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Book Review: The Raven

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The Raven
Coffey & Hill #2
by Mike Nappa

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Thriller/suspense, Christian

When a street magician (deception specialist), who calls himself The Raven and tends to pay his rent with what he can steal out of the pockets in his audience, gets in over his head with a local politician and his enforcers, he finds himself in the middle of a mysterious plot code-named “Nevermore.” Private investigator Trudi Coffey and her ex-husband, ex-CIA agent, ex-private investigator, now Atlanta cop, Samuel Hill race to uncover the details of the plot and stop it before it, whatever it even is, can happen.

For as much as I liked the previous book in this series, I liked this one even more. It kept me in suspense all throughout, with high stakes, real danger, and well-developed characters. Nappa made me care about people on both sides—good guys and bad guys alike. Though Coffey and Hill are the overall focus of the series, The Raven was really the protagonist in this story, with his attempts to turn his life around and some backstory that culminated in a couple of very emotional moments. I didn’t care for Raven’s insta-crush on Trudi, but overall, it was downplayed enough to not be a problem. 

Like the previous book, this one also has three perspectives: Trudi Coffey, a woman named Bliss that is connected to Nevermore in some way, and The Raven (whose POV is in 1st-person, present tense, while the other two are 3rd-person, past tense). There is also a lot of jumping around in time, which seems to be one of the biggest issues for other people. Even when a chapter starts in “present time,” it will sometimes jump back and tell something that happened minutes, hours, or days earlier, before getting back to “now.” I didn’t have a problem with that flow; in fact, I think it really added to the suspense.

This book had a little more Christian content in it than the previous, which only took the form of Trudi recently becoming a Christian and trying to filter her life through that newish lens. The Raven brings more of that into the story, struggling with an upbringing as a pastor’s son and his guilt over some particularly bad things he’s done in his life. That and the lessened violence and gore (compared to the previous) are probably the biggest contributors to my higher rating of this book. Needless to say, I loved this book and recommend it to fans of suspense and thriller novels, especially with a Christian leaning.

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Book Review: Storm Warning

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Storm Warning
The 39 Clues #9
by Linda Sue Park

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s mystery, adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review will contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Maze of Bones.

On the trail of pirates, someone else is on the trail of Amy and Dan Cahill, but then, what else is new? But now they’re learning that the threat may have been closer than they knew all along.

We’re nearing the end of the main series now, and the story is ramping up appropriately; this book dives right in with Amy and Dan confronting Nellie about her deception. Personally, I’ve figured Nellie was more involved than she claimed from the beginning, when her snake nose ring was described, but that seemed to be a red herring, since it wasn’t brought up again in 9 books. The real truth about what Nellie has been keeping from Amy and Dan isn’t exactly earth-shattering or completely unexpected, but it’s nice to start getting things out into the open. The Madrigal involvement in the clue hunt is close to what I suspected partway through the book, but there are still some surprises.

In this book, Amy is awkward and stumbles over words when she’s with her family, but later, she doesn’t seem to struggle at all talking to people she doesn’t know, even in stressful situations. This might not have been something I’d have pointed out, except that it seems likely it’s due to this book being written by an author who’s new to the series. Though overall, I’ve really enjoyed the journey, I do sometimes feel that the one-off authors could have had more of an understanding of the characters before writing their contribution. Or that there should have been an editor who read all of stories with an eye toward fixing any characterization issues. Though the final book in the main series is written by yet another new author, I’m still looking forward to seeing how all of this ends. I’ve already strongly recommend this series to my 13-year-old daughter who has just recently gotten into reading more heavily, and I think kids as young as 10 would enjoy this series as well.

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Book Review: Hatchet

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Hatchet
Brian’s Saga #1
by Gary Paulsen

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic middle grade adventure

I remember reading the story of teenage Brian stuck alone in the wilderness for several weeks when I was a kid, though the only parts of it I could recall were that the plane went down into water and that at some point he dove into the water to try to salvage supplies from the plane. When I read it again recently because my daughter read it for school, I remembered a lot more of the challenges Brian faces. The reader easily roots for Brian to solve the next problem, to overcome the next hurdle. He has setbacks and moments where he contemplates giving up, which make the story all the more realistic. On top of it all, he’s reeling from a divorce caused by a horrible Secret that he’s kept buried, and while his dangerous situation tends to overtake that trauma, it’s always there, waiting to creep in during his weakest moments. Overall, the story is engaging, and when a potential major issue happens near the end of the book, I found myself groaning and shaking my head for poor Brian.

My only gripe with the book is the author’s style, which involves a lot of repetition within sentences and paragraphs. Though some might be seen as showing Brian’s mental state, it started before the plane even went down, so I think it’s purely a style choice, and one that I don’t personally care for. Otherwise, though, I think this book is still great for pre-teens and teens to read, maybe with parents for pre-teens.

