Tag: general fiction

Ill Will by Dan Chaon

Ill Will

Title: Ill Will

Author: Dan Chaon

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine

Date of publication: March 7th, 2017

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, General Fiction

Number of pages: 481

POV: Alternating 1st person and 3rd person

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Book synopsis (via Goodreads):

Two sensational unsolved crimes—one in the past, another in the present—are linked by one man’s memory and self-deception in this chilling novel of literary suspense from National Book Award finalist Dan Chaon.

“We are always telling a story to ourselves, about ourselves,” Dustin Tillman likes to say. It’s one of the little mantras he shares with his patients, and it’s meant to be reassuring. But what if that story is a lie?

A psychologist in suburban Cleveland, Dustin is drifting through his forties when he hears the news: His adopted brother, Rusty, is being released from prison. Thirty years ago, Rusty received a life sentence for the massacre of Dustin’s parents, aunt, and uncle. The trial came to symbolize the 1980s hysteria over Satanic cults; despite the lack of physical evidence, the jury believed the outlandish accusations Dustin and his cousin made against Rusty. Now, after DNA analysis has overturned the conviction, Dustin braces for a reckoning.

Meanwhile, one of Dustin’s patients gets him deeply engaged in a string of drowning deaths involving drunk college boys. At first, Dustin dismisses talk of a serial killer as paranoid thinking, but as he gets wrapped up in their amateur investigation, Dustin starts to believe that there’s more to the deaths than coincidence. Soon he becomes obsessed, crossing all professional boundaries—and putting his own family in harm’s way.

From one of today’s most renowned practitioners of literary suspense, Ill Will is an intimate thriller about the failures of memory and the perils of self-deception. In Dan Chaon’s nimble, chilling prose, the past looms over the present, turning each into a haunted place.

My review:

Ill Will is not an easy story to read. Hopping between the early ’80s and between 2012-2014, the story follows Dustin Tillman as he slowly gets involved in a serial killer investigation and learns that Rusty, his adopted brother is getting out of prison after his prison sentence was overturned because a DNA analysis proved that he didn’t do it. Rusty was convicted of killing Dustin’s parents and his aunt and uncle. The story also follows Dustin’s son, Aaron, a strung-out junkie trying to cope with the loss of his mother and trying to figure out who killed his best friend, Rabbit.

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If you have triggers, I don’t recommend you read this review. There will be talk about child molestation and drug use.

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Like I said in the above paragraph, this is not an easy book to read. It deals with a wide spectrum of issues…..from child sexual abuse to mental illness to drug abuse, it’s there and it is not glossed over and made pretty. Which was one thing I liked about this book, it wasn’t pretty. It dealt with all these issues in a real-world sense. No one was mysteriously cured of their mental illness or drug use.

The Satanism cult angle was fascinating to read. I am old enough to remember the insanity over Satanic cults and the aftermath when it turned out that almost all of those memories were false. I really can’t comment anymore on that part of the book but I will say this. Read with a very open mind because not everything is what it seems.

I didn’t know what to feel for Rusty. I felt awful for him because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother and her “boyfriends”. No child should go through that and the author did keep true to the abused child abusing other children. But, however, Rusty was a really screwed up dude as an adult. When the author wrote from his perspective, I got the chills and did wonder to myself “How long until he kills someone”. Even the fact that he had a mental kill list was scary.

Dustin was someone who truly scared me. He started off as a scatterbrained therapist and just morphed into someone else. I believe that his wife’s death along with Rusty being released from jail pushed him over the edge. To be honest, he had been on a slow slide into insanity since he was 11 and I think those two things pushed him over the edge. His obsession with the serial killer case that Aqil was working on him with even furthered the slide. It was sad to see it.

Aqil. Let’s talk about him and how he totally fooled me. Yeah, not happy about that and I think I groaned when it was revealed who and what he was. I was like “Why didn’t I see that coming!!!” Totally frustrating for me but very good on the author’s part.

Aaron was pretty dead on for a heroin junkie. Everything about him rang true. I did find it very sad that he slid into addiction after his mother died. I truly believe that it was a way to cope because his father was starting to flake out and his older brother was in college in a different state. But, even with his addiction, he still cared enough about what happened to his friend to go looking for the last person to see him alive. And oh boy, was he in for a surprise when he realized who it was.

