Review: Up for Everything

Up for Everything by Heather Young-Nichols
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My first Heather Young-Nichols book was Grounded. I had very mixed feelings: I enjoyed it and yet I didn’t, working through every rating from one star to four stars when debating how to rate it. Following this, I was interested in seeing what else she had to offer. I felt as though it was simply that one book that failed to hit me in the way I had anticipated, aware of a potential for real enjoyment. Thus, I went on to read her duology with A.J. Matthews, Dirt on the Diamond. I really enjoyed this, so much more than I anticipated, and I knew I would be reading more of her work. Thus, when the opportunity came along to advance read Up for Everything, I jumped at the chance.

Up for Everything is the third book in the Up for Grabs series, but it does work as a standalone romance novel. Despite how I enjoyed reading it in such a way, despite how I say this works, I would recommend against doing such a thing. Each book follows a different couple, telling the story of how they came to be, yet there is an underlying continuance throughout. I understood the relationships between people, I got the basics of events, and yet I missed out on that little bit extra that would have come about had I read the prior books. Don’t get me wrong, my lack of knowledge failed to lessen my enjoyment – I simply wish I’d read the prior books so that I could engage in the friendships even more than I did. It was clear to see there was a lot of history, you quickly came to work out how the relationships worked, and yet it wasn’t the same as having read the prior books.

That, of course, is my own fault. I should have known better than to jump in a series at book three. I simply thought the stories were more standalone than they truly are. No more dwelling on that, though – onto the good stuff.

This is a cute little romance novel, giving you everything you would expect from a new adult romance read. We have adorable moments. We have drama. We have laughter. We have our emotions pulled. Basically, we work through everything you should work through when it comes to a novel of this ilk. I admit that there were some of the clichéd predictable moments to be seen, but they weren’t as annoying as they can be in some books. This one was different, told from the male perspective, allowing us to see the world in a different way to a lot of the new adult romance novels out there, and it made watching these things unfold all the more entertaining.

Honestly, this was such an addictive read. There was more to it than I’d imagined there to be, finding myself unable to put it down until I got to see how everything played out. Without a doubt, it’s solidified my decision to read more of the author’s work. In fact, I’ve forced my friend to download the two prior Up for Grabs books because she has Kindle Unlimited and I feel as though I need someone to share in the feels with me. I cannot wait to read them now, I’m sure I’ll have lots of fun if this one is anything to go by.

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Review: Lost Reaper

Lost Reaper by Shelley Russell Nolan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of those reads that I decided upon because a friend had read and enjoyed it. I trust what my friends have to say about books, and due to this I was more than happy to give this one a read. In fact, I was rather eager as the whole notion of the book piqued my interested. Unfortunately, I couldn’t bring myself to love it as much as I’d been hoping to.

The book starts with a bang, pulling us straight into the storyline. Within pages, our main character dies and comes face-to-face with the Grim Reaper. Without going into too much detail, our main character ends up working for him – thus, she becomes a reaper. From there, however, things did not go as I’d anticipated. I expected a lot of action, a lot of supernatural elements; instead, it became a rather annoying romance story.

Our main character suffered a terrible breakup due to her boyfriend being a cheat. I could have dealt with this, had it not become such a main focus of the rest of the story. It seemed to me, as soon as the boyfriend was out of the picture our main character became a beacon for cliché male characters. You know how far too many romance novels contain the super-rich or police officers – well, this is another of those stories. In fact, it contains both. We have a cop and a man of money going after our main character. If you add in a solider and a cowboy, we would have had the top four types of men found in erotica stories. Hell, I kept expecting it to take a sudden turn down that route. Part of me thinks it would have been slightly more enjoyable had such a thing happened instead of all the meaningless drama that pulled away from the supernatural element of the story.

Okay, I feel as though I’m ranting, and for that I’m sorry. I simply feel as though this book fell short of the potential. This is due to the way the focus pulled away from what I was interested about on so many occasions. It wasn’t that the supernatural element completely disappeared – it was always there in the background – it simply seemed to take a backseat. I feel almost cheated, that I would have been happier had this been labelled as a romance rather than an urban fantasy read.

When it came to the rest of the story, I also felt a bit let down. I wanted more detail throughout, with things developing rather than everything being thrown in at the end. I felt as though there was too much information given in too short a time period. It seemed as though everything was thrown in at once. Whilst I accept many complicated aspects to any given story, I feel as though they weren’t given in the right way. It left it feeling forced, I felt as though it was too much for one story. Had this information been spread out I’m sure I would have enjoyed it a lot more than I did.