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Weekly Writing Update: 2/11

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While I wait for my beta-reading sisters to read “Power,” book #3 in the Pithea series, I’m starting to work on book #4. I wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo in 2020 and haven’t touched it since then, so first I have to figure out what major changes need to be made and how to go about making them. I spent all of this week doing a character interview with one of the major characters in the section of the story I’m most uncertain about. It has been very helpful so far, and I’ll continue it this week.

I’ve stuck to my goal of writing 20 minutes per day, even with a few days this last week where I didn’t feel much like doing any work. It’s easier to push myself when the work ahead of me is a character interview, though, because it really doesn’t feel much like work.

While I work on continuing the series, if you’re interested in reading where it all starts, Pithea is available on Amazon in multiple formats (e-book, paperback, and now in hardcover) as well as Kindle Unlimited.

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Book Review: Good Girl, Bad Blood

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Good Girl, Bad Blood
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder #2
by Holly Jackson

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: YA mystery, suspense

After solving the mystery of Andie Bell’s and Sal Singh’s deaths, Pip and Ravi create a limited-run podcast to share their discoveries. Due to the podcast’s success, when Jamie Reynolds, the brother of one of Pip’s close friends, goes missing, his family asks her to use her audience to try to find him. Pip is resistant at first, not wanting to get caught up in another investigation, given how damaging the last one had been for her and those around her, but since the police don’t consider the disappearance a priority, Pip knows she can’t leave her friend and his family without answers.

I liked this book a tad more than the previous, I think because it felt a little more focused than the first one, with so many paths Pip went down to get to the real truth. I liked the merger of the updates from the previous investigation with the new case at hand. I have to admit that I pegged the main bad guy really early in the book, which is not normal to me, but I honestly don’t know if it was majorly telegraphed or if I just took a guess based on tropes of the genre. I think there was at least one thing that happened that wasn’t explained, which I wish had been. And the reader is definitely not given a chance to figure out the motive in advance, but then again, this isn’t exactly a cozy mystery, so I think that’s okay.

I still get serious Veronica Mars vibes from this series (in a good way). I take issue with some of the ethical and legal lines Pip is willing to cross in this book, with no consequences, though they may come about in the next book. For those who want to know about content, there is some language and references to drug use and rape, though nothing explicit. If you’re concerned, I’d definitely recommend reading it before your teen does (especially a younger teen). I’ve enjoyed this series thus far and look forward to the conclusion.

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Book Review: First Degree

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First Degree
Andy Carpenter #2
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Mystery

Defense attorney Andy Carpenter is reluctantly brought into a case when a man confesses to murder under the protection of attorney-client privilege. The case takes a turn when Andy’s girlfriend ends up being accused of the murder, and it’s up to him to unravel a conspiracy and prove her innocence.

Frame-ups and high-reaching conspiracies are the common ground in this series so far. I like that these stories look at both the investigation and the trial, because even when Andy knows his client isn’t guilty, he still has to be able to prove it. And that’s when discovering the real culprit(s) comes in. I’m not remotely an expert in what goes on in a courtroom, but Rosenfelt makes those scenes seem much more real that what I normally see on TV. Maybe it’s just because he includes so many details that others leave out. I also really liked the bits of the previous book that continued into this one, especially Andy helping his previous client with a lawsuit against those who caused him to be incarcerated for years. The question of whether or not Andy will win the trial is probably not as suspenseful as it could be, since solving the mystery is pretty tied up in proving his client innocent, and I suspect that will be the case throughout the series, but it doesn’t make the mystery less interesting.

Only two audiobooks in, Gardner is already the definitive voice of Andy Carpenter for me. Gardner really brings Andy’s wit and sarcasm to life. I’m definitely sticking with the audiobooks for this series as much as possible. Fans of mystery, crime fiction, and courtroom dramas should consider reading this book.

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Weekly Writing Update: 2/4

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For three years, I have posted book reviews almost exclusively on this blog, which started as a place to keep myself accountable while working on my writing. I used to post every single day that I did writing work, lowering that amount to weekly when I didn’t need the daily accountability anymore. Then I stopped writing consistently for a while. Though nothing new (I’ve had gaps in my daily writing before, both long and short), when I did get back to writing again, I didn’t get back to posting. It’s time to remedy that. So I’ll dive back in with a brief update of what I’ve recently accomplished in my writing.

I finished draft 6 of “Power,” book #3 in the Pithea series only a few days ago, the last draft that I will work on alone. I have asked my 3 sisters, who helped me immensely with the revision of book #1, to read it and give me feedback—as vague or as detailed as they want to or have time to give. I’m not putting a deadline on them, though, since they’re all busy and it’s important enough for me to get their feedback before I publish it. I figure it’s been long enough since book #2 was published, what’s a little longer?

In the meantime, I’ve turned my attention to book #4. I wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo in 2020 and haven’t touched it since then, so I’ve been taking it slow getting used to the story again while I start to work out where the first major changes need to be made and how to go about making them. Right now, it’s mostly reading and brainstorming. And I plan to do some freewriting this week, since after so much revision for so long, I really want to do some actual writing, which still isn’t needed with the first draft done of the next book.

