Book Reviews

First Among Sequels (Thursday Next #5) By: Jasper Fforde

first-among-sequels

First Among Sequels (Thursday Next #5) By: Jasper Fforde

Plot:

It’s been fourteen years since Thursday pegged out at the 1988 SuperHoop, and Friday is now a difficult sixteen year old. However, Thursday’s got bigger problems. Sherlock Holmes is killed at the Reichenbach Falls and his series is stopped in its tracks. And before this can be corrected, Miss Marple dies suddenly in a car accident, bringing her series to a close as well. When Thursday receives a death threat clearly intended for her written self, she realizes what’s going on: there is a serial killer on the loose in the Bookworld. And that’s not all–The Goliath Corporation is trying to deregulate book travel. Naturally, Thursday must travel to the outer limits of acceptable narrative possibilities to triumph against increasing odds.

Packed with word play, bizarre and entertaining subplots, and old-fashioned suspense, Thursday’s return is sure to be celebrated by Jasper’s fanatical fans and the critics who have loved him since the beginning.

Review:

I took a break from this series because the last book came to such a perfect and logical conclusion I didn’t really think I needed to read more. However, since I love the series and the characters so much I had to see what Fforde did next and I wasn’t disappointed.

This book takes place fourteen years after the last and Thursday’s life is solid, for the most part. You get to see her in a comfortable relationship with her husband and be a mother who mostly has her stuff together. Then you start to see how that’s not really the case and it’s all done in Fforde’s usual awesome style.

I’m not sure if this book added much to the world or really even the characters, but it was great to be back and I loved every minute of it. The next book doesn’t sound quiet as appealing so I’m not in a rush to read, but I know I’ll get around to it and one day.

5/5

Timebound (The Chronos Files #1) By: Rysa Walker

timebound

Timebound (The Chronos Files #1) By: Rysa Walker

Plot:

When Kate Pierce-Keller’s grandmother gives her a strange blue medallion and speaks of time travel, sixteen-year-old Kate assumes the old woman is delusional. But it all becomes horrifyingly real when a murder in the past destroys the foundation of Kate’s present-day life. Suddenly, that medallion is the only thing protecting Kate from blinking out of existence.

Kate learns that the 1893 killing is part of something much more sinister, and Kate’s genetic ability to time-travel makes her the only one who can stop him. Risking everything, she travels to the Chicago World’s Fair to try to prevent the killing and the chain of events that follows.

Changing the timeline comes with a personal cost, however—if Kate succeeds, the boy she loves will have no memory of her existence. And regardless of her motives, does she have the right to manipulate the fate of the entire world?

Review:

I almost forgot to write this review. I actually had the title of the book wrong in my mind as well. Neither of those things are glowing indorsements, but I didn’t hate the book. I didn’t even dislike it, it just wasn’t my thing.

Timebound is a YA book, I know, I know, I need to stop doing this to myself, but the plot sounded interesting and I love time travel. Except, this book only had time travel until the very end and when they talked about time travel before that it got confusing and convoluted in places.

Most of the book was teen angst and stupid hormonal teenage decisions, which is not something I enjoy reading as a thirty year old woman. Honestly, it’s not something I would have enjoyed reading as a teenager either, but I was/am weird.

There was the makings of a love triangle, which I dislike. There was a weird family dynamic, but not in a kooky sort of way, in a why can’t these people just sit down and talk to each other and clear this shit up sort of way.

The thing I liked the best in the book was the way the villain is going about trying to take over the world. The villain himself isn’t very remarkable and it isn’t clear yet if he’s the main villain or if someone is pulling his strings, but that doesn’t really matter. His chosen world domination method is intriguing and made me think and I really wished there’d been more put into it. It didn’t even come to light until about the halfway point I think.

***SPOILERS***

The villain is using time travelers to go back in time and create a religion with him at the center. He’s using the tech to make people think he’s a god so that he gains more and more power in the future he’s in. It’s super interesting and if anyone knows of another book with that I’d be interested in hearing about it.

***END OF SPOILERS***

Even though I didn’t dislike the book there are just too many negatives for me to push forward in this series.

