Book Review: The Collapse

What else could the dead rising be other than a sick joke? Karen Gallagher is a mother, a wife, and a scientist, and her past is catching up to her. As the world falls victim to a viral pandemic, Karen struggles to keep her daughter safe, forced to turn to the people who burned her all while harboring an awful secret. Modern science is meant to progress humanity, and scientists dare to cross boundaries seemingly impassable, but when Anne White's unethical and immoral experiment to cure the incurable goes awry and is shut down, Clinical Pathologist Frank Eastman secretly takes the project into his own hands, accidentally releasing a bioengineered chimera virus that not only spreads like wildfire and kills its victims, it reanimates them, turning them into voracious flesh-eating husks of their former selves. Karen Gallagher only wants to do right by her family, and when horrible news and videos air of crazed people attacking others, her husband convinces her they have nothing to worry about, but what else is she supposed to think when a man who was shot multiple times gets up, unfazed by his wounds, to attack the officers who gunned him down? Karen knows all too well there's more to this story, and her only goal now is to keep her seven-year-old daughter safe. Told from dual perspectives, The Collapse follows the how of a zombie outbreak, taking you on a heart-wrenching journey of familial love.

Book Review: Welcome to Opine

Nine billion years into the future, the rogue planet Earth is captured by a blue dwarf star in another galaxy, eventually culminating in the rise of Homo Sapiens 2.0. Imagine a member of the ancient humans had buried deep in the earth a quantum computer containing a vast, digitized compendium of humankind’s history and achievements, all preserved within petabytes of quantum memory. This new human civilization, calling their planet Opine and themselves the Opinions, the first “i” pronounced with a long vowel, were granted the valuable benefit of hindsight. After spending decades studying “Ancient” history, the Opinions endeavored to expunge selfishness from the human genome through a genetic therapy called the Self Suppressor. But what happens when one person develops a natural resistance to the therapy? Would he then represent a threat to the gene pool? Will the Opinions be able to correct this genetic anomaly, or perhaps adapt it, in the interest of regaining a sacrificed part of their humanity? One voice may know the answer. The voice of the man who originally buried the quantum computer billions of years ago…

Book Review: Merchants of Knowledge and Magic

On one of the many planes of the Pentagonal Dominion, priestess Calinthe trades in information, collecting valuable secrets for her demonic employer. Calinthe has a secret of her own: she's intersex, making her a target for the matriarchal slavers of the Ophidian Plane whose territory she must cross in her search for hidden knowledge. But thanks to her friend Zakuro's illusions, Calinthe presents as a woman—a comfortable, if furtive, existence in a world determined to bring her to heel. But when, instead of a mere secret, the priestess uncovers an incalculably powerful artifact, Calinthe finds herself in a high-stakes negotiation with the same matriarchs who sought to enslave her. On the table: Calinthe's discovery, a charm powerful enough to transform a mortal into a god… against a secret so deadly it could quell all life on every plane of the dominion. If Calinthe plays her cards perfectly, she and Zakuro could escape Ophidia wealthier than either of them ever dreamed possible. But if she plays them wrong… she'll learn slavery in her pursuers' hands is a fate far worse than death.

Book Review: Bloody Spade

A girl full of heart A thief touched by darkness A hot-tempered golden boy An unwitting servant of evil The era of magic was once thought to be a myth, but after the Reemergence ushered forces both dark and light into the mundane world, it has since become a harsh reality. Now those affected by this strange power—a specialized group of Empowered called Jokers, known collectively as Cardplay—must protect their world from the darkness that threatens to consume it, all the while fighting for equality in a society clinging to normalcy. But the Reemergence was only the beginning. When another influx occurs on the seventh anniversary of that fateful event, an unfortunate encounter at ground zero lands Iori Ryone, a teenage boy in possession of a corrupt and legendary magic, in the care of recent Joker graduate Ellen Amelia Jane. From him, she learns the Reemergence may not have been the inevitable natural disaster it first seemed. Someone is trying to tear down the barrier that separates the magical realms from the mundane. The question is why, and can Cardplay stop them before it’s too late?

Book Review: The Inconvenient God

What happens if you try to retire a god who is not ready to leave? An official from the Ministry of Divinity arrives at a university to decommission a local god. She is expecting an easy decommissioning of a waning god of mischief but finds instead an active god not interested in retiring and university administrators who have not told her the full story about the god. Can the Decommisioner discover the true story of this god in time to prevent his most destructive round of mischief yet?

Book Review: Swan Peak

The Wolfe is hungry for more… Entranced by the exquisite delights of the passionate lifestyle introduced to her by William Wolfe, April Ekdahl eagerly joins him on a luxurious winter holiday at his alpine estate. But as she opens her mind to unfathomable new experiences, April finds her heart aching as deep fractures in her prince’s façade are revealed. Despite the demons that still haunt her, William accepts her. But will he allow her to embrace his darkness in return?

Book Review: Carnal Knowledge

What do you do when you know you’re on a serial killer’s hit list? Six women are dead, and Wren Addison is the next victim on the SMS Killer’s list—or so she’s been told after waking in a pool of blood with no memory of the events that have transpired.

Book Review: The Silent Patient

Alicia is the title of this novel, "the silent patient." She murdered her husband and has not spoken since, not even to defend herself in court. As such, she has been ordered into a psych hospital to undergo treatment. Theo, our protagonist in this tale, just so happens to be a psychotherapist--and one that took on the job at the very hospital that Alicia is in, specifically to treat Alicia. So he can help her to see clearly. The rest of the novel follows these two as Theo tries to help Alicia come to terms with her husband's death--and her part in it--and deals with his own marital problems. 

Book Review: Knight in Paper Armor

A beautifully written YA book about a young boy, ostracized from everyone else and who has powers unimaginable, and who is saved by the confident, brave young girl he meets at school. Billy Jakobek isn't like other children--he lives as a kind of science experiment, his very existence a mystery. Natalia Gonzalez is a Guatemalan immigrant working hard to keep her family whole and well, and her life is turned upside down when she meets the strange new boy. Will their friendship and developing relationship survive what's coming?

Book Review: No Country for Old Men

I originally picked this book up because I wanted to read a "modern classic." I'd read The Road and loved it, so I decided why not? (I also needed a book that started with "N" for my A to Z Reading Challenge in 2020) Normally, not my first pick as I don't care too much for crime novels, especially cowboy-esque ones. BUT this was worth the read! I ended up finishing it off in 2 straight days. I'll spare the summary, because the blurb tells all you need to know without giving anything away.