Tag Archives: 5-stars

Review: Karelia Stetz-Waters – For Good

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For Good
Karelia Stetz-Waters

Marydale and Kristen have very little in common. One is a convicted murderer, the other a straight up defense attorney. One is a committed lesbian, the other has only dated men of various standards. When their lives collide in a tiny country town ruled by homophobes, it seems like love will never succeed.

for-good-cover-smallStetz-Waters creates characters that are compliments of each other, particularly in these romances of hers (Something True, Forgive Me if I’ve Told You This Before). I worry that this could become formulaic for her work, but I am reassured by her thrillers (The Admirer, The Purveyor) that she can write in more than one area.

I read this novel while there was a tornado warning for the area I was staying in overseas. Nothing like a storm outside to provide a perfect reading atmosphere. I couldn’t tell you why exactly I kept reading, only that I did and that I couldn’t put it down. Love, love, love.

Lesbian sex scenes written by a lesbian? Yes please for realism and a drive to include value in what could just be lumped into ‘eroticism’. As with other Stetz-Waters novels, sex is for controlling or for submission, not just a titillating inclusion for the reader. I’m not reading the novel for the sex scenes, but I love it all the same.

Money where my mouth is on this one. I received an ebook copy well before it was ‘properly’ released (I can’t even find it on GoodReads), but I’ll be purchasing a paperback copy as soon as one is available. 5 stars from me for another valuable contribution to adult queer novels.

5star

Review: Kathleen Duhamel – Deeper

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Deeper
Kathleen Duhamel

Claire Martin has married the lead singer of Deep Blue. There’s things in his past that are yet to be faced though, and it could all come tumbling down even as Claire’s bestie falls for the other man of Deep Blue.

deeper-cover-200x300I really enjoyed the first novel in this series. I don’t think I’m the target audience, but it’s refreshing to see some good new fiction aimed at older women – I don’t think there is enough there. Too much comes under the heading of romance or literature to me – how about a novel with some body to it? This novel is it.

We get to see some more sides to the band, and the lives of the famous! Claire is constantly fighting off groupies, old flames and a complete mess. Not to mention that she wants to maintain her own career, and yet not be absorbed by it.

I couldn’t believe Claire being ordered to turn herself in. Seriously, it was a single allegation, and since there was another person there who would have vouched for Claire, I think she should have and could have gotten away with it.

Sex scenes? Yes. Are they slightly awkward for a queer reader? Yes again. But really, they are well written, add something to the characters and make a difference to how the reader thinks about the characters.

Therapy! Ah, you good thing. Promoting people to go to therapy is one of the more helpful (but annoying) things someone can do.

Now, if I was the true target audience, I’d be a rereader of this one, and the first novel in this trilogy. As it is, I’m giving it a really solid 4 stars – go and hunt this book from Amazon.

4star

Review: Brandon Sanderson – Calamity

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Calamity
Brandon Sanderson

David has defeated Steelheart and Regalia, but now he has to face down the worst Epic of them all – Prof., who used to lead the Reckoners into battles against the other Epics. With the tiny crew he has left, David must save the USA once again.

15704486I couldn’t put this novel down. I think I start almost every Brandon Sanderson novel in that way. I didn’t realise it was out until an ill-timed comment from my partner just as I was going to sleep. I then had trouble sleeping because I wanted it right then and there. I begged to have it the next day, but I ended up getting it the day after and polishing it off in a single sitting.

David has kept the same terrible metaphors as before. His romance with Firefight ie. Megan has blossomed. Their sort of love is one born in flames (haha, you’ll get it when you read the novel). In fact, I recognise their relationship style as one I’m familiar with – they dig at each other, irritate each other, but at the end of the day they can’t be apart.

The action in this novel starts from day dot, and just keeps moving. David and his team risk being killed if they don’t keep on their toes.

The final twist! Or at least, the bigger twist. There are always more to come. Ugh! It frustrates me that I can’t just tell you all the fabulous things about this novel that I want to – but then you’d know everything. Spoilers are not a reviewer’s best friend.

Sanderson, you’ve done it again. Another thrilling, fantastic, original novel that will have readers of all ages on the edge of their seats. Some romance, but no sex, I’m pretty sure teenagers and up would love it. I’m only sad that I never ran into Sanderson earlier in my reading career.

I have two more Sanderson novels, which the partner has been nagging me about reading. The only reason I haven’t is because I’m waiting to have time to reread the others in the series. Sanderson, I love you, but you would eat all my time if I let you.

5star

Review: Ken Kroes – 2232 (Percipience #3)

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2232, Percipience Series
Ken Kroes

Time has progressed another 10 years since the town of Percipience was discovered by two other cities. While things are going relatively smoothly, some people harbor grudges for so long that they will damage everything.

