Review: Otherworldly by Dwain Worrell

Otherworldly by Dwain Worrell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ALC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own. In fully transparency, I picked this book as my Amazon Prime First Reads book for February so I also own the ebook version.

This started out really interesting but as the book went on I found it got more confusing. The concept is really interesting. Cleo and her crew are sent to check out a planet and determine it's terraforming capability. Cleo is a bit of a loner making her a perfect candidate for a solo mission to the planet's surface. Upon arrival she find the planet to be strange, and when another crewmate starts to experience similar things she begins to wonder if they aren't actually alone in space. The book just gets weirder from there, and I won't spoil it because it is actually pretty interesting.

I enjoyed Cleo's robot companion Shakes who is only speaks in rhyme, it added a bit of humor to some of the more serious situations, or some poetry to some of the more emotional scenes. As Cleo traverses the planet and the different sphere's the action picks up as she attempts to find the other members of her crew. She also has to deal with the dangers the planet throws at her which is where I found the story to get confusing, I may have to go back and read those parts again because I'm still not sure what was going on. There was alot going on at one point and I lost track of what was happening.

Overall I thought the worldbuilding was well done and the plot was unique. The pacing was good and while I found bit of it a little confusing I think that was more of a me issue than an issue with the writing.

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Review: Nobody's Baby by Olivia Waite

Nobody's Baby by Olivia Waite
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

This is the 2nd book in the Dorothy Gentleman novella series and while I feel it would be beneficial for you to start with the first novella, it appears that the mysteries are all independent and can be read as standalones.  

This series takes place aboard the HMS Fairweather, where passengers are crossing space to eventually inhabit and populate a new planet.  Dorothy is a member of what you could equate to the ship's police squad and investigates whatever crimes come up during the ship's passage.  In this installment she has to figure out how a baby, who's existence shouldn't be possible as all the ship's inhabitants have been temporarily made infertile for the journey, came to land on her nephew's doorstep.  

This is a delightful story, solving a mystery in just under 4 hours.  The author does a great job with world-building and character development in the short time we have.  We get to see different sides of Dorothy as she is detective mode, when she is with her nephew Ruthie, and when she is flirting with her crush Violet.  We also get to see more of ship life as we see the different jobs people have and how the baby came to be.  Overall the cozy nature of the mystery stayed interesting while remining low stakes and low action.  This series is fun and has a nice balance of all the things I'm looking for.  I can't wait to see what Dorothy tackles next.

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Review: Midnight on the Celestial by Julia Alexander

Midnight on the Celestial by Julia Alexandra
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

I haven't read a good YA novel in a while, and this was a great reminder of how great YA fantasy can be.  This has a unique magic system, some action, some horror, and a bit of romance to balance things out.  

In this world some people have magic, while others do not.  Those with magic, must pass a trial when they come of age to prove that they can control their power and aren't a danger to society.  Our main character Roe has a unique power to call upon spirits, which her family has long used as a party trick to gain favor with those of high society.  When her trial goes horribly wrong she finds herself serving out her time as a concierge onboard the ship Celestial in order to earn a retrial.  Having no training and having never served anyone in her life, she is terrible at her assigned job, but with the help of her crewmates she quickly learns the ropes.  She also comes to find out that the ship is not just a pleasure cruise for the wealthy and a rehab for the failed magic users.  Every day strange things happen that threated all the lives onboard and Roe is determined to figure out what is at the root of it.  She uncovers more than she anticipates and with the help of her new friends she can fight her way out and save those like her.

Like many YA books you fill find familiar tropes of the chosen one, resistance, betrayal and lies.  Some will find this unoriginal, while others will find that these are the things that they love about YA fantasy novels.  If done well with new and original characters and plotlines these familiar tropes become new and exciting again.  I really enjoyed the worldbuilding, the ship itself was well described and the magic elements created while on the ship were well done.  The character development suffered a bit because of all of the plotlines.  The characters in my opinion could have used a bit more flushing out and the relationships could have used a bit more development, things just came together too neatly for Roe and the crew.  Overall I really enjoyed the plotline and the magic.  This was fun and unique and I look forward to reading more from the author in the future.

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Review: The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan

The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

This was a very unique historical fantasy about the Beast of Gévaudan with some Jehanne d’Arc in the mix as well.  Set in the late 1700s in France, Sebastian Grave sets out to right the wrongs of his past.  

I found this a bit hard to follow at times as it not only follows Sebastian in the past with Antoinne his friend and lover during the initial Red Winter and during the present with Antoinne's son.  There are also a ton of characters, who are not always referred to by the same name from scene to scene.  For example, Sebastian's "guest" Sarmodel is mainly referred to as Sarmodel, but there are a few scenes especially when the archangel Michael is present when he goes by another name.  This is true for several characters, who have a religious name or alias as they are immortal or serve a religious purpose.  As this book is fairly long this can get confusing especially when you are listening to the audiobook, for books like this I prefer to have a print book handy so I can refer back to names and places to keep me from getting confused but that is a personal preference.  The interactions between the characters was great and I enjoyed Livia's POV in between the main story.  She added some humor to a darker story despite her chapters focusing more on Joan of Arc and more of the religious aspects of the book.

