Month: July 2024

Book Review: Starter Villain

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Starter Villain
by John Scalzi

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Sci-fi

Sentient cats and volcano lairs may sound exciting, but being a villain is not all it’s cracked up to be, as Charlie discovers when his uncle dies and names him heir to his secret villainy business.

I wanted to love this book. A reluctant heir to a villain’s empire and sentient cats? Sounds like fun! Plus, I have enjoyed several Scalzi books in the past. But this one could have been better. Despite the fun set-up, it was not as entertaining as I expected. There was a lot of talk about how businesses are run, how billionaires don’t really have the money they’re supposedly worth due to not having liquid assets or whatever, and just…lots of financial talk that was over my head and/or dry. I’m used to sci-fi world-building being a bit difficult for me to follow, but this was real-world stuff, and I just didn’t care that much.

The cats are a bright spot in the story, though, and the plot did keep me guessing. In the end, it wasn’t super complicated, but I still didn’t expect some of what came about by the end. The book isn’t all that long, and Scalzi’s mostly simple style makes for a fairly quick read. I don’t know that I’ll re-read it some day, but I’m glad I read it in the first place. As for recommendations, if you’re a Scalzi fan and/or the plot sounds interesting, I think it’s worth giving a try. Other reviews are mostly positive, so maybe check those out too.

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Book Review: The Groundworld Heroes

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The Groundworld Heroes
by Adrian So

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s fantasy

The continual war between humans and ground-dwelling animals comes to life in this fun, well-crafted adventure by (then) 13-year-old Adrian So. The main character is a mole named Benjamin who is basically just trying to follow rules and be the best Soiland citizen and member of the mole-digger team that he can be, but the incursion of the humans causes all sorts of chaos. While Benjamin gets left behind, the rest of the Soilanders, under the direction of the president, Mr. Hare, who gives his own POV to the story, run into trouble as refugees. The inclusion of terms like “bunny-hops” as units of distance and “badger-winces” as units of time added to the immersion of the underground world, though at times some were a little difficult to follow. There were parts here and there that felt unnecessary or confusing that perhaps may be cleaned up before the book releases (I received an ARC to review at the author’s request), and sadly that includes the dragonfly fossil thread that ran through the story in a way that I don’t think I ever understood. But overall, the story felt like a fun adventure that kids in the 7-10 age range will enjoy.

I received a free review copy from the author in exchange for my honest unedited feedback.
Publication date: August 6, 2024

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Book Review: The Mystery of Locked Rooms

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The Mystery of Locked Rooms
by Lindsay Currie

My rating:2.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade adventure

When her family is faced with foreclosure and moving to another state, Sarah and her friends West and Hannah decide to try to find the fabled treasure in a nearby abandoned funhouse built in the 1950s. They’ve solved lots of escape rooms together, so they know they have the best chance of making it past the riddles and puzzles to find the prize at the end.

I’ll get to the part of this review about the escape room side of this book in a bit, but I’ll start with talking about the plot and characterization. The plot was fairly basic—MC desperately needs money to save herself/her family, fabled treasure is available, she enlists her friends to help her get it. The ER elements aside, it plays out about like you’d expect. There’s even one character with a far-above-average memory, which I guess I don’t know how rare it is, but I have a feeling the statistics are something vastly lower than 1 in 4 people with that kind of memory, which is what a lot of MG books make it seem like. Throughout their experience in the funhouse, these kids are pushed to their limits and end up opening up to each other in ways that they haven’t in the past, and their conversations sound a lot more insightful and self-aware than kids would really be at this age (pre-teens, I think? I don’t remember if their ages are stated). Add to that the way the funhouse is just somehow magically set up to test each of their unique strengths and weaknesses, and I feel like it definitely could have been done better.

If this book had not been billed to be about escape rooms, I would have rated it higher. I’ll just say up front that if you’re thinking about reading this book because you enjoy escape rooms, maybe give it a pass. However, it is for younger readers, and most of them will have never played any escape rooms, or at least not enough to see the problems with that aspect of this book, so I doubt that would be much of an issue for them. I’ve only played about 30+ escape rooms, which is a low number amongst enthusiasts, but I have a difficult time believing that these 3 kids have played as many as they have at their age (and income level for one of them at least—escape rooms are expensive, and though it’s mentioned that she got a subscription or something to a particular business for a birthday present, that one business couldn’t include enough different rooms to account for the seemingly high number of rooms the book makes it seem like these kids have done). At the beginning of the book, they’re all excited because they beat a game with a very low escape rate, and then later it’s mentioned that it was their 3rd time attempting the room. In my experience, playing an ER multiple times is very uncommon. Plus, it’s mentioned later in the book that many ERs have multiple exits to the next room…also not something I’ve really seen or heard of much, if ever. Then the details within the funhouse, the way the escape room elements play out, just…don’t really make a lot of sense to me. The kids get excited over things they figure out that don’t actually mean anything or advance them, and riddles they find are somehow perfectly tailored to what they’ve done or the order in which they’ve done things, even though the puzzles are way too non-linear for that to be possible. In the end, this felt like every book or movie I’ve ever read/seen about a not-quite-mainstream fad (like when TV shows try to include MMORPGs) that is clearly written by people who do not have enough experience about the subject matter. I really can’t say if that’s the case with Currie or not, but it definitely fell short for me.

