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria, hoping that life abroad will salve the wounds left by the loss of her beloved brother. Soon after arriving in this elegant East European city, however, she helps an elderly couple into a taxi and realizes too late that she has accidentally kept one of their bags. Inside she finds an ornately carved wooden box engraved with a name: Stoyan Lazarov. Raising the hinged lid, she discovers that she is holding an urn filled with human ashes.

As Alexandra sets out to locate the family and return this precious item, she will first have to uncover the secrets of a talented musician who was shattered by oppression and she will find out all too quickly that this knowledge is fraught with its own danger.

Kostova’s new novel is a tale of immense scope that delves into the horrors of a century and traverses the culture and landscape of this mysterious country. Suspenseful and beautifully written, it explores the power of stories, the pull of the past, and the hope and meaning that can sometimes be found in the aftermath of loss.

My review:

The Shadow Lands is a novel that you won’t easily forget. The reader follows Alexandra Boyd and her Bulgarian cabbie friend as they drive around Bulgaria, trying to find the people who belonged to the urn that Alexandra accidentally took. As they search for Stoyan Lazarov’s family, she learns about his tragic background and discovers that some secrets are very dangerous and people will do anything to keep them from being discovered.

******************************************************

I couldn’t get enough of this book. The way it was written, the cover, where the book was set, the storylines, the perfect blending of past and present and the right amount of mystery was what kept me reading until late in the night. I couldn’t put it down, it was that good!!

Alexandra was such a tragic figure at the beginning of the book. The loss of her brother was huge and the toll it took on her and her family was very tragic. But I also thought she was a little too trusting. I mean, after meeting the Lazarov family and accidentally taking the urn, she starts to galavant around the country with Bobby. All I could think about was that she was going to become another statistic at some point in the book. So glad that didn’t happen.

I actually really liked Bobby even though he did come across as a very secretive man. He was the first friend that Alexandra had and he was good to her. He was a bit condescending about American’s though (but I think most of the world is….lol).

What I really liked was when the book flashed back to Stoyan Lazarov and told his story. It was fascinating to look at how the communists dealt with perceived criminals (real and those in the wrong place at the wrong time like Stoyan). I had chills reading about that because of the similarities to Hitler’s concentrations camps in World War 2. Stalin was just as bad as Hitler. Just as bad :(.

To my recollection, I haven’t read a book that is set entirely in Bulgaria. I was fascinated by the customs, by its history (both good and bad) and just the atmosphere the book had while I was reading it. Again, something I couldn’t get enough of and I think, once my kids are grown, that I might have to take a trip there.

The end of the book was pretty good. The storylines were married beautifully together and the book ended with a what I thought was a HEA.

How many stars will I give The Shadow Land: 4

Why: A great, immersive book that took me from present-day Bulgaria to the past and back effortlessly. I couldn’t read enough of this book. I do wish that a small glossary was included with the meanings of the Bulgarian words. My Kindle’s dictionary did not recognize the words (and didn’t have an option for Bulgarian)….lol. Also, I was left wondering about Alexandra’s scar. It was mentioned quite often and I don’t remember seeing an explanation about how and why she got it.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Late Teen

Why: Mild violence.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley: A Novel by [Tinti, Hannah]

Title: The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley

Author: Hannah Tinti

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Random House

Date of publication: March 28th, 2017

Genre: General Fiction, thriller

Number of pages: 399

POV: 3rd person

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Book synopsis (from Goodreads):

A father protects his daughter from the legacy of his past and the truth about her mother’s death in this thrilling new novel from the prize-winning author of The Good Thief.

After years spent living on the run, Samuel Hawley moves with his teenage daughter, Loo, to Olympus, Massachusetts. There, in his late wife’s hometown, Hawley finds work as a fisherman, while Loo struggles to fit in at school and grows curious about her mother’s mysterious death. Haunting them both are twelve scars Hawley carries on his body, from twelve bullets in his criminal past; the past that eventually spills over into his daughter’s present until together they must face a reckoning yet to come. This father-daughter epic weaves back and forth through time and across America, from Alaska to the Adirondacks.

