Review: Blue Shift by Jane O'Reilly

Author: Jane O'Reilly
Series: Second Species, #1
Released: June 1st 2017
Publisher: Piatkus
Length: 304 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

The Earth is cold, dead and divided. The rich hide away from reality while the rest will do anything to survive. Humanity have only one hope: reaching a habitable planet. But getting there means travelling in large numbers through alien-held space, something that's politically nearly impossible. Yet for some, fighting their way through space is just a way of life . . .

Jinnifer Blue is a rich girl on the run. An expert pilot, she apprehends criminals on behalf of the government and keeps her illegal genetic modifications a closely guarded secret. But when a particularly dangerous job goes south, leaving her stranded on a prison ship with one of the most ruthless criminals in the galaxy, Jinn realises that the rich and the powerful are hiding more than she'd ever guessed. Now she must decide if she can trust her co-prisoner - because once they discover what the prison ship is hiding, she definitely can't trust anyone else . . . 

Blue Shift is Jane O’Reilly’s first foray into (romantic) science fiction and I’m sure it won’t be her last, even after this trilogy is completed. A seasoned author, even if it is in new adult romance, generally knows her stuff, and O’Reilly did an excellent job applying her knowledge and experience to a whole new genre. While Blue Shift has its weaknesses, it’s perfect for those of us who like their sci-fi on the lighter side and their romance on the hotter side. Jane O’Reilly delivers both with ease.

Review: The Hunt by Chloe Neill

Author: Chloe Neill
Series. Devil's Isle, #3
Released: September 26th 2017
Publisher: Berkley
Length: 336 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Chicagoland Vampires Novels--the hunter becomes the hunted in a New Orleans devastated by a Paranormal war....

When bounty hunter Liam Quinn discovered that Claire Connolly was a Sensitive and infected with magic, he should have turned her in to be locked up in the prison district known as Devil's Isle. Instead, he helped her learn to control her power and introduced her to an underground group of Paranormals and humans who know the truth about the war and those who fought it. 

Now the weight of Liam's own secrets has forced him into hiding. When a government agent is killed and Claire discovers that Liam is the prime suspect, she races to find him before the government can. But she'll discover proving his innocence is no simple matter. Their enemies are drawing closer, and time is running out....

Did you know that visiting New Orleans has always been a dream of mine? One day I’ll go there, stay for a month, eat fabulous food, listen to their gorgeous dialects and enjoy the music and the flavorful air. In the meantime, though, my very favorite thing are books set in New Orleans that give me a sense of its gorgeous atmosphere, no matter how brief. Chloe Neill’s Devil’s Isle books show us a different New Orleans, a city forever changed by magic and fear. Still, the author succeeded in keeping the best of the city’s spirit and in turning her chosen setting into yet another character, very much alive in every scene.

LGBT Monday: Tramps and Thieves

Author: Rhys Ford
Series: Murder and Mayhem, #2
Released: September 18th 2017
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: 220 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon
         Dreamspinner Press

Whoever said blood was thicker than water never stood in a pool of it.

Retiring from stealing priceless treasures seemed like a surefire way for Rook Stevens to stay on the right side of the law. The only cop in his life should have been his probably-boyfriend, Los Angeles Detective Dante Montoya, but that’s not how life—his life—is turning out. Instead, Rook ends up not only standing in a puddle of his cousin Harold’s blood but also being accused of Harold’s murder…and sleeping with Harold’s wife.

For Dante, loving the former thief means his once-normal life is now a sea of chaos, especially since Rook seems incapable of staying out of trouble—or keeping trouble from following him home. When Rook is tagged as a murder suspect by a narrow-focused West L.A. detective, Dante steps in to pull his lover out of the quagmire Rook’s landed in. 

When the complicated investigation twists around on them, the dead begin to stack up, forcing the lovers to work together. Time isn’t on their side, and if they don’t find the killer before another murder, Dante will be visiting Rook in his prison cell—or at his grave. 

When it comes to writing M/M romances, no one does it quite like Rhys Ford. From her beloved (and sadly concluded) Cole McGinnis series to this new literary adventure, everything she does is a guaranteed success, and with good reason. Ford’s romances are never superficial and her mysteries are never just glue for multiple steamy scenes. She builds her stories on a solid foundation and treats steamy scenes precisely as what they are – desserts, rare nuggets meant to make the story sweeter.

