gilda_elise | Entries tagged with goodreads 2023

In his internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed novel The Passage, Justin Cronin constructed an unforgettable world transformed by a government experiment gone horribly wrong. Now the scope widens and the intensity deepens as the epic story surges forward with The Twelve.

In the present day, as the man-made apocalypse unfolds, three strangers navigate the chaos. Lila, a doctor and an expectant mother, is so shattered by the spread of violence and infection that she continues to plan for her child’s arrival even as society dissolves around her. Kittridge, known to the world as “Last Stand in Denver,” has been forced to flee his stronghold and is now on the road, dodging the infected, armed but alone and well aware that a tank of gas will get him only so far. April is a teenager fighting to guide her little brother safely through a landscape of death and ruin. These three will learn that they have not been fully abandoned—and that in connection lies hope, even on the darkest of nights.

One hundred years in the future, Amy and the others fight on for humankind’s salvation...unaware that the rules have changed. The enemy has evolved, and a dark new order has arisen with a vision of the future infinitely more horrifying than man’s extinction. If the Twelve are to fall, one of those united to vanquish them will have to pay the ultimate price.

There’s a lot to take in with this book: a myriad of characters, different times, different places; I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to get back to the trilogy. Luckily, there are enough hints and explanations that I was able to re-pick up the threads of the story.

The stories of the present and future neatly intertwine, as the live and actions of those of the present affect the lives and events of the future. As we follow those lives, the story of how things came to be slowly unfolds. I did find that the switch from character driven (the present,) to plot driven (the future,) slowed things down a bit, but not so much that I found it disconcerting.

My one complaint, and it’s a relatively small one, is that I would have liked more focus on the characters of Peter and Amy. I had the impression that they would be the center of the fight against the virals, those changed by the virus. They are, but in a very peripheral way.

The book is claimed by both the Horror and Science Fiction genres; I’d say it has much of both.

Mount TBR 2023 Book Links

( Mount TBR 2023 Book Links 1-50 )

51. Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner
52. Jackdaw (Jackdaw #1) by K.J. Charles
53. Blightborn (Heartland #2) by Chuck Wendig
54. The Harvest (Heartland #3) by Chuck Wendig
55. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
56. Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig
57. The Change by Kirsten Miller
58. The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
59. The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches #1) by Anne Rice
60. Abandon by Blake Crouch
61. Planet B (Architects of the Apocalypse #1) by Jasper T. Scott
62. Shiver by Allie Reynolds
63. The Starlite Drive-In by Marjorie Reynolds
64. The Snow by Flint Maxwell
65. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe
66. December by Phil Rickman
67. Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
68. Ariadne's Crown by Meadoe Hora
69. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
70. A Dog's Perfect Christmas by W. Bruce Cameron
71. The Lodge by Jeremy Eads
72. The Twelve (The Passage #2) by Justin Cronin

Goodreads 72

Black, red, or white cover
1. The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles
2, Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig
3. The Lodge by Jeremy Eads
4. The Twelve by Justin Cronin

A demon runs a bed and breakfast in southwest Virginia where sin never needs a reservation. A guilt-ridden retiree, two little boys, and a pair of meth making cousins will challenge America's most wanted black widow, a haunted southern town, and the Devil himself. The quest for salvation will lead to the darkest parts of themselves as well as the beating black heart of Summit Valley, Virginia. The Maple Lodge, a B&B where the turn down service is to die for.

I was beginning to wonder if there was an actual plot to the story, given that most of it is made up of one person after another being done in by the Lodge, even when they’re not even in the Lodge. Most of the characters are so thinly drawn that I didn’t care what happened to them. But, finally, there’s a resolution of sorts, but not a very surprising one.

What was surprising, or, given how the rest of the book was, maybe not, was the “gotcha” at the end. I hate those things. It makes me think that the author thought he was being clever. Or lazy. Was he planning a sequel? I have no plans to find out.

Black, red, or white cover
1. The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles
2, Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig
3. The Lodge by Jeremy Eads

The perfect, feel-good holiday gift from W. Bruce Cameron, the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the A Dog’s Purpose series

The problems fracturing the Goss family as Christmas approaches are hardly unique, though perhaps they are handling them a little differently than most people might. But then a true emergency arises, one with the potential to not only ruin Christmas, but everything holding the family together.

