Book Review: "Livia Lone" by Barry Eisler

Barry Eisler has done it again. The author of the fantastic series of thrillers featuring John Rain has created another memorable, kick-ass character.

Growing up in Thailand, Labee protected her younger sister, Nason. Labee was brave, feisty, independent, good with tools and with weapons needed to hunt food. One day she and Nason are abducted by a group of traffickers to whom her parents sold them. Labee doesn't understand why they were sold, or what is going to happen to them, but she knows above anything that she must protect Nason. Facing abuse at the hands of their abductors, she constantly tries to keep Nason safe even at her own expense, until one day her rage and protective instinct get the best of her. And that is one of the last times she sees her sister.

When she finds herself rescued in the small town of Llewellyn, Idaho, she isn't sure what to expect, even as she is presented the chance for a new life. Taking the name of Livia, she finds herself not far from the life she knew before despite her surroundings, but the only thing that keeps her surviving on a daily basis is her desire to know what happened to her sister and where she is—and her vow to seek revenge on those who harmed them. She takes this passion for justice and a first-hand knowledge of monsters like her abductors and becomes a sex crimes detective in Seattle. She does everything she can to bring rapists and other criminals to justice, or she handles it her own way when the system fails.

"Sometimes, she almost wanted the prosecutor to say no, or to plea the charges down. It was a reason, an excuse, to do it her way instead. But she knew she had to be careful of that temptation. There was a balance. She respected the system, but she wouldn't be a slave to it."

Slowly but surely she tracks down those responsible for her and Nason's abduction years before. And when she uncovers a massive conspiracy was behind her rescue, for nefarious purposes, she forces herself to relive those days of torture to get the answers she seeks, to try and find what happened to her sister once and for all, and to make people pay. She has waited too long and suffered too much to let anyone get the best of her this time, no matter the risks and no matter what it costs her.

Livia Lone is a dark and disturbing book, but the bravery of its main character and Eisler's storytelling ability make it impossible to put down. Livia is one of the most fascinating female characters I've seen in quite some time, perhaps since first meeting Lisbeth Salander in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. She is raw, passionate, brave, and has a tremendous heart to go along with her physical and mental toughness. This is a young woman who thought she has lived her whole life for one purpose, to find her sister, but really helps so many more people through the work she does.

I love the way Eisler writes, and his facility with both action scenes and suspense are tremendous. Livia seems like a character who would be as fascinating to see on film as she was to read about. I hope to see Livia in another book someday—perhaps joining forces with John Rain?

NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "The Things We Wish Were True" by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

"And yet, Jencey understood, there were the things she wished were true, and there was what was actually true. She was learning that there was usually a great distance between the two.

Sycamore Glen, North Carolina is one of those small towns. You know, the ones where everyone knows everyone's business, where people remain entangled in each other's lives from childhood on, where secrets are hidden just out of sight. Bryte grew up in Sycamore Glen, pining for the boy her best friend dated, wanting a love and life to call her own, and years later, she has everything she wanted. But behind her happiness lies a secret, and the pressure to hide it may cause her to risk everything she holds dear.

It seemed that Jencey had everything she could want while growing up in Sycamore Glen. Yet one day she left without warning, without explanation, leaving those who loved and cared about her feeling angry, hurt, and betrayed, and forced to rebuild their lives without her. Years later she returns after her life is upended, and her reappearance causes fears to be reawakened, and ripples into other people's lives.

Zell is the neighborhood helper, always the one to bring food to a family dealing with a tragedy, lend support when it is needed, quietly observe what is going on around her. Yet she has her own secrets, things she hopes never come to light despite the fact that they might help someone else. And there is still things she isn't aware of.

One summer, a near tragedy occurs. It brings people together, threatens to tear others apart, and starts to gnaw away at the secrets everyone has hidden away. The courage and curiosity of one brave young girl is both what the town needs and what could potentially destroy relationships and lives.

If The Things We Wish Were True sounds a lot like a soap opera, it definitely has a soapy, melodramatic tone, and I don't mean that in a disparaging way. There's a lot of drama, both real and manufactured, and these people sure do have a lot of buried skeletons! But amidst the secrets and the fears are inherently good people caught up in circumstances they can't control, and the possibility of redemption and happiness where some might have feared there would be none.

