New Book Review: Made Safe

Tags

arc, books, bosnia, Crime, drama, moses winter, mystery

Rated 3.5 of 5 stars

Sparks gives readers a glimpse into the underworld of human trafficking in his novel, Made Safe. We follow a cast of characters that are flawed and courageous as they fight to first understand what crime is being committed, then stop the heinous act from happening. All the while, the larger implications of such a scandal does not escape the reader. Human trafficking is happening everywhere, even in Des Moines, Iowa. We start the story with Moses Winter, a private investigator, helping to catch a cheating husband in the act. Little does Winter know, the angered wife has more up her sleeve when she finds her husband bedding down a Bosnian immigrant. Sharon, the wife, pulls a gun, threatens the lives of both adulterers and then in a scuffle to maintain control, her husband, Fred is subsequently stabbed. When the cops come, Rakic is introduced to the story, as he is the agent in charge of homicide. Ironically, when he steps in the room and notices his scantily clad cousin (the mistress) in the corner…he tries to quiet the case in order to ensure she isn’t imprisoned for attempted murder of Fred. Rakic soon realizes there are three stories, not including the truth with what happened in the room.

Rakic wants the case to go away so he can protect his cousin. Moses is a curious guy that feels something is going on that he missed with the husband. So Rakic tries to distance himself from the case while Moses dives deeper in and finds that what’s going on is actually far worse than he anticipated or was prepared for. The readers are taken on car chases, stake outs, spying, foot chases, break ins and lots of falling in the snow/smoking cigarettes and other small redundancies.

I enjoyed the story up until the very end. Throughout the story, I felt there were many different storylines and liked how they tied in together later in the story. Unfortunately, the ending was a bit far fetched in certain scenes and I rolled my eyes a time or two when people would escape pretty dismal endings. Moses Winter is a likeable main character but as smart as he was in his fact finding, he was equally as dumb about Majka and using her for answers. It grated my nerves that he would sleep with someone then not grill them on a case he is totally invested in. That didn’t translate to good sense in my opinion. Also, I thought throwing Claudia in was a bit rushed and forced.

Another thing, could just be me since I’m not a smoker but…there was a hell of a lot of references to smoking in this novel. I despise smoking so it just made me grimace each time it was brought up and unfortunately, that was very often. That’s a personal preference though. I’ve read some books that use smoking and don’t explain it in much detail and I much prefer that method. Other than that, I really liked Sejla and the Wildcat and wished that we’d felt more of their personality in the story so that when it came to the end, we as readers, could really feel triumphant for them. Majka was very well written. I knew her as a character by the end and could understand the kerfuffle she was in coming from another country and wanting to be successful, albeit in the wrong area. Overall, I enjoyed the story and give it a strong 3.5 because it is fast paced, action packed and a solid detective story.

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*This book ARC was sent by the author for an honest review and releases on January 17th!

Keep in touch with this author:

Francis Sparks

www.pandamoonpublishing.com

www.francissparks.com

@writingsparks on Twitter

 

New Book Review: Widowmaker

Tags

doiron, mountains, skiing, snow, widowmaker

Rated 3.5 of 5 stars

Widowmaker takes the reader on a trek through the snowy, mountainous regions of Maine. A place I know absolutely nothing about with its hunting, skiing and small town secrets. This is my first Doiron book but likely won’t be the last.

The story follows a game warden, Mike Bowditch, on a journey to find a missing man that he’s been manipulated into finding while he’s on off time from his normal duties. Mike is smart and had great attention to detail that keeps the story moving along on pace with clues and questions in various storylines.

First, there’s a storyline of a wolf dog or hybrid wolf that had been discovered and captured. Mike must find a home for the rare creature that had captured his interest with its intelligence. Next, Mike has his demons he’s battling with a dead father that was notorious for being a charismatic yet heinous poacher, womanizer and all around problem. He wants to mourn for his dad but finds it hard when everyone he knows reminds him that he’s born from a man like Jack. Lastly, there’s the mystery of the missing boy and the story behind a big secret the entire town is hiding.

In the story, we meet some colorful characters and are taken down various storylines that make the reader feel like they know this town and its people and have been there. Doiron does a good job creating links to storylines which was helpful because at certain points I wondered why we were going down so many lanes.

All in all, I liked the story but it was slow in certain points so I took a star away. I also took half a star because I didn’t love any one character enough in the story to make this book memorable. So it’s a solid read at a 3.5 star rating.

