2 Book Lovers Reviews
The Pandora Room
By Christopher Golden
April 16th, 2019
April 9th, 2019
New Release & Review:
The Stillwater Girls
By Minka Kent
The Stillwater Girls got off to an incredible start. It begins with Wren and Sage; you can get all of their basics from the synopsis. Then, chapter two: Nicolette. Wait! What? Who? Nicolette is not in the synopsis. Where is this going?
I followed along, loving the two sides to the story, wondering how and where the two would come together. Kent’s writing style kept the suspense and mystery high.
*Read my review...
April 8th, 2019
What will I be doing on the evening of April 10th? That's easy. I will be watching The Silence on Netflix! The Silence by Tim Lebbon was one of my favorite books, and I am more than a little excited to see it come to life!
*Read my review...
April 5th, 2019
Book Review:
The Last
By Hanna Jameson
Releasing April 9th!
I love a good old-fashioned apocalyptic story - the nuclear war scenario has been left behind by biological/viral worlds. It was interesting to see how Jameson brought this very real possibility back to life.
Imagine that it hits the fan in full force, world tensions reach that point of no return and someone pushes the button.
*Read my full review...
April 2nd, 2019
Book Review:
Soon the Light Will Be Perfect
By Dave Patterson
Releasing April 9th!
Sometimes a synopsis just grabs your attention and refuses to let go. For me, Soon the Light Will Be Perfect is one such book. A coming-of-age story set in rural Vermont, it had a universality that it could have been set in Anytown, America.
*Read my full review...
March 29th, 2019
All Roads End Here
(The Final War #2)
By David Moody
What David Moody has done with The Final War series is genius. I find that more and more authors don’t know when or how to end a series and move on to something new. I loved the Hater series, it was a novel concept in the realm of “zombie” books. I loved every moment that I spent with Danny McCoyne, but by the final pages of Them or Us, Danny’s story was over, and I was good with that.
*Read my full review...
March 22nd, 2019
Book Review:
Alien: Out of the Shadows
By Tim Lebbon
As a Tim Lebbon fan, I jumped at the free Audible Original Drama of Alien: Out of the Shadows. This “radio play” was a great change of pace from the books I had been listening to.
Lebbon brought me back to the world of Alien, even the voice actor who did Ripley sounded similar enough to Sigourney Weaver. This gave me a comfort/familiarity level that got me more involved, more quickly.
*Read my full review...
March 19th, 2019
Book Review:
Shelter in Place
By Nora Roberts
I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but Nora Roberts is one hell of a writer. She continues to amaze me with her ability to develop storylines and seamlessly tie them all together.
Shelter in Place is a story of love and hate; where love is the glue, if used properly, can fix anything. The synopsis doesn’t do the story justice, there is so much more beneath the surface.
*Read my full review...
March 12th, 2019
Book Review:
The Homecoming
By Andrew Pyper
The Homecoming was one heck of an attention grabber. Once I read the synopsis I knew that I wanted to read it, and the cover pulled me in with its comforting yet sinister scene. The story started off with a bang, and I was hooked.
Andrew Pyper developed an exquisite, multi-layered plot of deception and betrayal. I loved the fact that there was always another twist or turn right around the corner.
*Read my full review...
March 11th, 2019
Have you been enjoying Fox’s production of The Passage? I sure have, and my wife doesn’t mind watching it with me as long as I rub her feet…quid pro quo. You may be wondering what other great stories are out there that can give you that same feeling.
*Read the full post...
March 5th, 2019
Book Review:
A Court of Thorns and Roses
By Sarah J. Maas
Every year, my wife and I love looking at the Goodreads Choice Awards. We always find some great books to add to our overflowing TBR lists, and it’s fun to see if any of our favorites found their way onto the list. We have this ongoing joke from one year to the next: “Who will win Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction? Sarah J. Maas or Sarah J. Maas?”
*Read my full review...
February 26th, 2019
New Release & Review:
Zeus Is Undead: This One Has Zombies
By Michael G. Munz
When you kracken open a book by Michael G. Munz you have to expect the unexpected and accept the fact that conventions will be broken, you may even find yourself craving an ice cream sundae.
It has been a while since my last epic quest with Leif and Tracy. I was ready to have a few good laughs, and Munz obliged.
*Read my full review...
February 19th, 2019
Book Review:
The Boy
By Tami Hoag
There is something about a heinous crime that grabs my attention. A seven-year-old boy is brutally beaten in his own home, Hoag had my attention.
The Boy is the second book in the Broussard and Fourcade series and my first venture into the small town of Bayou Breaux. I didn’t feel like I was missing anything, the author seamlessly filled in any gaps that I may have been missing from book one.
*Read my full review...
February 12th, 2019
New Release & Review:
The Hunting Party
By Lucy Foley
The Hunting Party just seemed to hit me at the right time and in all the right ways. I guess you could say it’s just what I was looking for. The Hunting Party is one part Friends From College, with another part The Ritual and the third part…I can’t say, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.
