Review: A Song for the Dying

A Song for the Dying by Stuart MacBride
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Stuart MacBride has been a favourite author since I picked up Cold Granite, the first of his Logan McRae books. At present, I’m still playing catch up. Despite not being up to date, I adore the series. It has earned a place in my favourite police procedural series. Due to this, I was eager to see what else MacBride has to offer. Thus, I picked up the two Ash Henderson books that are currently on the market. I enjoyed the first one, but it was no Logan McRae novel. Nevertheless, I was excited to see where things would go. After all, that ending left me curious as to what would come next.

Personally, I enjoyed this book more than I enjoyed the first. Both books were a lot of fun, yet I was pulled into this one much quicker. I think a part of it was because I’d already come to love the characters. As fun as they are, they take a bit of getting used to. The characters in the Logan McRae series pull you in from the first moment, yet the characters in the Ash Henderson novels are not so easy to love. You come to enjoy them the more you read of them, and having already finished the first book I knew what to expect with this one.

Plus, as I said, that ending.

The first book left you with a big question of what would come next. Considering all that had happened, I wasn’t sure where things would be going in this book. As always, though, MacBride delivers. He gives us a story that ticks all the boxes: wonderful criminal aspect, fun characters, and a story that moves everything forward in a great way. I promise not to say too much about how the story moves forward, just know it was great progress for all the characters.

As always, the criminal aspect was a lot of fun. It has everything you need in a gritty crime novel. There are multiple layers to the story, with everything being interconnected in a great way. Every piece of information that is given to you plays an important part. You’re constantly left with questions, curious about motives and alibis. You think you know what is happening, who is to blame, yet something new will be thrown your way to leave you unsure as to whether or not you have worked everything out. Whilst the first Ash Henderson book wasn’t as pulled together as it could have been, this second book is back to what MacBride usually delivers. It gives us all we can ask for.

I still missed the dark humour, though.

As I said with the first book, that’s just me. I enjoy the laughter of the Logan McRae books a lot more than is probably expected of people. As the Ash Henderson books merely offer up occasional smiles, I feel as though we’re missing the usual MacBride trademark. Admittedly, there were more smiles in this book than the first, but it still missed out on all the laughter of the Logan McRae books. I said it when reviewing the first book, though: this isn’t a bad thing. It’s just different, and you grow to accept it. I know that for the real laughter I go for his Logan McRae books, whereas for the questionable main character I go for his Ash Henderson books.

As a whole, I enjoyed this one more than the first. The Logan McRae books still hold the favourite MacBride series spot, but this series is more than worth a read if you love the darker main characters.

View all my reviews

Review: Birthdays for the Dead

Birthdays for the Dead by Stuart MacBride
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I adore Stuart MacBride’s Logan McRae series, so it should come as no surprise to know I jumped at his Ash Henderson series with a lot of expectations. Fortunately, the male did not disappoint. Whilst I favour his Aberdonian detective, I certainly had fun with this new character.

In his Logan McRae books, Stuart MacBride demonstrates how he was more than capable of throwing in all the things you would expect to find in a gritty crime novel. Suspense. Intrigue. Mystery. Wonderful characters. Questionable motives. The darkness of humanity. For me, however, this introduction to the world of Ash Henderson was missing one vital aspect: the dark humour. The Logan McRae series have me laughing endlessly, earning me many questionable looks, whereas I merely smirked a couple of times with this one. Truthfully, I missed the humour. Of course, this is not a bad thing. The book was still a lot of fun. But I really did miss his brilliant humour, I missed the characters that left me chuckling at the book in public.

The lack of dark humour, though, is replaced by a different kind of darkness. Ash Henderson is far from the detective McRae is. I’d love to see how the two of them would interact, would love to see what would happen if they crossed paths, as they’re two very different people. McRae is the good cop to Henderson’s bad cop. Ash Henderson is a much darker person, we really get to see the extremes people will go to when their world is spinning out of control. I adored this. Honestly, it was great. There was such inner turmoil with our main character meaning he was a much darker read than McRae. McRae is a brilliant character for so many reasons, and none of these reasons apply as to why Henderson is a brilliant character. There are so many different reasons for why Henderson is a great character, mostly watching him toe the line between good and bad makes the book worth it. He really is a great character to read.

