Despite reading 14 books this month I only had 2 that were 5 star books for me, Leviathan Wakes and The Book of the Baku. However, in October I have quite a few five star predictions including It and Salem's Lot by Stephen King, Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey and The Tower of Fools by Andrzej Sapkowski.
Nemesis by Brendan Reichs 4.5 Stars - The opening to Nemesis was actually really interesting and I don’t know why I put it off for so long. We are introduced to Melinda “Min” was for every two years on her birthday since she was eight has been murdered by a mysterious man only to wake up in a field unharmed. There is also a big Announcement coming in the present as there is an asteroid that will possibly destroy Earth and the Announcement is to tell the people whether the asteroid is actually going to destroy Earth. When she was young she told her mother and a man named Doctor Lowell about them and was given medication to deal with it but she has always thought that there is more going on but no one is telling her anything. She doesn’t tell anyone now not even her best friend Thomas “Tack” but she is struggling with her situation as she lives with her mother and they are quite poor and Tack comes from an abusive family. I loved the scene where they blew up the school bully’s car but one of that group, Noah stands out to me as having a possible connection to Min. The man who kills her though is also strange both in the present and the in flashbacks as he is expressionless as he kills Min but whenever she asks him why he is killing her he just apologizes and I can’t wait to see where the story goes.
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon 3.75 Stars - Realistically speaking The Priory of the Orange Tree shouldn’t scare me as much as it does because I have read bigger books like The Way of Kings which is 1000+ pages long. That being said the opening couple of chapters of Priory were very dense as we are introduced to a lot of people, places and events happening all at once. We are first introduced to Tane in a place called Seiiki preparing for her Choosing Day, although I don’t know what this means yet but it has something to do with the deities they worship when she spots a stranger coming out of the sea who wants to speak with the Warlord. Tane knows that if the man is presented to the Warlord of Seiiki, Pitosu Nadama he will be executed so through a friend she smuggles him into the home of Doctor Niclays Roos. The man turns out to be the Scribe to the Queen of the House of Berethnet, Sabran the Ninth and he seems to be there for a reason but Niclays doesn’t allow him to say what he is there for. We then switch to The House of Berethnet, where we are introduced to Ead Duryan, who seems to be an assassin protecting the Queen from other assassination attempts. Ead also has a role within the Court and makes it her mission to know everything that is happening around the Queen in order to protect her especially since they believe that the previous Queen was murdered by the Yscals from the Draconic Isles, the rival kingdom to Inys.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix 3 Stars - I haven’t read anything by Grady Hendrix before but I have heard that Hendrix’s books toe the line between horror and comedy which is intriguing for me and after reading the dense behemoth that was Priory of the Orange Tree I needed something easier on my brain so I couldn’t wait to get into this book. The opening to The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires was interesting as we are introduced to Patricia Campbell, a mother and housewife whose only interactions outside the home come from her book club. The book starts in November 1988 where Marjorie Fretwell is running the book club but no one has read the monthly book and it sort of dissolves with several members including Patricia, Grave, Slick, Maryellen and Kitty starting their own book club focusing on novels and true crime and life seems to be good for Patricia despite her senile mother-in-law moving in when we jump forward to May 1993.
Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare 3 Stars - I have a love hate relationship with Cassandra Clare’s books at the moment but The Mortal Instruments was ok but The Infernal Devices was brilliant and the short stories I read were also great. Chain of Gold is following the character from The Infernal Devices and their children so I couldn’t wait to get into it, even if it was only to see Will, Jem and Tessa again. We can tell from the very beginning that there is going to be some timeline jumping in this novel which I wasn’t too keen on, but the novel opens in 1897 with Lucie Herondale meeting a strange boy in the woods surrounding her home after she gets lost and falls down a fairy hole. This didn’t seem that significant as we jump into the “present” but it might come into play later. In the present we are introduced to the Merry Thieves consisting of, Matthew Fairchild, James Herondale as well as Thomas and Christopher who are all descendants of the characters from The Infernal Devices. In this time demon activity in London is very low and the boys are dismayed about that but this is soon overshadowed when James learns that Tatiana Blackthorn and her adopted daughter, Grace are coming to London as he has been in love with Grace for a long time despite the fact Matthew doesn’t approve of her. Cordelia and Alastair Carstairs along with their mother, Sona are also moving to London for Lucie and Cordelia to become parabatai but it is also because their father, Elias Carstairs is awaiting trial as he being blamed for a mission gone wrong and Cordelia wants to seek Charlotte’s help in freeing him. Cordelia also has also been in love for a long time with James and Lucie believes that the girl he is in love with is Cordelia as no one except Matthew knows about Grace. For the outset I wasn’t as keen on this love triangle between James, Grace and Cordelia as I was about Will, Jem and Tessa as there doesn’t seem to be any chemistry between the characters right now.
