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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Review: Wade's Workout

Wade's Workout by Daryl Banner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not much in the way of sexy times, but character development!

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Review: Murder in the Crooked House

Murder in the Crooked House by Sōji Shimada
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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

I'm not entirely sure how to rate this book. I enjoyed certain aspects of it - the remote and uniquely interesting setting, the challenge of the locked rooms, the snow piling up and trapping the guests, the Agatha Christie feel of it all - but I also disliked a lot of things. I didn't like that the main/brilliant detective didn't show up until well past the halfway mark. I didn't like the shift in perspective from third person to first person (into the brilliant detective's friend's POV). I didn't like the wildly improbable (yet still intriguing) explanation of the murder. I also didn't like the feeling that something vital was being lost in translation, nor the fact that the formatting of the ARC meant I didn't get copies of the illustrative figures that were used within the story to show how things were laid out. I feel like that made me miss some necessary pieces of the puzzle.

I will say that, while I didn't guess the method of the murders or solve how the murders took place in locked rooms, I did guess the culprit correctly. Just an inkling I had at one specific point that really nailed it down for me, but I spent the rest of the book wondering HOW, and after that ending, there was absolutely no way I could have guessed.

So overall, I loved the nostalgic Christie feel and the twisty mystery and the fantastic setting, but didn't like the late arrival of the real protagonist, the shifts in perspective, or the completely unguessable method of murder.

I guess I'll rate it right down the middle then!
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A few positives, a few negatives, and an overwhelming sense that much was lost in translation. Still entertaining overall. Review to come upon release.

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Review: The Evil Queen

The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

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

This sounded like a great book. The concept is fantastic - I'm a huge Disney villain fan, and retellings of fairy tales can be really fun, especially when told from the villain's perspective. Alas and alack, this one felt like reading a rushed first draft of a book. It was full of childish dialogue, whirlwind speed scene changes with very little substance, and little to no real character development.

I understand that it's a YA, so it's going to be written to appeal to younger readers, and the prose will be at a different level than a book written for adults, but honestly, it felt like a middle schooler wrote it.

I feel like it was a great concept with poor execution -- lots of potential, but never quite lives up to it.

All in all, I felt like it was appropriate to give this one two stars, the extra star because of the interesting concept and relatively neat magic system.

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Review to come, but boy, this was a mess of a book. Felt like a rough draft of a middle grades book, rushed into production because of the big name. :(

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