Review: A Dangerous Year by Kes Trester

A Dangerous Year

by Kes Trester

Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

Pages: 255

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Seventeen-year-old Riley Collins has grown up in some of the world’s most dangerous cities, learning political strategies from her ambassador dad and defensive skills from his security chief. The only thing they didn’t prepare her for: life as an American teenager.

After an incident forces her to leave her Pakistani home, Riley is recruited by the State Department to attend Harrington Academy, one of the most elite boarding schools in Connecticut. The catch: she must use her tactical skills to covertly keep an eye on Hayden Frasier, the daughter of a tech billionaire whose new code-breaking spyware has the international intelligence community in an uproar.

Disturbing signs begin to appear that Riley’s assignment wasn’t the walk in the park she’d been promised. Now, Riley must fight for her life and Hayden’s, as those around her reveal themselves to be true friends or the ultimate betrayers. 

Kritters Thoughts:  Riley Collins hasn't had the typical childhood, she has missed out on the traditional experience, but at the same time has had some that are out of this world.  She has a little blip on the radar and this sets quite a few things in motion.  She is sent to the United States and must try to disguise herself as an American teenager while also completing a mission.

This was such a fun read.  It was easy to get into and invest in Riley Collins and hope for her to succeed and maybe even get a few life experiences.  I don't read a ton of YA partly because I just can't relate to the main character and I tend to get frustrated by them and their ways, but this one struck a great chord.  

I loved that this was a boarding school book, but had a great twist with a little mystery and drama!  If you are a fan of YA then you will love this one.  If you are like me and tend to limit your YA reading, I think this one will be a good one off to enjoy.  As a mystery reader, the way that Kes Trester put together the book was just right and the flow and the story were spot on.


Rating: perfect YA read

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from BooksSparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: Clear to Lift by Anne A Wilson

Clear to Lift

by Anne A Wilson

Publisher: Forge Books

Pages: 320

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Navy helicopter pilot Lt. Alison Malone has been assigned to a search and rescue team based at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada, near the rugged peaks of the Sierra Nevada, and far from her former elite H-60 squadron. A rule follower by nature, Alison is exasperated and outraged every time she flies with her mission commander, "Boomer" Marks, for whom military procedures are merely a suggestion. Alison is desperate to be transferred out of the boonies, where careers stagnate, and back to her life and fiancé in San Diego.

Alison's defenses start to slip when she meets mountain guide Will Cavanaugh during a particularly dicey mission. Will introduces her to a wild, beautiful world of adventure that she has never known before. Stranded on a mountain during a sudden dangerous blizzard, Alison questions every truth she thought she knew about herself. When Will braves the storm to save her life, she must confront the fact that she has been living a lie. But is it too late to change course?


Kritters Thoughts:  Alison Malone is engaged and a navy helicopter pilot stationed in Nevada, far from her fiance in San Diego.  She wants this to be just a stop before she can reunite and marry her safe option and start a family.  Although she has always taken the safe route her job is anything but safe as she flies in the craziest of situations to search and rescue climbers, accident victims or just explorers.  

I loved Alison's story.  It was half adventure half romance.  As the daughter of an aeronautical engineer, I have always had a fascination with aviation, so to read a book with a lot of detail about flying a helicopter and the ins and outs of search and rescue was intriguing.  I say all this to warn you that there was a lot of procedural and flying terms and such and there were some moments where it felt overwhelming.  I don't think I would say it should be edited out, but it stunted the flow of the story sometimes.

I enjoyed the characters and the main plot.  I loved Alison's journey.  

Anne Wilson has another book Hover that I am intrigued to read.  Knowing going in that there will definitely be some aviation terms and things, I think I would enjoy it.