There are a couple of twists in the story and I didn’t see two of them coming. The one with Aqil (which I already mentioned) and the one with what really happened that night and how Rusty went on trial. I will say this, I was disgusted and very surprised.

The ending was sad. NO HEA’s. Definitely no HEA’s. I do have a couple of questions about Aaron that I wish was answered. But with the way that the book was written, I don’t think that will happen….unless a book 2 happens.

How many stars will I give Ill Will: 3

Why: This was a really hard book for me to rate. I liked the storylines, they were pretty easy to follow. But my main complaint is with how the book was written. It would go from normal chapters to almost a split screen format with what looked like Dustin or Aaron’s running thoughts in them. There were a few chapters like it and it made it very confusing to read because I couldn’t follow the trains of thought. Maybe it would be better to read it in paperback instead of on my Kindle.

Will I reread: Maybe

Will I recommend to family and friends: Maybe

Age Range: Adult

Why: Sexual themes, language, violence. Pretty descriptive scenes of child molestation, of murder sites and of murdered bodies. Also very detailed scenes of drug use.

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

Dead Letters by Caite Dolan-Leach

Dead Letters: A Novel by [Dolan-Leach, Caite]

Title: Dead Letters

Author: Caite Dolan-Leach

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Random House

Date of publication: February 28th, 2017

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, General Fiction

POV: 1st person

Number of pages: 353

Series: No

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Goodreads synopsis:

A missing woman leads her twin sister on a twisted scavenger hunt in this clever début novel of suspense for readers of Luckiest Girl Alive and Reconstructing Amelia.

Ahoy, Ava! Welcome home, my sweet jet-setting twin! So glad you were able to wrest yourself away from your dazzling life in the City of Light; I hope my death hasn’t interrupted anything too crucial.

Ava Antipova has her reasons for running away: a failing family vineyard, a romantic betrayal, a mercurial sister, an absent father, a mother slipping into dementia. In Paris, Ava renounces her terribly practical undergraduate degree, acquires a French boyfriend and a taste for much better wine, and erases her past. Two years later, she must return to upstate New York. Her twin sister, Zelda, is dead.

Even in a family of alcoholics, Zelda Antipova was the wild one, notorious for her mind games and destructive behavior. Stuck tending the vineyard and the girls’ increasingly unstable mother, Zelda was allegedly burned alive when she passed out in the barn with a lit cigarette. But Ava finds the official explanation a little too neat. A little too Zelda. Then she receives a cryptic message from her sister.

Just as Ava suspected, Zelda’s playing one of her games. In fact, she’s outdone herself, leaving a series of clues about her disappearance. With the police stuck on a red herring, Ava follows the trail laid just for her, thinking like her sister, keeping her secrets, immersing herself in Zelda’s drama and her outlandish circle of friends and lovers. Along the way, Zelda forces her twin to confront their twisted history and the boy who broke Ava’s heart. But why? Is Zelda trying to punish Ava for leaving, or to teach her a lesson? Or is she simply trying to write her own ending?

Featuring a colorful, raucous cast of characters, Caite Dolan-Leach’s début thriller takes readers on a literary scavenger hunt for clues concealed throughout the seemingly idyllic wine country, hidden in plain sight on social media, and buried at the heart of one tremendously dysfunctional, utterly unforgettable family.

My review:

Dead Letters is one of those rare mysteries that have you guessing what exactly happened until the end of the book.  This book will suck you in while Ava goes on a scavenger hunt that was orchestrated by her twin sister, Zelda. What the scavenger hunt reveals and what it forces Ava to face is what makes this book so good.

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This isn’t one of those fun mysteries with likable characters and a happy ending. Not even close. This has to have been one of the saddest, complex books that I have read to date. Ava’s family has to be one of the more dysfunctional ones in all the books that I have read to date.