That aside, it did take much longer to get into this story than usual. The Logan McRae books pull you in from the get-go, whereas this book seemed to drag a bit at first. I wasn’t as pulled in. The criminal storyline was a lot of fun, but I felt as though there was far too much going on at once. Usually, MacBride is brilliant at having multiple aspects of a story occurring at once, but with this one it felt a little bit clumsy. It felt as though he was trying to do too many things at once, and didn’t refine it as much as he usually does.

Overall, it was a great read. It was more than enough to ensure I will be continuing on with his Ash Henderson series. That being said, as enjoyable as it was, it was not quite the mind-blowing read you are usually given in the Logan McRae series. More than worth it, without a doubt, but not his best.

View all my reviews

Review: The Art of Persuasion

The Art of Persuasion by Heather C. Myers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Art of Persuasion is the fourth book in the Swashbuckling Romance series, although you should know that you can read each book as a standalone. None of the books are linked. Each book tells an individual story. The only thing connecting the books is the theme: they are all pirate themed stories.

Heather C. Myers loves her pirate stories. If you’re a fan of pirate romances, then you should certainly pick one up. Mostly I have read her paranormal stories, enjoying the spin she usually puts on the paranormal world. Thus, it’s nice to read something different. It is nice to take a slight break from the paranormal work I usually read by her and pick up something else.

Not that this book is completely free of the paranormal. There is a slight aspect, as you can probably guess from the whole going back in time detail. Mostly, though, it’s free of the paranormal. This is just another one of her thrilling pirate stories.

For me, this book had a brilliant main character. I love it when characters in romance books are against love, when persuasion is necessary for them to accept their feelings. Whilst things moved a little bit too quickly for my liking, with the main character changing their view easier than I would have expected of someone with her viewpoints, it was a refreshing read when she was initially stating her views on the matter of love. In fact, there were quite moments in the story where I found myself enjoying her viewpoints.

The story, however, felt as though it was a bit lacking. I feel as though events were glossed over, to some degree. In the author’s other books the action aspect of the story has been played out, we got to experience the fun of the chase and the mission impossible aspects. With this one, the events are skipped over. We’re told events are to happen, or they have happened, but we are not given the details. This disappointed me, if I’m honest. I feel as though there was a lot of fun to be had if we watched the action play out, rather than simply being told such has happened.

Overall, though, it was a fun read. Personally, I believe this to be one of her best-written pieces of work. Whilst not my favourite of her books when it comes to the story, the voice of the main character really brought things to life.

As a final note, I would like to thank Heather C. Myers for allowing me to advance read this.

View all my reviews

Review: The Shadow Queen

The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is another of those books that pulled me in through the whole ‘fairy-tale retelling’ aspect.

I love retellings, have done for some time. Originally the prospect of such stories terrified me, mainly because I knew how they would end, yet I have read so many with wonderful twists that the fear no longer grasps me. Thus, I was excited to read this one. It sounded a lot like some other books in the genre, yet there seemed to be some originality in place.

Plus, dragons. I cannot say no to dragons.

Truthfully, the dragons were my favourite thing about the book.

The story was a decent enough read, yet for some reason I could never really get into it. Things felt too slow, things seemed too forced. Mainly, I failed to grow attached to any of the characters. They existed, yet I did not feel anything for them. I was watching their world play out but I didn’t care what happened to people. If I’m to enjoy a book, I need to feel some kind of connection to the characters. It didn’t help that the author seemed to be trying too hard when it came to making us feel things towards characters. Following multiple characters can be fun, yet the way it would flicker between them meant I never really understood them as well as I could have. At least with some of the characters, due to some being more fleshed out than others.

