Book Review: Red Water by Kristen Mae

He was trying to kill her, too…

Malory Shoemaker would prefer just about any place over the beat-up trailer she’s had to call home since her mom died, so even her tiny dorm room feels like an upgrade. And though she sometimes still hears her father’s whispers in her mind, she’s excelling at school, making new friends, and has even attracted an enigmatic admirer.

But when her new love interest begins to reveal his more unsavory appetites, Malory finds herself a hapless participant in sick games that force her to confront her nasty inner demons. As the game intensifies, so do the whispers in Malory’s head. Now she must decide: accept the fate she’s always believed inevitable, or risk losing the only person who ever made her feel like she was worth fighting for. But how do you let love in when the only thing that feels right is pain?

Erotic and disturbing, Red Water slithers under your skin with its dark, unflinching examination of the psychology of self-loathing and the secret, unspeakable lust for depravity that lies dormant within us all.

 

This is probably the most difficult review I've had to write in a long time. In all reality, probably the hardest review I'll have to write for years to come. 

I think the thing that I most want to communicate with people who decide to read this review is that it's not that I don't like this book. When I first picked it up, I really didn't know what to expect. I've never read anything by this author before and I was really in the dark as to how this might play out. I was immediately a fan when I found out that the main character, Malory, played the cello. I've played the cello since I was 9 years old ... holy crap ... that's almost 3 decades! So I completely understood what Malory was going through with the trials and tribulations of that. I think it's difficult for people who don't play an instrument or sport, for that matter, to understand the dedication and constant turmoil you put yourself through as you try to master something that seems so daunting at times. 

Unfortunately, I connected with Malory on another level also. Dating a guy that is abusive, no matter in which way, can be difficult. My dark times also happened in college, just like with Malory. I'm not totally for sure if that was the reason I had to skip paragraphs and pages of this book or what. But I'm sure that's not too far off base. Malory gets herself into this psychologically, emotionally and physically abusive relationship. Thinking that this was a romance novel with a twist was not anywhere near the truth. This is a novel about that abuse. It's about a chick's need to be in an abusive relationship because she thinks the kind of treatment she's getting is love. She accepts it. Craves it, even. 

This was a very dark, very disturbing read. If I was basing my rating just on how this book made me feel, I wouldn't give it any damn stars. I would have used it for kindling in a trashcan fire. That was my first instinct. But then I finished the book and I stopped and really thought about it. How amazing is an author if they are able to evoke such strong emotions from the reader? If she can make you absolutely HATE a character, make your stomach turn, make you want to cry ... that's got to mean she's pretty badass, right? I think so. 

So maybe this wasn't a book that I would read again. Ever. But that doesn't mean it wasn't well written. It doesn't mean that the story wasn't this deep, dark, black hole that sucks you in and won't let go. And it most certainly doesn't mean that it wasn't a good book. It was ... if you really enjoy the perversion that plagues some of our most inhumane population. While I'm glad that I read it, I'm also glad that I'm done.

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

Available: April 19th, 2017

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Book Review: The K2 Virus by Scott Rhine

A new variant of the human coronavirus, K2, sweeps through North Korea. An unsuspecting biochemist delivers a routine batch of flu vaccines to Seoul. When he agrees to play translator for an attractive reporter, he stumbles into a perfect storm of political and biological forces. If he’s going to survive, he’ll need all the principles of Taekwondo he’s been taught since childhood: courtesy, integrity, perseverance, a fast kick, and even faster footwork.

 

This is the first book I've read by Scott Rhine and the first medical thriller that I've read in forever. I used to read a lot of books by Michael Palmer but it's been a good while since I've picked one up. Anyway, this one is along the same lines as that. 

The first thing that I noticed was that the author wrote this book almost as if the virus was a character. It was VERY interesting to experience the book this way. I'm not entirely sure why I feel like this ... it's probably just the way it was written. Anyway, I liked it. It gave the book a different spin. Now, I have absolutely no clue if this is what Rhine intended ... it could be completely in my own head but either way, it was a good thing. Even if I just imagined it. 

