Review: Mortality (The Hitchhiker Strain #1), by Kellie Sheridan

Title: Mortality (The Hitchhiker Strain #1)
Author: Kellie Sheridan
Format: ebook
Source: NetGalley

From Goodreads: After surviving a deadly plague outbreak, sixteen-year-old Savannah thought she had lived through the very worst of human history. There was no way to know that the miracle vaccine would put everyone at risk for a fate worse than un-death. 

Now, two very different kinds of infected walk the Earth, intent on nothing but feeding and destroying what little remains of civilization. When the inoculated are bitten, infection means watching on in silent horror as self-control disappears and the idea of feasting on loved ones becomes increasingly hard to ignore. 

Starving and forced to live inside of the abandoned high school, all Savannah wants is the chance to fight back. When a strange boy arrives with a plan to set everything right, she gets her chance. Meeting Cole changes everything. Mere survival will never be enough.

My Opinion: I love a good zombie book, and this story didn't let me down. There was lots of action, lots of zombie ass kicking, and some sweet YA romance thrown in for good measure. The characters were well developed, the plot moved along at a pretty good clip, and the world building was phenomenal, in that it portrayed a very bleak and deserted world full of violence and general mayhem, with just enough hope sprinkled in to keep you going.

There are two main stories told here - Savannah's, along with her friends, and Zarah and Liam's. They all inhabit the same world, but their experiences are completely different, and it is these differences that shape the characters and drive the separate storylines. I would love to say that I have a favorite, but I kept switching back and forth and finally gave up trying to choose and just enjoyed them both!

In summary, I really, really enjoyed this story, and give it 5/5 stars :)

Review: Hugo and the Bird: Gnome Wars, by Jeff Mills

Title: Hugo and the Bird: Gnome Wars
Author: Jeff Mills
Format: ebook
Source: NetGalley

From Goodreads: Kadavera, the witch, was dead. This should mean a celebration, but for nine-year-old Hugo, his schoolmate, Emma and their strange magical friend, Bird, it is the start of another dangerous adventure. Her death has precipitated the regeneration of not just one but both of her sister witches – and they are both far worse than she ever was. 

Conscripting the Cornish goblins, the witches capture the gnomes from the Gnome Reserve to use as guinea pigs in their experiments to be able to exist in daylight. This would allow them to fulfil their dying vow; to kill and destroy all those and their descendants, who were responsible for their own and their mothers’ unjust execution 300 years before. They are determined not to let anyone stand in their way, especially two interfering children and a stupid bird. 

A chance finding of a small amulet leads Hugo and his friends into realms of King Arthur and to the magic power of his sword, Excalibur. Emma receives some terrible news, which ultimately takes her on a journey from which there may be no return and pits her against her friends. Can Hugo and Bird, rescue the gnomes and prevent the witches from achieving their lethal goal and how can an inquisitive journalist make everything far worse? Set in North Devon, the heart-pounding adventure continues and is based on historical events. Hugo and the Bird: Gnome Wars is a tale of fantasy, revenge and friendship that readers from nine years to ninety will identify with and love.

My Opinion: Hugo and his friend, Emma, along with their magical "bird" find themselves dealing with another mystery involving resurrected witches. What's not to love about a story involving witches hell bent on revenge, magical creatures, goblins and gnomes? Due to the young age of the main characters, this book is geared towards older elementary age to middle school age children.

I didn't have a chance to read the first book in the series, Hugo and the Bird: The Toothfairy, but that didn't keep me from being able to follow along and keep up with this story. There were a number of errors with spelling, punctuation and grammar, but I received my copy through NetGalley and it is understood that the book is almost always an uncorrected proof, so hopefully the final version will go through a final editing process before release.

The characters were likeable and very much acted their age, which is better than some MG stories where the characters act much older and with more maturity than they should possess. The action was constant and the plot moved along at a quick pace. There was just the right amount of suspense to keep the reader involved, and some of it was downright scary, which younger readers will love!

In summary, I really enjoyed this story, and with some good editing to tighten it up, I can definitely recommend it for older elementary and middle grade students who love their fantasy with a good mystery thrown in to boot :)

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

4 out of 5 stars ;) 

Review: Magdalena Gottschalk: The Crooked Trail (Magdalena Gottschalk #1) by M. Gail Grant

Title: Magdalena Gottschalk: The Crooked Trail (Magdalena Gottschalk #1)
Author: M. Gail Grant
Format: ebook
Source: NetGalley

From Goodreads: Lily Brooke, where small town charm and a hidden secret converge one fateful late autumn night. The demons of the past are determined to never be locked away again. MALB, the Mystical Alliance of Lily Brooke, consists of six childhood friends that are bound together in loyalty, friendship, and courage. Together, they all face the unleashed enchantments that are haunting the children after their discovery of the forbidden sacrificial cave, crooked trail, and mysterious treehouse. Magdalena has always known she is different from the others, but the cause has always escaped her, until now. Coming to grips with her soul purpose, she must gather courage she never knew she possessed to save her friends and family from the evil forces hiding amongst them. 

