Book: Onyx Storm

 Book: Onyx Storm

Author: Rebecca Yarros

Pages: 544

This is my 22nd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

After nearly 18 months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there's no more time for lessons.  No more time for uncertainty.  Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it's impossible to know who to trust.  Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Areian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with NAvarre.  The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves - her dragons, her family, her home, and him.  Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destory everything.  They need an army.  They need power.  They need magic.  And they need the one thing only Violet can find - the truth.  But a storm is coming - and not everyone can survive its wrath.

This is a 3rd book in the Fourth Wing series and I swore to myself I was going to stop after book 2.  But Yarros is a master of cliff hanger endings so here we are. I have a personal struggle problem with stopping series even when they are not my favorite and that is what this really is.  While this is KIND of one of my favorite genres (fantasy) this truly is romantasy and that one is not my cup of tea.  Yarros is a okay world builder (she is no Rowling or Martin).  I felt like this was more like book 2 1/2.  Like she was setting up what is coming in the next book more than moving the story along very much.  This book is SPICY.  But I found it less so this time than the other two books - felt she focused more on battles and character and world building which was a plus.  Another cliff hanger ending? You bet - this is a FIVE book series, so she had to right?  And it was a doozy.  She is great an those cliff hangers and keeps people buying her books because of them.  Darn you Yarros.  

I did like one part of the book very much, and that was her dedication in the front.  It said "to the ones who don't run with the popular crowd, the ones who get caught reading under their desks, the ones who feel like they never get invited, included, or represented.  Get your leathers.  We have dragons to ride."

Stars: 3.5

Book: Finders Keepers

 Book: Finders Keepers

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 544

This is my 21st read for the year

What Amazon says:

"Wake up genius".  So announces deranged fan Morris Bellamy to iconic author John Rothstein, who once created the famous character Jimmy Gold and hasn't released anything since.  Morris is livid, not just because his favorite writer has stopped publishing, but because Jimmy Gold ended up as a sellout.  Morris kills his idol and empties his safe of cash, but the real haul is a collection of notebooks containing John Rothstein's unpublished work - including at least one more Jimmy Gold novel.  Morris hides everything away - the money and the manuscripts no one but Gold ever saw - before being locked up for another horrific crime.  But upon Morris's release thirty-five years later, he's about to discover that teenager Pete Saubers has already found the stolen treasure - and no one but former police detective Bill Hodges, along with his trusted associates Holly Gibney and Jerome Robinson, stands in the way of his vengeance.

This was a great book.  I listened to it and was entralled with the story from beginning to end.  It is very well written with good character development and good story flow.  It is the second in the Mr. Mercedes series, and I always like a book with Bill Hodges and Holly Gibney in it.  It is a good book to listen to as well - great narrator.  I am looking forward to the third book.

Stars: 5

Book: The Hedge Knight Graphic Novel I and II

 Book: The Hedge Knight Graphic Novel I and II

Author: George RR Martin

Pages: 400 between the two

This is the 19th and 20th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Set 100 years before the events in George RR MArtin's epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Hedge Knight chronicles a young squire as he travels the cruel and complex path to knighthood in the Seven Kingdoms.  Shouldering his fallen master's sword and hielf, Duncan (or Dunk) is determined to reinvent hismelf as a knight in a nearby tournament.  But first Dunk needs a sponsor, and that requirement sends him down a road studded with friends, foes, adventure, and hidden agendas.  One such friend is Egg, who becomes Dunk's squire, yet even he may hold secret motivations of his own.  In the second graphic novel, Dunk and Egg continue their journey in search of the fair puppeteer Tanselle.  Along the way, the elderly knight Ser Eustace takes both men under his charge, alongside another knight - and this one promises trouble.  Peace is ever elusive for Dunk and Egg, as they are soon embroiled in the schemes of local nobility, while a darker, greater thread threatens to unravel long-held truths of the Battle of Redgrass Field.

These were pretty good.  I love seeing other glimpses into Martin's world of my favorite series, and I am determined to read all of them.  They are quick reads and I finished both of them in an afternoon.  I enjoyed the story and the art.  Glad I read them.