Then there is the mystery aspect. If you can call it a ‘mystery’. As a big fan of crime fiction, I never expect the endless twists and turns I see in crime fiction books to appear in fantasy books that merely have the crime as a smaller aspect of the story. Despite this, I couldn’t help but grow annoyed at the characters. Things were far too obvious. I know it was supposed to build up suspense with the incorrect information, with all the suspects, yet it bugged me. From pretty much the start, you knew who was to blame.

Despite this, it was interesting enough. There is potential for the rest of the series to go in many directions, and if done correctly it will make up for this book. It could have pulled me in, it simply didn’t go about telling the story in the right way for me to become addicted in the way I had hoped to be.

Overall, it wasn’t quite what I had hoped for. As it stands, I’m unsure as to whether I’ll give the second book a read. Only time will tell, I guess.

As a final note, I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this.

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Review: Rebecca

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have a rather complicated relationship with the classics. I want to have read them all, yet I find a lot of them difficult to work through; every so often I will read some I like, only to hit a brick wall that leaves me unwilling to continue; I enter with either high or low hopes, usually to be given the opposite of what I’d been expecting. Basically, it will take me a very long time to work through all the classics I wish to read. I wish I could say otherwise, I wish I could just pick them up and power through them with a smile on my face; unfortunately, such is not the case. I’m destined to be one of those people, one of those readers with very few classics under their belt.

When it came to Rebecca, I was never sure what I would think. Truthfully, it was one of those for which I feared the worst. Thus, you can imagine my surprise when I found myself oddly addicted to this one. I’d expected one of those terribly annoying romances, whereby we spend the entire book with our heroine swooning. Whilst there was quite a bit of focus upon the romance, with our lead female being rather annoying with her thought processes at time, there was also a lot more to the story than I’d expected there to be. Even though I knew how certain aspects of the story ended, there was still a lot of information I was unaware of and this made it all the more fun to read.

Honestly, I could say so much about this one, yet I always fear doing such a thing when it comes to classics. I feel as though I’m repeating everyone else, people who are in a much better position to state a claim. Just know it’s easy to understand why it’s a classic.

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Review: Sacrifice

Sacrifice: Book 3 of The Dark Paradise Trilogy by Heather C. Myers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sacrifice is the third and final book in the Dark Paradise trilogy, and whilst it wasn’t what I was hoping for it was certainly an enjoyable read.

After reading the first book, Awaken, I found myself desperate to know more about the series. There was so much to it, so many aspects, and I wanted to know more. I was pulled into the world, I came to enjoy the characters, and as a whole I was more addicted than I expected to be. The second book, Catalyst, pulled me in even deeper. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I enjoyed the first book, but it left me just as desperate to continue on. Thus, I consumed the final book in no time at all. Sacrifice was an odd mix of what I wanted and things I was left unsure about. Basically, it wasn’t all I had hoped for, and yet I still enjoyed it a lot.

I’ve stated in my reviews of the two prior books that I’m thinking the Dark Paradise trilogy will be my favourite series by the author. Well, I’m standing by that statement. It’s the benchmark that her other series are to live up to. This one had so much, was so good, that I cannot help but hope for as much fun from her other books. This one just seemed to tick so many boxes. There really are so many aspects to this story – enough for it to sound like too much, and yet it works wonderfully.

This final book works to bring everything together, yet I feel as though some aspects were given more attention than others. The Greek mythology aspect seems to come out even more in this one. The different aspects of the story, the different characters, are a lot more central in this story than in the prior ones. Oddly enough, despite what I had expected, the angels and demon side of it – the whole war aspect – didn’t seem to be as central as I’d been expecting it to be. Whilst the war was happening, we didn’t really get to see much of it. When things were happening in regards to the war things seemed to move by too quickly. I wanted more. I felt as though the action side was a bit rushed, that it was pushed aside so that the romantic drama could be more focal.

Don’t get me wrong, I came to enjoy the romantic aspect more than I expected. From early on in the series I found myself shipping certain couples, but in this book I did want the war to be focused on some more. I wanted a better war to romance ratio, instead of only a small section of the book focusing on the war. Despite the lack of attention on this side of the story, things were brought together. All storylines reached some kind of end point, even if I did want a little more. I wanted an epilogue for each of the characters, rather than it simply ending when things seemed to reach a good point. Nevertheless, I couldn’t complain with how everything came together. It was mostly just a case of I wanted more. I was so pulled into the story, so pulled into the characters and their world, that any ending was going to leave me wanting more. It’s just one of those stories, one of those reads that leaves you wanting more of the world even though you know all good things must come to an end.

