Review: Becoming

Becoming by Michelle Obama
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Obama were a class act, and this book not only served as an interesting glimpse into the life of former First Lady Michelle Obama, but also as a reminder of what a presidency and country can be when hope, optimism, empathy, love, generosity, tolerance, togetherness, and respect reign over bigotry, cronyism, greed, corruption, and petulance.

Here's to hoping we can one day find our way back to that.

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Review: The Escape Room

The Escape Room by Megan Goldin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest opinion!

This book was insanely hard to put down. Once you get past the beginning where everything gets introduced, you get pulled into this web of deceit and lies and bad behavior. It's like watching that train wreck -- you can't tear your eyes away even though what you're seeing is awful and shameful and terrible.

I really liked this book. It was a great story, chock full of the things that make thrillers what they are. Overall, it wasn't even super thrilling - you can totally predict the end if you're paying attention, and much of the stuff that happens isn't "edge of your seat" material... but it's so compelling that it's still fantastic.

I think the only negative for me in regards to The Escape Room is that, well, there isn't all that much "escape room" stuff in it, and since that's what it is being marketed as containing, I was a little disappointed in that one aspect. But mainly, WOW. Great book.

4.5 stars!

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Review: The Turn of the Key

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest opinion! It was much appreciated!

This book tore at my heartstrings. The atmosphere was astoundingly perfect. Old house in the middle of pretty much nowhere, updated with some modern touches, but for the most part, still carrying around the haunting history of its past. The loneliness of being one of a handful of people, isolated on the grounds of an estate far from the city. Creepy noises at all hours of the night, items going missing, a hidden dangerous garden, scared children... this could have been a perfect horror novel. But what drives the narrative is that you know someone is going to die, and you want to know who causes this to happen... all that other stuff just helps create the atmosphere of tension and building anticipation that most writers try to set up and fail at spectacularly.

The twists will throw you for a loop, and some of them seem to come out of nowhere. It's not your typical mystery in that you can't guess a lot of the things that will happen... but it's worth the read.

Probably my favorite of Ruth Ware's novels so far. I can't wait to see what comes next.

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Review: Sapphire Flames

Sapphire Flames by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to the authors for hosting a contest on their blog. I won this advanced reader copy through that contest, but am still providing an honest review.

I wasn't sure how I was going to like this book, what with Nevada and Rogan's three book story shifting focus in this one to younger sister Catalina and the Italian stallion Alessandro. The novella in between, which was the first to star Catalina as the main POV, was decent, but not as good as the first three books. But let's be honest here, it's Ilona, and we all know that everything Ilona writes is gold or close to it.

They didn't disappoint. At all. This one was a thrill ride through a new world, or at a least a world that's different than Nevada's. Catalina is now head of House Baylor, she's out of the closet as a Prime Siren, and she's a few years older - three years have passed since the novella.

The House is running smoothly, and Nevada and Rogan have gone on a trip to Europe (for Rogan family business), so Catalina is really given the opportunity to shine in this novel, without the "oh, let's depend on Nevada" mentality, for her and for the readers who are still adjusting to the POV shift. And I'm glad of that. Turns out, Catalina is just as interesting as Nevada. She's deep, has insecurities and strengths, and is pretty effin' badass. And Alessandro isn't just a pretty playboy either.

All in all, we got a good case, deeper character views, and a whole lot of fun with magic powers and danger.

5 out of 5 stars. Duh!

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Review: Salvation Day

Salvation Day by Kali Wallace
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm going to be completely honest here... I was ambivalent about this one when I accepted the ARC. I put off reading it, fiddlefarted around, avoiding it. But I'm so glad I finally picked it up! Once I got sucked in, I couldn't put it down! I read huge chunks every sitting!

It's an almost-horror sci-fi thriller novel, set in space, on an abandoned spacecraft... haunted in a science fiction technical kinda way. The pacing is fast, but not so fast that it blows past the story. You get depth and developed characters, but it never sits down or goes so slow that you get bored.

I won't say more about the plot, because spoilers, but I definitely recommend this book to readers of sci-fi/space thrillers who like a little bit of potential horror mixed in. It wasn't really horror, but horror-adjacent, as I never found any of it SCARY. But it was on the cusp of being something terrifying, so that added stress really set a darker, higher stakes tone for the book.

Overall, I really liked it. 4 stars!

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Review: In the Shadow of Spindrift House

In the Shadow of Spindrift House by Mira Grant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Subterranean Press and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Everyone who knows me or follows my reviews knows that I adore Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant. Her prose is magnificent, her worlds are deep and inviting (even when they're terrifying), and her characters become real on the page.

This story is no different. She paints a brief picture of the history of the house, a history of the three main characters outside of the narrator, and a history of Harlowe, inside whose head we reside. As their journey into Spindrift House deepens, so does the sense of foreboding at how the story will play out.

I won't spoil anything, but there seem to be some Lovecraftian elements to the story that you should be aware of - some people don't like that kind of story.

All in all, my biggest complaint is that this would have made a much better long novel than this quasi-novella length. I wanted a deeper, scarier, bigger story. But since Seanan has mastered the short story length, this one still had all the components needed to be complete and good. It just left me wanting that much more.

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Review: Wanderers

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I don't know how I feel about this book. I enjoyed much of it, and other parts of it really ticked me off. It felt grand on an epic scale, but then certain parts made it feel small and not so epic.

Pros- good character development, interesting storyline, cool concept

Cons - twice as long as it needed to be, unnecessary rape scene, end with little to no closure whatsoever.

Overall, I enjoyed it enough to finish, but I didn't love it and I think it would have benefited from an editor who could help slim it down and get rid of a lot of unnecessary fluff. Also, seriously, if you're going to put in a rape scene, it had better have some significant point in the story... rather than just a little bit of shock value. *shakes head* I thought you were better than that, Chuck.

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