I enjoyed how intricately this book was written. I completely believed that everything was absolutely how things in the pharmaceutical industry works. Again, no idea if this is true but the author made it so believable that it brought a scary realness to the plot. Little side note: I really got a kick out of seeing an electron microscope within the story ... my dad is a retired forensic criminalist and I remember when his office got their first electron microscope and our weekends were filled with collecting "samples" of everything known to man so he could scan it. Anyway ... it was just neat seeing that in there for some reason. 

Like I said, the story is very intricate. It's a smart read, very detailed and not one that you can just blow through in an afternoon. And you're not intended to. The K2 Virus is very thought provoking because of the details that the author has put onto the pages. But because of this, I found that it reads very dry and detached. That's not necessarily a bad thing for all readers ... I personally didn't enjoy it because I had a hard time really getting to know the characters. I didn't feel any connection to them. Just too far removed from the characters for my taste. You know how you love some books where the plot is lacking but the characters are great? Well, on the other side of the spectrum, there are books that put the plot first and the characters take a back seat. Nothing wrong with that, just a different writing style. 

I like my books to have the characters be the star of the show. That's the only reason this book received only three stars from me. Otherwise, it's beautifully written and something I know a lot of people are going to really enjoy read this. 

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

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Book Review: One to Go by Mike Pace

Tom Booker is a new attorney at a powerful Washington law firm. Texting while driving across Memorial Bridge, he loses control and crashes into an oncoming minivan carrying his own daughter and three of her friends. The minivan tips up on two wheels, about to flip over into the Potomac. Time freezes, he s alone on the bridge. A young couple approaches and offers him a re-wind. The crash would be averted, the children saved. All he must do is kill someone every two weeks anyone a soul exchange. A moment later, Tom is back in his spinning car, but averts the deadly crash. He laughs about the hallucination, attributing it to bumping his head on the steering wheel when his car came to an abrupt stop. But his encounter wasn t a hallucination. Two weeks later, the minivan driver is brutally murdered. Tom receives a text: one down, four to go. He has never shot much less owned a gun in his life, and now must turn himself into a serial killer or his daughter and her friends will die.

When I heard about One to Go, I had one of those arms-stretched-out-with-fingers-opening-and-closing-yelling-GIMME! type of reactions. I just knew that I had to get my hands on it or I was going to lose my shit. I thought that the whole premise sounded like it would make for an amazing book and I would do anything I could to get to read it. Unfortunately, it didn't end well for me. Hell, it didn't start well either. 

The first thing that just irked me was this one simple word: kind've. Yes, you read it correctly and I put the apostrophe in the same place as the author. The apostrophe (in this instance) signifies that the word should be a contraction. Well, last time I checked, kind and have are not to words that can go together ... ESPECIALLY in the context that they were used in the book: Kind've cool. Negative. I understand that it was a child that was talking at the time but it would have been kind and of going together if anything. Sure, it's in the urban dictionary because that's where these Millennials put all sorts of things that aren't exactly correct English or even things that should be a thing or explained (i.e. the rusty trombone and the dirty Sanchez - don't look those up, no matter how much you want to). Kind've isn't even a damn word. From where this showed up, about 12 pages in, I was already irked at the book. 

I also didn't really like the main character, Tom. I thought that he was a narrow-minded, egotistical jerk and I couldn't bring myself to connect with him or his plight. I found him annoying and a coward. Heaven forbid this type of situation (with the having to save a child by killing a crap-ton of people) actually happen and if it did, I don't know how I would react. Maybe his reaction/feelings/actions are exactly how a parent would be but there just wasn't anything that I could grip on to with regards to connecting with Tom. I was happy to see the book end, actually. 

Throughout the entire book, the wording felt choppy ... like it was a new driver, learning where the pedals are and how hard to push ... just stomping on the gas and then stomping on the break. The book was jarring to me from the very beginning. 

I started this book in October and I'm just now finishing it because I had to put it down so many times. I was hoping that I was just being moody with it and since I have two boys, maybe I was just being sensitive to the situation. But that wasn't the case. Honestly, the only part of the book that I enjoyed was the occasional Latin word and that was only because I studied Latin in high school and I've only gotten to use it at the Vatican and in translating stuff off of US currency for our boys ... and I might throw them in every once in a while into a conversation when I'm being super passive-aggressive. 