It wasn’t all bad, though. There were some moments where I considered giving four stars. This was mainly when the action was happening. At these points I was interested enough to find myself completely submerged in the story. I wanted to continue, I had no wish to be distracted by the world around me. However, these moments were few and far between. Hence the three star rating. There really wasn’t enough for me to give a full four stars. There wasn’t quite enough for me to round up to the four stars, either. To counteract how I spent a lot of my time disinterested, there needed to be a lot more action.

Overall, it was an okay read. However, it is far from being my favourite fairy-tale retelling. Part of me wishes to read the next one, if only because of whose tale is being retold, but after reading this one I won’t be going out of my way to do so.

View all my reviews

Review: The Witch's Kiss

The Witch's Kiss by Katharine Corr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m a big fan of fairy-tale retellings. I was tentative about the notion to begin with, unsure whether I would be able to get into such things considering how I would know the endings beforehand, yet I have quickly found myself addicted to such books. Whenever I find out something is a fairy-tale retelling, I find myself a little bit more eager to read the story. Thus, when I found out The Witch’s Kiss was a Sleeping Beauty retelling with a twist I knew I needed to get in there.

I would have been reading the book anyway, as my sister brought it. I always take her views of books with a pinch of salt, but she said this was a good one. It wasn’t her favourite book, but she came to really enjoy it. In fact, I ended up listening to far too many exclamations of enjoyment as she worked her way through the book. I was told to read it as soon as she was done. I considered leaving it for a while, yet the whole fairy-tale thing convinced me to do as my sister asked.

It wasn’t all bad – it was an interesting story – and yet it wasn’t what I had hoped it would be.

There are a lot of the usual clichés to be seen in this story, but there is just enough variety to prevent it from being an exact replica of other young adult books in the genre. We have the usual special snowflake, we have a far from perfect family dynamic, we have the romance set out to fail, we have the historical aspect going way back when, and we have a couple of the other usual young adult checkbox necessities. Despite all of this, it did have some unique spins on these things.

The special snowflake knew about their magic, preventing the drama of ‘oh no, I’m a witch’. This time the character knows in advance and it is very refreshing. In all honesty, I don’t think I could deal with another situation where we have to deal with the shock of finding out they’re the one to save the world when they don’t even know about their powers. Yes, there was some aspects of the cliché, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been through the main character having prior knowledge.

The family dynamic had a massive saving grace: Leo. I would gladly read a book based entirely upon his character. Truthfully, he was my favourite character of the entire book. We all want a big brother just like him. He can be annoying, but he is always there for his sister. If I’m being honest, I feel as though he was the most fleshed out character in the book. There was more depth to him than any of the other characters. My only complaint is that he wasn’t in the book enough. He was deserving of so many more scenes. Honestly, he made the book more than worth it.

The romance set out to fail wasn’t forced on us as much as it could have been. I really appreciate it. I hate it when every other line is sickeningly sweet. The romance did exist in this one, but it wasn’t blinding. I’m really grateful for this. I never came to enjoy it, and there were the usual problems to be found in these kinds of books, yet the fact it was never made the centre point of the story saved it from being really annoying.

The historical aspect going way back when was really interesting, given more time than I expected it to. The characters in the past were given almost as much attention as those in the modern world. This allowed the two time frames to weave together wonderfully. I had expected there to be the odd reference to the past here and there, whereas we were given entire chapters where things played out. It made everything much easier to understand, creating a more fleshed out story.

As I said, despite the clichés there were many decent aspects of the story. Nevertheless, I couldn’t quite bring myself to give the story four stars. I felt as though the action was rather lacking, the story was too slow at times, characters weren’t as fleshed out as they could have been, and I was left wanting more than I was given. Plus, it didn’t really feel like much of a Sleeping Beauty retelling. Not in the way I had expected, anyway.

It was an interesting tale, yet I wanted just a little bit more.

