Will Staples: Animals

In his debut novel, Will Staples enters the dark world of animal trafficking and harvesting:

Protecting the Rhino is a dangerous and deadly job, you never know who is on your side or not. When two of SADF veteran Corbus Vector friends are murders protecting on of the last Rhino’s he has reached his breaking point. He wants to put a stop to the use of Rhino horn his own way. Embarking on a vigilante mission he plans to take down as many people and syndicates as he can. Meanwhile, insurance investigator Randall Knight is called to a road side zoo where all the big cats have died except one. Knight is suspicious of the cub’s origins and begins his own investigation into animal trafficking. Both men are headed to the darkest parts of SE Asia where the crime syndicates will do anything to keep the money in animal trafficking flowing.

I believe this book is a first for me as it deals with animal trafficking and harvesting. I have read plenty of books about drugs, murder, human trafficking etc, but never one dealing with animals. Let me tell you it is Absolutely heartbreaking, Animals dying for no purpose at all other than to feed human greed. Animal ripped away from their homes to be featured in a road side zoo and do not even get me started on the parts harvesting, just horrible. This book is never expletive in what happens to some of the animal but it doesn’t take too much to guess.

I think my favourite part of the book was that Staples frames the story with following the "product" of Rhino horn from Africa to Asia. He seems to understand the full circle of where the rhino horn comes from, what is done to find the rhinos, how it is shipped over seas and then those who use it for its "magical" powers.

You cannot help but cheer for Vector in his crusade to take down SE Asian syndicate that is responsible for his friend’s death but at the same time his methods are questionable and he is very much at times and anti-hero.

The insurance side of things was also interesting, and not something that you hear or read about on a regular basis, of how animals in zoo are insured and what is done in order to get a new animal if something happens to an old one. There are really criminal markets for everything, but i think we have all known for a long time, that if is makes money, humans are willing to do it.

This was a really good debut novel and I like the international feel of the book. I look forward to reading another book by Staples.

Enjoy!!! 

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Adrienne Young: Namesake

As this is the second book of the Duology you will need to read the first book in the series, Fable, in order to fully understand the characters, and relationships between them.

 

Adrienne Young is back on the high seas with Fable, where she is continuing looking for her place in the world:

 

After being captured and betrayed by someone who she thought she could trust Fable finds herself part of a rival's scheme and a prisoner on his ship. Forced to dredge for a rival ship with an impossible task, Fable learns that secrets that her mother took to her grave are now putting Fable in danger and descending deeper and deeper into a world filled of betrayal and deception. Fable doesn't know who to trust or what her future holds.

This book was good and I really liked the beginning of the book where Fable was away from West, but this book was really predictable. Like how would people not guess where the midnight was located? Or things about Fable’s bloodline. I felt like everything was staring you in the face which made the book lose any form or suspense or mystery. I mean I think it is obvious where Midnight is going to be located, as well as the plan that Fable enacts, even the Name of the book gives too much away.

I’m still not a fan of the West and Fable relationship, it was too much too fast and they barely know each other, some of which is rectified in this book, but still they are willing to risk way too much for a person they barely know. I thought that West was holding Fable back and at the same time West went against what he said he was about with his crew. I think West is supposed to grow on you with what he is willing to sacrifice for Fable, but for some reason I just never became a fan of his.

There are also some unanswered questions in this book, Like why was Isode really driven away from her home, this is never fully explained? I feel like Fable would like to know that information. The father daughter relationship between Fable and Saint is where this book shines and that Saint and Fable  are willing to do anything for each other, even though that they had been apart for years.

This was a good book and a good follow up to the first book and heck who doesn’t like pirates searching for treasure. But I will say that the duology left me underwhelmed for the most part, especially with all the hype surrounding it.

Enjoy!!!!

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Elle Cosimano: Finlay Donovan is Killing it

Elle Cosimano show what happens when eavesdropping on a conversation goes wrong:

 

Finlay Donovan is a single mom, a struggling writer with a looming deadline and her ex-husband has just canceled her Nanny on the day with an important meeting with her editor, because she just works from home and her 4 year old decided to take scissors to her hair this morning. But she does make the meeting with her editor, albeit a bit late. While she is pitching a new romantic suspense novel, she is inadvertently mistaken for a contract killer and is offered a generous about of money to take care of a husband, who is not a nice person. What starts as some research for her book, quickly takes a turn for the worst and that crime in real life is much harder its fictional counterpart.

 

Wow this book is one of my favourite reads this past year, it is a fun mystery read with some aspects that I think any parent can relate too. This book was hard to put down and I was sneaking any chance I got to read. Honestly if I would have been able to read it in one sitting I would have. This book had it all. It was quirk, witty, fun, fast paced and will have you laughing out loud at times. Does the plot takes some weird twists and turns along the way, sure, but that is what made it even more entertaining and unexpected.

I normally do not enjoy books that feature writers as the main character, don’t ask me why, but typically those books don’t work for me. This book is totally the exception, I think that Finlay felt so down to Earth, is not a pretentious character and just wants to get over her writers block. So she becomes a little more adventurous in order to come across the inspiration, and when someone is eavesdropping on a conversation and things she is a hit woman, why not run with it, at least for a little bit. I mean she never gets a break from her kids or her ex-husband, I think she deserves a little fun and I think you can understand why she doesn't have any inspiration. So yeah basically Finlay feels very real as a character and someone that you care about throughout the whole book.

Vero is a great supporting character, and someone you want in your corner if you some how end up having a body you need to deal with. I mean she doesn't even bat an eye at the prospect of it. This makes me want to know more about Vera as character, her past and what she has done before being a Nanny for Finlay, something tells me it would be an interesting one.

I think my fellow readers (and reviews) were not a fan of how often Finlay's work as a writer (a romance writer nonetheless) is put down by everyone around her, even those people who are important in her life. There is always some stupid person out there that states reading romance books is not reading.....as I said Stupid people.

I think it is easy to tell that i absolutely loved this book. It was a great break from what I normally read and had me entertained throughout. Easily one of my favourite books from last year. If you're looking for an easy/cozy mystery book, pick this one up. I'm super excited to read the next one in this series.

Enjoy!!!

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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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