He’s Back!

Tags

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

On June 21st, 1997 a small book called Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published and a literary juggernaut was born. (I’m not even going to start on the movies, merchandise, and theme park!) Ten years and seven books later, the series ended with this line:

The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.

A perfect and well-deserved end for The Chosen One wouldn’t you think? A little over twenty-four hours from now Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will be released to much fanfare. While I’ve avoided reading anything that might even hint of a spoiler, I have heard that all is not well for Harry and his son Albus. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I’d still be feeling that same magical thrill I first had in the midst of the original Harry Potter craze, especially since this isn’t a traditional novel, but to my surprise I am. I’m really looking forward to diving back into the imaginative world that J.K. Rowling created nineteen years ago. So, while I’m breathlessly waiting for Sunday to arrive, I’m doing what any self-respecting Harry fan would do: indulging in a weekend-long Harry Potter birthday marathon, courtesy of ABC Freeform here in the States. And to my fellow “Potterheads” around the world I say:

Happy Reading!

A Historic Day

Tags

Hillary Clinton, Politics, United States

Nearly a century after the 19th Amendment was passed, giving women the right to vote here in the U.S., Hillary Rodham Clinton has officially become the first woman nominated by a major political party, for President! I realize what a polarizing figure she is. I myself was a Bernie supporter, but no matter your views of her, I think we can all agree this is a momentous day!

The Beauty of the End ~ By Debbie Howells – 4.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: “I was fourteen when I fell in love with a goddess…”

So begins the testimony of Noah Calaway, and ex-lawyer with a sideline in armchair criminal psychology. Now living an aimless life in an inherited cottage in the English countryside, Noah is haunted by the memory of the beguiling young woman who left him at the alter sixteen years earlier. Then one day he receives a troubling phone call. April, the woman he once loved, lies in a coma, the victim of an apparent overdose–and the lead suspect in a brutal murder. Deep in his bones, Noah believes that April is innocent. Then again, he also believed they would spend the rest of their lives together.

While Noah searches for evidence that will clear April’s name, a teenager named Ella begins to sift through the secrets of her own painful family history. The same age as April was when Noah first met her, Ella harbors a revelation that could be the key to solving the murder. As the two stories converge, there are shocking consequences when at last, the truth emerges.

Or so everyone believes…

This is the second book in a row where I had mixed feelings about main character. But thankfully, after a bit of a slow beginning, I was soon wrapped up in the intriguing mystery and well written characters. I’m going to be honest and say I was not thrilled with the main character Noah, at least not in the beginning. While it was nice having a male narrator for a change given there doesn’t seem to be many of them in the psychological suspense genre, he doesn’t exactly have a sparkling personality and I found myself wincing everytime he reminisced about how in love he was with April “the goddess”. I actually found him to be a tad excessive regarding his love and devotion given how little he really knew April. However, certain things start developing which make him much more interesting. As the story unfolds, it alternates between the 1980’s when Noah and April first meet as teens, the 1990’s when their adult relationship develops, and 2016 with April in a coma and Noah determined to prove her innocence. While it seems as though Noah is completely blinded by love, there are some inconsistencies that begin to appear in his story leaving you to question his reliability. Equally important is his former friend Will, who has a complicated history with both Noah and April and whose true motives are shrouded in mystery. As the book progresses, you get pieces of everyone’s pasts and how they connect with one another. It’s not until the very end though that you get the entire picture. There are so many twists and turns on the way there, that it winds up being an almost compulsive read. Overall, despite a rocky beginning, I quite enjoyed The Beauty of the End, and I’ll definitely be checking out Debbie Howells’ other books. I recommend this as a great beach read for fans of mystery and psychological suspense.

