GreenThunderNS

Absolutely loved this book and flew through it. Only gripe is that I didn't need to have the terms explained to me and italicized on every page for me to absorb it into my thought-cage

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

This is the debut novel of author Melissa Caruso and, while considered “adult” fantasy, I feel it could easily fall under YA as well.

Right out of the gates I was extremely impressed with this book. The Tethered Mage starts off quick with a premise that is extremely unique and original. With it, Melissa poses the question, “What if the government rounded people up with magical abilities at a young in order to control and potentially abuse their power?”. Great question. Totally sounds like something that would happen if magic actually existed.

In the case of The Tethered Mage , they're identified and tethered to a caretaker or “Falconer” who can ensure the power is contained and only unleashed when necessary. Hence the title, “The Tethered Mage”.

Given the premise of the government controlling mages and others with unique abilities, a very large section of the book is dedicated to politics, threats of war, and relationships between different powers. While I found these areas a bit slow, I never once lost interest. As it's a very unique premise and universe, there's a lot of world-building to be done. I think we'll find less of this, and more action/adventure, as the series progresses and all of the world building is out of the way.

Something I really enjoyed about this book, was the character diversity. Our two leads are female powerhouses with very different personalities, there are multiple PoC in a variety of roles throughout the story, we come across a male same-sex couple that's handled quite well, and one of the two female leads is bisexual,.

While I enjoyed the diversity, the lack of using correct terms annoyed me. The words “gay” and “bisexual” do not appear in the book, as is the case with many fantasy books unfortunately. I don't know if it's because in these worlds there are just no words for various sexualities, but I fail to see why magic is more believable than characters knowing or using these specific terms. Representation is important, and I know people appreciate it regardless, but seeing those words in print can do a lot for people struggling with their identity and helping to validate them.

The last third of the book was phenomenal, right back to the pace and action we started the book with. The characters really grow over the course of the story and it made me super excited to see what she has in store for us in book 2.

All in all, I did think it was a great read and I will most definitely be reading the rest of the series. Melissa has developed an incredibly fun, unique and original world, and I can't wait to see what she does with it.

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

Whimsically Wonderus.

Where to being with Nevermoor? So often we hear books being compared to other series as “the next big thing. No, really! It's just like “. We then nod politely, roll our eyes, think nothing could ever be the next  and continue about our day.

I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that Nevermoor is the next Harry Potter, or Hunger Games, or whatever Divergent was, but I am gonna tell you that there will be movies, there will be hype, it will be successful, and one day someone will tell you that the book they just read is definitely the next Nevermoor and you'll nod politely, roll your eyes, and continue about your day.

Nevermoor doesn't try to be anything else. It's perfectly written, it never slows down, nor do you ever lose interest. You forget you're even reading and it's suddenly 2am.

There are certainly tropes used in Nevermoor, but they feel less overdone or like stealing from other series, and more like subtle nods to the people and series who inspired the author. It's confidant. It knows what it is and what's it doing, and it knows it can hold it's own while still including those nods. It's written in such a way that you recognize the nods and you laugh and you can just tell that Jessica had a blast writing this book. Her personality and humor comes through in her writing and it only adds to story. You can tell she just loves the universe and all of the characters living in it.

You can compare parts Morrigan Crow to a bunch of different characters from other series we love, as you can with Jupiter, but you can't compare them to any one character because there are no other characters exactly like them. They're charming, you care about them. They grow and evolve throughout the book, and it's just such a treat.

What surprised me and delighted me the most about Nevermoor was the subcontext throughout it, little life lessons if you will. The book refers to politics, immigration laws, gender roles, and misogyny, and handles those many difficult topics, with elegance and grace. They're like little seeds of thought subtly planted throughout the book. I'm just smitten. Never have I read a book, especially a “children's fantasy” book, that felt so exactly right to the times. These are the seeds of thought that the world needs right now, and it's just done so well.

I know I'm on this long tangent, I haven't even talked about the plot of the book and, honestly, I sort of don't want to. Every other review and the synopsis will do that for me.

