book review

Salvage Rat

 

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Title: Salvage Rat

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Author: Larry N. Martin

Pages: 314

Synopsis: Star Force pilot and hero Wyatt McCoy left his medals and career behind after the Rim Wars, disillusioned and bitter when he learns the truths behind the conflict. He takes his converted gunship, the Nellie B, and heads to the Near Fringe, salvaging derelict ships and abandoned stations and mining colonies. Dr. Beth Parker is a space archeologist, documenting the history of planetary expansion and colonization for Kalok Enterprises and the Interplanetary Mining Guild. A piece of alien technology embeds itself in Beth’s arm, giving her the ability to see the energy impressions of long ago people and events. When Beth uncovers proof of genocide that could bring down the big mining companies, she’s the target of assassins. Wyatt makes a split-second decision to intervene, launching them both into a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game with some of the most powerful organizations in the system. They can prove Kalok and Interplan killed millions—but can they live long enough to tell their story?

Rating:

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book for a review. However all thoughts are my own.

Non-Spoiler Review

This book is about two characters. We have Wyatt who is surviving post-war and Beth who is this an academic. One day Beth stumbles onto some information that people in high places want buried. While on the run, Beth runs into Wyatt. There the two of them decide to find more information, expanding on what Beth found while getting into some trouble themselves. I really enjoyed this book. It was full of action which made for a quick read. Though it wasn’t necessarily the best sci-fi book, it was still enjoyable.

What I really liked about this book was the characters. I really liked Wyatt. His relationship with his ship Nillie B was quite funny and cute. He was definitely a bit arrogant at times but I felt it just added to his character. While I didn’t like Beth as much as Wyatt, she was an enjoyable character. I liked how she had a sharp tongue and was fierce. What I throughly enjoyed was the little banter between the two. It was fun to read about and made me laugh.

This book was just full. of. action and it was awesome. In the month of January I read mostly slow paced book except for one or two, so it was really nice to have a change of pace. It felt like every chapter had some sort of action. I feel like with the amount of action that was included it should of been too much, but it didn’t feel like that. In a weird way it felt like just the right amount of action, not to little and not to much.

So Beth has this mysterious alien technology implanted in her. With this she sometimes gets these “visions.” I thought this was a cool addition to the story. Not only do Wyatt and Beth have to deal with this big corporation hunting them down, but Beth has the additional challenge of dealing with this mysterious technology.

My one main issue with the book is the ending. To my knowledge this is just a stand alone book. The ending however, contradicts that. The ending of this book is an ending with a sequel coming out. It just felt incomplete and unfinished, like it left off on a thought. It left me wanting more from the story and from the ending as a whole. The whole plot never felt resolved as it should of been, though in a way it was, it didn’t feel like it.

Another issue I had was the starting of some chapters. In previous chapters, things would be discussed of what is coming or what could be happening soon. And then the next chapter picks up like in the middle of the battle. There really was no bridge between the discussion to the action so the flow felt a little wonky.

The world building also fell a little flat. I feel like it could of been developed even further than it was and it would of made this story all the better. At times I was a little confused on where Wyatt and Beth were and how they got there and how far everything is. The whole government system and how they got to space wasn’t clear to me.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was such an enjoyable quick read and at sometimes I just couldn’t put it down.

book review

The Bone Season

0Title: The Bone Season

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Author: Samantha Shannon

Synopsis: The year is 2059. Nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of Scion London, based at Seven Dials, employed by a man named Jaxon Hall. Her job: to scout for information by breaking into people’s minds. For Paige is a dreamwalker, a clairvoyant and, in the world of Scion, she commits treason simply by breathing.

It is raining the day her life changes for ever. Attacked, drugged and kidnapped, Paige is transported to Oxford – a city kept secret for two hundred years, controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. Paige is assigned to Warden, a Rephaite with mysterious motives. He is her master. Her trainer. Her natural enemy. But if Paige wants to regain her freedom she must allow herself to be nurtured in this prison where she is meant to die.

Pages: 466

Rating:

Non-Spoiler Review

I’ve never really thought about reading The Bone Season but I have heard many good things about it and when Sam was gifting people a copy I was lucky there was a copy left!  I was a little unsure about the book at first but come to the middle of the book I could not put it down. The book is about Paige who is a 19-year-old girl and has committed treason. In the world of Scion, those who are clairvoyant, or unnaturals as Scion calls them, are dangerous and are not welcomed. Those who are captured are taken away. Paige is a clairvoyant, a dreamwalker to be more specific. But Paige just doesn’t wander around the streets hopeless and lost. She works for the criminal underworld. But when something goes awry, Paige is captured and taken to Oxford, a place long forgotten. But when she arrives it is not the place of a city once forgotten. A species called Rephaite control the city. Paige is selected by a Rephaite who goes by Warden. Warden controls Paige, he is her master, trainer, and her enemy, he has taken Paige’s freedom away. The thing she most wants back. But in order to do that, she must be nurtured in a place that is meant to be the place she dies.

