Fiction

Dark Road Home by Angela Bennett

 in Book Reviews / Books / Fiction by

This post contains affiliate links.

Summary

“Victor Simone, head of a hit man organization, murdered Belle McBain’s corrupt father. Following in her dad’s career footsteps, Belle becomes an attorney, but she can’t seem to move beyond the whispers of her crooked father’s corruption or his failures to his family. Instead of building a career in law, she escapes to a life of drugs and lives off her trust fund.

Unable to cope, Belle attempts suicide and is soon admitted into a rehab clinic where she tries to heal. However, her wounds run deep, so the healing takes time. Once released and three years sober, Belle begins a new life as a private investigator in Jersey City with the help of a friend in law enforcement. Sixteen years have passed … until everything changes.

One of Victor Simone’s cronies is in FBI custody and makes a deal. He says he’ll tell where the fugitive Simone is hiding if Belle agrees to meet with him. When she does, she begins to wonder if her father was ever a dirty attorney at all. As she searches for answers, Belle discovers more than she bargained for, including something more unbelievable than she could have imagined.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

This was quite an interesting book and it certainly wasn’t a difficult read – finishing it in only a few hours (I also had nothing better to do). I was sent a hard cover copy of the book (which was such an amazing surprise as I love hard-covers…so much classier – Thank you Ms. Bennett!) and immediately got into it because I was just so curious as to what this book about. These kind of books I don’t generally read, just because not many authors send me review requests of this genre and I don’t generally pick these books up. But I think I am going to have to start reading more. Of course I’ll have to read the follow up to this book too.

So the story was just so different. I really liked the fact that the main character had tried to commit suicide, which showed she had once been at a very low point in her life, but then came back with such a vengeance and was so strong. It was wonderful! I mean I love strong female characters and she was strong in this book, but realistic as well.

As for the story, it was really entertaining. It was written like a TV show which is always enjoyable as well. Sometimes reading something that you can follow easily and just get into and enjoy is what you need. Also it was set in a place close to home which was kind of funny. It always tickles me pink when states near where I live gets mentioned within a book, or a movie.

Overall it was a really entertaining and a good read. I’ll definitely be reading the next book in the series because I want to know what happens, as the ending was a cliff hanger (grrrr!).

Give it a go and check out Ms. Bennett’s website!

Purchase the book here.

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Strange Magic by Syd Moore

 in Book Reviews / Books / Fiction / Interesting / Young Adult by

Book Review: Strange Magic by Syd MooreSummary

“Rosie Strange doesn’t believe in ghosts or witches or magic. No, not at all. It’s no surprise therefore when she inherits the ramshackle Essex Witch Museum, her first thought is to take the money and run.

Still, the museum exerts a curious pull over Rosie. There’s the eccentric academic who bustles in to demand she help in a hunt for old bones, those of the notorious Ursula Cadence, a witch long since put to death. And there’s curator Sam Stone, a man about whom Rosie can’t decide if he’s tiresomely annoying or extremely captivating. It all adds up to looking like her plans to sell the museum might need to be delayed, just for a while.

Finding herself and Sam embroiled in a most peculiar centuries-old mystery, Rosie is quickly expelled from her comfort zone, where to her horror, the secrets of the past come with their own real, and all too present, danger as a strange magic threatens to envelope them all.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

Beautiful cover!
This was a gift from my mum when she came back from the U.K. this year and I was immediately drawn in from the cover. Yes, I’m one of those who chooses books based off covers. Only because there are so many out there and whatever catches my attention by cover or name wins! I really liked that it was a simple cover, color wise, with this skull in the middle. But it did slightly mislead me in a way. It gave me a Mexican Day of the Dead kind of vibe. But that wasn’t what the book was about at all. I mean first off, it was set in Essex (U.K. for those of you who don’t know where that is).

Captivating story!
Now the story itself was interesting. It was simple, not too far out there. It was based around the witch trials that happened in the past and how someone came back to the present and all that kind of good stuff! It kept me captivated and curious as to what was going to happen next!

