The City of Lost Fortunes (A Crescent City Novel), by Bryan Camp ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Diversity, Mystery, New Orleans, Suspense, Urban Fantasy

Thanks to Edelweiss and John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

Release Date: Available Now 

384 Pages

Synopsis :

The fate of New Orleans lies in the hands of a wayward grifter in this novel of gods, games, and monsters.

The post-Katrina New Orleans of  ‘The City of Lost Fortunes’, is a place haunted by its history and by the hurricane’s destruction, a place that is hoping to survive the rebuilding of its present long enough to ensure it has a future. Street magician Jude Dubuisson is likewise burdened by his past and by the consequences of the storm, because he has a secret: the magical ability to find lost things, a gift passed down to him by the father he has never known—-a father who just happens to be more than human.

Jude has been lying low since the storm, which caused so many things to be lost that it played havoc with his magic, and he is hiding from his own power, his divine former employer, and a debt owed to the Fortune god of New Orleans. But his six-year retirement ends abruptly when the Fortune god is murdered and Jude is drawn back into the world he tried so desperately to leave behind. A world full of magic, monsters, and miracles. A world where he must find out who is responsible for the Fortune god’s death, uncover the plot that threatens the city’s soul, and discover what his talent for lost things has been trying to show him: what it means to be his father’s son.

I have one word after reading City of Lost Fortunes: WONDROUS! I gobbled this up in two sittings, and the only reason why it took me that long is because my mean husband made me go to bed.

While I haven’t yet been to New Orleans, the city, people, and history have held a peculiar fascination for me since childhood. So, I was especially excited when I read the premise for this debut novel. Add in magic, mythology, and the supernatural, and my expectations went through the roof. 

There are several different mythologies mixed up in this book and one of the things I loved was how the author started each chapter with a short paragraph detailing how various mythologies describe a particular situation in their own way, but how they all share commonalities. With so many religions and myths being brought together this could have easily been a confusing mess, but Bryan Camp fuses everything together smoothly and efficiently. 

The large cast of diverse characters are brilliantly written and I already have several favorites. The hero, Jude, is someone you just can’t help fall in love with. He has many issues stemming from his dysfunctional childhood, the absence of his father, and the trauma of his “gift”. He’s made mistakes along the way but he also carries the weight of them and makes amends when he can. Jude winds up becoming a metaphor for New Orleans. The disruption of his magic ties directly into the destruction of the city, and as a reader you can’t help but feel these losses keenly. I have to be honest and say there’s a slight info dump in the beginning regarding Jude and his backstory, but I’m not taking any points off because it’s so minor and the rest of the book is so good, that it’s just not worth complaining about.

As marvelous as the supernatural and magical elements are, at its heart, this book pays tribute to the city of New Orleans and the resilience of its citizens. The descriptions of the music, food, architecture, and people bring the city to life and it literally becomes a character in its own right. In the afterward, Bryan Camp talks about how he began writing this in the back of his parents’ car as they were evacuating before Katrina hit. It’s worth reading because it gives you an additional sense of how much love was poured into this book. 

The City of Lost Fortunes is a literary feast for the mind and soul, and I cannot recommend it highly enough! If you’re a fan of  authors like Neil Gaiman, Jim Butcher, Clive Barker, and Kevin Hearne, you need to read this ASAP! While I can’t wait for the sequel, I’m also keeping my fingers crossed that this is just the beginning of a long-running series.

 

 

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Hold Back the Dark (Bishop/Special Crimes Unit #18), by Kay Hooper ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Mystery, Paranormal, Suspense, Thriller

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

Release Date: April 3rd, 2018

352 Pages

Synopsis: Madness has taken hold of Prosperity, North Carolina. Residents are killing each other, as if in a dream, and waking up with no memory of the monstrous acts they’ve committed—-or why. As the death toll climbs, the local sheriff’s department is further rocked by a murder carried out by their own. Deputy Katie Cole knows that whatever monster is afoot is beyond her scope…

The Special Crimes Unit is called in for their specific brand of investigation. It will take all their training, all their experience, and every extra sense they can call on to get to the bottom of things in Prosperity. And as a dark pattern begins to emerge, even the most experienced and hardened SCU agents have to wonder if this is beyond their understanding.