Is the arrival of a lost puppy yet another in the string of calamities facing them, or could the little canine be just what they all need?

A Dog’s Perfect Christmas is a beautiful, poignant, delightful tale of what can happen when family members open their hearts to new possibilities. You’ll find love and tears and laughter—the ideal holiday read.

I get the impression that Cameron doesn’t know kids (even though he apparently has some,) because all three in the book are so clichéd it isn’t even funny. Ello (Ello? Ello?! It took awhile to find out that it’s short for Eloise,) the teenager, goes around yelling at her parents, being morose, and just an all around unpleasant person. For half the book she has no redeeming characteristics whatsoever. And what’s with her and her friends’ names? Their names, but none of the other characters’ names, are oddly spelled. Brittne instead of Britney, Soffea, instead of Sophia, Mourgen instead of Morgan.

The twins are even worse. They’re constantly breaking things, they talk in “twin,” and don’t seem to know any English even though they’re three. Or is this really what passes as parenting now?

Oh, and don’t forget the grandfather, who, though grieving (his wife had died two years before,) thinks he should be waited on. He does everything he can to be an unpleasant person. A lot of the time it made the book hard to read.

What makes the book not totally terrible are the dogs. Cameron does have a knack for bringing dogs to life, so that I totally buy into that what I’m reading are really the dog’s thoughts. Unfortunately, the dogs are in the background through most of the book. Its title is totally misleading.

A completely disappointing book; I hope Cameron never goes down this path again.

DECEMBER- White-out
“Read a book with a wintery setting or a book with a mostly white cover.”
A Dog's Perfect Christmas by W. Bruce Cameron

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's bestselling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.

Mandel’s writing, the actual putting down of words, is always beautiful. There’s a lyrical quality to it that makes reading her stories a joy. But there has to be more to a book than that. The characters have to become real, so that I care what happens to them. In that regard, Mandel only got me part way.

I found the characters interesting, and I was glad at their outcomes. But only glad.

The story weaves through time, so the time spent with each character is limited, even if we get back to them eventually. I would start to feel a connection, and then the story would shift. At that point, I’d lose much of what I felt for the character.

Those, shifts, though, are intriguing, and kept me guessing. Maybe I should have seen the ending coming, but I didn’t. So in that regard, the book was a success. I may have wanted more, but what I got was almost enough.

She’s a sheltered princess dreaming of adventure. He’s an arrogant warrior eager to make a name for himself. Between them, lurks the Minotaur. When their paths come together, a legend is born.

For Ariadne, growing up a princess in ancient Crete means an endless circle of weaving, sewing and learning to rule, but she wants more than to be married off to a prince. Ariadne knows what’s expected of her, but she longs for a life of her own and to know what lies on the other side of the sea.
When Dionysus, the God of Wine arrives, she’s instantly drawn to his reckless good looks and mysterious power, but she knows it’s dangerous to mix with the gods. Still, she can’t deny the connection between them.

Crete maintains a shaky peace with Athens, which is enforced by the Minotaur imprisoned in the labyrinth. When Theseus arrives to challenge that peace, everything changes. Ariadne soon discovers that all is not what it seems on her beautiful island. Although she knows Theseus is the enemy, she starts to think he might be right. Even worse, underneath his tough exterior, she glimpses a softer side that makes her think it might not be so bad to marry a prince. Unfortunately, her sister sees it too.

To do what’s right, she’s faced with an impossible choice. Joining forces with Theseus could bring freedom and unite their countries, but it means betraying her father and losing everything she knows. What will she do when she’s torn between a god and a warrior?

Does Ariadne have the strength to carve out the life she wants?

The book is an interesting take on the Minotaur myth, and the life of Ariadne, one of the key players. But I got the impression that it was written for the younger set in mind, because Ariadne often comes across as a modern teenager. In thought as well as action. And many of the more horrendous aspects of the myth are either glossed over or changed to something more palatable.

Actually, in doing so with one particular part of the myth, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. I had to wonder who exactly was the monster. What was something that needed to be done becomes a betrayal that’s almost unforgiveable.

Ironically, that’s the only part of the book that I felt had any depth, because there was a true tragedy being played out. Yet I am glad that Hora went with the myths more pleasant ending. After everything that goes on, I felt the readers deserved it.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film--and awakens one woman's hidden powers.

Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood.

Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.

Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.

As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.