You got that feeling from the reading that you really were along for the journey. And I truly did feel like I was in Essex with the weather and all of that stuff!

Main character was slightly annoying.
Only thing that I didn’t like about the book was some of the characteristics of the main character, Rosie. She honestly was obnoxious as hell. She kept getting at the other protagonist, Sam, in the book.  She was very stubborn and not open to what was going on and it really annoyed me sometimes how out of line and rude she was in the book. I’m not sure if that was the point of her, but she really did get on my nerves a few times and I just wanted to slap some sense into her. She always had that ‘Essex Girl’ kind of attitude, all the way up to the very end!

Overall a fantastic read.
However, annoying main character to the side, the book itself was fantastic. It was simple so not terribly full of action (except towards the end a bunch of stuff happened). But it didn’t detract from the book. I noticed that Sarah Perry, the author of The Essex Serpent, really enjoyed the book and that was also what made me want to read it too! I do recommend it as it’s a good read and I think it’s a fantastic gift for someone who is into those magical kind of books!

For all of that, I give it 4/5 teacups!

rating four tea cups mlcwo

Happy Reading!

Purchase the book here at Barnes & Noble.

Stephan King’s House For Sale!!!

 in Books / Books-to-Movie / Cat / Fiction / Holiday by
Stephen King’s ‘Pet Sematary’ Home is now for sale for $255,000! 
Fancy owning a piece of literary history? If you’re looking for a house to buy this Halloween season, look no further (if you can outbid the current offer)!
That’s the perfect price for this beautiful home. And I’m sure the haunting are priceless!
Check out the awesome pictures of the house, here!
The house looks pretty spooky and I’d love to visit! How about you?
Stephen King's House For Sale

From dailymail.co.uk

Tortured Souls: The Legend of Primordium by Clive Barker

 in Book Reviews / Books / Fiction / Holiday / Older Readers by
“He is a transformer of human flesh; a creator of monsters.”

Tortured Souls by Clive Barker

Summary

”Tortured Souls” is one of the most vividly imagined, tightly compressed novellas ever written by the incomparable Clive Barker. At once violent and erotic, brutal and strangely beautiful, it takes us into the heart of the legendary ”first city” known as Primordium, the site of political upheaval, passionate encounters, and astonishing acts of transformation.

Lurking at the edges of this extravagant tale is the ancient entity known as ”Agonistes,” who accepts the pleas of selected ”Supplicants,” transforming them, through a combination of art, magic, and pain, into avatars of violence and revenge.

The story begins when a freelance assassin named Zarles Krieger commits a routine murder-for-hire. This act will lead him to two life-altering encounters, one with the daughter of his victim, the other with Agonistes himself. This conjunction of the human and the inhuman stands at the center of this instantly absorbing creation.

With great authority and equally great economy, ”Tortured Souls” expands to become a portrait of Primordium itself, with its hierarchies, its hidden mysteries, its shifting power structure, and–most significantly–its indelible cast of characters. A perfectly controlled example of what Barker calls ”the fantastique,” ”Tortured Souls” is something truly special, a story whose imaginative reach and sheer narrative power are evident on every page.”

Review

I don’t generally read horror books as they aren’t my cup of tea generally, however I decided to try Clive Barker earlier this year with his book The Hellbound Heart. The movie Hellraiser is based off of that book, and I wanted to see where the movie came from. It was a pretty creepy read. So of course, during the Halloween Season, I had to find another one of his books. With my course load, I wanted something that I could get through nice and quickly. Tortured Souls fit the bill perfectly.

The book was a while 87 pages. Wow, so long! I know! So I read this book in about 30 minutes and loved every minute it. It captured me and kept me going. It’s a collection of short stories that, woven together, make a larger story. It’s all around this city and this creator Agonistes, who is a creation of God, and then can play with humans and create them to be terrifying. The whole description of what he does to the humans that call for him is terrifying. And gruesome.

But within all of this horror and terror is something beautiful. Two people, who were so twisted by what they had become, found love together. They were able to find comfort together in everything they had done (which was for a cause). But, all good things come to an end and their love was their downfall.