What I liked about this book was that it truly was a mystery and that the author had no qualms about throwing out red herrings left and right. Just when I thought I had the mystery of what happened to Zelda pegged, the book went in a totally different direction and totally screwed me up. This happened two times and both times, I had to put my Kindle Paperwhite down because the shock just got to me…both times. Well done, Caite, well done.

I was truly on the fence about liking Ava. She came across as so uncaring with her mother, father, and grandmother (but she does have her reasons why) but when it comes to Zelda, the emotions just can’t stop. I do think that the scavenger hunt was maybe a little unfair to Ava but Zelda wanted to make a point. And oh boy, did she.

Marlon and Nadine were detestable as parents. Whenever Ava started to think about her past, all she could think about was how her father was checked out most of the time (and I mean checked out mentally) and how she had to walk on eggshells around her mother. No wonder the girls turned out the way they did.

I also should point out that the author did a great job portraying what living with an alcoholic is like and what growing up as a child of a functioning alcoholic is like and what it is like to be a caregiver to someone with dementia. Not easy subjects to talk or write about but she did it beautifully.

The end of a book was a huge surprise in two ways. Not going to ruin it for anyone but I had to get up and walk around after the 2nd surprise came around. Then I sat down and went “W.T.H.”

How many stars will I give Dead Letters: 4

Why: I really enjoyed reading this book. I couldn’t put it down. I had to find out about what happened to Zelda, why Ava was the way she was and everything else in the book. Truly captivating.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Language. Also scenes of verbal abuse (which could be triggers in some people), drug use and some mild sex scenes

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

Bunyan’s Guide to the Great American Wildlife by Quentin Canterel’

Bunyan's Guide to the Great American Wildlife

Title: Bunyan’s Guide To The Great American Wildlife

Author: Quentin Canterel

Publisher: Acorn Independent Press

Date of Publication: October 11th, 2016

Genre: General Fiction

Number of pages: 262

POV: 3rd person, 1st person, and 2nd person

Series: No

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Goodreads synopsis:

What happens when the Manhattan zoo empties its cages?

John, part radicalized anarchist, part ticking time bomb, is haunted by a particular story, that of Willow, a 9-year old mute who flees to New York after her brutal rape. The only way his girlfriend, Felicity, can stop the clock counting down is by disentangling the riddle of their pasts before their entwined futures are blown to pieces.

Quentin Canterel’s second novel presents a collage of voices, dead and alive, in a unique and unnerving novel that experiments with form, structure, and language.

Truly a mystery shrouded in an enigma.

My review:

This was a very hard book to read. Not because of the subject (9-year-old mute girl gets gang-raped) but because of how it was written. Normally, I am pretty good with numerous POV’s in a book but this one, well it was all over the place. One chapter would be in 2nd person, then another in 1st person, then back to 2nd person and then to 3rd person. It was very confusing and I couldn’t keep track of who was “talking” half the time. Not something that really makes a great reading experience.

Another reason this was a very hard book to read was the wordage. I am not stupid, far from it, but I still had to use my Kindle’s dictionary to figure out what some of the words meant and when they weren’t available on that, I had to google the word. Yes, google it. That lowered the book’s esteem in my eyes.

This review is going to be very short because, honestly, I can’t say anything good about the book. The plotlines were awful, the characters came across as either immensely screwed up, immensely stuck up or both and I just couldn’t get past Felicity and John’s “romance”.

How many stars will I give Bunyan’s Guide to the Great American Wildlife: 1

Why: I didn’t like the book and found it very hard to read. The POV’s were changed lightning fast and without notification, the characters were not very relatable and the language they used was very pretentious. I did not enjoy reading this book at all…which is sad because books should be enjoyed.

Will I reread: No

Will I recommend to family and friends: No

Age range: Adult

Why: Violence and language

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

Unpunished (Gardiner and Renner: Book 2) by Lisa Black

Title: Unpunished

Author: Lisa Black

Publisher: Kensington Books

Date of publication: January 31st, 2017

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, General Fiction

Number of pages: 321

POV: 3rd person

Series: Gardiner and Renner

That Darkness – Book 1

Unpunished – Book 2

Can be read out-of-order from series: No

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Goodreads synopsis:

Maggie Gardiner, a forensic expert who studies the dead, and Jack Renner, a homicide cop who stalks the living, form an uneasy partnership to solve a series of murders in this powerful new thriller by the bestselling author of That Darkness.