I’ve been an avid of this series since the first book, Stealing Shadows was released in 2000 and one of the main reasons is because every time I pick up a new book in the series, I feel like I’m meeting up with old friends. Hold Back the Dark was no different. Although it seemed a little slower for things to start this time, that may have been because somehow I missed the two previous books. It didn’t take long for me to get sucked right back in to this dangerous world with the elite Special Crimes Unit and they’re civilian counterpart, Haven. The story is told in the third person by several agents, but this works really well as they’re all working the same case, and it actually lets you get to know them more. The only other criticism I have is that I thought the ending came together a little too quickly, but it tied up all the loose ends and set things up nicely for the next book.

The Bishop/Special Crime series is another one of my favorites and Hold Back the Dark did not disappoint. Although it’s a long running series, you could technically read this as a stand-alone. Kay Hooper always thoughtfully provides at the end of each book a list of the agents and what their psychic powers are and which books they’ve appeared in thus far. She also provides a glossary of the powers themselves. However, if you have time, I suggest you go back to the beginning because you’ll get to know each agent so much more personally and that truly adds to the overall mythology arc of the series, which, while it has a multilayered storyline and is action packed, is also very much character driven. I highly recommend Hold Back the Dark and the previous books to readers who love police procedurals, thrillers and suspense, with the occasional romance thrown in, and plenty of exciting paranormal powers.

After Anna, by Lisa Scottoline ~ 3.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Legal Thriller, Mystery

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: April 10th, 2018

352 Pages

Synopsis: Nobody cuts deeper than family…

Noah Alderman, a doctor and a widower, has remarried a wonderful woman, Maggie, and for the first time in a long time he and his son are happy. But their lives are turned upside down when Maggie’s daughter Anna moves in with them. Anna is a gorgeous seventeen-year-old who balks at living under their rules though Maggie, ecstatic to have her daughter back, ignores the red flags that hint at the trouble that is brewing. Events take a deadly turn when Anna is murdered and Noah is accused of the crime. Maggie must face not only the devastation of losing her only daughter, but the realization that her daughter’s murder was at the hands of a husband she loves. New information sends Maggie searching for the truth, leading her to discover something darker than she ever could have imagined. 

Lisa Scottoline is known for her breathless, fast-paced plots, and After Anna is another fine example of this. However, I did have a few issues with this story and I don’t think this was one of the author’s best. 

While I love evil teenage girls, to have one who wrongfully accuses an innocent of man of sexual assault made me uncomfortable given the current social climate. Of course cases like this happen, but I don’t think now is the right time to include that as part of a plot, given the #timesup and #metoo movements and our misogynistic assaulter-in-chief.

The other problem I had was with the somewhat awkward dialogue. With the exception of Noah’s young son Caleb, the characters don’t always come off as believable or relatable and the stilted way they speak doesn’t help. Noah is also just way too perfect to be realistic, and while Maggie is a sympathetic character, the way she puts all her trust in this teenager who she’s never met whose actions are highly suspicious, and immediately believes her accusations over the denials of the husband she adores, didn’t make sense.

A good chunk of the book is spent in the courtroom, so if you’re a fan of legal thrillers, as I am, I think you’ll enjoy this. There’s an unnecessary prison subplot though that I felt added nothing to the main narrative. The last quarter of the book turned into a crusade and the entire resolution resided with the villain voluntarily coming clean. The speed in which everything was tied up at the end, wasn’t believable and left several gaping plot holes.

I’m a fan of Lisa Scottoline, so although I don’t think After Anna is one of her best novels, it won’t stop me from reading her future books. There are many reviewers on Goodreads who enjoyed this more than I did, so I’d encourage you to check out their reviews as well if you’re mulling over whether to try this.

 

 

 

The Bad Daughter, by Joy Fielding ~ 3.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Dysfunctional Families, Mystery

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

Release Date: Available Now

368 Pages

Synopsis: What first appears to be a random home invasion reveals a family’s dark secrets in this domestic ticking-clock suspense from the New York Times bestselling author of See Jane Run.