I was a bit disappointed with the book; it’s good, but not up to her regular standards. Maybe because it took awhile for anything to actually happen. Much of the book involves learning about the movie industry’s history in Mexico. Interesting, but more was needed, I think.

On the plus side, the characters were entertaining and kept me interested; Montserrat and Tristán, especially, are very likable. They sort of made up for the book’s slow pace. And though I sort of saw the ending coming, I was happy that the story ended the way it did.

I still plan on reading more of Moreno-Garcia’s books. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy this one; just not as much as I thought I would.

Book by BIPOC author
1. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
2. The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
3. Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

In the twelfth-century ruins of the Abbey, it is said every stone was cemented in blood. On December 8, 1980, that blood will run again...

In the ruins of a haunted medieval abbey, four musicians hope to tap into the site's dark history. The experience almost destroys them. Years later, the original group is forced to return to the abbey, to confront the old evil they discovered.

Thirteen years ago on a cold December night, a rock band called The Philosophers Stone gathered in the ancient ruins of an abbey to record their new album.The evening ended in bloodshed and death. Now, the tapes from that fateful recording session have been released as The Black Album, and the scattered members of the band know it's time for a reunion. Time to return to that dark December night—for one final performance.

Rickman has since gone on to writing mysteries, his Merrily Watkins books, on the whole.But he started out in horror, and I wished he’d stayed. December is a prime example as to why.

It’s now 1994, and the members of the rock band, all scarred by what happened in 1980, return to the Abbey. They all know it might not be a good idea, yet, at the same time, they’re hoping that it will lift the shroud of bad luck which has followed them all ever since that fateful night.

The characters are all intriguing, yet an air of tragedy surrounds them all. The reader can’t help but be drawn into the lives they’ve led, who they are now: Tom Storey, the drummer, a recluse who’s afraid of what he might see. Classically trained Simon St John, now a priest who fights his desires. Songwriter and singer Dave Reilly, who sees the coming deaths of those around him. And singer Moira Cairns, whose magic, passed down through her family, seems to have deserted her.

There are also some interesting extras, such as Vanessa, Tom’s daughter, born on the December night in 1980. She has Down’s Syndrome, yet there is so much more to Vanessa. And Eddie Edwards, the town’s busybody, who may have stuck his nose into someone else’s business one too many times.

As the horror builds, we relive the events of 1980, and how they’ve influenced the lives of the band members through the years. The Abbey is not a good place, as these four musicians will once again discover.

Winter theme or cover
1. The Snow by Flint Maxwell
2. December by Phil Rickman

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is a gripping and atmospheric tale that showcases Poe's mastery of the horror genre. Considered one of the best classic horror novels of all time, this thrilling story follows the harrowing adventures of its eponymous protagonist.
Poe's skillful storytelling creates a dark and foreboding atmosphere throughout the narrative. From the eerie setting of the Nantucket ship to the treacherous sea voyages, readers are immersed in a world filled with suspense and unknown dangers. The vivid descriptions and unsettling imagery contribute to the sense of dread and unease that permeates the story.
As Arthur Gordon Pym embarks on a perilous journey, the novel delves into the depths of human nature, exploring themes of survival, desperation, and the moral complexities that arise in extreme situations. The characters' actions and choices under duress reveal the fragility of the human psyche and raise thought-provoking questions about the lengths people will go to ensure their own survival.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is a chilling and thought-provoking masterpiece that continues to captivate readers with its atmospheric prose, psychological depth, and exploration of the darker aspects of human existence. It stands as a testament to Poe's enduring legacy as one of the greatest masters of horror literature.

I’m giving the book 2 stars because I couldn’t imagine giving any writing by Poe only one, but it was a close call.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, written in 1838, is the only complete novel by Edgar Allan Poe. The story starts out as a fairly conventional adventure at sea, with Pym stowing away on his friend’s, Augustus, father’s ship. There’s a mutiny, canibalism, and a dog that, without explanation, disappears from the story. At that point, the ship is adrift, and the men soon run out of supplies. After Pym’s friend, Augustus, dies, the two remaining members, Pym and Peters, one of the mutineers, are rescued by the ship, the Jane Guy.

Then, somehow, a ship that Pym initially thinks is too small for the fur trade ends up in the Antarctic! After even more strange adventures, our hero and Peters row out to sea in a small boat, fleeing from savages. Suddenly a shrouded figure appears before them, and the book ends suddenly.