The Woman In Cabin 10 ~ By Ruth Ware – 3.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Mystery, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for–and so the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…

If you already tend to feel claustrophobic on a cruise ship, The Woman In Cabin 10 is definitely not going to help. That said, it’s an enjoyable mystery that is somewhat reminiscent of Agatha Christie. There were only two things that kept it from being a perfect read for me. The first (and biggest), was the damsel in distress Lo Blacklock. I really tried to like this woman and have empathy for her, but the author made it nearly impossible. The story begins with a traumatic event happening and that’s before she even gets on the ship. I initially felt badly for her, but when she lashed out at the person who cares the most about her, she began to lose me. In addition to suffering from severe anxiety she’s also an alcoholic, which only adds to her problems. For much of the book she throws herself a pity party, although I did admire her determination to solve the mystery. She definitely could have used some lessons from Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot though. At one point she leaves a key piece of evidence out in the open inside her cabin and is shocked and dismayed when it disappears,even though she already suspects that there’s some sort of cover-up going on. She develops a backbone near the end of the story, but it wasn’t quite enough to save the character for me. I had mixed feelings about the secondary characters, with some being better written than others. The mystery itself though was entertaining and kept the plot moving right up until it’s conclusion. Which brings me to my other issue, the ending. It was just too over-the-top and unbelievable for me, although I appreciated that all the loose ends were tied up. While The Woman In Cabin 10 wasn’t everything I had hoped for, it’s a quick read, and a good pick if you’re going to the beach or on vacation. 

 

Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicles, #1) ~ By Jay Kristoff – 3.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Dunne Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: August 9th, 2016

Synopsis: In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school for assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, a sixteen-year-old Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic–the Red Church. Treachery and trials await her within the the Church’s halls, and to fail is to die. But if she survives to initiation, Mia will be inducted among the chosen of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the only thing she desires.

Revenge.

Nevernight is probably one of the most buzzed about books of 2016, and while it has much to be commended for, in the end it fell a bit flat for me. For those of you who are planning on reading this please keep in mind that Nevernight is NOT a YA book. Because a large part of the cast are teens, I think there’s been some confusion in regards to what audience it’s intended for. Because of the many intense and extremely graphic scenes, both in terms of sex and violence, I wouldn’t suggest this to anyone under the age of eighteen. The beginning of the story was very slow. Jay Kristoff uses a ton of similes and metaphors and a lot of the time they’re either unecessary or outright confusing. Take for example:

Mia sighed. Took her temper by the earlobe and pulled it to heel.

Or:

The girl felt the words in her chest. In the deepest, darkest place where the hope children breathe and adults mourn, withered and fell away, floating like ashes in the wind.

While I enjoy descriptive phrasing, in this case I think it was too much of a good thing and wound up being a distraction. Also slowing things down for me were the footnotes which were at the end of almost every chapter. I am usually pro-footnotes in fiction because I think they can flesh out an author’s world-building without getting in the way of the plot. I loved the way Susanna Clarke used them in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. What was problematic for me was the formatting. Saving them for the end of each chapter instead of at the end of a page, added to my confusion much of the time. Some of the chapters are quite long, and I was reading this on my Kindle. By the time I reached the end to say, a 15 minute long chapter, I couldn’t remember what half the notes were referring to. I have to admit that after awhile I wound up skipping many of them. Another issue I had was with the unnamed narrator whose voice I found obnoxious especially in the beginning. He/she kept throwing in these snarky asides which I suppose were meant to be humorous, but instead annoyed the heck out of me. Thankfully this subsided when Mia arrived at the school for assassins. And, that is when the pace picked up and I really began enjoying the story. The two main protagonists are Mia and Tric, another acolyte who she met on her journey to the Red Church. Both have traumatic childhoods and are hell-bent on revenge. They’re strong, independent, and slow to trust anyone, let alone each other. Watching their relationship develop was one of my favorite parts of the book. The secondary characters are intriguing and in some instances leave you guessing as to who is friend and who is foe. Kristoff has done a wonderful job at giving a new disturbing twist to the ubiquitous boarding school setting found in many fantasy novels. The ending, while forshadowed, still managed to catch me by surprise. Overall, despite it’s flaws, I did wind up enjoying Nevernight and I’ll definitely be reading book 2 when it’s released. If you like really dark fantasy, I recommend giving this a try.

*Update* – I was just talking to Fiddler Blue– please check out her awesome review at http://fiddlerblue.wordpress.com and she informed me that the print copy has the footnotes at the bottom of each page. So, if you decide to read this I definitely recommend buying the hardcover instead of the ebook. I think you’ll get much more out of it.