A hostile relationship with her sister and a complicated past with her father’s second wife have kept Robin estranged from her family for many years. But when her father’s new family is attacked in their house, with her father, his wife, and young daughter in critical condition in the hospital, she returns home to await their fate and hopefully mend fences. It looks like a robbery gone awry, but as Robin spends more time with her family members, she learns they all have their secrets—-and one of those secrets may have put them all in horrible danger.

Joy fielding has been one of my favorite authors in the genres of mystery, suspense, and thrillers, but I have to admit that despite the exciting sounding premise, The Bad Daughter was disappointing for me. 

The pace was much slower than what I’ve come to expect from this prolific author. It’s a domestic drama (which most of her books are), with a mystery thrown in, but not much of the suspense that I’ve come to expect from her. None of the characters are well developed, but the one who annoyed me the most was Robin. She was entirely too bland and passive for me, and I was unable to connect with her despite her suffering from panic and anxiety attacks. The majority of the story focuses on Robin’s dysfunctional relationship with her one-dimensional angry and aggressive sister Melanie. I would have liked a couple of the secondary characters to have been given bigger roles, especially Blake who was the sole voice of reason, but alas, it never happened. 

To me, the villain was fairly obvious early on, and I couldn’t believe no one guessed who it was, particularly Robin, as she’s a therapist. There’s some weak reasoning provided to try to explain this, but I just didn’t buy it so the ending turned out to be anticlimactic for me.

While The Bad Daughter wasn’t my favorite novel by Joy Fielding, she’s been a bestselling author for over four decades, so I’m by no means giving up on her. I’m already looking forward to her next novel. 

 

Project Pandora (Assassin Fall #1) by Aden Polydoros ~ 4.0 Stars

Tags

Mystery, Science Fiction, Thriller, YA Fiction

Tbanks to NetGalley and Entangled Teen for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

372 Pages

Synopsis: Tyler Bennett trusts no one. Just another foster kid bounced from home to home, he’s learned that lesson the hard way. But when strange things start happening—waking up with bloody knuckles and no memory of the night before or the burner phone he can’t let out of his sight—Tyler starts to wonder if he can even trust himself.

Even stranger, the girl he’s falling for has a burner phone just like his. Finding out what’s happening only leads to more questions…questions that could get them both killed. It’s not like someone’s kidnapping teens lost in the system and brainwashing them to be assassins or anything, right? And what happens to rogue assets who defy control?

In a race against the clock, they’ll have to uncover the truth behind Project Pandora and take it down—before they’re reactivated. Good thing the program spent millions training them to kick ass…

Project Pandora is the exciting and promising beginning to the Assassin Fall series, and I easily breezed through it in two sittings. It took me a few chapters to acclimate myself because not only are there several characters, when they’re under the influence of the sinister society who has brainwashed them, they’re known by Greek code names. But this is a fairly minor complaint, because from the first page, I was immediately sucked in. What I appreciated most of all is that all the action took nothing away from the characters themselves. The ending is a cliffhanger so I’m definitely looking forward to the sequel, Project Prometheus which is due out sometime this year. 

 

People Like Us, by Dana Mele ~ 3.5 Stars

Tags

LGBT, Mystery, Psychological Suspense, YA Fiction

Thanks to Edelweiss and G. P. Putnam’s Sons for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

Release Date: Available Now 

384 Pages

Synopsis: Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is the past, and she’s reinvented herself entirely. Now she’s a star soccer player whose group of gorgeous friends run their private school with effortless popularity and acerbic wit. But when a girl’s body is found in the lake, Kay’s carefully constructed life begins to topple.

The dead girl has left Kay a computer-coded scavenger hunt, which, as it unravels, begins to implicate suspect after suspect, until Kay herself is in the crosshairs of a murder investigation. But if Kay’s finally backed into a corner, she’ll do what it takes to survive. Because at Bates Academy, the truth is something you make…not something that happened.