I did some research, and someone, Poe or his editor, released an addendum, stating that Pym had died in an accident, with the remaining chapters of his story lost. If found, they would be published. Apparently, they were never found. It could be that, because Peo retired from the Messenger, he never finished the novel.

All in all, the book is a real disappointment.

Something by Poe
1. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe

This is how the world with a single snowflake.

After a tragic accident at work, all Grady Miller wanted was an escape. He finds it months later with two of his closest friends. Together, the three of them travel south to Prism Lake for the upcoming holiday, where they plan on spending the sunny weekend drinking, grilling, and relaxing.

But when a series of monstrous blizzards cover the eastern United States in feet of snow, knocking out communications and making the roads impossible to drive on, they realize their weekend of fun could turn into a lifetime of survival.

Because there’s something out there besides the cold…

Something sinister…

Too bad the reader never gets to know what that is, as the book abruptly ends. There are four sequels, but I’m not wasting my time. The writing is amateurish; I’ve read fanfiction that’s better. Actually I’ve read fan fiction that is a lot better.

Perhaps Maxwell’s worse sin is that he keeps going off on tangents. Yes, there has to be a certain amount of backstory for the characters, but telling us once would have been enough. I got the impression that the writer was sketching out what could have been a short story into a novel. Which makes me wonder if, with a good editor, the five books could have been one.

Apparently the writer is around the same age as his characters, but they speak so much in clichés and frat-boy speak, that it’s hard to imagine that that’s the case. Which doesn’t help their appeal. None of the characters are fleshed out enough for me to have cared what happened to them.

I’m not sure where Maxwell was going with this. As if a world smothered in snow isn’t bad enough there are some sort of monsters out in it. Another story ruined by trying to do too much.

Winter theme or cover
1. The Snow by Flint Maxwell

Goodreads 64

A mystery, a coming of age novel, a tragic love story, a rich evocation of a memorable time and place in America, The Starlite Drive-In by Marjorie Reynolds is all of these things and more. The author returns readers to the summer of 1956 in this riveting story that reviewers have enthusiastically compared to the Harper Lee classic, To Kill a Mockingbird—as the arrival of a handsome drifter at a rundown drive-in movie theater inflames dangerous passions and jealousies, and changes a young girl’s life forever.

An interest coming of age story, set in the more innocent time of the 1950s. But was it more innocent, or just more blind to human nature? Callie Anne, the young girl who narrates the story, knows little of that nature. Not yet thirteen, she still believes in handsome princes. When one shows up, she’s instantly smitten.

It’s hard to totally believe that even a girl of that age could change her mind about people as often as she does. But perhaps it’s the changes in her body that create the changes in her mind. In any event, it’s a good story and a compelling read. And I love that it’s set at a drive-in theatre. What more could set the mood of that wonderful lost time? Could bring back that distant era?

My only quibble is of Callie Anne’s thoughts as an adult. I guess everyone wants to think well of their parents, but a woman of forty-nine must have learned something. One thing that she seems to have never learned is that her father was not a good man.

In this propulsive locked-room thriller debut, a reunion weekend in the French Alps turns deadly when five friends discover that someone has deliberately stranded them at their remote mountaintop resort during a snow storm.

When Milla accepts an off-season invitation to Le Rocher, a cozy ski resort in the French Alps, she's expecting an intimate weekend of catching up with four old friends. It might have been a decade since she saw them last, but she's never forgotten the bond they forged on this very mountain during a winter spent fiercely training for an elite snowboarding competition.

Yet no sooner do Milla and the others arrive for the reunion than they realize something is horribly wrong. The resort is deserted. The cable cars that delivered them to the mountaintop have stopped working. Their cell phones--missing. And inside the hotel, detailed instructions await them: an icebreaker game, designed to draw out their secrets. A game meant to remind them of Saskia, the enigmatic sixth member of their group, who vanished the morning of the competition years before and has long been presumed dead.

Stranded in the resort, Milla's not sure what's worse: the increasingly sinister things happening around her or the looming snowstorm that's making escape even more impossible. All she knows is that there's no one on the mountain she can trust. Because someone has gathered them there to find out the truth about Saskia...someone who will stop at nothing to get answers. And if Milla's not careful, she could be the next to disappear…

I enjoy stories set in the polar regions, and though this one doesn’t quite make it there, it was close enough, and the cover intriguing enough for me to give it a try. I’m glad I did. It’s a mystery, a type of story that I’m not usually drawn to, but this one did, draw me in that is, and kept me turning the pages.

