Book Reviews

Echoes in Death


Echoes in Death (In Death #44) By: J.D. Robb

Plot:

After a party in New York, Lieutenant Eve Dallas rides home with her billionaire husband, Roarke, happy to be done with cocktails and small talk.

After another party, not far away, a woman retires to her bedroom with her husband—and walks into a brutal nightmare.

Their paths are about to collide…

When the young woman—dazed, naked, and bloody—wanders in front of their car, Roarke slams on the brakes just in time, and Eve, still in glittering gown and heels, springs into action. It’s been a long night for the tired homicide cop, and it’s far from over.

Daphne Strazza is rushed to the ER, but it’s too late for Dr. Anthony Strazza. A brilliant orthopedic surgeon, he now lies dead amid the wreckage of his obsessively organized town house, his three safes opened and emptied. Daphne would be a valuable witness, but in her terror and shock the only description of the perp she can offer is repeatedly calling him “the devil” . . .

While it emerges that Dr. Strazza was cold, controlling, and widely disliked—and that he treated Daphne like a trophy wife—this is one case where the evidence doesn’t point to the spouse as the first suspect. So Eve and her team must get started on the legwork, interviewing everyone from dinner-party guests to professional colleagues to caterers, in a desperate race to answer some crucial questions:

What does the devil look like? And where will he show up next?

Review:

It is now Feb 2060, Eve and Roarke are on their way home from a gala when they almost hit a naked woman running through the snow. They rush her to the hospital where it’s discovered that she’s been tortured and raped by, in her words, the devil. Eve reports the attack then goes to the victims house where she discovers the body of the victims husband.

The mystery was not as non-stop as the previous book, which I appreciate, but there were enough twists to make it entertaining. I was able to guess who done it fairly easy, but it was still satisfying when they were caught.

We had more Peabody in this book, but not as much as I would have liked. The books have become more Eve centric than I remember. Sometimes it feels like Peabody is just her secretary, thankfully, she did make a couple contributions to the story, but not many. It has me wondering if she will find a new partner soon, which is kind of sad.

All in all, it was a fine book and nice addition to the series, but I’m hoping for more of a contribution from side characters soon.

3/5

Apprentice in Death


Apprentice in Death (In Death #43) By: J.D. Robb

Plot:

Lieutenant Eve Dallas must hunt down the deadly snipers terrorizing Manhattan in this fast-paced In Death thriller from J. D. Robb.

The shots came quickly, silently, and with deadly accuracy. Within seconds, three people were dead at Central Park’s ice-skating rink. The victims: a talented young skater, a doctor, and a teacher. As random as random can be.

Eve Dallas has seen a lot of killers during her time with the NYPSD but never one like this. A review of the security videos reveals that the victims were killed with a tactical laser rifle fired by a sniper, who could have been miles away when the trigger was pulled. And though the list of locations where the shooter could have set up seems endless, the number of people with that particular skill set is finite: police, military, professional killer.

Eve’s husband, Roarke, has unlimited resources—and genius—at his disposal. And when his computer program leads Eve to the location of the sniper, she learns a shocking fact: There were two—one older, one younger. Someone is being trained by an expert in the science of killing, and they have an agenda. Central Park was just a warm-up. And as another sniper attack shakes the city to its core, Eve realizes that though we’re all shaped by the people around us, there are those who are just born evil…

Review:

I was dead tired after I finished reading this. The entire thing took place over about a seventy-two hour period it felt like and Eve was just constantly moving. From about 35% it was edge of your seat, very rarely let up.

Eve is just living her life, dreading going to Mavis’ daughter’s first birthday, when she’s called in for a shooting. She realizes quickly that it’s a long distance serial killer. Things just go from there.

Roarke was with her on this one, and we saw a ton of other people, but for the most part this was Eve all the way. Even Peabody wasn’t very present in this one. She was always off doing other things. She was there, but her personal life wasn’t talked about at all. I missed that, along with the other side characters, but with such a tight time frame I understand why it wasn’t possible.

The killers were…well one was pathetic and one was evil. The evil one was interesting and a bit scary. Eve zeroed in on them fairly quickly and she was better about not projecting on them as much as she has in the past.

One of the things I love about this series is that there does appear to be growth of the characters. They move on, they learn. It’s wonderful.

4/5

Ocean Light


Ocean Light (Psy-Changling Trinity #2) By: Nalini Singh

Plot:

New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh dives beneath the surface of her Psy-Changeling world into a story of passionate devotion and selfless love…

Security specialist Bowen Knight has come back from the dead. But there’s a ticking time bomb in his head: a chip implanted to block telepathic interference that could fail at any moment–taking his brain along with it. With no time to waste, he should be back on land helping the Human Alliance. Instead, he’s at the bottom of the ocean, consumed with an enigmatic changeling…

Kaia Luna may have traded in science for being a chef, but she won’t hide the facts of Bo’s condition from him or herself. She’s suffered too much loss in her life to fall prey to the dangerous charm of a human who is a dead man walking. And she carries a devastating secret Bo could never imagine…

But when Kaia is taken by those who mean her deadly harm, all bets are off. Bo will do anything to get her back–even if it means striking a devil’s bargain and giving up his mind to the enemy…

Review:

Finally, I get a book with a human love interest! I was so happy about that, and then the leads wound up being so awesome it made me even happier.

I devoured this book, it was so sweet and hopeful and exciting. Not much happened in the world, though definitely enough to move things forward, but the love story was very much the heart of “Ocean Light.”

