Scott Sigler takes a reader to answer the question what would you do if you could not remember who you are? Would you rise above or fade to the background:
Em awakes to a stinging sensation in her neck and finds herself stuck in a coffin. She is extremely confused, she knows today should be her twelfth birthday and she should be celebrating with her family. But she has no recollection of who she is, where she comes from or even her name. When she is able to break out of her coffin, she discovers there are more in this strange room than just hers. So begins a journey of Em and those who have also survived as they try to remember who they are, where they came from and how long they were in the coffins for and why. Em's about to embark on a journey of not only self discovery but survival as well.
This book almost became a DNF book for me. I really struggled through the first half of the book, in not only connecting with the characters but also trying to figure out what where Sigler was planning on taking the story. One of my main issues with this book and why it almost became a DNF is that in the first 100 pages all the are really doing is walking in straight line, with a little bit of interactions with each other but they just keep walking never really going any where. This was just a boring and it was hard to hold my attention.
As the main characters in this book do not have any memory of their time before, I found it hard to get attached to them. You get to know them slowly as really they are just figuring out who they are and their own tendencies, personalities and strength, I guess I would equate it to very delayed puberty. They were put in the coffins when they were 12 but now they are in the bodies of around 17 year old, so their thought processes are that of a 12 year old, which for me was very hard to relate to and understand.
I struggle to figure out what age group this book is best suited for. I know this book is a YA novel but the main characters think that they are 12 years old but in adult like bodies. As an adult I was unable to connect with the characters and I wonder if a mid teen would be able to as well. That said I think the darkness (which would have been nice to have throughout the book instead of just walking) that occurs in the latter part of the book is not something that I would let a 12 year old read. So for me Sigler's book is stuck somewhere in-between all of those age categories, not really fitting for anyone.
I will say that the book is way better in the last third of the novel and Sigler was able to adds some twist in that I do not think that many people will see coming. However, I struggle to recommend a book where it takes two thirds to really come together and become interesting. I personally do not think I will continue on in this series.
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New York Best Selling Author Sandra Brown is back with a novel that puts one women against everything she has ever believed in:
Dr. Emory Charbonneau is a well known pediatrician and philanthropist so when she goes missing while running in the mountains of North Carolina, people are not only concerned with her safety, but wonder why her husband took so long to report her missing. Emory wakes up in a strange place, with a strange head injury and a strange man. Emory is not sure what to make of her situation but she knows she is not going any where any time soon, even if she could. The mountain man has made it clear that she is not going anywhere. Emory needs to not only figure out this mountain man (curb her attraction towards him) so she can get away but also try to figure out who wants her dead. But nothing is ever simple in the mountain wilderness as mother nature and human nature tend to take over.
I think fans of Sandra Brown will enjoy this book as brown has a formula that she likes to use and she sticks to it in this book. This is probably why I only really read a book by her once a year. So basically those who like Browns' formula will like this book. If you are looking for something different from Brown then you will find this book pretty redundant. There have been books by Brown in the past that I found really engaging and wanting to know what the big twist is going to be or for the other shoe to drop (so to speak). However, I found that the big secret was nothing really so big or interesting, I was expecting more from Brown in this aspect.
I liked that Brown decided to have point of views from the three main characters, Emory, Jeff (her husband) and the mountain mystery man. I think the added a better view of what was going on in the story and these characters minds. I think the story would have suffered if it was only told from Emory's point of view. However, I never really felt anything towards the characters for the most part, well other than what an Ass Jeff was, but I found that the characters were secondary to the story and trying to figure out why the mountain man was so secretive. There are also come secondary points of view in the story but they are not constant through out but they do provide some additional information about the mountain man, which the story needed as Emory is not very good at being a detective and figuring things out.
While reading this book all I could think of was that Brown was trying to capitalize on Gillian Flynn's novel Gone Girl as there are some parallel themes with in this book, and not really any new ideas expressed here. However, this does not any where close a dark or suspenseful as Flynn's.
While not my favourite Brown read, this book was still able to keep me entertained and I do think that those who like Brown's formula will like this book. Though I do hope that one of these days Brown will create something new and really surprise me.
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You will need to read the first book in this series, Red Rising, in order to
understand this book, world and what is at stake for Darrow. Also it is one of
the best debuts that I have read, so really you should just pick the book up
for that reason :)
Pierce Brown is back with the next novel in his Red Rising series and if
Darrow thought the games of the school were shocking, nothing has prepared him
for what real Gold life will be like:
Darrow has infiltrated the Gold’s life and culture. He is highly regarded by
many of his peers, friends and those at the top of this ruling class. But
Darrow knows that everything still hangs in the balance, that he is still on a
life or death mission that with each day that passes becomes more crucial to
complete but also the lines become blurred to more he gets to know some Golds.
Darrow is used to the battlefields of the school and the academy neither of
which has properly prepared him for the political games that he needs to play.
Darrow needs to learn quick who he can trust, if the rebellion is still on and
that betrayal is ever common in the Gold lifestyle as he tries to bring down
this elitist society from within.
After reading Red Rising I was hooked, and knew that I would be reading this
book, however, I purposely denied reading this book right away as I knew that
book three was not coming out till 2016. I think I am still in shock about how
this book ended (bumped this book up to 4.5 stars for me as Brown totally
changed the game) that I find that I am speechless, breathless and wanting more
as in NOW. I cannot believe how long some people have waited for book three; I
would not have wanted to wait as long as others have.