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New Book Review: The Heart Goes Last

Tags

atwood, conspiracy, dystopian, experiments, robots, role playing, social engineering

Rated 3 of 5 stars

This is my first Margaret Atwood book but I find her style to be very entertaining. The Heart Goes Last is a redemption story at the heart of some dystopian-esque storyline. It was a very different style of story because the relationship between the main characters was sometimes the main story then the story shifted to social issues being the headliner. So what was it about in a nutshell? Charmaine and Stan are a married couple living in a post-depression America. They are living in their car trying their best to use Charmaine’s meager earnings as a bartender to stay afloat. Luckily, they have a car as a refuge because there are people who are taking advantage of the world’s utter disadvantage. It is their only safety from being robbed, beaten or raped. While at work, Charmaine sees an ad for Consilience Prison Project which promises clean homes for FREE for anyone accepted into the program via a life contract. These homes are fully furnished, all bills paid and food provided. Basically, safe, free living as long as they work in the community for a month then in the prison for a month (and so on for the rest of their lives). Anyway, Charmaine and Stan are accepted and enjoy life for a while. Stan has taken to his job in scooter repair in town and overseeing the chicken coops while in the prison. Charmaine works in a bakery in town and is Chief Medications Administrator (a highly secretive position which includes euthanizing “bad” people). Needless to say, Consilience is not all its cracked up to be and there are shady policies and procedures along with privacy issues. *enter social issue portion of the book*

Later in the story, you see the breakdown of Charmaine and Stan along with ah host of other characters that are pretty one dimensional for the most part. There’s lots of sex, sexual innuendos, sexual jokes and more (not sure if that’s an Atwood-thing or not). I found some of the character’s to be humorous and sometimes annoying, especially Charmaine. I didn’t find any character truly likeable throughout the whole book which is why the star count is so low. I thought the premise was the best thing about the book by far. On one hand, if Atwood would have wrote the story from the perspective of one person living within Consilience and finding out all the shady things that were happening, then it might have been a bit more agreeable to me as a reader. Overall, I felt Charmaine and Stan weak characters to base the book off of and they were pretty far from the actual happenings of the big wigs in the book in regards to how social experiments were happening until the very, very end. Therefore, you “heard” about the social experiments but never really read about them. Get it?

All in all, not a bad book if you like someone bickering in their own mind about their marriage or you like gossip and rumor style stories.

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New Book Review: The Passenger

Tags

disappear, hiding, love, lutz, murder, running, vanish

Rated 3.5 of 5 stars

Lisa Lutz’ novel, The Passenger, is a cross country ride through dive bars, strange strangers along with a woman who sheds her identity like seasonal fashion trends. There are so many names in this story that can align with the main character Tanya/Jo/Paige/Nora/Debra and the list goes on depending on whose purse she can pickpocket without being caught. She’s running from her past which isn’t readily given away in the beginning and then soon after, she’s running from the death of her husband. Once she’s set off on a path of finding a new identity, she buries herself deeper into each identity that she steals. She meets Blue, a barkeep with attitude and shady history of her own and things change very quickly. At the end of the story, you realize completely why she was running and frankly, its not satisfying enough to be worth the wait.

In lieu of that, there’s an added twist at the end which makes things a bit icky. But it definitely makes up for the less than riveting main ending. Not completely, but enough. I’ve rated the story a solid 3.5 stars because the characters along the way seem to have more personality than the main character. I felt lost when Blue exited the story for a long period of time. That’s when the story really lagged. Blue brought life, danger, mystery and depth to the story while the main character just…ran. I sort of wished this story followed Blue, honestly.

I found lots of redundancy with bars, whiskey, and plaid shirts. I enjoyed all the little pit-stops along the way for the main character and then her eventual return was a bit lackluster. So overall, the story was decent enough to finish but the ending wasn’t groundbreaking enough to quantify my time for 300 pages. I liked Lutz’ style of writing although the analogies were sometimes overkill. She writes well and can tell a story with a twist. I thoroughly enjoyed the email excerpts throughout the story which linked the main character to her past yet never really gave anything away. This story is recommended for readers who like stories of vanishing women and what happens while they’re gone.

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New Book Review: Children of Eden

Tags

graceffa, post-apocalyptic

Rated 3 of 5 stars

*I  know, I know…I’m not following my reading list BUT I needed a change and this cover is ah-mazing, right?

Joey Graceffa’s debut novel, Children of Eden, is a strong start in the fiction world after his memoir. Even still, there is much room to grow in his writing style and character building. I enjoyed the story of Rowan, a teenage girl, in hiding due to her being a banned “second child” in Eden. The book is based in a technology driven society of the future (don’t think cellphones, think eye implants that scan for train rides and money transactions). Rowan is on the verge of getting her first chance at a life in society with a pair of black market lenses that will allow her to move about the city seamlessly. Unfortunately, the lenses come at a price. She must trade her family for a new one and never see them again. As things unwind, Rowan gets the courage to explore the town outside her home (without her lenses) and meets a cast of characters that help her. Ironically, there’s a rebel group hoping to free all second children and they enlist her help.

