I'll start by saying that this book kept my interest the whole time, I never felt the urge to put it down and walk away.  I know this is being marketed as a thrilling mystery, and it is, but what resonated with me is the underlying story of a bullied girl who made good, coming back to the town that persecuted her.  Abby was one of the few who escaped and made something of herself.  It's pretty obvious from the beginning that even though she's well educated and successful, she is still fundamentally messed up by her childhood.  Her experiences color her perceptions and expectations, you are left wondering if this bias will affect the job she's sent home to do.

No one quite believes her when she suspects there is more going on than just an environmental issue.  She is the epitome of the unreliable narrator.  Is she being manipulated?  Is she remembering events that never actually happened?  You have to keep reading to find out!  This is a solid novel from Ritter, I will be interested to see what else she has up her sleeve.

When I heard this book was coming out, you can imagine my joy. If you can't imagine it, try picturing a 7 year old kid waking up to a snow day where you can sled and build forts all day long... Whee!!  But then, I found out the entire plot revolved around Choal.  Hmmm... not my absolute favorite character in the whole Maas world. So, I told myself: Self, give it a try. And believe you me, it was sledding and forts with hot chocolate at the end! New lands, new characters, new creatures, new mystery. It was glorious. Why did I ever doubt?

As always with Maas, there is a whole lot going on in this book. I know there are complaints that characters fall in and out of love in this series a bit too much, but this felt right.  No spoilers, but I am rooting for a whole host of new happily ever afters here. I seriously can't wait for the next installment.  Write faster, pretty please!

So, you know from the get go that Oliver is not a nice man. The opening line pretty much lays it out.

"I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her."

But what made him snap? What did poor Alice do to deserve her fate? The multiple view points, presented as conversations or interviews with the characters, teases out Oliver's past. Nothing could condone his actions, but you end up wanting to really understand what drove him. The only person whose point of view you don't hear is Alice, which disappointed and intrigued me. What did she suspect, why did she stay so long?

I found the discussions about the Catholic Church, and how much power the church had over the every day life in Ireland during the decades between the 50's and 80's so fascinating. Whether directly or indirectly, the church influenced the actions of most all the characters.

Oliver knows there is something wrong with him. He'd made a life for himself that he didn't truly earn, and his secrets, as well as the secrets of his father, came back to haunt him. I read this book over the course of 24 hours, I didn't want to put it down! Highly recommend to everyone!

It's over... this is my happy/sad face, if you could actually see me.  I have enjoyed every book in this series, there hasn't been a false step in any of them.  I like that Ritter tied up a lot of loose ends in this, the last book, but still left a few things up to your imagination.  Does everyone live happily ever after?  Who knows, but at least they stand a fighting chance.  And speaking of fighting... lots of action in this installation.  Battles, fights, jumping and running.  Throw in a couple of love stories, and you have nearly the whole package.  If you are looking for a fun, supernatural, sarcastic and weirdly heartwarming story, here you go!  Well worth your reading time!

Super fun, light breezy read!  There is an automatic kinship, being a natural redhead.  People who didn't grow up with the hair, skin and freckles have no idea how much it affects your personality and outlook on life!  My daughter expresses her disappointment ever day, that she wasn't born with red hair.  She has the freckles, a light sprinkle across the nose, but tans like nobody's business.  I tell her she is lucky, but secretly I wouldn't give up being a ginger for anything!

I am so fascinated by this series.  I think we all know that at some point, the human race will do something catastrophic to our planet, we just don't know the exact when, how or who.  Jemisin has crafted what I assume to be the future Earth, tens of thousands of years in the future.  We learn about the origins of the stone eaters and orogenes, which I've been hoping to find out since book one.  We even find out how the Fifth Seasons started.  Most of my "big" questions were answered, and I ended up satisfied, if a little sad, at the end of the book.
Jemisin managed to make the world another character in her story.  She weaves in the landscape, the weather, the topography into the narrative.  The Earth is just as beaten down, just as abused as the orogenes.  The only difference is, the Earth fought back.  The orogenes, as a class of people, had been cast out of society, murdered on site or taken in by the Fulcrum to be used and bred.  Is it any wonder that Essun's daughter decided that, instead of fixing the world, she might as well make it burn?  I'm not going to give away any details here, you need to read the book to fully understand the magnificent scope of Jemisin's genius.  Trust me, it is so worth it.