As soon as I laid eyes on People Like Us, the cover and the premise of a killer loose at a boarding school, immediately grabbed my attention. Add in a twisted scavenger hunt left by the deceased girl, and I knew I had to read it. While the theme isn’t unique, the author added in enough of her own original flourishes to make it stand out from the somewhat crowded field.   The main character, Kay, was deeply flawed, yet still garnered my sympathy. I also liked that she was bisexual which gave some welcome diversity to the story. The secondary characters weren’t quite as well developed though and there were a couple in particular that I wished I had gotten to know more. While I guessed the identity of the killer early on, I wasn’t completely sure what their motivations were. There were also some additional twists that kept me guessing. And finally, the big reveal concerning the killer at the end was a bit of a letdown, but there was one related to Kay that did take me by surprise.

Overall, despite having a few issues, I still enjoyed People Like Us, and I will definitely try Dana Mele’s next book. 

*For another perspective, please take a look at my lovely friend Dani’s 5 star review over at https://touchmyspinebookreviews.com

The Tombs, by Deborah Schaumberg ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adventure, Historical Fantasy, Mystery, New York City, Suspense

Thanks to Edelweiss and HarperTeen for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now 

448 Pages

Synopsis: New York, 1882. A dark forbidding city, and no place for a girl with unexplainable powers.

Sixteen-year-old Avery Kohl pines for the life she had before her mother was taken. She fears the mysterious men in crow masks who locked her mother in the Tombs asylum for being able to see what others couldn’t. Avery denies the signs in herself, focusing instead on her shifts at the ironworks factory and keeping her inventor father out of trouble. Other than secondhand tales of adventure from her best friend, Khan, an ex-slave, and caring for her falcon Seraphine, Avery spends her days struggling to survive.

Like her mother’s, Abery’s powers refuse to be contained. When she causes a bizarre explosion at the factory, she has no choice but to run from her lies, straight into the darkest corners of the city. Avery must embrace her abilities and learn to wield their power—-or join her mother in the cavernous horrors of the Tombs. And the Tombs has secrets of its own: strange experiments are being performed on “patients”…and no one knows why.

I hope you all don’t mind, but this is going to be a shorter than usual review. I’m still battling health stuff, but I wanted to share how much I loved The Tombs. First, how gorgeous is that cover? C’mon. Aren’t your hands reaching for it just looking at it? I’m also thrilled to say that the story is just about as wonderful as the cover. It’s a perfect blend of history and fantasy, and Deborah Schaumberg does a fantastic job at bring gritty 1882 New York City to vividly to life. Almost everything works here, from the well-rounded, relatable characters to the marvelous world-building. The only reason why I’m not giving this a perfect 5 Stars is because toward the middle of the book the pace seemed to slow down a bit for a few chapters. Overall though, The Tombs is an absolutely stellar historical fantasy that I unhesitatingly recommend to fans of this genre. There’d better be a sequel in the works because that ending definitely left me wanting more!

 

Honor Among Thieves (The Honors #1), by Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre ~ 4.0 Stars

Tags

Adventure, Friendship, Mystery, Science Fiction, Suspense, YA Fiction

Thanks to Edelweiss and Katherine Tegen Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

309 Pages

Synopsis: Petty criminal Zara Cole has a painful past that’s made her stronger than most, which is why she chose life in New Detroit instead of moving with her family to Mars. In her eyes, living inside a dome isn’t much better than a prison cell. 

Still, when Zara commits a crime that has her running scared, jail might be exactly where she’s headed. Instead Zara is recruited into the Honors, an elite team of humans selected by the Leviathans—a race of sentient alien ships—to explore the outer reaches of the universe as their passengers.

Zara seizes the chance to flee Earth’s dangers, but when she meets Nadim, the alien ship she’s assigned, Zara starts to feel at home for the first time. But nothing could have prepared her for the dark, ominous truths that lurk behind the alluring glitter of starlight.

As soon as I saw two of my favorite authors were teaming up to write a YA science fiction series my eyes lit up and with Honor Among Thieves, the first book The Honors series, I was not disappointed.

Zara is the type of savy, tough as nails heroine both authors are known for. She’s not perfect by any means. She tends to act first and ask questions later, which doesn’t always work out for her or anyone with her. A survivor of an abusive father, she’s mistrustful and has a chip on her shoulder a mile wide. But, she loves her mother and younger sister intensely and once she does make friends she’s insanely loyal and will instantly put herself in harm’s way to help them. I did find myself wishing that a little more had been shared about her childhood, the intense migraines she suffered, and the surgery using Leviathan biotech that cured her. Especially as that surgery seems to be a part of the bond she and Nadim almost instantly develop.

