The Boots My Mother Gave Me by Brooklyn James

This is a heavy novel.

A few trigger warnings: It deals with abuse and suicide. If you aren’t comfortable with either of those topics, this one isn’t for you.

This book follows the main character Harley as she progresses through her life and finding herself along the way.

It is more than just that, though. As a big picture, it seems to be about the three main women in the book finding themselves; Harley, Kat, and their mother.

Harley and Kat grew up in an abusive household.

Their father was a veteran and when he didn’t have a job to occupy his time, his mind would take over and he drank way too much and became mean and violent when he did so. Her mother couldn’t find it within herself to leave him and take Harley and Kat with her.

All Harley could dream about was getting out of that town after she graduated high school, and that is exactly what she did. She lived a gypsy life; never staying in one place long. It is easy to run when you don’t know what exactly you are running from.

She could never really get away from her town. There was always something . . . or someone calling her back

That person was Jeremiah Johnson, Harley’s childhood sweetheart. The boy she always ran to for comfort when she needed escape from her abusive home. It is easy to root for these two to be together in the end.  Their story reminds me a bit of the movie Sweet Home Alabama.

This was a page-turner. I was hooked from the very beginning. It will take you through so many emotions. Be prepared to laugh, to get angry, to cry.

The writing and character development were both just great. I feel like there was great attention paid to each character in the book whether they are a main or supporting character.

It was a well-rounded story. I didn’t come out of it feeling like anything was left out or that any one part was less significant than the others.

5/5 Heartbreaking, but also full of hope. 

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The Day Before 9/11 by Tucker Elliot

There are just some people’s stories that need to be put into print . . . this is one of them.

There are just some books that need to be read . . . this is one of them.

9/11 is a day that none of us will never forget. It impacted each of us in different ways, and it will always be an emotional topic that is hard to read and write about.

The Day Before 9/11 is a memoir about an American teacher overseas teaching military children. He documents his experience with 9/11 and stories of military families he came to spend a lot of time with.

Tucker Elliot tells his own personal story as well as the story of two young girls Sami and Angel.

They both come from military families who are stationed overseas. He first comes into contact with Sami while he is teaching in Korea. After he moves to Germany, he becomes Angel’s teacher and Sami’s family ends up getting stationed there as well.

He expresses the pain that comes to families after tragedies occur. The same tragedy can affect different families in many different ways. War can affect different families in many different ways. It can bring pain and depression in ways that some individuals could never experience or even imagine.

Tucker Elliot’s book is a beautiful documentation about how one tragedy affected three different families in completely different ways.

It is emotional. It is thought provoking.

I thought reading through the main portion of the book was rough and hard on the heart, but the epilogue is truly just heartbreaking. There are no other words.

But, the end can really teach you that through heartbreak, you should always still have hope.

The writing in this book is really great. It never gets boring. There are no unnecessary parts to it. It was well thought out and looked over before being published.

5/5 stars. 

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Radiant Shadows: Beginnings by Sarah Baethge

Radiant Shadows is broken down into three parts. They all follow the same story, the only difference is that they are told by different points of view.

Part one is told by Stephen who appears to be the main character. He meets with his vampire-hunter friend Caroline as she sets out to hunt a dangerous vampire, Randy.

They end up meeting up with a witch who decides it would be a good idea to make Stephen into an anti-vampire. Doing so cripples Caroline in her hunt of Randy as it puts her in a state between becoming a vampire and dying. Stephen and Caroline’s minds are linked in this adventure and he is not in his physical body, but in Caroline’s mind.

On her way to hunt Randy, Caroline runs into her boyfriend Marshall and he insists on sticking with her.

This eventually ends in him being transformed into a vampire and Caroline ending up dead at the hands of Marshall.

Part two is written in letter form by Marshall. He is writing to Phyllis. She is a friend of Stephen’s. Marshall is writing to her to explain what happened as she ends up in the house with them, but she cannot see him because she is a human and he will lust for her blood.