Honestly, I had such fun with this one. It really is a great little series, super addictive and a lot of fun. It’s certainly worth the read.

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Review: Catalyst

Catalyst by Heather C. Myers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Earlier this year I read the first book in the Dark Paradise trilogy, Awaken, and thoroughly enjoyed the book. It wasn’t perfect, but it left me super excited to see what else was to come. I promised myself I would read the next two books soon, but I found myself distracted by other books that I already owned. Then Heather C. Myers started to put some of her books on offer. Books two and three in the Dark Paradise trilogy were free for a short period of time and I knew had to hit the purchase button. How could I not? Thus, the books were sent to my Kindle. I knew it wouldn’t be long before I started reading them. What I did not expect was for the excitement to take such a strong hold – without realising what I was doing, I put aside my many other reads and started Catalyst. After a few hours, I was done.

When I read Awaken I labelled it my favourite read by the author, and this book has only added to how much I’m enjoying the trilogy. I stand by my statement that this is looking to be my favourite series by the author. Her Stranger series is a close second, and until I’ve read them both in full I cannot say for sure, yet this one seems to hit more of the right notes for me.

The Dark Paradise series is many things, a collection that may sound like too much. I found in the first book that all the combinations worked well together – heroes, villains, Greek mythology, angels, demons, vigilantes, and so on – yet I wanted things to be explained more. The second book does work to add more by way of explanation. Not as much as I had wished in regards to some of the aspects, but it did help to make things clearer. Moreover, we’re given new information that leaves us with more questions. Certain aspects of the story will leave you desperate for the next book, desperate for answers to the many unanswered questions. It’s a great set up, and my hopes are high for how it will end.

As with the first book, I found myself caring more about certain stories than others. We continue to follow our three main characters, watching as their world continues to expand. I admit that I wanted a bit more action. Some of the stories seemed to have less action than others, with some seeming to focus on giving information rather than adding pace to the story. Whilst it wasn’t the worst thing in the world, I was left wanting a little bit more. I had a lot of fun, yet it wasn’t the edge of your seat read I had been hoping for. I was desperate for action, for war to break out in this one. It looks as though such is to happen in the next book, yet certain parts of this story made this book feel a little bit too much like a filler read. It didn’t have quite the same pace as the first book, and it focused more on giving information than truly progressing events. That is not to say that things do not happen – quite a lot does occur – but it felt as though it was dragged out and wasn’t as substantial as the first book.

I will say, however, that there were a few places where a bit of editing was needed. There seemed to be some inconstancies with information exchanged, points where people would contradict prior knowledge. These were never overly large things, never things that ruined the overall story, but I did find myself doing a couple of double takes when people said certain things that did not seem to fit.

Overall, though, it was a lot of fun. I’m super excited to see how this all ends – and despite my better judgement I’m going to open up the third book and find out now.

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Review: Amber

Amber by Lexi James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Truthfully, I enjoyed this one more than I’d initially anticipated.

Amber is the first in the Stone Pack series, and it’s a great introduction to this world of wolf shifters. It’s short enough to be completed with ease. It’s interesting enough to keep you hooked throughout. It opens up enough of the world to leave you wanting to read the next book. As a whole, it was a great little read. It wasn’t perfect, but it was more than I’d anticipated.

There are many clichés in this book, but do not let such a thing put you off. Whilst it has a lot of things that have been done before, there are enough unique aspects to prevent it from being a carbon copy of other books on the market. Somehow, I feel as though such a thing is to be expected. In these urban fantasy romance novels certain things seem to belong to the check list that all authors seem to adhere to – such as the instant romance (always blamed upon the mating bond), the fact that the main characters seem to be at loggerheads despite the attraction, silly decisions made by the main character. They should be annoying aspects, especially with how often they’re used, but they’re not. That is why they’re used so often: no matter how many people use these things they still work. These things will always work in such stories, thus authors continue to use them.

