REVIEW: The Void Beyond

 The Void Beyond
Author: P.W. Hillard

Sci-fi is one of my all time favorite genres to read, listen to, or watch. There's just something about the vastness and unknown aspects of space that make action/adventure stories set there completely engrossing for me. 

I requested a review copy of one of P.W. Hillard's books back in 2020....and then the pandemic totally upended so many things I lost track of it. I never read the book. I hate it when I flub on a review!! 

So, when I discovered I had several books on StoryOrigin that I never reviewed, I decided to backtrack and make it right. And, of course I picked a sci-fi book to start with. 

It just so happened that the book I had promised to review was the second book in the Dark Galaxy series. So I back-tracked even further and got my hands on book one: The Void Beyond. 

I'm glad I did! This story had a awesomely creepy Aliens/Dead Space sort of feel to it. I was hooked from the start, and the story kept my attention from start to finish. 

I'm sort of addicted to audio books -- especially for sci-fi or horror tales. So, I read my digital ebook while listening to the audio book. There's just something entertaining about having a scary story read out loud -- love it! The audio book is narrated by Matt Jenkins and is just shy of 8 hours long. Jenkins does a good job of narration. His attempt at an American Texas style accent fell a bit short though....but not enough to do any damage to my enjoyment of the book. 

There were a couple times I had to suspend reality a bit (but it's a story set in space with aliens...so it wasn't that hard to accomplish). For instance, a completely alien species referring to humans as a "primate'' species or aliens having the same system of numbers that we do. Little things. I whisked those things out of my head and just let myself enjoy the story. 

The basics: Humanity and an alien race are at war. When a cargo ship is waylaid and attacked by the aliens, a horrific series of events unfolds that puts the crew to the ultimate test. I'm not going to say more about what that threat is, and how it manifests because.....spoilers. But let's just say if they fail, the entire universe may be in peril! No pressure....none at all. 

 I liked the concept, the characters, the setting -- and the foe they faced! Very entertaining story with lots of action and unexpected events. It definitely kept my attention from start to finish. Some events at the end were rough, but completely realistic given the situation. Overall, I enjoyed this story and I'm definitely reading the other two books! 

On to book 2 (which is the book I agreed to review in 2020 -- making it right!)

**I was given a review copy of this book and voluntarily agreed to review it (but I also bought the audio book and read a digital ebook through Kindle Unlimited, so that kinda negates the freebie aspects, right? But still including the disclaimer.). All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

REVIEW: The Ghost Goes to the Dogs

 The Ghost Goes to the Dogs
Author: Cleo Coyle

Ok...I'm just going to come right out and say it. At the start. And get it over with.

This series is my favorite cozy mystery series. I once waited 10 years for a new Jack & Penelope sleuthing adventure and was totally excited when the series picked back up. This is one series I will always pre-order and expect my new book delivered on release day. Period. End of story. So yep....this is an honest review, but I'm gonna tell you I will 5 star this series on each and every book. Always. 

I did a quick exploratory read of this newest book thanks to my handy-dandy digital review copy. But I'm waiting for my crisp, colorful, full of new book smell, paperback to arrive on May 2nd to give it a complete read-through. I already have that Tuesday night blocked off for a binge reading session.

The basics: It's Pet Mystery Week at the bookshop and business is good. Then a stray dog in a panicked state shows up and leads Penelope and her son to a body. Who killed the leader of the store's pet lovers book club? And can they catch the killer before someone else dies? 

Not giving any spoilers because I avoided reading the ending....waiting for my book. Loved the parts I did read! I enjoy the setting of this series, the characters and the fun, entertaining energy of the plots in each story.

The cover art for this newest book is so colorful and cute. Love it! 

I'm definitely already in line for the next book. Can't wait to see what Penelope and Jack get up to next. 

**I voluntarily read a digital review copy of this book from Berkley Publishing. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

REVIEW: Pink Lemonade Cake Murder

 Pink Lemonade Cake Murder
Author: Joanne Fluke

As soon as I received the email announcing my review copy for this new Hannah Swensen mystery, I jumped right into reading. Not surprising as I have been reading this series since book 1 came out in 2000. I'm a die-hard fan of Hannah, her sisters, Norman, Mike....and all the characters from Lake Eden. 

This series is one of the first cozy mystery series I ever read. Probably The Cat Who... books were the first. But this one was definitely my favorite back then. I eagerly awaited each book, and wondered if Hannah would ever make The Choice (faithful readers understand exactly what I mean there). 

I will faithfully read each book in this series until the end. 29 books in I can't really abandon the series. 

But.....

With a heavy heart I'm going to post an honest review. 

I love this series. I love the characters. The recipes are always yummy. And there are always cute moments and some good amateur sleuthing. However, the writing quality has taken a noticeable nose-dive over the past few years. I will stand by my opinion expressed several years ago that I firmly believe these books are no longer written by the same author. I have no facts to support my guess, other than the drastic changes in writing style and quality of this series.

