Year One by Nora Roberts

Description from Amazon:

As this world ends, a new one begins.

With one drop of blood, the old world is gone for ever. And in its place, something extraordinary begins...

They call it The Doom - a deadly pandemic that starts on a cold New Year’s Eve in the Scottish countryside. There’s something mysterious about the virus and the way it spreads. As billions fall sick and die, some survivors find themselves invested with strange, unexpected abilities.

Lana, a New York chef, has the power to move things and people with her will. Fred can summon light in the darkness. Jonah, a paramedic, sees snatches of the future in those he touches. Katie gives birth to twins, and suspects that she has brought fresh magic into the world, along with new life.

But The Doom affects people differently. Along with the light, a dark and terrifying magic will also rise. As the remaining authorities round up the immune and the ‘Uncannies’ for testing, Lana, Katie and others flee New York in search of a safe haven. The old world is over, and Year One has begun.

 

I had not read Nora Roberts or her other penname, JD Robb, before, and with a tagline like this, I just had to read it.

The pandemic has an eerie COVID feeling to it, but it’s a lot more extreme and wipes a lot more people out. It also turns people feral. It’s as though there is a feeling of hatred unleashed, and those willing to embrace the hatred turn the landscape into a dystopian wasteland by stealing and killing and destroying. If you felt the desperation people experienced to stay alive in the movie The Purge, then this is what it’s like on another level. It does move from dystopian to more fantasy, but I had no problem with this.

I enjoyed the magical elements to the story, where the “Uncannies” have incredible abilities and many are just learning to use them. You have humans with simple abilities, while others have become faeries or elves. There are also those without abilities who are merely immune to the virus wiping everyone out. In some humans the abilities have turned dark, and this darkness fuels an evil that threatens to wipe out all that is good.

The survivors have banded together in groups, much like in The Stand, and in one particular group, some of the members may have something that will turn the tides in years to come. But the waiting might kill more people than the world can afford.

I loved the writing, and the tension and sections of happiness are well placed. The author has you thinking one thing at one stage, and then BAM! Something so unexpected happens so quickly I actually went back to read it again to see if I’d made a mistake. There are sections that do seem a little slow when concentrating on the babies or the cooking or the provisions, but I think these made the hills and valleys of the book interesting.

There are plenty of elements that have not been addressed like how the Raiders came together, what the deep dark is, and how the prophet is going to get involved, but I think this will be one of the bases for the full series.

I look forward to the rest!

Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent

Description from Amazon:

My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.

On the surface, Lydia Fitzsimons’s life seems idyllic. Her husband, Andrew, is a prosperous, respected judge; they live in the spacious, comfortable, well-appointed house where she was raised. And she is utterly, obsessively devoted to her son, Laurence—her adored only child, her pride and joy.

But Andrew’s murder of Annie Doyle, accidental or not, sets into motion a dark downward spiral. It doesn’t take long for Laurence to suspect that something is very, very wrong in the Fitzsimons household—and he is determined to discover the truth.

This was a new author for me, and she sure knows how to craft a tale!

The story starts off with a bang, and what helps it along is that each section comes from a different POV, so we get to see the hows and the whys from multiple angles. The main event in the story comes to you early, so what the rest does is explain the peripherals and how people deal with it. Adding to the tension is not just the family that does the killing, but the family affected by it, and as the truths unfold, the layers reveal things buried even deeper throughout the years. With the book taking place in the 1980s in Dublin, the scenes and settings are all very real to the time period.

The author goes deep into the characters, and here they are not just people willing to do deeds, but actually willing to manipulate people emotionally, psychologically, and physically for the good of their own futures. Lydia is an especially creepy character in that she looks like the perfect old-money genteel woman on the outside, but her scheming in order to make sure that what she wants is paramount is diabolical. And the sad thing is that she believes that what she is doing is right.

You vacillate over whether Laurence is doing the right thing as you follow his decisions, starting with thinking he is a mommy’s boy, then cheering him on as he strikes out on his own, and then disliking him once more with later actions.

The tragedy lies in what people are willing to do for their own gain and using others they see as less than themselves.

The ending is like knowing an accident is coming but being unable to look away, and the simplicity of the actions to accomplish this makes you feel a little sick to your stomach. When you close the book, you are going to feel rather icky.

An Inheritance of Curses by Dee J Holmes

Description from Amazon:

The Four Houses of Magic—light-seeking fae, blood-fueled vampires, loyal werewolves, and power-driven witches—barely survived a century of conflict. Now they exist divided, bound by a single promise: never The Four shall meet.

That rule has just been broken.

Heir to a brutal legacy, witch Rose LeFey is determined to confront her aunt and prove she’s finished with blood magic. Instead, she finds the basement full of prisoners: a sarcastic vampire staked to a table; a beautiful, defiant fae princess in an iron cage; and an insanely attractive werewolf chained to the wall.

He’s massive, covered in fur, and furious at being held captive.

She can’t look away—even if she should.

Contact between the Houses is strictly forbidden. But Rose can’t leave any of them at her aunt’s mercy.

Except the werewolf is a trap. As soon as Rose touches him, a mate-bond snaps between them. Curses. She walked right into a spell designed to tear apart her self control—and drive her straight into her aunt’s clutches. Her aunt has unleashed war on the magical Houses and humans alike—and she wants Rose’s magic at her side.

Hex that.

To stop her, Rose must risk everything and strike a bargain with the former captives. Tricky, as the vampire wants revenge, the fae to save her mother’s life, and the werewolf to protect his pack at all costs.