*Read my full review...
*Read Shelley's review...
February 8th, 2019
I'm always adding new books to my to-be-read list. What's a few more, right? Well, these two have definitely piqued my interest.
- The Pandora Room by Christopher Golden is releasing on April 23rd. I loved Ararat, so I am very excited to go on a new adventure with Golden.
A chilling exploration of what happens when the original Pandora's Box is discovered in an ancient subterranean city, stirring international conflict and exposing the archaeological team to curses, whispers, and the terror of a legendary plague.
*Read the synopsis...
- The Institute by Stephen King is scheduled to release on September 10th, 2019. Yes!
Check out the synopsis:
In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”
In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.
February 5th, 2019
New Release & Review:
Forget You Know Me
By Jessica Strawser
I always hate to age myself in my reviews, but sometimes an author leaves me without a choice. Forget You Know Me started off like Barney’s (How I Met Your Mother) mixtape – it started off with a BAM! I was left wondering where this story was going. I love it when an author starts their story like this. Strawser grabbed my attention – I was not going to be distracted.
*Read my full review...
*Read Shelley's review...
Sunset Beach
By Mary Kay Andrews
This week's list of new and
upcoming releases is posted
Normal People is an
interesting, thought-
provoking novel that follows
a young “couple” as they
finish high school and
maneuver into university
life. At a mere glance, it
may seem like a typical
romance story between two
people from different sides
of the tracks, but to be
honest, there is nothing
really typical about this story.
New Releases!
- The Mister – By E L James
London, 2019. Life has been easy for Maxim Trevelyan. With his good looks, aristocratic connections, and money, he’s never had to work and he’s rarely slept alone. But all that changes when tragedy strikes and Maxim inherits his family’s noble title, wealth, and estates, and all the responsibility that entails. It’s a role he’s not prepared for and one that he struggles to face.
But his biggest challenge is fighting his desire for an unexpected, enigmatic young woman who’s recently arrived in England, possessing little more than a dangerous and troublesome past. Reticent, beautiful, and musically gifted, she’s an alluring mystery, and Maxim’s longing for her deepens into a passion that he’s never experienced and dares not name. Just who is Alessia Demachi? Can Maxim protect her from the malevolence that threatens her? And what will she do when she learns that he’s been hiding secrets of his own?
- Normal People – By Sally Rooney - Read my review!
At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school football team, while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers—one they are determined to conceal.
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. And as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.
- The Better Sister – By Alafair Burke – Thriller!
Keep your enemies close and your sister closer.
Though Chloe was the younger of the two Taylor sisters, she always seemed to be the one in charge. She was the honor roll student with big dreams and an even bigger work ethic. Nicky—always restless and more than a little reckless—was the opposite of her ambitious little sister. She floated from job to job and man to man, and stayed close to home in Cleveland.
For a while, it seemed that both sisters had found happiness. Chloe earned a scholarship to an Ivy League school and moved to New York City, where she landed a coveted publishing job. Nicky married promising young attorney Adam Macintosh and gave birth to a baby boy they named Ethan. The Taylor sisters became virtual strangers.
Now, more than fifteen years later, their lives are drastically different—and Chloe is married to Adam. When he’s murdered by an intruder at the couple’s East Hampton beach house, Chloe reluctantly allows her teenage stepson’s biological mother—her estranged sister, Nicky—back into her life. But when the police begin to treat Ethan as a suspect in his father’s death, the two sisters are forced to unite . . . and to confront the truth behind family secrets they have tried to bury in the past.
- Serious Moonlight - By Jenn Bennett
Mystery-book aficionado Birdie Lindberg has an overactive imagination. Raised in isolation and homeschooled by strict grandparents, she’s cultivated a whimsical fantasy life in which she plays the heroic detective and every stranger is a suspect. But her solitary world expands when she takes a job the summer before college, working the graveyard shift at a historic Seattle hotel.
In her new job, Birdie hopes to blossom from introverted dreamer to brave pioneer, and gregarious Daniel Aoki volunteers to be her guide. The hotel’s charismatic young van driver shares the same nocturnal shift and patronizes the waterfront Moonlight Diner where she waits for the early morning ferry after work. Daniel also shares her appetite for intrigue, and he’s stumbled upon a real-life mystery: a famous reclusive writer—never before seen in public—might be secretly meeting someone at the hotel.
To uncover the writer’s puzzling identity, Birdie must come out of her shell…discovering that most confounding mystery of all may be her growing feelings for the elusive riddle that is Daniel.
- Breaking Without You (Fractured Connections #1) – By Carrie Ann Ryan
I fell for Cameron Connolly at the wrong time. And when he left, I thought my life was over. But then, after the worst happened, I truly understood what that phrase meant. Now, he’s not ready for a second chance, and I’m not offering one. Though given that our families have been forced together after losing one of our own, I know there’s no turning back. Not this time. Not again. Not when it comes to Cameron.
