*Review* The Christmas Keeper by Jenn McKinlay

 

Genre: Holiday Romance

Published: October 29, 2019

Pages: 318

True love and holiday cheer combine for an unforgettable romance in this second Happily Ever After novel featuring a North Carolina bookstore from the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Ones.

All he wants for Christmas…

The second Joaquin Solis saw Savannah Wilson, he knew she was destined to be his wife. Unfortunately, Savannah’s sights are set on a happily-ever-after of another kind: skewering the boss who got her fired. Until then, she won’t act on the scorching sexual chemistry that is brewing between them, leaving Joaquin scrambling to find a way to capture her heart. 

When the opportunity arises to use his ranch to boost Savannah's publicity career, Joaquin doesn’t hesitate to invite her into his world at Shadow Pines and woo her with all of his Christmas loving mojo. It’s a gamble since the holidays aren’t really Savannah's thing and helping her might also mean losing her as she plans to shake the dust off of their quaint town in North Carolina and head back to New York City the first chance she gets. 

But Joaquin believes in the magic of Christmas and he knows with a little help from his friends at the Happily Ever After Bookstore, he can convince the woman of his dreams that he’s a keeper…

I received a copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway program. This is my honest review. 

This was a fairly standard holiday romance. Big city girl in a small town being shown the true meaning of Christmas by a local yokel. There were several happy coincidences that made this possible. Considering how adamant Savy was about not falling for Quino, those coincidences made the story feel a bit more realistic overall. Not that that sheer number of coincidences throwing Savy and Quino together was realistic, but they helped the development of the relationship feel realistic. 

This tale features filling in for Santa and his elf, ice skating, a wagon ride through the snow, and trying to save a small local bookstore from closing. Seriously, it's all the elements you need for a typical Hallmark Christmas movie. And it served the cheese in spades. 

My one complaint is that I have some seriously mixed feelings about the ending. I was all set to be happy with the direction it took, but then it veered off course. It's not bad, but I really liked where I thought it was going. 

Overall I give The Christmas Keeper 4.1783 out of 5 stars. - Katie 

Amazon

Jenn is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher's Weekly bestselling author of several mystery and romance series. She is also the winner of the RT Reviewer's Choice Award for romantic comedy and the Fresh Fiction award for best cozy mystery. A TEDx speaker, she is always happy to talk books, writing, reading, and the creative process to anyone who cares to listen. She lives in sunny Arizona in a house that is overrun with kids, pets, and her husband's guitars.

Visit her website at: www.jennmckinlay.com

Or follow her:

Facebook: JennMcKinlayAuthor

Instagram: @mckinlayjenn

Twitter: @JennMcKinlay

*Review* The Murder of Madison Garcia by Marcy McCreary

 

Genre: Mystery/Police Procedural

Published: March 28, 2023

Pages: 336

Sometimes the truth doesn’t set you free—it gets you killed.

Detective Susan Ford notices a missed call on her phone from a number she doesn’t recognize, and when Madison García, a woman with past ties to the town of Monticello, New York, is found stabbed to death the next morning, Susan realizes that Madison was the one who had called her. But why?

Susan teams up with her father, retired Detective Will Ford, to find the killer, and their investigation soon threatens to uncover the García family’s secrets—an inheritance, accidental death, money laundering, extramarital affairs, and family rivalries, just to name a few—and they don’t appreciate the Fords digging into their business.

As the investigation twists and turns, the Fords discover that Madison was planning to confess to a long-kept secret, but someone brutally silenced her. Everyone she knew is a suspect. Anyone could be her killer.

I received a copy of this audiobook through Netgalley. This is my honest review. 

I feel like this is a book that I, personally, should have read rather than listened to. Although the narrator did a great job with distinct voices for the different characters, I struggled to keep their names straight, especially the various suspects, and how they were connected to the victim. That, in turn, made it harder for me to play detective, and playing detective is a large part of the appeal of a book like this. 

With all that in mind, there were several twists and turns in this story, and I saw very few of them coming. And while I'd like to say I figured out the killer way before the detective, that would be a lie. I do think if I'd been reading with my eyeballs instead of my ears, I would have gotten there sooner. I also have a love hate relationship with the journal entry portions of this story. 

The narration itself was great. A wide range of voices and accents (when appropriate) were used and the opposite gendered voices didn't feel like mockeries. Overall I give this book 3.87214 out of 5 stars. - Katie 

Amazon

Marcy McCreary is the author of the Ford Family Mystery series: The Summer of Love and Death (8/24), The Murder of Madison Garcia (3/23), and The Disappearance of Trudy Solomon (9/21), which was a finalist for a Silver Falchion Award for Best Investigator Mystery. Her essays about crime fiction have appeared in Mystery & Suspense, Criminal Element, Women Writers/Women’s Books, and Mystery Readers Journal. She graduated from The George Washington University with a B.A. in American literature and political science and pursued a career in marketing and communications. She lives in Hull, MA with her husband, Lew.

