Shining Star Reviews: August 2016

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Book Review: All These Perfect Strangers by Aoife Clifford

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group - Alibi

Pen Sheppard accepts a scholarship to university in order to escape her hometown. After testifying against her best friend in a murder trial at the young age of 15 the townspeople never forgave her. She believes that going to a different town will allow her to start over. Unfortunately, she is wrong as she is soon entangled in another murder investigation.

There is a lot of drinking, drug use, and meaningless sex in this book. At times it felt like it was only used as filler. There’s even some gang violence which is never really fleshed out.

Pen is such a flawed character and she lies so much and so well that it’s hard to find any empathy for her. I found that I was bored for a large chunk of the book. There was too much discussion about whether Pen was innocent or guilty. Since it was told from her point of view the protestations of innocent got old really quickly. Then you have to keep in mind that she is a really good liar and wonder what, if anything, that you are reading is true.

It was a bit of a mess and the ending was almost a given and unsatisfying. I don’t see myself reading this book again any time soon.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Many by Nathan Field

Publisher: Silvermac Publishing

Online dating can be scary. This book proves it. Karl’s sister Stacey goes on a blind date she meets on an online dating site. The guy is handsome and rich and just her cup of tea until he starts putting out creepy stalker vibes. She asks him to take her home and he obliges, or does he?

The next morning she returns home to the apartment she shares with Karl a different person. It’s almost as if she had a personality transplant. She’s become mean, vulgar, and hypersexual. She attacks their mother and then goes after Karl.

Dawn’s mother Isobel is going through the same situation. Isobel meets a beautiful woman on a dating website and after a date, her personality changes as well. She becomes hateful and even abandons Dawn and only returns later to attack her daughter.

Dawn and Karl team up to find out the reasons for their loved ones sudden changes. The cops don’t believe that there is a connection in circumstances but they are determined to prove the police wrong.

There are a few twists here and a mad scientist to boot. The revealing explanations are a little hokey and predictable. The downfall of the women and what they end up doing is more interesting than the reveal of what actually happened to them. It was a little creepy at parts and those I really enjoyed.

The book was not bad overall. It’s fast paced for the most part but a little bogged down in the middle. The ending made me angry. It ended abruptly and had I been reading a paperback instead of on my tablet I would have thrown it across the room.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt

Publisher: Forever (Grand Central Publishing)

Temperance Dews is a widow that works in her family’s foundling home for orphans. The orphanage needs funds. Lazarus Huntington, Lord Caire, needs a guide through the slums to help find the murderer of his mistress. An unlikely pair from the start but you can pretty much tell how this one is going to end.

Caire is a tortured soul who is unable to withstand the slightest human touch. The reasoning behind this is never really explained. Temperance is a widow with a history of cheating on her husband. Of course they end up in bed together.

The sex is steamy, the murderer is revealed, and there is a set up for the author’s future books. It’s a light and fast read and if you view it as a guilty pleasure you will not be disappointed.

It wasn’t the best book I have ever read but it certainly wasn’t the worst.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Everything We Keep by Kerry Lonsdale

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

On what was supposed to be her wedding day, Aimee Tierney is at a funeral instead. Her fiancé, James Donato, vanishes at sea during a fishing trip. His brother brought his body home. A grief stricken Aimee is approached by a psychic who claims that James is still alive but she doesn’t believe her. At first.

Months go by and as Aimee slowly starts moving on with her life she finds she just can’t let James go. She has known James since she was eight years old. How can she just move on from someone who was such a huge part of her life? She can’t bring herself to part with his paintings or clothing. A nagging feeling that he is still alive keeps eating at her.

She starts her own café and a flirtation with a man named Ian. As much as she wants to move on into something serious with Ian she can’t bring herself to let James go. Mysterious clues from Mexico keep popping up and she finally decides she has to make a trip and search out the truth about James once and for all. Even though Ian knows that if they do find James alive somewhere he will lose Aimee, he decides to offer her his help.

I hate how Aimee kept pushing Ian away but I can also understand her reasoning. How can you through yourself fully into loving someone when you have no closure from the previous relationship ending? It wouldn’t be fair to anyone. Even though I hated her for it I felt she made the right choice. She’s not a perfect character. She’s flawed. She makes mistakes that will make you shake your head. In the end she is relatable.

Secrets are revealed and there are twists and turns. The epilogue at the end left me tearful and hoping for a sequel and I am happy to say the author revealed that a sequel is planned for 2017.

This isn’t a light read. Hopefully, like me, you will go through the rollercoaster of emotions with Aimee and enjoy the book. It ranges from devastated to hopeful, then the happiness and joys of new love, the bitterness of old love, and the cleansing aspect of closure.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: The Woman In The Mirror (An Alexandra Mallory Novel) by Cathryn Grant

Publisher: D2C Perspectives

Alexandra Mallory is a murderer. She is looking for a place to live and blend in to obscurity for a while and she believes a house on the edge of a cliff is the perfect place to do it. She rents a room from the home’s owner, Noreen Palmer, and soon finds out that she will have a roommate. His name is Jared and he becomes obsessed with Alexandra almost instantly.

Noreen is quirky, clinging and annoying. Alexandra does her utmost best to avoid her and fails. Noreen claims that she feels a connection to Jared but it is clearly one sided. She also claims that there is a ghost in the mirror. What starts out as weird quirkiness soon changes into obsessive and crazy behavior.

The character of Jared was a hot mess. He walks out of his job one day in an effort to find himself. As soon as he meets Alexandra all of his good intentions fall to the wayside. His only focus from then on is getting her into his bed and into his life. He becomes a needy jerk that won’t take no for an answer. He is almost stalker-like in his new behavior. His constant whining made me cringe.