~~
I never wanted to hurt Violet Knight, but there were reasons I had to leave all those years ago—not that she'd believe me if I told her what they were. I not only left her, I also left my foster brothers. Honestly, I didn’t want to come back to Denver to help run my father’s failing brewery. But when it comes to my brothers, I know I’ll find a way to make it work. Perhaps I’ll even earn Violet’s forgiveness and face the connection we both thought long forgotten in the process. Because I wanted her then, but now I know I need her. I just hope she needs me.
- Time: Laws of Physics #3 – By Penny Reid - This
series must be read in order.
- Gluttony (The Elite Seven) – By K. Webster - An enemies-to-lovers, angsty college romance!
My life has been served to me on a gold platter to be
- Promise Me - By Samanthe Beck & Robin Bielman
- Best I’ve Ever Had – By Abbi Glines
Summer had returned. The nightlife lit up the coastal town of Sea Breeze, Alabama with scantily clad sun-kissed bodies, live music, the smell of fresh cooked seafood.
Taking it all in, he wondered if coming back had been the best thing. He wasn’t the same man who had driven out of town a year ago on the motorcycle he’d bought after his best friend’s wedding. From the messy blonde curls he’d let grow out, to the tattoos now covering his arms, part of his chest and even the side of his neck, it all represented a part of his journey.
Eli Hardy was back, but he didn’t plan on staying for long.
- Before She Was Found – By Heather Gudenkauf – Psychological thriller!
For twelve-year-old Cora Landry and her friends Violet and Jordyn, it was supposed to be an ordinary sleepover—movies and Ouija and talking about boys. But when they decide to sneak out to go to the abandoned rail yard on the outskirts of town, little do they know that their innocent games will have dangerous consequences.
Later that night, Cora Landry is discovered on the tracks, bloody and clinging to life, her friends nowhere to be found. Soon their small rural town is thrust into a maelstrom. Who would want to hurt a young girl like Cora—and why? In an investigation that leaves no stone unturned, everyone is a suspect and no one can be trusted—not even those closest to Cora.
- The Great Pretenders – By Laura Kalpakian
Roxanne forges a career unique for women in the 1950s, becoming an agent for hungry young screenwriters. She struggles to be taken seriously by the men who rule Hollywood and who often assume that sexual favors are just a part of doing business. When she sells a script by a blacklisted writer under the name of a willing front man, more exiled writers seek her help. Roxanne wades into a world murky with duplicity and deception, and she can’t afford any more risks.
Then she meets Terrence Dexter, a compelling African American journalist unlike anyone she’s ever known. Roxanne again breaks the rules, and is quickly swept up in a passionate relationship with very real dangers that could destroy everything she’s carefully built.
- The Rose – By Tiffany Reisz – Erotic romance!
On the day of Lia’s university graduation party, her parents—wealthy art collectors with friends in high places—gift her a beautiful wine cup, a rare artifact decorated with roses. It’s a stunning gift, and one that August Bowman, a friend of her parents and a guest at Lia’s party, also has his eye on. The cup, August tells her, is known as the Rose Kylix, and it’s no ordinary cup. It was used in the temple ceremonies of Eros, Greek god of erotic love, and has the power to bring the most intimate sexual fantasies to life.
But Lia is skeptical of August’s claims of the cup’s mythology and magic—after all, he’s a collector himself, and she suspects he just wants to get his hands on this impressive piece of art. So he dares her to try it for herself, and when Lia drinks from the Rose Kylix she is suddenly immersed in an erotic myth so vivid it seems real—as though she’s living out the most sensual fantasy with August by her side…
Realizing the true power of this ancient and dangerous relic, Lia is even more wary of giving it up, though August insists it is only safe with him. He’s willing to pay the full value of the cup, but Lia has another type of trade in mind. One that finds them more tangled up in each other—and in fantasy—than either was prepared for.
- Forever Mine (Tormentor Mine #4) – By Anna Zaires - This is the conclusion of Peter & Sara’s story. It is strongly recommended that you read the Twist Me and Capture Me trilogies before embarking on this book.
- April 17 – Titan (The Norfolk Series) – By M.J. Fields – Can be read as a standalone.
Not all officers are gentlemen — some are villains.
Not all protectors care for your heart — some shatter it.
He was all of that and more.
One look at him and something inside of me woke from a three-year slumber.
One realization and I knew I would never be able to unleash that desire.
My world started to crumble. Fear crept in and I knew I needed Titan more than I could ever admit, or I could lose everything I had worked so hard for.
Lines were crossed.
Tragedy followed.
We fell in love — in the cruelest of ways.
Happy Reading!
April 16th, 2019
David Moody is one of my favorite authors. I’ve been captivated by his writing since I first opened Hater many years ago. I’ve been nursing The Last Big Thing since its release in January. I just can’t sit and read straight through an anthology; I like to place the stories in between other full-length books that I’m reading. I find that this helps with my overall appreciation for the anthology as a whole.
What he's reading!
What she's reading!