Book Review - What Comes Next

What Comes Next by John Katzenbach
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Never underestimate the determination of a former psychology professor, even if he has started to lose his marbles, like Adrian. He's finally gone to the doctor to see what's going on, after having a long conversation one night with s dead wife. It all seemed perfectly ordinary until she vanished, and he remembered she had run her car into a tree some time ago. After learning that he has a rare brain disease that will rob him of his faculties and replace them with hallucinations, he comes home to witness a kidnapping from his own driveway.

But what did he really see? Is the girl out three somewhere, just a runaway as the police believe? Or was she dragged into that white panel van for more nefarious purposes? Adrian is determined to find out, even if he is the only one on the case, though his time is running out, with reality being replaced by conversations with long dead loved ones more and more every day.

This is a great mystery suspense novel, complete with some heartbreak and fascinating characters. Definitely a good read.

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Book Review - The Elevator

The Elevator by Angela Elwell Hunt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fabulous, couldn't put it down book full of action. Three women are stuck in an elevator... Sounds boring, doesn't it? Consider that one might be a murderer, or maybe even more than one, that there is a hurricane raging outside and no one to rescue them, that one man has a chance to save them, maybe, if he can survive the storm and get to them in time, and that their lives are, quite literally, hanging in a very precarious balance. Kept me up all night!

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Book Review - Castaways

Castaways by Brian Keene
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a super-fast, super-horrifying read.

I love horror novels, but I kind of hate gore. I think I just like the adrenaline rush of being scared. Usually I have to skim the icky parts (kind of like how I close my eyes in horror movies when it gets too bloody). I was pleasantly surprised when I barely had to skim at all in the first half of this book.

But then, yeah, I skimmed a lot of the last half, which is probably why it was such a fast read!

Castaways is the thinly veiled story of the TV show "Survivor" if all the worst things that could happen to the cast did happen. Tropical storm? Check. Maniac cast member? Check. Crazy half-neaderthal, psychotic, smelly, hairy, underfed cannibalistic violent-killing-machine island natives? Che-what? Yep, sorry, I'm serious - Check.

It's kind of fun to root for the survivors though, and it pays off in the end. Hey, not everybody dies! That's always a plus in a horror novel.

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Book Review - Shadows

Shadows by Robin McKinley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was lucky enough to receive an advance reader's copy of this book through my husband's job at the local library system. Sometimes the perks, they rock.

I adored this book.

I'm a big fan of good YA literature, particularly dystopian, and this is a cross between dystopia and fantasy that lures you in with the promise of magic, a new society, and plenty of teenage angst.

Maggie lives in a world without magic. Oh, magic used to be out there and nearly destroyed the world once upon a time, but thanks to some gene-splicing and vigilant army units, the use of magic has been eradicated. Or so the happy society believes. But when her new stepdad moves in, a guy from the old world, where magic users still proliferate, Maggie starts seeing strange things.

Mostly, what she sees are shadows, demonic shapes with too many legs and too many eyes and a way of blocking out even the brightest sunlight. They cluster around her stepfather. They climb the walls of his backyard shed-turned-office. They loom over the dining table on family nights. When Maggie finally comes clean about what she sees, it's just in time for her world to be thrown into chaos. Her long-time best friend, a tall skinny Japanese import with a massive secret and her new crush, a darkly mysterious college student from the same country in the old world as her stepdad vie both for her attentions and to save her, from magic? From herself? From the new world order? Ahhh, you'll have to read it yourself to find out :)

I loved this book and highly recommend it. Couldn't put it down, super entertaining and fun.

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