At times through this book I was a little confused. Some things about the clairvoyants and the aether had me confused but as the book went on it became more clear. Words in this book left me a bit confused but using context clues(thank you school, something you taught me actually came in handy lol) helped me understand them a little but not much. But as the book grows on and we learn more about Paige through her memories those things became clear to me and as things were discussed I was able to get a grasp on most of the things I was unclear about in the beginning.  I realize there is a glossary in the back of the book for all the words but there was no way I could scroll back and forth and look for the word, it would have taken just too much work. I also had a trouble keeping up with all the different clairvoyants. I was reading the e-book version of this book so it wasn’t easy to switch back to the little info about the different clairvoyants. So maybe if I had been reading a physical copy of the book it would have been easier for me to keep up, but that was not the case. When a character was introduced along with their clairvoyant class(if they were clairvoyant) I often didn’t know what they did, and it was confusing to keep up with. Lucky though once I got more than halfway into the book I started picking things up and I think I know most clairvoyant class and what they do but not all, yet.

Another thing I found a bit confusing was the Rephaite and the Buzzars. But to avoid spoilers I will not delve into it too much. I didn’t really under the information presented about them. However I think we aren’t really suppose to understand them in the first book. Maybe in the second book we will go deeper in to the existence of the Rephaite. And one last thing I found confusing was the whole dreamscape stuff. It really sucked to not understand this because it plays a major part into Paige and what she can do as a clairvoyant. I haven’t checked the glossary fully yet so maybe this will be in there.

Okay so enough about all that was confusing to me, now onto what I did like about it. Though I did not understand all of it, I really liked the word building aspect of this book. Though it felt like it was just dumped right on you, figuring out the world and trying to grasp it wasn’t that big of a deal for me. I kind of liked how she did that because hopefully throughout all the books we will learn more about it and in the end they will all come together. I can definitely tell Shannon spent a lot of time thinking about this world and it definitely shows in the book. Every aspect of this book felt well thought out and it was quite enjoyable to read about and discover about.

I loved Paige as a main character. I loved her spirit and determination and her hope. Never once throughout the story did she lose hope or lose her fierceness. It was also fun to read about her discovering new aspects of herself, things she didn’t know she could do. Watching her grow and discover her strength throughout the book was fun and intriguing  to read about.

Warden was an interesting character. We don’t quite get to know a ton about him. It felt that bits of information about him and who he as a character/person is scattered throughout the book and in the end they sort of come together. I feel like even at the end of the book we never really get a full picture of Warden as a character but I kind of like it that way. He is this mysterious character that hopefully in the next book we can learn more about him.

It was interesting to read and see the connection between Warden and Paige develop. The very first time we meet Warden in the book I knew who he was going to be to Paige and seeing that develop was nice. Throughout the book the object of trust and learning to trust pops up a lot and it was a nice aspect I felt to the book to see Paige struggle with it, along with Warden.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and was sad everytime I had to put it down. I cannot wait to continue this series and see what else happens.

book review

The Gilded Cage

Title: The Gilded Cage

Author: Lucinda Gray

Page: 245

Synopsis: After growing up on a farm in Virginia, Walthingham Hall in England seems like another world to sixteen-year-old Katherine Randolph. Her new life, filled with the splendor of upper-class England in the 1820s, is shattered when her brother mysteriously drowns. Katherine is expected to observe the mourning customs and get on with her life, but she can’t accept that her brother’s death was an accident.

A bitter poacher prowls the estate, and strange visitors threaten the occupants of the house. There’s a rumor, too, that a wild animal stalks the woods of Walthingham. Can Katherine retain her sanity long enough to find out the truth? Or will her brother’s killer claim her life, too?

Rating:

Non-Spoiler Review

This book is about Katherine who used to live in a farm in Virginia with her brother. One day they get informed that they are the heirs to this fortune and house in London. So with that, they up and move to Walthingham Hall in London where there, they will stay with their cousins, Henry and Grace. Grace and Henry are there to help them intricate into London society and to help them get used to the customs that come with. Sadly, one morning, Katherine’s brother is found dead. Now everyone believes that it was an accident, except for Katherine. With the odds stacked against her, Katherine sets out to find her brothers killer, before they get to her.