It begins with the kind of bizarre death that makes headlines–literally. A copy editor at the Cleveland Herald is found hanging above the grinding wheels of the newspaper assembly line, a wide strap wrapped around his throat. Forensic investigator Maggie Gardiner has her suspicions about this apparent suicide inside the tsunami of tensions that is the news industry today–and when the evidence suggests murder, Maggie has no choice but to place her trust in the one person she doesn’t trust at all . . .

 
Jack Renner is a killer with a conscience, a vigilante with his own code of honor. In the past, Jack has used his skills and connections as a homicide detective to take the law into his own hands, all in the name of justice. He has only one problem: Maggie knows his secret. She insists he enforces the law, not subvert it. But when more newspaper employees are slain, Jack may be the only person who can help Maggie unmask the killer– even if Jack is still checking names off his own private murder list.

My review:

I really wish I had read That Darkness before I read Unpunished because I had so many questions about Maggie and Jack that couldn’t be answered in this book. I got frustrated because there were references to what happened to the first book and I had no clue what the characters were talking about.

But, besides my frustrations, I really enjoyed this story. I enjoyed it because it was a true vigilante/police novel. The last vigilante story that I read quickly turned into softcore book porn and the vigilante part was lost between the main characters bumping uglies. So, I was very pleased when this book didn’t even go near there.

I did like Maggie. She was so relatable on so many levels and she had a great relationship with her coworkers. She was a bit apprehensive when she found out that she was working with Jack on a case, but who wouldn’t be. I mean, she knows about his secret. She wasn’t unaffected by what happened to her (read the book to find out what) and she is required to see the police psychologist.

Now, Jack, on the other hand…..I wasn’t sure what to think of him. I wish I knew why he started vigilante killing (I am sure it was explained in the first book) because it would have explained a lot. I do know that I did start to see him soften towards Maggie, towards the end.

The newspaper storyline was pretty solid and moved rather quickly after the first victim was killed. I did have the killer pegged towards the middle book but doubted myself, took him off my list and added another person. All because of a red herring. Blah. I do want to say that I learned more about print newspapers and their equipment then I ever wanted to know.

The other storyline of Jack being a vigilante killer was barely touched upon. I do wish that it was included more in the book but I have a feeling it will be featured more in the next book. The reason I feel that way is because of certain events that happened towards the back of the book.

The end of the book was pretty gruesome and, to be honest, drug out a bit. I was a little surprised at who the killer was (see above). I will say that Maggie got the short end of the stick, again and that Jack seemed like he was softening up towards her.

How many stars will I give Unpunished: 4

Why: While I really liked the book, I do wish I had read book 1 before reading this one. Other than that, the book was great. The characters were engaging, the mystery was pretty good (had me going for a little while) and the thriller parts of the book were very well written. I do wish that more attention was paid towards Jack and him being a vigilante but at the same time, I do think that it would have taken away from the main storyline (the killings of newspaper employees).

Will I reread: Yes but only after reading book 1.

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**

Sprite by Anna B. Madrise

Sprite

Title: Sprite

Author: Anna B. Madrise

Publisher: Black Quill Enterprises

Date of publication: November 14th, 2016

Genre: General Fiction, Fairy Tales

Number of pages: 123

Series: No

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Goodreads synopsis:

Wild and reckless Blaine Frost takes things too far one night when, after a Christmas party, he drunkenly wraps his sports car around an evergreen tree. With his girlfriend Noel, trapped and unconscious inside the crashed car, he swears he will do ‘anything’ to right his wrong.
His words are heard by a winter sprite, who decides to grant him a second chance by taking him on a journey through his memories in an effort to shine a light on where he has gone astray.
But Blaine is steadfast in his stubbornness causing Sprite to pull out all the stops. She gives him an ultimatum; he has seven days to unearth the virtues of compassion, charity, courage, and joy within his heart or by the final stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, Noel will belong to Sprite…forever.
When Blaine wakes up the next morning, he finds that all is as it should be or so it seems; his sports car is untouched, the excitement of the holidays is in the air, and his girlfriend Noel…is nowhere to be found. Not only is she missing, but she’s not in a single picture, and none of his family and friends can recall any memory of her. It’s only then that Blaine realizes that the night before wasn’t a dream.
Living in a parallel universe under the watchful eye of Sprite who has turned his world turned upside down, Blaine races against time to honor his word that he will do “anything” to save Noel. It’s a journey of redemption where one man must learn to warm his frosty heart and discover the true meaning of Christmas from within.

