Review: Theodore The Neighbour's Cat: The Novel

Theodore The Neighbour's Cat: The Novel by J.S. Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a free copy of this book through BookSirens in exchange for an honest review.

This book had an interesting premise. I was rather nervous when I saw a disclaimer at the beginning of the book, but I am happy to report that there was nothing overly cringe worthy. I would have labeled this a DNF if there was graphic animal violence (as I look to my cat to make sure she's still there and comfy).

There are cute little cat facts after each chapter. One of the things I liked about this book was that as I was reading it kept prompting me to ask what my cat actually thinks about me. This is quick read as well. It's good for a fast suspense novel.

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Review: The Haunting of Beatrix Greene: Vol. 1

The Haunting of Beatrix Greene: Vol. 1 by Rachel Hawkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC Kindle edition of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a quick read. It is a good ghost/old haunted mansion story. While reading this book, I was getting images of the movie The Haunting, which is based on Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. While the story itself keeps you reading, things just... happen. For example the romance element. There is no development of the romance. The best analogy I can think of is the over dramatized parody shows where two characters scream at each other and then in a split second are "kissy faced" and all over each other.  

Now that I have finished this book, I find I need to go look for more ghost stories and creepy movies to watch. It really does put you into that kind of mood.

The book I read consists if nine "episodes," but it is labeled as Vol 1 on Goodreads and appears to be part of a series on Amazon's site (ASIN : B08FJJ9252). If this is going to be a series, I really look forward to where this character's story will take us.

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Review: The Hollow Places

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC Kindle edition of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If it is possible for a book to be creepy, dark, weird, and funny all at the same time, then this is the book. This book started with a bang, but after a while it did start to drag on. During the first half of the book I would have said, "Loved. It." By the end, the feeling was more like "It was ok."

Unfortunately, the book was a little predictable. What kept me going was to see how everything connected. Even though this was my first book by the author, I would definitely try another.

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Review: Christmas Ever After

Christmas Ever After by Karen Schaler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC Kindle edition of this book through a Goodreads Giveaway. The expected publication date for this is September 29, 2020.

Normally, ARCs are uncorrected copies so there are mistakes a-plenty, but this was an ARC through Goodreads and by extension through Amazon (it shows up as an Amazon order) for the Kindle. There were no updates available for this book through the Manage Content menu, so I really hope that this goes through another round of editing before publication. Because it was supposed to be an ARC, I disregarded the errors when considering the rating.

This book is cute. There are two recipes in the back. I would have loved the mulled wine and hot chocolate recipes, though. They sounded so good and relaxing. This book is supposed to be a romance, but I didn't really feel the connection. <spoiler>This book focused so much on Riley and her ex-boyfriends, it did not really leave room for Riley and Luke's relationship to develop. It just happens.</spoiler> This is a cozy and fast read, though.

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Review: The Cookbook Club: A Novel of Food and Friendship

The Cookbook Club: A Novel of Food and Friendship by Beth Harbison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book through a Goodreads Giveaway.

I really loved the book. The last few books I have read required me to pay close attention to every detail. It was really nice to read a fun, quick read that did not require too much thought.

I do wish the women had more interactions with each other, though. The book is broken down by month and at the end of the month there are notes from Trista about recipes and observations about the other two even when there was nothing about that month's meeting written. The majority of the book focuses on their stories individually rather than as a group/book club. On occasion their stories intertwine, but not nearly as much as I was expecting.

I still really enjoyed the book, though. This is a good kick-it-back, rainy weather read.

There are a couple recipes in the back that I am looking forward to trying. The chicken pot pie fritters sound great now that fall is finally here.

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Review: Black Sun

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC Kindle edition of this book from NetGalley.

If you are not familiar with neopronouns (gender neutral pronouns), this book uses them constantly. Specifically xe and xir. This is the first book I have ever read that uses them, so I found it confusing at first. Once I got beyond that, the book was actually very good.

The book is told through multiple points of view and is a fast read. The acknowledgments have a list of books that inspired the author for this. I am definitely going to check them out to see what she pulled from each culture as this book was based on pre-Columbian cultures.

I cannot wait for the next book.

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Review: Stormrage

Stormrage by Richard A. Knaak
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I play World of Warcraft and with Shadowlands coming out soon, I am working on reading more of the lore of the Warcraft Universe. I did a chunk before Legion, but I am still behind (clearly). Yes, I am one of the nerdy people with a chronological check list. I am focusing more on the novels than the comics, manga, and short stories at the moment. It's somewhat difficult to read them on a Kindle Paperwhite.

I had a hard time getting through this one. It felt like it would never end. I have read other Knaak books and enjoyed them immensely (Zayl and Humbart, anyone?), but this was not his best. By the end of the book I was starting to cringe with the overuse of 3 words: knew, understood, and aware.
Every other paragraph had some of variation of "character immediately understood" or "character knew the source."

I am not a writer nor an expert in grammar, so most of the time I am not even aware of sentence structure or bad writing. All I ask for is a fun story that can take me out of reality for a while. Unfortunately, those sentence variations were so over used that I felt as though the same sentence (or its variation) was copy and pasted every few sentences. By the end of the book I was almost skimming paragraphs just to end the repetition.

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