Dead Wrong by Lynn Emery

Dead Wrong is the third in a series about the Joliet sisters who are detectives and psychic ones to boot.

Jessi and Charmaine are called in to a case on a plantation involving missing objects and the owner’s certainty that spirits are to blame. The two of them discover very quickly that they are not welcome, both because the rest of the family do not believe in ghost hunters, and also because they are the wrong colour in a place where colour determines status in life. As the finger is pointed at different people and bodies start turning up, will the ghosts doomed to spend their existence there help them to trace old records that have made this mystery and indeed an unsolved murder into so much more?

I found this an average read and not one I would read again or look further into the series. I found the story overall rather drawn-out considering the ultimate ending. Taking into account they are paranormal detectives I was surprised that very little actually had to do with the ghosts and their talents and I felt a lot more could have been incorporated. Even the actual detective work was a bit humdrum. Jessi’s past as a stripper and hooker kept being brought up and I thought fewer mentions would have been better. Charmaine’s sex drive was also a little OTT and the fact that she jumped into bed with some of the characters, whether clients or not, seemed odd. It was a bit like taking a bunch of unlikeable characters all blaming each other and figuring out whodunit. Except, since I didn’t gel with the way many of the conversations were worded, I didn’t really care.

There were a lot of editing errors, from incorrect punctuation marks, to punctuation in the wrong places to erroneous words being used, which really jarred the flow of reading.

Many thanks to Voracious Readers Only and the author for a copy of the book, but I wouldn’t give it more than 3 stars as I was really hoping for more action and more paranormal activity.

Princess Grace of Earth by AK Lambert

The full review can be found here:

https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=114217

Three Remain by RA Andrade

Three Remain is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller and tells the story of three strangers thrown together who have to learn to work as one in order to remain alive.

First, we meet Glen, who works in insurance and has witnessed a strange meteor shower just before he has gone to sleep. Then we have Sunshine (so named by Glen obviously due to her sunny personality—or not) who has awoken after a car accident with no memory and no clue as to her identity. Lastly, we have Traci, a pre-teen out at the movies who has woken to find everyone is missing and there is no signal for her phone (horror of horrors). The three land up meeting each other and realise they are trapped in an area surrounded by a fogbank. With no power and no means of communication with anyone else, they are forced into strange circumstances and have to make decisions they might never have even contemplated before. Could it really be the end of the world or are they pawns in a larger game?

I was drawn to the book by the description and the start really pulled me in. Then things went south. This is one book I actually struggled to finish. The idea behind the beginning of the book—great. The idea about the multitude of plot changes—getting fishy. The ending—oh, come on! You would get to a section where the characters were pushed a ‘la “Truman show style” and sort of buy into it, and then they would be pushed somewhere else and then somewhere else. Each time I kept asking myself—surely not? There is fiction and imagination and then there is just plain silly. It’s almost an insult to ask the reader to swallow some of it. From tanks to androids and dolphins to sex robots to aliens – it’s like someone looked at some interesting ideas and said hey, why not use all of them in one book?  

There were initially only three characters to concentrate on so you would think that a lot could be said about them and you could really get into their stories. I didn’t find this at all. Sunshine was the most annoying and whiny character and I honestly felt more irritated than sorry for her. While Glen was trying to be the perfect gentleman around her she harped on and on about him not looking while she was changing or telling him he was too old for her and never stood a chance or just being flat out rude to him. Traci was not much better and her moaning about her phone not working got on my nerves. Her attitude and actions jumped constantly from a pre-teen to one much older and the inconsistency was jarring. The supposed “mother and daughter” dynamic between Sunshine and Traci that was meant to be a big part of the story fell flat to me, and I found some of the interactions between the three unnerving.

It’s sad when a book makes such a negative impact on a reader and the silly dialogue and ludicrous situations overshadowed any positives. I’m sure if it had been developed correctly it might have been a good story, but all I remember are the negative parts. The one thing I can say, though, is that barring a few punctuation errors, the proofing was very good.

Unfortunately, this is one I wouldn’t read again. Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to review the book.