Anyway ... not the book for me ... I'm glad a lot've (get what I did there?) people have enjoyed this one, it just didn't mesh well with me.

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

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Review: Die For Me: A Novel of the Valentine Killer (For Me #1) by Cynthia Eden

Katherine Cole thought her fiance was the perfect man until he turned out to be the perfect killer. He left his victims stabbed through the heart holding a telltale single red rose and was deemed the Valentine Killer. Three years ago he vanished. Now he's back. And he's hunting the one who got away. In New Orleans, Katherine dared to hope she was finally safe, yet somehow he found her. This time, Katherine won't just sit silently by; she'll do anything to stop the monster she once loved, even trust the sexy cop promising to keep her safe? Detective Dane Black never lets his emotions interfere with the job, even as the Valentine Killer surfaces in New Orleans to stalk his prey. But when Dane agrees to protect the killer's ex-fiance, he can't ignore the passion kindling between them. After a single unforgettable night binds them body and soul, Dane won't rest until Katherine is safe in his arms and the Valentine Killer is dead.

 

This novel is the perfect example of a complex book with a complete and satisfying ending. All too often these days, authors are so keen on writing a series where the books totally leave you hanging at the end and you have to wait months and sometimes over a year for the next installment. I don't know about anyone else, but that is just so long to wait and the majority of the time, I totally forget about the whole damn thing and move on to other books and then I don't even realize when the next book comes out. Yes, this one is the first in a series, but it could be a stand-alone novel. Everything is buttoned up all nice and for me, that almost intensifies my reading experience. 

You've probably read the blurb on this one (or if you haven't, go ahead and read it) and let me tell you, the blurb makes you think that awesomely scary things are going to happen within these pages and it does not in any way disappoint. I love this whole romantic suspense genre and I can't seem to get enough of it (thanks a lot, Sandra Brown). Not very often do these romantic suspense novels actually meet my expectations ... I've just read so many of them that I've become a bit stingy with my ratings of them. I just expect too much sometimes, I guess. But not with this one. 

Die For Me is romantic and thrilling and gory and downright scary at times. It's not the "normal" type of book for this genre because it is so much more gory ... no one likes normal anyway, right? You're thrust into the nightmare life of Katherine Cole ... she was engaged to this diabolical monster and then he just vanished basically into thin air but THEN things start happening around Katherine and she thinks that he is back. DUDE! That's all you need to know. Go get the book. It really is good. Here's the deal ... if you like Sandra Brown, then pick this book up. If you like watching Criminal Minds or any shows like it, then pick this up. It will keep you on your toes from the very first page to the last period. And the ending ... the ending is awesome. 

Except. And here it is. The reason why this amazing book didn't get 5 stars from me. The ending is only mostly awesome. Here's how it went ... the book is chugging along (do doodo) when all of the sudden, BAM!! It turns into the movie Seven (or Se7en). If you've ever seen the movie Seven just think of the ending (WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!?) ... yeah. I don't want to say anything else because this really is a good book and you should totally pick it up but that's what I had a problem with. Anywhoo ... good read. For the most part. 

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Review: The Face Transplant by R. Arundel

Dr. Matthew MacAulay is a Facial Transplant Surgeon at a prestigious New York hospital. His friend and mentor, Tom Grabowski, dies under mysterious circumstances. Matthew is forced to investigate. He uncovers his friend's secret. A new technique that allows perfect facial transplants. No incisions, no scars. The surgeon is able to transplant one person's face to another with the perfect result. Tom was able to accomplish this monumental feat with the help of Alice, a supercomputer robot with almost human abilities. While trying to find the people responsible for murdering his friend Tom, Matthew realizes he is the prime suspect. Matthew must flee for his life with the help of Dr. Sarah Larsson, a colleague and reluctant helper who has a secret of her own. Alice helps them make sense of a baffling series of seemingly unrelated events. Matthew is forced to undergo a facial transplant to hide his identity and help to uncover the truth. The clues carry Matthew and Sarah around the world. Matthew stumbles onto a sinister plot of monumental proportions, the real reason Tom was murdered. This discovery leads Matthew all the way to The White House with a dramatic conclusion. Matthew never wavers in his quest for the truth and perseveres against all the odds. He must race to stop a major catastrophe, ratcheting up the excitement until the thrilling conclusion. The Face Transplant is a powerful medical suspense thriller of the first order. The novel was written by a surgeon. The novel has a realism that only a surgeon can bring. The plot weaves politics, medicine and espionage into a tightly paced, intelligent thriller. The novels crescendos page by page to a totally unexpected conclusion.

