The Immortal Gene. Finished 8-14-18, rating 3.5/5, fiction, 319 pages, pub. 2018

From my earlier thoughts…

I’m scheduled to post about The Immortal Gene today for a TLC tour so here I am providing you with half review and half life update.

I’m over half way done with the book and really like it. The story is good, even if the bad guy really sickened me last night when I was reading before bed.  It runs along two main storylines, Jake the detective and Jeffery the serial killer.  There’s a mysterious shadowy group that has something to do with why Jake was in a coma for two years and why he now appears to be something more than a man.  I like the writing and the story and look forward to finishing and telling you more, hopefully next week.  (original post)

Okay, I liked this one, but the first half worked a little bit better for me. When I referenced Jake turning into more than a man, well,  that went full scale reptile in the second half and it was both interesting and a bit too much for me.  I do think it will appeal to many sci-fi readers, especially since the basis is rooting in reality.  This is the beginning of a series and I may read the next one to see what happens since there was a lot left unsettled at the end.

Career of Evil. Finished audio 7-5-18, 3.5/5 stars, mystery, pub. 2015

Cormoran Strike #3  (1-The Cuckoo’s Calling, 2-The Silkworm)

Unabridged audio read by Robert Glenister. 17 hours

When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.

Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible – and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.

With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them….  from Goodreads

Let me start by saying that I love Cormoran and Robin and their relationship, which is a good thing since the book was full of the twists and turns of their working turned personal life.  Cormoran is involved and Robin is planning her upcoming wedding but the tension and intimacy are there to complicate things.  Will the marriage happen?  You find out at the end.

The mystery was good, but since I was listening in the car I had a problem keeping the three suspects separate in my mind.  They often lumped together.  I thought they would differentiate themselves eventually, but some of the enjoyment was lost because of how long it took.  But I did learn a lot about the creepy obsession people have for losing limbs.  Not really a world I enjoyed too much.

If you like this series you’ll like this book, but I don’t think this would be a great one to read without having read at least one of the first two.

Robert Galbraith is JK Rowling for those who have forgotten 🙂

Heartbroken. Finished 7-19-18, 3.5/5 stars, fiction, pub. 2012

Kate has written a novel based on a tragic love story from her family’s past. Emily is a struggling waitress whose toxic relationship with the wrong man has led her to make a horrible, life-altering decision.

Without knowing each other, and with lives that couldn’t be more different, they head to the same point on the map: Heart Island. It’s an idyllic place in the middle of an Adirondack lake, and home to harsh and unyielding matriarch Birdie Burke. These three women find themselves on a heart-wrenching collision course–with dark memories, restless ghosts, and one another. And unbeknownst to them all, Heart Island has a terrifying history of its own.

Heartbroken is a tense, mesmerizing novel about the limits of dysfunctional families, of an island haunted by dark memories, and of the all-too-real demons we must battle.    from Goodreads

Sometimes when I’m listening to a book in the car I’m willing to put up with a slower story since I’m only half listening anyway 🙂  This book with the storylines from three women, Birdie, her daughter Kate, and young Emily who seems to make all the bad choices started slow and its pace never really picked up until the end. Birdie was a tough one to like, but fit perfectly on Heart Island, a remote place that had been passed down from generations ago.  Kate, seemed to be a in perfect place in her life, so having to deal with Birdie issues made her more interesting.  Emily was the outlier.  The reader knows she’s connected but sure exactly how. As much as Birdie was cold, Emily was at least that much confused and because of that confusing.  I wanted to like her but really couldn’t.

I liked it. Heart Island was a character all of its own and the atmosphere was perfect for the messed up family dynamics.  There was a mystery of sorts on top of trying to figure out how Emily fit into the story.  For a thriller it was slower than I prefer, but since it was a car listen it worked just fine.

The Finer Things. Finished 6-15-18, rating 3.5/5, historical romance, 375 pages, pub. 1997

The Pretender
An orphan from London’s East End, a fugitive from the poorhouse, Violet Cooper was tired of sleeping on stoops and being hungry and cold. But she dared to enter a world forbidden to her and her kind. Even marriage to a gentle, elderly knight and the title Lady Goodwin could not open closed doors, stop the cold stares, or hush the shadowy rumors of murder.

The Aristocrat
He was a man of the world. The rules of Victorian society did not interest him, nor could a gauche pretender with a Cockney accent possibly turn his head. Yet Theodore Blake, second son of the Earl of Harding, was immediately compelled by Violet—and soon found himself defending the vulnerable young widow in the face of a murder investigation. But wedding vows were the only way to save her from a certain hanging.

The Finer Things
Two people from different worlds were brought together by passion, bound together by whispered accusations, and torn apart by scandal and misfortune  from Goodreads

I love Brenda Joyce’s historical romances.  They have a richness that I find missing from many other authors.  This was no exception although I did feel that it had some weak spots.  The heroine was a little too much for at times, but there were unexpected twists that made the story make up for some of those feelings.  I liked this one, but not one of my favorites by her.