Review: 99 Red Balloons

Author: Elisabeth Carpenter
Series: Standalone
Released: August 24th 2017
Publisher: Avon
Length: 352 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

Two girls go missing, decades apart. What would you do if one was your daughter?

When eight-year-old Grace goes missing from a sweetshop on the way home from school, her mother Emma is plunged into a nightmare. Her family rallies around, but as the police hunt begins, cracks begin to emerge.

What are the secret emails sent between Emma’s husband and her sister? Why does her mother take so long to join the search? And is Emma really as innocent as she seems?

Meanwhile, ageing widow Maggie Taylor sees Grace’s picture in the newspaper. It’s a photograph that jolts her from the pain of her existence into a spiralling obsession with another girl – the first girl who disappeared…

Mysteries and thrillers have been my drug of choice for a while now which made 99 Red Balloons seem like a dream come true the second I noticed it on Edelweiss. It had everything I tend to go for these days: a seemingly baffling mystery, a huge emotional challenge, and engaging characters. I’ll freely admit to being a little skittish when it comes to stories about kidnapped children, but I managed to overcome even that in the hopes of finding a book I’ll truly enjoy.

Review: Wildfire by Ilona Andrews

Author: Ilona Andrews

Series: Hidden Legacy, #3
Publisher: Avon
Released: July 25th 2017
Length: 391 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

Just when Nevada Baylor has finally come to accept the depths of her magical powers, she also realizes she’s fallen in love. Connor “Mad” Rogan is in many ways her equal when it comes to magic, but she’s completely out of her elements when it comes to her feelings for him. To make matters more complicated, an old flame comes back into Rogan’s life…

Rogan knows there’s nothing between him and his ex-fiance, Rynda Sherwood. But as Nevada begins to learn more about her past, her power, and her potential future, he knows she will be faced with choices she never dreamed of and the promise of a life spent without him.

As Nevada and Rogan race to discover the whereabouts of Rynda’s kidnapped husband and are forced to confront Nevada’s grandmother, who may or may not have evil motives, these two people must decide if they can trust in each other or allow everything to go up in smoke.

Wildfire, the latest (and hopefully not last) book in Ilona Andrews’ Hidden Legacy series has been out for about a month and it has already proven to be an enormous success. It debuted on New York Times’ and USA Today’s bestsellers lists and it’s been getting nothing but gushing reviews from both professional reviewers and fans. However, it’s likely that you already knew all that. What you perhaps didn’t know is that I consider Wildfire to be one of the best books this extraordinary pair has ever written, and one of the best urban fantasy works in general.

Review: Secrets In Death by JD Robb

Author: J.D. Robb
Series: In Death, #45
Released: September 5th 2017
Publisher: Piatkus
Length: 400 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

The chic Manhattan nightspot Du Vin is not the kind of place Eve Dallas would usually patronize, and it’s not the kind of bar where a lot of blood gets spilled. But that’s exactly what happens one cold February evening.

The mortally wounded woman is Larinda Mars, a self-described “social information reporter,” or as most people would call it, a professional gossip. As it turns out, she was keeping the most shocking stories quiet, for profitable use in her side business as a blackmailer. Setting her sights on rich, prominent marks, she’d find out what they most wanted to keep hidden and then bleed them dry. Now someone’s done the same to her, literally—with a knife to the brachial artery.

Eve didn’t like Larinda Mars. But she likes murder even less. To find justice for this victim, she’ll have to plunge into the dirty little secrets of all the people Larinda Mars victimized herself. But along the way, she may be exposed to some information she really didn’t want to know…

There is simply nothing better than a new JD Robb book, not for me, at least. The 45th installment of her bestselling In Death series is just as good, if not better, than the first book. This series never falls in quality, never strays and never disappoints. Nora Roberts as JD Robb can apparently do no wrong.

Profilers and serial killers in Such a Pretty Girl by Tess Diamonds

Author: Tess Diamond
Series: Unknown
Released: September 26th 2017
Publisher: Avon
Length: 384 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

In Grace Sinclair’s bestselling crime novels, the good guys win and the bad guys always get caught. As the FBI’s top profiler, she knows that real life is rarely so straightforward. But her new case isn’t just brutal—it’s also personal. The victims look like Grace. And the FBI recruit assigned to her team is trouble of another kind.

This isn’t how Special Agent Gavin Walker imagined running into Grace again. Two years ago they shared one earth-shattering night, then she vanished from his life. She’s brilliant, fiercely independent, and in mortal danger from a killer masterminding a twisted game …

The body count is rising. Entangled in the case and in each other, Gavin and Grace are running out of time and chances. And as Grace puts the pieces together, she knows she’ll have to confront her own deepest secrets before the final, fatal move is played. 

