I’m going to change up the format of my reviews in 2019 and I thought I’d start by rounding up the final books I read in 2018. An Easy Death (Gunnie Rose, #1) by Charlaine Harris Charlaine Harris is one of my most favorite authors and when she announced her newest series since the Midnight, Texas trilogy (which started in 2014) I knew I would be reading it. Set in an alternate-history North America sometime in the first half of…
I have conflicting feelings about this book. I love the story but not the writing; it feels too neat and tidy to be realistic. The dialogue feels written instead of spoken and real and the foreshadowing feels like a sticker placed over the natural story. There are errors such as “Latine Quartiere” instead of Latin Quartier or Quartier Latin (hopefully this was fixed for the final book as I read an ARC) and having Caty, a photographer, make individual prints…
I feel like Paris Echo doesn’t know what kind of a book it wants to be, so it is a few of them bound together: literary fiction and historical fiction with a sprinkle of self-discovery and ghosts. Our main characters are Hannah, a 30-something researching her contribution to a history book, and Tariq, a nineteen-year-old who decided to take a break from his native Morocco. Both of them have issues they’re working on though they don’t know it until they’ve…
Accidents Happen is a thought-provoking, lighthearted, and quick read because, if you’re like me, you will not be able to put it down. It reads like a chick-lit rom-com, and it is in many ways, but it has much more substance and plot than a typical book in these genres. Eight days before her wedding, Tabitha finds herself taking the place of a soul collector (think grim reaper) while he makes himself comfortable in her body. While she waits for…
Several months ago while browsing in a bookstore, a friend recommended Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows to me. It sounded cute but something I would not normally seek out to read. I put it on my ever-growing TBR list anyway so I wouldn’t forget it. I found the audiobook version on one of Audible’s recent sales and decided to get it. I’m so glad I did. It is romance-meets-mystery-meets- regular life. Nikki, the daughter of two Indian immigrants living in…
Alice is a darker book than I usually read. Not dark in a horror or gory way, but in a way where a lot of bad things happen in a really bad place and not a lot of good is going on. Old City, where the novel takes place, is split up into sections that are run by (the equivalent of) mob bosses and the citizens live in constant fear of the bosses or those who work for them. Everyone…
I purchased Clean Sweep last year for $1 and it has been hanging out on my kindle ever since, which was a mistake. I picked it to read late one afternoon on a whim and I barely set it down until I finished it later that same night. More than an enjoyable read, this book made me think this is the kind of story I want to write. Dina is an innkeeper in a small Texas town, but innkeeper doesn’t…
I met Rebecca after I moved the Seattle Ladies Comic Book Club up to Arcane Comics in Shoreline- she actually ended up taking over the club over for me. Quite a while ago she told me about this series she was writing and it sounded absolutely wonderful. A short time later (which at this point is quite a while ago) she told me about a fundraiser she was running to fund printing of the third book. I chose the option…
It’s difficult to begin about City of Ghosts. It is really an amazing book- it reminds me of one of my all-time favorite books, The Graveyard Book. Cassidy drowns in a lake but she is saved by a ghost, Jacob, who becomes her best friend. Since coming back to life she has been able to cross the Veil into the place where ghosts stay when they can’t move on. Her parents, writers of paranormal books, start filming a new tv…
Victoria Schwab is a unique writer for me; I love about half of her books and strongly dislike the other half. I can’t think of another author I feel that way about. Anyway, I think that’s why I had Vicious for so long before reading it. Which is too bad because it is a great book! Two college students, Victor and Eli, discover that there is a pattern for those who have developed supernatural abilities: they had a near death…