Magdalena Gottschalk: The Crooked Trail, is a middle grades to young adult epic fantasy fiction novel, that explores faith, unity, differences, belief in a higher power, magic, and teamwork. It will leave you sitting on the edge of your seat, begging to turn the page, while written for audiences of all ages. With a touch of southern charm and tradition, this novel takes you on a journey not for the faint of heart. Witches, wizards, demons, black magic, and soul searching all have their place in the quaint little town of Lily Brooke. 

My Opinion: Magdalena and her friends Gabriel and Hubert decide to spend a beautiful day exploring the woods behind Hubert's farm. Magdalena just celebrated her 13th birthday and her wish to have something exciting happen to her has come true, but not in the way she had hoped! When people say to "be careful what you wish for," this is exactly what they had in mind!

I loved the description of this book and was looking forward to reading it, but there were a few glaring problems that really took away from my ability to fully engage with the characters and the story. The description of the book says that it is for middle grades to young adult, but I really think it is geared more toward the younger set. The characters are 13, so I would say this is the age of the readers that would enjoy it, as young adults would really notice the problems and be bogged down by them, as I was. The way the kids speak was weirdly formal, especially for 13 year olds. For example, they didn't use contractions when speaking to each other, and they explained things that the others should already know, almost like they were adults speaking to children instead of young teenagers speaking to friends they've known their whole lives. And at one point, when Magdalena is talking with 5 of her good friends (the members of MALB, the Mystical Alliance of Lily Brooke), she says: "This morning, he made eye contact with my mother, Leona, and had his assistant take his place at the door to greet the morning attendees. My mother turned to my father, Paulos, and excused herself stating she needed to go to the ladies' restroom." Again, these kids have known each other all of their lives, so you would assume they know who her mother and father are, which was why it was odd that she threw her parents' names in there, like they had no idea who she was talking about! I've just never heard kids do that, especially 13 year olds who seem to abbreviate everything these days. Then there was the wrong usage of who/whoever and whom/whomever, which is a pet peeve of mine. I stumbled every time the words were used wrong: e.g. "Whom wrote such a ridiculous story?" This happened over and over again. Also, the writing seems forced sometimes, which breaks the reader's concentration and the flow of the story itself. Other times, something just doesn't make sense, so you have to stop and figure out what didn't work in the sentence, and that takes you out of the story as well: "The group all tried to bend, move or sway the perfectly spaced boulders, but nothing gave." How the heck do you bend or sway a boulder? It just doesn't make sense. 

Another big problem for me was that there would be pages of descriptions of what was happening in a scene, as well as dialogue, and then when someone new came along, instead of just saying that the character repeated what they had heard, done or said, they actually repeated the whole darn thing! There was way too much retelling and re-explaining, and I feel like that bogged the story down a lot. But other times, not enough was explained. When something big happens to Magdalena in the second half of the book, and I mean big as in life changing, rock my world kind of big, she has a moment of indecision, then says she has come to terms with it, and then just seems to know instinctively what to do and how to do it (it's hard to describe it without giving it away lol), even though it's something that adults would have to take time themselves to figure out! There just wasn't enough explanation of how one got from point A to point B sometimes.

Now, the things that I liked about the book: the story itself was a good one. There was a sense of intrigue and mystery that drew you in and made you want to continue to read. The characters were described very well so it was easy to find yourself invested in them. The world building was great, so much so that you felt you were walking around Lily Brooke alongside the characters. The characters were likable so you found yourself honestly pulling for them to solve the mystery and save the town. The title comes from the choice you have in life of choosing the straight path, staying on the straight and narrow, or choosing the crooked trail, which can lead you to trouble. I really loved that symbolism.

In summary, I liked the actual story here, and the characters, but felt the book was bogged down with unnecessary repetition, stilted conversations, and story flow problems, which could all be fixed if the book were to be re-edited. 

I'm giving this book 3 stars out of 5 :)

Review: First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson #1) by Darynda Jones

Title: First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson #1)
Author: Darynda Jones
Format: ebook
Source: NetGalley

From Goodreads: This whole grim reaper thing should have come with a manual.
Or a diagram of some kind.
A flow chart would have been nice.

