Hard Magic - Larry Correia - 3.5 stars

I was recommend this book by a friend, so I decided to try it out even though it is an adult fantasy and I rarely do well with this genre. I both listened to this book and read along with it which helped since I don't really like Audio all that much. The story did keep my interest, it just did not blow me away. I am glad I read it and I think there is enough here to the story for me to venture into the next one.

Synopsis
Jake Sullivan is a licensed Private Eye—with a seriously hardboiled attitude. He also possesses raw magical talent and the ability to make objects in his vicinity light as a feather or as heavy as depleted uranium, all with a magical thought. It's no wonder the G-men turn to Jake when they need someone to go after a suspected killer who's been knocking off banks in a magic-enhanced crime spree. Problems arise when Jake discovers the bad girl behind the robberies is an old friend, and he happens to know her magic is just as powerful as his, and the Feds have plunged Jake into a secret battle between powerful cartels of magic-users--a cartel whose ruthless leaders have decided that Jake is far too dangerous to live.

First off let me say that the world building was not the greatest, it was lacking a bit, which was probably the biggest problem I had with the story. I did like the plot of this story once I recognized what the plot actually was. There was a lot going on in the story and was not always easy to follow at the beginning, but it does come together. I liked the writing style of the author which helped a lot. There were also not so many characters that I got confused by who was who, as many fantasy books do and that made me happy. There was plenty of action and excitement to keep me very entertained and engaged. I have to say that this is not your normal run of the mill fantasy which is why I enjoyed it.

I found the characters to be my favorite part. This book is very character driven I think. I found them to be quite fun. They were well developed throughout the story and most were very likable as well. I really liked Jake Sullivan's character a lot. He was very flawed, gritty, and very strong willed. I also enjoyed Faye a lot as well. I was not too sure of her in the beginning but she really grew on me. There is a great cast of very unique characters in this story.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes a different kind of fantasy, because this is it. Even if you don't do well with fantasy I think you would enjoy this one. I look forward to the next book in this series, Spellbound. I am giving this book a 3.5 star rating.

Criminal - Karin Slaughter - 4 stars

I have really been enjoying the Will Trent series a lot this year, and have a goal of completing all the books that are out right now. This one is book 6 which means one to go. I was eager to get started on this but when I started reading it I was not all the sure that I was going to like this one like I had the last 5.

In this book we cover Amanda's career when it first gets started in the 1970's. It was a rough run for her and Evelyn both, lots of chauvinistic men who really disapprove of women out in the field. They both still keep poking around this case of prostitutes who end up missing when one is found dead. In present day an investigation is surrounded around a local college student's disappearance, as Will begins a battle with his past.

This book did a huge turnaround for me. I found the beginning kind of slow not realizing I was going to learn so much more about Amanda and Will both, and what the 'obvious' connection is that Amanda feels toward Will. It started to really pick up for me around page 150 and then it just continued. The plotline became much more interesting to me and also very engaging and so much easier for me to get into both the past and present. It opened a lot of windows on both of their lives. I loved that because now I feel like so much more is cleared up.

Of course the characters are probably my favorite part of this series. I love the flawed and twisted roles they all play. They are all so well developed and we can love them or hate them, and they are equally enjoyed. Everyone is imperfect, but perfect for the roles they play and I love that the most. I also love learning so much more about them in this book, especially Will. I look forward to more of these characters in this last book that is out.

I recommend this book/series to anyone who loves a great mystery, to those who love flawed, twisted characters, to those who love psychological elements in a mystery. This is definitely the book for all of those mentioned, written by a very gifted writer.

Edgewise - Graham Masterton - 5 stars

I read this book as a read along with several people and this is now my third time reading it. I come to the same conclusion, Graham Masterton is an amazing writer. Even after reading it for a third time I do not find it boring or repetitive.

In this book Lily's children are taken from her by a group called FLAME which stands for Father's League Against Mother's Evil. She does not feel like the FBI are doing enough for her to get her children back and she turns to George Iron Walker who claims he can summon the Wendigo, a Native American forest spirit, who will find her children and bring that safely back to her, but it will be for a pretty high price.