Yet working together might not be enough. Not when the true threat might be Rose’s deadly powers and her growing desire to make the false-bond real.

 

I was in the mood for a bit of urban fantasy and found this on my kindle. Contrary to what a lot of reviewers are saying, I rather enjoyed it!

From the offset you can feel how the story is going to be told and it is true to an urban fantasy book. When Rose reaches the basement, you are actually thrown into a conundrum trying to work out who is telling the truth and who she will save.

I think this is one of those books where you don’t need to take it apart for the story or writing but just read it in the spirit it was intended. Especially the false-mate bond between Rose and Dar and how extreme and repetitive it is.

What the author does well is not give each character equal weight, so we only get a glimpse into Sebastian (I enjoyed him!) while moving through others’ stories a lot more. I’m hoping these will be equalled out in further books. The story itself and the fight against dark magic is intense, with many of the scenes being so action filled you want to turn the pages as quickly as you can. But then there were scenes that felt repeated, especially with the bond and the werewolves and trust issues. Some scenes definitely bordered on the “is this age appropriate for everyone?” steamy!

What constantly stopped my reading, though, was the POV jumps with no clear break as to who was speaking. The problem with the sections was that some could not even be regarded as full sections as they were thoughts broken into another, and an omniscient narrator would not have worked here. And typos... far too many.

I did like that the story ended without ending. There was some form of resolution, but it’s not over and yet does not finish on a cliffhanger. It’s a “turn your brain off” kind of read, and sometimes that’s just what you need!

I'll Smile More When You're Dead by Sarah K. Stephens

Description from Amazon:

IT TOOK HER 10 MINUTES TO LOVE HIM...
AND 10 YEARS TO KILL HIM.

Another gripping thriller from the author of It Was Always You, The Girl in the Fire, and The Good Life, I’ll Smile More When You’re Dead will keep you guessing until the final twist!

When Lauren Hearst discovered her book club was special—as in, they-can-rid-the-world-of-terrible-men-without-leaving-the-couch special—she brought a bottle of Pinot Grigio and a list. But when their group of vigilante feminists choose Lauren’s brother-in-law as their next target, she realizes her book club might be more about causing trauma than healing it.

Professor Lauren Hearst is getting by just fine, thank you very much—if you call being addicted to sleeping pills, avoiding your twin sister’s husband because you’re in love with him, and bottling up an indeterminate rage ‘fine’. When fellow academic Sybil Fellcourt invites her to join her book club, Lauren considers it a good opportunity to expand her horizons. What she doesn’t realize is these women chose her for a reason—and that they’re not a book club. As violent men on campus start dying from supposed suicides, Lauren realizes Sybil and her fellow book club members have a collective power born of their own traumas. A power they believe Lauren also possesses, given her past. As the book club’s goals become more destructive and Lauren considers leaving them behind, Sybil discloses their next target: Lauren’s brother-in-law, Arne. The man Lauren has secretly loved for ten years. As she sets out to exonerate him from Sybil’s accusations, Lauren uncovers secrets long hidden in her town, her family, and her own mind. When it becomes clear Arne isn’t the man she thought he was, she must decide whether she’ll let her newfound power transform her life or destroy it.

 

The premise sounded very interesting, and while the idea of collective powers manifesting physically isn’t entirely new, it was used here in a fresh way. It also pulls you in two directions. Punishing wrongdoers can seem like the right thing to do, but the way they went about it—and the fact that they took on the roles of judge and executioner themselves—felt wrong.

Lauren’s past is laid out well, and the incident that forms the basis of her anger sets the scene for many of the decisions she makes. I liked the glimpses into her childhood, particularly her relationship with her twin sister and their mom using the fact that they were twins to help pay the bills, followed later by their involvement in studies. It created an interesting foundation, and yet we find out how much of it was manipulated.

None of the characters are quite who you initially think they are, and my feelings about them changed throughout the book, which I enjoyed.

I did find it very odd, however, that Lauren kept jumping to the conclusion that women she had only just met were sexually interested in her. The first time it happened it felt strange, and when something similar happened again, it almost felt as though the author had tried the idea once and then hurriedly decided to use it again because it turned out not to be true. Neither interaction felt particularly real to me.

The pacing also became too frenetic at times. There were sections I wanted to settle into and enjoy, but things kept happening so quickly that some scenes didn’t have the detail or breathing room needed to round them off properly. Characters repeatedly told Lauren that they would explain things later, and after a while the repetition became frustrating. Although explanations eventually came, it often felt as though Lauren was being brushed off—and, by extension, so was the reader.

I also found it frustrating that Lauren’s twin, Claudia, so often seemed to know that things were about to happen before they did. Twins are often portrayed as having an almost magical connection, but for me this was pushed a little too far.

There are some very dark aspects of human nature explored in the book, though, and I thought the author did a good job of shining a light on them.

Unfortunately, there were also quite a few typos and editing issues that let the book down. These ranged from missing commas before direct address, missing quotation marks, to ellipses being broken across lines, inconsistent use of “ok” and “okay,” and words such as “breaks” being used instead of “brakes.” There were also unnecessary hyphens in words or phrases such as “follow-me” and “pick-up,” and occasionally even missing spaces between words. Individually these may seem like small things, but together they interrupt the flow of the reading experience.

Overall, this was a mixed bag for me. There were parts I genuinely enjoyed and others that worked less well. It was clearly a tricky story to bring together at the end, and at times events seemed to have to be manipulated into place to make everything fit. That said, the story ultimately ended the way I felt it should.

I received this prerelease from the author as an arc read.