Stars: 4 (for both)

Book: Inherit the Wind

 Book: Inherit the Win

Author: Jerome Lawerence

Pages: 126

This is my 18th read for the year

What Amazon says:

The accued was a slight, frightened man who had deliberately broken the law.  His trial was a Roman circus.  The chief gladiators were two great legal giants of he century.  Like two bull elephants locked in mortal combat, they bellowed and roared imprecations and abuse.  The spectators sat uneasily in the sweltering heat with murder in their hearts, barely able to restrain themselves.  At stake was the freedom of every American.  One of the most moving and meaningful plays of our generation.

This was an interesting book.  It is written in play form so it is a quick read - I read it in an afternoon.  The story was interesting and the trial was quick.  It is a case between evolution and creation with a teacher's job on the line.  I am interested in seeing the movie.

Stars: 4

Book: Deperation

 Book: Deperation

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 624

This is my 17th read for the year

What Amazon says:

For all intents and purposes police officer Collie Entragian, chief law enforcement for the small mining town for Desperation, Nevada, appears to be completely insane.  He's taken to stopping vehicles along the desolate Interstate 50 and abducting unwary travelers with various unusual ploys. There's something very wrong here in Desperation - and Officer Entragian is only at the surface of it.  The secrets embedded in Depseration's landscape, and the horrifying evil that infects the town like some viral hot zone, are both aweome and terrifying.  But one of Entragian's victims, young David Carver, seems to know - and it scares him nearly to death to realize this truth - that the forces being summoned to combat this frightful, maniacal aberration are of equal and opposite intensity.

This was an okay book.  I didn't love it but I didn't hate it.  Writing was fine and the story was interesting.  I think it was just too long.  It was just too wordy and I found myself wishing King would just get on with it a little more often than I wanted to.  Creepy?  Yes.  Just not one of his best in my opinion.

Stars: 3 

Book: The Story of a Heart

 Book: The Story of a Heart

Author: Rachel Clarke

Pages: 256

This is my 16th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

The first of our organs to form and the last to die, the heart is both a simple pump and the symbol of what makes us human; as long as it continues to beat, there is hope. Dr. Rachel Clarke interweaves the history of medical innovations behind transplant surgery with the story of two children - one of whom desperately needs a new heart.  One summer day, 9 year old Kiera Ball was in a terrible car accident and suffered catastrophic brain injuries.  As the rest of her body began to shut down, her heart continued to beat.  In an act of extraordinary generosity, Kiera's parents and siblings immediately agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor.  Meanwhile 9 year old Max Johnson had been in a hospital for nearly a year, fighting the virus that was causing his heart to fail.  When Max's parents received the call they had been hoping for, they knew it came at a terrible cost to another family.  The act of Keira's heart resuming its rhythm inside Max's body was a medical miracle.  While waiting for transplant, Max had become the hopeful face of a campaign to change the UK's laws around organ donation.  This is the story of how one family's grief transformed into a lifesaving gift.  Clarke relates the urgent journey of Keira's heart and explores the history of the remarkable surgery that made it possible stretching back over a cenury.

This was a great book.  The author does a fantastic job of weaving the personal stories of Max and Kiera and what their families went through with the history of organ transplantation (and other life saving procedures).  It is wonderfully written and lays out how deeply hard it is for families in these situations as well as the people who care for them.  I am really glad I read this one.

Stars: 5

Book: Bury Your Gays

 Book: Bury Your Gays

Author: Chuck Tingle

Pages: 304

This is my 15th read for the year

What Amazon says:

Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell.  But finally, after years of tryingto make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination.  And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his areer to the next level: kill off the gay characters, "for the algorithm", in the upcoming season finale.  Misha refuses, but he soon realizes that he's just put a target on his back.  And what's worse, monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him and his friends through the hills above Los Angeles.  Haunted by his past, Misha must risk his entire future - before the horros from the silver screen find a way to bury him for good.

This was an interesting book.  I liked the plot and thought the story flowed well for the most part.  I did lose a little interest nearing the end - felt it was stretching the story to add more pages when he could have been wrapped up sooner.  However - I liked the characters and was interested in seeing where the story was going.  In the end, it did come together, and I am glad I read it.

Stars: 4