C. J. Daley

Read this one for Thriller book club, and I decided to do the audio that is done by Taryn Ryan. I thought the narration was done well FYI! 
This is a domestic thriller and mystery. It features multiple first person perspectives and I felt like the POVs were pretty well done. They all switch over with chapter changes, which is really the only way to successfully do it. 
This one is pretty hard to review without spoiling, but I'll try. The book features a nosey neighbor, a domestic hostage situation, and an ex-con delivery driver with a bad gut feeling. The author layers further on top of that to make the mystery and twists more hard hitting. 
Someone in the book clubs group chat put out an early prediction that ended up being right, and I'm not sure if it's due to me reading that first or not, but I found the twist to be pretty solidly on the nose. It isn't handle poorly or anything, I just thought it was obvious. 
Other than that I did feel like the book was still kind of lacking something. That and the fact that it was released in 2021, but the ex-con is more so just described as being profiled because of his tattoos, drove me nuts. I'm not sure if maybe it's just because it's Australian and not American, but yes it is much much harder for ex-cons to find solid work, but I found the use of his tattoos as being the reasoning for most of it to be incredibly weak. Tattoos are now most definitely the norm. The guy was described as wanting to be a mechanic, not some crazy CEO or something, and the author still made that seem incredibly out of reach...it pulled some credibility out for me personally and read a bit like personal opinion. 
Still enjoyable, and a lot to like. Personally a 4/5* for me. 

This is the prequel novel to To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, or Book ‘0' in the Fractalverse, and it was long awaited for me for sure. I received the audiobook via NetGalley, and I was so stoked to get it early. 
This was definitely a story meant to deepen the lore that's within TSIASS, but what I liked the most was that it's also a full story on its own. A small team of scientists leave the Adamura in 2243 after discovering the Anomaly—a 50km, circular pit found on Talos VII. The pit appears to be by design, not nature, and wouldn't it be incredible to be the first to ever step foot there? Find out when this drops this month! 
Jennifer Hale does a fantastic job with the audio performance. She brings personality and style to each character, bringing them to life. The author does a great job also creating a diverse cast that highlights the universe and lore he's already created. The science reads as believable, and that's always my favorite kind. The emotional thread the author uses throughout also does a fantastic job to draw you in and hold you tight. 
My only nitpicks are that some of the thuds the production added in kind of sound like someone literally just tapping a microphone. Then the other one is that I did find the ending to leave a bit to be desired. It's by no means bad, I just wish for more. 
Personally a 4/5*. I can definitely see this stuff being turned into film. 

I'm about a year late to finishing this one, but I'm so glad I finally got to it. And it's a thicc one. 

This one takes off right where Rebirth left off. The empire has struck, and Darmatia has fallen. The cadets must find the remnants of the army, and reenlist to help the rebel movements. 

To reference my comments from my review of book one, this book definitely delivers on character development. It does still take about another 400ish pages to get there, but it delivers in spades. Lots of it. The characters grow and groan in believable and rewarding changes. 

This continues to deliver on being perhaps the best scifi-fantasy blend I've ever read. It has spaceships and technology, that can lead you to thinking like Star Wars, but with magic and a world that feels far more grounded in fantasy. The weaponry reads like a mix of flintlock-, civil war-, WWII-era with its mixture of pistols, rifles, bayonets and tanks. And yet when the magic wielders use handheld weapons, it just makes sense. 

The climax of this one launches and launches and launches. The warfare is dark, gritty, bloody, heartbreaking and terrible. Honestly, while reading the descriptors more than once throughout I was like...no wait, this is totally horror. And I feel like that horrid reality can often be lost in fantasy, so that was refreshing. 

Personally a 5/5*. Triumphantly a SEQUEL. 