Along the journey there are many twists and turns and friendships made. I found the story to lag in the beginning a bit. I didn’t find it incredibly gripping but good enough to keep reading. I think Rowan’s voice (due to it being written in first person) seemed quite childish so it was hard to see her as brave because she doubted herself constantly and had a negative outlook on almost everything at first. Not sure if this was purposefully written to give the character a “spoiled rotten” child vibe which changes to a “oh, the real world is so much harder than I thought” type of outlook. Either way, I didn’t find her very endearing although there were moments by Lark or Lachlan that helped bring some normalcy to the story.

I suspect this book to have a follow-up since there are a rash of unfinished storylines and explanations. For instance, what secret was Lark going to share? What happened to Ash? What is the big plan to take over the government? What was Aaron Al-Baz’s big secret? What happened to Rowan’s father? Did he help in the end? Lastly, what the heck happened in the end??? I was utterly confused about what actually happened.

I think the book was okay. Nothing that I’d remember to tell a friend about. The ending moved fast but left a lot of unanswered questions so the reader doesn’t feel fully satisfied with the ending.

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New Book Review: Across the Rainbow

Tags

anthology, LGBTQ, social

Rated 3 of 5 stars

This anthology is a mix of different types of LGBTQ stories that are short snippets into the lives of various characters. I believe the chosen pieces were decent. I wished some stories were longer while others I did not quite care for completely. So here’s the breakdown:

CHOICES by John Goode – This story is an introspective look at a kid who is coming to terms with his own body, sexuality, face and his overall look. It was a very poetic take on one boys inner thoughts but I was tired of hearing the negativity closer to the end of the story.

SUMMER WITH ADELINE by Zoe Lynn – This story was cute. It follows a young girl who fantasizes about princesses. When a new neighbor moves in, she yearns to be friends with the beautiful girl next door. They hit it off well over the summer and before school starts everything changes with a confession. I thought the story was cute but not very memorable. The story may have been better with more character building but overall fell a bit flat.

AMERICAN SPANISH by Gene Gant – I really enjoyed this story! It was broken up into pieces so the characters were able to breathe in the story line. This story follows a boy who has a cool bestie that he catches in a compromising position and what transpires afterwards. It was an interesting take on LGBTQ characters which I like.

FAKING TRUTH by Jo Ramsey – This story was very thoughtful in the sense that you could feel the realness in it. It was like reading a diary and I liked that feeling of knowing the main character on a deeper level. Its the story of a young kid who is trying to find a way to be themselves and gets help from an unlikely source.

ERIC’S SECRET by Sam Kadence – This was my favorite story in this anthology! It revealed an LGBTQ status that I wasn’t aware of (educational?!) and it gave a realistic and heartfelt approach to what its like to be different but accepted. I really enjoyed the dialogue and the characters in this story. I wished it didn’t end! I wanted to know what happened in Eric’s life…did he join the group? Did he find someone? Ugh!

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOY IN THE WHOLE WORLD by Amy Lane – I enjoyed this story and you could tell immediately that the author knows how to create a good story. Great characterization. Unfortunately, the story itself was not very interesting to me. I feel like the “friend love” thing has been played out so much in LGBTQ novels. I predicted a lot of the story and that left me hanging in the end. It was cute and well written but not the power house ending you want in an anthology.

*This book was given to me by the publisher at BookCon2016 for an honest review.

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New Book Review: Rust

Tags

book to movie

Rated 3 of 5 stars

Actor, Director and Screenwriter, Corbin Bernsen, writes a heartfelt Christian novel set in a small town that’s hiding a secret. James “Jimmy” Moore retreats from his pulpit with the loss of faith nipping at his heart. He returns home in search of something stable only to find that stability is no longer there. His childhood friends and family have moved on in their lives while he ran away to grasp his dream of being a pastor. Soon revealed that his abrupt exit from the town was due to his mother’s passing and his father’s difficulty dealing with it. Anyway, upon his return to town, he realizes that his oldest friend is soon to be sentenced for arson and murder of a family in town. James doesn’t believe that his friend has the capacity to hate or murder and thus, goes on a fact-finding mission to clear his name.

The story has great points in relation to faith in God but I felt it lag in many areas because it is focused so internally on James instead of what James encounters with the townspeople. Every other character in the book seemed very one-dimensional and only as placeholders until we could get back to James’ plight with his lack of faith. The book seemed very one dimensional in this regard and even the murder/arson case did not give me any real excitement or mystery which I think is solely due to the authors choice in internalizing James, instead of telling the story in a way that readers feel saddened by the families loss or feel connected to Travis in order to care about what happens to him.

The novel is short and quick to read but it took me much longer to finish than usual because the story was not very fast-paced or mysterious. Recommended for readers who are more focused on a preacher that losses his faith rather than murder mystery or thriller lovers.

*Book received from publishers at BookCon2016 for an honest review.