Author Website: MarcyMcCreary.com

Twitter: @mcmarcy

Instagram: @marcymccrearyauthor

Facebook: @marcymccrearywrites

Goodreads: Marcy McCreary

Bookbub: @marcymccreary

*Monthly Update* March 2024

 I realize it's already they 6th, but today is my first day off of the month that I didn't have a work obligation (because I was also off on the first but had to drive over an hour away to get new work shoes, paid for by the company, but it cost me half a tank of gas and literally all my motivation for the day). I'm still considering this a win though, as it's two months in a row that I'm posting an update. 

You may remember from my February update post that for the month of March I wanted to focus on non-romance books written by women in honor of women's history month. I did a great job of that. I'd also wanted to read 5 non-fiction books about notable women, and I did less good there (and yes I know less good is horribly improper grammar, but I don't care). I'd also wanted to make a dent in my backlog of reviews. That I didn't do at all. While I have a few reviews handwritten that I need to build blog posts for, it's less than the number of books I added to the "need to be reviewed" list in March as I read 21 books. In my defense, I spent most of March filling in at work for my boss as she was out recovering from surgery, which meant I had earlier shifts that included more physical labor than my job typically entails, with one fewer day off per week than normal as well, so by the time I'd get home from work, I didn't want to do more work, and writing reviews and building blog posts is sort of work. 

I'm starting to feel a bit disillusioned with my history/heritage month focus, so I'm taking April (Arab Heritage Month) and May (Asian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month) off to just read whatever is catching my fancy, although I will likely still try to read at least one applicable book for each month. I plan to return to focused reading in June for LGBTQ+ Pride Month (so please hit me with recs for own voices books that will fit that theme as I can't just look at their author pictures on Amazon to see if they're LGBTQ+). 

Books Read in March

Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Switched by Sarah Ready

The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray

The Christmas Keeper by Jean McKinlay

The Murder of Madison Garcia by Marcy McCreary

The Immortal Detective by D.B. Woodling

The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers

Lewis Sinclair and the Gentlemen Cowboys by D.M.S. Flick

Third Eye by Felicia Day

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna

The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr by Susan Holloway Scott

Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte

Icarus by K. Ancrum

Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church by Megan Phelps-Roper

A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones

As Good as Dead by Holly Jackson

The Eternal Ones by Namina Forna

The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance Sayers

Once again, for blogging goals I really want to make a serious dent in my backlog of reviews, so that maybe in May my goal can be to rejoin weekly memes I've participated in in the past. I just really don't want to add more blogging work to my plate until I've reduced the review writing burden on myself. But we shall see how it goes. If I can even just keep my list from getting longer I'll probably consider it a win, if we're being honest. 

That's all for now because I have some review posts to build. - Katie 

*Review* Dark Parts of the Universe by Samuel Miller

 

Genre: Coming of Age

Published: April 23, 2024

Pages: 432

Outer Banks meets Bone Gap in New York Times bestselling author Samuel Miller’s propulsive and genre-bending YA mystery, following a group of teenagers who discover a dead body while playing an app-based adventure game that sends players to “random” locations, unlocking a much deeper mystery about their small town. 

In Calico Springs, Willie’s life has been defined by two powerful forces: God and the river. The “miracle boy” died for five minutes as a young child, and ever since, Willie is certain he survived for a reason, but that purpose didn’t become clear until he found the Game.

The Game is called Manifest Atlas, and the concept is simple: enter an intention and the Game provides a target—a blinking blue dot on the map. Willie’s second time playing Manifest Atlas, his intention takes him to an ominous target: three empty graves. Willie is sure the Game is telling him he’s going to die.

Willie’s older brother, Bones, doesn’t believe him, but their friends are intrigued. Sarai, a girl from across the river, sets the next intention: something bloody. The group follows the Game’s coordinates and they discover something even more unsettling than the graves: a dead body. Sarai’s stepfather’s body. The Game is suddenly personal.

Willie is dedicated to proving the Game works while Sarai is set on finding out what happened to her stepdad. Bones just wants to enjoy his last summer before real life begins. As the group digs deeper into Manifest Atlas, stranger and wilder things begin to appear, unlocking a much deeper mystery running like an undercurrent through the small town. 

I received a digitally generated version of this audiobook through Netgalley. It was not the voice-narrated version. This is my honest review. 

When I started listening to this book, I was expecting science fiction based on the title and the cover. I was quickly disabused of that notion. Instead of taking me into outer space, it took me into small town America, and I'm quite familiar with small town America attitudes towards anyone who is other. In this story, this manifests in the behavior towards everyone who lives in the town across the river from Calico Springs, a town that is almost exclusively Black. I'm sure you can see where this is going. 