This may be a collaborative work, that's why there's a company and not one single author. This was sent to me by my fiancé, very nicely, and I wish she hadn't! 
So, there were just some things I did not like. And those things are absolutely everything. First, this is not canonical to the game series whatsoever. It's almost as if they had never played one, or simply meant to redo it entirely (and poorly). It is also nonsensical. On one page we are in a middle state in the US, the next we are in France with absolutely no indicators or reasoning... and no I do not mean through the animus like you'd assume in an Assassin's Creed story. This reads like the first draft of a fanfic. There are several typos, unbelievable issues with tense, mess ups in the POV, some chapters are simply info dumps and lore even though it's supposed to be first person, just zero editing at all. They completely changed what the animus does and what the Bleeding effect from the game comes out as. Oh, and the narration was seriously dreadful...
Personally a -1/5* for me. Absolutely worth avoiding.

This is another awesome find that I got for free in e-book for a newsletter sign up. Super glad I did and I'm still on a roll. If you are not checking out free e-book lists, or joining newsletters, you are missing out! And missing out on an easy way to support indies too.

This one centers around two army veterans and their semi-shaky marriage. Samantha, now a teacher, and the house-maker, struggles with her husband's lack of communication and traveling for work. Richard, having a harder time reentering civilian life, has taken a job as a governmental artifact-procurer, which is otherwise classified. When one night in particular, he gets home hours late with no call, and a totally new demeanor, their marriage takes a plummet. And what's with the artifact around his neck?

This novella does some interesting stuff with what it means to be a monster. If someone's a heavy drinker, distant in a marriage, never home, has raised a hand in anger, does a demonic visage really change them into a monster—or does it show what they really are? Or, the reader can absolutely take the story at face value, because that option is also presented on a platter just in case you're not feeling all deep. I really enjoyed that about it. It's not not there, but if you just want a horror novella and nothing more, that's just fine with the author too. And that's super cool.

Somewhat gruesome, gross, and violent. The writing was good too!

Peel

I'm disappointed I decided to pick this up on audible. I should have known that with Atwood's work it would need to be read.

With that being said it was a perfectly enjoyable performance on the audio, it's just that it was very muddied with the amount going on. Reading would have been better to follow along. At one point I actually had to google the story because with the audio I was having trouble grasping that it was a story within a story, that had a story within that story.... (crazy).

I would certainly buy this book and read it instead of listening one day, there were plenty of things I really loved in it.

So 3.5 stars with audio, if you're interested in this book, PLEASE READ IT.

I received the audio from NetGalley for review. I've heard nothing but good things about The Murderbot Diaries, so I was excited to get into this. 
First, I would just like to say that I technically gave this book 1.27x chances. I tweeted about having no idea what was going on at 27% and how I was afraid it was just me or how fast I was listening. I completely restarted, with a slower speed, and it did not help. 
Second, I have written several rave reviews about books that drop you right into the deep end from the jump, but this one just never recovers. It more so drops you right off a cliff...into a bottomless pit. I had problems remembering and deciphering between characters, locations, lore. The names never stuck, and remember, I listened to the opening twice! There are different beings called witches and demons and other things, but our main character seems to be referred to them all by the end as if they are interchangeable. To be honest, I'm still really not sure what this is about or even what happened during it, and let me tell you that is such a strange feeling because I WAS paying attention. 
Third, and maybe this is just me and the style really didn't work for me or something, but there is not really any climax? We're just going going going, end. The action scene towards the end didn't feel impactful, I didn't feel the build, and maybe that's why it didn't read as climactic to me? Also afterward it literally launches like directly back into dialogue and travel and then END. 
Personally, and sadly a 2/5* for me. Not a fan. The snippets of lore that struck me as great were just too few and far between. 