27836641Why do people lie? Seriously guys. Ugh. It seems like everyone is crossing everyone, except Percipience who I loved (having loved the set-up of it in the first place).

I really hope that genetic modification could become reality. People would argue about taking away free will and all that, but truly it wouldn’t be so sad. You would still have your mind, you’d just be more grateful for what you already had.

There were anagrams. For a while, I thought they were like Hannah, a word that works the same way back and forwards. But in fact they’re where you scramble up the letters to create new words. I managed to work out two using an online solver, but the other ones I just couldn’t work it out. Frustrating!

I really want to go back and reread the ending of this. There’s nothing I can say without giving it away, but mind-blown. Really blown. I really hope another novel comes along. There are some hints as to how it could proceed. The whole time I was reading this one I was terrified that it would be a true ‘series’ rather than what read to me as an entire satisfying trilogy.

5star

Review: Ken Kroes – 2222 (Percipience #2)

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2222, Percipience Series
Ken Kroes

Here we return to the world 200 years after ‘The Great Loss’ where most of the world’s population was wiped out by a deadly virus. 4 villages remain, and a lone outside village has finally come into contact with them. The only problem is that the new town is built for an old consumerist population.

27836560I want to feel sorry for Epoch, and yet at the same time I don’t. If Clyde can understand this different way of living, others can too. Or is it that in Percipience people who were like that have been wiped out? Nature vs nurture things here.

The characters are well realised and relatable. I recognised the ‘kind’ of each of them, and thought about how the Elders were just as manipulative as Jake. This novel reminds me again that I don’t understand most people. I’d love to just work in the morning, and enjoy the afternoon reading.

Wow. Deadly. Twisted! Amazing! I didn’t see things coming. Science! Chemistry! Awesomeness! Insert a very long stretch of adjectives here…

I can’t wait to read the third book, and the only reason I’m not doing it right now is so that I could write this review and not get them confused in my mind. I’m going to be pretty devastated by the end of it probably, so wait for my sobbing review soon.

This book is an incredible improvement over the first. The writing is tighter, and the editing cleaner the further you read along. I’m giving this one 5 stars. Go and buy it. It will make you think about the world in a different way.

5star

Review: Yeonmi Park – In Order to Live

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In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom
Yeonmi Park

Born and raised in North Korea, Yeonmi was brainwashed to believe the Benevolent Dictator Family could read her mind and that poverty was normal. As a woman, she needed to escape North Korea in order to survive, which included passing through China as a human slave and a number of other atrocities.

24611623Some lines were truly funny, and required sharing with my partner, my workmates, the wider world! But others were thought-provoking and hard to take in. It reminded me in some way of Max – dictators being able to brainwash people into believing anything, including that they are immortal and that they can see inside sinners’ heads. This is a wholly true story though, and that makes it both harder and easier to accept that some people actually are evil.

I am not surprised about the human trafficking aspect, and that Park wanted to hide it from others even as she was being the poster child of successful escape. It’s something that creates shame, even if it is not the woman’s fault. Human trafficking is still slavery, and it’s something that has been around for too long before it started. The Purveyor was my first foray into this, and In Order to Live won’t be my last.

I’ve been enjoying non-fiction biographies/autobiographies quite a lot lately. I had just read a fantastic book before this one, and I couldn’t think about jumping into another fantasy book. This hit the spot for something a bit different to refresh me. I couldn’t put it down.

4star

 

Review: Kit Alloway – Dreamfever

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Dreamfever
Kit Alloway

Josh knows, in an intellectual kind of way, that she is the True Dream Walker. Haunted by Feodor’s knowledge, Josh longs to create stability in the Dream that will help her to recapture the power she felt in the first times she walked. Instead, things are complicated by the reappearance of the Royal Princess who hasn’t been around for 19 years…

25663775There’s little bit of swapping between perspectives when they are all fighting in the Dream, which is not highlighted by different chapter breaks. This still works though because it feels like you distinctly stepped between each character in different places.

What I loved about this novel was that although the first book had been a fantastic stand-alone, this book follows on perfectly from where it left off. There isn’t anything that feels out of place, it’s perfect. I’d really like to know what happened to Josh’s original scroll though. Why don’t they keep multiple copies of these things?!?

Josh and Will are finally together! And then they aren’t.  And those stupid scrolls shouldn’t have existed in the first place. Seriously. Prophesies hardly ever go well. Even ones about Death.

Staging is where Dream Walkers can enter someone else’s dreams, and make it seem real – to influence them in a particular direction. There’s people who think this is a fabulous idea (even though it hasn’t worked out very well in the past) and those who want to protect against it. There’s a bit of science brought in here too.