This is a very quick read and a definite page turner even after reading it many times. I read this in one sitting and still loved it just as much as the first time I read it. I love that it is based on Native American folk lore, the "Wendigo". I find it to be so engaging right from page one and it is very easy to follow. Some parts of the story are very graphic though so if you are faint of heart it might not be something you want to read.

I also have some favorite characters in the book. My favorites being John Shooks, who is supposed to be "not loved by many" and then also Special Agent Nathan Kellogg. Both have great characters. Although there is not a lot of background to these characters and not the greatest character developement it is still enough to fall in love with them anyway. The main character Lily, my favorite character, has a lot on her plate to deal with, she goes through so much and never seems to give up. I love the strong, perservering type, not the defeated, whiny ones that you wanna kill yourself.

I would recommend this book to anyone that loves horror, mystery or thriller and wants a quick easy to read book that is hard to put down. It won't disappoint!

Melophobia - Jim Morris - 3 stars

I had received this book in exchange for an honest review from the Author. This is the second book I have read by this author. I did find that this book was very engaging which kept me quickly turning the pages. So it was good, it just did not WOW me.

In this book you have a world where the government controls all forms of art, and music is one form that is prohibited. Merrin, who is a 'Patrol Officer', is on the case to seek out and apprehend 'the source', a fugitive musician, so that this new world is no longer jeopardized.

I thought the premise of the story was pretty unique since there are not of too many stories about music being illegal, unless of course you include Footloose. First off, I found this story to be very fluid. It flowed really well and was pretty easy to follow. The writing style does keep you turning the pages. There was some great action scenes. However, there were some aspects of the book I found unnecessary though. I don't want to get into those so I don't spoil the story. Overall it was very well written and very entertaining.

With that said, lets talk about characters. I did not really enjoy our main character Merrin. I could not connect to her at all. To me she seemed pretty wishy washy and could not decide what she wanted or didn't want. She made some dumb mistakes along the way as well. She really does not think before she speaks. She does grow on you a bit by the time the story is over, I just wish she would have been more grounded than she was. The only character I really liked was Rowan, I think he could have been much bigger than he was in this story by playing a more influential role. I don't feel like we got to see enough of him. I would have loved to have seen much more of Rowan.

The House Jack Built - 5 stars

Another great book by one of my favorite Paranormal-horror Authors, Graham Masterton. I decided I wanted to read this for spook season because I love to read some creepy books this time of year. I knew that I would not be disappointed by this one at all.

In this book you have Craig Bellerman who stumbled across an old 1930's house named Vallhalla and he was determined to make it his, claiming the house was him. His wife Effie was discovering some pretty odd things going on in this house and she did not get good vibes from it at all, but after seeing how it gave her husband confidence she agreed to look at it and later make plans to buy it. Effie knew they were getting much more than they bargained for.

I loved the plot of this story so much. So unique and different. Something I really enjoyed about this book was that there was no random stuff just added to it. Everything had it's place and everything was backed up to make a very rich story full of creepiness and some edge of seat action. This book was also very fluid and easy to follow, with lots of great plot twists and an ending I never saw coming. It was also very interesting with it's great historical elements.

I liked how the characters evolved in this story. They were developed so very well and were very realistic and believable. I think I probably liked Effie the most of all of them. She was such a strong character and she told it how it was. I found Craig had a very unique character and I don't really want to go into why since it would spoil the story a bit, but I liked how the author wrote him, it made readers pay attention.

I recommend this to anyone who likes horror, historical or Graham Masterton stories. It is sure to soothe any lovers of these genres. Graham Masterton is a great talent.

Bird Box - Josh Malerman - 4.5 stars

I wanted to read creepy books for this month and came across this one at our local UBS and decided to get it. I had not heard a lot about the book but from a friend so I decided to just go into it blindly, and wow I am glad I did.

