Downstate by Jeffery Deaver

Constant Marlowe is back! And she returns with her impressive investigative instincts as well as her boxing skills. This is the second novella in the series and it does help to have read the first one just to understand her story. Luckily, I had!

Constant is after “Mr X” who she is hoping to turn witness in a case. But when she lands up in pokey Downstate, she stumbles across a case that, at the outset, seemed cut and dry, but has tendrils that extend from robbery to as far as human trafficking. And every time you think you can see the plot twist coming... you can’t!

As always, I loved the author’s style of writing. It’s physical and cerebral and as though each angle is dissected and brought to you. Like watching a movie but really having to think about why each thing is happening. Small interactions that you take for granted as moving the story along actually turn out to be something important. So this really is a quick read as you can just fly through it to get to figure out the why and who.

I had two gripes. One was the bow that was a little too neat at the end. I’m all for her to take into account all the aspects of the investigation, but when the bow is double knotted and sparkly after ALL the action (and there was a LOT) that took place... um... okay... The second gripe is entirely on me and it’s just something my eye kept noticing. When dialogue opened a chapter, the opening quotation marks were missing off the drop cap. I know some take this as a style issue but it was enough to make me pause for a second and I don’t like doing that when reading!

Overall a great story with info and action galore. I look forward to seeing where Constant and her “I’ll do it my way, thanks” is going next!

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to review the book.

All I Need to Know I Learned from the Golden Girls by T Ann Pryor

 All I Need to Know I Learned from the Golden Girls is the author’s love letter to the show, if you will, of her life experiences and what she took from them based on how the Golden Girls had dealt with it. She incorporates the scenes with her events and examines life from their view. Each Golden Girl is studied and their positive and negative escapades compared to how we can all deal with life.

I went into this book with a very open mind as I was a big fan of the Golden Girls way back when and I wondered about the “all I need to know” part, considering some of Blanche’s exploits. What makes me laugh now when I look back at the show is just how times have changed in the way people look. Everyone besides Sofia was meant to be in their fifties and yet if you look at a lot of fifty-year-olds now, there is a huge difference!

The book is very short, which makes it a quick read. I liked the quotes that started the chapters off and many of the stories brought the characters’ voices back to me so I could hear it like a movie.

The story is written from a very chatty perspective and is not a tale from outside looking in at the author, but more like a sharing from the inside out. She holds nothing back when she wants to admit something and even if it’s a little more out there, it’s not sugar-coated. It could have used a good edit though as there are punctuation errors like missing quotation marks, lines are repeated, and the flow of the info sometimes doesn’t work. By this I mean she will be in the middle of a story and the next thing she goes back to something she was speaking about ages ago. It becomes rather confusing.

As a quick read I enjoyed its humour but I didn’t feel it was quite what its title said. The author did not really say they were prepared for a situation because of a lesson learnt from the show. It was more of a “Oh and something similar happened when...” A fun book, but not one I would read again.

Thanks to Reedsy Discovery and the author for the opportunity to review the book.

The author has since assured me that the incorrect version was uploaded and that all editing and formatting issues were sorted out.

You Wanna Put What, Where? by Brian Fasterling

As the author began his tale with the image of tomato juice being the result of a “Number 1”, I could just imagine the horror and worry that this must have caused. To take the subsequent events and treat them in such a light-hearted manner showed the author’s grit in sharing what could potentially have been devastating news to create a story to perhaps help others.

A lump in the renal system that turns out to be a polyp and leads to a stent and a biopsy and further surgery (that goes wrong but eventually right) and and and forms the basis of this medical mayhem.

The editing overall was good but there were some odd punctuation errors where unnecessary commas were placed after dialogue already closed with the correct punctuation mark. The writing style flowed well and was easy to read as the author tried hard to take a subject that was serious and unnerving for him and make it less medical and more humorous. To me, this worked, but it also didn’t. I understood and appreciated the humour but found it became a bit too much. It felt as though every single incident had to be made fun of, which didn’t allow for a change in tone and kept the reading on a constant “snark alert”. Don’t get me wrong, many incidents needed the lightening up, I just wanted to take a break every now and then.

 Especially when there were literal LOL moments like the urine bag falling out of the bottom of the tracksuit pants’ leg. And I felt a little vindicated when he finally realised the indignity of stirrups and what women feel.

 The length was good so that it didn’t go into too much jargon and kept the reader wanting to find out how it ended. I would love to have found out a bit more about his wife and how she coped with it too. A fun read and a good lesson in how we are all connected by our unpredictable bodies and how grateful we should be for medical professionals. 

Thanks to Reedsy Discovery and the author for the opportunity to review the book.

The Canine Collection by Laura Shell

The Canine Collection is a bundle of short horror stories with a supernatural element and all involving a dog or two It runs the gamut of alcohol and domestic abuse leading to violence and a lifechanging discovery, to wishes (even when for good) having consequences, to vampires making choices, to shapeshifters protecting those they love.

 

The author’s writing style is very easy to read and she has a lovely flow where you are involved in the story and then she throws a twist that makes you pause and possibly reread a line. But in a good way. What did trip up the story were the punctuation errors like missing quotation marks or lowercase words meant to be capped or full stops that should have been commas. Even phrases like vice versa were mixed up and made visa versa. These things make me pause in a bad way! Not to mention that the chapters in the first story were all out of whack and had me confused. I wish each story had started with a title too as it went directly from the last chapter of the previous story to chapter one of the next and you weren’t sure if it was a numbering error. It seems the edition sent for the Reedsy review was not the one uploaded for publishing.