As I said, though, there were unique aspects. Rather than being a werewolf book, this is a wolf shifter story. Two completely different things, which is refreshing. It’s a nice change to have. It opens up a lot for future stories, and it somewhat important for this story. Moreover, the initial notion of this story is for the doctor to offer up aid to our main character. Usually in such stories doctors with cures appear later in the series when a kidnapping of some kind occurs. Whilst things didn’t run the expected course in regards to this aspect of the story, it was fun to watch things unfold.

I will point out, however, that I did have one slight issue with the book. For some reason, there was a single chapter wrote in first person. It appeared out of nowhere before things quickly returned to normal. I’m not sure why or how this happened, but it was rather off putting. It can easily be ignored, as it’s only one blip, but it did leave me feeling iffy for a short while after it happened. Whilst I’ve pointed this out, I should note that I have not lessened my rating because of this error.

Overall, though, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I became super addicted, and I found myself unable to put the book down once I was pulled into the story. I cannot wait to see what comes next for the series, as I’m really interested in where the characters will go from here.

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Review: The Bat

The Bat by Jo Nesbø
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Jo Nesbø is one of those names I have spent years hearing and yet never picked up. I was always curious, aware of a hype, and yet he was never pushed to the top of my to-read list. I changed this when I brought a collection of books containing some of Nesbø’s work. Included in this collection were some of his Harry Hole books, thus I went and brought book one so that I could read the series in chronological order.
 
Many times, I have heard that this first Harry Hole book is not as good as the later books. Many fans seem to dislike this one. Some have never attempted to read it. Some have started never to finish it. As a whole, this first book does not seem to have the rave reviews of the rest of the series. However, I’ve read far too many series in the wrong order and I wanted to do this one right. Thus, I picked this one up with mixed hopes.
 
For me, this was an okay read. It was far from the best, and yet I have read much worse. It had moments of being a two star read, yet there were moments where it was a high three star rating. Overall, the book averaged a three star rating – hence the three stars. Whilst this book does not have me crazy excited about the future books in the series, it has not put me off in the way I feared it might. I’m on the bench. Having heard so many times how good the later books are, I am going to continue reading them. However, had I not heard so many rave reviews I wouldn’t have been so overly eager to continue on – it would have been a case of ‘maybe one day I will read another but I cannot say for sure whether such a thing will happen’.
 
Truthfully, I’m not sure where to start when explaining the things that put me off, but I’ll try and keep them concise and connected where possible.
 
I’ll begin with the synopsis. I feel as though it was somewhat misleading. The story sounds like a game of cat and mouse, with a constant threat hanging over Harry Hole. Such, unfortunately, is not the case. For much of the book there doesn’t seem to be much by way case at all. It’s like a tour of Australia. We get to see all the good spots, get to meet all the best people, and get to see how diverse the country is. It’s a fine way to build up the setting and the characters, but in this case it seems to distract from the main story. The criminal aspect lags, it is there and not there all at once. Rather than being at the forefront is seems to hide in the shadow. I really had expected a much more thrilling book, a case where the action lasted for longer than the last fifty pages.
 
Speaking of characters, I feel as though there were far too many clichés. Everyone seemed to be a cliché in some way, and it rather bugged me. I had wanted something other than the alcoholic cop. I had wanted something more than the dirty cop. I had wanted something more than the cop who works on his gut feeling. It all felt like textbook ‘how to put together a cop’ clichés. It wasn’t the worst thing ever, and yet I felt as though there was little by way of originality where characterisation was concerned. Considering how much time was spent on developing characters, overshadowing the story progression, this is a big disappointment.
 
Whilst the lack of progression made it hard for me to get into the story, I think the biggest aspect was the way in which the story was told. I really disliked the translation of this one. It felt too false. I feel as though it’s much too far away from the original text. It reads like an upper-class Englishman. Excluding the elite, very few people are so stereotypically how the world imagines the Brits to be. Moreover, none of the characters were British. I would have understood it had someone been making a point or if someone was ignorant of the way of the world and way simply working with the stereotype, yet such was not the case. Characters from all over the world were using stereotypically British sayings. It was extremely off putting. This, however, I know to attribute to the translation and I do not hold it against the author.
 
Whilst this all sounds extremely negative, it wasn’t all bad.
 
I was kept interested, for the most part. I was constantly questioning where things were going, waiting to see how things would actually come together. Whilst I wish there had been more focus upon the criminal aspect, I cannot deny that what was given did leave me interested in finding out more. Plus, there is a lot of potential for character growth throughout the later books.
 
As a whole, I wasn’t crazy about this one. I simply hope that the future books improve in the way people have me believing they will.

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