This was an included listen on audible, so I gave it a go for a holiday mystery read. 
Eve Allerthorpe approaches and attempts to hire Sherlock to help her with a mysterious figure, the Black Thurrick, that has been haunting her. It's kind of a folklore holiday figure like Krampus, which is not the type of thing Sherlock does, but this time he agrees. Mayhem, mystery, ghosts, gambling, subterfuge, and murder follow. 
I felt like this was a pretty good Holmes entry à la Arthur Conan Doyle's style. Holmes uses deduction, as well as a manner of deception to get to the heart of the matter. Watson is elementary as usual, but I do enjoy his narration of the story as a whole. He is Holmes' Captain Hastings of course, so it makes sense that I like him. (I know Holmes was first...). 
Personally a 4/5* for me, not very Christmasy, but the mystery was fun. 

I received this from NetGalley and as a huge fan of the series, I was stoked. 
Some checks for the game fans: Leap of Faith: Yes, but they didn't name it! Assassinations: Yes, but not a huge amount! Stealth: Yes, but only for small bits or mentioned outside of the main character's movements.  
This novel follows Hytham and Basim before the events of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. They are sent as representatives of The Hidden Ones to Constantinople in hopes of disrupting the Order of the Ancients grab for control. The Emperor, Basil I, has recently found reason to distrust his son Leo's lineage. The problem is that he's already announced him to be his co-emperor. So, what is there to do but try to have him killed? 
As a huge fan of Roman history, I was excited for the setting. The story gives lush descriptions of an ancient place we could never visit. As with recent works from Ubisoft, the story felt very historic in its setting with big names from people that actually lived. 
I enjoyed that this book sought to make a more realistic approach to the assassins, as we know with the games that the 1vs30 odds are never really a problem. Where that fell flat for me though, was a scene where Hytham is almost overcome in a fight that only features two enemies. I know he's an initiate in this, but he is a trained assassin, and not for nothing, you play an initial in 90% of the games. Failing against two enemies seemed too few for me. Otherwise, the minimal gripes I have is that Basim was not the main, and as the master, he ended up pulling a lot of the strings from the background. Which in turn ended up feeling a little cheapened. 
Loads of fun still, but I was a bit surprised there was nothing modern day/animus wise! Personally a 4/5* for me. 

I was given an e-book copy to judge this for the Indie Ink Awards for Prettiest Book Interior. Because I was judging several in this category, I actually ordered a physical copy as well to best judge then equally. There's a beautiful/creepy picture right in the front of the book that's a full page of black ink, it's followed by a title page in black with trees, fog, and the moon. It's probably my favorite I judged for the category. 
This is an urban fantasy with LGBTQ representation done right. The characters are not there as objects, that's just who they are, and it read as very authentic to me. And while urban fantasy typically isn't my main go to, this was very enjoyable. It's almost like an adult/gay Trials of Apollo, as it features monsters in the natural world. Plus, due to the monster taxonomy features, it gave it a kind of mythology feel that I liked. There's some romance elements, but it doesn't go into smut, which I endlessly appreciated. 
Good vs evil here, as most stories are, but with love and loss, grief and guilt, friendship and hardship, all mixed in. I was pleasantly surprised by the light tone and voice in the writing. Personally a 4/5* for me. Would gladly continue on with more!

This is story 5 of Amazon's short story collection Creature Feature. I love that these releases include the kindle and the audible version for each.
This one was unique in its imagining of the “creature” for a creature feature. It is both imagery for human greed and excess, as well as something ageless and dark. And human need, as well as WANT, is a huge point in this story. The “need” for more, the desire, the want, to do everything possible for your own. It was unique and interesting. 
As this is virtually one single conversation, it was a bit straightforward and I did nail the ‘twist' the second it started. Still enjoyable though! Personally a 3/5*. 

I won an audible code for this, I believe from the narrator, so I gave it a listen. 
This book meshes hotel horror with Norse mythology. It starts with Victor arriving at the hotel after receiving a free trip from a radio show he can't seem to remember participating in. When he meets Silje, the woman staying in the room next to him, he can't help but feel as if he's known her for a long time. It is from there that things get a little... strange. 
It mixes magic, eternal and fated lovers, action, suspense, and expansive knowledge of Norse mythology. It handles the pacing pretty well while only feature a handful of characters. But it does miss the mark of atmospheric horror for me, which I believe had to do with length. The blurb mentions The Shining, but this has a shorter opening, so I didn't get that eerie back-of-the-neck creeping feeling. 
Personally a 4/5* for me. I look forward to checking out more by the authors. 