This was a book that I didn’t totally love, but didn’t totally hate. There were some aspects that I really liked about this book and there were some that I didn’t like so much. Overall this story just kind of fell flat for me. The whole story revolves around Katherine trying to find out what happened to her brother and who did it. It felt like the book promised one thing but another was delivered. I was able to guess who did it a while before it was revealed. The ending was rushed. For everything that happened in the time frame it did, it was too much. And because of that it became kind of just a blur and I’m not all to certain of what exactly happened, I just remember the basics and the premise of it.

I liked Katherine. I liked how persistent she was and how she never gave up in trying to find justice, even when the odds were stacked against her. Although she isn’t the most memorable character and I’ll probably forget about her in the future, it was fun to read through her perspective.

The background characters felt meh. They didn’t feel well-developed and felt like the author didn’t spend much time in creating them. I wasn’t a fan of them either as characters and I really could care less about them. Grace I absolutely hated, along with Henry. They didn’t even care about the Katherine’s brother’s murder and just swept it under the rug as fast as they could. And it was just so frustrating to read. John is a servant at the Hall and Jane is Katherine’s friends. I liked them but they just didn’t have any dimensions to them and they fell flat for me as characters.

What I did like about this book was how well the setting of London was set up. The author did such a good job of making it seem believable. Gray does a good job at getting the outfits right and the customs held in high society right. Gray also does a good job of making the actions appropriate to that time period. For instance, those in the higher class are supposed to pay no attention to servants and if you do, it is frown upon. Grace follows this while Katherine does not and often times Grace’s disapproving look will be acknowledged in the story. Another example would be that often times in the book Katherine is ushered off to bed and that was common during the 1800s. Katherine was also not given much attention since she is a 16-year-old girl and she is just kind of brushed off.

I also liked how romance didn’t take a forefront of the book. I could tell it was brewing during the course of the book but I liked how it didn’t overshadow the mystery. I feel like so many books these days have the romance at the front and center and it was nice to not have that while reading this book.

Overall I didn’t entirely love this book. Would I recommend it to someone, probably not. But it was still a nice and quick read and some parts of this were enjoyable to read about.

book review

Broken Things

IMG_4753.jpegTitle: Broken Thingsy648.jpg

Author: Lauren Oliver

Pages: 408

Rating: ★★★

Trigger Warnings: violence, abuse and murder of animal(very graphic), homophobic slurs, self harm, pedophilia, murder

Synopsis: It’s been five years since Summer Marks was brutally murdered in the woods.

Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend. That driven by their obsession with a novel called The Way into Lovelorn the three girls had imagined themselves into the magical world where their fantasies became twisted, even deadly.

The only thing is: they didn’t do it.

On the anniversary of Summer’s death, a seemingly insignificant discovery resurrects the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together once again. But as the lines begin to blur between past and present and fiction and reality, the girls must confront what really happened in the woods all those years ago—no matter how monstrous.

 

I really had no interest in reading this book but Target had a signed first edition which caught my eye. I’ve had a rocky relationship with Oliver’s book, some I have liked while others I haven’t. I went in with low expectations which seems like a good thing. I think if I went into this book with higher expectations my rating would have been lower. This review will be a non-spoiler review

Non-Spoiler Review

Lovelorn isn’t just a story. No, to them, it is everything. The write about it, they converse about it, and they visit it. Until one is murdered. This book is about two girls who are dealing with the aftermath of their friend’s murder. The town sees Brynn and Mia as the ones responsible for their friend Summer’s death, along with Summer’s then boyfriend Owen. To get away from the scorns. Brynn keeps herself in rehab and Mia gets homeschooled while rarely going into town. But then Mia believes she discovered a hint to Summer’s killer in the pages of their forgotten fan fiction. Soon the girls as wrapped up in the mystery, trying to figure out, who really did kill Summer.

To start the review out positive, I’m going to start off with the things I liked about this book. I really liked the characters. Each girl had their own monsters of sorts that they were dealing. Not only were they dealing with their own problems, they were each dealing with getting out from under Summer. Even through death, Summer still had a grip on these girls and their life and through finding Summer’s killer they were able to deal and get out of her clutch. I thought this added depth to each character and reading about their character growth from getting free was well done.

One thing that I like about Lauren Oliver’s books is her writing style. In this book, I liked how she included events and facts about what happened in the past, along with what was happening in the present. The past writing was very well done, it didn’t feel like Brynn or Mia were just simply telling us what happened, it was written as if they were telling and also living the past. I also liked how before each chapter there was a tiny passage from either their fan fiction that the girls wrote or the actual story. Was this needed? No. But, it was a nice edition to the story even if it did not add anything to the overall story.

