Month: August 2020

‘Charlie, Presumed Dead’ – Anne Hetzel

The book opens with Aubrey in Paris about to attend the funeral of her boyfriend, Charlie, who is missing, presumed dead, after a plane crash. She is upset…but more so when a young woman called Lena stands at the funeral to talk about Charlie, her boyfriend.

People in this situation may well run a mile. But Aubrey and Lena are curious, and they start talking. They discover that each of them was dating Charlie, and yet they are suspicious that things are not quite as they seem.

What follows is quite absurd. The girls embark on a quite preposterous trip around places of significance. They try to meet people who knew Charlie as they work out what happened. Travelling around the world and putting themselves in increasingly dangerous situations was entertaining to read about, though only if you completely suspend your disbelief.

Where the book became less successful was in the third narrator’s voice, that of Charlie. This is a young man who seemed to be in the grips of some mental breakdown, and definitely not in full control of his faculties. Not quite the victim we think, Charlie knows details about a number of people he knows and is quite happy to torment them as part of a bigger plan. Unfortunately we never quite get to work out the point of it as the focus at the end shifts rather abruptly and we’re left in a dilemma. It seems this should have more to come, but there’s no sign that this is the case, which is more than a little dissatisfying.

 

‘Moment of Truth’ – Kasie West

I’m struggling to see how this formed a series as each of the books stands on their own. Yes, there’s some crossover characters, but the relevance to the story is really not important. That aside, this was another cute romance though it took a while to get going.

The story centres around sixteen year old Hadley, a dedicated swimmer, and her growing relationship with Jackson, who infuriated her but we can see it’s because he challenges her in a way others don’t and sees her for what she is. So, the relationship between these two is important and there plenty of ups and downs along the way but we can see just how compatible they are and watch to see how long until they realise it.

Hadley is focused, almost scarily so, and while I liked seeing her developing relationship with Jackson I felt that West was trying to do too many things by making her primary focus the relationship Hadley has with her parents. From the outset we can see that her relationship with mum and dad is skewed by the fact that they are still mourning her brother. She does so much but doesn’t seem to realise most of it is about trying to get the attention of her parents. If it’s so obvious to us and her friends then I wonder why it wasn’t the aspect of the book that West focused on more.

I completely get that behind the whole fake Heath Hall quest is the need for Hadley to recognise what’s holding her back. She knows it, but boy does it take her a long time to get round to working out how to face it!

 

‘Little White Lies’ – Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Jennifer Lynn Barnes did not disappoint here, in a surprisingly tense mystery rolled up in a beautifully packaged family drama.

Sawyer doesn’t come from the best of backgrounds. She’s used to fending for herself as her mother tends to flit from one thing to another, and their circumstances are tight. So when Sawyer is greeted by a rather glamorous woman who says she’s her grandmother and who offers her half a million dollars if she’ll live with her for nine months, we just know there’s a catch to this opportunity.

Having arrived to a home that is the height of luxury, Sawyer has to prepare for a season as a Deb. She also has the opportunity to find out who her father is, but there’s also a rather odd situation going on concerning some of the girls she’s now expected to ally herself with. Secrets aplenty, and it’s down to Sawyer to work out the extent to which she gets involved.

The story is beyond our wildest dreams, and we switch from this narrative to the group of girls being kept in a jail cell hours before their final ball. Clever plotting keeps the story engaging, and switching between these timelines kept me highly entertained.

 

‘Kiss My Cupcake’ – Helena Hunting

A romance to devour, and savour every moment of…

Blaire comes from a wealthy family of restaurant owners, but she has a dream of running her own business and making it successful on her own terms. Our first encounter with her is as she prepares to open her cupcake and cocktails shop. Things are looking good, but she’d not reckoned on Roman Knight who’s helping out his grandad by renovating the sports bar next door and installing some rather loud attractions.

First meeting between the two is explosive. They’re immediately wound up by each other, which we assume is the start of a great relationship eventually. Everyone around them can see where it’s going, but we have to go through the inevitable misunderstandings and problems first.

While it’s all quite transparent, the main characters are ones you can’t help but fall in love with. They’re far more alike than they want to let on, and the cast of surrounding characters also make for some amusing episodes.

From the off it was pretty obvious where we’d end up but every moment of this journey was great fun, and I’m so pleased that I was able to get my hands on this prior to publication.

‘Contagious’ – Emily Goodwin

At first, I thought this was pretty standard zombie stuff and as the book progressed I found myself getting bored. Nothing really seemed to happen and our characters were stuck in a repetitive cycle (true to form perhaps for life in a pandemic).

Part two shifted our focus and hinted at a bigger picture – though the potential romance love triangle was not appealing – and as we shifted to the end I was starting to get a little more invested in the story/where this might go. Sadly this came right at the end when we had the most frustrating ending ever…I guess it’s meant to make us desperate to read part two but it left me feeling cheated.

The whole zombie thing is not really my interest anyway, and yet there have been great books exploring the idea. This felt, at times, unnecessarily repetitive – there’s only so many zombie attacks you can describe without it getting a bit dull. I wanted to get a little more background to some of the characters, and I’m probably more interested in the bigger picture than their day-to-day survival.

I think this book and your reaction to it will come down to personal taste, and I’d certainly suggest people tried it…though I wouldn’t be shocked if they didn’t bother with the rest of the series.

 

‘Dark Waters’ – G.R. Halliday

 

In our second encounter with Detective Kennedy we have another puzzling crime, that goes beyond the worst thing you can imagine, and we learn a little more about this character and her backstory.

