Two Recent Reads #3: The Midnight Library & Owl and the Electric Samurai

Today I will be writing two short reviews for two of my most recent reads!

The long anticipated The Midnight Library and the fantasy, vampire book Owl and the Electric Samurai (The Adventures of Owl #3).

Let's dive right in.

Two Recent Reads #2: Amalina and the Secrets of the Wailing Castle & The Circle

 Today I will be writing two short reviews for two of my most recent reads!

The audiobook copy of fantasy book Amalina and the Secrets of the Wailing Castle, and dystopian book-to-movie The Circle.

Let's dive right in.

Two Recent Reads #1: Wild Swans & Owl and the City of Angels

Today I will be writing two short reviews for two of my most recent reads!

The nonfiction, autobiography book Wild Swans and the fantasy, vampire book Owl and the City of Angels (The Adventures of Owl #2).

Let's dive right in.

Review: The Secrets We Share

Author: Edwin Hill

Started reading: September 22nd 2022

Finished the book: September 30th 2022

Pages: 296 / 8h 54m

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

Published: March 29th 2022

Source: Netgalley

Goodreads score: 3.98

My score:

Synopsis

At first glance, Natalie Cavanaugh and Glenn Abbott hardly look like sisters. Even off-duty, Natalie dresses like a Boston cop, preferring practical clothes and unfussy, pinned-up hair. Her younger sister, Glenn, seems tailor-made for the spotlight, from her signature red mane to her camera-ready smile. Glenn has spent years cultivating her brand through her baking blog, and with the publication of her new book, that hard work seems about to pay off. But her fans have no idea about the nightmare in Glenn and Natalie’s past.

Twenty years ago, their father’s body was discovered in the woods behind their house. A trauma like that doesn’t fit with Glenn’s public image. Yet, maybe someone reading her blog does know something. There have been anonymous online messages, vague yet ominous, hinting that she’s being watched. And with unsettling coincidences hitting ever closer to home, both Glenn and Natalie soon have more pressing matters to worry about, especially when a dead body is found in an abandoned building . . .

Review: Savage Row

Author: Britney King

Started reading: September 18th 2022

Finished the book: September 20th 2022

Pages: 258 / 5h 13m

Genres: Thriller

Published: November 19th 2020

Source: Netgalley / Storytel 

Goodreads score: 3.65

My score:

Synopsis

Jack Mooney, a career criminal, has been in prison for nearly a decade, quietly nursing his hatred for the jurors who put him there. One in particular gets him through the endless days—the alluring Amy Stone.

When Mooney is granted early release, he makes Amy his first priority. To his delight, she’s even more enticing than before, and better still, she has a lot more to lose than he’d imagined.
As Mooney’s campaign of terror mounts, the police seem powerless to protect the Stone family, who must rely on their wits to survive a psychopath hell-bent on revenge.

Review: Owl and the Japanese Circus (The Adventures of Owl #1)

Author: Kristi Charish

Started reading: August 16th 2022

Finished the book: September 17th 2022

Pages: 416 / 14h 55m

Genres: Fantasy, Vampires

Published: January 13th 2015

Source: Audible

Goodreads score: 3.63

My score:

Synopsis

Ex-archaeology grad student turned international antiquities thief, Alix—better known now as Owl—has one rule. No supernatural jobs. Ever. Until she crosses paths with Mr. Kurosawa, a red dragon who owns and runs the Japanese Circus Casino in Las Vegas. He insists Owl retrieve an artifact stolen three thousand years ago, and makes her an offer she can’t refuse: he’ll get rid of a pack of vampires that want her dead. A dragon is about the only entity on the planet that can deliver on Owl’s vampire problem – and let’s face it, dragons are known to eat the odd thief.

Owl retraces the steps of Mr. Kurosawa’s ancient thief from Japan to Bali with the help of her best friend, Nadya, and an attractive mercenary. As it turns out though, finding the scroll is the least of her worries. When she figures out one of Mr. Kurosawa’s trusted advisors is orchestrating a plan to use a weapon powerful enough to wipe out a city, things go to hell in a hand basket fast…and Owl has to pick sides.

Review: Project Pay Day

Author: Brent Hartinger

Started reading: August 2nd 2022

Finished the book: August 5th 2022

Pages: 206

Genres: Middle Grade

Published: February 21nd 2021

Source: Netgalley

Goodreads score: Not enough ratings

My score:

Synopsis

Dave and his two best friends, Hannah and Curtis, are looking forward to a summer of complete freedom, but their parents have another idea: they insist that the three teenagers get summer jobs. But the friends come up with a plan: Why not invent fake jobs to get their parents off their backs? The trouble is, their parents are going to want to see them bringing in real money. And that means finding a way to get-rich-quick, but without breaking the law, and without doing any actual work.