What in the hell was that?!? I did NOT want to start my new year off like this but (Whoomp!) there it is. Haha ... that song jumped into my mind when I wrote "there it is" ... back on track ... let me just say this ... there was no "shocka locka" going on while reading this. I don't know what that means but it was part of the song that now won't get out of my head and if there were such a thing as shocka locka, I bet this book wouldn't have it.

When I first read the blurb on The Face Transplant, I should have known. I should have known that it was going to just really stink because of how much information was put into the summary!! Why in the world would you put all of the important parts of the book on the back?!? Why not leave something for a surprise? The only thing surprising about this novel is the fact that it didn't come with a refund. I know that sounds harsh but here's the deal ... as a reader, I want to be entertained. If I wanted to be bored out of my mind, I would read the dictionary. Now I do believe that I have an ARC version of this book and maybe a lot was changed before the final product was put out onto the market but the version I read was not good. At all. Oooh ... and I take offense to the phrase "crescendos page by page". Crescendo means increase. Increase means to become more. This most certainly did NOT crescendo.

I cracked this book open (metaphorically, since I read it on my Kindle) and the first thing that I read was this introduction or something titled The Beautiful Life. It felt like I was being preached at ... I don't have any clue what this had to do with the damn story. Then again, I will be honest ... I tried to finish this book and I just couldn't. I would rather try and scoop my eyeballs out with a rusty spoon and dirty bald eagle talons than read any more than my 109 pages that I tortured myself with. I hate leaving a book unfinished but in order to preserve my sanity, I had to chunk this one.

After the whole "Beautiful Life" debacle, I wanted to just get into the story. Thankfully, I found that the main character was boring as hell and not in a sexy/mildly-interesting way. He was boring. There's this one part at the very beginning when he is talking about maybe contracting three deadly diseases while he was operating on someone and you know what his response was? Was it freaking the hell out like any normal person? Or being upset? Or crying or wondering what the rest of his life might be like if he gets to live for much longer?!? No it was "WHAT A PITY". No sane person is going to have that kind of reaction if they were in that type of situation. It just won't happen.

The writing was unrealistic, stiff and extremely stilted. I could have been reading a textbook of some kind rather than this "thriller" for all the emotion that was in it. I don't think I'll be picking something up by this author ever again. Ever. Well, Whoomp, there it is.

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Review: Trapped (Private Justice #2) by Irene Hannon

 

When librarian Laura Griffin's sixteen-year-old sister disappears on a frigid February day, leaving only a brief note behind, Laura resolves to do whatever it takes to track down the runaway teen. That includes recruiting ATF agent turned PI James "Dev" Devlin to help. But the deeper he digs, the more he begins to suspect that something sinister is at work in the girl's disappearance. And the closer he gets to uncovering the truth, the clearer it becomes that the situation isn't just dangerous--it's deadly.
 

Chilling and at times terrifying, "Trapped" is the latest thrilling read from Irene Hannon, the queen of romantic suspense. Hannon outdoes herself with this fast-paced tale of fear, deception, and just the right dose of romance.

This is the first novel that I've read by Irene Hannon and honestly, I received this book a long time ago. Somehow it just fell through the cracks in my TBR list. All in all, it was a great novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. I will definitely pick up another novel by her ... if my huge issue with this book is resolved!! More on that a bit later ...

