Book: Edge of Darkness

 Book: Edge of Darkness

Author: Kyla Stone

Pages: 352

This is my 142nd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Hannah Sheridan has survived years of captivity and civilzation's collapse.  No, heavily pregnant and wounded, with her faithful dog Ghost dying from a bullet wound, she must reach home - a brutal jouney through a frozen wasteland - to the family she was stolen from.  Former Delta operator Liam Coleman's mission is simple: deliver Hannah safely to Fall Creek, then settle his own debts with the past.  But with Ghost critically injured and Pike stalking them through the snow, every mile is a battle.  Every contraction a ticking clock.  In Fall Creek, Noah Sheridan fights to hodl his broken town together after horrific violence shatters their fragile peace.  He'd built a safe place for his son Milo, surviving the cold and chaos.  But as grief turns to fury and neighbors turn against each other, he faces an impossible choice: protect what remains or rish everything to save it all.  In the ashes of the old world, some build communities.  Others build empires.  And some just want to watch it all burn. 

This was another good installment in the Edge of Collapse series.  This books have good bite too them.  They are easy reads, so you can fly through them, but they also have enough intensity to them that you want to keep reading to find out what is going to happen.  There are several POVs in these books, and this one was overly so.  That might be my only negative thought - there might have been too many switches this time around.   Overall though, a sollid read.  

Stars: 4

Book: Incidents around the house

 Book: Incidents Around The House

Author: Josh Malerman

Pages: 384

This is my 141st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

To 8 year old Bela, her family is her world.  There's mommy, daddo, and Grandma Ruth.  But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: "Can I go inside your heart"?  When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay.  Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder.  Only the bonds of the family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents' marriage.  The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel.  But Other Mommy needs an answer.

This book was terrible.  I did read Malerman's Bird Box series, and enjoyed those, but this one was so bad.  Story isn't really that scary, and the characters are not great.  Told from a child's perspective.  The ending is really what did it for me - dropped this from a 2 star down to a 1.  What in the world was the author thinking with the big dialogue this mother tells this little kid?  Nonsense.  

Stars: 1

Book: What The Dog Saw

 Book: What the Dog Saw

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

Pages: 448

This is my 140th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

What is the difference between choking and panicking?  Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup?  What do football players teach up about how to hire teachers?  What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?  Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzlinginventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz.  Gladwell sits with Ron Popeii, the king of the American kitcen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secets of Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand.  He explores intelligence tests and ethic profiling and "hindsight bias" and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate.  

This was a very interesting book.  I do like Malcolm Gladwell - this is my second book by him I have read just this year.  He is a good writer and the topics throughout this book give you a lot to think about.  Good insight, good research, and great writing.

Stars: 4.5 

Book: The Tainted Cup

 Book: The Tainted Cup

Author: Robert Bennett

Pages: 432

This is my 139th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

In Daretana's greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead - killed, to all appearances, when a tree erupted from his body.  Even here at the Empire's brders, where contagions abound and the blood of the leviathans works strange magical changes, it's a death both terrifying and impossible.  Assigned to investigate is Ana Dolabra, a detective whose reputation for brillance is matched only by her eccentricities.  Rumor has it that she wears a blindfold at all times, and that she solve impossible cases without even stepping outside the walls of her home.  At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, magically altered in ways that make him the perfect aide to Ana's brillance.  Din is at tuns scandalized, perplexed, and utterly infuriated by his new superior - but as the case unfolds and he watches Ana's mind leap from one startling deduction to the next, he must admit that she is indeed, the Empire's greatest detective.  As the 2 close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the Empire itself, Din realizes he's barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra - and wonders how long he'll be able to keep his own secrets from her piercing intellect. 

This was a great book.  When researching books for several challenge categories, this book came up again and again, so I figured I should try it.  It was a good mix of fantasy world, mystery, crazy detective, and humor.  The characters were wonderful and the story intriguing.  Lots of world building.  There are 2 more books in this series, so I will be sure to check them out.

Stars: 4.5 

Book: Metropolis

 Book: Metropolis

Author: BA Shapiro

Pages: 384

This was my 138th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Six people, six secrets, six different backgrounds.  They would never have met if not for their connection to the Metropolis Storage Warehouse in Cambridge, MA.  When someone falls down an elecator shaft at the facility, each of the six becomes caught up in an intensifying chain of events.  We meet Serge, an unstable but brilliant street photographer who lives in his storage unit; Marta, an undocumented immigrant finishing her dissertation and hiding from ICE; Liddy, an abused wife and mother who recreaters her children's bedroom in her unit; Jason, a former corporate lawyer now practi ing in the facility; Rose, the office manager, who takes illegal kickbacks to let renters live in the building; and Zach, an ex-drug dealer and now the building's owner, who scans Serge's photos as he searches for cluesto the accident.  But was it an accident?  A murder attempt"  Suicide? As her characters dip in and out of one another's lives trying to find answers and battling societal forces beyond their control, this book questions the myth of the American dream and builds tensions to an exhilarating climax.

This was a good book.  I loved Shapiro's other book - The Art Forger - so I was anxious to try this one.  It is well written, and I liked all the characters are you supposed to like.  Especially the lawyer.  It moves at a good pace, and there is a satisfying ending.

Stars: 4 

Book: The Other Man

 Book: The Other Man

Author: Farhad Dadyburjor

Pages: 299

This is my 137th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Heir to his father's Mumbai business empire, Ved Mehra has money, looks, and status.  He is also living as a closeted gay man.  Thirty-eight, lonely, still reeling from a breakup, and under pressure from his exasperated mother, Ved agreed to an arranged marriage.  He regrettably now faces a doomed future with the perfectly lovely Disha Kapoor.  Then Ved's world is turned upside down when he meets Carlos Silva, an American on a business trip in India.  As preparations for his wedding get into full swing,Ved finds himself drawn into a relationship he could never have imagined - and ready to take a bold step.  Ved is ready to embrace who he is and declare his true feelings regardless of family expectatios and staunch traditions.  But with his engagement party just days away, and with so much at risk, Ved will have to fight for what he wants - if it's not too late to get it.  

This book was fine.  Amazon free reads.

Stars: 3 

Book: The Ending Writes Itself

 Book: The Ending Writes Itself

Author: Evelyn Clarke

Pages: 352

This is my 136th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Six authors.  One private island.  72 hours to write the ending that will change their lives.  Arthur Fletch, one of the world's bestselling novelists, is a reclusiv genius known for his iconic protagnoists and fiendish twists.  When six struggling authors are invited to spend a weekend on his private Scottish island, they arrive to discover a shocking secret: Arthur Fletch is dead - and his last book is unfinished.  Desperate to publich the novel, Fletch's agent and editor have summoned these writers in the hope that one of them will imagine a worthy ending for this final book.  To sweeten the deal, they are offering an irresistible prize: in addition to ghost-writing the last chapter - fora mind-boggling sum - they will alos help the lucky writer successfully re-launch their own career, guaranteeing future bestsellers.  The catch: the writers have just 72 hours to finish Fletch's magnum opus.  It's the perfect plot.  All it needs is a killer ending.

This book was fine.  I was hoping for a more exciting story, but I just could not get invested in it.  These writers are given 72 hours to write and most of the book is about them doing anything but.  And of course getting murdered.  The story and the characters did not really grab me.  It get get better toward the end once some things were revealed and it had a decent epilogue.  I have read better locked room mysteries.

Stars: 3