I was surprised to find out this was a debut novel as the writing feels like that of a seasoned fantasy novelist.  The storyline was unique, the pacing was good, and while I would have liked more information on certain things that can be true of any book or author.  I would have liked to better understand how Sebastian and Sarmodel were joined, it may have been mentioned, but I clearly missed it.  The two of them together were a great pairing and we get to see them speak to one another often.  There is plenty of action to balance out the character driven parts of the story, and I enjoyed the mix of magic and fantasy elements that were woven into the religious, political, and social aspects of the book.  If you are looking for a book that blends genres this is a good one.

I like the way the footnotes were read in the audiobook, it felt like the characters were trying to break the 4th wall, which is not often done in audio format.  From other reviews of the book I can see that these were the footnotes/endnotes.  The audiobook was fantastic the way it was narrated.  Both of the narrators were excellent and I highly recommend the audio.  I plan on listening to it again to pick up the bits I missed soon.  

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Review: A Rose of Blood and Binding: The Middlemist Trilogy, Book 3 by Claire Legrand

A Rose of Blood and Binding: The Middlemist Trilogy, Book 3 by Claire Legrand
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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

This is the conclusion to the Middlemist Trilogy, and while each book follows a different sister, I don't feel like you can read them as standalones.  The main plotline is interwoven between the three books and to truly understand what is going on you would need to start at the beginning.  Now if you are only interested in Mara and her part of the story you could get away with reading them individually as there is enough info to fill in the blanks about what is happening and the main storyline follows Mara and her journey.

Mara has been portrayed as a brave and strong warrior in the previous two books, but in this installment we find that she has a lot of feelings about being sent away at a young age to train with the Roses.  The Roses are a band of female warriors secluded from their families who train hard and protect the realm from the mysterious mist and the creatures that it hides.  They are ruled by the Warden who is not only their keeper, but also like a mother to them though she is harsh a ruthless at times.  We come to learn that Mara has been made to do things as Rose that she feels quite a lot of guilt about, and she uses pain and sex to ease her feelings of shame and inadequacy.  The also has a lot of thoughts of ending her own life so trigger warnings for suicide as it is mentioned quite a lot.  Mara has a lot of self hatred to work through and while Gareth her love interest tries to help her through it, it overwhelmed the storyline in my opinion.

We do reunite with Mara's family, her sisters, their partners, her parents, and many other key players we have met along the way to thwart the antagonist.  The magic and worldbuilding were as always really interesting.  Legrand always does a great job with those.  Gareth and Mara's characters eventually get together and when they do there are plenty of scenes to solidify their love, Legrand's books are always full of those as well.  I didn't always feel their chemistry, especially with Mara always pushing him away.

Overall this was a good conclusion to the series.

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Review: The Divide Series: War by Magdalene Asante

The Divide Series: War by Magdalene Asante
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC of this book via the author, all opinions are my own. I'm actually embarrased to admit how long this has been sitting on my TBR. The author reached out to me so long ago to read her book and give it a review. Thank you for the review copy and I'm sorry it took me so long.

I really liked the concept of this book. The curse to find your soulmate or die in angonizing pain if you choose your own path was an interesting and unique way of pitting the various kingdoms against one another. Unfortunately there were so many characters to keep track of and the abrupt jumps in time were hard for me to follow at times.

We are thrown right in to the thick of things with the politics of the various kingdoms in the world, but we don't get much detail about any of them. There are two main kingdoms at play in the book but we never really know why they are at odds or why they want to go to war, other than for power and domination. We also don't get much backstory on the characters and their motivations. For me this made the story hard to follow as I didn't understand why things were happening. I also didn't think that the curse made any sense, both of the characters that were cursed were supposed to be dying, but they were fighting and plotting like these amazing generals at peak health.

Overall this was a good debut, the concept is unique but the pieces didn't quite come together. I don't mind when the plot is slowly revealed over the course of a book or series, but it has to make sense when it all comes together. I think more explanation of the key elements, a bit more worldbuilding, and more backstory of the characters would have really been helpful for me at least.

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Review: The Gatekeeper by James Byrne

The Gatekeeper by James Byrne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received a paperback ARC of this ages ago from Minotaur books. I'm not sure if I requested it or won it in a giveaway, but I never got around to reading it, I borrowed the audiobook from the library recently because it fit a prompt for one of the annual reading challenges I do. This isn't my normal genre, which is why I never felt an urge to pick it up. I'm so glad I finally picked this up! This is the first book in series that follows a retired former special forces mercenary. This was action packed and pretty funny.

This follows Dez, who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but fortunately he is the right guy for the situation. Dez is a former special forces mercenary who gets caught up in the politics and legal manipulations of a major military contractor. He just happens to have the skills to uncover and protect his charge, the daughter of the CEO who happens to be in line to take over the company and in charge of the legal department.

If you are a fan of The Terminal List, Jack Reacher, etc I think this would be a good one to pick up though this is a bit more light-hearted Dez is tough and protective, but he is also a musician and has a sense of humor and is always cracking jokes or makes light of situations in his inner monologues. I often lose interest in military type thrillers as they are too serious, but this was fun and funny which kept me interested. I was able to connect with the characters as they felt like real people not just unrealistic military superheroes dealing with crazy situations. Dez is a charming character, and that alone has me wanting to continue with the series. As he and Petra uncover the sinister plot surrounding her famly business, Dez also uncovers a much darker conspiracy that includes murder, politics, and so much more.

This was fun and action packed and while I'm sorry it took me so long to pick it up, I'm glad that there are more books in the series now for me to read.

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