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One by One
Ruth Ware | 2020 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Corporate Retreats are Murder
When the key employees of the internet startup Snoop show up at a chalet in the French Alps, they are expecting a week of presentations and skiing. However, there is tension brewing just below the surface thanks to a buyout deal that has split the board. The tension only grows worse when heavy snow and an avalanche cuts everyone off from the rest of the world and one of the members of a group goes missing somewhere out in the snow. As the hours pass, it becomes clear a killer is in the group. Will help arrive before they are all dead?

While the cast of isolated characters trope is not new to the mystery genre, Ruth Ware quickly makes it her own in this page turning thriller. I love how she so successfully isolated the characters. The plot is wonderful with tension rising early before the characters fully realize the danger they are in. The twists kept me engaged the entire way through the nail-biting climax. The characters could have been a little stronger overall. Don’t get me wrong, I cared about them and the outcome, but I felt like many of them stayed two dimensional and those we got to know better bordered on the cliché. Being a thriller, I expected more foul language than in the books I typically read, but it was a bit excessive for my tastes. Still, these are nitpicks in an overall wonderful thriller.
  
A Silver Fox for Kinkmas (Naughty or Nice Season Three)
A Silver Fox for Kinkmas (Naughty or Nice Season Three)
Colette Davison | 2022 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
"Washing machines and socks? It works here!"
A SILVER FOX FOR KINKMAS is part of the Naughty or Nice Season 3 and we meet Barney and Magnus. Barney is Kasper's best friend (Crazy Little Thing Cold Love, Destination Daddies Season Two) and comes to Manchester to spend some time with him and Jude. Plus, Cuff'd are having a week-long event called Kinkmas in Manchester that Barney wants to attend. He'd really like a silver fox for Christmas, nothing too serious, nothing too special. What he gets is Magnus, a silver fox who falls for bratty Barney and wants long-term.

There was so much about this story I loved. Magnus' memories of Leo were so sweet and I loved how Barney understood and let him have his moments, feeling secure in what was between them. Barney is the one with worries about their relationship which, to be fair to him, was completely understandable considering how his parents were. Anyone would have doubts after growing up with that.

Light on kink (unless you count washing machines and wearing socks!) but heavy on emotion, this was a wonderful book to read and I have no hesitation in recommending it.

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
  
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ClareR (5885 KP) rated Emily Eternal in Books

Apr 12, 2022  
Emily Eternal
Emily Eternal
M G Wheaton | 2019 | Dystopia, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Emily Eternal is a lot of what I love about science fiction. M. G. Wheaton has taken something that is pretty unbelievable (the end of the sun five billion years early) and made it perfectly believable. That, and the sentient computer programme, Emily.

Emily has been developed in order to help humanity. Primarily, she is supposed to counsel people who had been through trauma - and there’s a lot of it going around with all the impending doom, climate catastrophes etc. But this counselling has been used as a way of Emily teaching herself to become more human. She learns, constantly. I say “she”, because Emily is portrayed as a normal human being. She has daily routines, washes her hair, sleeps, eats. She learns from the people she counsels and watches through the various security cameras. And she forms attachments with her programmers and the other people she encounters.

But things go horribly wrong, and Emily escapes just in time. She is helped by her human companions for most of the book: Jason and Myra.

I don’t want to say too much more, because if you’re going to read this, I wouldn’t want to spoil it. It was a gripping story of a computer programme who has taught ‘herself’ how to care for humanity and to do her best for them. I loved it.
Recommended to all those who like Sci-Fi that’s light on the science and heavy on the personal relationships.