I'm rating this book an easy 5 stars. It's one of those reads where you put the book down and you question every other 5 star rating you've ever given. This is truly a 5 star read.

Happy Hallowmas! (God, I love Halloween! This book is so good. It may have just been secretly written for me, I can't say for sure.)

P.S. I think I may have caught subtle nods to Monty Python and Star Wars? I could be crazy, they may not have been on purpose, but if they were, I see what you did there, Jessica! Even if they weren't on purpose they still made me laugh.

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

The “Killer mermaids” concept of Into the Drowning Deep immediately caught my attention and, while I'd never read anything by Mira Grant prior to this, I'd only ever heard good things and wanted to give her writing a shot.

For starters, I honestly never thought I'd get into this sort of book, nor is it something I'd have normally sought out. Unexpectedly Into the Drowning Deep made me a fan of not only Mira Grant but also mermaids? Though, it also made me terrified of mermaids, so thanks for that.

The premise here is that the crew of a television network had been sent into the ocean to film a cryptid mockumentary about mermaids, but were instead lost at sea. Footage recovered showed the crew being eaten alive by mer-creatures and, of course, everyone chalked it up as a publicity stunt and hoax. Now, seven years later, they're sending out a new crew consisting of scientists, experts, and hunters, armed with advanced technology and equipment, to find out what happened once and for all.

A couple things here are super obvious after reading Into the Drowning Deep. The first is that Mira Grant (Seanan Mcguire) loves mermaids and she'll make you love them too. The second is that she did a hell of a lot of scientific research, because I found myself convinced during multiple points of the story that mermaids could be real. Which is ridiculous. There were at least 2 nights this week where I found myself Googling them and their feasibility at three o'clock in the morning. Nonsense.

Mira Grant didn't just create an awesome new mermaid book though, she created an awesome new mermaid. She straight up reinvents them and reimagines their entire biology, culture, intelligence, personality, ecosystem, and motivations. It's honestly brilliant. A full redesign. Mira Grant has done for mermaids, what George A. Romero did for Zombies. Sure, scary killer mermaids have always existed, but this is some next level stuff. It's super unexpected and brilliant. Did I say brilliant already? I don't care, I'm sticking with it.

There's no question in my mind that this is 5 Star read, you will not be disappointed. At no point is the story ever slow, the characters are diverse and delightful, with a wide variety of representation. It's all handled expertly and developed perfectly over the course of the story.

I'm gonna have to stop myself here because I'm swooning, but trust me, it's a treat. Pick it up.

This is a spoiler-free Review
Read on In The Sheets

Two Kinds of Truth is the 22nd book in the Harry Bosch series and the 27th in the Bosch Universe. Between the books and the Amazon show, it seems Bosch is still going strong after 25 years.

While I have read some Michael Connelly in the past (I loved The Poet) this is my first Bosch novel. A fact I'm not proud of, but I will say it won't be my last.

In this installment, Bosch is working on two cases, a recent double murder, and a case from more than 2 decades prior that's been reopened due to new evidence and the advancement of DNA analysis. As the new case threatens to directly effect Bosch and potentially jeopardize his career, he has to work fast to ensure justice is both served and re-served.

What I loved most about this book is how fleshed out the characters are. Each has an individual personality, and even after 25 years, you can still see character development over the course of the novel.

You can tell just how comfortable Connelly has become with the characters and how much he enjoys writing them, they feel like real people. The book knows exactly what it is and does it extremely well. There's a level of writing here you only get from someone who's been writing and developing these characters as long as Michael has.

If you're into detective thrillers, this is an obvious choice, it doesn't get any better than Michael Connelly. The series being 22 books in already sounds daunting, but each is also written to stand alone, so it's never too late to jump in!

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

For starters, I'm most certainly reading Mira Grant's work out of order. I just recently completed Into the Drowning Deep, the review of which you can find on In The Sheets or the Goodreads page for the book. I adored it and wanted to read more by her, so went out and grabbed the Newsflesh trilogy.

I absolutely loved this concept, but I did not get into it the way I got into Drowning Deep, though they're totally different ideas and cannot be compared.