I enjoyed this book, but then again, I always loved a good soapy novel every now and again. While some of the plot twists I saw coming pretty early on (and perhaps that's what was intended), Marybeth Mayhew Whalen threw in some surprises as well. At times this book reminded me of a less campy Desperate Housewives (more for the secrets than the mischief-making women) and at other times it reminded me a little of a Liane Moriarty novel, but it didn't try to steal style from anyone.

Whalen keeps you wondering what will become of her characters, whose names annoyed me but they themselves really didn't. This book feels like a good beach read, but it's just a plain good one.

Lake Union Publishing and Kindle First provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "Kindred Spirits" by Rainbow Rowell

"Elena couldn't remember the first time she saw a Star Wars movie...in the same way she couldn't remember the first time she saw her parents. Star Wars had just always been there. There was a stuffed Chewbacca in her crib."

Elena grew up watching the original Star Wars trilogy, as the movies were her dad's favorite. He loved them so much that he made her promise never to see the prequels, because it would corrupt her enjoyment of the movies. But while she loved the films because they made her feel closer to her dad, as she got older, they actually began to mean something to her. They became hers, movies she not only knew by heart but felt in her heart.

When The Force Awakens was getting ready to be released, she was so excited she could barely think. She so wanted this to be a special occasion, so she makes the decision to camp out on line in front of the movie theater for a few days. She envisions bonding with her fellow line-mates, trading movie trivia and inside jokes, building friendships and bestowing nicknames. This will be life-changing.

She's utterly unprepared for the reality of the camping out experience. She's one of only three people waiting. Thanks to global warming it's not that cold, but she worries about having to go the bathroom, and charge her phone, and what it will be like not to shower for a few days. While the two guys waiting with her seem perfectly pleasant, they don't seem like lifelong friend material. Plus, her mother keeps driving by the theater, trying to convince her to come home and go to the movie when it opens, like everyone else.

Kindred Spirits is a sweet short story that fits in perfectly with Rainbow Rowell's other books. It's a story about self-discovery, letting go of your expectations, friendship, and finding others who share your obsessions, particularly those you least expect. (And, like so many of Rowell's books, it's got a healthy dose of fan obsession.) This story was written for World Book Day, and it definitely made me feel warm inside.

I love Rowell's writing (Eleanor & Park is among my absolute faves), so as much as this story touched my heart, it also left me with a full-size longing for another Rowell novel. I enjoyed this story very much, but it was almost too short. Even though it had a complete plot arc, I was sad to see it end so quickly, and wanted more. This is a great appetizer for Rowell fans, but you'll be left hungry for more, and I hope she has something else up her sleeve sometime soon!

Book Review: "Whatever.: Or how junior year became totally f$@cked" by S.J. Goslee

I guess it was only a matter of time before the high school stoner comedy genre got a little more depth. S.J. Goslee's Whatever. is just like your favorite pothead—it makes you laugh and roll your eyes sometimes, you get a little frustrated, but in the end, you enjoy spending time with it, and even think it's pretty sweet.

Mike Tate is about to start his junior year of high school. He has a great group of friends, with whom he plays music in a crappy band, drinks beer, watches one of them attempt one crazy stunt after another, and spends a lot of time getting stoned. He's known his girlfriend, Lisa, for a long time, and she's more like his best friend than his girlfriend a lot of the time. (So what if he doesn't know what to do with her boobs?) But still, he's totally surprised when she breaks up with him and says they were never really dating anyway, and he's even more surprised when she tells him why she broke up with him.

Suddenly Mike finds himself in completely new territory. He's not sure about what he's feeling, or how his friends and family will react. Because Lisa has suckered him into running for vice president of his class, he's now in the midst of student government—and even worse, homecoming. He's even been nominated to the homecoming court. Why can't things just go back to normal. And more importantly, why is Rook Wallace, who terrorized him when they were younger, suddenly smiling at him all the time? Is he trying to subdue him so he can attack him when he least expects it?

Whatever. is about coming to terms with who you are for perhaps the first time in your life, which may feel uncomfortable or strange. It's about friendship, infatuation, confusion, man crushes, fear, and love, as well as a healthy dose of mischief and stupid stunts. And it's about saying the things you want to say even if you're afraid to, even if not everyone will like what you have to say.

I enjoyed this book a lot, and thought it was sweet and funny and thought-provoking. Although I liked Mike's character, and thought that he had a good heart, at times he frustrated me because of the things he didn't say (as well as some of the things he said and did), but I know so many of his actions were realistic. While there isn't much surprising in this book (there were a few things I thought might happen, but they didn't), it's still a tremendously appealing story, and it definitely took me back to my high school days, where fun, confusion, and insecurity reigned equally.