Part three is written in the point of view of Phyllis. She decided to take killing Randy into her own hands.

She runs into a bit of trouble with the vampires, but they let it go after hearing about the pain Randy had caused.

It ends with Phyllis coming up with a way to help Stephen take care of Marshall, and that is where it ends.

While the writing was okay, there were some grammar and spelling mistakes. There were times in the book where Stephen turned into Steven, then it corrected itself again.

The beginning of the book puts you right into the action with no real introduction. It makes you try to catch up in your head while you are reading. It is pretty confusing at first. It begins to shape up as the story goes along, but the beginning really throws it off a bit.

I don’t feel that I learned very much about the characters. Maybe that is because this seems to be a series, but in that case, I feel a book one should lay down some background on the characters so that they are more familiar and understood moving forward.

2.5/5 stars

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Demonworld Book 1 by Kyle B. Stiff

Reading Demonworld is almost like being thrust into an action packed nightmare full of devilish creatures one would never want to face in real life.

When Wodi wakes up in a place full of darkness, he doesn’t know how he got there or why he is there. As he starts exploring, he runs into other people from Haven just like him who were dropped into the same place for seemingly no reason. They team up to try to get back home, but encountering demons and ghouls puts a damper on their progress.

After finally feeling a little sense of relief, Wodi is separated from his only remaining partner and wakes up amongst a group of slaves. They are led by the Ugly, and Wodi (turned Wodan) has decided the slaves need to fight back against the Ugly so that they can live in freedom. It takes a lot of work and a lot of convincing, but eventually he gets a good number of people on his side, and it is time for action.

The ending of this book offers a lot of action. There is a huge gun fight. Only the strongest will come out alive.

I feel this book may have worked better being broken up into two parts. If not made into two separate books, maybe having a book 1 and book 2 within it. Book 2 should begin after Wodi (then Wodan) gets mixed up with the Ugly and takes leadership over the slaves. I feel these are two separate story lines that should be split up, otherwise it is a little hard to soak it in all at once.

The attention paid to detail in the writing is very good. It is easy to imagine the scenery even though it is far beyond what any of us have seen except for maybe in movies or dreams. The beasts are also well described. This book is very visual, except it has no pictures. If the author had not paid as much attention to detail, it would completely fail as the reader would have no idea what was going on.

That being said, some of the chapters were a bit long and it was a little hard to soak in all at once. In some, there were chapter breaks where it would switch to a different story line involving Haven guardians and scientists. It was a little difficult to see how they meshed together at points, and the idea of the Project was only relevant during those short chapter breaks. I suppose that is because this is a book one and it is setting up for the rest of the series, but I would have liked to have gained a little more knowledge of the Project earlier in the book.

What I take away from this is it was a book about good against evil; A play on heaven and hell – demons and angels. The whole book had religious undertones, and it really becomes apparent at the end.

It was an interesting story. I feel some of the chapters and sections were drawn out when they could have been shorter. Once I reached the end, the whole first have seemed a bit irrelevant except for the fact Wodi draws his strength from what he went through at the beginning.

Wodi is developed well as a character, but I feel like the rest didn’t have much time to develop in this one. But being the first in a series, that can happen.

There were also a lot of horses killed in it. Didn’t like that factor too much.

3.5/5 stars. 

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Playtime by Bart Hopkins Jr.

Playtime is an interesting book. It is complex yet pretty simple all at the same time.

Blaine is the main character. He has a near-death experience at the beginning of the book, except well . . . he does die. BUT HE COMES BACK.

Obviously when a character beats death, there must be a reason for his existence, and in typical novel fashion, he is very important to the story.

Blaine’s near- death/actual death experience comes when he is hit by a car while riding his motorcycle. The woman that hit him originally claims that she does not have insurance because her coverage had expired, but Blaine’s brother examines her insurance plan and finds a loophole stating she has a grace period.

