Category: Kindle



Kill Game: An Urban Fantasy Thriller (Dana McIntyre Must Die Book 2)Kill Game: An Urban Fantasy Thriller by SM Reine

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love Dana! My first born son and this female powerhouse character that we all met long ago in Sara Reine’s series. In this case, it is the first character I could personally relate to in size and shape. I’m much older but a part of me thinks I looked like her when I was in my forties. I think I had similar beliefs to hers. I don’t know that I hate vampires. But I never saw the craze. Now Ms. Reine has brought me along to expand my imaginary creatures profile.

And Dana isn’t a perfect person in any way. She makes mistakes. She has a mindset that needs taming. But she is lovable and loves deeply. And it is wonderful that she is getting her own series. This was the second book. I think it may read as a stand alone but I love that I have read all the history of these altered Nevada stories from the beginning. Other states are in her other books but most of Sara Reine’s books are in places I have lived or visited enough to know ‘our’ versions. It gives a depth to the books that a made up place never has.

Dana is going through divorce in this series and it is messing with her mind. As it does for most of us. The reasons seem weird to me, but most folks from the outside of the couple going through this might think that, also. But will the ending of this book change that? Gosh, Sara, if you’re going to bring us to this ending can’t you write faster and let us see what happens next?

Okay, I need to clear this up. This is not a cliffhanger. You all know how much I hate those! And I don’t know a more prolific author than S.M. Reine. I just love her books so much I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next. Hey–since I moved from there two years ago, how about another Reno setting? Las Vegas is too busy, too much of a tourist trap–even in the alternate universe. Is there a place for Dana, the vampire-slayer in demon possessed Reno? Or, since I can’t seem to find a way, could you take her to the beaches of California? Orange County, LA County? Mojave Desert?

Okay, I’ll read it no matter where you take us! Can’t wait!!!!

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Life First (Life First #1)Life First by R.J. Crayton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Finally, a book that kept me interested! I don’t know if any of you noticed what I book slump I’ve been in. If you read the blurb: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2…, you can see that it contains subject matter that makes us all worry about what extremes could bring about, and how on the other extreme of not allowing for fear of the extremes is also life threatening. (In my attempt to not give spoilers I am creating very bad sentences!) It is something in our current news that keeps everyone upset no matter which side of the fence you stand.

Here the young main character, Kelsey Reed, doesn’t want to give up her kidney. It is the law that you must, in this dystopia, if someone needs your kidney, heck, you have two! you give it up. Otherwise, you are breaking the law and must go to prison and eventually give up all your donatable parts.

We follow this young woman as she learns more about herself and tries to escape her fate.

It is a quick moving story with deep morals to look at. I was so into it that as soon as I got paid I bought the next two books! I can’t wait to continue the series!

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Bitter Thirst (Preternatural Affairs, #8)Bitter Thirst by S.M. Reine

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Though I am thankful to get to read one more of S.M. Reine’s books, I am never as pleased with the Special Agent Cèsar Hawke books. To me, they read like the old Humphrey Bogart PI type movies but with a paranormal twist.

Once again, others may enjoy these, but they just don’t pull me in the way the rest of Sara’s books do. Still, each of these adds to the overall story, just from another viewpoint. So I keep reading and learn more about our alternative world full of the same cities, just differently inhabited. Please read these books by this most prolific author. I think you will like seeing the world from another point of view.

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Lichgates (The Grimoire Saga, #1)Lichgates by S.M. Boyce

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When a young distraught young woman finds herself in another dimension her life is forever changed. As long as she becomes what this new reality wants from her.

It was an interesting read but the minute it became like epic fantasy I became bored with it and nearly stopped reading. For those who love those ancient stories, this will be quite pleasing. But I only liked it when the modern woman who has now lost her parents finds herself back and forth in time. I thought it interesting to watch a modern woman adjust to old ways but when the story veers off to the inhabitant of that world, YAWN! Thank goodness it went back to the main character it became more interesting again.

Maybe others will like it better.

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The Mother's PromiseThe Mother’s Promise by Sally Hepworth

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Maybe if I don’t write a review, I can hang onto the charms and lessons of this book. No. That’s not right. Others need to read it and the only way to hang on to the knowledge in this book is to read it again.

