[Audiobook review] The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron

The Dark Unwinding
Sharon Cameron
September 1, 2012
Scholastic Press


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When Katharine Tulman's inheritance is called into question by the rumor that her eccentric uncle is squandering away the family fortune, she is sent to his estate to have him committed to an asylum. But instead of a lunatic, Katharine discovers a genius inventor with his own set of rules, who employs a village of nine hundred people rescued from the workhouses of London.

Katharine is now torn between protecting her own inheritance and preserving the peculiar community she grows to care for deeply. And her choices are made even more complicated by a handsome apprentice, a secretive student, and fears for her own sanity.

As the mysteries of the estate begin to unravel, it is clear that not only is her uncle's world at stake, but also the state of England as Katharine knows it. With twists and turns at every corner, this heart-racing adventure will captivate readers with its intrigue, thrills, and romance.

This book was described as mysterious, spooky, and steampunk. If the only thing you are basing steampunk on is clockwork and steam powered machines then I guess it has a steampunk element. For me this book this book is more of a spooky gaslight mystery like Turn of the Screw. Someone is trying to make Kathrine think she is crazy.

Kathrine is sent to her creepy uncle's estate to determine if he should be sent to the asylum. Her wretched aunt thinks he is squandering the money. When she gets there she discovers that her uncle's estate is actually a small township and sending him away could destroy the lives of more than just her uncle. Kathrine starts seeing things, sleepwalking, and even biting herself. All things that make Kathrine think she is going insane.

I liked this book, it was creepy and there were parts that spooked me. I thought the mystery was well executed because I never saw it coming. That being, there were parts that were boring and it waseasy to put the audiobook down and walkaway. I loved the ending when they give the aunt what for. I was intrigued by the world Kathrine lives in, and I will be checking out the next book. I am interested to find out what happened to Kathrine's friend and possible love interest and why he left. I give The Dark Unwinding three laser pistols for being held in a stable orbit.

[Review] One Heart to Win by Johanna Lindsey

One Heart to Win
Johanna Lindsey
June 11, 2013
Gallery Books


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Some young ladies marry for money and social standing, a few lucky ones marry for love, but Tiffany Warren is marrying to end a feud. Honoring her mother’s wishes, Tiffany reluctantly travels west to meet her estranged father and his enemy’s eldest son, rancher Hunter Callahan. Once the Warrens and the Callahans are united by marriage, both clans will stop squabbling over a disputed strip of land. But in the chaos of a train robbery Tiffany seizes a golden opportunity: By assuming the identity of her father’s new housekeeper she can live with the father she never knew and assess his true character, as well as that of the neighboring cowboy to whom she is betrothed. But, too late, Tiffany discovers that the rivalry between the Warrens and the Callahans has escalated when the Callahans steal the Warrens’ “housekeeper” as soon as she steps off the train!

Now Tiffany, masquerading as Jennifer Fleming, finds herself living in the enemy camp, under the same roof as her fiancé. All too soon she learns her intended is a handsome, sweet-talking charmer whom she has to fight off because he can’t keep his eyes—or his hands—off Jennifer. After Tiffany’s charade is exposed, she refuses to marry Hunter, not even to end the hostilities between the families. How can she wed a man who is in love with another woman? As Hunter goes about claiming his rightful bride-to-be, he knows that although he loves two women— proper, elegant Tiffany as well as spunky, passionate Jennifer—he has only one heart to win.

I love Johanna Lindsey books but she is kind of hit or miss. One Heart to Win was one that for me was just eh. I thought the story was kind of cheesy. The story moved fast but at the same time felt a little rush.

The story follows Tiffany who is being sent to Montana to marry a man she has never met. Marrying this man will end a feud between her family and the neighbors. She agrees to go meet him. Then somehow gets mistaken for the housekeeper. She doesn't correct the family of the man she is supposed to marry. This way she can get to know Hunter under the guise of Jennifer. They fall in love, the only problem is if Hunter will still love her when he finds out she is Tiffany, the stranger he has been betrothed to since birth.

Like I said I liked the book but didn't love it. It was a quick read and I finished it in one night. I don't think I will reread this one over and over. I can't explain, but it felt like something was missing. Maybe because there was too much going on with feuding, blackmail, and falling in love. When the scene between Jennifer and Hunter finally happened it felt anticlimactic and I was asking myself, "That was it?" I am a sucker for happy endings and true love conquering all, and that is what kept me going to the end. In conclusion I give this book three laser pistols, not bad but there are better Johanna Lindsey novels.

