whatsheread's reviews
2207 reviews

I made it to book 50 in the In Death series! That is just so many books for one series, I can't quite wrap my mind around it. For her fiftieth book, J. D. Robb presents us with one of the most repugnant killers Eve encounters. I can't think of a takedown that is more satisfying than watching Eve get her perp this time around. The reasons for the murders, the method of killing used, and general attitudes and expectations left me creeped out and raging mad. This isn't a sociopath but rather someone who feels the world owes them. The sense of entitlement is worse than a sociopath's need to kill IMO. GOLDEN IN DEATH is one book that had me actively cheering Eve on through her investigation because I was so incensed by so many of the characters we meet this time around. The fact that Ms. Robb can still make you feel that way after fifty books speaks volumes regarding her writing!

THE WHISPERING NIGHT, the Luminaries series finale, by Susan Dennard is a book I eagerly awaited, for good reason. The mystery, the will-they-or-won't-they aspect of Jay and Winnie's relationship, and the world of Hemlock Falls are all compelling reasons. Thankfully, Ms. Dennard does not disappoint her readers. 

While I devoured every page and enjoyed myself doing so, that is not to say THE WHISPERING NIGHT is not without its issues. For one, the story wanders all over the place. Quite literally, Winnie runs from one end of town to the other and back again. Plus, Ms. Dennard introduces what turns out to be a major character that changes the direction of Winnie's research, and this character never sat right with me. Her addition feels too last-minute, even if we first meet her within the first few chapters. It's a major twist the story didn't need and another thread for Winnie to track. 

As for Winnie, apparently she is the only one in Hemlock Falls who can discover all the clues, piece together the puzzle, and save the day. There is a literal manhunt for her at one point in the story, yet not a single adult latches on to the idea that there is a bigger problem in their world than one girl. Even the few adults who go out of their way to help Winnie end up dropping the ball or fail to see what Winnie sees. I get that this is because it is YA, but do all of the adults have to be so damn incompetent? 

My other niggling issue is the fact that Jay always, and I mean ALWAYS, asks Winnie for permission to kiss her. Even after they declare their feelings for each other, he still asks. It is odd and awkward. Winnie is odd and awkward, and we love her for that. But asking your partner if you can kiss them after having spent hours making out irks me. I'm all for obtaining permission, and I like seeing that in romance novels. It's just I've seen permission executed in other novels in ways that are far more conducive to romantic interludes and less cumbersome, and the permission became less explicit the longer the couples were together. 

All in all, I did love THE WHISPERING NIGHT. The ending was not at all what I expected, and Ms. Dennard leaves room for future books if she wants. I feel there is so much of Winnie's world we don't know or understand that the possibilities for more stories set either in Hemlock Falls or the larger world of witches and nightmares are endless.  

I am a huge John Scalzi fan, and I find his novels tend to make for great audiobooks. I listened to the first book in The Dispatcher series and loved it. Everything from the story to the narrator was great. Unfortunately, the second book in the series, MURDER BY OTHER MEANS, was not so great. 

The problem lies not with the story or the characters but with the narrator. Zachary Quinto sounds like he did not want to be there that day, which shows in his performance. His tone is flat. He inflects no emotion into his voice at all. He barely differentiates between male and female voices, and there is no difference between male characters. Worst of all, he takes Mr. Scalzi's trademark sarcasm and renders it moot. 

Because his narration is so monotone, the story has no drive. It is as if the events in the novella are occurring around the main character and not to him. Even though every word counts for story and character development in short stories, Mr. Quinto's narration lulls you into a stupor so that you find you missed entire paragraphs and have to rewind. Either that or the main character is supposed to be an emotionless automaton. 

As it was less than four hours of my time, and I listened to MURDER BY OTHER MEANS while doing household chores like I always do, I can't say it was time wasted. I can only hope that for the third book, Mr. Quinto was in a better mood when he recorded his performance. 

To date, Marisha Pessl's stories are dark, odd, and fascinating. Her latest, DARKLY, is all of that taken up ten notches. With its mystery within a mystery and use of "found" original documents, Ms. Pessl takes you on a journey that is at times dangerous and insane if you stop to think about what is happening. Yet, DARKLY is every bit as addicting as Louisana Veda's games. 

DARKLY is the epitome of a story that makes you question everything you think you know. Its ending is open and leaves several questions unanswered. Despite that frustration, you soon realize it is the perfect ending to the novel. As the story itself plays with the idea of reality, and the character around whom the entire story revolves is as much an enigma as anything you will find, the open ending and unanswered questions are a continuation of that theme. 

DARKLY takes the idea that we can never really know someone and uses it to the extreme. To that mix, Ms. Pessl tosses in a seemingly deserted island with one way off or on, adds a dash of a derelict factory, stirs in the gloomiest of weather, and layers on a mysterious internship. She tops it all with a seriously disturbing game within a game. The result is the perfect gothic mystery. 

As I have thoroughly enjoyed the first two books of Alyson Noël's Stealing Infinity series, I was eager to get started on CHASING ETERNITY. I had no idea where the story was going or how it was going to end. And when you are talking about time travel, anything is possible. 

Except, I didn't love CHASING ETERNITY. I enjoyed it immensely...right up until the end. The conclusion Ms. Noël uses is lackluster at best and frustrating at its worst. The whole thing feels as if Ms. Noël couldn't come up with a way to satisfactorily conclude her story and so chose the path of least resistance. It's disappointing. 

To make matters worse, there were several times throughout this book when I struggled to ignore the elephant in the room, so to speak. Yes, it seems weird to find certain situations ridiculous when the entire series is all about a group of teenagers who travel through time to steal priceless art and jewelry, but still. There is only so much disbelief I can suspend, and I started feeling uncomfortable around the first chapter when the main character meets a historical figure and said historical figure acts like everything is perfectly normal. When the main character learns the same magic as said historical figure but in a few hours rather than years, I was done. 