 

Immortal Me has a great parallel storyline to it in the question of whether a domestic abuser will ever change his spots. In Jinn or Jinx? I wish the dog had had a bigger role but I loved Eric’s wishes and the way he saw the world. In My Sister’s Keeper there is almost a punishment Emma gets for the choice she makes, but the underlying reason of sacrifice is very sad. I didn’t agree with the synopsis for the story as the “turning” was not really the concern. In The Shape of the Shift the canine is not what you expect and there was a question in there I would have loved an answer to.

 

The collection is good and the ideas work well as short stories as they are punchy and able to offer a packed plot. With extra editing, this would be a great afternoon read.

Thanks to Reedsy Discovery and the author for the opportunity to review the book.

Gore by Kane Szoke

Gore is a grimdark story set in a dystopian world and tells of the warrior Gore – a man born in a sea of blood as his mother lay dying, who fights demons... those without and within. Fated to battle with the demonic Goredus, who himself is battling his brothers, Gore must attempt to navigate the harsh landscape of the nightmare around him and in his mind. As Gore faces what may be an enemy too strong for him, he must accept aid where he can. But when the pale knight sees the Red Sea, Gore knows his journey is just beginning and he must not become a head on Death’s belt.

 

The book is short but sets the main character up for further volumes. Initially, you think the story starts with Gore looking for a girl. Then it changes dramatically and shifts into a demonic dreamscape where Gore battles to keep his identity intact. He is constantly reminded of his failures by those taunting him and his inability to keep the ones he loves safe. This pulling on his psyche and forcing him to confront his past and future, makes for a physical and psychological battle that becomes emotive to read.

 

The imagery in the book is almost overwhelming. The descriptions of tortured bodies and entrails and blood was continuous. I could just picture a landscape devoid of joy and filled with everchanging nightmares. Sometimes it became a bit too much.

 

The book seemed to have language suited slightly higher than YA, and occasionally it became difficult to picture where you were as thoughts mingled with reality and mingled with memories and you had to reread passages to see if you were in a dream or in the present world. The proofing was good but often too many adjectives were used to tell us how people felt. This was my first foray into grimdark fantasy and while the story had merit, it wasn’t enough to make me want to find out more of Gore’s journey.

 

Thanks to Reedsy and the author for the opportunity to review the book.

The Girl in the Fire by Sarah K Stephens

Grace really loves Damien... or so he thinks. So why would she disappear just before their wedding? When looking for clues as to where she could have gone, he finds a newspaper article with her picture in it claiming she died in a fire many years before and that her name was Leanne. What is going on?

 

As Damien investigates further into family relations, he finds out that secrets are buried behind secrets. And that revealing some of the secrets could be deadly.

 

The premise of this book had me really excited as I love a good and well-thought-out psychological thriller. But it kind of left me hanging. The idea is great and the short chapters between POVs from the present to the past make you want to jump to the next chapter each time one finishes. It does become a little confusing to keep up with the characters and name changes at times but you do get into it.

 

My issues were with the story itself. I get that not every book needs to be thoroughly explained or tied up with a bow but so many subplots and parts of the story were left open or were ended so quickly they made little sense. Leanne and Tasha’s big plan was so slow in the making and the explanation felt unfinished. There will always be unlikeable characters in books, but there were more unlikable characters in this book than likeable ones. And the more you read, the more your empathy switched sides.

 

But no. Once the physicality started and the reasons behind things were explained, it just got “really???” Grace’s life choice was eye-raising and if the family had had one decent conversation, none of this would have happened. It felt like too many forced twists and turns to explain it all. And the lack of comma before direct address drove me nuts!

 

The idea was great but the slow execution, leading to a fast and forced reveal, made for a disappointing last page turn.

 

Thanks to Voracious Readers Only and the author for the opportunity to review the book.

Snow Star: Fading Stars by Susanne Ertl

When Namila, a hunter of night walkers for the Elites, encounters a naked girl on her doorstep in winter begging to stay with her for a while, she is completely confused. Where could this girl, Astara, have come from? And how could she let her stay at her home while out hunting each night? These questions open up a new world to Namila, where she learns that there is a lot more out there than the horizon and that what she believed about who her enemies were might not be true...

 

This is a very short book and the first of four, so I presume each will cover a season. The book opens with a conundrum straight away, which draws you in and leaves you with questions about Astara, who the Elites and night walkers are, and why Namila seems to be somewhat of an outcast. Then the addition of Trean makes for a lovely dynamic of job versus relationship.

 

I liked Namila’s balance between being a kickass hunter and wanting to be alone and not vulnerable in sharing emotions, with her opening her heart to Astara and then wanting to trust Trean. When the possibility that the Elites were lying to her and that the night walkers may have a different agenda came up, it seemed Namila was conflicted. But her true colours shone through and she went with her heart.

 

The editing was good with only a few mistakes. (The mix of straight and curly quotes irked somewhat, however!) The book was well written but very short so it was a pity that place and people descriptions were not as developed as I’d liked and it felt like more could have been explained about the conflicts and about the hidden agendas (the priest) and more about the star memories that were not meant to remain that were still there. But the ending does have a great lead into the next book!

 

Thanks to Reedsy Discovery and the author for the opportunity to review the book.