My review:

On the way home from his parents annual Christmas party, Blaine Frost wraps his Porsche 911 Carrera around an evergreen tree on the way home from his parents annual Christmas party. As he awakens, he was knocked unconscious, his first thoughts were about how this was Noel, his girlfriend’s fault. Forget that he was driving drunk and speeding, it was her fault because she got sick at the party and wanted to go home. He quickly forgets that when he sees Noel wedged in the front seat, barely alive. His focus, then, became on getting her out of the car. As he remembers the first time he met her and keeps belching up martini’s from the party, he tells her that he would do anything to have her smile at him again and that he would do anything to make it right.

As soon as he said that, he hears a young girl’s voice ask him if he would do anything. Thinking that he is hallucinating, he sees a white, bright, small girl with wings who calls herself Sprite sitting on the top of the Porsche. After exchanging some words with Sprite, he tries to get Noel out of the car. Instead, as he starts to pass out, she blows sparkly powder at him and says this rhyme:

Tick-tock, tick-tock goes the clock. The bells chime on. They never stop. Tick-tock! Tick-tock!”

Sprite then takes Blaine on a visit of 3 memories/situations that had recently happened and showed what a jerk he was. From telling the homeless man who is panhandling to try to raise money to feed/clothe his sick child to visiting the children’s ward of the local hospital where his mother routinely volunteered and where Blaine refused to set foot in to his job, where his employees were complaining about missing anniversaries and children’s musicals because Blaine would have not been kind about granting them time off to a memory of Blaine thinking that he gave Noel the perfect gift and it ended up not being what she wanted.

Sprite gives Blaine seven days, starting on December 18th, to learn the virtues of compassion, joy, charity, and courage. If he hasn’t learned those virtues in the seven days that she has given him, then Noel will belong to her. With that, she blows the powder in his face and sends him back in time.

When Blaine wakes up, he is in his office. Feeling poorly, and noticing that his assistant has no recollection of Noel, he decides to go home early. He makes the decision to send the office home for the holidays…which is out of character for him. As he calls his best friend to see if he had any clue what happened the night before, he notices that the picture he usually has of Noel and himself from a trip to the Grand Cayman’s has been replaced with a picture of himself holding a drink. Even more baffling was his best friend telling him that he doesn’t have a girlfriend.

He heads to her apartment and is told by the woman who owns the building that no one named Noel lives there. After freaking out on the woman, he heads to the park to collect his thoughts and Sprite makes an appearance. That is when he remembers everything…..

Will Blaine complete his challenges in time? Will he get Noel back in his arms or will Sprite have her forever.

Want to know? Read the book!!

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This was a fantastic and imaginative rewrite of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. I really liked that instead of having the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future, the author reworked it so that Blaine had to learn the virtues of compassion, joy, charity, and courage. It was different and it definitely kept my interest.

I loved how Blaine’s character progressed in the book. He went from being this self-centered, mean and, dare I say it, immature man to a giving, mature man who went out of his way to help others. Granted, he was changing to get Noel back but still, it was wonderful to read. I teared up when he was the hospital, granted it was with T and Cabbott and was helping on the 4th floor. When he was telling the little girl a story and cheering her up had to have been one of the best scenes in the book. It was a definitely a tear-jerker.

I really liked Sprite. The mental image I had of her was this small girl with white, white hair, huge wings, a great laugh and a big bag of invisible snow. Her showing up at the hospital and riding the cart made me laugh. Also, her rhymes were pretty cool.

The end of the book was what I expected in one way but I totally didn’t expect everything that happened. Talk about what a difference in people!!!