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New Book Review: Cross Your Heart

Rated 3.5 of 5 stars

*Author gifted this print book for an honest review.

I enjoyed Lorine S. Thomas’ thriller, Cross Your Heart! I give this thrill ride 3.5 stars because I love the premise and the speed in which events happened in the story. Thomas is a new indie author on the scene and she writes as if she’ll be around a while. In the story, we follow a solid group of friends from college after a heinous prank gone wrong. In this prank, the wrong person is convicted and sentenced to prison. No one from the group of friends attempts to help…and this will be their eventual undoing.

A mad man is killing their friends, one by one and the police can’t find many leads. The story comes to a crescendo quite quickly and doesn’t hold back on the action sequences. The story lost a star because the dialogue is clunky and cliche. The author chose quite often to tell the story through the dialogue instead of use emotion and inference to let the readers know. It just didn’t sound like realistic conversation at many points throughout the story and the decision making of the characters were hard to agree with on a few occasions. Even with the dialogue issues, the story shines when it layers the relationship of Shania and Patrick into the thread of the story. I was captivated by Patrick more than any other character because he had depth (a mistake he regretted and tried to right, bravado in the face of danger and the need to protect those around him), everyone else in the story had less dimension. Even the antagonist was a bit paper thin, only existing based off one wrong that could have been stopped on his own volition.

Overall, I think the story is a good debut worth reading, especially if you like a thrilling twist and turn of a novel.

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New Book Review: Mind in the Clouds

Tags

perrin

Rated 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed Bruce M. Perrin’s informative novel, Mind in the Clouds. The premise of the novel follows a young man, straight from college to a career which involves assessing training materials and technology. His first big assignment is assessing the training coordinator position for a piloted drone that can also be unmanned and make decisions based on the software embedded in it. The author does well in explaining this new, burgeoning idea of unmanned drones that have the capability to engage in war-time activities without military approval (basically, it can “decide” a plan of attack on its own). The concept is a bit scary for the average reader because it raises questions of whether machines could potentially decide they don’t want to be overseen by humans and hatch a plan to destroy us for their own self-preservation. Many-a-movie has touched on this premise. The author definitely touches on this prospect throughout the entire book.

I enjoyed the second half better than the first half of the novel because the first half was wrought with mundane details and conversations that didn’t add much to the plot or character development. At the end of the book, I am not sure whether I really liked the main character or any other for that matter. The romance could have been done without completely actually. This book is in the gray area that books can fall into where they stop becoming memorable and the characters just fade away into the book abyss. Albeit, the character development was not there, the interesting concept more than makes up for it. While being overly technical at times, the author forces knowledge into the readers head that is actually useful and interesting! I feel like I’ve learned a lot and can be the smart girl in the room when the conversation turns to drones and the implications of military use. Of course, I’ll leave out the fact that I received the information from a fictional source.

All in all, Perrin had a great “whodunit” at the end that had me intrigued yet lacked unpredictability. Encouraged for readers interested in technology based novels.

*This novel was sent by the author for an honest review.

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New Book Review: Sleep Tight

Rated 3 of 5 stars

This is my first Anne Frasier novel and undoubtedly won’t be my last. I like her writing style and she definitely knows how to create a weird and gut wrenching antagonist to a story! Yes, there is a reason I rated this book 3 stars even though I really liked it. But let’s start from the beginning…Agent Mary Cantrell is on a case in her hometown of Minneapolis because there have been a string of killings. Flaw one, her boss thinks its a good idea to go back home while recovering from a gunshot wound to relax…while working on a murder case? In your hometown? Yeah, that’s relaxing…

Flaw two, the story digs into the protagonist’s past pretty deeply and I’m not sure if we ever really get out of the past enough to enjoy the present case. For instance, Mary’s sister is now a cop/field agent for the local police working on the same case. Mary is doing double duty by looking into her best friends murder (which has been solved, guy served his term in prison and everything, yet…she’s still looking into it). The majority of the story is about the past case while the new case is far more interesting because the antagonist is supremely weird and does increasingly heinous things to women.

The antagonist is an interesting person and you really fall into wondering why and how these girls end up in the predicament they’re in. Unfortunately, you have to wait until the very end of the book to get your fill of this this character. Overall, the book was interesting enough and I knew what the ending would be in regards to the old case yet I was still satisfied with the story and its overarching theme of family woe, secrets and acceptance. There was another flaw in the book that is very miniscule but I’d be remiss for not bringing it up. The romance that occurred seemed really forced and I got absolutely NOTHING out of it. Usually when people get together it’s like…

BUT INSTEAD, IT’S LIKE…

All in all, even with the flaws, the book is kind of enjoyable so I’ll definitely try out the author again in the future. Frasier wrote a kick ass antagonist that had me cringing…I don’t think I can remove some things he did from my mind….

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