I liked that Brown took a more political stance with this book, which I
think was very important in this stage of the game as not everything can be
accomplished through war (though at times it does help). This is not to say
that this book lacks in the action points from the first, there are still
several battles and fight scenes for readers to enjoy, but it is the backroom
conversations and plays that the reader needs to pay attention to in this book.
I personally love any book that can combine political intrigue and action and
Brown does it extremely well in this book.
While I did miss finding out what Darrow has been up to for the first two
year of the school, I do not miss them at the same time. I wanted to see Darrow
would grow as a character but I think that writing a book about his time at the
academy would have just been Red Rising all over again. It was interesting to
see Darrow a few years down the road to see how he had developed as a character
and as a Gold, but I hate to say it but I found that Darrow had not really
changed or learned some important lesson.
Darrow is the Sword not the Pen and the more you read Golden Son, the more
you realize that Darrow has some very valuable lessons that he still needs to
learn, especially on the Pen side of things. He thinks he can read people, he
thinks he can play the political game and while he is a quick thinker when
thrown into a deadly situation, he still seems to lack the ability to see the
whole picture or the long game. I was just hoping for more overall character
growth in this book (as the book does pick up 2 years later) and with the
events of how this novel ends, it will be interesting to see where Brown takes
Darrow as a character and if he is able to push him further.
So happy that Servo is back, as he is one of my favourite characters from
Red Rising and Darrow needs all the friends that he can get and Servo is
someone who has never wavered in loyalty to Darrow. Servo may be crude, rude
and sadistic at times, but I think he is a good sounding board for Darrow and
sees things as they are more than Darrow does. Servo's ideas may seem extreme
at times, but he was raised a Gold and they are known to have no mercy.
One of the things that I truly appreciate about Brown's writing in this
series is that he does not take sci-fi to the point where I no longer understand
what is going on. I do not need a degree in physics to understand some of the
concepts and I do not have to been reading sci-fi my entire life to understand
the world that Brown has created. The world being placed in our solar system
probably helps as well though as I know the planets and where they are located.
Brown is extremely smart for doing this as it opens his books up too non-sci-fi
readers (like me) to now only enjoy but relish in a genre that I do not read
very often.
This is a fantastic series; I’m hooked, I want more, and I am really looking
forward to the third book, which comes out early next year (as I said still in
shock how the book ended). I highly recommend it to those who read sci-fi and
those who don't as I think Brown was able to find some common middle ground
that both can appreciate. You need to check out this series.
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In the first book her triple threat series, Lis Wiehl mixes murder and
politics, and how perception is everything for both:
A seventeen year old goes missing while walking her dog, normally this would
only gain some attention from the media but Katie Converse was a senate page
and all have to wonder what type of foul play may be occurring. So the search
for Katie not only at home, but who was Katie as she was working as a page, who
did she interact with who did she see. Katie may have presented herself as a
good girl, but perception is everything and people want to know the truth. The
media storm of this case has attracted three friends to the case all with
different occupations and callings, television reporter Cassidy Shaw, Federal
Prosecutor Allison Pierce, and FBI Special Agent Nicole Hedges. All have a
different stake in finding out what happened to Katie and it's going to take
all three of them to figure it out before more people get hurt.
The more I read this book the more I equated it to the Netflix show The Killing
as it is a mixture of murder and politics but with three women trying to work
out the crime all with alternative motives. It also does into get as dark as
the Killing does, it never seems to go over the edge as I would have liked it
too. There are some good twists and turns thrown in to the book that will make
you sway back and forth about who you think did it, but I personally was able
to figure it out quite a bit before the end. I was hoping that Wiehl would be able to shock
me by having a different outcome, but she did not, my first instinct was the
right one. This is very much a who-done-it mystery book and not one of suspense
and thrills, so if that is what you are looking for that then this book is not
for you.
Wiehl tries to have three main characters in this book as each is given a point
of view and what they are doing to help the case but I felt that Allison was
the true main character of the case. Personally I really began to dislike
Cassidy by the end of the book (this does not mean that I did not feel sorry
for her and her domestic abuse situation) but I felt that she used her friends
on more than on occasions just to get ahead in her job. I understand that she
is a reporter and doing her job but to push her friends as she did for the
facts and the exclusive (which I still think they should not have given her)
made me cringe each time. They were putting their own jobs in jeopardy just to
help her and she never really seemed grateful for it. I felt that in this book
you never really get to know Nicole and she takes a back seat to the other two
characters as there seemed to be very few chapters or sections from her point
of view. Nicole was only really mentioned if Cassidy or Allison is there.
I found that Allison as a character that was portrayed with too much religious
beliefs for me as I do not think that her time spent at Church or
talking/praying to God really added anything to the plot or story line, it was
just there. If everything was connected back to a religion or a Church somehow
I would have understood adding this in, but none of it was so these aspects
felt more like filler points to me, get a few extra pages in the book here and
there. I think maybe Wiehl was using it as a way to separate her from the other
characters but I think her occupation, her personality in general and really
being the middle ground between the other two was enough to make her distinct
This book was okay, I did not enjoy it as much as the other Wiehl book that
I have read, and while I found the mystery aspect of the book was fairly well
done I was still able to put it together well before the end of the novel.
Overall, not a bad read, and people who like who-done-it mysteries will
probably enjoy it. I would read another book by Wiehl, but probably not in this
series as I was not a fan of one of the "main" characters and Allison
was a little too religious for me without it linking back to the actual story.
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