How many stars will I give Sprite: 4

Why: Like I said above, this is a wonderful, imaginative retelling of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. For a short story/novella, it packed a lot of punch. The characters were fleshed out and the storylines kept your attention on the story.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Language and mild violence

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

To Capture What We Cannot Keep by Beatrice Colin

To Capture What We Cannot Keep: A Novel by [Colin, Beatrice]

3 Stars

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Date of publication: November 29th, 2016

Where to find this book: Amazon

Genre: General Fiction

Book Synopsis:

Set against the construction of the Eiffel Tower, this novel charts the relationship between a young Scottish widow and a French engineer who, despite constraints of class and wealth, fall in love.

In February 1887, Caitriona Wallace and Émile Nouguier meet in a hot air balloon, floating high above Paris, France–a moment of pure possibility. But back on firm ground, their vastly different social strata become clear. Cait is a widow who because of her precarious financial situation is forced to chaperone two wealthy Scottish charges. Émile is expected to take on the bourgeois stability of his family’s business and choose a suitable wife. As the Eiffel Tower rises, a marvel of steel and air and light, the subject of extreme controversy and a symbol of the future, Cait and Émile must decide what their love is worth.

Seamlessly weaving historical detail and vivid invention, Beatrice Colin evokes the revolutionary time in which Cait and Émile live–one of corsets and secret trysts, duels and Bohemian independence, strict tradition and Impressionist experimentation. To Capture What We Cannot Keep, stylish, provocative, and shimmering, raises probing questions about a woman’s place in that world, the overarching reach of class distinctions, and the sacrifices love requires of us all.

My Review:

When I started reading this book, I didn’t know what to think about it. The plot crept and I felt that it was weighted down by one-dimensional characters. I felt that there was no life for anyone but Cait and Emile. Jamie, Alice, and Gabrielle, their portrayals were stereotypical of that time.

I changed my mind by the 2nd half of the book. We learn more about Cait’s marriage, Alice and Jamie flushed out as characters and in surprising ways and Gabrielle, well she ended up being a woman scorned.

The love story of Cait and Emile was present, as was the construction of the Eiffel Tower and Emile’s social/status obligations. Which made the 2nd half of the book so interesting to read.

The ending of the book was perfect. Just saying, I couldn’t have written it any better myself.

I would give To Capture What We Cannot Keep an Adult rating. There are sexual situations. There is language. There is violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I am on the fence if I would reread To Capture What We Cannot Keep. I am on the fence if I would recommend it to family and friends.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**

Livia Lone (Livia Lone: Book 1) by Barry Eisler

Livia Lone (A Livia Lone Novel Book 1) by [Eisler, Barry]

5 Stars

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Date of publication: October 25th, 2016

Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller

Series: Livia Lone

Livia Lone – Book 1

Where you can find this book: Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Book synopsis:

Seattle PD sex-crimes detective Livia Lone knows the monsters she hunts. Sold by her Thai parents along with her little sister, Nason; marooned in America; abused by the men who trafficked them…the only thing that kept Livia alive as a teenager was her determination to find Nason.

Livia has never stopped looking. And she copes with her failure to protect her sister by doing everything she can to put predators in prison.

Or, when that fails, by putting them in the ground.

But when a fresh lead offers new hope of finding Nason and the men who trafficked them both, Livia will have to go beyond just being a cop. Beyond even being a vigilante. She’ll have to relive the horrors of the past. Take on one of the most powerful men in the US government. And uncover a conspiracy of almost unimaginable evil.

In every way, it’s an unfair fight. But Livia has two advantages: her unending love for Nason—

And a lifelong lust for vengeance.

My review:

I am going to warn you all, this book is not an easy read. Not an easy read at all. The subject of human sex trade trafficking is awful and I am sure it was not easy for the author to write about, much less research.

Labee/Livia was a 13-year-old girl living with her parents, brother and 11-year-old sister Nason in her Lahu village in Thailand. The Lahu people live in the mountainous forests along the Burmese and Laotian borders. Labee has no clue about modern technology and lives a simple, but happy, life. That happy life ends when Labee and Nason’s parents sell the girls to human sex trade traffickers. That’s when her happy, carefree life ends.