This took a little time to come together as the strands were so varied. Two mutilated bodies are found, and nobody can be sure if they’re linked, but the methods used on both bodies is eerily similar. Alongside this, we have a young woman (Annabelle) visiting the Highlands who is caught in a horrific crash when she swerved to avoid a young girl on the road. There’s also Scott, a Canadian tourist, who gets scared by some hostile behaviour towards him and then he meets a similarly awful fate which is linked to the mysterious appearance of a young girl immediately beforehand.

For a long time we switch between Annabelle’s experience waking up chained in a room and the investigation being led by Monica Kennedy. This lends a disconcerting quality to the book, where things take a long time to really get going. We know every detail will be relevant but there was almost a ‘real time’ quality to this that meant things didn’t happen at an implausibly rapid pace.

This is not one for the squeamish, and I was appalled at the levels of depravity shown by some of the characters in the book. Once again, I found myself curious to get more information about Detective Kennedy and what motivated her – though the little glimpses we get are certainly developing my idea of a wonderfully complex character.

A gritty read, but well worth it. Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication in exchange for my honest thoughts.

‘Fame, Fate and the First Kiss’ – Kasie West

This time round we’re focusing on Lacey, who was a minor part of book one, and her role in a major movie. It’s a zombie horror movie, full of gore, and Lacey’s co-star is Hollywood heart-throb Grant who’s determined to reconnect with fans after some big budget movies haven’t gone as well as hoped.

Initially, Lacey came across as a little ruder and more insensitive than she did in book one. She was rude to her dad and doubted everything she was doing. Thankfully it was clear this was nerves about making a success of something important to her, so she never reached the stage of being too irritating.

Alongside the filming and mystery of who’s sabotaging her work, and why, we have a relationship with the cute boy who’s asked to tutor her.

It’s Kasie West so there’s few surprises. We get some tension, the characters have their ups and downs but it all gets resolved by the end and it’s a light-hearted read.

 

‘Faking Normal’ – Courtney C. Stevens

To a certain extent we all fake normal, but for those living with extreme situations it can become ingrained. From the moment we meet Lexi we know she’s struggling with something, something she can’t yet put a name to, but the signs are there and from the things she reveals it’s clear it’s serious. But nobody around her sees it…or, if they are picking up on the clues, they’re not pushing to learn the truth.

As Lexi manoeuvres her way through school she’s maintaining good grades and things seem, superficially, fine. But nobody knows that she can’t sleep at night, hides in her closet and self-harms as a way of trying to get through the pain of her experience.

This could have been a book like countless others, but alongside Lexi’s story we have Bodee. He starts as a rather nondescript character, given the nickname the Kool Aid kid, and all we know is he’s coming to live with Lexi after an incident involving his parents. Over time we learn more, and he quickly becomes the more interesting of the two – though because it’s Lexi’s story we never go quite as deep into the character as we could have.

What was at the heart of this book though was the developing friendship between these two, and the way they supported each other to begin to take the steps needed to begin their healing process.

Little clues were dropped initially about the identity of Lexi’s attacker. I had my suspicions, and once this was confirmed then it does make a lot more sense of some of the stuff we’ve seen. As in reality, we don’t see the full resolution but it was nice to know she was on her way.

‘The Voting Booth’ – Brandy Colbert

For anyone who has an interest in politics, social injustice and who also can’t help but get invested in a good old-fashioned romance. Voting Booth offers some serious messages, while also delivering a love story in the making.

Our main characters are two first-time voters, Marva and Duke. They’ve never met, but both come from families with a healthy interest in politics. When they turn up at the polling station for their first time voting everything could have gone smoothly and they’d have left never having exchanged words. But where would the fun be in that?

Marva’s voting experience goes without a hitch, but Duke isn’t registered to vote. Realising he pre-registered at his dad’s address he thinks it’s a straightforward matter of getting to the new polling station and turning in his vote. At that moment we know the gods are conspiring against him as his car won’t start. Marva, desperate to ensure he votes and does his bit, offers to drive him.

What follows has to go down as the weirdest of days. Marva and Duke end up searching for a missing cat, organising transport for other voters who can’t access their right, one gets dumped, they both sort out some of the issues they’ve been hanging onto and one plays a gig. Both succeed in voting (eventually) and there’s even the strong hints of them starting a relationship.

I found the interaction between these two very natural. Their passion for politics and their ability to make a difference was infectious, and though I was carried along with their relationship it was impossible to ignore the focus on pressing social issues and attitudes to race.

I really hope people find their way to this book and enjoy it as much as I did.

 

‘Midnight Sun’ – Stephanie Meyer

Twilight from Edward’s view…yes, at the time, I read the leaked version that made its way on-line and, yes, at the time I thought it seemed a little pointless. When this project seemed to be shelved, life went on and I didn’t think of it again…until we got the news it was releasing this summer. No matter what I thought of it, I knew I’d read this because it counted as unfinished business and my curiosity would win out.

The first thing to make clear is, as so many point out, this is over-the-top, riddled with cringe-worthy similes and there’s still very little to make Bella a particularly endearing character. I have to say I expected this. The second thing to comment on is the story is the same. We know what’s going to happen and it really is a step-by-step rehash of the story we already know, so there’s little added for us. Again, no surprises.

What we did get with this story from Edward’s view was an attempt to poke beneath the surface of what still seems a very odd and unhealthy relationship. I actually found myself liking some of the big scenes coming from this perspective – things were fleshed out and it was easy to see why events were organised as they were. Learning a little more about the Cullens and their backgrounds was good. Some will kill me for saying it, but I also liked the fact there was surprisingly little focus on Jacob and the wolves. My only concern now is the somewhat cynical fear that we’re now going to get another book…this time telling us Jacob’s story. I truly hope not, as I feel this would be too much and definitely exploiting all those readers (myself included) who probably could have done without this but who read it for the nostalgia fix.