Month: November 2023

Book Review: Not If I Save You First

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Not If I Save You First
by Ally Carter

My rating: 1.5 / 5
Genre: YA romance

When Maddie’s dad is injured in an attempt to kidnap the president’s wife, he leaves the Secret Service and moves to the middle of nowhere in Alaska with Maddie, forcing Maddie to leave behind her best friend Logan, the president’s son. After six years, a trouble-making, 16-year-old Logan is sent to stay with Maddie and her dad in Alaska, which is especially awkward for Maddie, since she hasn’t heard from Logan in those six years. But before she’s able to hash things out with him, Logan comes under threat from a mysterious assailant, and Maddie might be the only one who can help him.

I hate rating a book this low, but when I looked through the notes I took while reading this book, I couldn’t see giving it a higher rating. The premise was interesting, and the setting was pretty immersive, but that’s about all I can say for it. The characters are inconsistent and flat, and I particularly didn’t like Maddie and her extreme girliness. Simply by virtue of being the daughter of a once-Secret Service agent and living for six whole years in the wilds of Alaska, she manages to stay completely cool and even make silly quips in the face of a murderer. And I’m all for Maddie and Logan working out their issues, but the romance between them is unbelievable and overdramatic.

Then there’s the plot, which has so many holes and unbelievable bits that it feels like it was cobbled together just to drive the romance forward. Everyone makes stupid decisions along the way, and motivations tend to make no sense at all. Most of the examples I could give would be spoilers, but I will at least mention that I don’t understand why Logan wouldn’t be given at least a brief explanation about how things work in this tiny shack where he’s going to be staying when he first arrives, like where the bathroom is or where the actual room for taking baths is and that if the curtain in front of the kitchen is shut, it means someone’s naked in there! I guess the scene where Logan walks in on Maddie taking a bath is suppose to be romantic? Or funny? Maybe both? To me, it was incredibly cringe-worthy.

My 13-year-old daughter is currently about halfway through the book, and just tonight she told me that she was on the edge of her seat. I have a feeling she’ll like it more than I did, which is fine, because she’s actually closer to the target audience for the book. But I think that teenagers deserve better.

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Book Review: Dragon and Slave

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Dragon and Slave
Dragonback #3
by Timothy Zahn

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi adventure

In an attempt to help Draycos, the dragon-like symbiont that uses him for a host, track down who killed his people, Jack willingly sells himself to a wealthy slavemaster. Even though Draycos is a warrior brimming with power, Jack has to endure terrible conditions in order to keep his cover. But will it be worth it in the end?

Draycos and his unbending K’da warrior-poet ethics really shine in this book. Meanwhile, Uncle Virge, Jack’s spaceship’s AI based on his late uncle’s personality, is constantly trying to pull Jack the other direction—toward selfishness and greed. Jack’s inner battle to do good but also to accomplish his goal and save himself is a driving theme in these books. The intrigue and suspense, though, come from the question of who is working with K’da’s enemies to slaughter all of Draycos’s people, and that story takes a jump forward in this book. There are other questions left open, including one from the previous book, but it’s clear that this series is one long story that has to be read in succession. The books are short enough, Zahn’s writing style is easy enough to read (even for sci-fi,) and I’ve been enjoying the story so far, so I’m happy to keep going!

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Audiobook Review: Nightmare Academy

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Nightmare Academy
Veritas Project #2
by Frank Peretti
Read by author

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: YA Christian thriller

I’ve read this book many times in the past (see review here), but this was my first time listening to the audiobook. I knew in advance that it was abridged, but while that wasn’t a huge issue for the previous book, I felt like too much information was missing from this one. In particular, a few things that happen in the story are referred to later, but they were missing from the audiobook telling. Though I wholeheartedly recommend this book in general, and I enjoy Peretti narrating his books, I don’t really recommend listening to this abridged version.

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Book Review: Look Out For The Little Guy!

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Look Out For The Little Guy!
by Scott Lang with Rob Kutner

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Movie tie-in, humor

Part movie reference, part self-help book, I enjoyed reading this book that was shown in the most recent Ant-Man movie. The author (actual) did a great job of making it sound just like the character in the movies. There were some strange things about it, like the random pictures that didn’t usually go with the text on the page or the caption, but the “FAAMQ” (Frequently Asked Ant-Man Questions) sections were always great. I did get to a point where I thought, “Yeah, we get it, you missed a lot of time with your daughter when she was growing up; do you have to remind us every chapter?” But overall, for what it is—a quick, mostly funny book for Marvel fans—it’s done very well.

