Storm Siren

Storm Siren by Mary Weber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

With all due respect to those who found this a 5-star read, I have to disagree. This one made it just over the 3-star mark for me.

Storm Siren and I got off on the wrong foot. I started it on audio, narrated by Christine Stevens. Sadly, she is just not a voice actor and proved to be a deplorable narrator. Even at 2X speed the audiobook could not be redeemed.

So I switched to ebook format. I probably should have just done that at the outset because I would likely have had a better opinion. As it was, I found Nym to be one of those characters who acts one way at the outset and then out of the blue begins to contradict her own actions. There wasn't sufficient character growth for that to happen.

Character development in general is where this book failed me. World building - yes. Action - yes. Cool elemental powers - yes. But characters? Nope, not at all. The whole "going to parties" thing really tended to bog down the pacing. Eogan just annoyed me as Nym's mentor. He never really settled into the love interest role even remotely. Colin and Breck were refreshing and entertaining as were the costumes worn by Adora. The bad guys were pretty bad, which provided a good contrast.

Overall this was a miss for me. However . . . the sequel, Siren's Fury, has a different narrator. Sampling it offers the possibility of a vast improvement, and we all know that a good narrator can elevate a so-so story. This story has some good elements to it, so hopefully the next installment will be better. I'm going to give it a try.

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The Moon Dwellers

The Moon Dwellers by David Estes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I started reading this as an ebook and just couldn't get into it. But on audio? It's a different book entirely!

This is one of those books that would make a fantastic movie. The action gets going and never lets up; there are chases and bombings and shootouts and escapes and outlaws and even a cannibal! Oddly, none of these situations are out of line with the plot, which is just a girl trying to put her family back together. They've been arrested and split up between prisons and an orphanage, and she's determined to break everyone out and reunite them. In the process, she picks up a couple of friends and crosses paths with the President's son and his right hand man.

The characters here are all well-developed and even endearing. Adele starts out seeming like a total badass, but her compassionate and sensitive side quickly emerges. Tristan is just a likable guy. He's not too pretentious or overly noble in his view of his father's politics. I think the best part for me was that neither of these two characters took themselves too seriously. When reading this previously in print, some of the dialogue and inner monologues seemed forced, like the book was trying too hard to be funny. But on audio, Julia Whelan and Will Damron are able to give such personality to the characters that they translated as having somewhat of a wry wit. Rock, who is Tristan's sidekick and best friend, has some of the best lines. This isn't a funny book at all, but there are occasional moments when things are a bit lighter. And that's good, because with all the serious action going on there needed to be some high points.

Rivet, the big bad guy, was somewhat underdeveloped. He was evil - but why? We really knew nothing about him other than he was the head of a goon squad and a brief physical description of him. What was his motivation? There was also a band of outlaws who were never really well-defined. They popped in and out of the story very briefly and it seemed a shame, because the leader had a lot of potential to be an interesting side character - maybe one that could have been morally gray. Maybe we'll see him again in the sequel.

Overall this was a great read, made even better by the narrators. They gave the story presence and atmosphere - I was right there in the damp caves with hard stone floors and utter darkness. The audio was really, really well done.

These two narrators also do the sequels in the series. I can't wait to move on to the next book.


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Light in the Shadows

Light in the Shadows by A. Meredith Walters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Now this is my kind of New Adult recovery story.

In this sequel to Find You In the Dark, we pick up where things left off - Clay is in therapy at a mental health facility and Maggie is back home trying to get over him. Clay's recovery is precarious at best, and he's told Maggie to move on. Of course she can't, neither can he, and when he has to return to their town they have to face their issues.

And face them they do. This time it's without all the drama, which was so refreshing! This is a well-written story about recovery, triggers, things that cause relapse and a true commitment to just get better. There is real honesty and struggle here. At times it's raw and at times it's frustrating. But Walters hit the mark when she refused to bring the plot to a big terrible climax. The other shoe didn't need to drop, it needed to get figured out. And it does.

She's given us rich, realistic characters here that example the best way to deal with terrible situations. Clay and Maggie may have been a bit mature for their years, but in their respective situations they had to be. Mental illness is always a difficult subject because it is so full of tragedy. Where Find You In the Dark was full of destructive behavior and emotionally taxing, this sequel was full of hope. Young Adults need to be reading this stuff.

Bravo to Walters for taking on such a scary, complicated issue. And bravo for giving us characters who cared about overcoming it and had no illusions about how hard it would be - or would continue to be. This is a happy ending I can appreciate.