The summer passes and Dave, Curtis, and Hannah try a long list of schemes: trying to catch bank robbers to win the reward; scientifically calculating the “correct” number of jelly beans in a contest jar; finding and exploring a network of underground smugglers' tunnels; and even diving for sunken treasure. But “Project Pay Day” never quite goes according to plan, and they don’t make the money they need. Soon summer is almost over, and they have no choice but to solve a big local mystery — or face the consequences of their actions, which includes their parents breaking up the trio for good!

Review: Tonight You’re Dead (Sandhamn Murders #4)

Author: Viveca Sten

Started reading: July 10th 2022

Finished the book: July 16th 2022

Pages: 411

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Mystery

Published: November 14th 2017

Source: Ebook

Goodreads score: 4.08

My score:

Synopsis

Soon to be divorced, attorney Nora Linde is finding her way as a single mother, and even falling in love again, when she’s asked by her childhood friend Detective Thomas Andreasson to help in a disturbing investigation. Marcus Nielsen, a university student, has apparently committed suicide, but it’s what he’s left behind that’s so suspicious and damning: his research into the Coastal Rangers, an elite military group where, in 1976, a young cadet died under questionable circumstances, a sadistic sergeant went free, and a case went cold.

When two of Nielsen’s contacts are also found dead—and diaries of their tortuous training turn up missing—Thomas and Nora are certain that whatever happened three decades ago is unforgivable. And for someone who wants to keep those secrets buried—unforgettable. Now they must fight against time to expose a cover-up that hasn’t yet claimed its last victim.

Review: The Silent Bluebird

Author: Elle M. Holmes

Started reading: May 29th 2022

Finished the book: June 5th 2022

Pages: 276

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction

Published: November 17th 2020

Source: Netgalley

Goodreads score: 3.67

My score:

Synopsis

The stories we read have the power to change our lives.

Sadie Smith lives an ordinary life, unlike the extraordinary ones of the characters in the books where she finds an escape. She dives into her stories with wanton abandon.
Until one story changes it all.
The story of the impetuous Killian Quinn: an agent for the Zeta Defense Agency, determined to avenge his fallen partner. As she follows him further down the rabbit hole, worlds collide when she awakens with her hands tied to a chair in the face of armed men. Sadie finds herself dropped in the middle of a battle between secret agencies she didn’t even know existed, but maybe where she’s belonged all along.

Review: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games #0)

Author: Suzanne Collins

Started reading: May 4th 2022

Finished the book: May 26th 2022

Pages: 541

Genres: YA, Dystopian

Published: May 19th 2020

Source: Bookbox

Goodreads score: 3.82

My score:

Synopsis

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capital, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.

Review: Beautiful World, Where Are You

Author: Sally Rooney

Started reading: April 26th 2022

Finished the book: May 19th 2022

Pages: 356

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance

Published: September 7th 2021

Source: Ebook

Goodreads score: 3.62

My score:

Synopsis

Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?

Review: The God Queen (Rebirth Saga #1)

Author: M.L. Tishner

Started reading: May 2nd 2022

Finished the book: May 12th 2022

Pages: 432

Genres: Science Fiction

Published: October 22nd 2019

Source: Physical copy from the author

Goodreads score: 4.00

My score:

Synopsis

In a backwater Earth town, Rei Ettowa dreams of traveling across the stars to destroy Infiernen - the knight who murdered her brother.
When Rei discovers she is the reincarnation of the prophesied God Queen, she relishes her newfound ability to channel lightning for revenge. Unfortunately, blazing through a battlefield clashes with the Federation’s plan for Rei and the others like her. All the gods are to be trained as diplomatic figureheads to sway voters, not agents of war. Infiernen must remain untouched.
Unable to let go of her brother’s murder, Rei finds Infiernen. But instead of killing him, Rei discovers a secret the Federation has been keeping from her about her brother.
Now Rei is mad as hell. Her enemies must pay. But who are they? And what else is the Federation hiding from her?

Review: Broken Monsters

Author: Lauren Beukes

Started reading: February 3rd 2022

Finished the book: March 26th 2022

Pages: 441

Genres: Horror, Crime, Mystery

Published: June 16th 2015

Source: Received the book as a gift

Goodreads score: 3.61

My score:

Synopsis

Detective Gabi Versado has hunted down many monsters during her eight years in Homicide. She’s seen stupidity, corruption and just plain badness. But she’s never seen anything like this. Clayton Broom is a failed artist, and a broken man. Life destroyed his plans, so he’s found new dreams – of flesh and bone made disturbingly, beautifully real. Detroit is the decaying corpse of the American Dream. Motor-city. Murder-city. And home to a killer opening doors into the dark heart of humanity.
A killer who wants to make you whole again…

Review: Tender Is the Flesh

Author: Agustina Bazterrica

Started reading: March 10th 2022

Finished the book: March 21st 2022

Pages: 224

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Dystopian

Published: February 6th 2020

Source: Ebook

Goodreads score: 3.91

My score:

Synopsis

It all happened so quickly. First, animals became infected with the virus and their meat became poisonous. Then governments initiated the Transition. Now, 'special meat' – human meat – is legal.

Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans – only no one calls them that. He works with numbers, consignments, processing. One day, he's given a gift to seal a deal: a specimen of the finest quality. He leaves her in his barn, tied up, a problem to be disposed of later.

But the specimen haunts Marcos. Her trembling body, her eyes that watch him, that seem to understand. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost – and what might still be saved…

Review: Roadside Picnic

Author: Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

Started reading: January 20th 2022

Finished the book: February 1st 2022

Pages: 145

Genres: Classics, Science Fiction, Dystopian

Published: 1972

Source: Digital Copy

Goodreads score: 4.16

My score:

Synopsis

Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a “full empty,” something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he’ll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems.

First published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years.

Review: Realm of Night (Mina Murray #3)

Author: L.D. Goffigan

Started reading: January 1st 2022

Finished the book: January 10th 2022

Pages: 296

Genres: Fantasy, Vampires

Published: June 20th 2017

Source: Digital copy from the author

Goodreads score: 3.83

My score:

Synopsis

Mina and her allies have destroyed Vlad Draculesti, but the human world is still in danger from his vampire allies. From Berlin to Paris, major European cities have begun to fall to their followers. To spare humanity from the grip of looming darkness, Mina must defeat one of the most powerful vampires in the world...

A thrilling retelling of a classic tale, REALM OF NIGHT is the third book of the Mina Murray series.

Review: Fortress of Blood (Mina Murray #2)

Author: L.D. Goffigan

Started reading: November 16th 2021

Finished the book: January 1st 2022

Pages: 258

Genres: Fantasy, Vampires

Published: May 21st 2017

Source: Digital copy from the author

Goodreads score: 3.89

My score:

Synopsis

Mina and her allies have found the Transylvanian countryside dotted with empty villages and rumors of monsters who wear human skin. As Mina prepares for the final showdown with her fiance's abductors, the last descendants of the supernatural Draculesti family, she discovers her own shocking connection to the hidden world of vampires...

A suspenseful retelling of a classic tale, FORTRESS OF BLOOD is the second book of the Mina Murray series. If you love action-adventure, romance, and mystery, then pick up your copy today.

Review: The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon #2)

Author: Dan Brown

Started reading: June 17th 2021

Finished the book: August 9th 2021

Pages: 454

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller

Published: March 18th 2003

Source: Received as a gift

Goodreads score: 3.87

My score:

Synopsis

While in Paris, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened by a phone call in the dead of the night. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, his body covered in baffling symbols. As Langdon and gifted French cryptologist Sophie Neveu sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci—clues visible for all to see and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Even more startling, the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion—a secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci—and he guarded a breathtaking historical secret. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle—while avoiding the faceless adversary who shadows their every move—the explosive, ancient truth will be lost forever.

Review: The Interludes: A Sexual Odyssey

Author: J.K. Duval

Started reading: June 6th 2021

Finished the book: July 23rd 2021

Pages: 516

Genres: Erotic, Fiction

Published: July 17th 2017

Source: Physical copy from the author

Goodreads score: 4.26

My score:

Synopsis

The Interludes, A Sexual Odyssey, is the fun sexy erotic novel for mature audiences. All the characters have only one thing in common, they’re all named Jordan. Whether they are women or men they share the same first name, but that’s where the similarities end. Seven different Jordans will take you along for almost every conceivable match-up in some seriously sexy locales.
From a beach-side cottage along the warm moonlit waters of Jamaica to a shower stall in London’s famed Claridge’s Hotel, across the hills of Tuscany to a magnificent 18 room oceanfront shingle style home on the western shores of Martha’s Vineyard, these are just a few of the places that will spread out before you on this journey of erotic discovery.
If you blush easily, you might want to look elsewhere for your night-table reading. Then again you may wish to share what’s behind this cover with someone you love and create your own sexual odyssey.

Review: 1984

Author: George Orwell

Started reading: June 16h 2021

Finished the book: July 9th 2021

Pages: 298 / 12:17:45

Genres: Classics, Science Fiction, Literature

Published: June 8th 1949

Source: Storytel

Goodreads score: 4.19

My score:

Synopsis

The year 1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is timelier than ever. 1984 is still the great modern classic of "negative utopia"—a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing, from the first sentence to the last four words. No one can deny the novel's hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions—a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.