[Arc Review] The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau

 The TestingThe Testing #1
Joelle Charbonneau
June 4th, 2013
Houghton Miffin Books for Children
336 pages

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 Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Isn’t that what they say? But how close is too close when they may be one in the same?

The Seven Stages War left much of the planet a charred wasteland. The future belongs to the next generation’s chosen few who must rebuild it. But to enter this elite group, candidates must first pass The Testing—their one chance at a college education and a rewarding career.

Cia Vale is honored to be chosen as a Testing candidate; eager to prove her worthiness as a University student and future leader of the United Commonwealth. But on the eve of her departure, her father’s advice hints at a darker side to her upcoming studies--trust no one.

But surely she can trust Tomas, her handsome childhood friend who offers an alliance? Tomas, who seems to care more about her with the passing of every grueling (and deadly) day of the Testing. To survive, Cia must choose: love without truth or life without trust.

I hate comparing anything to the Hunger Games, but this book holds a lot of the same elements, and scantrons. While no one is starving, there is a contest with mortal consequences in order to attend university. There is also a faction bent on usurping the one in place. Though, what role they play in everything has yet to be seen.

The character is supposed to be smart, but when the writing style is so inside someone's head, I always feel like the character is thinking for hours instead of probably the few seconds they really are. I had this problem with the Sword of Truth series, and I have it with this one. There is a thing as too introspective.

The two possible love interests are both deplorable in different ways. Not that the Cia technically remembers, as they wiped her memory. They're both liars and murderers. There is really not a good team to be on.

The book is very cookie cutter dystopian. Something I've been seeing a lot of lately. I'm still curious to see where the second book goes. There is a chance that it could surprise me.

P.S. Is there a map? My version didn't have one. I could totally have used one.

[Reveiw] Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Pushing the Limits
Katie McGarry
July 31, 2012
Harlequin Teen


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So wrong for each other…and yet so right. No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can PUSH THE LIMITS and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her HOW TO LOVE AGAIN.

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I really really liked Pushing the Limits.  I cried then I smiled and then I was smiling through my tears as I listened to this book.  It was so good that I would come home from work ready for more so I would pick up where the audio book left and read it as well.  I devoured this book and had it finished in a matter of days.

 

Pushing the Limits is about a troubled girl named Echo and a self-proclaimed bad boy named Noah.  The story is about two people who have been dealt some real crummy hands and learning that is okay to move on and let go of the past.  Noah’s parents died in a house leaving him and his two little brothers to foster care.  Noah doesn’t see the good side of foster only the bad and so vows when he turns eighteen he will get custody of his little brothers, so they never have to go through what he went through.  Echo’s brother died in Afghanistan and her mother did something so terrible to Echo that she can’t even remember.  In this story about pain and loss these two teens are able to come together and learn to forgive and let go so they can heal together.

 

I must say this story was powerful and so moving.  I know I have said it before but there is something so magical about seeing two people find redemption through love.  I felt like I knew Echo and Noah by the end of the story and I was routing for their happy ending.  There was one scene I don’t want to give away too much but it involved Noah growing up.  I balled like a baby right there with Noah.  I was at work listening to the book and I know my coworkers had to be like what is wrong with this girl.  To me that is sign of an amazing book when your emotions you feel for the characters as a reader leave the book world and invade your life.  For me, Pushing the Limits will be a book I carry around with me in my thoughts for a long time to come.  Read or listen to Pushing the Limits you will not be disappointed.  I give this book four very solid laser pistols.

[Review] The Great Secret by L. Ron Hubbard

The Great Secret
L. Ron Hubbard
September 8, 2008
Galaxy Press
122 pages

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Fanner Marston was raised a slave as a child, became a petty street thief as a teen, and now masters his own craft and crew as a grown man. He's also gone completely mad. Driven by privation, with a vicious greed and slavering lust for power, Marston alone of forty men has survived the perilous trek through a blistering desert to the magical city of Parva, where legend says a secret awaits which will give him absolute control over the Universe. However, Marston finds the key to all power is not at all what he expected. . .

This book was an interesting find. The people at Galaxy Press are re-releasing classic L. Ron Hubbard pulp fiction tales with classic art and the feel of the old pulp fiction magazines. This book is a collection of four short stories, each independent and standing on their own.

Despite these tales being over sixty years old, I found myself pulled into each tale and found myself rooting for the characters as they faced their challenges and trials. The tales included in this volume are The Great Secret, Space Can, The Beast, and The Slaver. In each tale, men face off against the unknown and face down their challenges with the determination and uncertainty you find in these old stories.

In The Great Secret a single man is faced with the punishing elements on an alien world to find the great secret of a lost civilization.