I don’t know if the sport vernacular was correct; it sounded like it was to me and that was good enough. Luckily, there wasn’t so much of it that it bogged down the story. The thing that almost ruined the story was how little the characters grew in those ten years. Especially Milla, who does some really stupid things as a twenty-something, and is still doing them as a thirty-something. To the point that she’s almost unlikable.

There are plenty of red herrings, so that the ending took me by surprise. Will I read other books by this author, mystery or no? I just might.

2069: EARTH IS DYING AND SOCIETY IS ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE
We are out of time to save the planet. All that’s left is to watch the world burn, but the apocalypse is about to take an unexpected twist.

Alice Rice has discovered the a potentially habitable world in close proximity to Earth. The media is calling it Planet B.

PEOPLE ARE DISAPPEARING
Detective Layla Bester was about to marry the love of her life when she learned that he slept with her best friend. Now, she’s alone and starting over in the once great city of New York. But the world has more than enough troubles to make hers feel small, and a new one has just been people are vanishing, and no one knows where they’re being taken.

AND A WAR IS BREWING
Meanwhile, Billionaire Preston Baylor is leading the race to reach Planet B, but competing space programs are heating up political tensions and driving superpowers ever closer to war.

Climatologist Bruce Gordon believes an incomprehensibly powerful species sent Planet B to us, but who are our mysterious saviors, why are they hiding, and what do they want? As time goes by, it becomes clear that even if their intentions were good, our own self-destructive natures could be all it takes to wipe us out.

An interesting premise that I felt was a bit overdone. There was just too much going on for the writer to give any one scenario its due. Same with the characters, of which there are more than are needed. I never felt as if I got to really know any of them. And what I did get to know was to their detriment. None were likable. Wasn’t taken with the fact that the two characters of color are, of course, the convicts, either.

I hung in there, though, hoping that things would get better, that it would all come together. It never really did, and you have to read two more books to hopefully get there. But I don’t think I’ll be going along for the ride.

NOVEMBER- Around OR Out of this World: “Read a book set in a country other than the one you live in OR read a book that takes place in space or on another planet.”

Planet B (Architects of the Apocalypse #1) by Jasper T. Scott

A century-old mystery—and a desperate battle to survive—unfold in this standalone thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion .

On Christmas Day in 1893, every man, woman, and child in a remote mining town disappeared, belongings forsaken, meals left to freeze in vacant cabins, and not a single bone found.

Now, journalist Abigail Foster and her historian father have set out to explore the long-abandoned town and learn what happened. With them are two backcountry guides—along with a psychic and a paranormal photographer who are there to investigate rumors that the town is haunted.

But Abigail and her companions are about to learn that the town’s ghosts are the least of their worries. Twenty miles from civilization, with a blizzard bearing down, they realize they are not alone.

The ordeal that follows will test this small team past the breaking point as they battle the elements and human foes alike—and discover that the town’s secrets still have the power to kill.

Having read several of Crouch’s books, I was taken in by the books’ blurb. The “town’s secrets still have the power to kill,” line, especially. And apparently Goodreads was, too, as it lists horror as one of its genres. Maybe it is, but not the kind of horror I was expecting. And wanting.

What it is is more of a mystery story, which I’m not fond of, mostly because, like this story, they can only move forward because bad things keep happening. Just when you think the hero (or heroine,) have finally caught a break, something else is thrown in the way. Because, hey, once the mystery is solved the book has to end.

There were some interesting characters, who unfortunately the reader knows at the onset that those characters don’t make it since every person in the town disappears and are never seen again. Except, it turns out, for two who manage to not share the same fate. Though one’s fate is actually worse. The other’s is never explained.

This wasn’t a bad book; and I imagine those who read these kind of books will like it. I did…sort of. Just not enough.

Made it to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro!

Mount TBR 2023 Book Links

( Mount TBR 2023 Book Links 1-50 )

51. Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner
52. Jackdaw (Jackdaw #1) by K.J. Charles
53. Blightborn (Heartland #2) by Chuck Wendig
54. The Harvest (Heartland #3) by Chuck Wendig
55. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
56. Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig
57. The Change by Kirsten Miller
58. The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
59. The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches #1) by Anne Rice
60. Abandon by Blake Crouch

Goodreads 60

On the veranda of a great New Orleans house, now faded, a mute and fragile woman sits rocking . . . and The Witching Hour begins.