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from BookSparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: The Lucidity Project by Abbey Campbell Cook

The Lucidity Project

by Abbey Campbell Cook

Publisher: She Writes Press

Pages: 286

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Depression has haunted twenty-five-year-old Max Dorigan her entire life. After years of unsuccessful treatment and a failed suicide attempt, Max agrees to join The Lucidity Project, a program at a mysterious health and wellness resort in the Caribbean where, she soon finds, the people are just as troubled as she is, only in a different way. They claim to have psychic powers. They claim they can see ghosts. They claim Max is one of them. Max refuses to pay much attention until Dr. Micah McMoneagle, the charismatic head of the project, reveals he s found a way to allow people to enter each other s dreams. Now, instead of discussing their issues in talk therapy, Max and her new gifted friends can symbolically work through their problems on the astral plane. Together they embark on a magical, transformational journey through dreamtime to reveal the causes of the things that are holding them back an adventure that ultimately awakens them to who they really are, and what they came to earth to do. 


Kritters Thoughts:  This may have been a little outside my wheelhouse, but I still enjoyed it.

Max Dorigan has been battling depression for awhile and has tried all the remedies and nothing has worked.  After a failed suicide attempt, she is almost willing to try anything to "cure" her depression and start living a healthy and happy life.  So off she goes to the Caribbean and where she ends up is the story.  

So I am not a magical realism/fantasy girl, but with a majority of human characters this danced the line enough for me.  If you aren't one to read a book with some fantastical elements, try this one, it was a good combination of real world and fantasy world.  

The big thing that helped me like this book even more was the main character Max.  I can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but I connected with her and I was intrigued by her and wanted to know more.  She felt real and vulnerable and I really wanted to hear her story and journey.  Characters can sometimes make or break a book and Max for me made this book.  

Again, I am not a huge fantasy fan and I wouldn't put this completely on the fantasy shelf, but there are a few ghosts and goblins that make appearances, but it all worked for me.


NOTE I put cure in quotes because I am well aware that depression can't be cured, but maybe it can be tamed so that someone can live what they deem as a healthy and happy life.





Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from BookSparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: Swear on this Life by Renee Carlino

Swear on this Life

by Renee Carlino

Publisher: Atria Books

Pages: 320

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  When a bestselling debut novel from mysterious author J.Colby becomes the literary event of the year, Emiline reads it reluctantly. As an adjunct writing instructor at UC San Diego with her own stalled literary career and a bumpy long-term relationship, Emiline isn’t thrilled to celebrate the accomplishments of a young and gifted writer.

Yet from the very first page, Emiline is entranced by the story of Emerson and Jackson, two childhood best friends who fall in love and dream of a better life beyond the long dirt road that winds through their impoverished town in rural Ohio.

That’s because the novel is patterned on Emiline’s own dark and desperate childhood, which means that “J. Colby” must be Jase: the best friend and first love she hasn’t seen in over a decade. Far from being flattered that he wrote the novel from her perspective, Emiline is furious that he co-opted her painful past and took some dramatic creative liberties with the ending.

The only way she can put her mind at ease is to find and confront “J. Colby,” but is she prepared to learn the truth behind the fiction?


Kritters Thoughts:  A story within a story and done so well!  Emiline has been trying to write and has yet to find the right subject to write about as she is instructing students on how to write!  A childhood friend has written a story and she comes to realize it is her story.  But does he have the right to write her story.  

First there is Emiline's story and the reader gets to see where Emiline is now and the spot in life that she is at - spoiler alert, not a great spot.  Then instead of flashing back to her childhood like most books do, Renee Carlino geniusely includes the fictional tale that her childhood best friend wrote.  We, the reader, don't know what of this fiction is true or false until Emiline starts reacting to the story, but it was such an inventive way to put a story within a story.  

There were some definite flat moments and maybe even sometimes when I didn't love Emiline as the main character, but they weren't enough to make me put the book down or completely hate it.  I think I just wanted her to learn her lesson just a little bit quicker.  I would still recommend this to readers because just the format is interesting to read. 


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from BookSparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: Perfectly Good Crime by Dete Meserve

Perfectly Good Crime

by Dete Meserve

Publisher: Melrose Hill Publishing

Pages: 288

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  When the estates of the 100 wealthiest Americans are targeted in a series of sophisticated, high tech heists, Los Angeles TV news reporter Kate Bradley must venture inside the world of the super rich to investigate the biggest story of the year. 