It feels like it is a complete reality, a complete universe. There’s the World is where people live and then there’s the Dream which is where everyone goes when they’re sleeping. I can’t work out whether it’s only nightmares or all dreaming that occurs there. Then there is Death, and that’s where this novel comes into play with different little pockets of reality.

This is 5 stars. I went back and read Dreamfire first, and I couldn’t put it down the second time around either. I can’t wait for the third novel.

5star

Review: Eva Hornung – Dog Boy

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Dog Boy
Eva Hornung

After being abandoned by his mother and uncle, Romochka is adopted by a yellow dog, her two other adult dogs and four puppies. What follows next is confusing yet satisfying at the same time. Romochka becomes a weak dog, but a potentially powerful animal.

16566340For a novel which could have been quite dry as a translation, it spoke powerfully to me and I was thinking about it while I wasn’t reading it. It seemed like more of the straight forward questions I had were answered, yet at the same time, more questions were raised. Is this really possible? Can you be raised by dogs, or wolves as in The Jungle Book?

Something that both irritated and pleased me was the doctors, and how their perspectives were portrayed. I couldn’t believe how much they used him. Until just now, thinking about where the book is set (Moscow), and the medical ideas of the time, I had thought it was barbaric.

I couldn’t believe the events leading up to the end, and the end itself! I mean, I guess I should have seen it coming, but it was a shock and horror moment all the same. I am still struggling to come to terms with it, several days later.

Now, this book, this book should be on literature lists everywhere. If it isn’t, it’s a chastity. It’s got so many interesting themes and a good meaty (haha) storyline to keep readers enthralled. I know it worked on me! Better than Levi’s ‘If This is a Man’ any day. Less depressing but just as rich for thinking about past political times and complicated discussions of animals (including men).

I’m giving it 5 stars – I wish I had the time to reread it because I feel like it has so much more to offer me.

5star

Review: Joaquin Lowe – Bullet Catcher

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Bullet Catcher
Joaquin Lowe

Against a desert backdrop, Imma longs to be a Bullet Catcher – a seemingly mythological person who can bend bullets back away from themselves. Bullet Catchers are always the good guys, while Gunslingers are the bad guys. Once Imma has a chance at glory, she will need to make a decision about where her alliances lie.

27799031Where can I start talking about this novel? It arrived, I spotted it, and next thing it was 2 hours later and I still couldn’t put it down. …yes I have problems with being attracted to new books. The pages grabbed me right from the beginning, pulled me in, and kept me reading because things could change at any moment. And of course, I love reading about the training of new and innovative skills.

What I’m commonly seeing in fiction at the moment is a turn towards plot twists. Some are really obvious, while others are really sneaky. This one is not particularly sneaky, but it is heartfelt. Not to mention it keeps changing even as you are yelling at Imma inside your head not to be such an idiot!

Not even a sniff of romance. Apart from family ties, and master-apprentice matches, not a bit of teenage love. And honestly, Imma has enough to worry about without that. There’s plenty of character development for her, and a persuasive plot to not need it. In that way, it sort of reminds me of The Way We Roll, in which exploring different kinds of friendship and ties is the main agenda.

I couldn’t put this down. Maybe I’m getting soft in my old age (*cough* mid-20s *cough*), but I really think I could read it again. I connected with the main character really well, and I could feel all of the emotions. Not to mention the attainable ‘magic’ skills.

4star

Review: Catherine Jinks – Theophilus Grey and the Traitor’s Mask

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Theophilus Grey and the Traitor’s Mask
Catherine Jinks

Theo has survived and thrived as a servant of the Crown of England. Yet all that responsibility for his crew and his other commitments are overcrowding his head. When he can’t think clearly, that’s when things begin to fall,well, not apart, but it all becomes messy.

9781760113612As always, it can be dangerous reading a sequel of a novel you loved. This one lived up to expectations though, and had me hanging on the edge of my seat for almost as long as the first! I guiltily picked it up the moment it arrived at my doorstep…

I recognised some of the streets in this one – Drury Lane! From the nursery rhyme, not because of any knowledge of London geography. Despite not really knowing where each thing was, I managed to get an image of where Theo and his crew ran. That’s something that’s really important in this novel, and just in case you struggle there is a handy map inside the front cover.

Theo is quite confused for the majority of this novel, and the audience is a little bit too. But it’s on purpose! I can’t talk about the plot too much or I’ll give away the lovely twists. Some of Theo’s friends are sometimes just too bright for their own good!

I’m going to go so far as to give it 5 stars for the right audience. I think this on has re-readability to teenagers in order to pick up the plots and hints that you might have missed on the first round of reading. For me, it’s a 4 stars, couldn’t put it down and really enjoyed it. I am sad that it is only a duology.

4star