Charley Davidson is a part-time private investigator and full-time grim reaper. Meaning, she sees dead people. Really. And it's her job to convince them to "go into the light." But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (like murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she's been having about an entity who has been following her all her life...and it turns out he might not be dead after all. In fact, he might be something else entirely. But what does he want with Charley? And why can't she seem to resist him? And what does she have to lose by giving in?

With scorching-hot tension and high-octane humor, First Grave on the Right is your signpost to paranormal suspense of the highest order.

My Opinion: I've wanted to start this series for a while now but never got around to it, until NetGalley was offering all of the books as read now books prior to the release of the newest one, Summoned to Thirteenth Grave, book #13. Needless to say, I jumped at this opportunity to download the entire series, and started reading First Grave on the Right immediately. I have been hearing for years about how wonderful the series is, and boy was I not let down! 

Charley Davidson is a real live grim reaper. She doesn't carry a scythe or wear the long black cape, but she still helps the dead move on. She is the bright light that draws the departed to her so that they can literally pass through her (she's a portal to the afterworld) and move on to the other side. Most of them do, but of course, there are always a few that won't leave because they have unfinished business, sometimes just passing on a message to a loved one, and other times asking her to solve their own murder. Luckily, Charley is an excellent PI, so she uses her talents to help them out. In this book, three people who worked together were all killed on the same night, so they ask Charley for her help finding out who killed them.

This book had so much of everything I love: humor, ghosts, a hotshot reaper, and a mysterious force (I can't tell you what that force is because it would give too much away) that has been around since her birth. I really can't stress the humor enough!! I laughed out loud so many times when I was reading this book! There was a lot of action, as well, but it was critical to the story, and the pacing was spot on.

In summary, I absolutely loved this book and really, really look forward to reading book #2, Second Grave on the Left. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good paranormal read with a whole lot of humor!

I received a copy of this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Kingdom of Exiles (The Beast Charmer #1) by Maxym M. Martineau

Title: Kingdom of Exiles (The Beast Charmer #1)
Author: Maxym M. Martineau
Format: ebook
Source: NetGalley

From Goodreads: Fantastic Beasts meets Assassin's Creed in this epic, gripping fantasy romance from debut author Maxym M. Martineau.

Exiled beast charmer Leena Edenfrell is in deep trouble. Empty pockets forced her to sell her beloved magical beasts on the black market—an offense punishable by death—and now there's a price on her head. With the realm's most talented murderer-for-hire nipping at her heels, Leena makes him an offer he can't refuse: powerful mythical creatures in exchange for her life.

If only it were that simple. Unbeknownst to Leena, the undying ones are bound by magic to complete their contracts, and Noc cannot risk his brotherhood of assassins...not even to save the woman he can no longer live without. 

My Opinion: Wow! I was really surprised by how much I liked this book! Leena is a Charmer, meaning she can charm magical beasts, adding them to her personal bestiary. The descriptions of the beasts are amazing and make you really believe in them. Unfortunately, Leena is exiled from her home for something that she insists she didn't do, and is forced to sell some of her magical beasts to get enough money to live on and to buy a particular beast to help clear her name, and that is punishable by death. She is handling everything as well as she can, but then she finds out that she is being stalked by an assassin for hire, which really doesn't help her situation at all! She is forced to make a deal with the assassins in exchange for her life, and this sets in motion a journey and a quest that will forever change her life.

I'm going to say first that I loved all of the main characters, and felt they were very well fleshed out. They were complex and very real. The world building was amazing and the action intense. Then we come to the romance, which was slow to build (I really hate insta-love) and very, very hot. I found myself really pulling for everything to work out for these two!

In summary, I loved this book so much and am looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy!! I definitely recommend it for fans of fantasy and romance.

I received a copy of this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Why I've been gone so long and why I'm back now