It begins in our time with a rescue at sea. Rowan Mayfair, a beautiful woman, a brilliant practitioner of neurosurgery--aware that she has special powers but unaware that she comes from an ancient line of witches--finds the drowned body of a man off the coast of California and brings him to life. He is Michael Curry, who was born in New Orleans and orphaned in childhood by fire on Christmas Eve, who pulled himself up from poverty, and who now, in his brief interval of death, has acquired a sensory power that mystifies and frightens him.

As these two, fiercely drawn to each other, fall in love and--in passionate alliance--set out to solve the mystery of her past and his unwelcome gift, the novel moves backward and forward in time from today's New Orleans and San Francisco to long-ago Amsterdam and a château in the France of Louis XIV. An intricate tale of evil unfolds--an evil unleashed in seventeenth-century Scotland, where the first "witch," Suzanne of the Mayfair, conjures up the spirit she names Lasher . . . a creation that spells her own destruction and torments each of her descendants in turn.

From the coffee plantations of Port au Prince, where the great Mayfair fortune is made and the legacy of their dark power is almost destroyed, to Civil War New Orleans, as Julien--the clan's only male to be endowed with occult powers--provides for the dynasty its foothold in America, the dark, luminous story encompasses dramas of seduction and death, episodes of tenderness and healing. And always--through peril and escape, tension and release--there swirl around us the echoes of eternal war: innocence versus the corruption of the spirit, sanity against madness, life against death. With a dreamlike power, the novel draws us, through circuitous, twilight paths, to the present and Rowan's increasingly inspired and risky moves in the merciless game that binds her to her heritage. And in New Orleans, on Christmas Eve, this strangest of family sagas is brought to its startling climax.

I’m not sure how I feel about this book. While the premise was interesting, a family of “witches,” who may or may not be evil, Rice takes an exceedingly long time to tell the story. To paraphrase Mr. Spock, “verbose, isn’t she?” When it takes fifty pages to introduce one character, you know you’re in trouble.

Yet, I did enjoy reading it, sometimes, though it’s something of a slog. But I think it should have been two books: one for the Mayfair history, which is the part that’s the most interesting, and one for Rowan and Michael’s story. Either that, or have had a good editor go through the book with a machete.

Speaking of Rowan and Michael, it got old fast, having it explained over and over again as to how beautiful they are, how intelligent, how higher they are over us mere mortals. Yet, in the end, it didn’t seem to help them.

It finally got to be too much, especially since the conclusion was beginning to be pretty obvious when “the thirteen” was mentioned. Even worse was that three supposedly highly intelligent people, Rowan, Michael, and Aaron, don’t seem to be able to count that high.

And the idea that the story wouldn’t end with the end of the book, but continue on in two sequels, well, I couldn’t face that. It was time to end things.

Written by a woman
3. The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca in this debut supernatural suspense novel, set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, about a remote house, a sinister haunting, and the woman pulled into their clutches...

In the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father is executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.

But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.

When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz’s fears—but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at the edge of the kitchen and mark its doorway with strange symbols? What really happened to the first Doña Solórzano?

Beatriz only knows two things for certain: Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will help her.

Desperate for help, she clings to the young priest, Padre Andrés, as an ally. No ordinary priest, Andrés will have to rely on his skills as a witch to fight off the malevolent presence haunting the hacienda and protect the woman for whom he feels a powerful, forbidden attraction. But even he might not be enough to battle the darkness.

Far from a refuge, San Isidro may be Beatriz’s doom.

A truly excellent story. The writing is clean, and the characters compelling. I especially loved the relationship between Beatriz and Padre Andrés, who are the voices of the story. They both are fighting to find a place for themselves, and both need an ally for that fight. They find that in each other, and so much more.

What was truly great, though, is that I actually felt spooked by the story. The description of what’s wrong with the hacienda is chilling. So much so that I was hesitant to turn off the light. That hadn’t happened in a long time. I loved it. So a mystery, a romance, a horror novel. One couldn’t ask for more.

I’m so looking forward to reading Canás’ other book.

I have to thank

pinstripe_bindi for bringing the book to my attention.