Goslee really captured the teenage voice well, particularly those of teenage boys. This book is just another example of how far YA fiction has come since I was young (there really wasn't any beyond The Hardy Boys back then), and how much the world has changed for the better.

Book Review: "Dark Matter" by Blake Crouch

"If there are infinite worlds, how do I find the one that is uniquely, specifically mine?"

I needed to catch my breath before I wrote this review. Holy hell, what a ride this book took me on!

One night Jason Dessen is cooking dinner in Chicago home with his wife, Daniela, and their teenage son, Charlie. Jason and Daniela share news about old friends who have achieved noteworthy success recently, and think wistfully about how their lives might have been different if they had pursued their own careers, in physics and art respectively, if they hadn't chosen to settle down and raise a child. But Jason knows he is happy with his life, and he's in love with his wife.

Before dinner is ready, Jason walks downtown to join his old college roommate for a celebratory drink. Walking back home later that night, Jason hears footsteps behind him, and the next thing he knows, he's been abducted by a masked, armed man, who forces him to drive to a deserted parking lot. But while he expects to be murdered, he is surprised when his abductor starts asking him questions about his life and his family, including, "Are you happy in your life?"

When Jason wakes up, he is strapped to a gurney, surrounded by people in hazmat suits. Apparently he's been gone for a while, although at first he doesn't know where he is or where he has been. But little by little he realizes that his life as he knew it doesn't exist—to paraphrase The Talking Heads, his wife is not his beautiful wife, his job is different—nothing is as he remembers. He is now a noted scientist who has accomplished something thought impossible. What happened? How did everything change?

Blake Crouch's Dark Matter is an absolutely fascinating story of a man who wakes up to find out that the life he knew didn't exist, no matter how vivid his memories were. But which life is the dream, the one he is in now, or the one he remembers? Can he ever make it back to what he remembered, and if not, what will happen to him?

For fear of giving anything away to those who've not read this yet, the above plot summary just scratches the surface. This book delves into the science of choice, the idea that for every path we take there are many we don't, yet are those threads of our life being lived simultaneously? While the science of this book was a little confusing for someone who took the easiest path to achieving my college science requirements, this is a sci-fi book of surprising emotional depth, crazy twists, and action worthy of a great thriller. So many people have raved about this book and I was worried I wouldn't feel the same way, but I absolutely do. This was surprising and just so excellent. I couldn't get enough.

Kudos to Blake Crouch for such a creative, well-written book. This will make a fantastic movie, but for now, it's one hell of a read, so if you've been wavering about reading it, give it a shot. Suspend your disbelief and get ready for your heart to start beating pretty fast.

Book Review: "Poisonfeather" by Matthew FitzSimmons

Last year, Matthew FitzSimmons took the literary thriller world by storm with his debut novel, The Short Drop. The story of Gibson Vaughn, convicted of hacking into a powerful congressman's files when he was a teenager, and his search for redemption (as well as his entanglement in a political mystery), that book was utterly fantastic and made my list of the best books I read in 2015.

Gibson Vaughn returns in Poisonfeather, FitzSimmons' newest thriller, and although this book is a little overly ambitious for its own good, FitzSimmons makes it clear he knows how to create memorable characters, ratchet up suspense, and write some pretty crackling action scenes.

Charles Merrick was a billionaire famous for bilking average citizens out of their fortunes in a scam similar to that of Bernie Madoff. (Merrick had nothing but disdain for Madoff, however, and felt his operations were much smoother and more sophisticated than Madoff's "Ponzi scheme.") For reasons no one following Merrick's case can understand, he was only sentenced to eight years in a minimum security prison, leaving countless people's lives destroyed by his greed.

As Merrick's release from prison draws closer, an interview he gives to a financial magazine draws quite a bit of attention, as it appears that he is hinting that he didn't actually lose all of the money he stole from his investors. This draws the ire of an unsavory cast of characters from all over the globe, and little by little, many of them converge on the small West Virginia town where Merrick's prison is located.

