Marissa Meyer: Supernova

This is the third and final series in Marissa Meyer’s renegade series and you will need to read the other two books in this series (Renegades and Archenemies) to fully grasp everything going on in this book.

In the final book of this trilogy Marissa Meyer shows the lengths people will go to to achieve power:

Nova knows what she has to do, she has to free Ace from the Renegades, get him his helmet and once and for all free the city from those in power and let humans fight their own battles. If only the plan was that simple or humans were that simple and things were black and white. As Nova and Adrian struggle to keep their identities a secret a war is about to take place and they need to protect the ones they love. Can hero and villain work together to save the city or can only one side rule them all.

Here we are at the end of the trilogy, everything has been leading up to this book and I will say this book was great. It ended the series really well. The darkness and showing what people will do with a little information to condemn those around them is abundant in this book. 

Wow, the suspense in this book is great and I do not know how Nova was able to keep her cool throughout the book with the possibility that her lies and betrayals could come to light at any second. I also enjoyed that this book did play out like I thought it would and Nova’s powers didn’t increase in a way that I thought they would as well.

Once again Nova is a great character and for me Adrian was just go-hum. He is totally the YA part of this books based upon his choices he makes throughout this book. Nova is just sensational as a character and her growth throughout the series is what I look for in series.

I think my main complaint with the book was that things seemed to drag on and it was a bit repetitive from the second book.

I like the little bit of information that was given at the end on the book as it explained a few things and also hinted at maybe another trilogy to come. I know I would read it.

I have really enjoyed this series by Meyer and I loved that it had some darker aspects throughout and I must say the suspense aspect was on point in this book. Highly recommended series.

Enjoy!!!

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Catherine Ryan Howard: 56 Days

Catherine Ryan Howard shows what happens when people take advantage of the COVID lockdown:

It starts with yet another fire alarm to an apartment building but ends with a body being discovered in an apartment that has been there for around three weeks. Who is this man? Was he murdered? Or accident? Or Suicide? We need to go back 56 days prior to the start of the lockdown to the pandemic, to figure out all these questions and realize that nothing is as it seems.

I think that it was an interesting that Howard decided to feature a book based around COVID, as I’m sure some people will say too soon. But hey if it inspires you to write I say why not and really the pandemic and lockdown did create a setting I had not read in a book before.

I enjoy the books that are on two different timelines as they slowly get closer together. I find, for me, this adds additional mystery to the book as you know how some things are going to end but you do not know how you get there. This was a slow burn of a book, but I found that even though it was a slow one it was able to keep me engaged by constantly changing the time frame that we were reading about.

There are three main POV in this book but I will say that you only really get to know two of the characters fairly well, Oliver and Ciara. I wish there would have been more from Leah, the detective, but I do understand why Howard chose to make Oliver and Ciara the main focus of the book. Speaking of them, you know right off that each is hiding something and really Oliver’s seems to come out of nowhere but Ciara’s I was able to figure out for the most of it out.

Part of the reason I wanted more from Leah’s POV was to see how the investigation unfolded more. I feel like there were many unanswered questions that they would have followed up on. 

This is the second book I have read by Howard and I really enjoyed it. It is also completely different from her other book I have read which I appreciate the lack of formula so fa. I look forward to see what Howard comes out with next.

Enjoy!!!

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Amanda Foody: All of us Villains

In the first in a new series, Amanda Foody shows the length that families will go to in order to retain the power of High Magic:

When the Blood Moon rises, it signals the fall of the veil and a tournament to the death begins. Seven families enter the tournament but only one can be the victor. The winner of the tournament grants their family access to the High Magic the most secret and powerful resource in the world. But this year is different, the tournament used to be done in secret but a new tell all book has been published and people have come to gawk, criticized and speculate who will wind. The whole world is watching and more than one of the contenders want to rewrite their typical family story.

This is the first book that I have read by Foody and I was not sure what to expect as I had never heard of her as an author, and was fully picked up this book for the cover and the book description. And I will say that I really enjoyed this book, it was much darker than I expected it to be and there were some twists early on that I did not see coming. It has been said that it is like the Hunger Games but with Magic and yes on a surface level this is true for the overall concept, but other than the competition to the death, I did not find them that similar than that. I think that Foody did a great job of separating herself from the Hunger Games comparison with the world building she has done at the beginning of the book, and having it take place in our modern time.

I was lucky enough to get and ARC audio version of the book and wow was this book ever enhanced because of it. I felt like narrator were able to capture the feelings, that you became more invested, or disliked them even more. This is a book that I would 100% recommend that you read the audiobook version of it, you will not be disappointed with it.