Both a coming-of-age novel and a literary thriller, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley explores what it means to be a hero, and the cost we pay to protect the people we love most.

My review:

As someone who grew up the next town over from Salem (Peabody), I am always very interested when novels featuring The North Shore are written. I am always a little critical because of the author, usually not from the area, only focuses on Salem or Gloucester and what they are most known for Halloween (Salem) and fishing (Gloucester). It always irks me to read those books because the stereotypes scream from the books. The girl whose ancestors come from Salem and she finds out she has powers (Salem) or the fisherman who battles nature to get the big haul (Gloucester). Usually, I can’t get through the book, I have to DNF it because I want to gag. Happily, though, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley doesn’t have any of those stereotypes and that itself is refreshing. Also, the author herself is from Salem, so she knows the areas from Rockport to Lynn probably as well I do and that added just that extra touch of authenticity to her book.

I actually had to go to google Olympus and Dogtown. Just to make sure that Olympus isn’t there. Massachusetts is famous for having small towns that you can drive through and miss. Take Hathrone. It is a tiny town between Danvers and Middleton. When I say small, it is teeny. I think that it is actually considered part of Danvers but it has its own zip code and post office. I didn’t know it existed until about 15 years ago….when the guy I was dating actually told me about it….lol. So, googling Olympus to check it out became my main goal. Dogtown, I googled too even though I knew it was real.

I kinda felt bad for Loo at the beginning of the book. She moved around a ton and had a father that kept major secrets from her.  Saying that the moving around didn’t affect her would be lying. When they settled down in Olympus, things got really bad for her. I am glad that the author had Loo react the way she did to bullying. It was real. Nothing was hunky dory after the rock in the sock incident but the kids left her alone. And her anger issues after that. Oh Lordy, she needed anger management classes, therapy or both. Even with her kinda boyfriend, Marshall Titus, she was mean. Put it this way, Loo wasn’t a nice person by the end of the book, even though she tried to be one.

While Loo’s story wasn’t easy to read, Hawley’s story was even worse. The author chose to tell his story by each bullet wound that he got (12 in all). Hawley was not a good man….far from it. But he did try to turn himself around when he married Lily (Loo’s mother) and then they had Loo. But his past criminal life kept sucking him in and it eventually cost him everything. I could see why he was hiding it from Loo. He was protecting her but still. He should have left well enough alone (read the book if you want to know what I meant by that).

Hawley’s story and Loo’s story was seamlessly brought together towards the end of the book. The events that happened at the end of the book did leave it up in the air. You don’t know if there will be a HEA or what. That was pretty refreshing. I can see people complaining about it, though, saying that all books need clear-cut endings. But with this book, nothing was clear-cut so why should the end be?

How many stars will I give The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley: 4

Why: An engrossing book that kept me turning the pages until well after my bedtime. The characters were very complex and their relationships with each other and other characters were complex too. This is not an easy read, so be warned. I liked it because it was different from what I usually read and like I said above, the characters were complex.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Violence, language and some sexual situations.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

Framed and Burning (Dreamslippers: Book 2) by Lisa Brunette

Framed and Burning (Dreamslippers, #2)

Title: Framed and Burning

Author: Lisa Burnette

Publisher: Sky Harbor Press

Date of Publication: November 17th, 2015

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, General Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal

Number of pages: 391

POV: 3rd person

Series: Dreamslippers

Cat in the Flock – Book 1

Framed and Burning – Book 2

Bound to the Truth – Book 3

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Book synopsis (from Goodreads):

A couple of PIs with the ability to “slip” into another person’s dreams find themselves defending one of their own. Someone sets fire to Mick Travers’ studio, killing his assistant, and Mick won’t give an alibi. Eccentric Granny Grace and her level-headed granddaughter Cat hope to prove his innocence and hunt down the real killer. Will they discover that a jealous rival was out to destroy Mick’s art—and reputation? Or is something even darker behind the arson and murder?