Vaughn is trying to rebuild his life after the events which occurred in The Short Drop, but with little success. He is summoned to meet with Hammond Birk, the judge who gave him the chance to join the Marines instead of sentencing him to prison for his crimes when he was younger. Judge Birk was among the victims Merrick swindled, and he convinced family members and those who worked for him to invest as well, with disastrous results. And although Birk does not want Vaughn to risk turning his life upside down to try and recover his money, Vaughn feels he owes the judge for the path he was able to take with his life, and begins building a plan to outsmart Merrick.

What Vaughn isn't expecting, however, is how many other people have similar ideas, and how dangerous they are. Not only does he have to contend with those he suspects have been helping Merrick from the inside and outside, he has to deal with the trigger-happy friend of Judge Birk's nephew, who got him involved in this whole scheme in the first place. And then there's a mysterious bartender, a Chinese government official with a passion for fly fishing, a band of dangerous thugs, a gang of criminals with a shoot-first-ask-questions-later philosophy, and the CIA. It's a little more than he bargained for, but all in the name of repaying a debt, right?

I love Vaughn's character, and thought there were a number of characters in this book that FitzSimmons drew quite well, and I hope that some of them might resurface in future books. Where Poisonfeather differed from The Short Drop is that the first book was really about Vaughn and his fight to clear his name, understand his past, and solve a mystery, while in this book, he often takes a back seat to other characters, some more interesting than others. I really felt at times there were just too many characters and too many side stories going on, and even though most of them were tied up by the end of the book, it made the plot more confusing and a little less solid.

FitzSimmons knows how to tell a story, there's no doubt about it. I just wish he trusted in his protagonist more and didn't try to overburden the plot with a gigantic cast of characters. And while it's fun to watch a greedy billionaire get his just desserts, the financial bent of this story took a little more time to explain. But at the end of the day, this is another strong thriller, full of tension, action, and a little emotion, all anchored by a pretty fantastic, complex, and flawed character. I'm looking forward to more from FitzSimmons and Gibson Vaughn in the future.

NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany

So, let me collect myself...

I was a little late to the party with the Harry Potter series, but that was a good thing, so there were three or four books already published when I got hooked. Eventually I had to wait until J.K. Rowling wrote each one, and although I tried to demonstrate some self-control, I'd usually devour them fairly quickly. When the last book was released, I think I waited about six months to read it, because I couldn't fathom the idea of not having any more time with Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the gang. But then I broke down, read it, and broke down again (emotionally).

So when Harry Potter and the Cursed Child came out, you'd think I might want to hoard it for a while, especially in light of Rowling's recent announcement that this would be the last story in the series. Well, I just couldn't. It's Harry freaking Potter, for pity's sake! But given my attachment to the series, would this new story—a play, to boot—live up to my expectations? Would the chemistry between the characters feel the same? Would this generate the same emotional reactions I've felt before?

Yes, yes, and yes.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child takes place 19 years after the last book. Harry is married with three children (if you've still not read the last book in the series, I'll not spoil the surprise of who his wife is), and is barely keeping things afloat as a high-level employee at the Ministry of Magic. His younger son, Albus Severus Potter, is about to start Hogwarts, and isn't too keen on the legacy of being Harry Potter's son following him through school. It doesn't take him long to distinguish himself as utterly different than his father, and his choice of best friend causes him even more alienation at the hands of his fellow students.

As his time at Hogwarts rolls on, Albus grows more and more disenchanted with school and his father. After an argument with Harry one night, Albus makes a decision in the heat of the moment that he wants to undo a wrong his father caused a number of years ago. Little does he know this will set into motion a chain of events which will cause the present, the past, and the future to collide, bringing the threat of danger, grief, loss, and the possible return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. All in all, it's a lot to face.

I'll stop here with the plot description for fear of giving anything away. I absolutely loved this story. Even though it was a little strange reading it as a play rather than a book, I got the old, familiar feelings as I was reading, became both excited and melancholy as old characters returned, and definitely was struck by suspense and trepidation as I wondered how the plot would wrap itself up. This is definitely more a book about Albus than it is about Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, and the rest, but it still touches on the Potter-esque themes of friendship, hope, anger, abandonment, grief, and fear.

"People think they know all there is to know about you, but the best bits of you are—have always been—heroic in really quiet ways."

This is truly a perfect quote to sum up what is so special about Harry Potter. I'm so glad to have had another chance to spend even a short amount of time with these characters, back in their world. I hope Rowling will reconsider again allowing the world more visits with Harry and crew, but until then, this was a worthy nugget to hold on to.