I grew up reading books about strong women in law enforcement, forensic experts, profilers, hostage negotiators and such. Through most of my teen years, I had Patricia Cornwell’s books for breakfast, Tess Gerritsen’s for lunch, and Kathy Reichs’ for dinner and company through sleepless nights. I learned invaluable lessons about being a career woman from these authors and their heroines, and I even found my life-long literary love in Kay Scarpetta’s Benton Wesley. Needless to say, I’m very attached to the genre and I always slip comfortably into its rhythm.

Release Day Review: The Long and Winding Road

Author: T.J. Klune
Series: Bear, Otter and the Kid, #4
Released: August 11th, 2017
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Lenght: 346 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Dreamspinner Press
         Amazon

Family is not always defined by blood. It’s defined by those who make us whole—those who make us who we are.

And here, at the end, Bear and Otter will be tested like they’ve never been before.

There’s a knock at the door from a little girl who has nowhere else to go.

There’s a phone ringing, bringing news they do not expect.

There’s a brother returning home after learning how to stand on his own.

As these moments converge, all of their lives will change forever.

Beginning in Bear, Otter, and the Kid, and continuing in Who We Are and The Art of Breathing, TJ Klune has told a saga of family and brotherhood, of love and sacrifice. In this final chapter, the events of the past pave the long and winding road toward a future no one could have imagined.

The long farewell to our beloved characters from Bear, Otter and the Kid is finally here. TJ Klune made the brave and wonderful choice to give his fans a chance to say goodbye to those they’ve loved and cried with for such a long time. After seeing these guys grow up, fall in love and build a life together through pain, loss, friendships, joy, drama and unexpected word vomits, our reluctance to let go is more than understandable. But let go we must, and I can’t imagine a better way to do it than with this final book.

LGBT Monday: Red Fish, Dead Fish by Amy Lane

Author: Amy Lane
Series: Fish Out of Water, #2
Released: August 4th 2017
Length: 330 pages
Source: Bought
Buy: Dreamspinner Press
         Amazon

They must work together to stop a psychopath—and save each other. 

Two months ago Jackson Rivers got shot while trying to save Ellery Cramer’s life. Not only is Jackson still suffering from his wounds, the triggerman remains at large—and the body count is mounting.

Jackson and Ellery have been trying to track down Tim Owens since Jackson got out of the hospital, but Owens’s time as a member of the department makes the DA reluctant to turn over any stones. When Owens starts going after people Jackson knows, Ellery’s instincts hit red alert. Hurt in a scuffle with drug-dealing squatters and trying damned hard not to grieve for a childhood spent in hell, Jackson is weak and vulnerable when Owens strikes.

Jackson gets away, but the fallout from the encounter might kill him. It’s not doing Ellery any favors either. When a police detective is abducted—and Jackson and Ellery hold the key to finding her—Ellery finds out exactly what he’s made of. He’s not the corporate shark who believes in winning at all costs; he’s the frightened lover trying to keep the man he cares for from self-destructing in his own valor.

Inspired by JD Robb and other legends of romantic suspense, the very versatile Amy Lane decided to pen her very own series of romance and action, with a pair of competent, resourceful and deeply damaged protagonists at its center. The deeply damaged, in this case, applies to one half of the couple – Jackson Rivers – the former policeman who was, years ago, betrayed and abandoned by his department, his colleagues, and everyone else that was supposed to protect him.

Talking about the perfection of White Hot by Ilona Andrews

Author: Ilona Andrews
Series: Hidden Legacy, #2
Released: May 30th 2017
Publisher: Avon
Length: 389 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

The Hidden Legacy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews continues as Nevada and Rogan navigate a world where magic is the norm…and their relationship burns hot

Nevada Baylor has a unique and secret skill—she knows when people are lying—and she's used that magic (along with plain, hard work) to keep her colorful and close-knit family's detective agency afloat. But her new case pits her against the shadowy forces that almost destroyed the city of Houston once before, bringing Nevada back into contact with Connor "Mad" Rogan.

Rogan is a billionaire Prime—the highest rank of magic user—and as unreadable as ever, despite Nevada’s “talent.” But there’s no hiding the sparks between them. Now that the stakes are even higher, both professionally and personally, and their foes are unimaginably powerful, Rogan and Nevada will find that nothing burns like ice … 

White Hot, the long awaited and breathlessly anticipated second book in Ilona Andrews’ Hidden Legacy series, was worth every second of the agonizing wait.