She is put into a van with her sister and several other children and is driven to Bangkok and put into a shipping container (yes, one of those metal ones but this one seems to be open at the top?) that is put on a ship. While she is on the ship, the unthinkable happens. The people guarding the shipping box chooses Nason to go with them. Labee offers herself up to them, to protect Nason, and is forced to do unthinkable things to the men. But that isn’t enough and Nason is taken. Only to be brought back in a canonic state (use your imagination here).

She is soon separated from Nason and is eventually rescued when a SWAT team raids where her box is being kept and finds her. She is adopted by the prominent Lone family and soon realizes that her life with them is far from perfect. The only thing keeping her going is her quest to find Nason and her desire to get back at the men who hurt her and Nason. She becomes a master at jiu-jitsu and used it as self-defense one horrible night. That’s when she was sent to live with Mrs. Lone’s brother, Ralph.

While that story is being told, there is also a parallel story of a grown-up Labee, now called Livia Lone. She is a sex crimes detective with the Seattle PD. But she is more than that. She is a serial killer, a vigilante killer, who tracks down the rapists and child molesters and kills them. She has a name for her itch to kill. She calls it her dragon and it was formed during her imprisonment and her time with the Lone family.

She is trying to hunt down leads on where Nason could be. I am not going much into the book from here but let’s just say that there is a huge twist in the book. There were hints as to what it was after Livia came to America but I was still very surprised when it was revealed.

I honestly felt bad for Livia. She was shaped into the person she was because of events in her life. I am sure if her father decided against selling her or Nason, it would have been a different story. But it wasn’t.

The end of the book was gory. Not going to lie. vengeance was served and it wasn’t pretty. There really wasn’t a happy ending, not that I was expecting it there to be one.

Like I said above, this was a very hard book to read. But, in a way, I am glad that the author chose to write so honestly about child sex trafficking (heck human sex trafficking period). More light needs to be shown on the atrocities committed against men, women, and children. If you are interested, here is a link to a site that could really make a difference in eradicating it

Polaris

I would give Livia Lone an Adult rating. There is mention of sex. There is mild language. There is mild violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread Livia Lone. I would recommend it to family and friends.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**

Girl Number One by Jane Holland

Girl Number One: A gripping page-turner with a twist by [Holland, Jane]

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Date of publication: September 27th, 2016

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Book synopsis:

There’s a body in the woods. At least, there was. Eleanor Blackwood saw it on her morning run: a young woman, strangled to death.

But the police can find nothing—no body, no sign of a crime—and even Ellie has to wonder if it was a trick of her mind, a gruesome vision conjured up by grief. It’s eighteen years to the day since she witnessed her own mother’s murder on the same woodland spot. But what if she really did see what she thinks she saw? What if the body was left there for Ellie alone to find?

And there’s one detail Ellie can’t shake: a deliberate number three on the dead woman’s forehead. When she discovers a second body, this one bearing the number two, Ellie is convinced they are not messages but threats. The killer is on a countdown: but who is girl number one?

My review:

Eleanor was six years old when she saw her mother’s murder on a path in the woods by her farm. She was so traumatized that she couldn’t remember who the murderer was. Even though she looked him right in the face. She spent years in therapy trying to remember who the “shadow man” was.

Her childhood from that day on wasn’t that great. Her dad turned into an alcoholic mess. She struggled with the stigma of being the girl who couldn’t remember her mother’s murderer. She went to university with the plan to stay away. She ended up coming back and teaching physical education at one of the primary schools in the area.

Her life is going great, and she decides to take a run on the path in the woods where her mother was murdered. During her run, she sees that the main path is blocked off. The secondary path, the one her mother was killed on, is the only one available. Going down that path, she feels like someone or something is watching her. Then she stumbles upon a body of a naked woman with the number 3 on her forehead. Upset, she books it out of the woods and calls the police. Only to find the body has disappeared and people are looking at her like she has lost it. Even her father says as much before telling her to leave and never come back to see him again.

Not going to go into the rest of the book but it was great and kept me guessing who the killer was. I did think that I had him/her pegged at one point in the book. Boy, I was wrong.