Let's pretend for a moment that Weir didn't write The Martian.  Comparing any book against that juggernaut would result in disappointment.  That being said, Artemis is a fabulous story.  The first half of the novel felt like a lot of set up, having to explain how the community on the moon works, what the culture is, who the main characters are.  I have to say that I didn't particularly care for Jazz in the beginning.  She is gruff, prickly and self-destructive.  Understanding her motivations and her backstory helped to balance this, but I didn't immediately click with her.
The second half of the book clipped along at a great pace.  I found myself invested in the characters, almost rushing through the chapters to find out what was going to happen.  So imaginative, but realistic at the same time!  Really worth the read, even if you can't help but compare it to The Martian.  I am going to have to read this again, slowing it down so I can enjoy the ride all over again!

There is a lot going on here... time travel, magical "affinities," good guy, bad guys, bad guys you thought were good guys...  The way the story started, I thought there would be a lot more time jumping, more action from the characters introduced in the first few chapters.  This isn't a complaint, necessarily, but the beginning of the book feels very different from the rest of the story.  Don't go into this thinking you are going to hear about all the "pilfering from the past" Esta does. That would be an awesome story on its own!
What we do get is an engrossing story about life in the early 1900's.  I like that Maxwell discusses how segregated the gangs of New York were at that time, based on where people emigrated from, down to what village they left.  Esta drops in and manipulates her way into a heist that could change the future for those that still have magic left in them.  The cast of character is large, but Maxwell makes it work.  I didn't lose interest in the story once, and MAY have stayed up too late a night or two to finish the book!  Check this out, it's definitely worth it!!

You gotta love a good prequel!  And this is a good one!  It was so smart to concentrate on these two characters, they were a large part of what I loved from Every Heart A Doorway.  I am completely satisfied with this story arc, I wanted to know what turned Jack and Jill into what they are.  It was brilliant to include the bits about their parents, how Jack and Jill were raised.  Rebelling against the stereotypes they were forced into, warping their personalities so they accepted the world they entered into with little fuss. For such a slim novel there was a lot to digest.  I think you could read this book first, if chronology matters a lot to you, I may read #1 again with this better understanding of the twins, but I think Every Heart A Doorway sets the reader up to want more of a taste of the backstories of the characters.  I am fervently hoping to hear that McGuire is going to follow up with more prequels, one for every child, one for every adult in the Wayward Children universe!

It's all beginning to make sense now!  I love how so many seemingly random occurrences and throw away plot lines are converging to create a complex but exciting story.  Alex and the gang are finally understanding how they fit into the machinations of their enemies, making baby steps toward being powerful on their own.  This is a truly enjoyable series, if you like The Dresden Files, you really need to check this out.  There are the obvious similarities, but Jacka has his own unique voice and spin on the genre.

Holy convoluted sentence structures, batman! It's hard to parse out what is actually happening sometimes, the meandering descriptions and pretentiousness get in the way. I'm not sure if Ives is trying to impress with her knowledge of privilege in New York, or if she thinks it adds anything to the story, but I found it off putting. The actual plot is interesting.  The setting is fabulous.  I feel like I really could have liked this book, if there had been better editing; prune out the unnecessary and distracting verbosity, concentrate on the mystery and the characters more.  Meh.

I studied European History in college for a while, and WWII was always a dominant theme.  You would think that there would be no new stories to be told about this time frame, no new characters. The Women of the Castle added a whole new nuance for me, I was pleasantly surprised that the book pulled me in as quickly as it did.

It must be so scary to try and release a new book after having a phenom of a series conclude. Will people like it on its own, or constantly compare it to what you'd written before? Carve the Mark is different enough from the Divergent series, that after the first few chapters you don't even remember to compare. 

I love the setting, not just a world, but a galaxy. The scope of the story expands to include not just the main characters, it includes the climate of the planets and how this affects the people, the technology and the dynamics of all the relationships. I was completely engrossed in this book. Even if you didn't love the Divergent Series, give this a try. It stands on it's own merits! Great beginning to a new series!

This book was such a departure from Backman's other novels, it was almost shocking.  What was truly shocking was how deeply the story affected me.  I grew up in a small, dying town.  The atmosphere was spot on here; the desperation, hope and despondency was genuine.  As uncomfortable as the true plot became, this is NOT a story about hockey, I felt compelled to read, to finish.  It's impossible to not compare how you would react as a parent in this situation.  How you would react as a bystander, as part of the community.  Backman always makes me think, well after I've finished reading.  This is doubly true for Beartown.