Book by BIPOC author

1. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
2. The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

In the Long Island oceanfront community of Mattauk, three different women discover that midlife changes bring a whole new type of empowerment…

After Nessa James’s husband dies and her twin daughters leave for college, she’s left all alone in a trim white house not far from the ocean. In the quiet of her late forties, the former nurse begins to hear voices. It doesn’t take long for Nessa to realize that the voices calling out to her belong to the dead—a gift she’s inherited from her grandmother, which comes with special responsibilities.

On the cusp of 50, suave advertising director Harriett Osborne has just witnessed the implosion of her lucrative career and her marriage. She hasn’t left her house in months, and from the outside, it appears as if she and her garden have both gone to seed. But Harriett’s life is far from over—in fact, she’s undergone a stunning and very welcome metamorphosis.

Ambitious former executive Jo Levison has spent thirty long years at war with her body. The free-floating rage and hot flashes that arrive with the beginning of menopause feel like the very last straw—until she realizes she has the ability to channel them, and finally comes into her power.

Guided by voices only Nessa can hear, the trio of women discover a teenage girl whose body was abandoned beside a remote beach. The police have written the victim off as a drug-addicted sex worker, but the women refuse to buy into the official narrative. Their investigation into the girl’s murder leads to more bodies, and to the town’s most exclusive and isolated enclave, a world of stupendous wealth where the rules don’t apply. With their newfound powers, Jo, Nessa, and Harriett will take matters into their own hands…

I’ve run across few books recently where women have managed to gain the upper hand, usually by acquiring special powers. This book is certainly in that genre, and one of the best. And while I’ve enjoyed all of them, I don’t I’ve enjoyed one quite as much as I did this one.

Central to the story are three lovely and totally enjoyable women. As the story unfolds, the narrative switching between the characters, we learn about each of the women, their past, their dreams for the future, and how their special gifts are impacting their lives. And while I loved all three, it was Harriett who I found to be the most intriguing.

Her gift is an amazing one, for who could not want such a gift, the ability to be part of nature? But I came to love all three women, cheering them on as they came into their own.

There is suspense, humor, and downright bad things that happen. But Miller delivers them in such a way that makes the book hard to put down. I couldn’t recommend it more highly.

And I can't thank

just_ann_now enough for recommending it to me.

A small town is transformed by dark magic when a strange tree begins bearing magical apples in this new masterpiece of horror from the bestselling author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents.

It’s autumn in the town of Harrow, but something else is changing in the town besides the season.

Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard, seven most unusual trees. And from those trees grows a new sort of apple: Strange, beautiful, with skin so red it’s nearly black.

Take a bite of one of these apples and you will desire only to devour another. And another. You will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But then your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing—and become darker.

This is what happens when the townsfolk discover the secret of the orchard. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples… and what’s the harm, if it is making them all happier, more confident, more powerful?

And even if buried in the orchard is something else besides the seeds of this extraordinary tree: a bloody history whose roots reach back the very origins of the town.

But now the leaves are falling. The days grow darker. And a stranger has come to town, a stranger who knows Harrow’s secrets. Because it’s harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown.

I love Wendig’s writing, though most of his book that I’v read have been science fiction. But having read The Book of Accidents, I knew he could write horror, too. And, boy, can he. Who would have thought that apples could be so terrifying?

But they are, especially as some of the residents of Harrow come under their spell. But why some and not others? That question is a big part of the fight that those not taken in by the fruit must wage. It’s a bitter battle, as it’s often against people that they know and love.

There’s a fairly large cast of characters, which is something I’ve come to expect from Wendig. In that, his writing is very much like King’s and McCammon’s, two of my favorite horror writers. So no surprise that Wendig has been added to that vaunted list.

Something I found rather odd, the mentioning of two characters who play large parts in Wendig’s Wanderers and Wayward, making this book almost a prequel to those two. If so, the town’s problems aren’t over.

Black, red, or white cover
1. The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles
2. Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig

2023 Monthly Motif

OCTOBER- Spellbinding or Spooktacular
“Read a book that involves something spooky or magical or both.”
Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig

Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets? A novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived.

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

I’m not sure what I expected from this book; something more mystical, perhaps? But the story is actually more straightforward, more down to earth. An odd thing, considering its theme.

Nora Seed is so dissatisfied with her life it isn’t even funny. Not that she doesn’t have every reason to be. Thing is, so much of it is her own fault. That leaves sympathy in very short supply. Even when handed a solution on a sliver platter, she grouses about it.