In a way, this book felt like it was telling two stories. The story of Manifest Atlas, and the story of Calico Springs. And it wasn't until near the very end of the book that I really started to see how the two stories connected, and I would not have gotten there on my own. I did not see how the game was influenced by the events in the town until it was spelled out for me, and vice versa. But also, that connection left me feeling a little disappointed. 

Aside from also living that small town life as a kid, I couldn't really relate to the characters in this book, but that's really just because we didn't have anything in common. I could see how their life experiences shaped them from the glimpses into the past that we were treated to, and I feel like I understood them, but I still couldn't really relate. 

Overall I give Dark Parts of the Universe 3.9757 out of 5 stars because even though it wasn't the story I was expecting when I started, it was intriguing and kept me listening. - Katie 

Amazon

Samuel Miller is a novelist and screenwriter, made in South Dakota, based in Los Angeles. His most recent novel, Redemption Prep, was a New York Times and Indie bestseller and is in development for television with MGM. His debut, A Lite Too Bright, released to critical acclaim and has been translated into four languages and published in eight countries. Sam wrote his first novel in a fifteen-passenger van while touring with his alt-rock band, Paradise Fears. In addition to writing novels he coaches Little League Baseball, walks his dog, and works to dismantle capitalist systems of power. You can find him at samuelmillerbooks.com.

*Review* Claw Heart Mountain by David Oppegaard

 

Genre: Horror

Published: January 31, 2023

Pages: 476

What happens when good people make one bad decision?

Imagine you are on the way to a remote mountain cabin with your friends. Upon arrival, you discover an abandoned armored van with fifteen million dollars on board. Would you take the money?

Nova and her friends answer with a resounding yes. Perhaps their answer would have been different had they known that a professional killer was already tracking down the money. Or that a legendary creature known as the Wraith roams the mountain, ravenous with hunger.

Thinking they’re safe and anonymous, Nova and her friends divvy up the stolen cash, unaware who or what is after them, unaware that soon they will be fighting for their lives.

For readers who enjoy The Ritual by Adam Nevill and The Terror by Dan Simmons.

I received a copy of this audiobook through Netgalley. This is my honest review. 

I have some seriously mixed feelings about this book, and that's due in large part to the fact that as things happened in the book, had the kids simply not done one thing, I think it's very likely they would have gotten away with their theft free and clear. They wouldn't have been in danger at all from either the killer or the wraith. But things did happen the way they happened so...

As far as the rest of the story goes, I found myself relating to Nova the most. Like Nova, I was always the last resort friend (and still feel that way at times if we're being honest). I'd get invited to do things when literally no one else was available, and that's exactly how Nova ends up on Claw Heart Mountain in the first place. Nova and I are also more similar in the financial aspect as well, although I don't think I would have cautioned against taking the money like she did, so morally, she's better than me. 

Once the danger showed up, I was on the edge of my seat, anxious to see how things would turn out and if I was correct about who would survive, because you don't have a story like this without some death. It's just not possible. I did have a pretty good bead on the way things would go, although there were a few twists in between that took me a little by surprise. 

The narration was decent. There wasn't much effort to do specific voices for the different characters, but that means there also weren't cringey opposite gendered voices, which can really grate on my nerves and is probably my biggest pet peeve where audiobooks are concerned. Overall I give Claw Heart Mountain 3.6927 out of 5 stars. - Katie 

Amazon

David Oppegaard is the author of Claw Heart Mountain, The Town Built on Sorrow, The Firebug of Balrog County, The Suicide Collectors, Wormwood, Nevada, And the Hills Opened Up, The Ragged Mountains, and Breakneck Cove. His work has been nominated for a Bram Stoker Award and a MN Book Award.

David's work is a blend of science fiction, literary fiction, horror, and fantasy. He lives in St. Paul, MN, with his wife and their ravenous cat.

You can visit his website/blog at davidoppegaard.com

*Review* The Atlas of Us by Kristin Dwyer

 Genre: YA Coming of Age

Published: January 9, 2024

Pages: 336

Atlas has lost her way.

In a last-ditch effort to pull her life together, she’s working on a community service program rehabbing trails in the Western Sierras. The only plus is that the days are so exhausting that Atlas might just be tired enough to forget that this was one of her dad’s favorite places in the world. Before cancer stole him from her life, that is.

Using real names is forbidden on the trail. So Atlas becomes Maps, and with her team—Books, Sugar, Junior, and King—she heads into the wilderness. As she sheds the lies she’s built up as walls to protect herself, she realizes that four strangers might know her better than anyone has before. And with the end of the trail racing to meet them, Maps is left counting down the days until she returns to her old life—without her new family, and without King, who’s become more than just a friend.