I've been gone for years, I know, but I have a good reason, I think. Years ago I had a low back operation to fix a congenital defect, which ended up being more involved than even the doctor thought. I spent 5 days in the hospital and then was sent home. About a week later, a nurse came for a home visit to check on my incision and found a mess. My incision site was seriously infected and I was admitted to the hospital for emergency surgery. By this time, the infection, which was a MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus) infection, had surrounded my entire lower spine, and I was running a very high fever. They performed another emergency surgery to clean out the infection, but they found out I had also contracted bacterial meningitis and arachnoiditis, so not only was my surgical site and lower spine infected, my internal spinal column and the sac surrounding my brain were also infected. I was delirious and kept in a medically induced coma so I have no memory of any of this, but it was serious enough that my doctor didn't see how I could make it through the weekend and called my husband and mother and told them to contact the rest of my family so they could come in and say their goodbyes. My mother also called a priest, who performed Last Rites. The doctors were doing everything they could for me and were throwing everything they had at the infections, but nothing was helping. They gave me another combination of drugs and lo and behold, they worked. I was in the ICU and in the medically induced coma for about 2 weeks. When I came to, I had no memory of any of this. Because my fever wouldn't go away, even though it came down, I was kept in the hospital for 2 months. After 3 surgeries, I still had some swelling at the incision site, and unfortunately during one of the surgeries, they nicked my sciatic nerve, so I was left with chronic sciatica to deal with. I was sent to inpatient rehab for 2 weeks because my legs didn't want to work right, but eventually I was deemed fit enough to go home. I had to have 2 more surgeries that year to fix the pins and rods in my back because the infection had literally pushed them out of whack. I still have 6 pins and 3 rods in my back, and my doctor said I will continue to worsen and will eventually need more surgery, but right now we're monitoring it and maintaining it for as long as we can.

The nerve damage and chronic pain are something I've learned to live with, but as a reader, one of the biggest hurdles I've had to overcome is short-term and long-term memory loss due to the brain infection and the high fever I had. I have lost almost all memory of my life up to the time of the first surgery, and because of the short-term memory loss, I forget everyday things, too. The hardest thing to lose, though, is my memory of books and movies that I have read and watched. I had books that I was reading, and ones that I had finished that were waiting on reviews, but I have to read them again because I have no memory at all of what I read. During these years, I had given up reading because I had to re-read so much as I went along that I just gave up. I've been working very hard to try to retrain my brain, but it's a very slow process. Only recently have I been able to really start reading again and enjoy it, although I do have to take a lot of notes for when I inevitably forget things.

All of that being said, I'm alive, and that's something, so I try not to dwell on the bad things. I went through a powerful depression for a very long time, but I'm finally starting to crawl my way out of that. You have no idea how wonderful it is to look forward to things again!

I haven't written any of this because I want people to feel sorry for me. I'm done with self pity, and I don't want pity from anyone else, either. I want to start reviewing books again, and I felt like I should explain why I've been gone for so long. I don't know how I'll do, but I'm still working on my memory and am able to read a couple of books at a time again, as long as I make sure to read a little bit of each one every day. So we'll just see how it goes and take it one day at a time.

If you've managed to read all of this, thank you for hanging in there! LOL 

Review: Nowhere But Here (Thunder Road #1), by Katie McGarry

Title: Nowhere But Here (Thunder Road #1)
Author: Katie McGarry
Format: ebook
Source: Netgalley

From Goodreads: "An unforgettable new series from acclaimed author Katie McGarry about taking risks, opening your heart and ending up in a place you never imagined possible.

Seventeen-year-old Emily likes her life the way it is: doting parents, good friends, good school in a safe neighborhood. Sure, she's curious about her biological father—the one who chose life in a motorcycle club, the Reign of Terror, over being a parent—but that doesn't mean she wants to be a part of his world. But when a reluctant visit turns to an extended summer vacation among relatives she never knew she had, one thing becomes clear: nothing is what it seems. Not the club, not her secret-keeping father and not Oz, a guy with suck-me-in blue eyes who can help her understand them both. 

Oz wants one thing: to join the Reign of Terror. They're the good guys. They protect people. They're…family. And while Emily—the gorgeous and sheltered daughter of the club's most respected member—is in town, he's gonna prove it to her. So when her father asks him to keep her safe from a rival club with a score to settle, Oz knows it's his shot at his dream. What he doesn't count on is that Emily just might turn that dream upside down. 

No one wants them to be together. But sometimes the right person is the one you least expect, and the road you fear the most is the one that leads you home."

My Opinion: I first discovered Katie McGarry when I read her Pushing the Limit series, and I can honestly say that I loved every book in that series. When I learned that she was starting a new series, I was right there requesting it from NetGalley because I had to learn for myself whether she could top her first series, and boy did she! I can see why she called this series Thunder Road, but it is also about each and every character in Nowhere But Here pushing the limits of their own lives, but in a much deeper way, which will make sense when you read the book, and I highly recommend that you do.

The story is told from two points of view: Emily's and Oz's. Eli is Emily's biological father who, as she's heard all her life, hooked up with Meg (Emily's mother) and when she found out she was pregnant he took off, wanting nothing to do with Meg or their baby. Meg remarried when Emily was 5 and Eli signed away his parental rights so Jeff could adopt her. They've had a good life, and Emily loves Jeff as much as if he were her biological father, and he loves her back just as much. Emily is 17 now, and for the last 7 years she has seen Eli once a year when he comes to visit her where she lives in Florida, but she doesn't feel a bond with him at all. 

