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The Last Cabin Girl
Tom Swyers | 2023
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
114 of 235
Kindle
The Last Cabin Girl
By
Tom Swyers
⭐️⭐️

As the pandemic begins, Josie Thompson is a struggling waitress, mom of two great kids. She wants a fresh start far from her abusive husband, the confining small town she calls home, and a long-held secret her family refuses to disclose.

But Josie isn’t going anywhere. After murder victims turn up floating in the river near her isolated cabin, the FBI quickly charges her in one of the killings. Thankfully, she’s freed on bond, but charges for the other deaths loom. The FBI thinks she’s a serial killer.

If convicted, she faces life in prison and a future forever apart from her children. Josie can’t let that happen. She must venture out of her comfort zone to prove her innocence, even if it means confronting her issues, including a growing fear of COVID-19.

Can she trust anyone to help? A friendly detective and former police officer? Her estranged lawyer-brother, David Thompson? Her cryptic parents? A wealthy bachelor who has eyes for her?

In a town where things are not what they seem and not everyone can be trusted, can Josie clear her name, or will her own dark secrets be her undoing?

I honestly don’t know what I just read. I hate giving 2 star reviews but I just don’t know what I feel about this book. It started well but I think there were to many ideas thrown into it I found it became completely bizarre towards the end I mean I can see what the author wanted to to do was twist , turn and shock but all it did for me was twist, turn and confuse. We have the covid 19 virus, conspiracy, incest and espionage that didn’t gel well in my opinion. So sorry 🙈
  
The Last Guardian (Jon Shannow #2)
The Last Guardian (Jon Shannow #2)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
"But he did not die."

Gripping words in David Gemmell's so-called Jon Shannow trilogy of novels (and about the fourth in the Sipstrassi - or Stones of Power - series), that are required after the ending of Wolf in Shadow: reading this, I often wonder did Gemmell not realise that Jon Shannow aka The Jerusalem Man would be such a popular character when he first wrote that book, and had initially intended it to be a one-off (quick Google search: yes).

This particular series, however, is essentially a post-Apocalyptic Western, with it hard not to imagine the character as Clint Eastwood appears in Unforgiven.

On a more literary front, I also wonder whether Stephen King The Dark Tower series was either inspired or provided the inspiration for this, with both sharing a few (superficial, at least) similarities.

Freed from most of the heavy-lifting of the world building done in the previous entry, this particular work instead is more able to concentrate on the character of Jon Shannow, providing a bit more flesh (as it were) to the world he inhabits, while still also calling back to those previous events in passing.

I'm not entirely sold on the Lizard enemies that appear roughly about half-way, thinking it might have been better to stick with more traditional (if I can use that word in this context) heroic fantasy enemies, but even they are given more of a character than you would normally expect from supporting characters. Talking of supporting characters: this one also has Nu-Khasistra (an Atlantean from before the Fall - trust me, it makes sense once you read it!) and the Parson to provide counter-balance to Shannow himself: the former a ship-builder whose faith has much in common with that of Shannow and who provides some sage words of advice; the latter showing what can happen when a man believes in absolutes.

As with most of Gemmell's works, well worth a read