My review:

When I saw this book on NetGalley, I am going to admit, the main reason I requested it was because of the cover. I fell in love with it and decided that if the story is anything as good as the cover, then it would be a great read. Well, I am glad that I got approved for it. The story was great!!

The storyline about Mick’s assistant being killed in a fire was awful and wasn’t clear-cut who set the fire until literally the last couple of chapters. To be honest, like Cat, I thought that Mick did it by his dream until the evidence found at the scene. Also, him not giving an alibi was pretty shady. Everything and everyone is not what it seems in this book and that’s what I liked about it. It kept me on my feet.

I also liked that dreamslipping was not the only way that Cat and Grace caught criminals and solved mysteries from years past. They did it by some good old-fashioned detective work. Both Cat and Grace researched and followed leads. That’s the part of the book, to be honest, that caught my attention the most and fascinates me in real life.

I will say that the art part of the book kinda bored me. I just couldn’t get into Mick talking about his past as a successful artist and all the drama that went with it. While it went with the book and added depth to the characters, I just couldn’t keep my attention on those parts. To be honest, I skimmed over those parts, but I did reread them if it became clear that it was relevant to the book.

What I also didn’t like was that Mick was acting like a vigilante and the police really didn’t do anything. I mean, he roughed Candy up (smacked her around) and got a confession out of her about burning his beach house and he did basically the same thing with the child porn guy. Both times the police followed him or showed up where he was. It made me think that they were waiting for him to lead them to the victims.

I thought the end of the book was pretty good and who the killer ended up kinda blowing my mind because it was literally the last person I thought it was.

How many stars will I give Framed and Burning: 4

Why: I liked the book. It was an original, fast-paced mystery that definitely kept my attention. There are so many red herrings thrown into this book that when the killer was revealed, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Sex, violence, and language

**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**

Shadow Mountain (Shadow Mountain Saga: Book 1) by Tess Collins

SHADOW MOUNTAIN (Book One: Shadow Mountain Saga 1)

Title: Shadow Mountain

Author: Tess Collins

Publisher: BearCat Press

Date of publication: January 4th, 2017

Genre: General Fiction, Adult Fiction

Number of pages: 436

POV: 3rd person

Series: Shadow Mountain Saga

Shadow Mountain – Book 1

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Book synopsis (from Goodreads):

At the peak of Shadow Mountain lives a woman who holds to the old ways of magic and conjuring. Delta Wade protects ancient mysteries for her son, Lafette, hoping he will grow up to wield those powers for the good of humankind. But the epoch of witch lore is giving way to an age of industrial titans greedy to control the mountains’ resources for material gain. As one man seeks to destroy Delta, another offers his love as salvation. Mother and son struggle with an enigmatic past only to find that true magic shows its power in its own way and in its own time.

My review:

Shadow Mountain is an intense (yes intense!!!) book about a mother trying to hold on to a legacy of magic and mystery for her young son while waiting for his father, her common-law husband, to come back. I say intense because Delta has stuff coming at her from all different directions and she is coping the best she can. Also, this book is set in 1899. A time where women and ex-slaves had zero rights and their lands/possessions could be taken from them just for being who they are and what color they are.

What I liked about this book is how vividly it was written. I could almost hear the bullfrogs croaking, smell the woods and see the Tyme trees standing on the mountain. Books that can do that are hard to find. I love it when I am able to read a book and get sucked in by the story. These are the kinds of books that stay with you.

The storyline (which I briefly mentioned above) was well written too. I really felt for Delta. She was being pulled in so many directions by so many people that she was forced to do what she did. I mean, she had King, Henry, and Kate all telling her what to do. What she did, ultimately, was for the good of her son, Lafette. It was something that I would think that any mother in her circumstances would do. I will say that the twists right before the end of the 1st part of the story kinda shocked me. Only because I didn’t see them coming and they happened almost right on top of each other. Shocked the ever-living out of me.