Emily's life changes when Eli sends a message to Jeff containing a copy of his mother Olivia's obituary, saying she has died of cancer. Emily has always heard that Olivia and Meg hate each other and have ever since she turned Meg away when she became pregnant while still in high school. So it strikes Emily as very strange when Meg and Jeff decide to take Emily to Olivia's funeral in Snowflake, Kentucky, especially since Emily never even met the woman when she was alive. Meg has always refused to talk about her life in Snowflake except to say that Eli, who belonged in a motorcycle club, the Reign of Terror, and his whole family are crazy and violent and how lucky she was to escape that life. Now at this point in the book I remember thinking that this story was a bit edgier than the books in Katie McGarry's Pushing the Limits series, but I was loving it because it was written so well you can't help but feel invested in the new characters. You can feel Emily's confusion over all of this and her wish that they could just stay in Florida since she doesn't want to have anything to do with Eli or his family, but she goes along with what her mother and Jeff want because it seems important to them that she go.

While there, many, many unexpected things happen, and Emily finds out that she been lied to her entire life when it comes to Eli, Olivia, and the rest of her family in Snowflake. She finds out that she and her mother actually lived with Olivia and her husband (Emily's grandfather) Cyrus until Emily was 2 years old. Olivia tells her that they were very happy there until Meg stole Emily in the middle of the night and took off for Florida with no warning at all. Olivia learns that Meg told Emily that Eli's family is crazy and that "the people in Snowflake are the worst kind of evil," which breaks Olivia's heart. Unfortunately, Emily finds out that Olivia is not dead yet when she is saying hello to Eli, who is standing next to the casket Olivia is laid out in, and Olivia, in her excitement to see Emily, sits up and starts talking to her! Apparently Eli accidentally sent a copy of Olivia's obituary (which she had written herself to make sure it was done right) instead of an invitation to the party Olivia was throwing to celebrate her life while she was still alive to enjoy it! To add to the horror Emily experiences, she already has a major fear of dead people because when she was 8 years old she fell in a hole already occupied by a dead person in the middle of the woods and after screaming and screaming for help, she ended up spending 12 hours alone with the body until she was finally rescued. Needless to say, Emily agrees with her mother that this whole family is nuts and she doesn't want to have anything more to do with therm. You can imagine her surprise when her dad, Jeff, and her mother decide she should spend a month or so with them so she can learn about that side of her family! Everybody in Snowflake says she's in danger if a rival motorcycle club, The Riot, learn that she is Eli's daughter, and they feel, since she just showed up there with no warning, word might get out and the best people to protect her are the Reign of Terror. Emily is really not down with this at all but is out voted by her mom and dad. 

This is when we really get to know Oz, who is 18 years old and has only wanted one thing his entire life: to become a full member of the Reign of Terror. Eli gives him the job of babysitting Emily while she's in Snowflake and making sure no danger touches her. This doesn't go over well with either Oz or Emily, since it's not exactly love at first site! But as they spend time together, Oz discovers that Emily's not a pushover, that she has a spark in her that he comes to appreciate and love, and Emily discovers that Oz isn't just a dangerous motorcycle driving Reign of Terror follower and future member, that he has a soft side and a very tender one that she falls in love with. 

I can't say any more about the story, although I could honestly write page after page about this amazing love story. I loved every character in this book, and can't wait to read the rest of the books in the series to come so I can find out about some of my favorites: Razor, Chevy and Violet are at the top of that list!

Emily and Oz grow so much as characters during this story, but Eli also does his fair share of changing too. Emily's life changes so drastically during the book, and in her own words: "Without what has happened, there's no doubt I would have stayed in the same bubble I was raised in and I'm not just talking about remaining in Florida. I never would have experienced anything new in life." I couldn't have said it better myself!

There is so much to love about this book - the characters who are amazing, the plot which contains secret piled upon secret, and the ending, which was so heartwarming that I can't even begin to describe it. I recommend this book to anybody who read Katie McGarry's first series, Pushing the Limits, and to anyone who hasn't read any of Katie's books yet - What are you waiting for, people?! You're missing out on some amazing and heartfelt stories here!

I give this book a very, very enthusiastic 5 stars and I'll be holding my breath to read the next story in line, which stars Razor, and is called Walk the Edge. Nowhere but Here is definitely a must read book of 2015 :D

I received a copy of this book free of charge through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.