Feed takes place 25 years after a Zombie outbreak. Everyone is infected and will turn eventually, but society has learned to live with it. It's a day and age where the most trusted journalists are bloggers, and we're following a couple of them from a site selected to get exclusive access to the latest presidential campaign. 

This is not your typical zombie horror book and you'll be disappointed if you go into it with that expectation. What Mira Grant has done here is imagined, in a very realistic way, what the world would like like decades after an outbreak and how humanity would cope with it. There's a tremendous amount of world building that's done incredibly well and the technologies she's imagined are just advanced enough and subtle enough to feel entirely plausible and believable.

While the writing is impeccable, I had just recently read some of her latest work and could tell that her writing, and dialogue especially, had grown a lot since Feed. I also had some problems with the narration of the first 90% of the book that would give major spoilers away if I said any more, but it was otherwise a lot of fun with some really cool characters. I honestly had a blast reading it.

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

The Fallen is the the 2nd book in The Darkest Hand Trilogy by Tarn Richardson. 

While the first book was phenomenal, it mainly serves as an introduction to the series and characters. There's a lot of development and flashbacks, which in no way takes away from the story. You can read my full review of The Damned here, I loved every single minute  of it.

The Fallen however, is where the story really kicks off. You already know the universe and the cast of characters, now they've to come together for a battle not even Tacit could have been fully prepared for. 

Given how much I thoroughly enjoyed The Damned, I was afraid the series would suffer in a way many trilogies do - middle book syndrome. More often than not, the second book in a trilogy feels like a lot of filler. Just a bridge to the next book. That's definitely not the case here. The Fallen feels like The Damned woke up, had it's morning coffee (read “bourbon”), and is more ready to kick ass than it already was.

Werewolves? Check.
Scary Demon Babies with Hooves? Check

I'm gonna have to stop it there because if I don't I know I'll ramble and spoil something, but if you loved The Damned, I promise that you'll love The Fallen even more. 

Excellent book, couldn't put it down. Not wild about Crichton's writing style in this one. I can only read “Grant said”, “Muldoon said”, “Ellie said” so many times on one page, but it didn't stop me from finishing the book any faster.

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

I picked up Eleanor Oliphant as soon as it was released and read it in one sitting, but am just now getting around to actually reviewing it. I initially thought the concept sounded lovely needed a book with a cat on the cover for a reading challenge. Win win.

Considering it's called Eleanor Oliphant is Complete Fine, I went into this book assuming that Eleanor Oliphant was not, in fact, fine at all. She's socially awkward, delightful, and has clearly been through some stuff in life.

This is a beautifully written story that just goes to show how imperative mental health is and how one single person change another's life just by being there and caring.

Eleanor can certainly be unlikable at times and while I've seen some reviews of people saying that this turned them off of the book or the character, I think it really added to her and made her more real. We're all shitty or have less than pure thoughts from time to time, let's be honest.

I adored this book, it will definitely be something I pick up to re-read again and again.

Another incredible murder mystery by Anthony Horowitz. Loved every page.

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

I'm not normally one for short stories or compilations of short stories. I've never finished one before and, to be perfectly honest, I've never read a Joe Hill book before.

Strange Weather didn't really feel like a bunch of short stories. It felt like there was a theme and as though it was a great place to start to really get a feel for the author.

Snapshot
This was a great little into story at just 90 pages. It follows a privileged 13 year old kid who seems mostly well adjusted. His old nanny / babysitter (who essentially raised him) starts to show signs of what appears to be Alzheimer's until he realizes what's actually happening and that it'll be up to him to stop The Polaroid Man.

Who are we without our memories? Just the old shell of a house with all of the furniture moved out.

Loaded
This was the longest of the short novels included in Strange Weather and also, I think, my favorite. It's an emotional and important story that I am not going to spoil, but it's extremely relevant to the current political climate and something that everyone should read.

Aloft

After the first two novels, this was not at all what I expected to read. A man reluctantly goes sky diving and lands on a cloud that reads his mind and tries to keep him happy and trapped there. Really wild and super fun.