King was a jerk. He was so slimy that I felt like taking a shower after reading his scenes. He was an abusive, manipulative man who got what he deserved….in my opinion. It’s just too bad that his behavior (and his greed, let’s not forget that) cost people their lives.

Now, Henry, I was kinda on the fence about. He let his father push him around and to be honest, I thought he didn’t have the stones to stand up to him. So, I was very surprised when he did. He ended up being probably one of the best characters in the book.

The second half of the book takes place 8 years after everything went down on Shadow Mountain. I really don’t want to get into this part of the book (because it will give things away). Let’s just say that the events that happened during this part of the book surprised me. I actually didn’t see certain events coming and I was definitely floored. And the end of the book. Oh my, it was a tear jerker for sure!!! I cannot wait for book 2 to come out!!

How many stars will I give Shadow Mountain Saga: 4

Why: A well written, intense book that definitely sucked me into it. Like I said above, it was very vividly written and it just stays with you after you are done reading it.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Older teen

Why: I was kinda on the fence with this and chose older teen. There really isn’t anything bad in this book. Maybe some mild violence but that’s it. I would feel safe in saying that anyone 16+ could read it.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

Himself by Jess Kidd

Himself

Title: Himself

Author: Jess Kidd

Publisher: Atria Books

Date of publication: March 14th, 2017

Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Fantasy

POV: 3rd person

Number of pages: 368

Series: No

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Goodreads synopsis:

When Mahony returns to Mulderrig, a speck of a place on Ireland’s west coast, he brings only a photograph of his long-lost mother and a determination to do battle with the village’s lies.

His arrival causes cheeks to flush and arms to fold in disapproval. No one in the village – living or dead – will tell what happened to the teenage mother who abandoned him as a baby, despite Mahony’s certainty that more than one of them has answers.

Between Mulderrig’s sly priest, its pitiless nurse and the caustic elderly actress throwing herself into her final village play, this beautiful and darkly comic début novel creates an unforgettable world of mystery, bloody violence, and buried secrets.

My review:

Told in 3rd person, Himself is a book about a young man trying to find out what happened to his mother in a small village in Ireland. With supernatural, mystery and crime-woven into the book, Himself is a book that will suck you in and not let you out until you finish it.

I was truly surprised at how much I liked this book. I couldn’t get enough of it and found myself reading it while waiting for my kid’s bus while cooking supper, eating supper and at night in bed. It was literally book crack for me. I couldn’t get enough of Mahony’s story and of all the other secondary plotlines going on.

I really liked Mahony and definitely felt for him while he was searching for answers for what happened to Orla and who his father was. He had so much opposition but also had so much help, if that makes sense.

The mystery of who killed Orla was a true mystery to the end. The author did a great job of hiding his identity. It was only when the dog was killed and then showed up by the killer’s side was I clued in. Well, that and the other two murders in the village.

I loved the supernatural elements of the book. The ghosts, the storm, the pagan stream in the priest’s house (which was ironic and funny to me), just added more depth to the book. I like that the ghosts were not who they were in real life and they kept their secrets as well as they did when they were alive.

What I really liked about this book was that not all the storylines were resolved in a way that was satisfactory or not at all. One storyline, I do think I figured out who it was ( read the book if you want to know what I am talking about….haha).