I liked how this story started with just Hastings and the people making him feel good about himself. He even gets in a good Sherlock and Watson reference, not know that he himself is worse than even Watson. Otherwise I think this story was incredibly short and didn't really make a lot of sense. Without the lengthy explanation from Poirot we're just left to believe his little blurb about it without more

Not only do I have a paperback, but the author offered me an audible code to check out the audiobook! I just wish I had listened sooner. 
This is a dragon rider novel that features an underdog, found family, academy-like training, and uneven odds. The characters are fleshed out and the world feels real. I particularly liked that the novel does not tell you which side is the “correct” one to root for. 
The dragons imbue their riders with fury, giving them enhanced strength, speed, and dragon scale-like skin. I enjoyed the slight dragonrider twist in that each dragon gives their rider a unique gifted power. Whether it's lightning, water, fire, or air, the elemental powers felt like The Last Airbender on dragons. The dragons can grow large to riding size at will by their riders imbuing them back with their own pool of fury. It is a 50/50 relationship. 
The world could use some additional building, especially because they take up a big portion being trained. But it is only because I am interested that it could use more. I didn't really find it lacking, just interesting. 
I cannot fathom why more of my SFF friends have not picked this book up yet. I know what side I'm choosing. I wonder if you'll agree. 
Personally a 5/5*. Cannot wait for a book 2. 

I won an audible code prelaunch of the book via a giveaway done by the author. The narration by Kyle Snyder is fantastic and brings the characters to life. 
This is my first read from this author, but it certainly won't be the last. This is a scifi fantasy novel that heavily features found family and friends. It really is at its core about choosing your people and making the best of things. Everyone knows loss and hardship, certainly so does Levort Aatra. Perhaps even more than others. As a prospector, he has to forage and search for every little bit he can call his own, which makes sense, as that is his actual arc throughout the novel itself too. 
My favorite thing about the mixture of scifi/fantasy is that it doesn't feature hard science. The author is creating languages, races, planets. I don't need to have heavily believable science backing it, I can allow being told what is, is just what it is. And the novel itself progresses at such a pace that you won't even have time to dive too deep. 
I really loved the villain role being kind of ambiguously filled by Levort's best friend Bayfo. It exists as this really incredible way of showing two sides of the same coin as each of them just want to make a better life for themselves. I love the utilization of the ‘villain' thinking his friend is so misled that he has to save him no matter what, therefore becoming blinded himself. 
Personally a 5/5* for me. I need a physical copy and so do you. 

The author very graciously sent me a copy for my reading enjoyment, and enjoy I did. He posed it as a crime noir novel, and I wasn't really sure if I had read anything even in the same league, but I was willing to give it a try. 
The story is first person and follows a merchant marine turned reluctant investigator (he's really not, but he hasn't figured that out yet). He is characterized in the general noir style—witty, dark, perhaps morally questionable, pessimistic as ever—but done in such a way that it reads as true and is refreshing along the way. The secondary characters are all done exceptionally well as well, all of their traits and choices lined up perfectly for me. 
As it is a crime novel, and the first person perspective is not a detective, or one that follows around the detective, I did have some trouble drawing the lines between some conclusions. But hey, I am very used to reading Agatha Christie at this point. That is not this. Nor is it trying to be. There are certainly still twists and turns as you'd wait for in any kind of novel of its kind, and they worked for me. 
The author really does a great job with personality. The story here really reads as Mickey Fairfax. In many ways, I assume the author's voice has simply come out as Mickey's, and I love when that reads as genuine. 
Absolutely worth your time, effort, and money to read this book. 