The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes 4.25 Stars - I didn’t really know anything about The Inheritance Games before getting into other than it follows a girl who receives a mysterious inheritance and in order to claim it she has to win games of some sort against the family but I was intrigued by the premise. We are introduced to Avery Grambs who is just trying to make her own way in life after the death of her mother, and she is currently living with her half-sister, Libby but sleeps in the car when her on again, off again boyfriend, Drake is there. One day at school she is pulled aside and learns that she has been named in the will of Tobias Hawthorne even though she has absolutely no idea who the man is and is flown first class to Texas for the will reading. When Avery and Libby arrive at Hawthorne House, they meet the four grandsons of Tobias; Grayson, the heir apparent, Jameson, a current drunk grieving for his grandfather, Nash, who seems happy to have nothing to do with his family and Alexander aka Xander, the eldest and most likeable of the Hawthorne family. Avery also meets their mother, Skye who also seems to be quite nice but this might change given that they soon learn that Tobias has left almost everything to Avery and not his family.
Stalking Shadows by Cyla Panin 4 Stars - There are a couple of things I want to mention before getting into my review. The first is that while Stalking Shadows has been marketed as a Beauty and the Beast retelling, it was more of a reimagining for me. I also felt that the Beauty and the Beast story has been overdone in recent years but Panin’s interpretation of the original tale was beautiful especially when it was coupled with a really creepy gothic atmosphere and I preferred this as it wasn’t a direct retelling like so many other novels, looking at you ACOTAR. It gave the original tale its well deserved creepy atmosphere and took a refreshing spin on Beauty and the Beast which I deeply appreciated as a reader. At heart this is definitely a come for the monster, stay for the atmosphere kind of book which really surprised me as it has been a while since a book gripped me this much from the atmosphere alone.
Death Perception by Lee Allen Howard 3 Stars - Death Perception was an interesting story that in some ways reminded me of The Dead Zone by Stephen King as we follow a young man named Kennet who happens to have a supernatural power. Kennet operate the crematorium at the local funeral home and he discovers that he can learn the cause of death for the people he cremates, however, sometimes the cause of death on the death certificate doesn’t match what Kennet sees which indicates some foul play at work and it was really fun to unravel this mystery with Kennet. The story is very well written featured multiple points of view, different subplots, twists and conspiracies but it does have a lot of obviously religious undertones which I wasn’t keen on and they weren’t hinted at so it caught me by surprise when they were introduced.
Stalker Stalked by Lee Matthew Goldberg 4.25 Stars - Where do I even begin talking about Stalker Stalked, the first thing would be to say I am not a huge fan of thrillers and I very rarely find them to be outstanding but Lee Matthew Goldberg blew me away with this book. It was gritty, real and really creepy in places and it just gripped me from the very first page to the very last. We are following Lexi who is a pharmaceutical sales rep with some nasty addiction in the form of pills and alcohol so she is a really unreliable protagonist which I enjoyed. After her boyfriend breaks up with her, Lexi’s reliance of pills and booze increases but she also becomes obsessed with a T.V. show called Socialites. This change in her mentality really highlight the pathological level that Lexi is on after her breakup. We also learn early on that Lexi is a seasoned stalker as this is how she got many of her ex’s to date her in the first place but she soon begins turning up at the filming location for Socialites and begins trying to befriend the stars because she thinks if they become friends her life will get better.
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer 3.5 Stars - I read Twilight for the first time this year and I have to admit that it wasn’t bad and I am finally getting into New Moon which I think is the book that I will have the most issues with. We re-join Bella and Edward as Bella turn 18 which is a huge thing for her now she is older than Edward but he is being stubborn about turning her. As they relax after school she learns that he contemplated suicide during the incident with James and that Carlisle has attempted it in the past as he explains who the Volturi are to her and their role within vampire society. She makes him swear never to try anything like that again and he agrees even though we know after the fact that Edward was already planning to leave Bella at this point. They head over to the Cullen house where they are throwing a birthday party for Bella and everything is going fine until she gets a papercut. Jasper reacts negatively to this but rather than being calm and removing him from the situation Edward launches Bella into some crystal cutting her even worse. This scene honestly made me laugh because of how stupid Edward is and people bash Jasper in this scene but he is an empath meaning he is now only feeling his own thirst but the thirst of the others as well especially Edward. The aftermath of this scene made me so angry especially since Bella realises in an unconscious sense that Edward is planning to leave her and doesn’t say or do anything about it.