I was so excited to read this book. I figured that ERs have now been around long enough for them to be more correctly used, and this book certainly sounded like it would be a good one for that. It really wasn’t, at least to me. Between that and the drama in the plot, it just wasn’t as exciting as it seemed like it was meant to be. I didn’t hate it by any means, and it was a quick read. And as I said above, I am certain that pre-teens wouldn’t have any issue with the lack of escape room realness. That leaves the story and characters, which I still think were a bit weak, but it’s also entirely possible that they’ll resonate more with those of the age group this is meant for.

Thank you to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Kids for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Book Review: Eléonore

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Eléonore
Iníonaofa Chronicles #1
by Faith Rivens

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Urban fantasy

Librarian by day, demon hunter by night, single mom all day, Eléonore has things under control until she finds out there’s a bounty on her head. Now she has become the hunted, but she’s going to face the trouble head-on so she can get back to her son.

This type of urban fantasy is not my normal fare, but I thought I’d give it a try to support a fellow self-published author. I appreciate the depth Rivens has given to her fantasy world, as it was developed enough that I felt like I was diving into the middle of an already-going story. This led me to feel a bit lost at times, but it also made me want to know more, keeping me engaged. Unfortunately, by the end, I felt like there was something majorly missing from the plot, and I think that’s because the answers will come in a later book. Or maybe some of them won’t.  I don’t think I’ll continue on, mostly due to what I mentioned before about it not being the kind of thing I normally read. It was also a bit more extreme than I expected in various ways. There’s a fair bit of violence and language and a sex scene (not particularly graphic, but more than I prefer). It was also weirdly religious—Eléonore prays to Mary (mother of Jesus) after stating that she isn’t religious at all, so kind of confusing. Fans of urban fantasy of this nature who don’t mind the things I mentioned above might consider giving this book a try.

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Book Review: Poirot Investigates

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Poirot Investigates
Hercule Poirot #3
 by Agatha Christie
read by David Suchet

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

Reading this collection of short stories after reading 3 full-length Poirot books, I really appreciated the succinctness of the mysteries here. As far as I can tell, the short stories are very uncommon in this series, though, so it’ll be back to the longer plots that I can’t help but feel run on too long after this. Though some of the stories in this collection were more enjoyable than others, overall I felt much more engaged throughout than I have so far in my readings of Poirot. Poor Hastings, though…if I were in his place, I’m sure I’d make all the same “stupid” mistakes that Poirot berates him for. If only Poirot were a bit more understanding of those who aren’t the genius he is.

I know that David Suchet, who narrated this version of the audiobook, famously portrayed Poirot in TV adaptations, though I have not seen any version of Poirot on any size screen. I will say, though, that for a good portion of these stories, his French accent for Poirot was almost too difficult to understand. Then it suddenly seemed to lighten partway through. Outside of that, though, I enjoyed listening to this audiobook.

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Book Review: Elizabeth’s Playground

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Elizabeth’s Playground
Abby’s Letters #3
by Dana Romanin

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Christian YA romance

After losing her dad and then her mom and being lied to by her older sister for months about her mom’s death, Abby doesn’t have a lot of capacity for trust. She also can’t quite keep herself from shoplifting whenever she’s stressed and doesn’t feel worthy of love. But when she meets the new kid, Ian, she can’t stop herself from liking him any more than she can stop herself from snatching items off the store shelves.

I wish I had liked this book more. I think I get what the author was going for throughout, but it just didn’t really work for me. Though Abby has had some rough stuff in her life, I think she is more traumatized than makes sense to me. Yes, her mom was an alcoholic, but in the first book, we’re shown that Abby still had a decent relationship with her. That was the whole point of her letters that showed her older sister Jane that Abby and their mom were close, while Jane only thought of her mom as a mess. And yes, Jane lied to Abby for a while about her mom being dead so that Abby wouldn’t be taken away, but since then, Abby has been in foster care with a loving family. So why is she a prickly, self-destructive klepto who feels like she doesn’t deserve love?

Right off the bat, I didn’t care for the cliché of instant attraction between Ian and Abby (more on his side than hers, but hers wasn’t far behind), nor the cutesy nicknames they give each other and use almost exclusively throughout the book. In fact, the whole book feels like a lot of clichés or tropes mashed together, starting with Abby being really rude to Ian when they first meet, yet him being drawn to her because there’s “just something about her.” There is some light sexual innuendo I didn’t care for, and Abby’s friend Louisa has a sort of “wise older person” persona, despite being a fairly typical-seeming teenage girl otherwise. Then there’s the moment near the end of the book when Abby’s foster dad tells her that she needs to stop living for others and do something for herself, which led me to ask…when was she ever living for others? In the end, I liked the idea of this series of novellas more than I liked the execution, though I think that the middle book could stand alone as a decent read.