As the heists escalate, Kate’s search is thwarted when the Los Angeles police detective she’s been working with mysteriously disappears, her senator father demands that she stop reporting on the heists, and the billionaire victims refuse to talk to the media. Kate uncovers clues that those behind the robberies have shocking, yet uplifting, motives—it just may be a perfectly good crime that brings about powerful change. 

Further complicating her life is a dream job awaiting her in New York, a choice that could shatter from her deepening relationship with Fire Captain Eric Hayes. Kate must trust her instincts—and her heart—in a high stakes search that will test everything she believes and force her to decide where she belongs. 


Kritters Thoughts:  Most who dun it mysteries have a murder in them, this one did not.  Instead of trying to find a killer and their motive, this book the reader is trying to find the robber and their motive when explained is interesting and intriguing.  

I love mysteries, they are by far my favorite kind of story at the moment.  I have read quite a bit where a murder is the investigation and I still enjoy those, but I liked that this one was different.  If you like an investigation, but have read a lot of murders or through the eyes of police - this one will be a refreshing break.  

I loved following a journalist through the ins and outs of the investigation - especially when she is dating a fireman and may have an inside loop into the police force.  I loved how she got information and then her approach to journalism.  Of course it made it even more interesting that she was the daughter of a senator.  So in all this, I loved the character of Kate which was vital in this story as she is the reader's only in to the story.  

I had no idea when I was pitched this book that it was book two in a series, I feel like I was missing a little bit from not having read book one, but I will definitely be going back and reading it before I venture onto the next book.


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from BookSparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: The Sweetheart Deal by Polly Dugan

The Sweetheart Deal

by Polly Dugan

Publisher: Little Brown

Pages: 320

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Leo has long joked that, in the event of his death, he wants his best friend Garrett, a lifelong bachelor, to marry his wife, Audrey. One drunken night, he goes so far as to make Garrett promise to do so. Then, twelve years later, Leo, a veteran firefighter, dies in a skiing accident. 

As Audrey navigates her new role as widow and single parent, Garrett quits his job in Boston and buys a one-way ticket out west. Before long, Audrey's feelings for Garrett become more than platonic, and Garrett finds himself falling for Audrey, her boys, and their life together in Portland. When Audrey finds out about the drunken pact from years ago, though, the harmless promise that brought Garrett into her world becomes the obstacle to his remaining in it.

Kritters Thoughts:  Two men are friends from a young age, through high school and then into adulthood.  One decides to be a firefighter while raising a family and sees the danger in his daily life due to the job he chose.  One New Years eve he is really feel the anxiety and asks his best friend to swear that if he were to die, he would marry his wife and help raise the three boys they have.  Trust me no spoilers, but he does in a skiing accident and Garrett is held to the promise he made on a drunken New Years eve.  

First, this may be minor, but I love how this book was written.  Most of the characters involved in the story get an opportunity to tell the story from their perspective.  The wife of the deceased, the friend and all three of their sons each take chapters to move the story along and tell their story.  I LOVE multiple perspective books, I love seeing the same story from more than just one character's point of view.  

This book felt familiar.  The storyline felt familiar, but not in a negative way in the least.  I feel as though I have recently read a book where a dying wish was made and the characters felt as though they had to do anything to uphold the wishes of the deceased.  This plot was also easy to predict.  BUT the ending.  Without spoiling anything, I felt as though this book ended in such a weird spot and I wouldn't have minded a chapter or two more.  I was almost nervous that I was missing a few pages!

After reading this book, I looked up the author and was excited to see that she has another book published, so I am in pursuit to read that one and see if she will be added to my authors to watch.  


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from BooksSparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: Everybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford

Everybody Rise

by Stephanie Clifford

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Pages: 400

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  It's 2006 in the Manhattan of the young and glamorous. Money and class are colliding in a city that is about to go over a financial precipice and take much of the country with it. At 26, bright, funny and socially anxious Evelyn Beegan is determined to carve her own path in life and free herself from the influence of her social-climbing mother, who propelled her through prep school and onto the Upper East Side. Evelyn has long felt like an outsider to her privileged peers, but when she gets a job at a social network aimed at the elite, she's forced to embrace them.