Sidelined by Kara Bietz 4 Stars - Sidelined definitely wasn’t my typical genre of reading but it was interesting. We are following to main characters, Elijah and Julian who have some history together in both good and bad ways. Julian has a plan for senior year and it involves getting good grades, playing football an obtaining a scholarship to get out of Meridien. However, all these plans are seemingly ruined when his best friend and possibly something more, Elijah returns. Year before, Julian and Elijah were good friends until Julian caught Elijah breaking into the school to steal some money and turned him in. After this Elijah and his family moved away without even saying goodbye meaning there is some bad blood between the pair at first. Both boy soon realise though that time and space hasn’t erased the feelings they have for each other and Elijah is determined to show Julian that he’s not the person everyone thinks he is. This novel at its core is a story about secret, reality and acceptance as both Julian and Elijah fight to be themselves and to be together in a world where that doesn’t fit into the expectations of them.
The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White 3 Stars - I heard a lot about The Guinevere Deception when it came out but I am only now picking it up. I was intrigued as it is a retelling of the legend of King Arthur but with more magic. We learn very earl y on that the Guinevere we are following is a changeling as the real Guinevere has died. She is travelling to Camelot where we learn that magic is wild around its borders making it dangerous. This is important as Camelot has outlawed magic meaning even Merlin was kicked out of the city despite his role in helping Arthur reclaim his crown. This Guinevere also has a major fear of water of any kind and we don’t know why yet but I am hoping to find out soon. Arthur knows that Guinevere is a changeling and is essentially Merlin’s daughter sent to protect him and he is working with her in that. However, we get brief snippets from the Dark Queen who seems to responsible for what is happening to the forests outside Camelot and she is trying to dethrone Arthur and Guinevere is the only thing standing between her and him.
The Book of the Baku by R. L. Boyle 5 Stars - The Book of the Baku is a debut novel and I didn’t know much about it going into it other than we are follow Sean who after moving in with his grandfather encounters the ancient entity known as the Baku and I was intrigued. The opening to The Book of the Baku was interesting as it opens with what I presume is the ending of the novel and I want to see how we get there. In the present, we are introduced to Sean who has been in care since the death of his mother, who is now being taken in by his grandad, a retired writer. Sean lost his ability to speak at the same time he entered the care system so we learn about him through his thoughts and actions rather than his words. Sean is an artist and his grandad provides materials for him, which is really thoughtful, but the most interesting thing was how Sean finds a book called The Baku in the library written by his grandad and this might be the key to understanding what the Baku is and what it wants. Sean also has a disability due to a rare genetic mutation that puts him at a disadvantage in physical situation as we saw in the opening chapter.
To Break a Covenant by Alison Ames 4 Stars - When I saw To Break A Covenant being compared to Wilder Girls I was apprehensive about reading it as I didn’t really like Wilder Girls but I decided to give it a go. Check the trigger warnings before reading this book as a dark horror they are very accurate to the content of the book. I have to say that To Break a Covenant was creepy, mysterious, gory, everything you want in a horror book even a young adult one and it was beautifully written to boot. The basic premise of the book is we are following a group of girls as they investigate the paranormal things happening in their own specifically an old mine. I actually manage to read the book in a single sitting as I was so gripped from the opening page which very rarely happens with me personally as a reader.
Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey 5 Stars - I have been trying to get into more adult science fiction like I did with adult fantasy and The Expanse is a series that has been repeatedly recommended to me so I have decided to pick up Leviathan Wakes. The opening to Leviathan Wakes was interesting as we have multiple perspectives, the first is Julie’s who works aboard the ship, Scopuli when the ship is taken over and something out of the Alien franchise happens to the remaining crew. We are then introduced to our protagonist, Jim Holden, working as the XO on the Canterbury along with the crew containing, Naomi, Amos, Paj, Shed and Ade, who Holden has a relationship with right now although he wants something more serious and she doesn’t. The Canterbury is a hauler bring ice to various planets and moons for water resources since humanity in this universe occupies nearly every planet and moon in our solar system and the Belt beyond. We are also introduced to Detective Miller and his partner, Havelock who are looking into a sudden decrease in organised crime on Ceres when Miller is assigned to a new case. This case is the retrieval of Juliette Mao who has been missing for a while and he is to bring her back. We have also learned about the OPA or Outer Planet Alliance which are a sort of terrorist group. The Canterbury ends up picking up an emergency signal from the Scopuli and they head to investigate and salvage what is left but when the small team consisting of Holden, Naomi, Amos and Shed arrive, they instantly know something is wrong especially when they find a transmitter for the signal which isn’t part of the ship’s equipment. They want to leave but they are informed by their captain that there is an issue aboard the Canterbury. The issues turns out to be a ship firing on them and Holden has to watch as the Canterbury is destroyed, with his crew now reduced to only five including himself Holden decides to put out a broadcast. Just before they learn that the transmitter and technology the enemy ship had seems a lot like the Martian Navy and in the broadcast he states that the Canterbury was destroyed by the Navy and even Havelock and Miller see the broadcast.
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