B.R. Spangler: When the Sky Falls

In the first in a new series, B.R. Spangler show what happens when humans mess with the environment:

The machines were supposed to help, they were supposed to save the world from Climate change, reverse the damage that humans had caused to Earth. When the machines are turned on, the unthinkable happens, the Machines do the opposite of what they were supposed to do and release a toxic fog that not only burns those who touch it but it has the ability to tear apart anything that was made from organic material. Emily has one job given to her by her parents is to take her sister Sammi to the mall, where they will be safe. Her father is trying to fix the machines make the fog go away and he would meet them there. But you can never see anything Fog and something the Fog is the safer than humanity.

As the first in a new series, I think that the premise that Spangler has presented here is one that had me instantly sold. I will say I did not realize that it was a YA book, so that took me a bit by surprised and I had to readjust my expectations for the book and this did take me a bit. The majority of the book also takes place in about few days after the Fog emerges and a lot happens in that time, frame very fast paced as everything is going to shit, which i feel is very realistic, but then when get a huge time jump.

I'm on the fence with the 15-year jump in time that occurs, part of me wishes that we got to see how Emily and Peter were able to survive but at the same time, I'm happy for the time jump to see how far the colony has come. However, there are some Significant events that happened in those 15 years that are not addressed. Also the time jump occurs around the 75% mark of the book, so it was almost like a teaser for the next book especially with the cliffhanger at the end.

I liked the idea of the Fog coming from a man mad machine that was supposed to help but the opposite happens. I feel like this is the premise of many dystopia books, so not that original but I appreciate that Spangler took the route of Fog causing the earth to be uninhabitable outside and trying to find places that the Fog could not eat through.

As with any end of the world type book there are tragedies in this book, and most of them I did not see coming. Spangler did a great job of showing that no one is safe and heartbreak can happen to anyone.

I liked the characters and felt the heartbreak with them but never really knew the characters as the reader is with each of them for only a short amount of time between the two timelines. This is more of a plot driven book than i thought it would be.

There are A LOT of unanswered questions by the end of this book, from the Outsiders to the Machines, there are many things that need to be resolved or explained further. I have so many questions and I don’t really like that Spangler left so much unresolved/unexplained.

This book was okay. I think if you like plot driven books, end of days and YA book then you will enjoy this book. I am unsure if I will continue on with the series, I mean the cliffhanger is pretty big but I don’t like all the unanswered questions in this one and if Spangler continues this, I know I would not enjoy the second book.

Cheers!!!!

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Rachel Caine: Stillhouse Lake

In the first in a series, Rachel Caine shows how far a mother will go to protect her children:

Gina Royal has an ordinary life, two kids and a husband who loves her, the white picket fence is where her life it, that is until a car accident changes everything. It reveals that her husband is a serial killer. Now Gina, now Gwen, is forced to run, not from her husband who is behind bars, but from the internet trolls and family members of the women who her husband murdered, not believing that she could not have known. Gwen finally feels that she has a found a place where her and the kids can settle down for a little while but when the first body shows up and then threatening letters from a familiar address, Gwen does everything she can to keep the truth of who her and are kids are hidden, but you can only hide from evil for so long before it finds you.

This book/series has been on my TBR for a very long time and I should not have put it off this long. I was hooked right from the beginning, I mean it is hard not to be, as it is not every day that your FMC discovered that her husband is a serial killer and just the night before there was a woman strung up in your garage who was being tortured to death. I mean if you like thriller books, that is a hard start to stop reading at. Caine did an amazing job of keeping the story flowing and fast paced that you do not want to put this book down.

I liked that there were multiple mysteries that Caine presents in the book and you wonder are they connected are they not connected, who could be involved, things like that. Although, I was able to figure out some of the twists that Caine was going to do, I did not figure out all of them. I certainly did not think that Caine was going to end the book the way she did and it left be wanting for more.

You cannot help but feel and root for Gwen who has everything stacked against her, and there are those out there that not only want to hurt her but her children as well. All she is looking for is a place and a way to keep them safe. I appreciate that she tries to balance safety and normalcy for them even though it is restrictive at times.

You better believe that after I finished this book I went right out and got the next book in the series. If you have been eyeing this book/series, don’t wait any long pick it up and start reading it, you'll probably want to get it done in one day.

Enjoy!!!!!

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Catherine Mack: Every Time I go on Vacation Someone Dies

In Catherine Mack's debut novel, it shows how a vacation can turn from good to bad to worse:

All Eleanor wants to do is get through the latest book tour. The Pros is that it is taking place in Italy, the MAJOR Con is that her ex and blackmailer and muse for the male lead in the series, Connor is also going to be on the tour. That is why Eleanor has decided to finally Kill Connor, well not in real life, but in her series so that she can move on and start writing something different. But when someone tries to kill Connor in real life, and the only thing they know that there is only 10 days to figure out who the killer is, but as other bodies start falling, the suspect list keeps getting shorter. This is the vacation to die for, literally. 

As a debut novel I appreciate that Mack was trying to do something a bit different here with the format of the book and how all the information is laid out and I think that Mack succeeded on some points but not on others. I really enjoyed the ideas that Mack presented of an author who's first book is based upon real events of her vacation as well as that the book was only told from Eleanor's POV. However, I wasn’t a fan of the format of Eleanor talking to the readers instead of just telling the story and the never-ending footnotes. I can say that I did not read all the footnotes. Also how does this translate in other formats like audio, are the footnotes at the end of each chapters?

I did like the overall plot of this book and I think that Mack did a good job of placing people against each other, and determining that the killer was in or connected to their group in some ways. I also thought that the methods of murder were different from a lot of books that I read. I was able to figure out most of the twist before the end.

I’m not sure a ever like Eleanor as a character, she was annoying a lot of the time, and pretty selfish throughout the book, even when she realizes that she was being selfish she never changes from being so. But I did like she is an unreliable narrator as we only get her POV and there are always 2 sides of the story you know as the reader you are not getting all the information or sides to the relationship and story.

This book really took me down memory lane from a trip to Italy 10 years ago and that was probably the best part of the book, getting to relive some of my own memories.

This book was just not for me. I think that Mack tried to do a bit too much with this book and that lead it to not be for me.

Cheers!!!!!

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