This is the sequel to Of Blood and Fire, and it is book two of The Bound and the Broken series. Another cool, simple cover too. 
This sequel does a fantastic job of amping up everything that started in the first. It opens directly following the events of the first and continues straight through. There is next to no dull moments, with amplified action, dialogue, adventure, emotion, suffering, and danger. The writing gets a nice boost of improvement to the first as well, which is always a nice thing to see following a debut. 
For me, the thing this sequel does the best, is further and further distance itself from others of its kind. Not only Eragon and Paolini, but dragon riders and fantasy as a whole. Cahill is not necessarily doing anything outside of the mold, but he is further making it his own, and damn is this one fun. And blood pumping. 
I love where the characters went in this sequel and I thoroughly enjoyed the new ones too. Personally a 5/5* for me. Absolutely read this series. 

This is Wahrheit book 2, and I enjoyed book one so much that I dove right into this one. Thanks again to the author, as he shared an audible code with me for both. 
This book packs a punch. It comes back with a vengeance, it comes back for...REVENGE. The novel itself amps up the author's previous work in book one; political intrigue, character development, and dialogue. The characters face more betrayals, more twists, more turns. Now they have to deal with greater interference from the fae as well. Will the new Queen rise to the occasion? 
This author has such a way with wording combat that the action feels both incredibly vast, yet also personal. You can picture the carnage in the background of battle. You can picture the lines of men ready for action, but then at the same time, he's actually dialing it down and focusing on a single person within their midst. It's fantastic, but it's also my one small gripe with the novel. There simply wasn't enough. It felt kind of like starting over from the first with a similar buildup, rather than starting on the precipice from the first and opening wide. 
Personally still a fantastic read and I cannot wait for book 3. Travis Baldree's narration is exquisite. A 4/5* for me. 

I was offered a last minute review copy to judge for the Indie Ink Awards for the categories of Best Setting and Mental Health Rep. I agreed to help them finish up judging, and I enjoyed it! 
The setting is a cool/silly take on the idea that everyone is somewhere, therefore the town is called Somewhere, while other places are Somewhere-Else. The children go to the Academy, and at this academy they are overseen by the headmaster. He's a little off, but he is, of course, from Somewhere-Else. 
The novella itself is about Ellis and her struggle with opening up, , love, loss, grief, and defiance in the face of abuse. The novel deals with dark content that consistently stands in her way. Her struggle, as well as the golden children, are heavily metaphoric. Nothing is black and white, but the author does a good job with the presentation of what's happening. To avoid being more spoilery, I won't say more! 
The only nitpick I have is that some of the formatting was a little weird/off. The paragraphs were double—and sometimes triple—spaced in a way that didn't really make sense to me. I think if the shifting between story, diary like notes from Ellis, and world-building lore stories, we're separated more, it would have made more sense between what was being read. 
Enjoyable and deep. Personally a 3/5* for me. 

This is part of the Agatha Raisin series, and it's number 18. It was included with audible, so I gave it a go because the title was Christmasy. The book itself, however, was not, plus this was my first for the series... 
Agatha Raisin has a detective agency and she is looking to hire someone young to handle some of the littler issues. It weirdly talks about education and smarts, teetering on basically mentioning good/bad breed, which was the first thing that threw me off about the novel's time period. It is probably just an English thing that my American-ness does not pick up on, but the fact that the mystery took place and was surrounding the happenings of an estate was another thing that had me wondering the time period. It reads like Agatha Christie, but is apparently modern. It also uses terms like “cellular phone”, “computer games”, and others that makes it not only feel dated, but as if the author doesn't understand the times either. 
The mystery unfolds when an elderly woman hires Raisin to protect her during a family party, assuming someone in her family wants her dead. Naturally, the detective does zero to protect her, and a murder mystery is started up. 
The story itself takes place in fall(ish?) with vague comments of having a Christmas dinner party. Agatha Raisin eventually does, but it has nothing to do with the novel, and I don't think the name for it makes the littlest sense honestly. 
Personally a 2/5*, could be a bad area to start the series, or maybe just not for me. 