I’ve done a pretty decent job of sticking to my goal of writing 20 minutes 20 days out of the month. This month, I’m pushing it to 20 minutes every single day (and if I miss a day, I’ll make it up). This is how I’ve maintained a pretty steady habit for several months now. Plus, I often write with my daughter (working on different projects, but at the same time, usually sitting at the same table), so we kind of spur each other on to write most days.

While I work on continuing the series, if you’re interested in reading where it all starts, Pithea is available on Amazon as both an e-book and paperback (it’s also on Kindle Unlimited).

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Book Review: Masterminds

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Masterminds
Book #1
by Gordon Korman

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

Serenity, New Mexico may seem like the perfect small town, but five teenagers are about to discover that there’s a lot more going on, both in their town and in the rest of the world, than they ever knew. 

This is the kind of book that is difficult to explain the premise of without giving too much away. There are five main teenagers, and each of them has their turn as the POV character. That is a lot of different perspectives to keep straight, and while so often that many doesn’t work out, Korman did a good job of keeping them all different. In fact, the story is in 1st-person from each of these perspectives, yet their voices are all unique enough to keep me from being confused (for the most part). I really enjoyed the way everything played out, though, and how the five teens got started on their investigation. While the main catalyst for the teens’ investigations comes from the main character, Eli, having bizarre symptoms when he rode his bike out of town with his friend, the other teens basically start on their own questioning and digging in other ways. When their individual quests come together, the story really picks up. The synopsis compares the book to Stranger Things, and unlike the last book I read that had that comparison, this one works.

I didn’t realize this was the start of the series until I got to the end, and while it’s not an outright cliffhanger, it definitely left me wanting more! My 13-year-old daughter read this book before me, and she and I are both excited to continue the series. We also both recommend this book for teens and even adults who enjoy suspenseful teen books.

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Book Review: The Mysterious Affair at Styles

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The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Hercule Poirot #1
 by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

This is the first Agatha Christie book I’ve ever read, and now I’m wondering what took me so long, especially since I’ve been a fan of mystery books all my life. I think when I was younger, I figured older books would just be boring, but as an adult, I definitely appreciate the simplicity of books written or set in historical time periods. Though I think the narrator, Hastings, needed more development as a character, Poirot is an interesting detective-type character, and I look forward to getting to know him more. I had some theories about the mystery, though I don’t know that the clues to the true answer are really given to the reader. Poirot plays things pretty close to the vest, allowing Hastings, who acted as his sidekick, to go down quite a few wrong paths. Though some say it’s not the best idea to start with this book if you’ve never read any in this series before, because Christie was still figuring out who Poirot is or for other reasons that might keep someone from liking the series enough to want to keep going, to me, that just means it’ll get better from here. And though Poirot may have over-explained after the mystery was solved, I enjoyed the story overall. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Hugh Fraser and thought he did a great job. I’m looking forward to continuing on in this series!

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Book Review: The Traitor

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The Traitor
Michael Vey #9
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.

The Electroclan has to decide how to stop the Chasqui from destroying a town, free their friends, and deal with their friend who betrayed them.

I can’t pretend to know Evans’s motivation in opening this series back up again after a clear ending, but this book in particular made me feel like he doesn’t really care about the series anymore. The bad guy has (no surprise) turned out to be pretty much a slightly different version of Hatch. Multiple major side characters die, which might not seem like a big deal, but it’s quite different for this series. And the big kicker, to me, is that it appears that Evans completely forgot that he’d killed off an entire tribe of people way back in book #3. While, yes, the news that the Amacarra tribe had been wiped out could have been false, it has never been revealed to us that any (or apparently all) of them survived. Yet when they suddenly appear again in this book, no one is surprised, confused, happy, anything (except me). To me, that kind of huge continuity issue smacks of apathy.

Books 1-7 of this series have an overarching plot—the Electroclan trying to stop Hatch’s schemes and eventually bring down the Elgen. Whatever issues I had with those books, the desire to see the Electroclan triumph was basically what kept me going through 7 books. No matter what the real reason is that Evans continued the series after neatly wrapping it up, after only 2 books, I’ve lost my motivation to keep reading. I don’t care enough about the new bad guy, because he’s far too much like the old bad guy (plus, spoiler, he’s already stopped by the end of this 2nd book), and the new threat just doesn’t seem as globally dangerous. 

Rather than continue to complain about style issues, Evans’s weird pacing decisions, and other things that I’ve mentioned in multiple previous reviews already, I’m just going to say that this is the end for me, and be done with it. This is the last published book to date, but since it came out only 4 months ago, given what was left hanging, I assume at least one more is planned. I won’t put myself through the frustration of reading any further, though. As for recommendations, though I mildly enjoyed much of the first 7 books, I don’t know that I’d recommend this series, especially for adults. Teens are probably better able to overlook some of the shallow characterization and style issues I had with it.

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