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Eleanor Luhar (47 KP) rated The Legacy in Books
Jun 24, 2019
When I first read Malley's The Declaration series this third novel hasn't yet been released. And then I kind of forgot about the series until the end of last year.
Anna and Peter have found a safe residence in the countryside thanks to the Underground, the resistance movement against the use of Longevity. But their safety is being compromised as some unknown "illness" is spreading through the Legals - killing people who are supposed to live forever. People are pointing the finger at everyone around them, fear spreading even quicker than the virus.
Jude and Sheila are living in the main Underground facility, but are forced to move base when their leader, Pip, hands himself in and a brick comes flying in through their window. Meanwhile, Peter's ring is of high importance to Richard Pincent, who has arranged with some unknown Underground member for it to be sent to him.
Without Pip, Jude has to take over. But he wasn't expecting his half-brother to arrive, especially without the rest of his family. And now Sheila's disappeared...
Why are people dying? Are the Underground really to blame?
And then, when he didn't think things could any worse, Jude sees Pip talking to Richard Pincent's closest friend and guard, as if they were friends.
Is this really the end of the Underground? Have they finally lost?
I noticed a lot of typos and punctuation mistakes, which gave the book a bit of an unprofessional, juvenile feel. But I've always loved this series and honestly I found the book so easy to read and enjoyable, despite the mistakes. There are some really interesting twists, and the story focuses a lot on characters other than Anna an d Peter which is nice.
4 stars for this book.
Anna and Peter have found a safe residence in the countryside thanks to the Underground, the resistance movement against the use of Longevity. But their safety is being compromised as some unknown "illness" is spreading through the Legals - killing people who are supposed to live forever. People are pointing the finger at everyone around them, fear spreading even quicker than the virus.
Jude and Sheila are living in the main Underground facility, but are forced to move base when their leader, Pip, hands himself in and a brick comes flying in through their window. Meanwhile, Peter's ring is of high importance to Richard Pincent, who has arranged with some unknown Underground member for it to be sent to him.
Without Pip, Jude has to take over. But he wasn't expecting his half-brother to arrive, especially without the rest of his family. And now Sheila's disappeared...
Why are people dying? Are the Underground really to blame?
And then, when he didn't think things could any worse, Jude sees Pip talking to Richard Pincent's closest friend and guard, as if they were friends.
Is this really the end of the Underground? Have they finally lost?
I noticed a lot of typos and punctuation mistakes, which gave the book a bit of an unprofessional, juvenile feel. But I've always loved this series and honestly I found the book so easy to read and enjoyable, despite the mistakes. There are some really interesting twists, and the story focuses a lot on characters other than Anna an d Peter which is nice.
4 stars for this book.
BookishWoo (317 KP) rated Zodiac in Books
May 25, 2020 (Updated May 25, 2020)
Zodiac is the 2nd book of the Sergiu Manta Series and the first to be translated into English.
I was captivated by Zodiac right from the first page. Anamarie wrote this extremely well and in a way that you felt you were reading a script for a crime drama, scene by scene. This is slightly different to what I'm used to, but I found as long as I paced myself and didnt speed through it I could keep up with the scene jumps and found that I completely enjoyed her writing style. Although this is a fast paced thriller do not be fooled that being only 218 pages long you can speed through this quickly. This is a book to savour and enjoy.
I can honestly say that I fell in love with the main protagonaist Sergiu, he was an unpredicatable, motorbike riding, charming "Agency" man willing to do whatever it takes no matter what the cost.
His character was in stark contrast to Marius who was a typical police inspector and family man with a moral conscience. This worked well alongside Sergiu's character and didnt give you that typical good cop, bad cop feel. They complimented each other well.
The plot was fantastic, and just when I thought I had it all figured out the twist came along and surprised me completely!
I cant wait to read more of the series and hope that the first book gets translated so I can read this too!
If you are a fan of fast paced thrillers I highly recommend this!
Trigger Warnings: swearing, sexual themes, rape, murder, guns, violence
I received Zodiac by Amamaria Ionescu for free in exchange for an honest review from Love Book Tours and Corylus Books.
I was captivated by Zodiac right from the first page. Anamarie wrote this extremely well and in a way that you felt you were reading a script for a crime drama, scene by scene. This is slightly different to what I'm used to, but I found as long as I paced myself and didnt speed through it I could keep up with the scene jumps and found that I completely enjoyed her writing style. Although this is a fast paced thriller do not be fooled that being only 218 pages long you can speed through this quickly. This is a book to savour and enjoy.
I can honestly say that I fell in love with the main protagonaist Sergiu, he was an unpredicatable, motorbike riding, charming "Agency" man willing to do whatever it takes no matter what the cost.
