Laura

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory  issues. Read them at your peril! 

MurderBot finds out that Dr Mensah has been blamed for its activities , and is being held to ransom MurderBot to the rescue again. It meets Mensah's team   again. It is almost deleted/ destroyed in defending their ship 

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory  issues. Read them at your peril! 

MB travels to another station to obtain evidence for Dr Mensah that Gray Cris were concealing illegal mining activities under a pretence of terraforming. On arrival he is contacted by Miki, a simpler-minded pet bot who is eager to be friends,  belonging to some  humans on another mission. As usual, things go badly  awry and MB has to save the day with ingenuity and bravery . Some combat bots and drones are on the  station, with a mission to destroy it, along with evidence of Gray Cris' wrong doing. Also, the human so-called security duo, are baddies.  In the end Miki dies heroically trying to help MB save the shuttle  

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory  issues. Read them at your peril! 

Murderbot gets himself into an another fine mess. Same funny, charming, sometimes violent, interactions between the narrating cyborg and everyone /everything else it meets. It's a space thriller, with both naive and bad humans causing trouble for MurderBot again.  He's trying to get back to the planet where he apparently went rogue and murdered 57 humans. On the way he hitches a lift with a very powerful transporter bot whose motives are unclear. 

I loved this story. As it's a novella, there's no baggy world building or side plots. Murderbot gets into trouble and out of it pretty quickly. 

Sci Fi thriller novella narrated by a cyborg security guard, or SecUnit, which is not like other SecUnits. “MurderBot” has some characteristics of a human who is on the spectrum. Good story, quite funny at times.

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory  issues. Read them at your peril! 

 MurderBot is guarding a small group of unusually friendly and pleasant scientists who are collecting samples for their work on a seemingly quiet and boring planet. It spends all of its spare time watching the entertainment  feed, having disabled its governor  module, unbeknownst to the humans . Odd things start happening and after the other known research station on the planet is attacked , they realise that a 3rd research team are on the planet, and that they are intent on removing witnesses to what they are doing there.   

I enjoyed this more than the previous three, even though it's sad to lose Rosie. I think S.J.Bennett is just getting better at her job.  I thought the atmosphere of the 1950's was convincingly recreated, with genuine historical events skilfully scattered through the plot. If I have a criticism, it is that the solution is a bit too much of a surprise. Thinking back, there were clues there, however, and one really strong hint, which I failed to take heed of. I'm looking forward to the next one very much. 

 Very quick read, almost a novella. The story rattles along, and is all about adventures and not much else, except for the spicy scenes. 

I suspect the writers of Father Ted were fans of O'Brien : the name-guessing sequences definitely rang a bell. There's a good reason for the illogical craziness, which was probably a very unusual plot device at the time of writing. I didn't think I was in the mood for a surreal story, but this has stuck with me and will definitely bear re-reading. A note for those students obliged to read this novel and not enjoying the surrealness : just let it wash over you like it's a weird dream, without making any attempt to make sense of it. 

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory  issues. Read them at your peril!

Story switches backwards and forwards in time over a period of about 3 years. Secrets and traumas are gradually revealed. The ending is happy all around, and feels rather artificial and forced after all the drama and suffering. 

Twin brother and sister sometimes close, sometimes jealous and estranged, both want to get into art school. Jude does, Noah doesn't .  Their parents, married from when their mother was very young separate. Their mother is having an affair with the sculptor that Jude will eventually unknowingly work with. Her mother is killed in a car accident.   

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory  issues. Read them at your peril! 
Nisha has been married for 20 years to an awful human being.
Sam has also been married for a long time to a lovely man, who has depression and is unemployed. Her boss is awful, her parents are critical and demanding,  and she's struggling to cope.
Sam accidentally picks up Nisha's bag in the gym, forcing them to swap shoes, and things go increasingly crazy from there. Life changing stuff. Good female relationships, lots going on. It all comes together very satisfyingly in the end. Nisha's husband is a diamond smuggler unknown to her. He is a ruthless and dangerous man. Sam's husband had to constantly refuse to end his dad's  life, also unknown to his wife. 

Gordo & Mark's story. A magical werewolf infection, created by Gordo's evil father, is spreading towards Green Creek. Also, the hunters are back.  

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory issues. Read them at your peril! 

Heartbreaking, profound, short story about a man of very low intelligence, who agrees to an operation to triple his IQ, and the difficult consequences of that decision. With cleverness, there also comes a painful awareness of others, their true opinions and failings. His  previous contentment is gone as he realises that his “friends” were not laughing with him, but at him. Eventually he is comprehensively rejected. He becomes so intelligent that the scientists who are studying him are uncomfortable around him. As was feared all along , he loses his intelligence as fast as he gained it, even as he struggles to cling on long enough to leave something of value behind him.   The ending is really sad. I have never been moved to tears by a short story before.

Very impressive. The characters are all flawed, believable, complex. The story is tragic and compelling. I found it hard to get into it for quite a while. I suppose I've read too many missing woman/girl stories, I wish they'd change the record. But this was recommended and I'm glad I read it. It was very well written. 

Only three stars because of the poor narration by Mia Chiaromonte. 

Just as good as the others. Funny, inventive, all members of staff having adventures.

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory  issues. Read them at your peril! 