I received a copy of this audiobook through Netgalley. This is my honest review. 

I grabbed this book because I loved the cover and it was available as a "listen now" so I didn't have to get any sort of approval for it. It wasn't until after I downloaded the book that I realized the copy available wasn't the voice actor version of the audiobook. The version I had was AI generated for review purposes only, which certainly lent something to the experience. It confirmed for me that I would never want to pay for an audiobook with AI generated audio because it has some serious drawbacks, namely unnatural pauses (and a lack of pauses in some places they should really exist). 

This book is a good example of why you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover (but I'm still gonna). Although I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting from this book, what I got wasn't it. And sure, I could have read the blurb first, but that would have ruined my 23 year long blurb non-reading streak. I was definitely expecting a heavier romantic storyline than I was treated to. I struggled to feel a strong connection with the characters. Me no longer being a teenager and having a more privileged childhood than they did may have contributed to that, but I'm not sure. 

Overall I give The Atlas of Us 3.7946 out of 5 stars because although it wasn't what I was expecting and I didn't feel particularly connected to the characters, I was still mildly invested in the story itself and wanted to see where it went. - Katie 

Amazon

Kristin Dwyer grew up under the California sun and prayed every day for a cloudy sky. Now Kristin and her spouse are currently raising their mischief-makers in the hills of North Carolina, where there is just the right amount of clouds. When she’s not writing books about people kissing, Kristin is a part-time hair model and full-time TSA PreCheck. One time a credible news outlet asked for her opinion on K-pop (it was the best day of her life). Please do not talk to her about your fandom; she will try to join.

*Review* Armadas in the Mist by Christian Klaver

 

Genre: YA Historical Fantasy

Published: December 6, 2022

Pages: 508

The Black Shuck’s forces gather just beyond the mist . . .

Captain Justice Kasric knows how complicated family can be. The escalating Human-Faerie war has scattered and wounded her siblings and transformed her parents beyond recognition. After narrowly escaping yet another dangerous clash, fifteen-year-old Justice has had enough. She’s determined to defeat the Black Shuck, the mysterious leader controlling the Faerie invasion of London, but if Justice hopes to stand a chance at victory, she’ll have to do the impossible: reunite her family and lead them against the looming Faerie Armada.

With her mother and brother at the helm of the enemy fleet, and the prophesized Seven Virtues slipping out of reach, Justice more than has her work cut out for her. Even if she can save England, the cost may be higher than she’s willing to pay.

I received a copy of this audiobook through Netgalley. This is my honest review. 

Do you ever start reading a book and feel like you're just completely lost, almost like the author isn't giving you enough information about character's backstories and things? Then you wonder if maybe you just weren't paying close enough attention, or maybe skipped a couple pages on accident? Then after you finish reading the book you go check out some of the reviews other people have posted and realize that the book you were reading wasn't the first book in a series, but it's the first one you've read? If that ever happens to you, did you learn your lesson and start checking those things? Because I apparently never fricken learn my lesson. 

Armadas in the Mist starts in what feels like some serious action, which is fine, grab my attention any way you can, right? But typically books that start like that head back in time in the next chapter so you can see how you got there, at least when those books aren't sequels to a story that you, the reader should already be familiar with. I wasn't familiar though, and just kept waiting for that backstory and it never came. Do not make the same mistake I did and start this series with this book. And yet, despite the two books worth of missing backstory, I eventually felt like enough of that information was imparted that I basically understood what was going on by the time we got to the final battle. If you have already read the first two books, you don't have to worry about tedious recaps. 

I didn't really feel particularly attached to any of the characters in this story, but I'm fairly certain that is because of when I came into the series. There just wasn't enough character building in this book to develop that relationship (presumably because the characters were already built in previous books). I definitely had characters I was rooting for, but that was more because they were clearly the good guys and therefore should win. A couple of the characters surprised me with their actions, but I don't know if those actions would be surprising if I knew them better. 

Overall I give Armadas in the Mist 4.07845 out of 5 stars because I eventually felt caught up, and it's not the book's fault I started the series at book 3. - Katie 

Amazon

This author of Science Fiction and Fantasy lives in the suburbs just outside the sprawling decay of Detroit, Michigan. There he resides with his wife (Kimberly) his daughter (Kathryn) and a group of animals he refers to as 'The Menagerie'.

He has been selling short stories since the early '80's, including recent sales to Escape Pod and Dark Wisdom Anthology from Elder Signs Press.

He is an alumni of Viable Paradise Writing Workshop, managing and contributing Editor of The Nautilus Engine: A Speculative Webzine and a regular attendee and speaker at Confusion Science Fiction Convention.

www.christianklaver.com

mrchrstn@yahoo.com