All this to say CHASING ETERNITY is a disappointment. The Stealing Infinity series to this point was so much fun, crazy but in a good way. I always got the feeling that even Ms. Noël knew how insane her story was and that knowledge made it all okay to like, as if she also embraced the madness without taking any of it too seriously. Until she decided to change that and makes CHASING ETERNITY entirely too serious without eliminating any of the madness. With an ending that feels like a copout more than a well-developed resolution, it makes me change my opinion about the entire series. 

As the second book of Thea Guanzon's The Hurricane Wars series, I was prepared to be either blown away or completely disappointed with A MONSOON RISING. Instead, I got a book I really, really enjoyed with an ending that made me gasp aloud but throughout which there were enough issues to prevent my mind from being blown. 

Don't get me wrong. I finished A MONSOON RISING giddy with the promise of a spectacular finale. I loved the spice, the action, and the further adventures of Alaric and Talasyn together and apart. I devoured the book as quickly as I could without dropping everything altogether. It's just that Alaric and Talasyn spend as much time mooning about and worrying about the future or each other as they do in action. 

I get their angsty thoughts. They are young and have little to no firsthand political experience. Plus, they both suffer from childhood trauma. Their brooding makes sense and is entirely appropriate. It's just that it takes up so much of the story. When there is action, whether it is in the form of training or as basic as traveling, A MONSOON RISING is unputdownable. When you are once again having to endure either character's obsession over the other or worrying about the future, it is less so.

A MONSOON RISING is a great book and deserving of all the praise. It just gets a little slow at times for my taste. I will still gladly read anything Ms. Guanzon writes because these first two novels are stellar. Plus, the ending is a game-changer that left me reeling. I can't think of a series that excites me more than The Hurricane War and a series finale I am anticipating the most.

THE WEDDING WITCH by Erin Sterling is nothing but a fun, quick, escapist romance. The plot is simple, the characters charming and quirky, and the action fast and furious. Put that all together with some very steamy but satisfying sex scenes, and it's a little slice of romance perfection. While the release date of THE WEDDING WITCH was October 2024, I read it in December. Reading it around the same time of year the story occurs added a little special something to my reading experience, as it is a Yule story as well as a witchy romance. THE WEDDING WITCH was a lot of harmless fun that eased the stress of the season and made the dark nights a little cozier. 

If you are like me and half in love with Roarke, you crave any glimpse you can get of his past life. SHADOWS IN DEATH, book 51 of J. D. Robb's In Death series, provides us with just that as a shadow from Roarke's past decides that early 2061 is a good time to enact his revenge. While it still doesn't shine a spotlight on all of his mysterious former life of crime, you do get one or two answers by the time the story ends. And what an ending it is too! Is it insane? Yes. Is it utterly preposterous? Probably. Did I love every minute of it? Absolutely. Dark, dangerous, and simply engrossing, SHADOWS IN DEATH is what we've come to love about this series. 

SAVE OUR SOULS by Matthew Pearl caught my eye because of its title. A true Swiss Family Robinson story that involves murder sounded like the perfect break from all the fantasy novels I have been reading. However, what sounded like an intriguing story is, in actuality, a regurgitation of research and not one done very well.  

SAVE OUR SOULS suffers from a serious case of too much information. There is no doubt that Mr. Pearl researched the topic, as he includes at least one footnote with its corresponding citation on almost every page. But therein lies the problem. Mr. Pearl finds a way to incorporate all his research into a short book. His notes are nearly as many pages as the story itself. There is too much information in such a short space that it is akin to drinking water from a wide-open fire hose. You can't process it all. 

To make matters worse, Mr. Pearl opts to tell the story chronologically. While this doesn't seem like a bad organizational methodology to use for a historical narrative, it is to the reader's disadvantage here. Mr. Pearl spends large swaths of SAVE OUR SOULS going off on tangents every time he introduces a new person into the drama. The same holds for every new location mentioned or occupation. For every advancement of the castaway story, you must walk down at least one, if not more, other paths before Mr. Pearl finally gets back to the main narrative. If you take out all of the tangential information, the crux of the Walkers' shipwreck takes up very little room, and this is not a long novel to begin with. 

While there is an interesting story there in SAVE OUR SOULS, it is not worth the effort required to dig that story out of everything else. There is no doubt Mr. Pearl is enthusiastic about this little moment in history, but his enthusiasm is overwhelming. His tangential explanations cause the main narrative to be disjointed. Plus, he doesn't always tie those tangents back into that main narrative, which serves to increase any confusion you may already have. You could get everything you need to know about the Walkers' tale from a simple Wikipedia entry because, in the end, that is all it needs to be. SAVE OUR SOULS is nothing more than a spewing of facts and numerous tangential history lessons for a moment in time that had no lasting impact on the world at large.

After the intensity of the last two books, in book 53 of the In Death series J. D. Robb opts to go a different route. FORGOTTEN IN DEATH is about murder, as always, but the murders this time around are tragic in a way I haven't felt before with this series. One can argue that all murder is senseless, but that is particularly true with Eve's latest victims. Given Eve's reactions during the investigation, that is exactly what Ms. Robb intended. There are some lovely peaceful scenes to break up the tension and general sadness at the losses. The Russian mob even finds its way into the mix. The last two books were full-throttle, cat-and-mouse intense, but FORGOTTEN IN DEATH is a much slower story. It isn't splashy and doesn't involve other agencies. The resolution of the murders is fairly simple. Its strength lies in Eve's relative calm during the investigation and her ability to remain focused when so much of what she finds hits close to home. It is just one more confirmation that Eve's past self is healing and finding peace with her past.