And speaking of Nadim, I never thought I’d love a sentient ship as a character, but I did. I had to keep reminding myself that he was an alien ship, not an actual human. He’s written so realistically that I had no problem buying into Zara’s and his developing relationship. Being the intelligent, headstrong seventeen-year-old that she is, Zara needs someone who can match her in spirit, yet help resolve some of her trust issues and while he’s initially a bit bemused by her, Nadim certainly winds up fitting the bill. I’m really excited to see where Caine and Aguirre take their relationship in subsequent books. 

The other human accompanying Zara and Nadim is Beatrice, who I initially thought was going to be a weak character, but she pleasantly surprised me. I loved the way her friendship with both Zara and Nadim evolved, and she perfectly rounds out this team.

There’s also plenty of diversity in this story which I loved. Zara is black and Beatriz is from Brazil. There’s also another strong female, Chao-Xang, who is a side character here but I have a feeling that she might be playing a bigger role in the next book. 

I have to admit that the first few chapters were the weakest part of the book. I felt like a lot was thrown at me in a relatively short amount of time, but once Zara and Bea are on their way with Nadim it’s just about sheer perfection. I was enchanted with the Leviathans and the way they communicate with each other and listen to the “singing” of stars. It’s beautifully described and in someways reminded me of humpback whales. No matter how much I tried I could not tell when one author’s writing stopped and the other’s began. The chapters flowed smoothly and seamlessly together and if I didn’t know any better I would have thought there was only one author. While there’s not a lot of action except for the first few chapters and the last third of the book, I didn’t mind this at all. I was so invested in the characters as they  learned about each other, that their story and the mystery of what was really happening with the Leviathans and their Honors, kept me turning the pages and I read this in one sitting. The only other issue I had was with the ending which was exciting but a little abrupt. I still had some questions that hadn’t been addressed so when I reached the last page it left me hanging a bit. I have no doubt though that they’ll be answered in bk. 2.

Overall, Honor Among Thieves is an outstanding beginning to this new space epic and I cannot wait to read more. I do have one word of caution though. There’s a scene where Nadim is being physically assaulted by one of his “Elders”, and I actually had a hard time reading it. It’s graphic and I think it could be a trigger for certain readers who have been victims of abuse. That said, this is another book that will be going on my favorites of 2018 list and I highly recommend it to science fiction lovers. 

 

Cleaving Souls, by Chauncey Rogers ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Thanks to the author for providing an ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

225 Pages

Synopsis: Some dangers you cannot outrun. Some nightmares do not end when you wake.

Something is watching Katherine Harris. She can feel it when she goes out. She can feel it inside her home. She feels it in her bed. Her husband, Alex, wants to blame her anxiety on her pregnancy, but he’s often away for work. He doesn’t know what it’s like to be stuck in a small town, to be trapped in a tiny house on a run-down street, to be alone. Kate does, and the feeling only grows worse.

Whatever is going on, Kat’s certain that it’s far more serious than pregnancy jitters. When Alex takes Kat on a second honeymoon to get her mind off things, it becomes far more dangerous as well.

Holy guacamole this was an insanely stressful read! Of  course I mean that in the best possible way. First though, I need to give out a warning to animal lovers like me who get wigged out when a cute pet dies in a book. There is a scene here involving a sweet dog. However, you can see it coming and skim over it, which is what I did. 

I was immediately hooked by the eerie prologue which immediately put me off balance, where I stayed for the majority of the book. The characters of Kat and her husband Alex are well-rounded and extremely relatable ones. They will probably even remind you of some that you know in real life. As these horrifying supernatural events start happening to the isolated Kat, my heart ached for her. I could literally feel the chilling menace surrounding her as well as her growing helplessness in the face of this unknown danger. And I also felt for Alex who loves and is completely devoted to Kat, yet doesn’t know what to do to help her. 