His character was in stark contrast to Marius who was a typical police inspector and family man with a moral conscience. This worked well alongside Sergiu's character and didnt give you that typical good cop, bad cop feel. They complimented each other well.
The plot was fantastic, and just when I thought I had it all figured out the twist came along and surprised me completely!
I cant wait to read more of the series and hope that the first book gets translated so I can read this too!
If you are a fan of fast paced thrillers I highly recommend this!
Trigger Warnings: swearing, sexual themes, rape, murder, guns, violence
I received Zodiac by Amamaria Ionescu for free in exchange for an honest review from Love Book Tours and Corylus Books.
The Sea of Lost Girls
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Light My Pyre (Everwood Falls #1)
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EVERWOOD FALLS… a small supernatural community tucked up in the Colorado Rockies where witches,...
Paranormal Romance Cozy Mystery
KittyMiku (138 KP) rated World, Incorporated in Books
May 23, 2019
World, Incorporated by Tom Gariffo is a sci-fi novel set in the near future where the world is run by businesses instead of government officials like we have today. I found this book to be rough the first half, but entertaining in the second half. I had felt like the story had been lackluster in the beginning but picked up towards the end. Although the ending was fairly decent, I still can’t say that this is an amazing read.
In World, Incorporated the reader is mainly following around Agent Silver, who is just a complete dissident. He ends up acquiring some travel companions who had tried to kill him in one way or another without his boss knowing while his aircraft is keeping information from him. You learn the history of the world through weblogs and news articles that the Agent had acquired in his own personal research. He used them to try to inform one of his companions, Kelly, about the world around her. Kelly lived in the country side where her parents kept her from the new world that existed around her. As you follow the main characters around, you are able to witness battles, suspense and plain human emotion as they grow into better people. Towards the end you find Agent Silver’s real goals and how he changes from the beginning of the novel.
At first, I had found the book boring and hard to stick it out. The articles on the history on how the world had become to be what it was just didn’t hold my interest. I understand their purpose; I just wish Tom Gariffo had chosen another way to convey the information to the reader. Even though that information had help shaped some of the way the reader was able to understand that way the supercorporations had been able to take over the and control areas and such and why it was so, it still left quite a few questions about certain topics revolving around the supercorporations. However, for the few things that had been left without answers at the beginning, I found some answers were revealed in the last chapter of the book.
The last chapter of the book, you got to really see how friendships of all kinds can really help a person grow and change their own ways. Although Agent Silver had been a loner, seeing how his perspective changed over time was a very realistic touch to a character that I personally believed was just a cold killer beginning to grow soft. I found that World, Incorporated was fairly interesting in how the world and how society could change in just a few short decades due to how corporations merge and became bigger and ultimately supercorporations who would end up ruling over areas and zones of the world that they would have agreements with the other supercorporations to have control of. This brought up the idea that money and businesses are what our world is slowing turning towards for power. Though, it is already a topic among some people around us now, to see how that could easily be a reality if we keep up with the way things are going now.
I would rate World, Incorporated 3 stars out of 4 stars. As I had stated earlier, I had some troubles getting through the first half of the novel, but found the second half to hold my interest. Though the novel wasn’t a real page turner in my opinion, I still found the story line very good, if you make it past the history lessons. I would probably recommend this to a few of my friends and family, but only to the ones who I know would stick it out to get to the amazing parts of the story.
Though I don’t believe this is a must read, I found World, Incorporated to be a fairly decent book with a lot of thought on how our world will turn out to be in the fairly near future. Though some of it seems unlikely to ever come to pass, it does cause the reader to think deeply on the said issues and what they would do should something similar come to pass for real. It does follow its sci-fi genre requirements and causes a lot of questioning to happen within the reader’s mind. Once again, I enjoyed most of the book and the thoughts it provoked in me, and I hope that you will as well.
In World, Incorporated the reader is mainly following around Agent Silver, who is just a complete dissident. He ends up acquiring some travel companions who had tried to kill him in one way or another without his boss knowing while his aircraft is keeping information from him. You learn the history of the world through weblogs and news articles that the Agent had acquired in his own personal research. He used them to try to inform one of his companions, Kelly, about the world around her. Kelly lived in the country side where her parents kept her from the new world that existed around her. As you follow the main characters around, you are able to witness battles, suspense and plain human emotion as they grow into better people. Towards the end you find Agent Silver’s real goals and how he changes from the beginning of the novel.
At first, I had found the book boring and hard to stick it out. The articles on the history on how the world had become to be what it was just didn’t hold my interest. I understand their purpose; I just wish Tom Gariffo had chosen another way to convey the information to the reader. Even though that information had help shaped some of the way the reader was able to understand that way the supercorporations had been able to take over the and control areas and such and why it was so, it still left quite a few questions about certain topics revolving around the supercorporations. However, for the few things that had been left without answers at the beginning, I found some answers were revealed in the last chapter of the book.
