Fiction

Mad Love

mad-love Mad Love by Nick Spalding

Publication Date: December 6, 2016
Read Date: February 2, 2017

I wasn’t sure what kind of book I wanted to read, and something funny isn’t usually what I have available or think of even reaching for. This book has forever changed my mindset on that. Comedy is definitely a genre I’ll be checking out from right now, and if Nick Spalding is on that list, it’s even better.

Mad Love is about this dating website, Sociality, being so sure of its algorithms that they decide to choose the best matched couple and have them meet on their wedding day, paid for by Sociality. The honeymoon will aso be paid for, as well as being provided a nice apartment and $30,000 to play with. They have a lot of faith in their algorithms that this couple will prove to the world just how awesome their dating website is. Adam and Jessica are the couple and they both want this marriage for different reasons. It’s laugh after laugh of them trying to navigate getting to know each other with a camera always in their faces as well as when the camera is gone.

This book is so much fun! I read it on one sitting because I was laughing way too hard to just put it down and go to sleep. Who can think about sleep when you’re wondering what shenanigans this couple is going to get into next. There’s this priest at the wedding…and I don’t even want to give away what’s up with him because it’s too much fun to read and find out. There’s also this baking competition scene that had me dying. I had to read those pages to everyone I talked to the next day because I couldn’t stop laughing every time I thought about it.

This is, in essence, a romantic comedy that’s low on the romance. It’s more of a comedy with some romance sprinkled in. It’s perfect. I keep telling my boyfriend that it’s the exact kind of book that would be perfect for him to read- he’s dubious, but it’s because I’m in the process of turning him into a reader.

Check this book out! It’s such a fun read; I can’t wait to pick up Spaldings’ other books.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the copy of this book.

five-stars

Right Behind You

right-behind-you Right Behind You by Lisa Gardner

Publication Date: January 23, 2017
Read Date: January 3, 2017

Series: FBI Profiler (Quincy & Rainie) Series
Book #7

Amazon, Goodreads

Retired FBI profilers Quincy and Rainie are in the process of adopting their foster daughter, Sharlah. Meanwhile, tragedy strikes the town and it’s looking like Sharlah’s brother Telly Ray Nash, whom she hasn’t seen in eight years, is the shooter. What does this mean for Sharlah and why is he killing again after beating his drunken father to death with a baseball bat years before?

This crime procedural is part of a series but it’s also a stand alone. I didn’t have any issues wondering what I was missing. With that out of the way, it took me a long time to get into this. I would read a chapter, then put it down and read something else. It took me a full month before I finally had read enough chapters to get me interested and then I couldn’t put it down.

What made it hard for me to get interested in the story was how much telling was going on versus showing. Especially in Sharlah’s perspective. She just explains everything and that’s not really the writing style I am interested in. It was really her and Shelly the Sheriff’s perspectives at the beginning that caused me to not keep reading this faster; I just didn’t really care. Shelly made a big deal about electronics being difficult too, which is just ridiculous, we’re not in the stone ages anymore.

Anyways, after pushing myself past the telling versus showing aspect, I started to get into the story. Both Telly and Sharlah have been bounced around the foster care system, Sharlah getting lucky and finding her forever home, and Telly finding a place that wanted to prepare him for the world. It was interesting to see the two different takes on foster care families, one who wanted a daughter to call their own and the other wanting to be mentors to really help a troubled teen find his way.

There are twists and turns, every law enforcement officer and volunteer after Telly, yet mayhem still ensues. How can a 17 year old be so intelligent and stay out of sight and several steps ahead of everyone? It’s cool to see how he learned everything he knows whenever we were in his perspective. I liked Telly’s story-being able to understand him with each new chapter on him.

This was a fast read after getting into it, even if it’s 400 pages. If you’re a fan of the Quincy and Rainie series, I’m sure you’ll love it. Having never read the series before, I’m not sure this sold me on going back to find out more about the characters. One more note, I love how Gardner gets the names for her book. She holds little contests and offers up literacy infamy to those that donate to the animal shelter in her area-genius!

