Poison by Jordyn Redwood Review

Synopsis: Five years ago, Keelyn Blake’s stepfather took her family hostage, raving about Lucent, a being who forced him to commit unspeakable acts. Some of the family made it out alive; the rest did not. Even Lee Watson, the best of SWAT, failed to overcome the man’s delusions and end the standoff peacefully.

Now, Lucent is back– and he’s no hallucination. He has kidnapped Keelyn’s niece, and although Keelyn is estranged from her half-sister, Raven, she feels compelled to save what little family she has left. But Raven is nowhere to be found, and when others involved in that fateful day start dying under mysterious circumstances, Keelyn wonders if she and Lee– and their budding relationship– will surive.

My Thoughts: The premise of this book was very interesting and I found myself intrigued to find out what was going on. Everything came together nicely in the end and I was unable to predict most of the twists (which there were many twists). The author is extremely gifted as a writer and is also a very creative story teller…she always seems to present ideas that make me think long after I’ve finished the book. I will definitely be picking up more of her books.

I read Book 1 in this Trilogy (Proof) last month and loved it. I gave it 5 stars and couldn’t put it down. I enjoyed this book as well, but not quite as much as the first one. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump lately though so it has been difficult for me to connect with most of the books I’ve picked up lately.  I had a little bit of trouble with the amount of characters in this book, there was a lot going on and I had a little trouble keeping everything straight at times.

Overall, this was a great addition to the trilogy and I recommend it if you enjoy suspense and twists.

My Rating: 

I received this book from Bookfun in exchange for an honest review.

Kill Devil by Mike Dellosso Review

Spoilers to Centralia ahead.

Goodreads Synopsis: Jed Patrick is convinced he’s doing all it takes to keep his family safe–new names, new location, new identity. But just when he thinks he finally has his life back, trained men claiming to be CIA agents break in and threaten his wife and daughter, proving once and for all his family will never truly be safe until he eliminates the agency dead set on hunting him down.Not knowing if Karen and Lilly are better off by his side or in hiding, Jed is determined to protect them while finding a way to use the classified information that he possesses to dismantle the Centralia Project. But he soon learns that eliminating Centralia may require compromising his own values. As danger escalates, Jed isn’t sure whether there’s anyone or anything he can trust–including his own senses.

My Thoughts: I read the first book in the Jed Patrick series, Centralia in May and thought it was good but not great. This book was much better in my opinion. The story is full of action and through the entire book, the reader is unsure who to trust (as the main character, Jed is). There is a great twist towards the end of the book that I never saw coming. I’m not always a fan of government/ military thrillers but this was really enjoyable.

The author is a very good writer, the writing style was extremely easy to fall into and the pacing was perfect. I flew through the book and didn’t want to put it down. My only problem with the book was that the daughter, Lilly in the book is 8 years old but many times seems much older than that.

This is a Christian fiction story and the subject of faith and trust in God is prevalent. I enjoyed that it was part of the story but don’t feel like it would be too much that a non-believer wouldn’t enjoy it.

Overall it was a great story and I’m interested in seeing if the series will continue. I own several other books by Mike Dellosso (the cover art is amazing on his books) and look forward to picking them up soon.

My Rating:

I received this book from Tyndale House in exchange for an honest review.

 

Forbidden by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee Review

Genre: Dystopian, Fantasy, Christian Fiction

Judging the Cover: The cover is very relevant to the story and had a lot to do with my decision to purchase the book.

Plot according to Goodreads: Many years have passed since civilization’s brush with apocalypse. The world’s greatest threats have all been silenced. There is no anger, no hatred, no war. There is only perfect peace… and fear. But a terrible secret has been closely guarded for centuries: Every single soul walking the earth, though in appearance totally normal, is actually dead, long ago genetically stripped of true humanity.
Fleeing pursuit, with only moments to live, a young man named Rom stumbles into possession of a vial of blood and a piece of cryptic writing. When consumed, the blood will bring him back to life. When decoded, the message will lead him on a perilous journey that will require him to abandon everything he has ever known and awaken humanity to the transforming power of true life and love.
But the blood will also resurrect hatred, ambition, and greed.

This is book 1 in a trilogy called The Books of Mortals.

My Thoughts: This story was a bit out of my comfort zone as it had a fantasy feel to it (and I’m not generally drawn to fantasy) but I found it to be very interesting and enjoyable. I decided to read this book because I owned this one (found at Goodwill) and book 2 (from Ollie’s) and stumbled across book 3 while shopping at my local grocery store. It was in the bargain box, priced at $3.50 for hardcover but I didn’t want to buy it until I started book 1 to see if I would like the story. I bought book 3 after reading about 50 pages and I’m glad I did.

The Good: The plot is a very interesting one…set in Rome in the future, all humans have been stripped of every emotion except 1…fear. I was impressed by the way the authors were able to stick to this concept throughout the book as I imagine writing emotionless (except for fear) characters can’t be an easy task. As mentioned above, it had a fantasy feel to it which I was wary of when I began reading it, but I actually loved the dungeon scenes and the unusual names. There is a lot of Christian symbolism in the story but I didn’t feel it was something that would deter a non-Christian from enjoying it (especially if they aren’t familiar with the Bible). I loved the symbolism. The ending was a great cliff hanger and left me wanting much more so I can’t wait to dive into books 2 and 3.