Space Can brings a small destroyer face to face with a superior enemy, but don't count the smaller vessel out until the end, especially when the chips are down.

The Beast faces a great white hunter against a thinking beast on Venus that is terrorizing the locals.

A last but not least, The Slaver shows that villains should never let their guard down.

I won't give away anymore of the secrets of these tales, I'll leave that to the readers.

As I read these tales of daring I came to a conclusion. Despite the age of these tales, they still have meaning and are a great read even today. I gladly give this book a solid four laser pistols. This book, like so many of the tales from that age, is really out of this world.

[Arc Review] Undead by Kirsty McKay

UndeadUndead #1
Kirsty McKay
September 1st, 2012
Chicken House
272 pages

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 Out of sight, out of their minds: It's a school-trip splatter fest and completely not cool when the other kids in her class go all braindead on new girl Bobby.

The day of the ski trip, when the bus comes to a stop at a roadside restaurant, everyone gets off and heads in for lunch. Everyone, that is, except Bobby, the new girl, who stays behind with rebel-without-a-clue Smitty.

Then hours pass. Snow piles up. Sun goes down. Bobby and Smitty start to flirt. Start to stress. Till finally they see the other kids stumbling back.

But they've changed. And not in a good way. Straight up, they're zombies. So the wheels on the bus better go round and round freakin' fast, because that's the only thing keeping Bobby and Smitty from becoming their classmates' next meal. It's kill or be killed in these hunger games, heads are gonna roll, and homework is most definitely gonna be late.

"It's Speed meets The Shining meets Shaun of the Dead meets The Breakfast Club, and, if you'll permit me a Briticism, it's a bloody scary, bloody funny romp!" - Barry Cunningham, publisher

This is what I was promised. What I got was a cliched lump of writing that was fun to read but overall didn't strike me as special.  The elements mentioned include a bus, a creepy mansion, some zombies and a rag tag group of school children. Sure, on the base level it could be compared to those, but not really. I also didn't find it very funny. Perhaps my humor is more mature, or I expect more amusing anecdotes from British schoolchildren. It didn't deliver.

If I could compare it to anything, I'd compare it to The Faculty. High school kids reacting appropriately to a supernatural presence and getting high or in this case, drunk, in the process. They make stupid decisions, they actually act scared. No one is really a hero.

With a zombie outbreak to deal with, crazed hipster scientists, a zombie toddler, and one of those plot twists you can see coming from four miles away, this book was pretty straight forward. Nothing really set it apart. Even the horror movie cliffhanger felt overused and unengaged.

[Arc Review] Nefertiti's Heart by A.W. Exley

 Nefertiti's HeartA.W. Exley
February 14th, 2013
Curiosity Quills Press
280 pages

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Cara Devon has always suffered curiosity and impetuousness, but tangling with a serial killer might cure that. Permanently. London, 1861. Impoverished noble Cara has a simple mission after the strange death of her father - sell off his damned collection of priceless artifacts. Her plan goes awry when aristocratic beauties start dying of broken hearts, an eight inch long brass key hammered through their chests. A killer hunts amongst the nobility, searching for a regal beauty and an ancient Egyptian relic rumored to hold the key to immortality. Her Majesty's Enforcers are in pursuit of the murderer and they see a connection between the gruesome deaths and Cara. So does she, somewhere in London her father hid Nefertiti's Heart, a fist sized diamond with strange mechanical workings. Adding further complication to her life, notorious crime lord, Viscount Nathaniel Lyons is relentless in his desire to lay his hands on Cara and the priceless artifact. If only she could figure out his motive. Self-preservation fuels Cara's search for the gem. In a society where everyone wears a mask to hide their true intent, she needs to figure out who to trust, before she makes a fatal mistake.

Steampunk is always refreshing to read. There is so much people can do with it if they want to. Most of the time it is very hit or miss. This one was well entrenched in the middle. It was neither here nor there.

There is so much packed into one book. There are murders to solve, murderer's to avoid, priceless artifacts to recover, a romance to bloom, society standards to shun, and odd jobs to accomplish. For the page count, it seemed like the book was jam packed with things to do every turn. In fact, what ever happened to that woman's wedding ring they were hired to find?

The heroine is broken, flighty. She trusts no one and distractingly slides down bannisters. Her love interest isn't the standard Prince Charming, but he woos her despite her lack of trust and her history of sexual abuse.

The mystery and the love story twine together nicely, culminate well. It's really the small loose ends that bothered me. With everything tied up in a nice, neat bow, having a loose thread is irksome.