The problems:

Constant repetition. For example, in this newest book, Hannah repeats the ingredients for a stew she cooks for supper at least four times. Over and over again. Each character that enters the room gets the explanation for her lovely stew all over again in entirety. Character and recipe names are also repeated again and again. Makes the dialogue very clunky and hard to read. It's poor executed story padding and bad writing.

Recipes and cooking explanations overused. This is a culinary cozy series, so cooking/recipes are part of the subplot. But, poorly written dialogue and constant references to cooking and recipes completely overshadowed the mystery portions of this new book. I love the recipes, and I used to enjoy mentions of Hannah's culinary creations to fluff up the story. But it's very obvious that the cooking subplot is being used as padding to make the story significantly longer.

Non-engaging and poor attempts at suspense. The mystery and investigation is almost non-existent. The mystery wraps up in a predictable manner. And the cliff hanger at the end is ridiculous. 

I referred back to the first few novels in this series. This is not Joanne Fluke's original writing style. Not even close. 

It's amateurish writing, plain and simple. The dialogue is terrible. The mystery plots are getting shorter and simpler, with very little time spent on any investigation or suspense/action. The recipes and cooking have taken over almost the entire book and the story is padded so much to add length that I had a hard time reading this book in its entirety, even after being a Hannah fan for 23 years.

For a couple books, it got better. With this new book, it seems the glaringly bad writing is back. How did this book ever get past an editor in this condition?  

I will read the next book. I'm a Hannah fan and I will stick by this series until the final book. But I just shake my head and wonder how the books are getting through the editing and publishing process without having some serious edits and re-writes. 

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Kensington. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

REVIEW: Even More Scary Stories for Sleep-overs

 Even More Scary Stories for Sleep-overs
Author: Q.L. Pearce

I am officially hooked on this series. I've been on a lightly spooky story kick for a couple of weeks, and I'm totally having fun reading these story collections for kids. Nice to read just for pure entertainment! 

This collection (there are several Scary Stories for Sleep-overs books) gathers 11 more creepy tales for kids. I used to love reading stories like this with my friends in the summertime. We would sit outside in
the yard with a flashlight and have a great time. Loved reading similar stories to my own kids as well! Great for spooky season, summer break or anytime! And....the tales are fun for adults, too. I enjoyed every single one! Some are a bit cheesy, but isn't that part of the fun? 

My favorite story from this book is a fun variation on the summer camp tale: Camp Colby. Campers are warned not to go in the abandoned mine near camp because it's dangerous. So what do they do?  They go in the mine, of course. 

The artwork by Dwight Been is wonderful and adds to the creepiness of the stories.

REVIEW: The Secrets She Keeps

 The Secrets She Keeps
Author: Michael Robotham

This book is so suspenseful...and twisted....at times I had to rewind a bit of my audio book to be sure I was hearing what I thought I heard! Michael Robotham is definitely a skilled writer. He snuck in shocking revelations so sneakily that I was surprised so many times. I would be listening....hear some shocking thing added into the mix....and be like wait......what??? Awesome!!!

Just a caution -- there are a lot of intense themes in this book -- child abuse, infant death, rape, mental illness, etc. If any of those subjects is a trigger for you, I'd avoid this book.

What a twisted mess of humanity......I couldn't stop listening!

There is a television show based on this book. I haven't watched it yet. But I did read that while it is faithful to the book in many ways, there are some significant changes in the characters and plot. Seems to have really good ratings though. I think I need to recover from the drama of the book a bit before I can watch the show. It's pretty heavy stuff....

Kudos to my lovely local library for having this audio book on tap for me to check out on the fly. I found a local book club to join, and had a week to get this story read before my first meeting. It was great! We had a lively discussion!

REVIEW: Chasing Dragons

 Chasing Dragons
Author: A.W. Kaylen

I'm enjoying the Heather Chase FBI series. I don't often read FBI/investigation stories, but I think I need to change that. All 3 of these books became total binge reads for me! I'm enjoying the gritty investigation plots. Heather is a skilled investigator who doesn't always follow the rules, and ends up with totally twisted cases. 

Chasing Dragons delves down into a dark underworld fueled by greed, lies and corruption. As Heather infiltrates into this world, she discovers some very dangerous secrets.

Another complex and suspenseful plot! This one had some real surprises in store for me. Plenty of investigation, shady suspects and twisted surprises. I really enjoyed it! 

This story really makes the digital world of banking seem shady and scary. Loved every word!

I will definitely continue reading this series! I can't wait to find out what Heather Chase investigates next!

REVIEW: Frozen Justice

 Frozen Justice
Author: A.W. Kaylen

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The action and investigation don't stop in this second book in the FBI Agent Heather Chase series. I enjoyed this second book as much as the first! 

This time Heather is sent to the scene of a professor's death to investigate his murder. But immediately she gets bad vibes....something is just not right but she can't quite put her finger on what it is. Then suddenly the whole entire face of the crime changes and Heather realizes that she's in real danger. 

This is a complex story that has lots of twists and turns. Heather Chase is her usual feisty self, and there are plenty of bad guys, investigation and strange twisty surprises. Loved it!

The cover art is great!