Recruiting new members for the site, Evelyn steps into a promised land of Adirondack camps, Newport cottages and Southampton clubs thick with socialites and Wall Streeters. Despite herself, Evelyn finds the lure of belonging intoxicating, and starts trying to pass as old money herself. When her father, a crusading class-action lawyer, is indicted for bribery, Evelyn must contend with her own family's downfall as she keeps up appearances in her new life, grasping with increasing desperation as the ground underneath her begins to give way.

Kritters Thoughts:  Evelyn grew up just on the outskirts of everything, she went to the fancy prep school, but wasn't in the in crowd.  She lived in New York City, but just one block away from where you were "supposed" to live, so when she gets the chance to be IN she may go overboard and go ALL IN!

Evelyn was a great character to follow into this world.  I thought her perspective was fun, not unique, but at least fun!  I thought the main plot of her working for an exclusive Facebook or MySpace was a great way to get her to reunite with her prep school alums and give her a reason to return to that world.  When a book doesn't have a ton of action, the plot and characters must be enough and this one had enough for a summer afternoon of reading.

If you don't enjoy a good WASPy tale of society, then don't pick this one up.  There isn't much action to speak of, but there is plenty of society parties and society do this and do that and don't do this and don't do that - so this Gossip Girl fan enjoyed this book!  



Rating:  definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from BooksSparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: 25 Sense by Lisa Henthorn

25 Sense

by Lisa Henthorn

Publisher: SparkPress

Pages: 192

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Claire Malone didn t mean for this to happen when she moved to New York. She just wanted to live the city life and gain experience in television writing, her dream career. It s not like she meant to reciprocate when her married boss, Sean Vared, sent her flirty e-mails. And you can t blame her for coming into the office on the weekend when Sean told her he was going to be there . . . alone. She didn t mean to sleep with him but hey, she wanted to experience the city life, so no big deal, right? Wrong. By the time Claire wakes up on her 25th birthday, she s very much in love with Sean. At work, she struggles to hold it together when he passes her desk the very desk that they used to make love on. Soon Sean has turned his affection to the show s starring actress, and Claire is devastated. Can she break away from Sean without ruining her barely started career? Will someone find out what happened? Will she ever grow up and stop making stupid mistakes? 


Kritters Thoughts:  A coming of age where a young woman is out of college and trying to find her path in relationships and her career.  Claire is turning 25 and that is the age where "adulting" begins and you can see the full impact of the decisions you make both personally and professionally - the quarter life crisis!  

I enjoyed Claire as a character - she had flaws, but wasn't whining and making the same mistakes over and over again, she was learning from the mistakes and trying to correct herself.  

Behind the scenes will always be one of my favorite kind of stories.  Claire takes us behind the scenes of tv, but more specifically writing for tv and uniquely in New York City.  Although I have read quite a few of these kind of stories, the uniqueness of location and being in the writers room was so fun.  

I definitely liked this one, there isn't anything that blew me away, but is one of those purely entertaining reads.


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from BookSparks Press.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: Gridley Girls by Meredith First

Gridley Girls

by Meredith First

Publisher: SparkPress

Pages: 400

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Sometimes you have to go back before you can move forward. Meg Monahan feels like she was born to be a secret keeper. From the moment she became a peer counselor in high school, Meg has been keeping her friends secrets from sordid family drama to their sex lives that she never wanted to know. Flash forward to adulthood when Meg is a recruiter for the world's hippest (and most paranoid) high-tech company and now Meg is a professional secret keeper. When sudden tragedy strikes before Meg hosts the wedding of her childhood BFF, Anne Calzaretta, the women are forced to face their past and their secrets in order to move on to their future. In 1978, Meg, Anne, Jennifer, and Tonya were such close friends, they were known as The Group in their hometown of Gridley, California. But in ninth grade, their lives were changed forever. Loss, lies, and secrets separated them, but could not break their bonds of friendship. Thirty years later, Meg and Anne reminisce about those days dealing with parents, school, boys, sex, love, and betrayal. Anne remembers their freshman year as an easier time, but Meg, still feeling guilty about a betrayal of Anne s trust, is haunted. Even now, Meg is keeping a secret she s not prepared to face, let alone share.