Nevada is once again tangled up in a case that’s far too big for her small investigative agency, but her big heart and her code of honor won’t allow her to turn away from those who have no place else to go. This time, she is hired by Cornelius Harrison from House Harrison to investigate the murder of his wife Nari and three other lawyers. Since Nari was working for a different House, the circumstances of her death are suspicious at best, and the official version of events is obviously a blatant lie.

Dwarves, orcs and mayhem in First Watch by Dale Lucas

Author: Dale Lucas
Series: The Fifth Ward, #1
Released: July 11th 2017
Publisher: Orbit
Length: 416 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

Humans, orcs, mages, elves, and dwarves all jostle for success and survival in the cramped quarters of Yenara, while understaffed Watch Wardens struggle to keep its citizens in line.
Enter Rem: new to Yenara and hungover in the city dungeons with no money for bail. When offered a position with the Watch to compensate for his crimes, Rem jumps at the chance.
His new partner is less eager. Torval, a dwarf who's handy with a maul and known for hitting first and asking questions later, is highly unimpressed with the untrained and weaponless Rem.
But when Torval's former partner goes missing, the two must consort with the usual suspects -- drug dealing orcs, mind-controlling elves, uncooperative mages, and humans being typical humans -- to uncover the truth and catch a murderer loose in their fair city.

Take your favorite cop show (Lethal Weapon is a personal favorite), place it in a filthy city with a distinct medieval feel, add dwarves, elves and other assorted creatures and you’ll get a pretty clear idea of what to expect from Fifth Ward: First Watch. Everyone has their weak spot, and buddy cop movies are mine, which means I was endlessly entertained by this book.

Choose Your Own Adventure With Romeo and/or Juliet (review)

Author: Ryan North
Series: Standalone
Released: November 10th 2016
Publisher: Orbit
Length: 400 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

What if Romeo never met Juliet? What if Juliet got really buff instead of moping around the castle all day? What if they teamed up to take over Verona with robot suits?

In this New York Times bestselling version of Romeo and Juliet, you get to choose where the story goes. Packed with exciting choices, fun puzzles, secret surprises, terrible puns and more than a billion possible storylines, Romeo and/or Juliet offers a new experience every time you read it. And, as an added bonus, all the different endings feature beautiful and quirky illustrations by some of the best artists working today, including New York Times bestsellers Kate Beaton, Noelle Stevenson, Randall Munroe, and Jon Klassen.

Whatever your adventure, you're guaranteed to find lots of romance, epic fight scenes and plenty of questionable decision-making by highly emotional teens.

New York Times bestselling Romeo and/or Juliet is a choose your own adventure type of deal, a ridiculously entertaining take (or takes, since there are plenty of them) on a classic that’s pretty ridiculous in and of itself. A classic it may be, but the word timeless doesn’t apply to this particular work, and the older I get, the more annoyed I am by Romeo and Juliet both.

Jump Stations and Wormholes in Gemina by A. Kaufman and J. Kristoff

Authors: Amie Kaufman
                Jay Kristoff
Series: The Illuminae Files, #2
Released: October 20th 2016
Publisher: Knopf BfYR
Length: 608 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.

The sci-fi saga that began with the breakout bestseller Illuminae continues on board the Jump Station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of the BeiTech assault.

Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy's most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.

When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station's wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.

But relax. They've totally got this. They hope.

Once again told through a compelling dossier of emails, IMs, classified files, transcripts, and schematics, Gemina raises the stakes of the Illuminae Files, hurling readers into an enthralling new story that will leave them breathless. 

Gemina, the sequel to last year’s hugely successful Illuminae, follows in the footsteps of its predecessor well enough to satisfy even the most demanding reader. Just like Illuminae, Gemina combines texts, images, various fonts and different storytelling strategies. They all come together to form a narrative unlike any other, a constant source of surprise and awe, not to mention entertainment.

A Magnificent Follow Up: The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

Author: N.K. Jemisin

Series: Broken Earth, #2

Released: August 16th 2016

Publisher: Orbit

Length: 448 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: The Book Depository

THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS... FOR THE LAST TIME.

The season of endings grows darker as civilization fades into the long cold night. Alabaster Tenring – madman, world-crusher, savior – has returned with a mission: to train his successor, Essun, and thus seal the fate of the Stillness forever.

It continues with a lost daughter, found by the enemy.