I received this advanced reader copy courtesy of the Penguin First to Read program.

three-stars

Different

Different by Alicia Linwood

Tainted Element Series:
Book 1

Moira is an elemental, along with many other people in this world. There are people with pure elements, which are considered strong, and sub-elements, which are considered weak. Moira is starting to develop a second pure element: fire. It’s kind of freaking her out because that’s supposed to be unheard of. After traveling to an island where her mom might be able to help find answers, help finds Moira instead. Noah appears out of thin air to tell her there are others like her and that he can help. And so starts the adventure.

With so much to understand about this world, it was tough to figure it out when I had to keep rereading confusing sentences, such as:

“…I could feel myself reaching for it, but I couldn’t feel fire, which obviously didn’t mean I didn’t have it.”

There are many of these sentences with negative contractions throughout the sentence. It just makes it more difficult to read, because I have to keep going back to see that I’m thinking what it means to tell me. It’s just unnecessary when a simpler sentence would do. Also, everyone seems to be licking their lips before they say anything. Is the air dry there? On an island? I don’t think so. I don’t want to keep reading about every single person licking their lips before they need to speak.

Timing was off whenever cooking was involved with dialogue. In one scene, someone starts making pancakes (or french toast in another scene), and dialogue goes back and forth twice and all of a sudden the pancakes (or french toast) is done. What? Not even 30 seconds have gone by! That’s a bit too much liberty with the time there.

So the above issues coupled with the grammar and editing issues left much to be desired. I didn’t even care about the cliffhanger because I just didn’t really care about anyone. I do have to say that I loved the loyalty and trust Moira had towards her parents; that was really commendable and it made her a stronger heroine. But the start of what was looking like a weird love triangle despite the lack of romance amidst the mind control and elementals hunting other elementals, just isn’t really interesting me.

However, because of how much rereading I had to do to make sure I understood this world, it’s tempting to continue on with the series in the hopes it gets stronger. I invested myself enough to understand the world, I might as well give it one more book to see if I’ll really stick around.

two-stars

Wicked

Wicked by Joanne Fluke

In this modern adaptation of Agatha Christine’s Ten Little Indians, we have a group of college kids staying in this old mansion for a writing workshop. Things start to go very wrong when they’re stuck on the property and fellow peers start getting picked off one by one, eerily like one student’s thriller, “Ten Little Writers.”

When starting this book, I was confused because I had no idea these were going to be college students, and then I had no idea what year of college they were even in. One girl, Angela, was going to be a freshman, but that’s all I got for deciding what age they were. It kind of read more like a young adult novel in that sense.

There wasn’t too much character development aside from our main girl, Eve. She went from being the mean girl who was going to reign the sorority and the school to being relaxed and caring. Because she was the only one who was fully developed, understandably as the MC, I didn’t care when a fellow student was picked off. There was no reason for me to care other than “Oooo I wonder who is going to be killed next and when they’re going to start accusing each other.”

My biggest issue, and I don’t really recall it being explained, was WHY does NO ONE have a cell phone? The phone lines are disconnected to the house so they can’t call for help. You’re telling me that none of these college kids brought a cell phone with them? Yeah freaking right. College students are attached at the hip with their cell phones; I know, I used to be one. Even if the workshop had said that cell phones weren’t allowed, they still would have snuck them in to at least have them at night or during downtime. So that was wholly unrealistic to me.

I was able to figure out who the killer is pretty simply; the red herrings thrown in never detracted from who I knew it would be. There were some spelling errors, but other than that, it was still a fun and fast read.

three-stars

The Sound of Rain

The Sound of Rain by Gregg Olsen

I have grown accustomed to female leads that are just kick ass detectives. So, at first, this one was a little hard for me to stomach. Nicole is a great detective with the extreme issue of being a total pushover and a gambling addict. They’re not a good combination at all as she takes out her stress of not saying anything to the people who manipulate her by gambling.

