Book Review Wednesday: Anna’s Adventures (The Sarah Milton Chronicles)

This one is a short read, but definitely worth it if you liked the humor in the Sarah Milton Chronicle books – which by the way I wholeheartedly recommend. It’s an expansion of events mentioned in the second book which were only mentioned in passing. And it’s really really funny.

Link to my review of the first book: https://samaustinwriter.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/book-review-wednesday-reading-the-dead-5-stars/

Link to my review of the second book: https://samaustinwriter.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/book-review-wednesday-reading-the-dead-fidelis-in-aeternum-4-stars/

The humor of the series reminds me of Buffy. Some may see something different in it, but that’s how I view it. Now I know there are those who hate buffy humor with a passion, in which case this may not be up your street. For my fellow buffy fans who have not read these books, click on the above link to read my review of the first book in this series.

By this paragraph I’m going to assume you guys still reading this have read at least one of the Sarah Milton books and know what I’m talking about. If not prepare for confusion.

Anna gets the front seat in these stories. The first is her point of view of the night the “Fancy Dress Killer” almost killed Sarah. This was mentioned in the first book and detailed pretty explicitly in the second, so not much new here. Still was interesting to see Anna’s side of things though.

The second story is the real prize. This one takes place during Sarah’s dad’s wedding which was mentioned in passing in the second book. It’s kind of like Casper meets Home Alone, and this one was hilarious.

Two criminals have the bright idea to infiltrate the wedding to try and steal money from the house while the guests are busy shedding tears over the vows. Anna just so happens to spot them and takes it upon herself to teach them a lesson.

This was pure unadulterated fun, so don’t expect anything serious from that story and you’ll enjoy it.

For more reviews on this book go to: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20693234-anna-s-adventures

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Book Review Wednesday: Reading the Dead (5 stars)

Here’s the blurb:

While investigating the brutal murders committed by a mysterious serial killer known only as “Raithe,” bookish LAPD Detective Sarah Milton is unprepared to have her entire world turned upside down. Innate powers to see the dead, lying dormant since her mother’s murder, have reawakened in her after a near-fatal shooting. Along for the ride is Sarah’s irrepressible thirteen-year-old childhood “imaginary friend,” Anna Nigma, a most atypical poltergeist. Amid fears for her sanity, Sarah must come to grips with the realization that her reality is now a mix of the natural and supernatural, where powerful, ancient mystic symbols can grant amazing powers over life and death, and paranormal influence extends even into her current murder investigation. Forced to hide her abilities from everyone, Sarah, aided by her spectral friend, has no choice but to bring Raithe to justice on her own, before the sinister forces behind his murder spree claim yet another victim.

Wow is what I thought. I was given a copy to read and review, so since I didn’t go out and get this from a best seller list I was open to the possibility that I might not like this book.

Wrong. I loved it. About the only complaint I had was a minor thing about possibly too much telling rather than showing at the start, and the motivation for the murders seeming obvious to me, but I think those are my quirks. I’m the sort that can tell a twist is coming a mile away, and that in no way stopped me from enjoying it. I’m also an author in the middle of taking an editing class, so I see holes in everything.

Saying that, this book had very few holes. I loved the relationship between Sarah and Anna, and was on the edge of my seat when I knew Anna was about to make her appearance. It was a nice mystery story-line, decent amount of twists, nice action, good thread of romance that didn’t take away from the main plot, and most of all great humor. I definitely saw the influence of Joss Wheldon in play, but again the humor was played right, not taking away from tension when it needed to be tense.

The descriptions were very vivid. I found myself halfway through thinking this would make a great movie because I could see it so clearly in my head. Not sure if that will happen since movies out lately seem to pick the most angst ridden books, but we can hope. Maybe a tv series. It has that sort of vibe.

Anyway. The major problem I had with this book I noticed a third of the way through (but I’m sure I just didn’t notice it earlier), I couldn’t put it down. I had work to do. I had sleep to do, but no, I wanted to see what happened next. What funny thing would Anna do next? Would Sarah’s coworkers find out? What trouble is Sarah going to land herself into next time?

Then it was over, gone, but unlike other books I wasn’t overwhelmed with sadness because the author was nice enough to give a satisfying conclusion. That said, I do want to read the next one and I will be looking out for what the author writes next.