I did feel bad for Ellie, but she was immature. Her temper seemed to get the best of her at times. Body slamming the student who was being rude to her and calling her a freak was a little much. I was shocked that she only got talked to and not fired.

The ending was fantastic. So much was revealed, though, that my head was spinning.

How many stars will I give Girl Number One? 3-3.5

Why? While it was a great psychological thriller, I was a little taken aback by Ellie’s immaturity and the fact that she acted like she was 19 (she is 24 in the book). It took away from the book, in my eyes.

Will I reread? yes

Will I recommend to family and friends? Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Sex, drinking, violence

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**

The Girl Who Could Read Hearts by Sherry Maysonave

The Girl Who Could Read Hearts: A Family and the Power of Intuition by [Maysonave, Sherry]

Publisher: Empowerment Productions with Balboa Press, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Member’s Titles

Date of Publication: April 21st 2016

Genre: General Fiction

Where the book can be found: Amazon

Book synopsis:

Winner 14 Awards ─ Explore the supernatural, angels, souls, miracles, the afterlife, heaven, the power of love, intuition, & prayer ─ intertwined with a mystical family storyline and a touch of romance. “A moving, memorable story… a highly recommended, evocative read…” 
Set in the San Francisco Bay Area and inspired by a vivid dream with the author’s deceased sister shouting from a mountain top, this intriguing novel blends autobiographical fact and narrative fiction straight from the author’s heart. “Riveting.” 

If you enjoy CS Lewis, Ann Voskamp, Eckhardt Tolle, Oprah, Judith Orloff, or mystical stories like The Shack, or The Alchemist, or The Celestine Prophecy, you’ll be captivated.

Kate Kindrick is born gifted with a 7th sense ─ the ability to read human hearts coupled with keen intuition. Kate struggles to understand her premonitions while surrounded by skeptical, sometimes cruel, family members and their secrets. Is Kate psychic? A medium? Simply intuitive? Empowered by Angels?

The segments of this story that embrace death are drawn from Sherry’s real-life experiences when she was present with beloved family members as they passed away. Her wondrous encounters of loved ones’ spirits after their physical deaths are deeply engaging. This tantalizing novel percolates with subtle wisdom that is inspirational, transformational, and healing. 

“A breath of fresh, clean air…” “Intriguing characters” “… a page turner”

Whether you believe in the supernatural, existence of souls, miracles, the power of prayer, angels, heaven, or not, this thought-provoking book explores issues relevant to many of today’s societal woes: prejudice, abuse, eating disorders, and limiting belief systems. It delves into the mysteries of death and of angels, intuition, finding God in all, and true love. Full of spirit, it brims with inspiration, daring, hope, and the importance of following our dreams. 

My review:

This book started off slow. Slow to the point where I almost stopped reading it. After the first couple of chapters, the story started and it was a great one. Christianity is discussed in this book, but it was not shoved down my throat. The author shows the **bad** side of being a Christian and she showcases it well.

I loved Kate’s character. She is innocent and sweet that I wanted to give her a huge hug when the bad stuff started happening to her. Her ability to read hearts is something that was passed down from her grandmother. The descriptions of what people’s hearts looked like were eerie.

I didn’t like the names and how they always started with the same letter. Put it this way, her Aunt was Ruthie Renee. It bugged me.

The bad guy in this book was a legit bad guy who hid behind his wealth and Christianity. Every time I read his scenes, I got a bad taste in my mouth. I wanted to swoop down into the book and smack him in the face. He did get what was coming to him in the end and I was glad.

The ending was bittersweet. If I wasn’t sitting in an orthodontist office, I would have burst out into tears.

How many stars will I give The Girl Who Could Read Hearts? 3.5/4

Why? A very well written book that takes you on an emotional journey with a little girl who has a very rare, very special 7th sense of reading hearts. You get caught up in the story, after the slow start, and start rooting for people to make the right choices/decisions.

Will I reread? Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends? Yes

Age range? Teen

Why? No sex. Also, there is an eating disorder portrayed, domestic abuse and child abuse. Also, racism and medical misconduct are portrayed.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**