Bo and Kaia were not perfect for each other on the surface, but it was an immediate attraction on both sides. Bo was dying and Kaia had already suffered so much loss. Bo has a secret and so does Kaia and it’s just more reason for them not to be together. None of that ever matters though. You know that Bo is going to live and that they’re going to live happily ever after, there was really never any doubt in my mind, but it didn’t make the story any less. I was swept away in the romance and love. It was perfect.

5/5

Iron and Magic


Iron and Magic (The Iron Covenant #1) By: Ilona Andrews

Plot:

No day is ordinary in a world where Technology and Magic compete for supremacy…But no matter which force is winning, in the apocalypse, a sword will always work.

Hugh d’Ambray, Preceptor of the Iron Dogs, Warlord of the Builder of Towers, served only one man. Now his immortal, nearly omnipotent master has cast him aside. Hugh is a shadow of the warrior he was, but when he learns that the Iron Dogs, soldiers who would follow him anywhere, are being hunted down and murdered, he must make a choice: to fade away or to be the leader he was born to be. Hugh knows he must carve a new place for himself and his people, but they have no money, no shelter, and no food, and the necromancers are coming. Fast.

Elara Harper is a creature who should not exist. Her enemies call her Abomination; her people call her White Lady. Tasked with their protection, she’s trapped between the magical heavyweights about to collide and plunge the state of Kentucky into a war that humans have no power to stop. Desperate to shield her people and their simple way of life, she would accept help from the devil himself—and Hugh d’Ambray might qualify.

Hugh needs a base, Elara needs soldiers. Both are infamous for betraying their allies, so how can they create a believable alliance to meet the challenge of their enemies?

As the prophet says: “It is better to marry than to burn.”

Hugh and Elara may do both.

Review:

“Iron and Magic” takes place in the Kate Daniels universe, but Kate and most of the people in her books are hardly in this. There is a small bit with the Bouda clan alphas, and Kate is mentioned several times as well as Roland, but this story is about Hugh and Elara.

Before this story, just based on what we already knew about him, I wasn’t a fan of Hugh. Honestly, I was looking forward to this book because it’s Ilona Andrews, but I wasn’t in a hurry to read it because I didn’t care about him. He’s blood thirsty and seemed evil from what we’d seen in Kate’s series, I’m also tired of the whole taking a villain and making him not bad anymore. However, by the time I was finished with this book I’d had a complete change of heart. I can’t help but love a broken badass.

Elara is still a mystery, her powers and history are only hinted at in this story never given too much detail. She seems to be possessed by some kind of god? Or maybe she is a god? She’s super powerful but can be wounded and killed, her people can pray to her, and apparently she’s terrifying in her powerful form. She loves her people and wants to take care of them and so she marries Hugh because he can provide protection she can’t.

The couple fight constantly and Elara is forever withholding information that Hugh needs to do his job. She second guesses him, puts roadblocks in his way, and is very much like his nickname for her, harpy. I was not a fan, there’s being strong because you have to be and then there’s just being stupid. I understand that she’s having issues trusting him, but come on, she married him, she signed a contract, she had to trust him to do all of that, but she was one of the biggest obstacles in the story.

Hugh does his own withholding, but it didn’t feel like the same level. He was a pretty massive baby about some things, though. Honestly, they’re both super flawed and deserve each other, but Elara’s flaws bothered me more.

There’s definitely a spark of romance between the two and there’s a pretty hot sex scene that happens right after an intense fight with an army of tough bad guys. I guess being a healer means that Hugh doesn’t need as much sleep as a normal person.

Lots of unanswered questions about Hugh and Elara have me interested in what happens next but I’m glad that it’s only going to be three books. Hopefully, it’s not a trilogy like the Hidden Legacy series was a trilogy where we don’t get a proper ending with the third book.

4.5/5

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet


The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) By: Becky Chambers

Plot:

A rollicking space adventure with a lot of heart

When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn’t expecting much. The patched-up ship has seen better days, but it offers her everything she could possibly want: a spot to call home, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and some distance from her past.

And nothing could be further from what she’s known than the crew of the Wayfarer.

From Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, to Kizzy and Jenks, the chatty engineers who keep the ship running, to the noble captain Ashby, life aboard is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. That is until the crew is offered the job of a lifetime tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet. Sure, they’ll earn enough money to live comfortably for years, but risking her life wasn’t part of the job description.

The journey through the galaxy is full of excitement, adventure, and mishaps for the Wayfarer team. And along the way, Rosemary comes to realize that a crew is a family, and that family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe… as long as you actually like them.

Review:

This was a nice change of pace, the universe was no more negative or positive than our own, which was nice. It painted a future that wasn’t dystopian that I enjoyed. There was a ton of detail put into the different races, the worlds, and the tech. It was very impressive, though, at times a bit more than I cared to know.

One of the things I appreciated was the diversity of the races and their cultures and norms. We met several difference races since the ship was multispecies and the differences and the attention to detail Chambers goes into was interesting.

The story was a bit lacking. Most of the book was details about tech and the different species and cultures within the universe and on the ship. We did have some character development but it followed the entire crew so it was spread thin. While I appreciated the details, there could have been a bit less and a bit more to the story. Basically the crew traveled from one place to another with little stops during that time and only a couple off minor incidents until the end.

I liked the characters and I would be interested in reading more, but the pacing was a bit slow so I’m hoping that future installments have a bit more happening or something more.

3.5/5