It continues with the obelisks, and an ancient mystery converging on answers at last.

The Stillness is the wall which stands against the flow of tradition, the spark of hope long buried under the thickening ashfall. And it will not be broken.

From the critically acclaimed author of The Fifth Season comes a follow up novel that will thrill every old fan and attract many new ones into this fabulous world of seismic catastrophes and magic. N.K. Jemisin put her considerable experience to good use and created a sequel worthy of all the awards that now shine on the cover of its predecessor. The Obelisk Gate is a symphony, a literary achievement that will endure the test of time.

Mind Games of a Sociopath in: Black Flowers, White Lies by Y. Ventresca

Author: Yvonne Ventresca
Series: Unknown
Released: October 4th 2016
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Length: 272 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

Her father died before she was born, but Ella Benton knows they have a supernatural connection. Since her mother discourages these beliefs, Ella keeps her cemetery visits secret. But she may not be the only one with secrets. Ella’s mother might be lying about how Dad died sixteen years ago. Newfound evidence points to his death in a psychiatric hospital, not as a result of a tragic car accident as her mother always claimed. After a lifetime of just the two of them, Mom suddenly feels like a stranger.

When a handprint much like the one Ella left on her father’s tombstone mysteriously appears on the bathroom mirror, at first she wonders if Dad is warning her of danger as he did once before. If it’s not a warning, could her new too-good-to-be-true boyfriend be responsible for the strange occurrences? Or maybe it’s the grieving building superintendent whose dead daughter strongly resembles Ella? As the unexplained events become more frequent and more sinister, Ella becomes terrified about who—or what—might harm her.

Soon the evidence points to someone else entirely: Ella herself. What if, like her father, she’s suffering from a breakdown? In this second novel from award-winning author Yvonne Ventresca, Ella desperately needs to find answers, no matter how disturbing the truth might be.

With its intriguing title and gorgeous cover, Black Flowers, White Lies immediately draws our attention and promises to be a great paranormal story, a frightening psychological thriller and a thorough exploration of loss and grief, all rolled into one. It is a pretty tall order for a relatively small book, so feeling mildly disappointed in the end doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Black Flowers, White Lies could have been a much better work, but it fell a bit short in execution and characterization.

LGBT Monday (YA): As I Descended

Author: Robin Talley

Series: Standalone

Released: September 6th 2016

Publisher: Mira INK

Length: 384 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: The Book Depository

Maria Lyon and Lily Boiten are their school’s ultimate power couple—even if no one knows it but them.

Only one thing stands between them and their perfect future: campus superstar Delilah Dufrey.

Golden child Delilah is a legend at the exclusive Acheron Academy, and the presumptive winner of the distinguished Cawdor Kingsley Prize. She runs the school, and if she chose, she could blow up Maria and Lily’s whole world with a pointed look, or a carefully placed word.

But what Delilah doesn’t know is that Lily and Maria are willing to do anything—absolutely anything—to make their dreams come true. And the first step is unseating Delilah for the Kingsley Prize. The full scholarship, awarded to Maria, will lock in her attendance at Stanford―and four more years in a shared dorm room with Lily.

Maria and Lily will stop at nothing to ensure their victory—including harnessing the dark power long rumored to be present on the former plantation that houses their school.

But when feuds turn to fatalities, and madness begins to blur the distinction between what’s real and what is imagined, the girls must decide where they draw the line.

From acclaimed author Robin Talley comes a Shakespeare-inspired story of revenge and redemption, where fair is foul, and foul is fair.

For someone who doesn’t enjoy retellings at all, it’s odd that I keep finding Shakespeare-inspired books that thrill me and make me rethink my position. After Cat Winters’ The Steep and Thorny Way, As I Descended shows us that classics are classics for a reason and that things like ambition and jealousy are inherently human, and therefore always interesting and relevant.

California Gold Rush in: Like a River Glorious by Rae Carson

Author: Rae Carson

Series: The Gold Seer, #2

Released: September 27th 2016

Publisher: Greenwillow

Length: 432 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: Amazon

After a harrowing journey across the country, Leah Westfall and her friends have finally arrived in California and are ready to make their fortunes in the Gold Rush. Lee has a special advantage over the other new arrivals in California—she has the ability to sense gold, a secret known only by her handsome best friend Jefferson and her murdering uncle Hiram.