There are 4 main character that Foody attempts to develop in this book and for the most part she succeed on a very surface level for most of them. We know each of the 4 characters wants, needs and why winning the tournament means so much to them. I think the character that is developed the best is Alistair Lowe (or also known as The Lowe) as everything does seem to revolve a lot around him, as his family currently has the High Magic. Also there was just something about Alistair that drew me to him as a character, than the other ones.

I think the one thing that bothered me about the book is that all the villains are not really villainous throughout the book. Many of the characters just put up a front of how they believe they are supposed to act. Do not get me wrong there are some villainous acts that occur, I just thought there would be more, given the title and the nature of the plot of this book

Foody is off to an amazing start in this series. I was really impressed with the darkness of the book and developing four main characters fairly well. I look forward to reading the second book in this series, and I know I'll be looking for the audiobook version as it was simply awesome was to read this book.

Enjoy!!!

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Kevin O'Brien: The Night She Disappeared

Kevin O'Brien what happens when you cannot remember what happened the night before and you are the last person to see someone alive:

 

Anna is Seattle TV reporter and she ended up doing (more like forced) a piece on Courtney for the news who just happens to be her boyfriend/lover Russ's wife .Anna doesn't drink very often and she certainly should never drink with her lover and his wife, yet someone Anna finds herself in this situation. The hangover is brutal but she can't help thinking that something worse happened that night, and her mind first goes to that Courtney has realized that her and Russ are together. The truth is much worse, Courtney is missing and the last people to see her alive were Anna and Russ. The spot light is even more an Anna as everyone from neighbour, police to online TV celebrities try to figure out what happened to Courtney and are determined to try anything to get to the "truth". Anna only wishes she could remember what happened on the Night Courtney disappeared

 

I had high hopes for this book but to sum it up I was really bored throughout the book. I did not find it suspenseful at all, book just felt bland and flat and I was forcing myself to pick up the book just to finish. So you know by then that it is not a book that is keeping you engaged.

The main character was just okay and not really well defined as a character, though i think that O'Brien was trying to flesh her out as one, but just never got there. Most of the book is really spent with Anna sitting around her houseboat waiting for news of what happened to Courtney from the police. She does a bit of digging on her own, but that leads no where and is not the main focus that O'Brien chooses to take with the plot. I think I would have like the book better if Anna had done more sleuthing, but the type of reported that O'Brien has Anna a be (feel good pieces) sleuthing does not fit her wheel house.

I figured it out quite early and I will admit that i did not see one twist coming, but when that twist was revealed didn't find is shocking or adding anything to the story as I had already had it figured out. Like I said above the suspense was never there, from the mysterious phone call, to Anna not being able to remember what happened the night before, nothing gave me the edge of my seat feeling

I did like the nod to Gone Girl in the book as as you’re reading it you do start to think the same things, and there is a large portion of the population who had read that book.

I really struggles to finish this book, an honestly I give myself props for finishing it. I think if it had not bee a book i received off of Netgalley I wouldn't of. This one just wasn't for me. 

Cheers!!!

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Charlaine Harris: Dead Until Dark

In the first in the series, Charlaine Harris show's what happens when a Vampire shows up in a small rural town:

 

 Sookie Stackhouse could be an server in a bar in a small town, but the truth is that Sookie has a secret; She is able to read the minds of all the people around her. She shields herself the best she can but sometimes the noise slips through. That is until he walks into the bar, a Vampire, his mind is silent to her and it is heaven. But Vampires are not always wanted in small towns and someone or something is determined to make sure that this one does not stick around.

 

Yep you guessed it I am probably one of the few who enjoy the Urban Fantasy genre that has not read Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series, and my only defense is....I have no idea why I did not pick it up at the time of release, maybe i had read too many Vampire books at the time, but honestly I do not know why.

Maybe I would have enjoyed this book when it first came out, but reading it now, it just felt like there was a lack of story, lack of anything happening, just a woman who enjoys the silence in her mind that she feels whenever Bill is around. There is not much character development either and Harris tries to make the Vampires scary but yet it falls into the troupe that they are all good looking as well. We get a bit of a picture of the Vampire Underworld, but it is not really fleshed out.

I struggle with Sookie as a character, she does not really think anything of herself, other than how other people perceive her, which is basically dumb and slow. This has warped her own thinking of herself to fit these expectations and she considers her mind reading ability as a malady. I think I could get behind Sookie as a character, if all her problem were not solved by the introduction of a Man (Vampire). As soon as he comes into her life she all of a sudden has purpose? Not my thing. 

I know I won't be continuing on in this series, there wasn't much I liked about the book, except maybe the ending. Plus I feel hints of a love triangle coming around, so i'll just stop now. For those who have read the book and watched to show, is the show any good?

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