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Boneshaker

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fantasy, steampunk, the old west, the American Civil War, and zombies. This book has it all.

The premise here is a really interesting one. The story opens with a bit of a history lesson about the purchase of the Alaskan Territory by the US from Russia. Set in the mid-1800's, it involves the gold rush and the invention of a machine designed to dig through ice and tundra in order to extricate gold. It's invented in Seattle, goes haywire during a test and destroys the city. In the process it digs deep enough to release gases which turn people into zombies - the high functioning kind that can run and climb. Seattle is evacuated and a wall is built to keep the zombies and gas inside. The widow and son of the machine's inventor are ostracized as they live in The Outskirts, the city next to Seattle formed by the evacuation. In the rest of the US the Civil War rages on in an altered, fictional future.

So suffice it to say that the world building here is spectacular. It is gritty and desperate. Priest has even done so good a job as to make it difficult to breathe and claustrophobic at times. The action is palpable. The description is rich. The situations are dire. And the whole thing doesn't bog down at all as the events happen.

The characters here are all well-developed and multi-faceted. Briar, the main character, is determined but knows her limitations. Zeke is brash and young but not altogether stupid. He has just enough sense to be his mother's son. Swakhammer (what a great name for a guy in a novel like this!), Lucy, Captain Cly and Minnericht were all entertaining and excellent supporting characters - I was drawn in by them and kept interested with their unfolding backstories.

The plot here is what really takes center stage. Getting to the bottom of the mystery is really the point. Zeke's motives for entering the city become more and more cloudy as the story progresses, but the overall story of Levi Blue and his motives become clearer. It's a nice interplay.

On audio, the book is narrated from two points of view by Kate Reading and Wil Wheaton. Reading, while expressive, tended to be a bit stiff. Wheaton on the other hand was fantastic. Reading's expression was obviously limited by her character's voice, as Wheaton's was enhanced. Overall the narration was great and enhanced the story.

There are several more books in this series but they appear to be companion novels, set in the same world but stand-alones, occasionally picking up a character or two from this novel. I doubt I'll be continuing simply because this isn't my genre of choice. But if I am in the mood again for steampunk, this world is where I'll look first.

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Find You in the Dark

Find You in the Dark by A. Meredith Walters
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My impressions after finishing this book: emotionally exhausting, sad, tragic. This is dysfunctional love on a highly elevated level.

This is the story of Maggie, high school senior with a boring life. She's a bit emo and self-pitying despite having wonderful parents who love her and a couple of wonderful friends. The book is told in first person and when we meet her, initially Maggie seems to be an average girl, happy but bored with her life. But as soon as her conversations with her friends begins her sarcastic voice emerges. On the one hand it gave her character some depth - but on the other hand it was just annoying. This is a girl with a great home life and good friends, so why does she need to be so stand-offish? If all this can be attributed to her insecurity, it makes sense. Otherwise it's completely at odds with the person we meet at the outset.

It is also the story of Clay. Poor guy, he's the new kid at school and as soon as Maggie crashes into him he's confronted with her arrogant attitude. The mystery that surrounds him is well done. I didn't guess his situation as much as recognize it. It's always nice to discover a plot rather than predict it. He's a great guy in a bad situation, trying desperately to overcome his demons with both a lack of support and a high schooler's perspective. Even as we root for him we're torn up by his innate inability to fix himself.

The relationship between Maggie and Clay was just tragic - and this because it was so realistic. It was painful to watch because it was so much like real life. Believable? Absolutely. Entertaining? Not so much. These characters were well-developed, full of depth, rich, even likable at times. But overall they were painful to watch as they tried to navigate a situation that in real life ends badly.

There's no cliffhanger but not really a happy ending, either. On the one hand it's a relief that things came to a head and finally it's over. On the other hand it's worth picking up the sequel just to see how things turn out. The sequel promises to hold the same types of struggle that the this one does, but hopefully with a more uplifting ending.

This book is heart-wrenching and hard to read. Great characters? Check. Good writing? Check. Entertaining? Not so much. Tragedy is hard even when it's as well done as this is.

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Looking for Trouble (Jackson: Girls Night Out #1)

Looking for Trouble by Victoria Dahl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well now here's refreshing plot. Daughter and son of parents who had an affair are attracted to each other. Romance ensues. Hmmm.

As romance stories go, this is pretty average. Gorgeous girl hides behind a retro, librarian facade (and she really is a librarian). Gorgeous hunk rides a motorcycle and doesn't do relationships. Nothing is unexpected here.

