Review: The Children by Melissa Albert

The Children by Melissa Albert
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ALC and ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book.  This follows Guinevere aka Guin for short in the present as an adult as she releases her memior about growing up with a famous author for a mother and being the muse for one of the main characters in her mother's beloved books.  Guin paints a picture that everything was great and living off of her mother's estate she is the picture perfect face of her mother's beloved legacy.  She hasn't spoken to her brother Ennis since they were orphaned as children, and as he announces a secretive art show, her facade begins to crumble.  Guin's carfully crafted persona begins to crumble as people begin to ask questions about their childhood that are off limits and she desperately seeks out her brother ahead of his show.  

As Guin spirals in the present we are alternately taken back to the past where we find Guin and Ennis running barefoot through the forest playing make believe and fending for themselves most of the time.  Their mother is holed up in her writing room or throwing lavish parties, while their father is trying to make a comeback in acting or the arts.  Those who spend too long in their farmhouse experience strange dreams and recognize that there is something strange about the house.  As adult Guin faces these strange events in her childhood she realizes that they were the key to her mother's success as and author, and perhaps the key to her brother's eerie success as an artist.  

Overall I liked the concept of this book, but there were parts that dragged on for me where nothing happened.  The narration was very good, but every time I put this down, I found myself not wanting to pick it up again, but then something would happen to pull me back in.  The reveal at the end, while creative and interesting, I do feel could have been don't earlier and flushed out a bit more.  The author always does a great job building a great atmosphere in her books and did a great job building up to the reveal, letting the reader know that while the children were being neglected by their parents, something just wasn't right.   I wanted more time with the house and the gothic aspects of the past versus present Guin trying to find Ennis to figure out what he was going to reveal in his art.  Overall this was good, but didn't check all the boxes for me.

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Review: The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden

The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

I loved this historical fantasy centered around the Duchess Anne of Britany.  Anne is such an interesting character both in the book and in history.  The author went to great lengths to make clear Anne's love of her country and people.  The afterword gives some historical context about the real Anne, and the historical influences used in the book.  This is not the first book I've read about the Duchess, and they all paint Anne as a strong willed, intelligent, and courageous woman and as Arden mentions there is always an air of romance about any tale I've read where she is involved.

I loved the lore that the author wove in to the historical aspects of the story surrounding Anne and her impending and unwanted marriage to the King of France.  Anne and her most trusted inner circle plot to out maneuver the French at every turn to delay the marriage as long as possible and find a better solution and keep the Duchy out of France's hands.  She tempts the king's lackey with a unicorn hunt in the Lost Lands, only to find that the mythical creatures are in fact real and might just be the aid she is looking for to evade the French.  Blessed by the unicorn, Anne and her entourage are determined to utilize the Lost Lands to their advantage only to find themselves not only in a political game but one of sorcery as well.  Anne finds herself questioning who she can trust at every turn as well as questioning if magic is real and if she can save her lands from going to war.

This story was so well written and the characters were so well crafted.  The myth and lore was woven throughout while taking place in lands inspired by actual people, places, and events that once occurred.  I  love historical fantasy when it is based a bit in reality and a bit in fantasy.  I loved Anne from the very beginning and while it took me a while to warm up to Orleans, he eventually won me over.  Their romance was slow to develop, but worth it in the end, and I really appreciated the ending.  There was also a great supporting cast, Elsebed and her cat Butter were my favorites!

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Review: The Final Target by Nora Roberts

The Final Target by Nora Roberts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ALC and ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This follows Arden from publishing her first book through her successful career as an author.  As she is gaining success she meets Dustin, an eager fan with a bit too much enthusiasm.  He sets off all of the alarm bells after coming to one too many events, and oversteps the line of fan to stalker very quickly.  After things take a violent turn, Arden moves across the country to seek the peace, quite, and safety she so desperately needs.  She also finds community and support in the small Oregon town.  While Arden is putting her life back together, Dustin is building their life together in his head after he gets released from psychiatric treatment.  Can her found family protect her or has she built up the skills she needs to protect herself from the privileged stalker when he comes for her a second time?

I really enjoyed getting to know Arden, her friends, and her family.  The author did a really good job with her character development and did a great job making Dustin's character horribly creepy.  His personality and ideals were something to behold, and not in a good way.  The cast of characters was well developed, and I love a good found family element to any book.  There is a nice romance element but it isn't over the top.  January LaVoy's narration as always is phenomenal.  Her work is always top notch.

I did find this to be a bit formulaic and predictable when compared to a few of Robert's more recent novels.  The plot and characters were similar in nature to a few of her books in the last few years.  Does that mean it wasn't entertaining?  Absolutely not, I still enjoyed it and the characters were engaging.