Turns out, maybe she has every reason to be suspect. Being thrown into another life, with no memory of its past, pretty much guarantees that she’s not going to be happy with it. Could be that that’s the point. That makes for some (unintentional?) amusing situations. But many not so amusing.

It didn’t take me long to figure out the ending. Oddly, that didn’t stop me from enjoying the book. After all, I could have been wrong (I wasn’t.) And there were more than a few times when I felt Nora could use a good shake!

But is what’s going on real? A dream? Or a delirium brought on my Nora’s actions? You decide!

Many thanks to

keli for the recommendation!

Mount TBR 2023 Book Links

( Mount TBR 2023 Book Links 1-45 )

46. The Passage (The Passage #1) by Justin Cronin
47. Kallocain by Karin Boye, Gustaf Lannestock (Translator), Richard B. Vowles (Introduction)
48. The Book of Koli (Rampart Trilogy #1) by M.R. Carey
49. Different Seasons by Stephen King
50. In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune
51. Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner
52. Jackdaw (Jackdaw #1) by K.J. Charles
53. Blightborn (Heartland #2) by Chuck Wendig
54. The Harvest (Heartland #3) by Chuck Wendig
55. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Nov - keli

Blood will water the corn...

It’s been a year since the Saranyu flotilla fell from the sky, and life in the Heartland has changed. Gone are the Obligations and the Harvest Home festivals. In their place is a spate of dead towns, the former inhabitants forced into mechanical bodies to serve the Empyrean—and crush the Heartland.

When Cael awakens from a Blightborn sleep, miles away from the world he remembers, he sets out across the Heartland to gather his friends for one last mission. As the mechanicals, a war flotilla, and a pack of feral Empyrean girls begin to close in on the Heartland, there isn’t much time to make their next move. But if they can uncover a secret weapon in time, Cael and his friends might just find themselves with the power to save the world—or destroy it—resting in their hands.

I’d barely put down the second book before starting this one, I was so into the series. And it did not disappoint. I only wish there was a fourth book in the works. There’s certainly enough of a set-up in the third book to make that possible.

The characters just kept getting stronger, as they tackle yet another obstacle. Probably because they’re beginning to mature, so the book doesn’t read so much as a YA (not that I’m all that sure as to what that means.) Cael, especially, begins to see things not so much as how they will affect him but how they will affect others.

There’s a lot of action, with good and bad outcomes. But there’s characters to fall in love with, too. And such a great ending to a terrific series.

Cael McAvoy is on the run. He’s heading toward the Empyrean to rescue his sister, Merelda, and to find Gwennie before she’s lost to Cael forever. With his pals, Lane and Rigo, Cael journeys across the Heartland to catch a ride into the sky. But with Boyland and others after them, Cael and his friends won’t make it through unchanged.

Gwennie’s living the life of a Lottery winner, but it’s not what she expected. Separated from her family, Gwennie makes a bold move—one that catches the attention of the Empyrean and changes the course of an Empyrean man’s life.

The crew from Boxelder aren’t the only folks willing to sacrifice everything to see the Empyrean fall. The question is: Can the others be trusted?

They’d all better hurry. Because the Empyrean has plans that could ensure that the Heartland never fights back again.

Chuck Wendig’s riveting sequel to Under the Empyrean Sky plunges readers into an unsettling world of inequality and destruction, and fleshes out a cast of ragtag characters all fighting for survival and, ultimately, change.

The book takes a running start, as it picks up the saga of Cael McAvoy and friends, his family, and those hunting them down.The action ratchets up as the threats multiply against those from Boxelder, while, at the same time, they’re looking to hitch a ride into the sky.

I found all the characters compelling, not an easy task considering their number. There are those we met in the first book, now greatly filled out, and some new friends. I fell in love with more than a couple, especially of the feathered variety and their companion. There’s also a particularly nasty enemy added to the mix.

Again, there are a lot of mistakes made by Cael and his friends. More than once I had to remind myself that this is essentially a YA book, and that most of the characters are teenagers. It takes a bit from the enjoyment of reading the book, but not enough for me to stop. Because behind all this is a tale of ecological destruction, and the greed that encourages it.

So, yes, I would have to highly recommend the trilogy. It’s certainly got me hooked, so much so that I’m almost finished with the third book. If that isn’t a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is.