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Book Review: The Bungalow Mystery

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The Bungalow Mystery
Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #3
by Carolyn Keene
read by Laura Linney

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic mystery

I’m finding it a little difficult to write a different review for each of these books, so I’ll just say a few things. I appreciate the excitement at the beginning, with Nancy and a friend stuck out on the water during a thunderstorm and that leading them to meet a young girl who ends up needing Nancy’s help. Though her predicament was pretty obvious to me from the start, I’m certain that those of the age group that these books are meant for would not have figured it out as easily. Overall, I’m enjoying the series and this trip back to a different time (though whether that time is the 30s or the 50s, I don’t know…apparently the original books were updated at some point, and I don’t know for sure which version these audiobooks are based on.) Laura Linney again does a great job bringing Nancy to life, making the audiobook a great option for this series.

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Book Review: Last Girl Breathing

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Last Girl Breathing
by Court Stevens

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Suspense, mystery

Eight years after heavy rain caused a dam failure that swept away her younger brother, Lucy’s step-brother Martin has gone missing in the same expanse of land that was under water all those years ago. Lucy can’t help but wonder if Martin’s allegations that someone was behind the dam break are related to his disappearance, and soon she’s swept up in an escalating mystery that involves multiple deaths and disappearances.

I found myself really caught up in the suspense of this book—the search for Martin, the questions about the dam break, the obvious suspicious behavior of Lucy’s ex-boyfriend. Every once in a while, there’s a brief glimpse into the day of the dam break, and the impending disaster in those sections added to the suspense for me. There are a lot of characters, basically all of whom could be involved in either the dam disaster or the current tragedy. It took me a little bit to understand the dynamics of this group of families who are said to spend a lot of time together, but once I did, I had no issue keeping them straight.

The thrill ride comes to an abrupt halt, though, a little past halfway, when part 1 ends and part 2 is basically just a page saying that time has gone by. Then part 3 picks up 2 years later. It was a bit of a jolt, though I understand the need for a time jump. I definitely didn’t expect it and wonder if there was a better way to do it, but I was still invested and wanted to find out the truth of everything. However, my real issue comes with the ending. The ending is usually pretty make-or-break for suspense/thriller novels, and this one was…okay. It felt a little too much like a twist was thrown in just for the sake of having a twist. By the time we find out who’s behind much of the events, I don’t feel very connected to that person, so it probably doesn’t hit me as hard as it should. And by that point, to be honest, I was half expecting it anyway. Overall, though, I enjoyed the book more than not and have already recommended it to my suspense-loving teenage daughter. I like that it’s fairly clean overall, with no language that I can remember and only side references to affairs or other things of that nature (including a fairly uncomfortable mention of a first kiss when Lucy was 13). Though I think the pacing could have been better, I feel comfortable recommending this book to any fan of suspense novels who is interested.

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Book Review: Reflections of the Mole

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Reflections of the Mole
by Bill McDaniel

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Memoir

My husband and I were huge fans of The Mole back in the day; it’s really the only non-cooking-related reality show I’ve ever watched. I actually watched the 2 regular seasons with my teenage daughter, and then I found out about this book, written by (spoiler alert) the Mole from season 2. The book is exactly what I was hoping for: a walk-through of much of the filming of season 2—the games, the suspicions, the twists. After each elimination, there’s even something about the eliminated player, a sort of “aftermath” section, including some written by those other players. McDaniel also talks about his life before The Mole, all the way back to his childhood. His style is conversational, and I really enjoyed being able to get a glimpse behind the scenes of the show and into the mind of the man who was placed into the game to cause trouble. I would say that if you are/were a fan of the show, you definitely might enjoy this book. Otherwise, I doubt you’d have much interest.

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June in Review

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I read 9 books last month, the 2nd-lowest number so far this year. Considering that the 2nd week was Vacation Bible School at our church, and my husband and I are directors, and the week before that was full of last-minute prep, this number is actually higher than I expected. The majority of the books were read in the 2nd half of the month though, so apparently I was making up for the first 2 weeks.

Here are the books I read in June:

Good Girl 3
Anne 2
Power of Six
Lightkeepers
Carpenter 4
Bees
39-1
Dream
Version 1.0.0

As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson (1.5 / 5)
Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery (4 / 5)
The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore (3 / 5)
Lightkeepers by Kennedy Plumb (3 / 5)
Sudden Death by David Rosenfelt (5 / 5)
He Should Have Told the Bees by Amanda Cox (4 / 5)
The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan (4 / 5)
A Dream within a Dream by Mike Nappa & Melissa Kosci (4 / 5)
Dog Day Afternoon by David Rosenfelt (4.5 / 5)

This list includes 2 ARCs and 2 re-reads. My favorite book from June was Sudden Death. I started 1 series, continued 3 series, and finished 2 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.