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Book Review: The Parasite

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The Parasite
Michael Vey #8
by Richard Paul Evans

My rating: 1 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Prisoner of Cell 25.

Even though the Elgen have been effectively defeated and scattered, other threats have come out of the ashes of Hatch’s defeat. One of them is ready to strike and catches the Electroclan off guard.

Considering the obvious ending Evans put on the previous book, not just feeling like an end to the Elgen threat but an end to the Electroclan’s fight, a return to normal life, such as it could possibly be, I don’t understand why Evans felt the need to open it back up again. In the past, when authors or movie makers have done that, it’s ended up feeling like a rinse and repeat of the original arc. I can’t say yet if that’s the case here, because this first book in the new arc was only part of a story. I will at least say that the new bad guy isn’t as over-the-top sadistic as Hatch, at least not overtly. Maybe that will come. But in a situation like this, I feel that Evans maybe should have considered shifting the focus somehow, from Michael to a different lead, maybe someone we didn’t see much of in the previous books.

Whatever may or may not work with the re-opening of the series with the same characters, though, the writing style hasn’t changed, and it’s starting to bug me even more. Maybe because the characters are in college now, but it still feels like high school. For example, there’s a reunion scene near the beginning, and it’s absolutely vital that we know who is paired up with whom (I don’t care). I’ll be happy if I never see the phrase “we man hugged” in a book ever again. Taylor apparently okayed her twin sister to kiss her boyfriend as a test or bet or something…what girl would do that? People tell each other that they sound like Ostin (the genius of the group who tends to spout facts at length) whenever they state a single fact about something, and this happens several times (and comes across pretty derogatory). And conversations are still so forced and stilted and feel like everyone is just standing around in a circle waiting for their turn to speak. Not to mention that some of these people were vehemently fighting against one another until the very end of the previous arc, and now they all act like super close friends who have fought side-by-side together through a war.

A lot of my issues with the style were present in the other books, but the plot was interesting enough that I was willing to look past it and keep going. This book, though, spent so much time on unimportant details that it didn’t have time to tell a full story. At least in previous books, while there was an overarching plot and cliffhangers, at least one smaller story goal was tied up in each book. That did not happen here. By 8 books into a series, you shouldn’t need to resort to cheap tricks like telling only half a story to get people to come back for the next book. This book does end on a cliffhanger of sorts, with a plot twist involving one of the original members of the Electroclan, but I realized something unfortunate at that point—I don’t care enough about these characters to care much about that twist. Eight books into the series with the same characters throughout, the writing style is so shallow that I just don’t care if any of them live or die. There have been a few deaths along the way, and we’re told often about how the characters feel the losses, but we’re not really given any reason to feel that loss alongside them. 

Now, after a 2-star ending to the major arc before this and a 1-star start to the next one, I had planned right up to this moment to still read the next one, mostly because I don’t like to walk away this far in. But after writing this review, I’ve realized there’s just not that much about this series that I like anymore, and my reading time is limited. Now I don’t know if I’ll read the next, but I will at least say that if you’ve read the rest of the series and are wondering if you should continue with the next arc, I wouldn’t recommend it. Especially if you are bothered by any of the things I mention above. If not and you also liked The Final Spark, then you might just enjoy this book a lot more than I did.

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Book Review: The Visitation

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The Visitation
by Frank Peretti

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Christian thriller

When supernatural religious sightings occur in a small town, former pastor Travis Jordan isn’t interested in getting involved. But then a man claiming to be Jesus Christ, though without necessarily saying those words, takes a special interest in Travis. While the national media and many pilgrims flock to the town looking for a certain brand of spiritual awakening, Travis is headed toward a confrontation that might test everything he’s ever believed.

I read this book many years ago, when I was a teenager or young adult, and I remember not caring for it all that much. While reading it again now, I came to realize that, most likely, I didn’t fully get it back then. I’m not saying that this book can only be appreciated by someone who grew up in the church, is old enough to have seen many years of “church stuff,” and has become disillusioned by it, but I think it helps a lot. Travis’s church background reminds me quite a bit of the types of churches I grew up in and the movement my family traveled to take part in, and for all of the promises and flash promised, it’s really easy to lose God in all of that. That is what Travis is dealing with as his small town becomes a mecca for those who are looking for healing and inspiration, but not necessarily salvation.