Rain

What if the weather was weaponized to rain razor sharp crystals over the United States? I didn't get as into this novel as I did the other three, but it was still super interesting and a ton of fun to read. 

Overall, while never a fan of short novels, I absolutely loved this collection. Each novel was fast paced, you could read it in one or two sittings, and they felt exactly as long as they needed to be. Very satisfying.

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

Sometimes you pick up a book to read, it's well written, it's a fun concept, you enjoy the book, but you're always aware of the fact that you're reading. You check the page numbers to see how far you've read and how far you have to go. How far will you be until you're halfway? 172 pages, you can knock that out before bed!

Then there are the books where reading feels effortless, the words are like butter, and you completely lose track of time. The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld falls into the latter category.

The writing, story, and characters are all impeccable. There isn't an emotion I didn't feel while reading this book. It's beautiful, tragic, and dark at times, but even the hardest to read parts are tasteful. It makes you angry at the kinds of people who exist in this world, and then a couple of pages later, it makes you smile with joy at all the good.

The Child Finder follows Naomi, a former child abductee-turned-investigator who specializes in locating missing children while also searching for her own answers. The narration of the story effortlessly switches back and forth between Naomi's perspective and that of one of the children she's trying to locate.

While I received an advanced copy of this book for review, after putting it down, I went out and bought a copy just to support the author. That copy will be given away on my Twitter account in the near future as more people need to read it. 

If that doesn't sum up my feelings on this book, I don't know what will. I think this is an amazing idea for a series of novels and hope this isn't the last we've seen of Naomi.

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

Turtles All The Way Down is the latest YA Contemporary from best selling author, John Green. While John has written many critically acclaimed books, from Paper Towns to The Fault in Our Stars, this is the first opportunity I've personally had to dive into one, and wasn't totally sure what to expect.

All I knew going into Turtles was that it followed a young girl and her friend pursuing the mystery of a fugitive billionaire. While that is a subplot of the book, a more accurate description would be a young girl pursuing the mystery of herself.

Turtles All the Way Down is the story of Aza, a sixteen year old girl struggling to cope with her anxiety and learning to live with mental illness. It's a very real depiction of what it's like to live with anxiety, or at least, I imagine it's a very real depiction. While I'm fortunate enough to not have anxiety or mental illness, I'm happy that this representation exists for those that do, and am also happy that it will help many others like myself, to understand it better.

I'm glad I was able to experience this book, it's something I'll take with me through life and learn from. It was incredibly eye opening to see into the mind of someone living with anxiety and the daily struggles they face while trying to live a “normal” life, do “normal people” things and just be happy.

I may give out a lot of 5 star reviews, but never as there been an easier book to rate.

Turtles All The Way Down should be mandatory reading for anyone dealing with mental illness themselves, who may have a loved one who's struggling, or are just human being. Buy this book.

It was fine. Pretty repetitive and the audio book has a white guy doing some really bad, unnecessary accents.

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

This was one of those books that continuously called my name at the book store until one day I just blindly picked it up, took it home, and jumped in bed with it. One situation where that lead to zero regrets.

Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland have created an awesome world with a believable and historically researched, scientific explanation for how and why magic and time travel both existed and no longer exist, but still exist. It's honestly just super fun, this is the most fun I've had reading a book in a long time.

Most books of this length (750ish pages) look daunting. You read them, it starts off great, there's a big bump in the road where it feels unnecessarily long (like long just for the sake of being long). You get to the end, it's a chore, and you feel like a solid 200-300 pages could have been completely omitted without in anyway affecting the story or the book. This is not one of those cases.

The story is told from different perspectives using a variety of mediums such as old letters, translated documents, Slack messages, and power point presentations, it never feels monotonous or gets boring. Every page is a joy to read and feels relevant to the story, every character is flushed out and their development over the course of the book feels natural and exactly right. Also, Erzsebet is the best.

Not only is this a great historical / sci-fi / fantasy book, but it's also hysterical and a clear jab at startup culture and big corporations. I laughed, shook my head, nodded and rolled my eyes on every single page. As someone who has worked in startups for years, I can say that this book is a terrifyingly accurate depiction of the life of a startup and it's transition into a fucking evil corporation fully fledged company.