I finished this book four days ago. That’s how long I had the above conversation with myself.

There is a nice blurb about this book on GoodReads. And the one on NetGalley had me seeking it out. I’m glad they let me read it. But here’s my blurb: A young teen with severe social anxiety only child of a single mother dying of cancer, a social worker who is a victim of abuse, a nurse who is finished with IVF unsuccessfully.

Sally Hepworth pulls these four females into a book that is hard to put down and hard to leave behind. And not only is it a great story, it is full of real life answers to some of the problems these fems deal with.

I want to thank NetGalley for letting me read this, again. I do plan on a second read. Please read it, especially if you have social anxiety, there are some good ideas in here and the author shows she knows how we feel who have it. There are triggers for cancer patients and abuse victims but they are handled well and give each of the other characters more depth.

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A Thief in Time: A Time Travel NovelA Thief in Time: A Time Travel Novel by Cidney Swanson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was so excited to get A Flight In Time to review. Cidney Swanson is one of my favorite Young Adult writers. Come to find out she lives in a nearby Oregon town. She’s lucky I don’t have a car! And that I have social anxiety that keeps me from seeking out people I don’t know. Still, her Saving Mars series is my favorite series for young adults and up. I wish she could write more of those as it really helps the me I was as a pre-teen/teen. There was very little out there in the sci-fi realm that had strong female leads. Please read the series if you get the chance. Her Rippler series is good, too.

But back to A Flight in Time (book 2). Here is a comment I made under A Thief in Time (book 1):

Oops, somehow I am reading book two that isn’t on GoodReads yet. Maybe I should see if I got it? I am 37% into A Flight in Time. Now I feel confused as to what to do.

Then I realized that at one point or another I did get book 1. It was $.99 at the time. Somehow it got marked “Read” so I never saw it in my “Currently Reading” shelf. So I stopped reading book 2 and started reading book 1. This series may soon rival Mars in favorites!

A Thief In Time is very exciting. The main character, Halley, is quite the character. I love the depth of spirit she shows in spite of a less than ideal upbringing. Ms. Swanson built her so well that I felt she was real. I love her friends and how it is they found themselves in the enviable position of having access to a time machine.

By the way, I love the names of the characters. Good nods to science!

I want to put more here but I don’t want anything to spoil a future reader’s experience with that book or the next.