How many stars will I give Himself: 5

Why: A great book that had so many layers to it, it resembled an onion in my mind. Once I peeled one layer back, another one appeared. The characters were multi-dimensional (hence the layers) and the storylines were not all happily resolved.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Older teen (16+)

Why: Violence

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

The Devil’s Triangle (A Brit in the FBI: Book 4) by Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison

The Devil's Triangle (A Brit in the FBI, #4)

Title: The Devil’s Triangle

Author: Catherine Coulter, J.T. Ellison

Publisher: Gallery, Threshold, Putnam Books

Date of publication: March 14th, 2017

Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller

Number of pages: 512

POV: 3rd person

Series: A Brit In The FBI

The Final Cut – Book 1

The Lost Key – Book 2

The End Game – Book 3

The Devil’s Triangle – Book 4 (expected publication date: March 14th, 2017)

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Book synopsis (from Goodreads):

From #1 New York Times–bestselling author Catherine Coulter, the thrilling new novel in the remarkable series featuring Nicholas Drummond and Mike Caine.
FBI Special Agents Nicholas Drummond and Michaela Caine have a new mandate as the government’s Covert Eyes, assembling a handpicked team of top-notch agents to tackle crimes and criminals both international and deadly. But their first case threatens to tear the fledgling team apart when the enigmatic thief known as the Fox reappears with a plea for help.

Master thief Kitsune has stolen the staff of Moses from the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, and now that she’s delivered, her clients are trying to kill her. On the run, she asks Nicholas and Mike to help her discover the true identity of her clients and stop the threat against her life. Under strict orders to arrest the Fox and bring her back to New York, the Covert Eyes team heads to Venice, Italy, to meet with Kitsune, and finds nothing is as it seems. Kitsune’s secret clients are the Koaths, a family descended from Moses himself, who will do anything, anything, to find Ark of the Covenant and wield its power, as their long and bloody history can attest. To execute their plan, they’ve spent years perfecting a machine that can control the weather, manipulating worldwide disasters that spin the entire globe into chaos.

From New York to Venice, from Rome to the Bermuda Triangle, Nicholas and Mike and their team are in a race against time, and nature herself, to stop the Koaths and recover the famous Ark of the Covenant. But can they trust Kitsune, their sworn enemy, to help them save the world from a family of madmen?

My review:

I know that I have stated in earlier reviews that I absolutely hate picking up and reading a book mid-series. Why is that? Because there is always tie-ins to the other books in the series and I am left wondering “What did I miss in the earlier books?” While The Devil’s Triangle did have those moments, I am happy to say that they were few and far between. The only time I even started to wonder what was with the scenes with Kitsune and the Covert Eye team. There was so much history there that I wished I had read the earlier books.

The Koath twins, Ajax and Cassandra, just oozed evil. I couldn’t believe how evil they were. I mean, they thought nothing of discussing killing people and they thought nothing of using their connections to the local police and army to execute those killings. All the while keeping up very public personas that they were these good people who did great things for the world. I am glad that the author didn’t try to make them any less evil (well, Cassandra was given a kind of conscious that lasted for all of 3 pages). I also liked that you could see Cassandra and Ajax’s sanity unraveling as the book went on and as they continued to make major mistakes.

While I didn’t read the earlier books (see above statement), I did like Kitsune. I mean, she pulled off stealing the staff of Moses and then eluded the Koath twins and their goons until she allowed herself to get caught. She was very resourceful and I liked how she had the Covert Eye team recruited to help her with her mission (read the book to find out what it was).

The action was intense. From when Kitsune decided that she had to kill the goons outside the Koath twins house to the end, it didn’t let up. I felt like I couldn’t take a breath or I would miss something. And yes, for those of you who have weak stomachs or like things all sunshine and butterflies…..there are people killing people in this book. Most who need it….some who don’t.

I thought the plotline of the weather control machine with ties to DaVinci and Tesla was fantastic. I actually have no problem imagining that someday, there will be a machine like that (if there isn’t one already). Add in the plotline about the search for the Ark of the Covenant and intertwine it with the weather control machine and it made for a great read!!!

The end of the book was pretty good. A bit anticlimactic but good. I am wondering if there will be a book 5.

How many stars will I give The Devil’s Triangle: 4

Why: This was a great book with a couple of fantastic storylines woven into it. The way the author brought them all together was fantastic and I couldn’t read enough of it.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Violence and language

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**