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Donald”

Tags

Donald Trump, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, Social Effect of Reading

A new study written by Professor Diana Mutz reports that American fans of the Harry Potter series not only have a lower opinion of Trump, but also finds that the books the participants read, the greater the effect. Even when factoring in political party affiliation, gender, education level, religion, and social class–all factors that are known to predict how Americans view the Republican nominee–the Harry Potter effect remained the same. When you think about it, it’s not really shocking, as Trump’s values and political views are the the antithesis of the themes of love, tolerance, and opposition to authoritarianism that are so prevalent in the books. Sadly, despite this fascinating study, in the end it’s doubtful that getting Trump supporters to read Rowling’s series would miraculously change their minds and convince them to vote for Hillary Clinton, but one can always dream!

Whimsical Wednesday ~ Suicide Squad Edition

Tags

Humor, Suicide Squad, Whimsical Quotes

What was that? I should kill everyone and escape? Sorry, it’s the voices. Ahaha, I’m kidding! That’s not what they really said!

Harley Quinn, Suicide Squad

The Night Parade ~ By Ronald Malfi – 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Horror, Suspense, Thrillers

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: July 26th, 2016

Synopsis: 

First the birds disappear.

Then the insects took over.

Then the madness began…

They call it Wanderer’s Folly–a disease of delusions, of daydreams and nightmares. A plague threatening to wipe out the human race. 

After two years of creeping decay, David Arlen woke up one morning thinking that the worst was over. By midnight, he’s bleeding and terrified, his wife his wife is dead, and he’s on the run in a stolen car with his eight-year-old daughter, who may be the key to a cure.

Ellie is a special girl. Deep. Insightful. And she knows David is lying to her. Lying about her mother. Lying about what they’re running from. And lying about what he sees when he takes his eyes off the road…

After reading last year’s creeptastic Little Girls and now The Night Parade, I’ve decided that Ronald Malfi is now one of my favorite authors when it comes to the genres of horror, suspense and thrillers. From the synopsis you might think this is going to be just another typical plague tale. They seem to be quite popular right now. But in Malfi’s talented hands, this is a gripping, and unnerving ride that I wound up finishing in one sitting which is really saying something as it’s just under 400 pages! Once I started reading there was just no way I was going to be able to put this down until I found out what happened to David and Ellie. As the story begins, David and his eight-year-old daughter are on the run in a stolen car. They’re headed somewhere but it’s not immediately evident where or even why. Malfi drops hints, but he doesn’t actually come right out and say what’s going on. Instead he slowly and teasingly puts together the full story alternating between the past and the present. The sheer anticipation of what is to come makes this a fast-paced but anxiety-inducing ride. There’s also many other devices the author ingeniously uses that not only helps move the plot forward, but ups the creep factor exponentially. Things like a sinister ice cream truck (Trust me.This is scary!) people eerily wearing paper plate masks, and a larger than normal spider eating a mouse. Ugh. And then of course there’s the actual virus that’s running rampant, bringing on hallucinations and delusionsions before killing it’s victims in a horrifying and gruesome way. But, at the same time all this horror is unfolding, this story also is one about a very special little girl who wants to save people and her devoted dad who will do absolutely anything to protect her. While they butt heads quite often, their relationship will melt your heart. There was one thing that did get on my nerves a bit concerning Ellie’s fascination/obsession with a nest of birds eggs that she carries around with her everywhere. Obviously it’s partly a metaphor and it’s sort of explained near the end, but I found it a little distracting at times. Still, this is just a minor complaint. The ending is a cliffhanger of sorts, but I’m assuming there is going to be a sequel, because otherwise I’d be extremely cross at Ronald Malfi. So, I could keep raving about this book, but I don’t want to accidentally give away any spoilers. Honestly, if you’re a fan of stellar authors such as Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Joe Hill, you should really give The Night Parade a try. I can just about guarantee you won’t be disappointed!

The Torch Is Passed (A Harding Family Story) ~ By Bill Powers – 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Thanks to NetGalley and BookBaby for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: The Torch Is Passed finds Andrea’s world turned upside down when her father, Nicholas, and her uncle, Michael, are shot in a shocking and puzzling attack. With only her paternal grandmother left, it falls to Andrea–a recent college graduate–to not only investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murder of her father and uncle, but also to oversee Harding Industries–and navigate an often dangerous fast-track to adulthood.