View all my reviews

Review: Every Dead Thing

Every Dead Thing by John Connolly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’d been looking forward to this one for the longest of times. John Connolly is one of those authors I’ve always been telling myself to pick up. His Charlie Parker series, in particular, screamed out to me. It seemed right up my street: mystery and a supernatural element. It had ‘you will love this’ written all over it. I was expecting a series I would be addicted to, one I would find impossible to put down.

Unfortunately, I had a lot of difficulty reading Every Dead Thing.

It started off with promise. We’re introduced to our main character through a pivotal point in their life, the moment where everything falls apart. It goes without saying that I loved such a thing. I adore seeing characters at their darkness moments, watching as they’re put in situations that will make or break them. Thus, starting in darkness was a lot of fun.

After that, though, things quickly went downhill. It seemed to take forever before the story built up any real speed, before there was any real action. There was a lot going on, with there being stories within the story, yet I felt as though nothing much actually happened. Things moved forward but I never felt like anything was happening. In fact, for a lot of the book, I simply felt as though information was being thrown at me rather than the characters doing anything.

I think the biggest example of this is the way every character introduced seemed to have countless pages of biography. I understand finding out about characters, I adore it when characters have depth, but I dislike it when we’re given countless pages of information. It brings the main story to a halt and it makes things feel far too chunky. I prefer to be given the information over time, rather than a big history in the middle of events. Due to this, I feel as though any emotions that could have been brought to the forefront were put on hold as I came to understand who the character was.

This, however, was just a personal thing. I believe it could have been done so much better, and the way it happen merely made it difficult for me to get into the story. That isn’t to say it was a badly written piece of work – the writing was fine, I had no flaws with the writing itself – it was merely the way the story was told.

Moreover, I was somewhat disappointed by the supernatural element of the story. I had convinced myself that there was going to be a lot of supernatural elements to the story, with the crime and paranormal aspects working together. Since reading this one, I have found out that the paranormal elements slowly build throughout the books. Nevertheless, I had been expecting something more from this one. I’d been ready for spooks and bumps in the night. Instead, there was a tiny paranormal element. In fact, this paranormal element reminded me a lot of Stephen King’s The Stand, minus the end of the world aspect. Due to this, I found myself drifting more than I should have been.

Overall, this one was not what I had been hoping for. I went in ready for something mind blowing, a series I would bulk read. What I found, however, is a series I’m unlikely to continue. Sometimes I give three star books another try, willing to continue on with the series, but when it comes to this one I’m really not that eager to see what comes next. I truly am disappointed by what I was given.

View all my reviews

Review: Joyland

Joyland by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have the most complicated relationship with Stephen King books. There is this weird love hate thing going on, something more intense than what I share with any other author. Some authors I will pick up all of their books because I adore their work. Some authors I will avoid like the plague because I cannot bring myself to enjoy their work no matter how hard I try. Stephen King, however, is different. King’s books fall upon a spectrum. It’s a rather complicated spectrum, whereby he has earned every possible rating for a book, and yet I continue to pick up his stories. I never know whether I’m going to get something wonderful or whether I’m going to get something that will leave me wanting to ignore his books for the rest of my life. As I’ve had both, I’m always tentative when I enter his books.

Thus, when I entered Joyland, I was unsure was to what I was going to get.

Would I be receiving a Misery, one of my five star King reads? In these five star reads Stephen Kings creates something wonderful, showing us why pretty much every person has a King novel on their bookshelf. These are the books that let you know why he is such a big name.

Would I be getting a four star read, where things get more complicated? Complicated as there are high and low four star ratings. The high ratings go to the likes of Pet Semetary and Under the Dome. High four star books really grip you but they’re lacking in some of the things which made the five star books. The low four star books belong to the likes of The Shining and Doctor Sleep. I’ve found in such cases it is the writing that lets them down. Stephen King can create a truly wonderful story (in most cases) but his writing style is very far from being my favourite. What often leaves me giving low four star ratings is when the story blows my mind but the writing style isn’t quite up to his better standards. For example, The Shining would have been a five star book for me had it not been one of my earlier King books when I was in the stage of comparing his writing to better authors.