The vehicle for this plot, though, is the man with scars on his wrists who mostly provides what people are looking for. Local clergy debate whether or not his deeds are from God, and though this is a small town, there are a lot of different churches, though it doesn’t appear that many of them are biblically sound. This might be normal, but it makes me really sad. In fact, the whole book made me sad, and what makes the story all the more realistic is that there isn’t exactly a “happy ending” for the bulk of the people. I’d say the main takeaway from this is a reminder to not let tradition and religious trappings get in the way of what Christianity should be—a relationship with Jesus. Peretti’s signature writing style brings suspense to the story, and while I think the subject matter isn’t going to be for everyone, if it sounds like something you’re interested in, I definitely recommend it.

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October in Review

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I read 14 books last month, a couple more books than September, but about 100 pages less than September. Of course, I spent half of the month listening to 80% of a very long audiobook, so the numbers are a bit skewed, since I didn’t finish it within this month, but oh well. It’ll boost next month’s numbers!

Here are the books I read in October:

talking
abby
hangman-audio
baskervilles
divergent
Right Ho, Jeeves
tcw-26
ramona-7
39-7
snow-place
the-event
hope
tcw-27
glipwood
white placeholder

Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham (4.5 / 5)
Abby’s Letters by Dana Romanin (2.5 / 5)
Hangman’s Curse by Frank Peretti (5 / 5)
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (4 / 5)
Divergent by Veronica Roth (4 / 5)
Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (4 / 5)
The Cat Who Talked Turkey by Lilian Jackson Braun (2 / 5)
Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary (4 / 5)
The Viper’s Nest by Peter Lerangis (3.5 / 5)
Snow Place for Murder by Diane Kelly (2 / 5)
The Event by Whitney Dineen (2 / 5)
Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer (3.5 / 5)
The Cat Who Went Bananas by Lilian Jackson Braun (3 / 5)
A Ranger’s Guide to Glipwood Forest by Andrew Peterson (5 / 5)

This list includes 2 ARCs and 1 re-read. My favorite book from October was Talking as Fast as I Can. I started 3 series, continued 4 series, and finished 1 series. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.

Book Review: The Cat Who Went Bananas

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The Cat Who Went Bananas
Book #27
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

The death of an actor from a neighboring county and the sudden, unusual marriage of a wealthy local woman invite intrigue during the excitement surrounding the opening of a new book store in Pickax. Former crime reporter Jim Qwilleran and his two Siamese cats are on the case.

After the last few books in this series greatly disappointed me with lackluster mysteries, I enjoyed most of this book a lot more. Though there were still some repetitive sections that could have been edited out, Qwilleran was more involved in investigating. I appreciated the remembrance of the late bookseller that once recurred in the series, and I took note of a special moment in which Qwilleran gets recognition for something other than his twice-weekly column, questionable books he’s published since moving to Moose County, or simply being a wealthy philanthropist.

Sadly, though, the book ends without the mystery really being solved. Multiple deaths and even a robbery have potential solutions, but nothing is solidly stated. Qwilleran muses over his suspicions at the end of the book, but, for some reason, the author isn’t willing to give us any real closure. I still have my doubts about the series using a ghostwriter at this point, because some specific points of Braun’s style are still intact. I suppose a good ghostwriter could mimic style, but I just don’t buy it. Whatever the situation, though, I don’t anticipate the last 2 books of the series being any better than this one, but I will definitely still give them a try.

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Book Review: A Ranger’s Guide to Glipwood Forest

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A Ranger’s Guide to Glipwood Forest
by Andrew Peterson
Illustrated by Aedan Peterson

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Children’s fantasy

This travel guide through the dangerous and wondrous Glipwood Forest was written by one of the founding members of the Glipwood Official Rangers Guild (GORG). Not only does he share the best and safest (relatively speaking) path through the forest, he also tells of how he met each of the other original eight members of the GORG.

I really wasn’t sure what this book would be like when I first picked it up, and it turned out to be a really fun, quick read. The humor and whimsy of the original series can be found throughout this book. At times I felt like Andrew Peterson was making up as outlandish of names and descriptions of items as he could to try to stump his son, who drew sketches of Glipwood Forest flora as well as the members of the GORG for the book. I particularly loved the sketches of Owin and Chonis Ponius Groverly, the “in-world” author and illustrator of the guidebook. Fans of The Wingfeather Saga will enjoy this return to the land of Skree, with many references to locations they’ll remember from the series.

Thank you to Netgalley and WaterBrook & Multnomah for providing me a copy of this book to review.
Publication date: November 7, 2023

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