Seriously, check this one out. It’s by an indie author and only has 36 ratings on goodreads. That’s a tragedy for such an great thriller / humor novel. More people need to read this book and spread the word! It’s just so funny and awesome, and everything I could wish a book to be.

Here’s the link to other reviews on this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17450007-reading-the-dead

Book Review Wednesday: Warm Bodies (4 stars)

Another zombie one. Yup, it’s a bit of a theme. I love a good zombie book.

This one is different to the usual zombie books I go for. It’s a zombie humor novel. Sounds a little odd, right? Humor is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of zombies. It’s a good one though, take a look at the blurb:

‘R’ is a zombie. He has no name, no memories and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.

Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows – warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can’t understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins.

This has never happened before. It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave. He wants to breathe again, he wants to live, and Julie wants to help him. But their grim, rotting world won’t be changed without a fight…

What you may or may not pick up from this is that this book is essentially a modern version of Romeo and Juliet (look at the names), except Romeo is a zombie, and Juliet is a girl he almost kills. I’m not sure whether I like that fact or not. I think it could cope without it.

Anyways, this one did have some major flaws. The plot was slow, and for a zombie book there wasn’t much action. This is definitely more of a humor / romance than a ‘die die zombie book.’ That’s not a bad thing, but there were a few areas where there could have been a bit more action before everything was wrapped up (like near the end). The plot points that were there were also rather convenient and fluffy.

What made this book 4 stars for me, instead of 3 or 2 was the humor. I chuckled way too much reading this to give it a low rating. And despite my logical mind wanting to poke at the plot holes caused by the rather fluffy reason why R is so changed (like why the heck this hasn’t happened before), I kind of liked the candy coated idea that *Spoilers* (love can conquer all, including death).

So my advise: read an extract and see if the humor appeals to you. If so, give this one a go. Link to more reviews for this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7619057-warm-bodies

Book Review Wednesday: Hold Me Closer Necromancer (4 stars)

If I were to describe this book in one word, I’d say ‘funny.’ The humor is dark in places, but it’s also got geek references and song lyrics. And it made me laugh. That’s important.

Now, the summary:

Sam leads a pretty normal life. He may not have the most exciting job in the world, but he’s doing all right—until a fast food prank brings him to the attention of Douglas, a creepy guy with an intense violent streak.

Turns out Douglas is a necromancer who raises the dead for cash and sees potential in Sam. Then Sam discovers he’s a necromancer too, but with strangely latent powers. And his worst nightmare wants to join forces . . . or else. 

With only a week to figure things out, Sam needs all the help he can get. Luckily he lives in Seattle, which has nearly as many paranormal types as it does coffee places. But even with newfound friends, will Sam be able to save his skin?

Sam was a great character. For one thing he’s got an awesome name.  He’s a good guy who loves his family and friends. We like a good guy. He’s also flawed, being the kind of guy who hates confrontation, is no good at sports, and has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth. Subtlety, he admits is not his strong suit.

He also has some great inner dialogue. Here’s a couple examples that made me laugh:

“There were no windows in my bedroom, so I had to sit up and read my clock to figure out how angry I should be at my visitor. Eight A.M. I hated whoever woke me up. Had they come an hour earlier, I would have also hated their families and any household pets.”

“She whistled when she noticed my back. I assume because of my injuries. I mean, my ass just isn’t that spectacular.”

“Next time a talking head ended up in my easy chair, I would have all sorts of points of reference, but at that moment, I was completely at sea.”

The humor reminded me a little of Buffy the vampire slayer at times. Lots of geek humor. I like geek humor.

As for why I didn’t give it five stars, there were flaws. The plot was a little slow and clunky at times. There were also some plot holes. Sam finds something about his past, but decides not to ask his mother about it until a good way through the book. This didn’t make sense to me. Sure he didn’t want to bother her, but it was life or death kind of stuff. It felt forced.

Next, there was a bit of insta-love. I hate insta-love. But it only took up a very small part of the book, so wasn’t that bad. It didn’t stop me from enjoying the story, just annoyed me. If you really hate insta-love don’t worry too much about it. It’s only on a couple of pages.

Overall though, I loved it. One of my favorite reads this year. I’d say if you’re a fan of geek humor then definitely give it a spin. Happy reading.

And as always here’s the link to more reviews if you’re still pondering: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8041873-hold-me-closer-necromancer