Wade and Abby were the side characters and they added a nice touch to the story. I think without them it would of been a lot more dull. They both added a bit of spunk to the story which was a great addition.

Now, onto the not so positive part of the book.

This murder, it fell flat for me. I however did not have any idea who the murderer is(though now I am wondering how I missed it) however through reading Goodreads reviews, it seems a good amount of people were able to discover the murderer early on. I think the reason for the murder was just, eh. It didn’t feel well developed and I was hoping for a more, well constructed reason.

So my main issue with this book is that it felt like another version of Pretty Little Liars. Throughout the book I found myself making connections between the two series. To me, the originality of this book was low. The three girls, one murdered, other two blamed is a common trope I feel and this book did not successfully achieve that trope. So, some of the  connections I made between Pretty Little Liars and Broken Things are as following.

-Summer was Allison. I was able to make so many connections between the two. Both girls needed to be liked and love. Both girls would act like besties with their friends and then act like enemies/rudely the next. They toyed with their lgbtq+ friend and then later criticized them for it. Both of them went for older boys. Those are just some of the few connections I made between the two and it is one to many. Overall, Summer did not seem like an original character

-Brynn was Emily. Now I can’t really go into how these two have many connections due to spoilers. However, I counted about three, maybe more connections between the two. Though Brynn was a more original character, she still did not feel 100% original.

There was also this very graphic scene including a cat that was just, not needed. The scene was way to graphic than needed and I ended up skimming over it because it was a lot.

Overall, going onto this book was low expectations was a good thing. If I went into this book with higher expectations, my rating might of been around 2.5 stars. If you read this book, what are your thoughts?

book review

Once and For All

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Title: Once and For All

Author: Sarah Dessen

Page: 358

Rating: ★★

Synopsis: Louna, daughter of famed wedding planner Natalie Barrett, has seen every sort of wedding: on the beach, at historic mansions, in fancy hotels and clubs. Perhaps that’s why she’s cynical about happily-ever-after endings, especially since her own first love ended tragically. When Louna meets charming, happy-go-lucky serial dater Ambrose, she holds him at arm’s length. But Ambrose isn’t about to be discouraged, now that he’s met the one girl he really wants.

 

I have had this book since it was published in June and I finally read it! This review will be completely non-spoiler. So if you have not read the book, do not fret, you can still read the review 🙂

This book is about Louna who is going to college in the fall. During the summer she is working at her mother’s wedding planning buisness. One day they take on this wedding, and along comes Ambrose. Ambrose is the brother of the bride, and to keep the bride happy and score some extra cash, Ambrose joins the wedding planning team. Louna and Ambrose do not hit it off. In fact, Louna kind of hates him in the beginning. But as the summer goes on, feelings start to change.

Non-Spoiler Review

This book was a nice read. I read Kingdom of Ash right before this so this book was the perfect book to kind of detach me from the book hangover(I hope that makes sense lol). I found this story to be cute and enjoyable. However the plot seemed a bit one noted. There was no growth in the plot and I found it quite dull. It also wasn’t well executed, I felt that it could of gone a different and better way but it just fell flat. The whole plot was also in the background, it wasn’t as big as it should of been. The one thing I did like was how to book altered from the past to the present. The chapters that were in the past give us a background on the character and describe in more detail the events that led up to the reason Louna has trouble loving again.

The main character Louna was just eh. I found that there wasn’t much depth to her. I found myself not really caring for what happened to her. It seemed like her only problem was learning to love again. However this should not have been the case. Louna suffered a loss(the chapters about her past explain and lead up to this) and she says she is still getting over this loss. Except to me, she did not seem like she was getting over a loss. The story sets it up as that she is still getting over this loss and she needs to learn to get back out there. Again, the character’s action show the opposite of this. The only action she does that contributes to this is her not really dating. Other than that, she seems happy and fine, like nothing really happened. Only when dating and boys is mentioned does this loss come up and “affect her.”

Another character that I wasn’t so much of a fan of was Ambrose. At first I was like, alright, this is just a like mask, he really isn’t like this. Nope. Throughout this book, I was waiting for the character growth that never came. I found Ambrose annoying. One thing that bothered me was in one point the character stole a dog. Now I am all for people rescuing dogs from an abusive owner. However, the character faced no consequences. When he showed up with the stolen job everyone was like “whatever, new dog yay!” No police were involved and the whole thing was just swept under the rug. This character also had issues that I have seen before. However, I feel that in other books, there is growth and the problem dwindles down throughout the book. Except, this time, I didn’t really see it. The only reason Ambrose ditches his usual ways is because of an agreement between him and the main character. I kept hoping that he would change and become likable but that just didn’t happen for me.