But Dahl did put a nice spin on the plot. It's a small town, so she uses the stigma of adultery to capitalize on the relationships within the families and the town at large. Politics and gossip lean everyone one way while reality balances it another. The social pariahs raised some sense of injustice so I wasn't just interested in these characters, I was emotionally invested in the story.

The characters were believably developed. Also refreshing was the way they behaved; they may have had distorted reasons for their behavior but at least it was realistic on some level. The romance wasn't so much sweet as savory, a welcome change in the genre. It maintained a nice balance between sugary sweetness and the tart sense of the forbidden.

This is a decidedly above average book for me - I'd give it 3.25 stars. It's an easy read in one sitting. And hopefully it's a taste of good things to come from this author. I'm looking forward to the next one in the series.

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The Heir (The Selection #4)

The Heir by Kiera Cass
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

No, no no no no. Just, no.

The Heir is the start to a spin-off series following The Selection, which is a trilogy: The Selection, The Elite and The One. The trilogy details a process by which a wife is found for the prince elect of a dystopian USA ruled by a monarchy. In it several girls vie for the attention of Prince Maxon and one finally wins his heart.

Fast forward 20 years and Maxon and America, his queen, are the parents of four children: 18-year old twins Eadlyn and Ahren and two younger sons. Eadlyn is seven minutes older than her brother Ahren and the laws have been changed, so she is the Queen Elect. The country is in turmoil since the caste system has been thrown out. So the royals decide that they need to distract the people with another Selection - this time finding a husband for Eadlyn. Eadlyn is reluctant but deigns to suffer the process because she feels it's her duty.

This story was done relatively well in the previous trilogy. Although America was frustrating at times, she had some sense of her own faults. In this case, Cass is working with a storyline that's already been done once. She could have changed it up dramatically with the idea that it's guys trying to win the princess's hand, but unfortunately it missed the mark. Not only that but she's created a main character here that is simply insufferable.

In fact, my primary problem with this book was the main character. I don't like shallow, self-absorbed, selfish, arrogant people in real life, so it stands to reason that I certainly wouldn't want to read about one. This girl had so few redeeming qualities that I was shouting at my iPod as I listened. She was such a martyr! For someone who was supposedly so devoted to her people she was completely clueless. Her cries of failure as she attempted to fix the country's problems with this selection process was indicative of the type of leader she was: out of touch with her kingdom, insensitive and even cruel at times. When people told her the truth she either fell into a pity party or she got angry. The times she was civil to those around her were so colored by her selfishness that I never had one ounce of sympathy for her.

The problems didn't stop there. With the Selection trilogy we had not just character development but we got a feel for the state of the country. Clear examples of the archaic legal system helped create a world that we could at least imagine. In this case, we have no idea what's going on in the country at large. There are numerous references to "unrest in the provinces" but where was the action? Where was the threat? There are rumors that an uprising is brewing to overthrow the monarchy, but they were vague and only referenced via the nightly news and daily papers. We never got a character to connect us to this potential uprising.

Even the character development fell short. There are several endearing characters, guys involved in the Selection. Distinct personalities emerge. But while Cass gave us strong, confident leaders in Maxon and America in The Selection, now they have apparently devolved into old and tired romantics who both refuse to inform their daughter about their experiences and indulge her in every way possible. They are terrible parents. Prince Maxon was strong and decisive. King Maxon is just stressed out and weak. America had a heart for her people and a respect for Prince Maxon - Queen America is removed and too busy with royal affairs to be much of a mom.

The plot seemed to drag along with endless instances of Eadlyn either demeaning those around her or foolishly thinking that her life was hard and everyone was against her. The side characters made it interesting as they had glancing influences on the Princess. It wasn't uninteresting, it was just frustrating. I nearly DNF'd this book just out of disgust for such a self-involved brat. That said, there are a couple of instances where side characters call Eadlyn to account - especially her brother - and my sense of justice was appeased. It was enough to keep reading, at least. There is a climax at the end of the book which rang hollow; honestly, I didn't even care and I felt as if I should have cared a lot.

The book is narrated on audio by Brittany Pressley, who does a great job of voicing each character. She was able to distinguish the male voices well. They sounded similar but were each distinct in very slight ways. And her accents were spot on.

There is always the possibility that Keira Cass has written this main character and the book simply to set up a redemption story in the next one. It's always interesting to see who she'll choose - but I'll be checking reviews before I pick up the sequel. Even a cliffhanger didn't make me want the next book.



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