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Review: Transmentation / Transgression: Or, a Spark on the Eve of the Five Hundred Year Burn: The Formation Saga, Book 2 by Darkly Lem

Transmentation / Transgression: Or, a Spark on the Eve of the Five Hundred Year Burn: The Formation Saga, Book 2 by Darkly Lem
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This follows a large cast of characters across the multiverse, which at times makes this hard to understand.  Some of the characters hop bodies from their original body in their home word to other bodies across time and space to accomplish their job or a mission.  It gets confusing at times as there are so many characters and plotlines to follow, but the book is very interesting and well written.

You cannot read this as a standalone, you need to read the 1st book as it sets up quite a bit of ground work for this book.  This picks up where the 1st book leaves off with the understanding that you already know what is going on and who everyone is.  I wish I had reread the 1st book prior to reading this to get reacquainted with the concepts and characters as it had been quite a while and I think it would have been beneficial to my understanding of the happenings in this book.  I have a pretty good memory, but the concepts are very complex when it comes to the politics and multiverse, and a refresher would have made things a bit easier for me I think.  

This is not an easy book to read, however I do this this book and the series as a whole is totally worth it if you like science fiction, fantasy, and multiverse type stories.  This has political intrigue, interesting characters, and the various worlds are well crafted.  I'm not sure if this is the end of the series or if there are more books, but I'm here for whatever the team of Darkly Lem comes out with next!

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Review: Seek the Traitor's Son by Veronica Roth

Seek the Traitor's Son by Veronica Roth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ALC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This was a great start to a new dystopian series!  The audio has a full cast narration and follows several different characters which made it really easy to understand who's perspective you are following.  This follows two women who's countries are at war, and who's lives are intertwined by the same prophecy.  The prophecy indicates that one of them will lead their people to victory, but doesn't state who will win.  It also states that their lives will be impacted by the same man.

This was a great blend of sci-fi and fantasy.  I love a good dystopian story, and this really delivered for me.  Some people develop abilities if they survive the deadly fever that plagues one colony, while the other colony is highly advanced in technology.  Both of our female characters are very capable soldiers, and there is quite a bit of political and military posturing and maneuvering going on as their nations wage war and negotiate peace with one another.  

This was action packed and had great world building and character development.  There are quite alot of characters to keep track of but again the multi-narrator cast really helped with the audio as it was really easy to keep track of what was going on and who was the focus.  There are also several different plot points going on that all converge.  In addition to the prophecy and the ongoing war, there is also what seems like an unrelated plot to meet others from outside their universe, but that becomes very related to the central plot as things come together.  I really liked how the author brought things together and laid things out.  I'm really exicted for the next book in the series and wish I had it now.  

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Review: A Woman of Whispers by Carey Caffrey

A Woman of Whispers by Cary Caffrey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an Audible code via the author, all opinions are my own.

The narration was fantastic! There are alot of characters and the narrator did a wonderful job with accents and differentiation between all of the various characters.

This follows Little Wolf, a sort of halfling who is part Skarrowyn which is a kind of water people and part human. She is a mercenary and travels with a group of mercenaries. We meet her after she wakes up not remembering who she is or anything about her past. As she regains her wits she slowly beings to regain her memories especially as she reunites with her crew.

Wolf has some interesting relationship dynamics within her crew, which only get more complicated as new characters are introduced. Wolf is not a fan of feeling her own emotions, and frequently uses sex as a distraction whenever those pesky feelings creep up. That being said, she is eventually forced to face her fears and feelings and shows good emotional growth within herself and her relationships as the story develops. There is good action and world building as the crew takes on a job that involves a witch. Wolf doesn't believe in witches or magic, only her abilities and the silver delivered when a job is done. As they complete the job she learns that sometimes things you can't see actually exist.

Overall this was a good setup for the series.

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Review: The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean

The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ALC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

Mercy can speak to ghosts.  She doesn't know why or how she has this ability.  She can't remember her past, but she makes her living working for a local triad boss dealing with angry spirits that inhabit the city she lives in.  A new and powerful ghost is wreaking havoc around the waterways of Hong Kong, leaving messages for Mercy hoping to jog her memory of the past and make amends for her past deeds.

This is told in both the past and present as Mercy tries to uncover what is happening in the present and as we find out what happened in the past.  We also get to know the ghost who is haunting Hong Kong and how she is connected to Mercy and why she is so angry.  This novel is full of lore and myth and ghosts.  It is a puzzle that slowly puts itself together over time as the characters tell us their stories.  As Mercy begins to remember her past, she slowly beings to understand what she must do to make amends despite.  This by far is one of the more unique ghost stories I've read in a while and it certainly touches on vengeful spirits and generational trauma.  There is alot of emotion between the pages as both women are unsettled and looking for something to bring them peace, contentment, connection, forgiveness, etc.  

Natalie Naudus did a fantastic job with the narration as always.  She is an amazing narrator and among my favorites!  

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