Kritters Thoughts:  Meg Monahan still lives in the city where she was raised and is still living with the reputation of being the good girl of the crowd.  All of her friends trusted her with their secrets in high school and some she kept and some she may have shared.  This has been haunting her and many years later she needs to come clean and clear the air with her childhood friends.

This book had chapters that moved from stories of their days in high school to their current story.  I loved this format and I honestly enjoyed both the past and the present.  In most books where there are two types of stories, I usually prefer one over the other, but this one I really couldn't pick I loved them both!  

I loved this book that solely focused on friendship.  Because this book spans a lot of years, the reader gets to see how female friendships can change and evolve over a range of years.  

I will definitely be on the lookout for Meredith First's next book!

Rating: perfect beach read

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from BookSparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: Glass Shatters by Michelle Meyers

Glass Shatters

by Michelle Meyers

Publisher: She Writes Press

Pages: 228

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  A man wakes up in a living room he doesn t recognize, unable to remember anything about himself. All he has are the few remnants of his identity scattered throughout the house clues to his past. He soon learns that he is Charles Lang, a brilliant scientist whose wife, Julie, and daughter, Jess, mysteriously disappeared several years ago. Soon, he begins to recover memories memories that may or may not be his own and as he does, he realizes that only by uncovering the details of his former life will he have any hope of being reunited with Julie and Jess. A haunting tale of love and longing, fate and free will, and the easily blurred lines between fiction and reality, Glass Shatters explores the risks of trying to reinvent oneself, and the dangers of pushing science to its limits."


Kritters Thoughts:  What I thought would be a mystery/thriller book ended up being a mystery/thriller with an interesting sci fi twist.  I don't tend to read much sci fi, but this was still rooted in the mystery feel, so I sort of enjoyed the amount of science fiction in this book.

Charles Lang wakes up and doesn't know where he is, who he is or what is going on around him.  With a young girl and woman as a neighbor who seem familiar and an old man roaming around his home.  Hopefully his neighbors can help him find the truth.

Using Charles' search for the truth helped drive the story and kept me the reader involved and I like those kind of stories where you are figuring things out with the main character. 

I am not sure if I "got" all of the science, but the things that I may not have understood didn't ruin the book for me, so I am ok with that.  Every once in awhile I don't mind if I leave a book not "getting" it all.

If you are an avid reader of the mystery genre and don't read much science fiction like me, then you may enjoy this one.  


Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Booksparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: How to Grow an Addict by JA Wright

How to Grow an Addict

by JA Wright

Publisher: She Writes Press

Pages: 300

Format: ebook

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Randall Grange has been tricked into admitting herself into a treatment center and she doesn’t know why. She’s not a party hound like the others in her therapy group—but then again, she knows she can’t live without pills or booze. Raised by an abusive father, a detached mother, and a loving aunt and uncle, Randall both loves and hates her life. She’s awkward and a misfit. Her parents introduced her to alcohol and tranquilizers at a young age, ensuring that her teenage years would be full of bad choices, and by the time she’s twenty-three years old, she’s a full-blown drug addict, well acquainted with the miraculous power chemicals have to cure just about any problem she could possibly have—and she’s in more trouble than she’s ever known was possible. 


Kritters Thoughts:  For some reason this synopsis pulled me in when I was pitched the book and I thought this book would be an interesting read about a woman who becomes an addict and how it happened.  What I read was a long winded excuse of a woman's life that she uses as an excuse as to why she becomes an addict. 

This fiction read like memoir and it didn't work for me.  The parents frustrated me and there were too many moments when I wanted them to get it together and be actual parents.  I think what made me the most frustrated was there was not one redeeming character in the book that I could put my hope on.

If you enjoy the soap opera shows then you could enjoy this one more than me.


Rating: not such a good read

Ebook 2015 Challenge:  54 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from BookSparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.