I have seen this all over bookstagram of course, and many of my friends have sent it to me as a phenomenal indie. After giving the audible audio a sample, I decided to go with it, and Derek Perkins did a good job with it. 

I do feel like I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this, especially with it being an all-time favorite of mine. I read other reviews of this, and I'd have to agree with some of it, at least on the surface. In the beginning of the novel especially, the lore and world building can read as very formulaic or cookie cutter to Christopher Paolini's Eragon. I was afraid that this would read as a negative (and overall I do wish that there were some wider gaps in the similarities), but I found some of the super harsh reviews to be kind of closed minded? Do we not remember the wave of people bashing Paolini for being unoriginal? (I have quite a lengthy review in defense of him). When you're dealing with dragon eggs, dragon riders, young underdog heroes, evil tyrants, it tends to mesh a bit. 

What I found to be the most enjoyable were the parts that differed from it. Although it's similar, it also tells its own tale, with lore and world building and beings all its own. As a fellow reader Nat recently said to me, “if it's cookie cutter, at least it's my favorite brand of cookie.” I would agree. The author distances himself from others like him by focusing on the traits he's pulled from, and fleshing them out on his own. 

I've also heard that the sequel does an even better job of distancing the two. At this point, I will absolutely move onto a second book. I'm actually listening to the prequel right now. 

Worth your time, effort, or money to read. 

This is an Iconoclasts prequel novella (can you see where I'm at this March?) and another Podium Audio that's currently included on audible. This is a real short one, probably bordering right on the line of what you'd consider a novella. It's almost the length of a prologue in a lot of fantasy novel. 
With this one being so short, it kind of lacks all descriptors. Not much in the way of world building or lore, which typically isn't always a bad thing. However in this one, it's solely a single story, almost a single instance. It goes right from introductions to the climax, and that left me wanting. I guess the thought process is it entices you just enough to pick up the first book...
The story follows some seedy characters as they treasure hunt in the Barrowlands, which cannot be entered without permission...needless to say these guys don't have it. The climax takes place in a tomb, which I thought felt more The Mummy (1999)–think the scarabs in the wall—than Lara Croft. I was definitely digging that!
The covers of the series intrigue me, but I'm not sure I'll continue just yet. 

One of my final reads for my Goosebumps July reading. This was technically the final GB spin-off that I had yet to read from, so I'm glad I was able to pull it off. 
Like the holographic cover art shows, this features the spooky spokespeople Lefty, Slim, Righty and each of their choices for spooky short stories. These stories are a bit chunkier than those featured in Tales to Give you Goosebumps, but they're still quite a ways off from the full books.  
Featuring “Ghost Granny”, “Spin the Wheel of Horror”, and “Teenage Sponge Boys from Outer Space”.
Spooky, quick, and fun. Personally a 4/5*. 

It definitely still reads like R. L., but apparently these were written by others! They get talked about as ghostwritten, but all of them are credited to the other people, so I don't think that's how GW works. 
This is part of the series that novelizes the TV episodes. They are all 40-60 pages and include full page photos, so very generous on the novel part. This one was enjoyable and made me want to turn the TV on for sure, so they were successful in their aim. It's quick, fun, and nicely descriptive...lights and mirrors found in hidden rooms in the attic should most definitely be left alone!
Also I know it was the 90s and word usage changes, but I feel very weird about them all being labeled a ‘Hot TV series' meant for children. 
Personally a 4/5*, really did a great job of doing what they set out to do with these. 

I picked this up last year but didn't get around to it. I made a point to this holiday season! 
A short story collection for the in between holiday months! This is as much a comedy as it is a horror. The stories are cheeky and silly. Some are heinous or murderous. Some are reimaginings or retellings. All of them are fun! 
A single sitting read for me as I enjoyed every bit. And such a nice little handheld size paperback too! 
Personally a 3.5/5* for me! Check this out!