So, those who follow my reviews know how I hate cliffhangers. This was not that. But awfully close. No one was left in danger. But I was so in love with the characters and the time travel adventures that I was so happy I had the next book downloaded and ready to go.

~~~~
Since I can’t find the place to review book 2, A Flight in Time, I will put it here and move this part to that book when it is live on GoodReads. Right now it is $.99 on Amazon whereas book 1 is $3.99. Both are well worth the money!

I will give this five stars also. My biggest problem was the names when I read #2 first. After getting to know everyone in #1 I still had that problem. I expected to see a little more about Halley and her life. So it was a bit of a shock to start reading about her friend, Jillian. Her life wasn’t as interesting or as full of challenges, as far as I was concerned, but she has a sciencey mind and is working towards her own goals. That warmed me to her.

I must admit that I couldn’t quit reading this book–another 4 AM sleep time. The book was full of anxious moments, ‘how were they going to get out of this?’ kinds of questions sailed through my head. And lots of time travel!

AND that ending!!!! I can’t wait to find out the resolve for that. Still, not a cliffhanger. Just a little something to have Cidney Swanson fans waiting with bated breath!!!

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The Rules Do Not ApplyThe Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a fan of fiction more than any other kind of reading, it is alway hard for me to “grade” an autobiography. It isn’t up to me to judge another’s life or path, so I feel I am invading a bit when it is time to review. Yet this book called to me from NetGalley as one I might like to read and review.

I have to admit it kept my interest. Many reviewers say the author’s emotions are raw in this memoir. That may be so. I just found them honest and refreshing. As a fertile-Myrtle, who had, as most of my generation, my children in my early twenties, I never heard that egg-timer to get pregnant or forget it. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have another?” and boom I was pregnant. So the despair of the author seems another reality I’ve not been close to. In that case, I think it right to go into the depth with her and see what her reality has been. Would my story of a baby every couple years and only at home ever be as interesting to her generation? So I find her lucky to have experienced so many things I never got to see. That she had the freedom to explore her sexuality after being an adult, who got to see the world I may never see, isn’t sad. Those were the parts of the story I truly enjoyed.

But I don’t want to demean or in any way put down her path and especially not the sad parts of it. That need to reproduce is very strong in many of us and to have that turn out so badly hurts my soul for her.

That is why I like to read autobiographies. I can lead many lives that way. I can see how things might have been had I made other choices or had nature played nasty tricks on my life. I think it helps to develop empathy to read another’s story. And this may be one you might like. Give it a try.

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The Last Chance Matinee (The Hudson Sisters #1)The Last Chance Matinee by Mariah Stewart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of the things I noticed as I wished this story hadn’t ended was that it has a series name: The Hudson Sisters #1. Yay! I don’t have to leave my new friends forever! And while I am talking about the ending, relax, it isn’t a cliff-hanger. Everyone is safe. I just miss them.

You can look up the blurb to see what the book is about. I try to concentrate on my feelings about the story. What I noticed most of all, was the lack of conflict and yet I kept wanting to read more. I suppose the conflict is the undertone of how the characters ended up owning a theater. They had to spend the time getting to know each other and see how they fit into the scheme of things. But there was no great adventure, no one is in grave danger. Yet through each of their perspectives, you see their birth order and history.

It was because of the description of the story on the blurb on NetGalley dot com that I picked this up to review. I am so glad I did. It is quite an interesting story. I look forward to book two so I can see these women and watch them remake a theater together.

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All Good StoriesAll Good Stories by Linda G. Hill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As an author of a busy, fun blog who is a single mom facing some special needs tests, trials, and triumphs, Linda G. Hill won my admiration long ago. I love reading her blog. I enjoy participating in her challenges. So it is understandable that I had to read her book.

Remember the challenge question in When Harry Met Sally? No. Not the restaurant scene. Wouldn’t we all want what she ordered? No. The question was: Can best friends that are male and female remain friends or is it inevitable that romance would play a part? Sally believed in the friendship as I recall whereas Harry said that friendship can’t stay in that realm. That sex was the most likely outcome.

All Good Stories attempts that question once again. This time it is through a series of smaller stories (started as A-Z challenge on Linda’s blog) that tell of the ebb and flow of friendship of Jupiter and Xavier. I won’t tell you how the story goes. I will merely say that there are topless pirates and bookstores involved. And there are laugh aloud situations. This is worth an evening with popcorn, at least. I enjoyed it and I think you will, too.

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The Shadow LandThe Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

THIS is my kind of book! Okay, it isn’t fantasy or sci-fi but the elements I love in those stories are here. Adventure, new horizons, philosophies, some things to learn and think about. Those are all present in this book. I am sad that it has ended and think I may have to read it again sometime with Audible version. The text-to-speech was great but with this taking place in Bulgaria, I needed someone to pronounce words better than the British female robot. Which usually works quite well for me, but there were some names that when I was reading with my eyes too, I could see they were not pronounced anywhere NEAR right.

The main character is well developed, the secondaries not as deeply but the story wasn’t about them so that was okay by me. With the person so developed and the world so real I felt I was watching a movie. In fact, this would make a marvelous movie, there is just so much depth here!

The time of the book moves back and forth from about WWII and now. The political themes presented seem very poignant, and apropos warnings to our current system and how delicate it is.

But my favorite part of the book, though the saddest, was how music played a part in the day to day survival of the musician. I don’t want to expound on this as it would be a spoiler. Needless to say, it gave me the unavoidable courage to face the cold of my studio and play the piano for as long as my fingers could move, and then left me with a fire to get back in there as soon and as often as I can as Spring brings warmer weather.

Oh, how I wish there were a book two. I don’t know how it could be done as none of the situations or people remain in the right places for that. But I did want to see what happens now that the main character has made friends with the musician’s son. What could they give each other? Will they become more than friends? And what about the taxi driver? Is there happiness in his future? What a cool guy he was! Like I said, I am left wanting more and that may have to happen by re-reading with audio.

By the way, I was given this version for review by NetGalley dot com. Please, if you get the chance to read this, do. I hope you love it as I did.

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