We know that Nicole has a downfall. We know she loses her job. But it was still tough for me to read. I just kept wanting to tell her to grow a spine and speak up for herself. But when she finally did, it was too late and it cost her dearly. This honestly would have been five stars for me if I hadn’t been so irritated with her, despite understanding why she was like that, I still wanted her to get a grip.

Part two of this book though…my God. Incredible. So many twists and turns, you really have no idea who the bad guys or the good guys are. It was an absolute roller coaster of discovering what exactly happened to the little girl whose case cost Nicole everything.

This is a must read. My only other issues besides the slow pacing of part one and Nicole’s immobility to defend her opinion, are the spelling errors and missing words in sentences. It pulls me out of the story every single time, especially because I’m an editor myself. Also, I don’t really think the title fits well with the story; I think there could have been something stronger.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for this awesome read!

four-stars

Walk Into Silence

Walk Into Silence by Susan McBride

Jo Larsen Series:
Book 1

So when I first started this book, I had felt like the adrenaline was kind of pushed, and it didn’t really get me into the story. That could have just been my mindset when I started reading, though. Because after I pushed through the first couple of chapters, I could not put this book down.

Jo is a detective whose gut instincts have definitely gotten her far. She was referenced a couple of times as being like a dog with a bone–very determined. A strong female lead is always enjoyable to read, especially when she doesn’t really question herself. She may have this past that’s incredibly painful that she’s trying to get away from, but it’s exactly that past that makes her a stronger detective.

The story of Jenny and her past as a parallel to Jo and her own past was really striking. It was so sad to read, to see how other people look at you when you’re consumed with grief. Jenny’s son had tragically fallen from a tree and died during her first marriage. The three-year anniversary is coming up and Jenny is seeking answers, no matter the cost. I loved all of the writing from Jenny’s perspective. Really, really great work there.

I adored Jo’s boyfriend, Adam, one of the medical examiners. He was so strong and determined to be there for Jo, even if she thought she didn’t need him. She really needed that foil against her mother who was not there for Jo when she needed her most. It was an important distinction to make her a stronger detective.

One thing I would have changed though is the formatting. There are two different perspectives in this book, Jo and Jenny, and those perspectives are in the same chapter while still being first person. It would have been better just to split each perspective into its own chapter. It was difficult to distinguish sometimes who was supposed to be talking and I had to keep going back to double check. This could have been a formatting issue with the Kindle and it could be fine for print.

Kind of funny how often Coke was the drink of choice in this book, it almost felt like an advertisement. Sorry if this review came off more like an essay, it just felt so right!

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!

four-stars

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

All The Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood

This story is one of the most powerful “romances” I have ever read. It was dark, disturbing, and completely beautiful. It spans roughly sixteen years of Wavy’s life, bringing us through the hardships she has had to endure. The only thing besides her little brother, who she takes care of, that makes this life of hers better is Kellen, who is about twelve/thirteen years older than her. This is where people might take issue. A love blossoms between them at a young age, but it’s a love with the best of intentions. When she’s about seven, he meets her after he accidentally crashes in the driveway. Soon after, he goes to the house again and sees the filth she’s living in because her druggy mom doesn’t do anything except for stay in her room. He starts taking care of Wavy right then and never stopped. That’s why when the relationship between them becomes more, it’s not something that feels wrong. This book even goes to recognize how people will feel about their relationship through varying perspectives. Everyone knows it’s taboo, but the love between them is so bright, and so very real, that you root for them to be able to stay together.

This novel is beautifully written and executed so well. The differing views lend a hand at unveiling Wavy’s personality and show how she’s perceived through others, which really displays incredible depth to the character. What’s important to take away from this novel is that even with a subject that’s this taboo, with the circumstances that Wavy has been around, it all makes sense. And it’s truly an ugly and wonderful thing.