In this story the world is very different, something terrible has happened. There is something out there that makes people go mad and when this happens the madness takes over, killing and destruction is everywhere. Malorie and her children are left to their own devices living their lives inside an old house that has sheltered them from this madness only to go outside to get water from the well and all the while blindfolded to keep from seeing the creatures that lurk there.

Wow this book was pretty intense. I could only imagine how horrible it would be to have to go around blindfolded while outside and with children. It had such a great creepy aspect to the story not knowing what was around you, and I loved that. It makes it a great read for Halloween. The perspective changes many times from Malorie in present time and then also in the past that works it's way up to where she is now. Despite this the book stayed very fluid and easy to follow. One thing that I was a little disappointed about was that there was not a clear understanding at what these 'creatures' were. A mental image of them would have been interesting.

I really enjoyed the characters of this story, especially Malorie. She is a very strong character and she is very disciplined almost to a point of being to disciplined which can make her feel a little unrealistic at times. It could have maybe used a bit more about her and the children in the span of about 4 years that is only mentioned and not really included in the story, but it might have a added a bit more depth and we would have gotten to know her and children a little bit better.

The story is left somewhat open I think where perhaps a sequel will come into play, but it has enough closure in the chance that there is not a sequel. I recommend this to anyone who loves creepy mysterious books. Tis was a treat to read. I am rating this a 4.5 stars.

Gerald's Game - Stephen King - 4 stars

I decided to read this book for the season and I had not read it yet so I thought it would be good book to read for spook season. I am glad that I finally got to this one though because finally I found a book that creeped me out sufficiently enough.

In this book we have Jessie and her husband who get away to their cabin in a pretty remote part of Maine for some kinky play time. Jessie finds herself handcuffed to the bed and before things take off in a way she is not comfortable her husband dies leaving her there in a very compromising situation. While thinking that is worse thing that could happen, Jessie soon discovers that it is not.

At first while reading this I did not understand all of these flashbacks in the book, and kinda threw me off because I did not see the importance of them, but it was made pretty clear to me that they are a very important part of the story. I also thought that our main character was not always very smart and I was made to realize a lot of the things she did or did not do was directly affected by the fact that she was handcuffed to the bed causing some restrictions that she would normally not have. Once I got head wrapped around the story it made for a pretty creepy read, and when I can find a story to creep me out I find that refreshing. I liked how King strings along the readers almost to the breaking point until finally there is some relief. I also did not expect the ending to this book. There may be some scenes in this book that people will not care for but I feel like they do well to define the person Jessie is in this story.

Now onto our character Jessie. I don't think she is a very smart person, again, her situation is a huge part of that, so I can be lenient on her in that aspect. I think she has pretty good development due to her flashbacks because it explains a lot about her and her personality and why she is the way she is. I liked her and I found that I could really feel the way she was feeling while reading this. The Apprehension, the fear, and the loneliness as well. I could only imagine being in her situation and how I would react to it. I loved her slow decent into the insanity of the situation.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good psychological thriller and for those who crave the creepiness and does not always get that in books. This one had that creep factor for me and I loved that, which is why it gets a 4 star rating.

The Silkworm - Robert Gailbraith - 3 stars

I decided to continue with this series also reading it as a buddy read. I had heard that so many people enjoyed this one more than it's predecessor, The Cuckoo's Calling. I actually did not find that this one was any better than the first.

In this installment, Strike and Robin are on another case when Strike gets asked by Leonora Quine, the wife of a missing author, Owen Quine, to find her missing husband and bring him home. Strike becomes aware that there may be more to this case than just a missing husband.

Ok so the plot of this story is really nothing special, there have been many mystery books that have had this same kind of plot, but I thought it worth reading because I love mystery. One of the problems I had with this one and the before it is the fact that it starts off super slow. I was on page 125 before it really took off, so that, again, was disappointing. Once it got going it did become more enjoyable and was pretty easy to follow. I also had another problem, and this was the fact that you never knew what was going on. Strike would delegate a job to someone, but it was never said what the job was and that was really pretty annoying. It made me feel like I was missing something. This happened several times in the book. I love a mysterious story but this was a bit ridiculous. Also I did not find the ending surprising at all when it comes to the bad guy. No WOW factor where that is concerned. I mean the villain could have been any one of characters. All of them could have been guilty as sin. So that was a bit disappointing as well. There were good parts to the story that were very enjoyable, I just think it lacked the overall excitement and surprise.