I honestly loved this book and wasn’t really expecting to. Clive Barker is honestly a master when it comes to horror writing. While he doesn’t necessarily scare you with questioning what will happen, you generally blatantly know what is going to happen and that makes it so much scarier. He also has no fear with saying what is happening. He will state the torture going on and he will not be afraid to do so. I quite like the frankness in his writing.

Additionally, he suggests ideas that seem so real! Especially in this book, since it had these godly reference, it kept referencing to God and bits of the Bible. I even had to google some parts of it because it seemed so real, like it could have been an obscure part of religious history that they don’t teach you. Of course his books are about demons and creatures which religions generally do not teach, so I wouldn’t have been surprised if some it was real. But of course, it was not. He writes in such a convincing fashion.

The book was based on earth, in the past, but also in the present as well.  You’re never really clear when the stories take place. It says that the city where it all occurred, Primordium, came before any other cities. However there were cars and such. It is a creative way to write because it can be now, but it also cannot be. It is a place beyond time.

I absolutely loved this book and it was a perfect book for the Halloween month. It is an adult book because of the nature of the writing and the general themes going on in the book.

I do recommend that you read it, if you like horror books! For that, I give it a while 5 teacups!

rating 5 tea cups mlcwo

Happy Reading!

Book Review: No Safety In Numbers by Dayna Lorentz

 in Book Reviews / Books / Fiction by
This post contains affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure here.

Book Review: No Safety In Numbers by Dayna LorentzRating: 4/5 teacups

Summary

“A biological bomb has just been discovered in the air ducts of a busy suburban mall. At first nobody knows if it’s even life threatening, but then the entire complex is quarantined, people start getting sick, supplies start running low, and there’s no way out. Among the hundreds of trapped shoppers are four teens.

These four different narrators, each with their own stories, must cope in unique, surprising manners, changing in ways they wouldn’t have predicted, trying to find solace, safety, and escape at a time when the adults are behaving badly. This is a gripping look at people and how they can—and must—change under the most dire of circumstances.

And not always for the better.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

I had come across this book in my library and it caught my eye because it was BRIGHT yellow and also had a bio warning symbol on the front. Naturally I went, ‘oh, what is this’ and just had to check it out. I only grabbed it because of that and also because it looked to be a quick read.

An exciting thrill ride from beginning to end.
It was definitely an exciting read and you never really knew what was going to happen next. You sometimes thought you knew what was going to happen and then something else would occur.

Pretty realistic with all of the bureaucratic bull…I mean,uh, drama.
There was lots of mess with the whole political scene. People didn’t like the politician who was making the choices. The main character was the daughter of said politician and seemed to hate her mother and blamed her for everything. So it was pretty close to how it would happen in real life. Information wasn’t being allowed out to the media as they didn’t want public panic and all of that good stuff. So it was realistically written.

There are 3 books and the book doesn’t conclude the situation.
It’s one of those series…yeah. Book one is not a stand alone. You have to read the entire series, all 3 books, to find out what happens. I really hate when they do that because I don’t have all the time in the world to read and entire series (even though I read the entire book in an afternoon outside in the nice weather). Will I read the rest of the series? Probably not in all honesty. I don’t have that much time currently to do so, so I’ll never know what happens. But I’m sure most of them will get out but people will die and all of that stuff. It had a predictable overall story feel, just not the small situations within the book.

It dragged…a lot.
I mean come on! This one book was only happening over a few days. And there are 3 more books! Like what else could possibly happen in the next?! I am slightly curious as to what will happen but I’m not sure if I’m curious enough to read the entire series currently.

Strong female lead.
You know me, I’m a sucker for a strong female lead! And this one was one. She was pretty smart and quick on her feet which I really did like. So that boosted the book up in my opinion.

Overall it was a good book and if you have time to commit to the small series I would recommend it. It was exciting, kept the pages turning and kept you questioning as to what was going to happen next. For that I do give it 4/5 teacups!

rating four tea cups mlcwo

Happy Reading!