Review: Viper (Isle of Storm and Sorrow #1)

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

This was also an additional book in one of my Fairyloot subscription boxes so I got a signed paperback as well.

 

I didn’t dislike it, I wasn’t particularly blown over with it either. It’s just another generic YA fantasy set on the high seas. In this one the heroine Marianne lives on her father’s ship. Her mother died when she was a young child. Her father is the Viper, the protector of the 12 Isles. But they’re more like pirates and assassins – ruthless, cruel and brutal. Marianne is supposed to take over one day.

 

However, she doesn’t seem to have the violent streak a Viper needs. She’s not dim by any means. She has a conscience and thinks things could be done better. Because she’s a girl she’s treated like crap by the crew. She has one companion – an older lady who has helped train her who treats her like a person. She was once close to one of the boys her age, but circumstances made him turn his back on her.

 

She’s betrothed to the Prince of the royal family the Viper serves. The prince appears to be condescending and arrogant. On the night of her official initiation as a Viper everything goes wrong and things happen and Marianne is forced to flee. Pursued by her father’s crew over the 12 isles she discovers nefarious plots and a secret about her own past that could have a massive impact on the 12 Isles and the Eastern Lands they’re on the brink of war with.

 

The prince isn’t the asswipe he seems to be – and there’s much more too him. Alliances are drawn, plots are uncovered, other Royalty is determined to be selfish and useless and things need to massively change. It’s up to Marianne and her companions to make this happen.

 

It wasn’t by any means a bad book, - it was just kind of okay. I liked Marianne as a character, she had a code of honour and a brain and thought logically. She was emotional but wasn’t ruled by her emotions. The prince turned out to be a really interesting character as well. The writing was okay, the story was okay. There just wasn’t anything about this book that really stood out to bring it apart from other sea based YA fantasies.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Hatchette Children’s Books for the review copy.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1941430/review-viper-isle-of-storm-and-sorrow-1

Review: A Danger to Herself and Others

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

Unreliable narrators aren’t usually my thing. They make me uncomfortable. The whole premise of this book made me uncomfortable.

 

A perfect daughter of psychologists institutionalised for a crime. She’s convinced she did no wrong (even though it’s obvious from the start she did.) Her logic is flawed and frightening but also…in a weird way vey plausible. Which makes it all the more frightening.

 

Hannah is a very intelligent girl who has a habit of latching onto people and calling herself the perfect best friend. She’s not cruel or violent or anything. She’s manipulative without even realising what she’s doing.  She’s doing a summer programme at a college and something terrible happens to her roommate.

 

Police are called and they all think Hannah is responsible. She’s labelled “a danger to herself and other” and put in a hospital for evaluation until the trial. Despite how uncomfortable this book made me as a reader, it’s extraordinarily well written. It’s compelling and page turning and you just have to know what’s going on. What happened with the roommate, what makes Hannah the way she is? Is she faking it and a very good actress – or is she really just nuts and doing a good job of covering it up and trying to convince everyone she’s normal and no threat to anyone?

 

It’s a harrowing experience following Hannah as she wakes up in the hospital and goes through talking to the doctors and learning how things work and what she has to do to convince everyone what happened was an accident.

 

Slowly, we learn what really happened. The truth about Hannah’s involvement and what might happen next.  What makes it all the more believable is there’s no black and white right and wrong way to handle the outcome. It’s not a fair outcome, really but it’s a realistic one and something that highlights the tough decisions that justice systems sometimes have to make.

 

It’s a difficult book to get through but a really good one.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1941405/review-a-danger-to-herself-and-others

Review: This Lie Will Kill You

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

This title appealed to me immediately as it came recommended for fans of “One of Us Is Lying” which I absolutely loved. However, this book failed to meet the high standard of that book. I thought this book was awful.

 

The premises was interesting enough. There was a party and someone died. The actions of a small group of people lead to the tragedy and someone saw what happened. Now, a year later those people are sent mysterious invitations to a murder mystery party with a big prize. No name of the person inviting them.

 

The party is a costume party and each character is given certain props. Challenges to solve that get more personal and more deadly as the night progresses. Secrets are at stake, lives are at stake and the risks become more and more over the top. Some of the group were friends, some aren’t and they all must come together to figure out what’s happening and survive the night. Should be interesting. Its high stakes and tense.

 

Problem for me was I absolutely hated all the characters. They were all horrible horrible people or bland people with about as much personality as cardboard. Also, very predictable. I knew almost immediately who the responsible person was. As the plot went on it became just ridiculous and unbelievable.  

 

It was one of those – this is so stupid why am I finishing it books? – but I did read the whole thing.  I just really did not like this book at all.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster UK Children’s for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1941365/review-this-lie-will-kill-you

DNF: Dark of the West

Review:

The concept of this one started off interesting - two nations poised on the brink of war, the son of the one general goes to spy on the other side and winds up falling for the princess he's supposed to be gathering information on. I managed nearly 300 pages of this but frankly I'm just bored. 