Now, this is the second book in a series and while I usually don't start a series in the middle because you never know if there is pertinent information that you might have missed by not reading the prior books, I'm glad that I didn't shy away from it. I don't think that I missed anything pertaining to this story by not reading the previous novel. It really could be a stand alone, I believe. So if you're interested in this one and you haven't read the first one, go ahead. It's good and you won't be disappointed.

I really enjoyed the character development. I was able to get to know Laura and Dev quite easily and become attached to them really fast. The way that Hannon wrote Laura, I really felt for her in her current situation. I was able to kind of coast along on her emotional roller-coaster as if she was a friend of mine. Same with Dev. I loved both of these main characters and I enjoyed all of the secondary characters as well.

There was a real sense of fulfillment when I finished this novel. I didn't have any questions unanswered or sense anything was left unfinished. Like I said, all in all, it was a great novel.

But. BUUUUUT. As my grandfather would say, this really chapped my ass. The copy I received did not say that it was an ARC. If you aren't familiar with the term ARC, it means Advanced Reader Copy ... basically it means that there will be some editing issues, either grammar or otherwise, within the novel but that the publishing house wanted to get these complimentary copies out as quickly as possible to get reviews all set up before the novel actually drops. Anyway, reading an ARC doesn't bother me - I know that I'm in store for some editing issues and I'm okay with that. But when this novel didn't say that it was an ARC and EVERY SINGLE word that has "ff" or "ffi" missing ... this is a problem. A big problem. Because it pulls you away from the story every time you have to decipher what these words are: oense, oce, o-limits, o, puy, muns, oers, o-the-cu. In case you couldn't figure it out, those words are offense, office, off-limits, off, puffy, muffins, offers, off-the-cuff ... and that was just a few!! It was all over the book and on every single freaking page. To be honest, I wanted to give the book even lower ratings because of this but I just couldn't because the story line was so great. I'm betting that there are some people who just wouldn't read the damn thing after the 785th spelling issue. I don't know what donkey messed up and had all of the ff's and ffi's deleted but I would really like to poke them in the eye.

Now that I'm done with my long rant, this was really a good book. I'm hoping that the above F-issue was resolved for final e-book copy that is everywhere. Because if it isn't, I'm grabbing a torch and I'm going to storm the publishing company castle.

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Review: The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood

One fateful summer morning in 1986, two 11-year-old girls meet for the first time and by the end of the day are charged with murder.

Twenty-five years later, journalist Kirsty Lindsay is reporting on a series of attacks on young female tourists in a seaside town when her investigation leads her to interview funfair cleaner Amber Gordon. For Kirsty and Amber, it's the first time they've seen each other since that dark day when they were just children. But with new lives – and families – to protect, will they really be able to keep their secret hidden?

Oh, where to start. This one just didn't do it for me. At all. To be honest, I couldn't find one thing that I liked about the novel except the first part when the lost and found stuff was getting divided up at Funnland. That was really it. 

I didn't find any kind of connection with any of the characters. I don't even really know if I could tell you one trait each of them has ... the characters didn't seem deep or realistic at all. And that was when I could keep the characters straight. I found it to be a little confusing because I didn't know much about anyone, so they all just seemed to meld together into one big, confusing mess. With every page that went by, I kept thinking that I would eventually feel ... something ... for any of the characters and I just didn't. I couldn't care less about what was happening. 

Now, I enjoy a good mystery. Especially the ones that refer back to something that happened years ago ... which is why I was so interested in this novel to begin with. But again, I was let down. It was a crash and burn type of situation for me. With the blurb, you're led to believe that there is some heinous crime that these two girls committed. And this is a bit of a spoiler but it wasn't some heinous crime. It just wasn't. The ending was not that great either. It's not that a book has to end a certain way in order for me to like it ... I've read tons of books that ended in this piss poor way and I respected the novel even more for that kind of ending ... (Divergent). But I just couldn't respect the novel more. I ended up resenting it. 

Basically, the whole novel was just ... meh. That's it. Meh. I don't believe I'll be picking up another novel by this author again.  

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Review: Don't Look Away (Veronica Sloan #1) by Leslie A. Kelly

CAN A MURDER VICTIM'S OWN MEMORIES BE USED TO SOLVE A CRIME?