The main characters of the story I loved, Strike and Robin. I have to give it credit for that. I think they are well developed and easily likable and is really the reason this book got 3 stars instead of 1 or 2. I like how flawed Strike is, and even though he has a lot of issues, he does not give up on the task at hand. Robin is also very strong and does not put it up with a bunch of crap unless we are talking about Matthew. He is annoying and Robin practically bends over backward for him.

I am not sure who to recommend this book too because I think it would be a disappointment to a lot of mystery lovers like myself. I guess just go into it without huge expectations. Like I said it gets 3 stars, which is probably generous, because of the characters. Not quite sure if I would read the next book or not. I would like to see what happens with Strike and Robin, it is pretty obvious that they feel something for one another.

The Basement - Chad P. Brown - 2 stars

So since it is spook season I decided to go scope out Amazon and finds a scary story that would be easy to get through pretty quickly, and I found this book. I was pretty excited to get it because it was a free e-book for my kindle.

With a title like The Basement I figured it would be a pretty creepy story and also I thought the plot of the story sounded really good which is why I grabbed the story to begin with. After taking into consideration that this was only 13 pages long, I still thought it could have had some kind of scare factor. It is true though that I do not get scared easily, but this one did not even touch on creepy at all. I thought this could have been much longer and then maybe it could have used a few more scary elements.

I guess that this book could be recommended to someone who gets scare rather easily, or maybe more scared than I get. So if you do get scared pretty easy go ahead and give this one a shot you might enjoy it.

Shards: A short story Anthology - C.J. Cummings - 3.5 stars

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. I think the author has a great talent for writing. It felt very poetic, fluid and easy to follow. However, some of the stories in this book felt incomplete, like they lacked closure to the story almost like they were the first chapter of a book. Even though they are short stories they still need to have some closure in my opinion. There were others that felt more like poetry, and had this been a book of poetry they would have fit very well.

There were several of the stories that I enjoyed as well. Stories such as Just Right, The Aching Vengeance, Soil in the Eye, Saturday Night Movie Massacre, Pieces and This One House. Those felt a lot more complete to me and were quite entertaining. Some even had a creepy element to them that I also enjoyed. Because of the poetic writing style, the fluidity and those few stories that I did enjoy, I am giving this 3.5 stars.

Soul Corrupted - Lisa Gail Green - 4 stars

I got this book from the publisher by way of Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. This is the second installment from the series 'Of Demons and Angels'. I am glad I had the opportunity to read this book since I enjoyed the first one as much as I did.

I am not going to give a full blown synopsis on this book since it is book 2 of the series and I don't want to spoil anyone on that book. We do have Josh, Grace and Keira in this book along with good old Lucifer who is still wreaking havoc on Earth. Their is now a threat of an Anti-Christ who has to be stopped at the same time involving several other people putting them in danger.

I found some things were a little odd in this book such as part of the plot line not being very realistic, but it was not to the point of ruining the story. I found this book to flow very well like the first one did and lots of excitement to keep the pages turning for me. It is also very easy to follow and comprehend. It feel like a pretty simple story but very entertaining at the same time. The author also does very well stringing along her readers. Once to grab ahold, you can't let go. This one ended in a pretty good cliffhanger and I am anxious to see where it will go.

I do like the characters in this series and I love how they evolve so much making you change your mind a hundred times over as to who you like or don't like and who you can trust. I know that eventually they will all be where they are supposed to be, I just hope I enjoy where that is. I really would like to see more wicked bad guys in this book though besides just the few that we get to read. I think it could be a little more exciting in that aspect.

I recommend this to anyone who likes angel or demon stories or YA in general or maybe even Urban fantasy. I am not sure exactly how many books are in this series but I do look forward to reading the next book. Great story and plot line.