Monday, November 27, 2017

Nothing to Lose by Clare Lydon

3 Stars

The blurb sounded so good!  Both MCs are on the cusp of turning 40, there are no deep, dark tragedies in either of their pasts, no one is suffering from any kind of mental illness or disease, neither is fresh from a break-up.  And, well, there you go. 

The premise was good.  Sudden flooding, one gal finds refuge at the other gal's, the mayor's, home.  Their paths have crossed previously and there's a bit of a disagreement about the local football club - soccer football, as this is set in England.  The problem was... things were set up so that there could be some conflict between the characters but it never came to fruition, it was all explained away.   As a result, the plotline was rather bland.  Not only did we have a case of insta-love, which, you know, I can buy from time to time, but it never felt that the new couple had any real hurdles to get over. 

The style of writing, the author's voice, I guess, didn't really appeal to me.  I kept thinking that it, too, was rather bland.  It never really came alive for me.  I felt constantly just a little off-centre the whole time I was reading.  I will say that the sexy-times scenes were quite well done.  A little flowery at times, maybe, but nothing to the point of where I was constantly rolling my eyes. 

The story was also billed as being humorous at times.  Well... I missed the funny.  I could see the chances for it, but it was something that the author never seemed to really deliver on. 

So, while this was an f/f romance that comes closer to what I'm looking for, it still missed the mark for me. 

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Hunger Makes the Wolf by Alex Wells

4 Stars

Hob Book 1

Thank you SO much, KJ Charles for bringing this book to my attention.  I loved it!  :)  I have to say, I don't read everything that KJ recs, but I have found that the ones she recommends that catch my interest with the genre and blurb are never a disappointment.

The first half and a bit of the book was admittedly a bit slow.  Interesting but slow, I found.  We were getting to know the characters of importance, Hob, Mag, Nick, the Bone Collector etc... and learning some of the way Tanegawa's World works.  It's a mining world with some farm communities and one big city - I think.  In charge of the planet is Transrifts Inc., a mining company that holds most of the planet under its heavy heel.  The company also controls the mysterious people, the Weathermen.  These are also the people who have talents/abilities to facilitate rift space travel.

So, Hob, one of the main characters, is a young woman who is a member of a mercenary biker gang that lives apart from 'normal' society.  Exiles for the most part.  Hob is not native to the planet, she came by spaceship as a child, a stowaway type thing, I think I gathered, and was adopted by the leader of the bikers, Nick.  Nick also has a brother, who is a miner, a team leader if I'm not mistaken.  There's a wife and a daughter, Mag.  Mag is the other main character in the book and is as different as night and day from Hob, her adopted cousin.

Anyway, there are strange things afoot on Tanegawa's World and everything points to some sort of huge change for its inhabitants.  Rebellion?  Natural disaster? Further enslavery by the company?  God knows.  But when you get into the second half of the book, the action picks up and things get really, really good.  The characters come really alive now.  And rebellion/resistance is a trope that gets me every time.  There's some magic involved.  There are spies.  There are raids and assassinations and plots and mysteries afoot.  Hardly anything gets settled by the end of the book, but I didn't find that a problem.  It's a jumping off point, like the first, establishing season of a good TV series.  And this would make a great series, I think. The characters are rich with depth, and diverse, and they feel real, which is very important to me.

I can't wait to read the next one!  Which is out in February.

Sunday, November 12, 2017

Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore

3.5 Stars

Eric Carter - Book 1

I've said this before, I'm not a huge fan of the paranormal horror novel, but this series came recommended by one of my favourite authors, so I figured, what the hell, give it a try. 

And I enjoyed it!

I liked the main character - the book is written in the first person POV - Eric Carter, who can talk to dead people and can wield some magic. He's what they call a necromancer. His voice is easy to read and he has a sense of humour that hit me in my sweet spot - seasoned with a bit of sarcasm. He's basically a good guy, but he has issues, some of which he actually confronts in this first book of the series.  And he likes to dress for the occasion - suit and tie.  *LOL*

  The setting is contemporary Los Angeles and it abounds in lots of paranormal denizens.  Eric has friends there, friends he hasn't really spoken with in 15 years.  I liked his friends.  He also has enemies.  They are good evil enemies.  Ghosts and monsters and gods. And when you make a deal with the devil, so to speak, ... well, it's a deal. 

Now, there's a lot of blood and gore.  Things, living and dead, exploding and melting and destroying and causing mayhem.  And lots of blood and gore.  Usually it turns me off, but I was willing to go with it this time.

So the book has a paranormal noire detective type feel and noire detective hits a lot of my sweet spots - the paranormal I can take or leave.  But this was good. I enjoyed it and I'll be reading the next one. 

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

The Trials by Linda Nagata

4 Stars

The Red - Book 2

This is a genre that I seldom read, near-future, sort of post-apocalyptic, military fiction; but DAMN, I like this series. It's almost like ... well, I want to say good Tom Clancy with twists.

This is the continuation of the events in First Light, book one of the series.  Again, we follow the 1st person narrative of Lieutenant James Shelley as he navigates this screwed up world.  Shelley is the beneficiary of some high tech body modifications, even thought they sometimes seem like a curse and Nagata writes it so well that even a know-nothing like me understands what's going on.  Even the trial/court scenes were eminently readable and that's not always the case.

The world is dark and cynical and full of conspiracies and plots and counter-plots and the author does them all justice.  I never predicted what was happening until it was either happening or just about to go down.  And even then, there was always some twist I didn't see.

This is a techno-thriller in the true sense of the word, I think.  I was on the virtual edge of my seat almost the whole time I was reading.  We meet up with lots of old friends, make some new ones and come across some not so nice folks too, familiar and otherwise.  And I should have seen that twist coming at the end, but I didn't, and damn, it's a good one!

So yeah, I really enjoyed my read and I'm glad that I have the final book in the trilogy nestled nicely in my Kobo.