Derek Shupert: Broken Horizons

In the first of a series, Derek Shupert show the length a man, woman and dog will go to get back to those they love:

Seina receives a call from her brother that he can no longer stand to be at home with his step parents, she is determined to go see him and set things right. Along she gets into an accident as the grid mysterious fall and now she has to travel on foot to get to him. In the forest she meets Ryan and his Dog Dutch and they want to help her to get back, get to her brother. No one knows what caused the grid to fall, but that it always the first step in the fall of civilization.

I'm a fan of dystopia and I do enjoy when I get there to be there from the beginning with the characters to see how they react and to see the fall of civilization with them. This what I thought was going to happen in this book. We have our two main characters that happen to find each other in the forest, and they realize all is not right in the world, but they do not know why or how the world has changed. And that is basically all the happens in the story. 

Literally nothing of interest happens in this book. There is no suspense or terror. There is a slight mystery of how the power went out, emp would be the main guess but nothing about who the culprit was. There is an interesting aspect in the prologue but other than finding the drone, not knowing what to with the drone, there is no hint of who may be behind it. Normally there would be some sort of news report or Military official that would have one POV chapter to explain things but nope, nothing.

I'm not even joking that Nothing happens, it takes almost to 50% for them to lose power / cell service and before that the book is very much character driven, but i don’t feel really anything for the characters because for the majority of the book they are not in danger as NOTHING HAPPENS. I'm not even sure why we have Max's POV in the book, other than to make Siena a little more desperate to get to her brother, but his POV does not fill too much of a role of discovering things that Siena and Ryan could have discovered once they made it back to a town.

Dutch, the Dtuch Shepard, is the best part of the book. That dog is loyal to a fault.

This book was not for me. I think there are better dystopian books out there and even ones that use an EMP as the reason for it. I will not continue on with this series

Cheers!!!

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Benjamin Stevenson: Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone

In the first in a series, Benjamin Stevenson show that families have secrets worth killing for:

Ernest Cunningham has not been welcomed by his family in many years, but with a family reunion set to occur he has been given a pardon to attend. Ern knows that this will be one reunion to remember as someone decided that it needed to be at a ski resort (he could kill someone for that), and well everyone in Ern's family has killed someone so not the best idea to bring them all together, especially when someone is hellbent on bringing up the past and some of those deaths. 

This was such a clever book (and you can tell that Ern knows how clever he is) and I loved that it had more of the classic feel of a who-don it. While the title may imply that there is death happening everywhere in the book, they do not happen all at once, or even the main timeline of when the book occurs. This kind of muddies the waters a bit (but in a good way) as you try to puzzle out who has the most motivation for murder in the present time as they have all killed someone at one point or another. I was able to figure one of the twists before the end but not the Main twist that was very well done.

In order to enjoy this book you have to like that the narrator of the story is going to be talking directly to the reader. Stevenson uses this to give the readers some additional hints throughout the book as to who the murderer is as well as to recite little tidbits that he gave at the beginning of the book. I have not read too many books that use this to engage the reader, but I liked it in this book and thought that it worked well with the story.

You will also need to keep all the characters straight in this book as there are quite a few and well they all have some skeletons in their closets that they would not only like to forget but not let you know about as well. I will point out that the title says killed and not murdered.

Personally think this book was worth the hype a few years ago and really enjoyed the way that Stevenson decided to tell this murder mystery. I'll be checking out the other books in this series to see if they can hold up to this one.

Enjoy!!!

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CJ Leede: Maeve fly

In her debut novel, CJ Leede has a love letter to Los Angeles and the horrors that happen there:

Maeve Fly knows that she has to hide her true self from everyone else in the world. By day she works as the Ice Queen at the happiest Place on Earth and she LOVES her job. Being a Princess helps keep her grounded. By night, Maeve likes to haunt the seedier areas of LA, but still keeping her mask in place. When she meets her best friend's brother, Gidion, something shifts, something changes, something new, a new person and Dynamic Maeve has never had before but one that might just be deadly.

I will admit I went into this book almost blind, the cover drew me in and I saw some review that stated it was dark and disturbing but the first half of the book I wasn’t sure if we were reading the same book as everyone else. Yes, Maeve is a little odd but it felt like I somehow ended up in a hockey romance, a weird one I will give you that but still a hockey romance. However, one you get to the 75% Leede finally lets the gloves off.

Once you get to the 75 % part, this book becomes unhinged deranged and psychotic, honestly Leede does not hold back past that mark. Part of me wishes that it would have been this dark from the beginning but I get that Leede was trying to show how much Maeve has been pretending to be the Monkey the whole time but I wish the mask had come out a bit sooner.

Maeve is such an interesting character. She loves working as a Disney Princess and that is how she wants people to see her and it such a juxtaposition of what she thinks and what does with Gideon and then when the mask fully comes off later in the book it’s pretty crazy.

The romance aspect with Gideon sweet at times, as he just seems to get Maeve (or at least what she shows him) but also messed up and they have some same kinks and weirdness in the bedroom but to each their own. As I said I was not expecting so much romance in this book. I also wish there was a chapter or two or a new book that was Gideon’s POV to see what he truly thought of Maeve and his motives with her.

What an ending. It is one of those that you either like or dislike, and for me I liked the ending as it was not so typical but at the same time I want to know more. What will Maeve do next?

This book was a bold move for a debut novel, but I am here for it. I enjoyed the character Leede created n Maeve and I look forward to seeing what Leede comes out with next.

Enjoy!!!!

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Brynne Weaver: Butcher & Blackbird

Brynne Weaver shows what happen when two serial killers find each other:

Sloane and Rowen have a darker side and one that they do not share with other. In a chance encounter, sparks fly and a competition ensues between the two of them. The competition where they are given a name of someone who needs killing and the person who hunts and kills them win that round. The more they interact the more a friendship is born and then more. But can two serial Killers really make it in a real relationship or is it just a matter of time before they are on someone else's hit list. 

Alright, I will admit that I read this because I was fully influenced by social media, with all the praise (honestly, I think I saw maybe one bad review and the person didn’t like the triggers in the book) I was seeing and how dark and different the books was. I am pretty sure this book will hook most people right from the beginning, the first sentence even. I know I felt invested, wanted to know how it was going to play out and I thought this was going to be a darker read based on what happens at the beginning. But for me, this book was only good read as it totally missed on my expectations of how I thought a Serial Killer romance play out.

I don't know if it is me (alright it is probably me, I’ve read some dark stuff) but where was the dark and disturbing parts of this book. Am I the only one who thought this book was going to be darker than it was? I mean there were some dark elements but with a list of trigger warnings a page long I thought I was getting something dark and twisty, but this was more along the lines of comedic dark than anything else. I feel if one is going to include a page of triggers or warnings in a book that book better delivery on the darkness aspect. Maybe it is just me, and yes, the cannibalism does happen, but more in a creepy way than a dark way, I don’t know I was here for the darkness, and it felt more like a light grey to me.

I liked the relationship between Butcher and Blackbird. It's really cute actually for two serial killers to find each other and admire each other's work and support each other in their chosen field/way of said work. I mean you take the serial killer aspect out of it and isn't that what a healthy relationship is supposed to be. I also enjoyed the banter between the two of the and of course the competition between then is great and just how they go about their killing in different ways.

This book does not get spicy until the latter part which surprised me. I wasn’t mad about it, more shocked than anything else when people were talking about how spicy it was I was expecting it to be constant aspect. And to be totally honest there are spicier books out there.

Once I got past this not being the book I wanted it to be, I did enjoy reading it. Enough to continue on in the series, I don’t think so though.

Enjoy!!!

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