Detective Veronica Sloan isn't shocked by much. Having lived through the worst terrorist attacks in history — which destroyed much of Washington, D.C. — she's immune to even the most vicious brutality. But even she is stunned by the discovery of a murder in the basement of the under-reconstruction White House.

Sloan and FBI Agent Jeremy Sykes have been assigned to investigate the homicide because the victim was a participant in a top-secret experiment. Veronica has been training for just this kind of case, waiting to use her special skills, anxious to learn if a recording device implanted in a victim's head can help solve their murder … before the killer strikes again.

I love a good crime drama. Maybe it's because my dad was a crime scene investigator while I was growing up and I've come to love the whole process of catching a killer. I don't know. But when I saw that this was a crime drama with a (semi) futuristic twist to it, I jumped at the chance to read this novel. And then I let it sit on my TBR shelf for months. Months and months. For some reason, I just wasn't inclined to pick it up. I think subconsciously, I was wary. But I had no reason to be ... this is the first novel I've read from this author and I don't read reviews on a novel that I'm going to read because I don't want to taint my first impressions and feelings. I really had no reason to not pick this book up. I just didn't.

When I finally did pick it up, I wasn't disappointed. It really grabs you from the first page and immerses you into this world in the not too distant future and it is eerily close to home. With how things are in the world today, this book could be considered a bit foreshadowing if things play out as everyone fears. Anyhow, it was really cool ... the technology and the reasoning behind it ... it seemed feasible. Everything in this novel seemed like it could come to pass ... it was really kind of creepy. 

Anyhow, about a fourth of the way through the novel, I just kept hitting these patches of reader quicksand. You know what I'm talking about ... the story feels like it ran into a brick wall and is struggling to plow its way through ... it was just rough. I felt like I had to force myself to read further and further. Reading shouldn't be like that. But it kept this sluggishness up for pretty much the rest of the book. The beginning of the novel felt like it was just going to blow my mind and then this. I was pretty disappointed when I put this one down. Maybe I've hit a reading plateau and if I were to pick this up at another time, I would enjoy it. I don't know. What I do know is that while this book isn't badly written, it just wasn't for me.

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Review: Nearly Broken (Nearly #1) by Devon Ashley

We’d both gone missing at one point, but Claire had one thing I didn’t. Someone to notice. So why was I the one still here and she the one still gone?

Nineteen year old Megan Smith has spent the past year working in a small town diner in the middle of nowhere. Life is quiet, simple, safe. Then comes the news that her look-a-like has gone missing.

Claire.

Still damaged both physically and mentally, Megan's not looking to be noticed. Wherever she goes from here, it's a road she needs to take alone. But when Nickolas Ellis takes the job as the new nightshift cook, it scares her how easily her defenses crumble down, down, down for him. But there are secrets she can't bear to share with just anyone, unspeakable acts that continue to haunt, and when the similarities of Claire’s abduction couples with the fear of an unwanted visitor in town, the urge to run before it all happens again intensifies, threatening the only happiness Megan's ever found.

This was really a difficult book to read. It has some pretty dark themes going on here, it's violent and it's quite graphic, sexually speaking. That's not anything bad, but it is something that the average reader should be aware of. But it made the book good. It made you keep reading because you just had to know what was going to happen. 

That being said, I did have a bit of a hard time connecting with Megan. Her character was standoffish and it really read that way. Now, this could be totally intentional by the author. Maybe she wanted the reader to feel disconnected, dejected, alone and helpless. If it was intentional, she did a great job of it ... if it wasn't intended ... then it turned into an amazing coincidence. About a quarter of the way through the book, I really started to view things like Megan and I think that a big part of that was kind of not connecting with her in the beginning. 

I loved seeing the back and forth between Megan an Nickolas. It was fun and sweet and completely unsuspecting. But let me just tell you, their shared sorrow will eat away at the center of your being. Their relationship is definitely something to experience.

To be completely honest, I know that this is the first book in a series ... I don't know if I can read the next one. This first one just ripped me apart. I think if I step away from it for a few months, I'll be able to pick up the next installment of their relationship but at this point, I'm going to have to let myself decompress a little bit.

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