3/5

Bay of Sighs (The Guardians Trilogy #2) By: Nora Roberts

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Bay of Sighs (The Guardians Trilogy #2) By: Nora Roberts

Plot:

To celebrate the rise of their new queen, three goddesses of the moon created three stars, one of fire, one of ice, one of water. But then they fell from the sky, putting the fate of all worlds in danger. And now three women and three men join forces to pick up the pieces…   Mermaid Annika is from the sea, and it is there she must return after her quest to find the stars. New to this world, her purity and beauty are nothing less than breathtaking, along with her graceful athleticism, as her five new friends discovered when they retrieved the fire star.   Now, through space and time, traveler Sawyer King has brought the guardians to the island of Capri, where the water star is hidden. And as he watches Annika in her element, he finds himself drawn to her joyful spirit. But Sawyer knows that if he allows her into his heart, no compass could ever guide him back to solid ground…   And in the darkness, their enemy broods. She lost one star to the guardians, but there is still time for blood to be spilled—the mermaid’s in the water and the traveler’s on the land. For she has forged a dangerous new weapon. Something deadly and unpredictable. Something human.

Review:

I’m still really enjoying this series and the world that’s being created, though I didn’t like this book quiet as much as the last.

Annika is a mermaid so English is not her first language and while most of her confusion and screw ups seemed normal a lot of the time she came off as kind of simple. Even when the story was from her point of view she seemed that way. She was supposed to represent light and innocence I guess, but then also really want to jump Sawyers bones, it was an odd contrast.

Sawyer was fine, more prudish than the others it seemed, which I guess Roberts thought paired well with innocence, but I’m not so sure. He was fine, his powers are the coolest. Overall they are probably going to be my least favorite couple.

There were also a few sudden changes of point of view that weren’t signaled very well and a couple times I had to re-read sections to figure out who the hell was talking. That didn’t happen frequently, only a couple times, but it really shouldn’t be happening in a Nora Roberts book at all.

Looking forward to the third and final book in the series that comes out in December.

3.75/5

A Study in Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes #1) By: Brittany Cavallaro

A Study in Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes #1) By: Brittany Cavallaro

Plot:

The last thing Jamie Watson wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s great-great-great-granddaughter, who has inherited not only Sherlock’s genius but also his volatile temperament. From everything Jamie has heard about Charlotte, it seems safer to admire her from afar.

From the moment they meet, there’s a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else. But when a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances, ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Jamie and Charlotte are being framed for murder, and only Charlotte can clear their names. But danger is mounting and nowhere is safe—and the only people they can trust are each other.

A Study in Charlotte is the first in a trilogy.

Review:

The Lois Lane YA series lulled me into a false sense of security and I thought that I’d try another couple of YA books, wrong decision. A Study in Charlotte was what I dislike most about YA books, teen angst. Added to that was pretty much every negative character trait that Sherlock Holmes has all shoved into a teenage girl that had already been given every negative trait of a teenage girl. It was not appealing.

Watson could have made things at least a little better, but he didn’t. He spent the entire book creepily crushing on Holmes, which is a feat since there isn’t much of an age difference but the way it was all written just felt disturbing.

I thought the concept of this book was interesting, but it was a miracle I finished it. I don’t loathe it, but it is not something I would recommend.

2/5

Concealed in Death (In Death #38) By: J.D. Robb

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Concealed in Death (In Death #38) By: J.D. Robb

Plot:

In a decrepit, long-empty New York building, Lieutenant Eve Dallas’s husband begins the demolition process by swinging a sledgehammer into a wall. When the dust clears, there are two skeletons wrapped in plastic behind it. He summons his wife immediately—and by the time she’s done with the crime scene, there are twelve murders to be solved.

The place once housed a makeshift shelter for troubled teenagers, back in the mid-2040s, and Eve tracks down the people who ran it. Between their recollections and the work of the force’s new forensic anthropologist, Eve begins to put names and faces to the remains. They are all young girls. A tattooed tough girl who dealt in illegal drugs. The runaway daughter of a pair of well-to-do doctors. They all had their stories. And they all lost their chance for a better life.

Then Eve discovers a connection between the victims and someone she knows. And she grows even more determined to reveal the secrets of the place that was called The Sanctuary—and the evil concealed in one human heart.

Review:

This was a nice, normal cop drama plot with no clones or anything too dramatic. So it was pretty great. You still had the future element, but it was a lot of, what I think of, normal police stuff. Interviews, waiting on tests, talking things out. I liked it.

I know that doesn’t really sell someone on the series, but after thirty-eight books sometimes you want something basic. Not that this was super basic, it was twelve skeletons found in drywall after all.

It was a pre-Christmas setting so that was nice because Eve began to realize that even though she just finished a holiday she was going to have to deal with another one all over again. Mavis was also tied in, a little, but it was believable and it’s always fun to see her.

Solid book.

4/5