What I didn’t Like: This is the 5th book I’ve read by Ted Dekker and although I love the stories that he tells, I don’t like the way he tells them. I always find it difficult to “get into” his books. It usually takes me 50-100 pages to get comfortable with his writing style and I don’t think I enjoy the stories as much as I could because of it. The atmosphere of the story was great but I wanted more…there were times when I felt that the places could have been described in better detail. There was a bit of insta-love in this story that was kind of ridiculous.

My rating: 4/5 stars and recommended for lovers of dystopian and fantasy stories

Solitary by Alexander Gordon Smith Review

This is book 2 of the Escape from The Furnace Series, so I won’t be able to share a lot about this book as I don’t  want to give away spoilers.

Genre: Horror, Young Adult

Judging the Cover: This cover really represents the story well…I also picture Alex, the main character to look similar to the guy on the cover.

My thoughts: I hate to say it but I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first one. I felt like it kind of dragged in the middle and was a bit repetitive.

The good: The setting is great and the mystery of the story kept me interested.

The bad: The pacing seemed a bit slow and I still don’t feel like I know the characters very well.

My rating: This was an average read for me, I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it so I gave it 3/5 stars. I’m still continuing the story, I have to find out what happens!

The Forgotten Girls by Sara Blaedel Review

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Judging the cover: I was really drawn to this cover, I love the font and the title as well as the eerie image of a girl in the woods. Thumbs up to this one!

Genre: This is a Scandinavian police procedural adult novel that takes place in Denmark. It could also be classified as a mystery.

Plot from Goodreads: In a forest in Denmark, a ranger discovers the fresh corpse of an unidentified woman. A large scar on one side of her face should make the identification easy, but nobody has reported her missing. After four days, Louise Rick–the new commander of the Missing Persons Department–is still without answers. But when she releases a photo to the media, an older woman phones to say that she recognizes the woman as Lisemette, a child she once cared for in the state mental institution many years ago. Lisemette, like the other children in the institution, was abandoned by her family and branded a “forgotten girl.” But Louise soon discovers something more disturbing: Lisemette had a twin, and both girls were issued death certificates over 30 years ago. As the investigation brings Louise closer to her childhood home, she uncovers more crimes that were committed–and hidden–in the forest, and finds a terrible link to her own past that has been carefully concealed.

My thoughts: I was very excited to read this book based on the synopsis and the cover of the book. I am fascinated by stories that involve institutions, so this sounded like it was right up my alley. Unfortunately, I was disappointed for the first 70% of the book. It didn’t really get interesting to me until the last 30% , but when it picked up, I became completely engrossed in the story.

The good: The ending of this book was amazing! I was unable to figure out the “culprit” of the story, which is always a good thing because I love to be surprised. The ending was very chilling and I can’t stop thinking about it. Even though this was book 7 of a series, the author did a good job at bringing the reader up to speed with what was happening in the main character’s life.

The Not So Good: Because this book was translated, I think some things just didn’t carry through the story well. The story is set in Denmark and a lot of places and unusual (to Americans) names were mentioned, which made it very hard to keep track of who they were talking about and where they were going. I also felt the pacing of the book was very slow and it could have been edited a bit more as some things in the story didn’t seem relevant (but could possibly be relevant to the series, which I haven’t read). I didn’t feel like the story focused enough on the missing girls and focused too much on the personal lives of the main characters. I also didn’t really feel like I was able to connect with any of the characters. I was bored with the first 3/4 of this book.

My rating: I had to really think about my rating because I had so many problems with the first 3/4 of it but then the last quarter blew me away. I ended up rating it 3/5 stars and would recommend it to people who enjoy police procedural books.

Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith Review

The Plot from Goodreads: Furnace Penitentiary: An underground hellhole. A place of pure evil with walls soaked in blood. Murderous gangs and vicious guards rule the darkness. Horrific creatures steal people away in the dead of night. And the impossible – escape – is the only hope.

Genre: Young adult, Horror, Science Fiction

Series: This is book 1 of a 5 book series

My Thoughts: I would NEVER want to go to Furnace! The story is about Alex, who has been sent to Furnace, an underground prison for teenage boys. He meets his new roommate, Donovan and makes a friend named Zee. Things at Furnace are very hard and scary. Survival is not easy.

The good: The author’s descriptions are very detailed so that the reader is able to very clearly see Furnace. The story had action non-stop from the first page to the last. The pacing is great and the writing style is very easy to get into.

The Not So Good: The book has a lot of unanswered questions but it is book 1 of a 5 book series so I’m sure everything will be resolved eventually. I didn’t feel like I got to know the characters as much as I would have liked. The main character, Alex, drove me crazy with some of his choices.  The book ended with a huge cliffhanger, which may be a negative for some people but I’m planning on reading the second book soon, so it’s not really a negative for me.

My rating: 4/5 stars. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a creepy story that is a bit bizarre.