I don't care about any of the characters and there's too much emphasis on military tactics for my liking and it's very boring. Calling it quits. 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1934489/dnf-dark-of-the-west

Review: The Queens of Innis Lear

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I somehow wound up with three Netgalley e-arcs – one was a sample I got by mistake. One approval from the US site which I never expected to be approved for and one from the UK site (I have both UK and US residences so I use both sites).

Reading this book reminded me of the Charlie Brown episode “Happy New Year, Charlie Brown”. In the episode Charlie Brown’s class are assigned to read “War and Peace” over the Christmas holidays. A daunting task as it’s such a big book and throughout the episode poor Charlie Brown is trying his best but only ever seems to be on page 5 of the book. At the end of the episode his best friend Linus asks did he like the book? Charlie Brown replies he finished the book at 3a.m. and doesn’t remember a thing about it. 

Which pretty much summons up my experience reading the Queens of Innis Lear. No matter how much I read, I barely seemed to make a dent in (it felt like I hadn’t got past page 5!) which I actually did. That being said – I absolutely completely fell in love with this book. I loved it so much I bought a finished US hardcover, a finished UK paperback and an audio version. It did take me well over a year to actually finish it. 

The book is a fantasy themed retelling of King Lear – the mad king and the ungrateful daughters and a kingdom poised on the brink of war. King Lear is not a play I’m that familiar with and did have to read the Spark Notes a few times to familiarize myself with the original story. The novel is full to bursting, it’s richly written with the most excellent word building. It’s so lush in its details. It has the most wonderful history and magic woven into the story. There are a hell of a lot of characters to get to grips with, lots of different points of view. Emotional and romantic and violent and a myriad of other emotions. 

I remember very little of the plot the characters, just that I loved it to pieces. 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1924803/review-the-queens-of-innis-lear

Review: Wakenhyrst

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

I love gothic horror mysteries and that premise was what attracted me to this book immediately. However, this book didn’t really fulfil my personal idea of a gothic horror mystery. That being said, the mystery aspect was really good and I really enjoyed the story.

 

It starts in 1966 and tells through news articles of a report granted a visit to a once grand house and the lady, Maud, who owns the property. The lady is a recluse and as a child witnessed the descent into madness of her father. No one really knew what happened (this was back in 1913) and the house seems to have remained in a similar state since. The reporter has been digging into the history of the father and the mystery surrounding the demise of a once prominent and respected man from a highly well to do family. There’s rumours of witchcraft and devil worship and all sorts of superstitious things.

 

The lady retells the story as she remembers it and her father growing up from when she was a small child to when she was a teenager and when the incident happens.  The story tells of Maud’s troubled adolescence - she’s an intelligent child who wants more out of life than what her station will allow. Her father is a tough man to please – a historian. As she grows up Maud eventually manages to convince her father to allow her to use his library also helping with his translation of an old text with a religious theme.

 

We see passages as well from the father’s notebook, detailing his inner thoughts as the situations occur, with Maud, with his research and a secret from his childhood which haunts him and is driving him to the brink of madness. There’s a definite religious overtone to the father’s inner journals, demons and sins and secrets and penance and so forth. Though it’s well handled without being overly dramatic and overly preachy.

 

Maud discovers her father’s journals and begins her own investigations. It’s really quite fascinating and once you get used to the style of writing hard to put down. I’m not recapping a lot of the plot as it would be very spoilery. Maud was a really likeable heroine, strong willed and sensible, her voice was very easy to follow and as the novel evolves as a reader you really want her to succeed in her tasks.

 

There was nothing remotely scary or chilling about it so it didn’t hit the horror mark for me, but it was quite atmospheric.  The mystery was really good and it had a satisfying ending. I really enjoyed the book and would definitely read something by this author again.

 

 

Thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1923560/review-wakenhyrst

Review: The Coroner

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

Medical mysteries are not my favourite thing. But I do find the job that coroners do quite fascinating. This one sounded good so that was why I requested it. The premise was interesting and sounded like a TV show, and if it were a TV show I would watch it, so figured I would read it as well.

 

It wasn’t a bad book per say, the basic idea was the main character Emily had been training to be a doctor, she grew up with a father who was a coroner and learnt from him from a fairly young age. She’s right on the cusp of graduating as a doctor and starting a life in Chicago with her dreamy also doctor fiancé.

 

Then she gets the shock news that her father has had a heart attack and she needs to go home. Meanwhile there’s been a murder of the daughter of a high profile Senator, a horse riding “accident” that may not be an accident. Emily’s high school sweetheart Nick is now the town sheriff.

 

While it wasn’t bad…it wasn’t…that good either. It was just very bland. And very very predictable. The type of predictable you know exactly what was going to happen, when Emily went home and wound up having to help out with the coroner aspect of things all the while thinking I have a life and a fiancé to go back to. The problem with the fiancé was he comes from a very well to do family and he and his mother (more likely his mother) are doing wedding planning and basically telling Emily what’s going to happen. Also another story line where you know exactly how it’s going to end.

 

The two main characters, Emily and Nick were likeable enough, there were plenty of twists and red herrings. It was all just….okay. Overall the whole thing was kind of bland and dull. It was left at a sort of open ending with potential for a series, but not a series I would be interested in continuing.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1923534/review-the-coroner