The plot takes an even more terrifying turn when Alex decides to take Kat back to where they spent their honeymoon—which unfortunately happens to be a cabin in the woods. I know what you’re thinking. One of the things you should always not do when dealing with unexplained creepy events, is to go on vacation to an isolated cabin. But this just ratchets up the tension even more. By this point, I had no idea what was going on. Were there really supernatural events happening or was Kat suffering from some pregnancy-induced psychosis? Well, I’m not telling! The only thing I’ll share is that when the big reveal comes, it’s shockingly brilliant and I never saw it coming. 

Cleaving Souls is the second horror book (after Rafael Chandler’s Mask Beneath Her Face), that I’ve read in the last few weeks that I unhesitatingly put up in the same category as Stephen King. This isn’t just some gore fest, although it has some “ew” moments. This is the type of story that completely messes with your head and stays there days after you’ve finished it. It’s a pulse-pounding thrill ride that I guarantee will keep you up into the wee hours of the morning reading. And once you’ve finished, good luck going to sleep! I highly recommend Cleaving Souls to fans of Stephen King and Dean Koontz’s early horror novels. It’s a quick read that you won’t regret picking up.

Something About the Author: 

Chauncey Rogers is a fellow WordPress blogger and if you’d like to learn more about him and his work, please visit: http://www.chaunceyrogers.com

Biography: Chauncey Rogers was born in Arizona, and since then has hopped back and forth between the mid-western and western United States. He married in 2012 while attending school in Utah. His favorite movie since he was three is Jurassic Park, and he Wishes very badly that Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster were real, though he doesn’t believe in them as much as he used to.

S.T.A.G.S., by M.A. Bennett ~ 2.0 Stars

Tags

English Boarding Schools, Mystery, Secret Societies, Suspense, YA Fiction

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

Release Date: February 13th, 2018

304 Pages

Synopsis: At St. Aidan the Great School, or S.T.A.G.S., new things—new people—are to be avoided. Unfortunately, Greer MacDonald, token scholarship student, is very much a new person. She has just transferred to S.T.A.G.S., and finds herself being ignored at best and mocked at worst by the school’s most admired circle of friends, the Medievals. 

So imagine Greer’s surprise when this very group invites her to an exclusive weekend retreat at the private estate of the parents of their unofficial leader, Henry de Warlencourt. It’s billed as the weekend of “huntin’ shootin’ fishin’,” And rumor has it that the invitee who most impresses the group will be given the privilege of becoming a Medieval themselves.

As the weekend begins to take shape, however, it becomes apparent that beyond the luxurious trappings—the fancy clothes the maid lays out on Greer’s bed, the elaborate multi course dinners held in the Great Hall—there are predators lurking, and they’re out for blood.

I have to confess that while reading S.T.A.G.S. my overwhelming feeling was one of frustration. In theory, all the elements of this story should have worked. An English secretive society of elites who host an annual weekend retreat every year, inviting a few “inferior” classmates, holding out the promise that one of them may be chosen to be part of their group? Sounds intriguing doesn’t it? Well, unfortunately the premise was much more interesting than the actual story.

The first problem for me were the characters. Despite my best efforts, I could not connect with any of them. Greer did not fit the role of your typical outsider except that she was a scholarship student. She’s extremely intelligent, yet time and again shows a lamatable lack of judgement. At first her referencing classic films was enjoyable, until it started happening almost every other sentence. That grew old rather quickly. Her on again, off again, romantic feelings toward Henry, made no sense, especially once she discovered what he and his friends were up to. And the other characters were just two-dimensional and unremarkable.

The plot itself started out interestingly enough, but didn’t have nearly enough action until the last few chapters of the book. While I liked the history that’s revealed about S.T.A.G.S., the ending left me confused as to their motivations. I can’t really explain without including spoilers, but there seemed to be a big set-up, but the reveal left me disappointed.

S.T.A.G.S. ending leaves open the possibility that there may be a sequel, but if so, I don’t think I’ll be continuing with it. Between the uninspiring characters, numerous plot holes, and not enough action, there’s just not enough there to tempt me. That said, this has received many 4-5 star reviews on Goodreads, so if the premise intrigues you, please check it out for yourselves.