After settling that issue, Blaine is met with devastating news. His ex-girlfriend who he was rekindling his relationship with is reported dead. Two investigators visit him at his house to bring him the news. His whole world comes crashing down around him. What I like about this scene, Bart writes it really well. You can feel the emotion coming from Blaine, and it really sucks you in.

He had seen her just the night before at the bar she works at. A man had been harassing her a bit, and Blaine is convinced he is the one who harmed his girl.

He goes on the hunt to find this man who he has no name for. He tried working with the police department, but he feels as though they are not doing their jobs efficiently enough. He goes against their warnings of taking this into his own hands, and he goes after the man anyways.

This book does not fail in the action department, it is sure full of it. All at the right times as well. It does not feel like forced action. Rather, it is fully justifiable due to the emotions that Blaine is feeling.

The characters were all written pretty well. Blaine obviously had the most attention paid to detail as he is the main character. I would expect nothing less. Blaine’s brother did seem to be a pretty irrelevant character other than the one scene at “Sketch’s” house, though. I am not really sure what his role in the story was.  

Blaine coming back from the dead seemed to be a back-burner story line. I thought it was going to have a much bigger role in the plot. I was thinking that maybe he had something to do with his girlfriend’s disappearance and couldn’t remember due to his brain injury, then he would have to try to work through his memories to get her back – I was wrong. It happens from time to time ;)

The story is pretty easy to follow do to the simplicity of it. There is only one really big twist, though I was expecting a few more that never came.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book. I basically read it all at one time. It was really hard to put down, sort of addicting in a way. It really keeps you guessing as to what is next which makes you not want to put it down until it is finished.

4.5/5 stars

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Stranger Than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk

If you are familiar with Chuck’s work, you know that it is very bizarre and out of the ordinary.

If you are not familiar, well – he is the author of Fight Club.

Stranger Than Fiction is his collection of non-fiction essays. Most of them are about other people, but there is a section at the end that is all about his experiences.

Throughout the book, he gives clues as to what influenced some of his novels. He gets his inspiration from talking to people and hearing their stories. It is interesting to see what exactly influenced books that I have read.

That being said, some of the stories seemed a bit longer than they needed to be and they got a little slow at times.

There were also some very interesting ones. The ones that entertained me the most came from his own experiences and also the story about him talking to Marilyn Manson.

3/5 stars. It was interesting, but it did get a little slow at times. I guess every story isn’t for everyone. 

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Letters To Young Chong by Melanie Jo Moore

Letters to Young Chong is a memoir written by Melanie Jo Moore that is built on her friendship (well… sometimes friends, sometimes cousins…. Sometimes sisters) with Melissa Moore (no actual relation).

It has a very good flow to it by working in chronological order. Some memoirs can try to get too much information into one book and jump all over the place while losing the reader in the process. I did not find this to be the case here, although maybe the incredibly crazy stories had some hand in that haha.

This book takes you through the beginning of Melanie and Melissa’s friendship that began during their early school years when they would constantly be confused for one another due to their similar names. Melanie held quite a grudge over Melissa for this, and wasn’t very fond of her for a long time.

I guess that could be how all great friendships began.. or maybe they are just a very unique pairing. I will go with a mixture of both.

They grew up in a rural area and did not have much to do. So, obviously, this translates to them causing havoc everywhere they went.

Then the book jumps a little to when they are older.

You thought there was a lot of alcohol, boys, and trouble when they were in high school.. just wait until you continue reading.

This book is pretty long, but the length is also a bit deceiving. It has a very quick pace to it, so the length is actually pretty irrelevant. I read over half of it in one sitting.

Although this memoir is packed with crazy and hilarious stories, it also follows some rough topics as well including bad relationships and losing people close to you.

The writing is very good. It flows nicely, and the way Melanie writes interactions and descriptions of the people in the book, you can really visualize them and feel as if you know them a little bit.

Overall, it is actually pretty addicting once you pick it up. It is hard to stop reading while you are in the middle of it.