The last chapter of the book, you got to really see how friendships of all kinds can really help a person grow and change their own ways. Although Agent Silver had been a loner, seeing how his perspective changed over time was a very realistic touch to a character that I personally believed was just a cold killer beginning to grow soft. I found that World, Incorporated was fairly interesting in how the world and how society could change in just a few short decades due to how corporations merge and became bigger and ultimately supercorporations who would end up ruling over areas and zones of the world that they would have agreements with the other supercorporations to have control of. This brought up the idea that money and businesses are what our world is slowing turning towards for power. Though, it is already a topic among some people around us now, to see how that could easily be a reality if we keep up with the way things are going now.
I would rate World, Incorporated 3 stars out of 4 stars. As I had stated earlier, I had some troubles getting through the first half of the novel, but found the second half to hold my interest. Though the novel wasn’t a real page turner in my opinion, I still found the story line very good, if you make it past the history lessons. I would probably recommend this to a few of my friends and family, but only to the ones who I know would stick it out to get to the amazing parts of the story.
Though I don’t believe this is a must read, I found World, Incorporated to be a fairly decent book with a lot of thought on how our world will turn out to be in the fairly near future. Though some of it seems unlikely to ever come to pass, it does cause the reader to think deeply on the said issues and what they would do should something similar come to pass for real. It does follow its sci-fi genre requirements and causes a lot of questioning to happen within the reader’s mind. Once again, I enjoyed most of the book and the thoughts it provoked in me, and I hope that you will as well.
Clair (5 KP) rated My Sister's Bones in Books
Sep 29, 2017
Thank you to Penguin UK as part of an Instagram promotion of this book.
Kate Rafter is a journalist who works in some of worst places in the world, seeing some of the world's worst atrocities. She returns home on the death of her mother. Her sister Sally has never left Herne Bay and is an alcoholic, who hates Kate. The book is split between the main events of the story and scenes in a police station where Kate is being assessed on her mental health. We know that Kate keeps hearing and seeing a young boy in the family garden - but her experiences in Syria which have left her traumatised means that no one believes her.
Marketed as a rival to The Girl on the Train (I wish they wouldn't do that), I enjoyed this book and would ideally have given it 3.5 stars.
Negatives first...I didn't think it was that well written, there were plot holes that annoyed me and I found the characters one dimensional.
BUT the story was fast moving and intriguing and then there is a major twist which I didn't see coming which made me gasp.
Kate Rafter is a journalist who works in some of worst places in the world, seeing some of the world's worst atrocities. She returns home on the death of her mother. Her sister Sally has never left Herne Bay and is an alcoholic, who hates Kate. The book is split between the main events of the story and scenes in a police station where Kate is being assessed on her mental health. We know that Kate keeps hearing and seeing a young boy in the family garden - but her experiences in Syria which have left her traumatised means that no one believes her.
Marketed as a rival to The Girl on the Train (I wish they wouldn't do that), I enjoyed this book and would ideally have given it 3.5 stars.
Negatives first...I didn't think it was that well written, there were plot holes that annoyed me and I found the characters one dimensional.
BUT the story was fast moving and intriguing and then there is a major twist which I didn't see coming which made me gasp.
Jenny Houle (24 KP) rated The Wanderers in Books
Jan 13, 2018
Initially, I had received a free copy of this book for an unbiased review, but did not read it in the allotted time. I finally borrowed it from my local library to sit down and read it.
This book is the story of three astronauts chosen to go on a simulation trip to Mars, in preparation for a real trip in the future. It is also, though, the story of the family members left behind during the simulation, and their relationships with the astronauts. Each chapter is written from a different character's view point, and while in some books this is distracting, Howrey manages to perfect the art of it. Each character is distinct, their growth and changes during the 18 months very much their own.
I am typically not a fan of books where the ending is not...a complete ending, but in this particular book it felt like it was the only way to end the book. I found myself, towards the end, fearing the moment when all the answers to questions would come...and that sort of goes against what the rest of the book depicts.
This book is the story of three astronauts chosen to go on a simulation trip to Mars, in preparation for a real trip in the future. It is also, though, the story of the family members left behind during the simulation, and their relationships with the astronauts. Each chapter is written from a different character's view point, and while in some books this is distracting, Howrey manages to perfect the art of it. Each character is distinct, their growth and changes during the 18 months very much their own.
