The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was told this series improves as it goes, and that really is true. I started this not knowing if it would be my last Peabody book because the last two were good, but not great. And I found myself really enjoying this one. I think as her son has aged it has added more depth (and a lot of humour) to the characters. And it really is hard to go wrong with a cozy mystery set in Egypt :)
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Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I've been sitting on this review because I still don't know how I felt about this sequel.
It just didn't have the pacing and "wow" of the first book. Quite a bit of time was spent on character back stories, which really should have been explored more in the first book. I also found the "Kaz is always one step ahead" a little unrealistic.
I still love Bardugo's writing, and the Grisha world, but I was ultimately not in love with this book.
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The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I've now read all of Moriarty's books and this is one of my favourites.
I really enjoyed the setting which was much more 'Australiana' than her other books (a small fictional Island off Sydney called Scribbly Gum) and the characters were all loveable and realistic. The mystery was relatively easy to solve, but really wasn't the main purpose of the novel for me. I thought it was much more about family, including unconventional ones, and secrets kept over generations.
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The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I am such a fan of Moriarty since I first read What Alice Forgot many years ago and I have been slowly making my way through all her books.
Perhaps if I had read this one first I would have given it a higher rating, because it is a very good book. Just not her best.
I loved the premise of Ellen, a clinical hypnotherapist, meeting Patrick and then discovering that a relationship with Patrick and his son also comes along with his stalker of 3 years (ex girlfriend Saskia). The rotation of points of view between Ellen and Saskia was very well done and gave us an unexpected sympathy towards a "crazy stalker", but I never really warmed to Patrick and was never really convinced of Ellen's feelings towards him.
The audio narration is very well done and recommended.
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All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
You know when you read a popular book and you think "huh?!"
This.
For what is meant to be Adult SciFi/Fantasy, a large proportion of the book is based around the MCs in school. But then even when they are adults, their characters and dialogue never matures. So you end up with this weird YA vibe, but with occasional course language and a sex scene that just comes out of nowhere.
All of the characters are completely annoying and horrible, save for perhaps the AI, and are just caricatures of stereotypes. The amount of cruelty and bullying violence described was completely unrealistic and a poorly written attempt at character development.
I can't possibly explain all the things wrong with this novel, it is just a massive MESS. I absolutely forced myself to finish it purely because it was a group read with my book club, but otherwise I would have put it down and regretted that purchase by about 15%.
The only reason this gets a second star is because of the occasional Pratchet-esque humour which was the only thing I liked about this book.
Charlie Jane Anders, you are just not for me.
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The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Told as a set of letters from Charlie to an unknown person, this is a coming-of-age story from a boy that just doesn't fit in. He is socially awkward and has no friends since his best friend committed suicide. Then he meets Susan and Patrick who instantly like him for who he is, and become strong friends and allies.
I found the style of this book probably the biggest barrier as Charlie does get tiresome. Although I mostly enjoyed the novel, I found it very slow and I never really had an urge to pick the story back up again.
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Goldenhand by Garth Nix
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was so happy when Clariel was released last year because it had been so long since the Abhorsen series was written, and unexpected that we would get a prequel.
And now here we are with Goldenhand, which although chronologically by publication date is book 5, it is really book 4 as it takes place about 6 months after the events of book 3 (Abhorsen).
This is certainly one of those series that has just gotten better with each book, and Lirael was always one of my favourite characters (book 2 being my favourite in the original trilogy). I love Nix's style of writing because it is Fantasy but without unecessary descriptions or dialogue. I read that unlike other Fantasy authors he does not sketch out a world before writing, he just writes and makes notes for himself as he goes about the world. And I think that really comes through for concise novels with good pacing that leave the reader wanting more and loving the characters.
As a side note, I had the audiobook and the narration was very good (but no longer narrated by Tim Curry as the first 3 books were), but the paperback includes a bonus story at the end so is worth getting your hands on.
Also, the story lines for this series are intertwined so you need to read the whole series before starting this, including the short story in Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories about Nicholas to truly appreciate the book.
Let's hope for a book 6 soon :)
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