The youngest Harding finds herself surrounded by a bevy of intriguing new friends and helpers after she is also violently attacked, forcing her to kill both would-be assassins. Suspicion is cast on a short list of family friends and colleagues, and longstanding relationships are put to the test. Along with her new allies, Andrea urgently seeks answers to why anyone would want to kill her entire family–growing up along the way–and seeking her revenge.

Not having read the first book in this series The Pharm House, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but although I think this book will offer more enjoyment if readers do pick up the previous book first, I thought this was an exciting thriller. In the first book Andrea was an eleven-year-old, but here she’s just graduated from college. Her world is turned entirely upside down when both her father and uncle are ambushed and shot by a mysterious attacker. After Andrea is attacked in her father’s home the only thing that’s clear is someone wants the Harding family dead. While Andrea is a kick-ass heroine, she’s supported by a great group of friends who are essentially her extended family. The dynamic between them is one of the most enjoyable parts of the book. It’s partly due to them that Andrea successfully develops into a determined young woman, dangerous in her own right, who is more than worthy of the family torch that has been handed to her. The plot itself is full of twists and turns and plays out almost like a movie or tv show. There were plenty of surprises and no end to suspects that kept me guessing right up until the very end. Overall, although the beginning was a little slow for me because I felt a bit of a disconnect since I hadn’t read the first book, The Torch Is Passed is definitely a high-octane thriller with fascinating characters. Now I just need to find the time to go back and read The Pharm House.

 

 

Julia Vanishes (Witch’s Child #1) ~ By Catherine Egan – 4.0

Tags

Adventure, Historical Fantasy, Mystery, YA Fiction

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Books for Young Readers for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Julia has the unusual ability to be…unseen. Not invisible, exactly. Just beyond most people’s senses.

It’s a dangerous trait in a city that has banned all forms of magic and drowns witches in public Cleansings. But it’s a useful trait for a thief and a spy. And Julia has learned–crime pays.

Her latest job is paying very well indeed. Julia is posing as a housemaid in the grand house of Mrs. Och, where an ord assortment of characters live and work: A disgraced professor who sends her to fetch parcels containing bullets, spiders, and poison. An aristocratic houseguest who is locked in the basement each night. And a mysterious young woman who is clearly in hiding–though from what or whom?

Worse, Julia suspects that there’s a connection between these people and the killer leaving a trail of bodies across the frozen city.

The more she learns, the more she wants to be done with this unnatural job. To go back to the safety of her friends and fellow thieves. But Julia is entangled in a struggle between forces more powerful than she’d ever imagined. Escape will come at a terrible price.

Julia Vanishes is a historical fantasy in a Victorian England type world, where magic is real and suspected witches are publicly executed by way of drowning. What I found really different about this book is the magic itself. Spells are cast through the use of pen and paper rather than verbally. Because of this, any women found with writing implements are immediately suspect. Julia herself isn’t a witch (although her mother was), yet she has this unique talent of disappearing. As the synopsis says, it’s not like turning invisible. It’s, well…you’re just going to have to read this to find out. In this first book of what looks to be a trilogy, there’s not much in the way explanation as to why she has this ability. It’ll be interesting how it’s explored in the next story. Julia is a complicated character. She’s got plenty of courage, and loyalty to those she cares about, but she’s also greedy and selfish. Some of her actions are pretty immoral. However, when you take into consideration that she’s sixteen-years-old, as well as her circumstances, this is both understandable and believable. The way in which the author develops her in both maturity and morality is extremely well done. The secondary characters are also quite interesting. There’s one particular villain who at the beginning I thought was going to play a much larger role, but wound up being a small part of what happens to Julia and her family/friends. I have a feeling he’s going to be front and center in the other stories though, and I’m looking forward to any future interactions between him and Julia. I was also disappointed that her brother Dek, wasn’t more fully developed. Hopefully he’ll feature more prominently in the next story. The world-building is the best part of the book and it had me completely enthralled. I did find it slightly slow to start, but it didn’t take long for my attention to be captured. The ending isn’t quite a cliffhanger, but it nicely sets things up for the next book. Overall, Catherine Egan has written a solid introduction to her Witch’s Child trilogy and I’m eagerly anticipating the next book.