At the end of the day, I cannot recommend this book enough. Definitely worth picking up. Please go pick it up.

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

The Last Mrs. Parrish is the debut psychological thriller by Liv Constantine, a writing duo consisting of sisters Lynne and Valerie Constantine, and what a debut it is!

The novel switches perspective between Amber Patterson, an unlikable and terrifying woman who's tired of being a nobody, and Daphne Parrish, wife to multi-millionaire Jackson Parrish, and mother to a couple of pretty awesome kids. 

The story kicks off with Amber putting a plan in place to insert herself into the lives of Daphne and Jackson to get what she thinks she's entitled to and, in the end, most certainly gets what she deserves. No spoilers.

I'm not sure if Amber should be classified as a Narcissist, a Sociopath, a Psychopath, or some combination of the three, but she's certainly unnerving. This is a very real look into what manipulation and gaslighting can do to a person.

What makes this books so incredibly terrifying, is that I think we all know an Amber or two. This could actually happen, and does happen, all the time. People like this are very real. I've certainly met my fair share of them. They're emotionless, ruthless people, who will stop at nothing to get what they think they deserve.

I have absolutely no complaints about The Last Mrs. Parrish except that I didn't want the book to end. I really of hope it get's picked up for a film, it would make an amazing movie.

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

Let me start by saying that I really wanted to like this book. I'd heard mixed things prior to reading it so I went in with an open mind. It sounded like it was gonna be a lot of fun.

It wasn't.

The premise of the book is really neat and I think it could have been done a lot better had it not been mostly filler.

The story is about a kid named Wade who spends all of his time in this VR world called OASIS. I get it, VR is super rad. There are essentially a bunch of Easter Eggs and whoever follows all the clues and reaches the end of the hunt first get massive power and fortune. Basically Willy Wonka, which is fine, I'm not against retellings. 

My problem with Ready Player One is that it just force feeds you 80's references over and over again until you can't take anymore and you want to die, most aren't even relevant to the story. It's like he purposely went over the book and squeezed in extra ones to up the word count and nostalgia but it's just way too much and just pulls you out of the story. It's essentially made me permanently weary of anything 80's themed.

I have no idea how it's rated as highly as it is. I'll give it an extra star for being a good concept, but I still hate it. Unpopular opinion I guess.

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

Prior to Neverwhere I'd not read a Neil Gaiman book, mostly because I'm a terrible person. I figured it was about time and this was a great place to start. 

Neil Gaiman is a weird dude. Also, I might be in love with him and this bizarre, anything-goes, world he created in London Below. This was so much fun to read and Neil's writing style is hilarious. 

The premise of the story is essentially, “what happens if you take an every day office worker, strip him of his entire life, and throw him into an adventure in a a magical underground fantasy world with people who talk to rats and Kings who live in subway cars?” and that is a great question to ask.

The cast of characters in this book is so well rounded, I got attached to them all very quickly. Croup and Vandemar are by far my new favourite villains of all time and Richard Mayhew is my new favourite lovable, oblivious, dork. 

The ending of the book, which I never wanted to come, leaves so many options open to future stories, and yet, it's been 20 years since it was written. Upon finishing the book, I Googled around to see if there was a sequel and, while there's not one, it does sound like he's writing another book in the same universe. Neil Gaiman doesn't write sequels.

The edition I read was the “Author's Preferred Text”, there are multiple versions of the book, but I thought I should start with this one. I can't wait to go back and listen to the radio show and watch the television series. The additional prologue and short story at the end of this edition were a delight and added a little something extra to the reading experience and universe.

I feel like I've been typing forever and haven't said a quarter of the things I want to say about this book. I'll end my review by saying that everyone should read this book at least once, and if you need me I'll be busy reading everything else this man has ever written.

By far one of the best books I've read this year. A fast-paced sci-fi thriller that almost feels plausible. Could not put it down, which is honestly no surprise given the author. Highly recommended.

I don't have words to describe how good this book was. It brings up all the right emotions about a lot of things that need to be talked about.