Alexandra is written as a bad ass and that’s not a good thing here. She has little to no redeeming qualities. She feels that her purpose is to bring a vigilante type justice to people that are evil to the world when in reality she just kills people that piss her off. There was nothing in this character or any of the others that made me like them.

There’s an obvious twist to the story but it comes so late in the game you just kind of go “oh, okay” and move on. This is supposed to be the first in a reported series. You would think if that was the case the author would not have tried to jam in so many flashbacks in the first book. I understand that you need to learn Alexandra’s history but this book went back and forth to so many flashbacks it felt bogged down.

The ending was predictable. If there is in fact a second book I might give it a try to see if Alexandra’s story gets more interesting. I finished this book in a few hours so if you are looking for something to fill time this would be a good book for you. The story isn’t bad but I think it needed to be fleshed out more.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for my honest review.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Book Review: Haunted Bridges by Rich Newman

Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd.

Everyone has heard a story about a haunted bridge in your hometown. A friend of a friend went over a bridge on a dark country road and encountered a ghost. This book chronicles over 300 bridges across the U.S.

It’s a non-fiction book so none of the stories are particularly scary. There are the classic tales of “Crybaby Bridge” and stories about a woman and the tragic death of her child. It seems like almost every state has a “Crybaby Bridge”.

I live in Dover, Delaware and this book listed three bridges that are semi-local to me. One of which is a road that I have traveled on before but never got to the bridge portion. Maybe a Halloween night drive is in my future. I’ll have to check it out and report back.

This is more of a reference type book so if you are looking for thrills and chills this is not the book for you. I did enjoy reading some of the more detailed stories and I will keep it around if my own writing goes into the ghost department and I need some inspiration. I wish the short stories accompanying each bridge were a little more detailed.

My only real complaint about this book is that the formatting (e-book) is not that great. Some of the chapters run together and section breaks as well. There is an index included so you can research specific states and that was helpful.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Deception Island by Brynn Kelly

Publisher: Harlequin – HQN Books

Holly Ryan is sailing a yacht and posing as a body double for a wealthy senator’s daughter. Her ship is soon overtaken by several masked men. Even though she fights them she is soon taken captive.

Rafe Angelito has secret reasons for why he is a kidnapper. One of which is the safety of his son. His past has come back to haunt him and unfortunately his son is caught in the crossfire.

Passions stir and Holly learns that Rafe is not the hard hearted con man he is pretending to be. Rafe learns that Holly is not the pampered princess that she was pretending to be. They soon team up together to take down a common enemy but can their newfound passion for each other survive?

Mystery, international intrigue, romance, and suspense make this a fast and entertaining read. It would also make a decent Lifetime flick. If you are looking for a light read or a beach read, this book would be excellent in that respect.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for my honest review.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Book Review: Ink and Bone by Lisa Unger

Publisher: Touchstone

Finley Montgomery is a 20 year old woman and a psychic. She has true dreams, sees spirits, and speaks with the dead. She has a gift that she doesn’t want and it’s becoming hard for her to control. She tattoos pieces of her visions on her body. Moving to the Hollows, where her grandmother lives, is an escape from her overbearing mother. Her grandmother is also a psychic and starts to teach her ways to control her visions.

The Hollows is a mysterious town with a mysterious history. I wish there would have been more insight to that part. It seems to draw people and events to it. It’s said several times in the book “The Hollows wants what it wants.” It’s almost as if the town is its own living, breathing entity. It’s a character in the book for sure.

Finley meets the detective that her grandmother sometimes helps and is shocked to learn he has a missing person case for her. A little girl has gone missing and the police have given up hope but the girl’s mother has not. Finley reluctantly agrees to help and opens herself up to her visions. She also has to deal with her messy life and an even messier relationship.

The book is told from Finley’s point of view and the point of view of the missing girl and the horrors she is being subjected to. Some of the scenes are graphic but not too bad. A few parts of the book left me with a chill or two but I can report that it didn’t give me nightmares.

All in all, I liked this book a lot. I wanted more. The author left the ending open for a sequel and if she writes one I will most certainly buy it. The only parts of this book that I didn’t care for was that I wanted to know more about the town and its history. Also, Finley’s mother is portrayed throughout the book to be this huge mega bitch but when she’s needed she’s suddenly kind and caring. It was a little hard to stomach the huge personality difference.

Hopefully, if the author writes a sequel, she will tackle more of the town’s history. As I said, if a sequel comes out, sign me up. I have already recommended this book to several people outside of this blog and will continue to recommend it to many more.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for my honest review. Thanks Netgalley, for another winner!

Book Review: The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

You wake up in a glorious garden. It’s green and lush and there is even a waterfall. It sounds like paradise, right?

Not if you have been kidnapped by The Gardener. He’s a handsome man that on an ordinary day you might find yourself attracted to. Now he’s your captor. He’s tattooed you, changed your name, and turned you in to his plaything. If you are good to him he is good to you. Good behavior gets rewards. Bad behavior gets punishments.

Really bad behavior gets you killed and put on display like a prized butterfly.

After the garden is discovered by the FBI they begin questioning the survivors. The book is told from the perspective of a young girl named Maya. She learns quickly that keeping The Gardener happy is the only way she can survive. Even while she is giving the agents all the answers she is able more secrets and more horrors are revealed.

This book stayed with me when it was over. Yes, it’s a tale of survival. It’s also a story of the depths of friendship between women. The characters were fleshed out pretty well. I shed a few tears during a few sad moments in this book. I almost cheered at the end.

This is definitely a highly recommended read. I only put it down for dinner and restroom breaks. It reads quickly but it also very detailed. The author is excellent at pacing and keeping the reader turning the page to find out what happens next. You almost NEED to find out what happens next.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you Netgalley, this one was a treat!