I am a fan of Koontz books, so I am used to the sometimes frantic tempo he can employ in his stories. The Silent Corner was a bit too frantic to keep my interest.  The main character never became sympathetic, I knew too little about her personality, only what was driving her on her quest.  The characters that were introduced to help her along were never fully realized.  They were too fleetingly included, which I realize was done purposely.  The main character, Jane, was supposed to be on her own, on the lam, running from bad guys.  No one was safe, she didn't want to pull anyone into her hunt for "the truth."  The downside to this was never getting attached to any of the characters, I wasn't invested in the plot or in finding out what the "truth" was.  Disappointing, I found myself skimming through chapters to get to the good parts.  

Um, from the first page:

"... I should try not to be so reserved, it was too easily interpreted as a form of arrogance."

Ouch, that hit's close to home!

"Our marriage was formed by the things Christopher knew and the things I did not."

"Our marriage was formed by the things Christopher knew and the things I did not."

But really, the nameless narrator seemed to know quite a bit more than we were led to believe.  She knows her husband is unfaithful.  She knows they are separated.  She knows her husband's family never liked her.  What she doesn't know, is where he might be.

Christopher's whereabouts is the central mystery of the novel, but I really don't consider this to be typical of the genre.  The writing style was almost stream of consciousness, very little dialog.  You learn about the marriage and consequent separation through the narrators memories and thoughts.  I was more drawn to how she lived her life, drifting along waiting for a push in any direction.  I don't want to give anything away, you really need to read this and experience it yourself!  It's a quick read, made quicker by not being able to put it down and walk away.

Waking Gods is a terrific follow up to Sleeping Giants!  Neuvel kept the same basic format: interview transcripts and journal entries to narrate the story.  You might think this would inhibit character development, but it really doesn't.  The personalities of the main characters shines through, as well as a rich story about love, fear, and the end of the world.  Taking place years after the original novel, you jump right back into the action.  There are quite a few heavy themes explored here, but the story kept me  interested to the very end.  Loved it!

Besides the gorgeous cover, what's inside is worth your time as well!  This novel is engrossing, I love the world building and the alternating timelines.  Chupeco doles out details as though you are already familiar with the history of this world, which usually frustrates me, but works in this case.  The protagonist is a young girl that exhibits powers that are rare, despised, and desperately needed all at the same time.  You know from the beginning that something happens to cast her out of society, I never lost interest in finding out what exactly happened.  I can't wait for the next book, definitely on my watch list for release!

SQEEEEEEE!!!!!   My adult reaction, go on about your business...

I immediately fell in love with the pace and lush descriptions in this book.  The main character, Alexandra, came to Bulgaria under the guise of teaching English.  She was really there as an act of penance.  From the moment she is dropped off by the taxi at the wrong hotel, her story becomes tied to the strange family she attempts to help.  Add a poet taxi driver, a powerful politician, and a stray dog to the mix, and you get an unforgettable narrative that pulls you in and keeps you in.

Blending the modern Bulgarian story with a tale from post World War Two highlights the changes that have happened in that country in a relatively short amount of time.  Jumping back and forth between Alexandra and the mysterious musician from the past, Kostova does a peerless job of pulling together a deliberately paced, almost gothic story.  I know that everyone will be comparing this to The Historian, but this novel is quite different.  The Shadow Land has its own style, its own sense of urgency, its own unique story.  One of the best I've read in quite some time.

Myfanwy Thomas is my hero.  Calm, cool and collected in a VERY strange world.  She wakes up with no memory of who she is, surrounded by people she apparently killed.  This is only the beginning of the mysteries in this novel, which is packed to the gills with weird, wonderful, scary and amazing... people? As Myfanwy attempts to understand who she is and how she fits into the world she woke up to, the reader is pulled into a story that is complex, but so satisfying.  This is one of those books you won't want to put down because you just have to find out what the heck is going on!  The second book in the series just came out, they are both really worth your time.

I'm going to start by saying that Backman is one of my favorite authors and I have loved all of his books.  I have to admit that the content of this story led me to delay reading it, it just hit a little too close to home.  That being said, I am so glad I made the plunge and picked this up.  It was beautifully written, sad and glorious at the same time.  How on earth does Backman continue to create these amazing characters who resonate so strongly with me?  Pick this novella up, and don't be afraid to read it.  You won't be sorry.

There are so many things that I love about this book, it's hard to list them all. The main character has dealt with debilitating depression and come out the other side. She has tragically lost her husband and young daughter, which causes her to go through a mental breakdown. How does she decide to bring herself back to normalcy? Move to a once inhabited, now deserted island in the Pacific Northwest to rebuild a "folly" of a house. Once there, King describes the process of building the house and the process of Rae re-building her sanity. Both are fascinating to read about. There is a central mystery about the island to keep you even more interested! The characters in this book are so believable, Rae's backstory is so intriguing, you won't want the story to end. Everyone I have recommended this to has loved it!