I am typically not a fan of books where the ending is not...a complete ending, but in this particular book it felt like it was the only way to end the book. I found myself, towards the end, fearing the moment when all the answers to questions would come...and that sort of goes against what the rest of the book depicts.
Acanthea Grimscythe (300 KP) rated Boom Town in Books
May 15, 2018
For whatever reason, I found myself struggling to get into Boom Town, a short novella by Glenn Rolfe. While it bears no shortage of horror elements, I simply didn’t find it as engrossing as Becoming. That could be due to lack of character development.
The only characters we truly get to know this time around are Kim, Brady, and their immediate family. There’s no real attempt to establish their home town outside of the flea market, and aside from the main villain, Alan, the focus on the alien-like creature invading the small town is minimal.
I wanted really badly to like this novella, but the plot progression felt a little too slow; it seemed like things were hung up on a budding romance between Brady and Kim which, at the stories conclusion was for a reason and did have its intended impact, but was something that I, as a reader, could have done with out. Over all, this is not one of my favorites of Rolfe’s work and I would not consider recommending it to other readers unless they specifically ask for something with aliens and earthquakes.
The only characters we truly get to know this time around are Kim, Brady, and their immediate family. There’s no real attempt to establish their home town outside of the flea market, and aside from the main villain, Alan, the focus on the alien-like creature invading the small town is minimal.
I wanted really badly to like this novella, but the plot progression felt a little too slow; it seemed like things were hung up on a budding romance between Brady and Kim which, at the stories conclusion was for a reason and did have its intended impact, but was something that I, as a reader, could have done with out. Over all, this is not one of my favorites of Rolfe’s work and I would not consider recommending it to other readers unless they specifically ask for something with aliens and earthquakes.
Andy K (10823 KP) rated Brawl In Cell Block 99 (2017) in Movies
Mar 3, 2018
This ain't no Wedding Crashers
Having just watched Bone Tomahawk (you must watch it) and learning writer/director S. Craig Zahler also helmed this film, I was even more anxious to see.
After Vince Vaughn loses his job, he is forced into a life as a drug runner. His big score goes wrong, he makes some tough decisions and ends up in prison. He is then manipulated and has to make even more intense decisions in order to make events happen in his favor.
Vaughn is believable as a tough, abrasive husband trying to save his family. His morality is questionable and you can't decide whether to root for him pr hate him. Don Johnson is also a standout as the warden.
I found it fascinating and exhilarating at the same time. Some of the fight scenes are maybe a little excessively violent, but that is the nature of prison life I imagine.
Zahler is slowly making a name for himself with these two films. He also has Dragged Across Concrete coming out later this year.
He hasn't reached Tarantino status quite yet, but he is off to a good start.
After Vince Vaughn loses his job, he is forced into a life as a drug runner. His big score goes wrong, he makes some tough decisions and ends up in prison. He is then manipulated and has to make even more intense decisions in order to make events happen in his favor.
Vaughn is believable as a tough, abrasive husband trying to save his family. His morality is questionable and you can't decide whether to root for him pr hate him. Don Johnson is also a standout as the warden.
I found it fascinating and exhilarating at the same time. Some of the fight scenes are maybe a little excessively violent, but that is the nature of prison life I imagine.
Zahler is slowly making a name for himself with these two films. He also has Dragged Across Concrete coming out later this year.
He hasn't reached Tarantino status quite yet, but he is off to a good start.
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2357 KP) rated Cat About Town (Cat Cafe Mystery, #1) in Books
Mar 9, 2018
Maddie James has returned to Daybreak Island as a result of her grandmother’s death. While there, she learns that Frank O’Malley, head of the local chamber of commerce, wants to buy her grandfather’s house, a house that has been in the family for generations. Frank is used to getting his way and is trying to scare Maddie’s grandfather into selling. So when Frank turns up dead, Maddie and her grandfather find themselves as suspects. Can Maddie clear their name?
I’ve been looking forward to this debut ever since I heard about it, and I wasn’t disappointed. The tension starts early, and once Frank’s body is found, we are off and running. I didn’t have things figured out until Maddie then, but then everything fell into place. The characters, including Maddie’s new cat, are completely charming. And the setting, a resort island off the coast of Massachusetts, is absolutely wonderful. I can’t wait for the next in the series.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2017/08/book-review-cat-about-town-by-cate.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
I’ve been looking forward to this debut ever since I heard about it, and I wasn’t disappointed. The tension starts early, and once Frank’s body is found, we are off and running. I didn’t have things figured out until Maddie then, but then everything fell into place. The characters, including Maddie’s new cat, are completely charming. And the setting, a resort island off the coast of Massachusetts, is absolutely wonderful. I can’t wait for the next in the series.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2017/08/book-review-cat-about-town-by-cate.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.