Would I get a three star read? The three star books generally sit in the middle. Either they’re great ideas with the poorer writing or they’re his better writing with poorer ideas. So we’re split down the middle with the three star books – hence why his short story collections are so often three star books as in these we’re given the mixed bag of goodies.

Would it be a two star read? The two star books are the ones where the story leaves me wanting so much more. Take Gerald’s Game and Dolores Claiborne. I kept waiting for something to happen and it never really did. There was the odd thing here or there to remind us that it was a King book yet for the most part time is wasted by reading theses.

Would I get a one star read? Sadly, there are the single star books. I should point out that I hate giving single stars to books. Authors have taken the time to create something and whilst it may not be my cup of tea a book is something to be proud of. Alas, sometimes I dislike books so much that I have to hand off just a single star. For King, Dreamcatcher falls into this category. The single star goes to those where I want nothing more for the story to end, where I’m unsure why I tormented myself by finishing the book. It’s repetitive stuff. It’s ‘so boring it took me days to read’ stuff.

I know these ratings will be argued by some people, but for me that is how King works: you either receive something mind blowing or you are left feeling as though you want to blow your brains out. Thus, I was on edge as to what Joyland would give me.

Surprisingly, I was given a four star read. A high four star read. Truthfully, I had not expected as much. The synopsis left me fearful that the book would be somewhat drab. It had potential, yet I was unsure how a book so short could fulfil as much as was being promised. Boy oh boy, was I wrong. This book was great. It wasn’t what I was expecting, not at all, and yet it gave me so much more than I had ever imagined it could.

I’m sure you recall that scene from Shrek where they talk about onions and all the layers – well, that’s what this story is. It’s an onion. There is so much more to it than you would initially believe. It’s a coming of age story. It’s a mystery. It’s a horror story. These things are all brought together to create a story that flows beautifully, creating a tale with much more depth than the synopsis would ever have you believing.

I really could say so much about this one, but I’ll cover those three main themes quickly and then leave you to read it yourself. After all, if I’m being honest, half of what I want to say will ruin the story for you. It’s a short read, a gripping read, and you’ll be done with it before you realise.

First up, then, is the coming of age aspect of the story. Personally, I would not go as far as to label this a young adult book. It’s an adult book with coming of age aspects. It’s a retrospect, looking back at youth. You’re not getting The Perks of Being A Wallflower, not here. Yet, you do watch as the main character goes from being a boy to a man. We have the heartbreak of youth, the decisions that will impact life, the naivety of having your entire life ahead of you. It has all the aspects of a coming of age story whilst being aimed at those who have already been there and done that, those who can look back at the folly of youth and realise how silly things seem with the eye of experience. At the same time, however, it is possible for the younger readers to enjoy this one. I would say it is more for the older end of the young adult fan base, but it is possible for those readers to enjoy it as well.

Second, we have the mystery aspect of the story. It isn’t your typical detective novel. In fact, this aspect of the story is nowhere near as prevalent as giving it a ‘mystery’ label would have you believing. Crimes have been committed, there is a murder leaving a dark cloud over things, and yet solving the mystery is more of a side hobby than the real focus of the story. That is not to say it is unimportant… merely there is no running off to play private investigator in a ten-on-one gang shoot out. It is a simple mystery, one that can be worked out with ease, but there is enough information thrown around to leave you questioning things.

Finally, we have the horror aspect of the story. This is not your super fearful King read. This is a simple paranormal encounter. A lowly haunting. We’re lacking in the freights offered up in his classical horrors, but such is fine. This book does not need the fear of other books, it just need the supernatural elements to add something more to the story. It wasn’t a necessary aspect to add, yet it was nice to see it. It was almost as though it was an ode to King’s usual work, a small way of saying he is still capable of adding in the spooks people want even if he doesn’t leave your heart palpitating.

Honestly, I had so much fun with this one. I really was surprised, and I would certainly recommend it to both new and old King fans. It’s not his usual, yet it is certainly one of his better works.

View all my reviews