I am excited for the sequel!

4.5/5 stars

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Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson

If the last Alex Cross book failed to meet some of my expectations, this one met all of them plus some.

It seems that the more messed up the bad guys are, the better the book turns out to be.

One of the things I liked most about this one was that you are kept guessing about who the bad guys are, and one of them comes as a huge surprise.

Alex is making his transition from the Washington PD to the FBI. Of course, this does not come without some hardship. Alex is having a difficult time adjusting to how the FBI runs things and how they coordinate takedowns.

He decides he has to take charge at some times, but he is still new, so they don’t always listen to him.

As if the transition was not stressful enough, Christine returns and threatens to take away his son.

The Wolf runs a large ring of selling Americans for money. He employs kidnappers to take them and give them to the people who “order” them.

The thing is… no one knows who the Wolf is. He is a mystery man from Russia who is also in the Red Mafiya.

The Wolf has some connection to the FBI. I was waiting and waiting for this to be explained in this book, but it never was. The Wolf story line was not resolved either though, so I expect more to come out of it in the next book.

Also, just as I was praising the last book for showing us more John Sampson, this one hardly had him it in at all. You gain some, you lose some I suppose. There are still a lot of books in this series that I have to catch up on, so there is bound to be more about John later.

4.5/5 stars. More Sampson please!

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So Say the Waiters: Book 2 by Justin Sirois

This is a great book two in a series. There is no drop off in quality from the first book to this one. It complements the first book, and it starts right where it left off.

This book two gives readers more background information on kidnApp and how and why it was created. It goes into more detail about the founders including bringing forth a family relationship that was not known before.

Henry and Dani are back and are continuing their partnership in taking waiters. Henry is still not completely sold on the idea that he could do this as a job, but Dani’s enthusiasm keeps him going.

Their personalities balance each other out. Henry is very laid back and unsure of himself, while Dani is very outgoing and energetic. Carrying over from the first book, Henry is still whiney. I am curious to see if that continues as the series comes to a close, or if he becomes more confident in the job. I have the feeling that if either of them are going to mess up, it is going to be Henry.

As I was hoping, the story lines of Jess and Uly was continued, and they became way more relevant in this one. I was glad to see that since they were the only characters I didn’t really understand in the first book. Now, I am curious to see how they continue on as well.

I really liked the waiters that were introduced in this one. They were interesting. One is a reporter working on a story about the app, the other is a man with severe OCD. I was wondering how that take was going to work out, and I was really pleased with how it went.

The world of kidnApp seems like it is heating up with Haymaker going a little crazy towards the end to try to prove himself. I am looking forward to seeing how it affects the company.

As I started with, this was a great middle book. It tied up a few loose ends, gave some background information, and was open enough to make you look forward to reading the third one.

4.5/5 Stars

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Four Blind Mice by James Patterson

I was really back and forth on this book. So, I will explain both story lines.

Alex Cross and John Sampson:

This book gives more character development for John Sampson than any of the previous ones had. I really liked that. Usually he is only presented to us as Alex’s best friend/partner. But here we get to see a little bit into his personal life. It is a different side of John that we don’t normally get to see, and I would like to see more of.

Alex’s family life is evolving. Jamilla is becoming a larger part of his life and Nana Mama is getting older. It is going to be interesting to see how these two things impact the series as it progresses.

The Four Blind Mice:

The bad guys in this book were just kind of boring. You don’t figure out that they know who Alex is until the very end. I feel like this series is at its best when the killer(s) know Alex Cross is onto them and they are fighting against each other; The killer(s) fighting to keep their games going without Cross catching them, and Cross fighting to solve the cases.  They became more interesting at the end, but not enough to make up for the whole book.

These guys were not that interesting to me.

Overall, I DID enjoy the book. I feel like it is a good filler book in the series. The character progression for Alex and John were great, but where the book faltered was with the bad guys.

3.5/5 stars 

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