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

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Book Review Wednesday: Anna Dressed in Blood (5 stars)

Maybe you’ve heard of this one. It’s got a creepy looking cover with a girl in a blood soaked dress.

Cool looking huh? Now there is some gore in it, but overall I’d say this isn’t that much of a scary book. You might disagree. Remember I’ve read a lot of stephen king, so your definition of creepy may differ from mine.

Here’s the blurb:

Cas Lowood, armed with his late father’s athame knife, kills ghosts. In Thunder Bay, Anna, forever 16, drips blood on her white dress from throat slit in 1958, and rips apart anyone who enters her house – except Cas. He makes new friends – high school queen Carmel, jock Will, admiring nerd Thomas and Tom’s voodoo grandpa Morfran – to fight this demon.

Full disclosure here: why did I choose to read this book? Because it reminded me of the television show supernatural which I love. If you love love love some supernatural then get this book. You’ll enjoy it. I mean it has this guy called Cas, who by the way is nothing like that wonderful angel, but makes up for it by basically being a younger version of Dean. Go read the preview and see if you agree with me. He sounds so much like Dean Winchester. For the first few chapters my mind kept going ‘Dean, why are you calling yourself Cas? Do you miss him that much?’

Now, the book does have a couple issues. There is a vibe of insta love going on. And our Cas/Dean protag does spend a large amount of the book dealing with teenage problems. The whole ‘I don’t need friends, I’m a badass ghost hunter’ kind of thing. And I felt some of the adults – particually grandpa Morfran – were less fleshed out. It was a little like those kid shows, where the adults drift in when they’re needed and then conviently disapear into the background.

Saying that, I think the mother was done well. She knew her son had to do this, that if she didn’t help he would sneak off and kill ghosts anyway. She helped where she could, and worried when she couldn’t. I’ve read a couple reviews that shun her for not grounding him, but I think she did what she could. She didn’t want to lose her son. I can understand that.

Now my favourite character of all was Thomas. Think Xander from the television show buffy when he was all shy. (There’s also a Giles like character who helps with research.) Thomas was just so darn cute. All plucky and determined, and then a girl walks up and he’s blushing and falling over himself.

The plot wasn’t bad. There’s a decent amount of action here. One big twist near the end, but not much in the way of twistiness before that. For me it was like watching a television show (more like Buffy than supernatural). The plot was good, but not brilliant, but that didn’t matter because it was the characters that made me stick around. There were some hefty loose threads by the end, but there is a sequal that might explain those.

So if you like Buffy, or Supernatural then go read it. And as always here are some more reviews if you aren’t convinced: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9378297-anna-dressed-in-blood