Quest Chasers: The Deadly Cavern
by Thomas Lockhaven
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Quest Chasers was a cute adventure story of two kids who follow and adventure and have to work through a number of puzzles or quests to get through the adventure.
This book reminded me of The Magic Treehouse book series in a number of ways and as I loved those books and read them with my kids when they were much younger, I think this would be a good, more modern book to do some of the same things as that series.
Although, the story starts with Drew - he is the one who found the mystery and told Evie and Tommy about it, yet he is left completely out of the adventure after the beginning. I am still unsure why the author chose to leave him out. I think the trio would have made a more believable group.
Overall though, I found it cute and adventuresome. Great for the young reader to keep their interest and engage the mind.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I received an ARC.
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Witchy Woman (Book 2, The Necromancer): Psychic Suspense
by Pamela M. Richter
My rating: 4.2 of 5 stars
This is the second book in a series, and to be honest I did not read the first book, but it did not hamper me from being able to enjoy and understand this book. Most of the highlights of the first book, or the things that I really needed to know to understand this book were retold in memories or nightmares, or some other form that allowed you to know what had happened yet it still fit into the book wonderfully.
Michelle, may or maybe not be a bit of a witch, and that has nothing to do with here personality. She's still not sure she believes it, but Omar believed it enough to have her attacked, raped, kidnapped and almost killed twice now. Thankfully he is in jail, well at least his was until this morning. Michelle can't believe he got released on bail already, but she also doesn't think he is stupid enough to do anything to her while he is being watched. Of course, Michelle has no idea how desperate Omar really is.
Her first day back to work is hectic, and she has plans with her best friend Heather to go to the grocery, since both of them are out of food. She calls to let her know she is running late, then calls when she is heading to the parking garage, but when Michelle isn't home an hour later, Heather knows something is wrong. Good thing for Michelle, Heather is on top of everything, and bad for Omar.
Within hours, Omar has kidnapped Michelle and moved her car back to her apartment, left a message at work that she is sick and thinks that no one will be looking for her and that he has a couple days if not a week before anyone notices that she really is gone. He has a wicked plan and unfortunately it involves drugging Michelle to get her to cooperate or at least not resist.
Back in Hawaii, within those same hours, Michelle has alerted her new boyfriend Mike, Michelle's boyfriend Rod, who has dealt with Omar before, and Professor Vincent MIddleton, who was involved the first time around, and they are already searching for Michelle. They may be about twelve hours behind Omar, but they are determined not to let him win, they all want Michelle back now.
This was a good book. It is well written and the characters are well developed. Omar is someone that you will hate immediately, he has no redeeming qualities, he is just pure evil and it comes across in everything he does to try to force Michelle to come to him. Michelle is strong and a fighter, and she has learned to stand up for herself and she is not about to let some slimey guy take control of her life. She has amazing friends that will do anything for her and that is what is probably the best part of the story.
One note - anyone who has dealt with fertility issues might find a trigger in this book. You might do fine reading it or it might bring on memories and thoughts, depending on your personal experiences. I know how touchy the subject can be so I wanted to give a warning.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I received an ARC of this book. This is my honest and truthful review.
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The Black
by Neil Mosspark
My rating: 4.1 of 5 stars
Without warning one morning ten years ago, a black dome appeared over what was then Toronto. No one knew were it came from or why, but thousands of people died, and a huge area around it was off limits. Governments began working together, sorta, to try to figure out what it was and what to do about it, and that lead to Dave's current job. He trainers miners to try to tunnel far enough under the edge of the black dome to see if they can get inside.
Nothing ever goes as planned, and when they finally start getting a tunnel far enough in, strange things start happening that threaten to derail the whole project. A last ditch effort with Dave leading the charge and his best friend, Tony, who has been in the higher ups of this project all along, with him, leads to something completely unexpected!
This is a science fiction novel, and tells an engaging story that has you reading from page one. You want to understand where this black dome came from and what it is doing and you are completely interested in what is going on, and then everything gets completely flipped on its head!
I can't, and won't say why it gets flipped because that would ruin it for future readers, but just know that things are not as they seem, and once Dave has the chance to get inside the Black, all bets are off!
I really enjoyed this book and read it quickly because I couldn't put it down.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I received and ARC copy of this book. This is my honest and truthful review, it was not influenced in any way by receiving a copy of the book.
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