Hannah seems to have left the Stranger Times, but is actually on a mission to a sinister therapy clinic, employed and aided by Mrs Harnforth, Stanley and Cathy, an ace hacker. Patients leave the clinic inexplicably delighted by their experience and transformed into what they wanted to be. Betty is sent to replace Hannah at the newspaper. She turns out to be a friend of Mrs Harnforth. Vincent is losing his grip as he continues to try to find and help his dead wife. It turns out that below the clinic, is a cavern with many mirrors, each containing an unhappy remnant of the souls of the patients that have left. This was also done to Vincent's wife. Dominic, a baddy from a previous book, has bought her from the baddy in this book and is using her to torture Vincent and get him to bring Stella to him so that he can take her power.  

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory  issues. Read them at your peril! 

Vikram & Gil we're best friends & lovers at school until Gil's father died and his white relatives threw him out, and he disappeared In the present day, Vikram is a successful, kindhearted lawyer, and Gil runs a bookshop.  They meet by chance when Vikram is Trying to find a missing boy . It passed the time, but wasn't engaging. 

Narration by Mia Chiaromonte is bad. The story is enjoyable .

I found the story formulaic and amateurish. The  emotions portrayed by the main characters weren't believable. Dialogue was clunky, descriptions were clichéd. 

Star crossed young lovers from families on opposite sides of a feud about a hoard of shipwrecked treasure, come back to their childhood homes 15 years later and proceed to drag out their inevitable reunion with tedious argument and misunderstanding. 

Claire works as an end of life nurse because it helps her to keep moving on, and she must keep moving on. George Bellamy hires her to care for him as he tries for a reconciliation with his estranged brother. Ross has been serving in Afghanistan and returns to find his beloved grandfather facing death. I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory  issues. Read them at your peril! Claire has to keep moving because as a teenager, she witnessed her foster father murdering his other 2 foster children who had found out about his crimes. As a trusted police officer he was untouchable, and every time Claire has reached out for help, people have been hurt or killed.  

The story was entertaining, nothing out of the ordinary. 

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory  issues. Read them at your peril! 

Lizbeth Rose travels to the Holy Russian Empire to free Eli from jail. Whilst there Felix arranges for her to ”save” the tsarina from an assassin, which gets her into the palace to visit the tsarina and get permission to visit Eli . She poses as a cleaner in the palace, and then kills the tsar's uncle, inadvertently sparking off a coup attempt by the dead uncle's family 

Marshall is lying dead on a down-at-heel tea shop floor. Vera, the elderly owner, sets about solving the case when the police decide it's an accident. Vera investigates 4 people who were all showing an unusual interest in her tea shop after the murder. Cosy mystery, minor jeopardy, friendships made, fallings out, all comes right in the end.   

I gave it a low score because I found Vera irritating rather than endearing. She went past feisty and into abrasive and her behaviour, particularly towards the police, was unrealistically rude.  I know the idea in this kind of cosy is that the heroine stands no nonsense from the younger generation, and gets away with it because no one wants to be harsh to an elderly lady, and that is usually funny. But this one went too far for me. I struggled to keep going with it, and only got to the end because I was stuck with nothing else to listen to. 

Decent latest instalment. I think I'm getting tired of this series, or maybe  the author is bored. Doesn't have the spark of the earlier books. 

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory issues. Read them at your peril! 

Aodhan is in China as Suyin's acting second. Raphael sends Illium out to assist, in the hope that Aodhan will want to come back with him.  Something sinister lurks in the forest - Lijuan's son, stunted and mentally broken, has been killing and skinning everyone in the village designed to care for him. The past story of Aodhan and Illium is interspersed with current events. No sex. 

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory  issues. Read them at your peril! 
A bail-skipper with a high tariff has vanished from a hospital ward, and Stephanie needs to get him back, dead or alive.  Ranger asks her to be his “date” at a security job, and it turns out that an ex-team member of his in the special forces is crazy and now determined to kill both Ranger and Stephanie. A second bail-skipper pledged an Hawaiian tiki as bail security and Stephanie ends up toting it around with her.

Another fun instalment, much the same as all the rest.

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory  issues. Read them at your peril!  

John Matthew & Xhex.  At the end of the last book in the series Xhex was kidnapped by Lash . The  brothers fear the worst, but are searching. Eventually Xhex escapes as Lash seems to weaken The Omega casts out Lash, who plots revenge by passing info to the brotherhood , whilst still aiming to recapture Xhex. 

I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory  issues. Read them at your peril! 

Really cute pictures. More happy teen romance.

The day after the first kiss, the story continues. Nick & Charlie realise that they both have feelings for each other, and they meet each other's friends. Nicks gets on well with Charlie's friends, when they go bowling together, although  Tao Xu is suspicious of Nick's motives Nick overhears Charlie defending him. When Charlie meets Nick's friends, Harry is repeatedly offensive and the others aren't much better. Afterwards Nick exchanges punches with Harry . Nick comes out to  Tara and Darcy . After a lovely day at the beach Nick comes out to his mum

Amelia & Emerson are persuaded by the widowed Lady Baskerville to dig at her late husband's site in Egypt. Rumours abound that a pharaoh's curse will strike anyone who enters the tomb, and indeed accidents and murders start happening. The Emerson's are followed by a keen, and impudent young journalist and a motley collection of characters from various countries.