Lee and her friends have the chance to be the most prosperous settlers in California, but Hiram hasn’t given up trying to control Lee and her power. Sabotage and kidnapping are the least of what he’ll do to make sure Lee is his own. His mine is the deepest and darkest in the territory, and there Lee learns the full extent of her magical gift, the worst of her uncle, and the true strength of her friendships. To save everyone, she vows to destroy her uncle and the empire he is building—even at the cost of her own freedom.

The second epic historical fantasy in the Gold Seer trilogy by Rae Carson, the acclaimed author of The Girl of Fire and Thorns.

Like a River Glorious, Rae Carson’s fifth novel and the second book in her Gold Seer trilogy, cements her status as one of the best, most reliable authors of YA fiction. Her long string of literary successes without a single glitch shows us that we can indeed trust an author to always deliver and constantly stay at the top of her game.

Seismic Events in The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Author: N.K. Jemisin

Series: Broken Earth, #1

Relesed: August 4th 2015

Publisher: Orbit

Length: 468 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: The Book Depository

THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS... FOR THE LAST TIME.

A season of endings has begun. 

It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. 

It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. 

It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. 

This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy. 

As a Hugo award winner and Nebula award nominee, among many other awards and accolades, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin leaves very little doubt about its own quality. But even without the official recognition, The Fifth Season enchants easily, making it clear from the prologue that Jemisin’s writing is something extraordinary. This novel shines in its every aspect and shows precisely what a fantasy novel should be. It carries in itself everything from shiny worldbuilding to superb characterization and cleverly inserted traces of metanarration and metafictionality.

Ghosts and Cults in: The Women in the Walls by Amy Lukavics

Author: Amy Lukavics

Series: Standalone

Released: September 27 2016

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Length: 304 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: Amazon

Lucy Acosta's mother died when she was three. Growing up in a Victorian mansion in the middle of the woods with her cold, distant father, she explored the dark hallways of the estate with her cousin, Margaret. They're inseparable—a family.  

When her aunt Penelope, the only mother she's ever known, tragically disappears while walking in the woods surrounding their estate, Lucy finds herself devastated and alone. Margaret has been spending a lot of time in the attic. She claims she can hear her dead mother's voice whispering from the walls. Emotionally shut out by her father, Lucy watches helplessly as her cousin's sanity slowly unravels. But when she begins hearing voices herself, Lucy finds herself confronting an ancient and deadly legacy that has marked the women in her family for generations. 

The Women in the Walls is a mildly disappointing sophomore novel by Amy Lukavics, author of Daughters Unto Devils. It delivers all the things one expects from such a read – the deep atmosphere, the chilling moments, the compelling paranormal mystery – but it proves lacking in terms of substance, characterization or any real depth of emotion.

Romance and Vigilantism in The Female of the Species by M. McGinnis

Author: Mindy McGinnis

Series: Standalone

Released: September 20 2016

Publisher: Katherine Tegen

Length: 352 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: Amazon

Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it. When her older sister, Anna, was murdered three years ago and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best. The language of violence.

While her crime goes unpunished, Alex knows she can’t be trusted among other people, even in her small hometown. She relegates herself to the shadows, a girl who goes unseen in plain sight, unremarkable in the high school hallways.

But Jack Fisher sees her. He’s the guy all other guys want to be: the star athlete gunning for valedictorian with the prom queen on his arm. Guilt over the role he played the night Anna’s body was discovered hasn’t let him forget Alex over the years, and now her green eyes amid a constellation of freckles have his attention. He doesn’t want to only see Alex Craft; he wants to know her.

So does Peekay, the preacher’s kid, a girl whose identity is entangled with her dad’s job, though that does not stop her from knowing the taste of beer or missing the touch of her ex-boyfriend. When Peekay and Alex start working together at the animal shelter, a friendship forms and Alex’s protective nature extends to more than just the dogs and cats they care for.

Circumstances bring Alex, Jack, and Peekay together as their senior year unfolds. While partying one night, Alex’s darker nature breaks out, setting the teens on a collision course that will change their lives forever. 

After a hugely successful dystopian trilogy and her standalone exploration of insanity in a historical setting, Mindy McGinnis delves into a new territory with The Female of the Species, which is perhaps best described as a hyper-realistic contemporary examination of teenage life, human resilience and revenge. It’s a bold, daring book that shoves hard realities right into our faces, making no effort to soften the blows or make us feel better along the way. Those who are a bit more sensitive to drugs and violence in young adult books might have a hard time reading it, but in truth, the pain and heartbreak, the shock and outrage are so worth your time and trouble with this book.