Lastly, I went and bought the Barnes and Noble edition because it had a bonus epilogue. I have done this with many other books and all the epilogues have added to the story and gave it a more completed ending for me. This. Epilogue. Was. Pointless. I was so disappointed with it and found it completely pointless. It did nothing to the story and honestly, it should of been left out. I am disappointed because I spent more money on this  version on the book hoping that like most books, the epilogue would give me more of the characters and add to the story. But I was left disappointed and wishing that I bought a cheaper version because then I would not have felt that I wasted money.

I found more issues with this book but since they contain spoilers I will not discuss them. Overall, I thought this book was a let down, and out of the books I have read of Sarah Dessen’s, this was not her best.

Wrap-Up

October Wrap-Up

IMG_4666.jpegHope October was a good reading month for everyone! For me, this was my best reading month of the year. I feel as if this whole year, I was kind of lost my groove with reading but this month I found it! It was just go, go go and it felt good.

So the first book I read was Geekerella by Ashley Poston. This book was such a nice quick, enjoyable read. I loved the modern take on the famous Disney princess Cinderella. I found all characters quite enjoyable, except the stepmom and stepsisters. What I loved most of all though, was all the nerdy references. My favorite was a Giilmore Girls reference. I love that show and there really aren’t any references to it in books so when I saw it I was so excited! I gave this a 5/5 stars.

The next book I read was The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee. I was so looking forward to this book after I read The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. This book was just ah so amazing. Every character added something to story and it was just amazing. I loved the feminism and the strong will of Felicity and those she traveled with. I gave this book a 5/5 stars.

My September Fairyloot box came, and with it, the book Mirage by Somaiya Daud. I am not going to go into much detail because I have a review here. This book is a Science fiction crossed with Moroccan background. I gave this book a 4/5 stars.

Next I picked up The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh. I enjoyed this book so much, I think I finished it in two days. This book is inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, now I haven’t read that yet so I can’t really tell you how close inspired it is to the story. This book I felt was mostly about the romance between Khalid and Shahrzad. I was definitely missing the action. I felt that the synopsis sets up the story with this like implication that theres going to be some action and I felt that the story was really lacking that. I gave it a 4/5 stars.

Next I got one of my most anticipated reads of the year, What if it’s Us by Beck Albertalli and Adam Silvera. I love all of Becky’s books and the one book of Adam’s book that I have read(They Both Die at the End). So with both of them writing one book, sign me up. I loved this book and it was such an enjoyable, quick read. One thing that I really liked about this book was that it wasn’t just about Ben and Arthur, yes they were the main focus of the story but there were also parts where it was just about Ben and his life, and the same with Arthur. I gave this a 5/5 stars.

So with the preorder of The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, came the novella The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky. This is a novella about Monty and Percy after the events of The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. This was a cute, quick read and I enjoyed the story. Plus it was nice to get some more Percy and Monty. I gave this a 4/5 stars.

This year I decided to partake in Spookathon. I have a blog post here. So because I have that post I will not talk a ton about the books I read for Spookathon. The first book I read was The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. I liked this book and thought it was a well done thriller, despite the slow beginning. I gave this a 4/5 stars.

Second book I read was Because You Love to Hate Me by various authors. This book is an anthology about different villainous stories. Some stories I liked better than others but I enjoyed all the stories included in the book. I gave this a 4/5 stars.

Third book I read was Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalo. I loved this book a lot! I related so much with the character and I was really fascinated with the mystery that book centers around. I gave this a 4/5 stars.

The fourth book I read was Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake. Ah, why did I wait so long to read this book. It was so good and I love the world. Also, I love the plot: three queens who have to kill each other to rule. I have to say though, I think the ending was a little predictable, but other than that I enjoyed this book so much and could not put it down. I gave this a 4/5 stars.

The last book I read for Spookathon was also the last book I finished for October. The book is The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. This was the third Agatha Christie book that I have read, and I have to say it was my least favorite. I found myself skimming most parts. This book felt that it went at a slower pace than it should of been for a mystery book. I found myself only being interested in the part where the whole murder is explained. I gave this a 3/5 stars.

So that is it for you all, my October wrap-up. I have to say it was a pretty good month for me and I hope the next months will be as good as this month

How many books did you end up reading in the month of October?
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