A Colloquy on Books

This review was requested by the author. Charlie Brady has never even thought of the possibility of extraterrestrial life being real. His life had more pressing matters like the Great War and how to survive. That is until one day, one of those very lifeforms physically took him off the planet. The aliens took him several times adding fear about future abductions to his very terrestrial concerns of outrunning the mob and falling in love. Will Charlie be able to survive it all? When I received the message to review Big Orange Flying Dinner Plate, I happily agreed to read and review it. I haven’t read many books about alien abductions so I wanted to take a shot at reading this book. Since I haven’t read a lot about alien abductions and since it is a topic that can be interpreted very differently by every single person, I did not have any expectations as I went into this book. With that being said, I didn’t enjoy it. The narrative style of the book was weird and there were moments where th...

This review was requested by the author. Greg Chase is the youngest police consultant working with the NYPD. As a sixteen year old with an eidetic memory and a knack for solving puzzles, there’s no other job that suits him better. Forced to leave his job after a case gone wrong and the death of a suspect, Greg returns to school only to be drawn into the mystery that is the new girl, Mel Locket. She’s a loner, but Greg quickly makes a connection with her. As the two grow closer, he learns that Mel might have murdered her former classmate and best friend. Convinced that Mel is innocent, Greg takes it upon himself to clear her name. But everyone around him, his family, the police, her therapist, and even her mother warn him that she’s violent and unstable. But did Mel really kill her friend? I love a good murder mystery and I love to watch crime TV shows so I was very much looking forward to reading The Women in White. I am so glad that I agreed to read it because I had a lot of fun readi...

This review was requested by the author. Asta is Relic. She doesn’t have the Link, a brain chip that connects people to all of hyperspace. Asta has been chosen for a mission. She and a small crew must travel to a frigid and tidally locked planet, Proxima Centauri b, in order to look for signs of life. Follow their adventures and discoveries as they try to survive the harsh and frozen landscape of Proxima Centauri b. When I first heard about On the Constant March Forward, it sounded interesting but I was also skeptical about whether I would like it. It just sounded like a book that had the potential drag on and be depressing. The title just made me think that there was going to be some serious gloom and doom, that the ending would be one of those sad endings where the characters have lost all hope and just submitted themselves to the fact that this is their life now. Thankfully, On the Constant March Forward was nothing like I expected. The story was very simple but at the same time it ...

2020. It felt more like a decade at times. I know people would love to forget about 2020, leave the past in the past and just move on but it was an extraordinary year in terms of reading. On January 1st 2020, I set my personal reading goal for the year: 100 books. I thought to myself, “I read 130 books last year but I am going to be much busier this year so 100 books is a totally reasonable and achievable goal.” As it turned out, I went into quarantine in March which led to me reading all the time. I hit my 100 books goal sometime around the end of July. Due to quarantine, I read a total of 153 books in 2020, a little more that 150% of my initial goal. Reading Statistics Books Read: 153 books Pages Read: 51,070 pages Average Pages Per Book: 333 pages Average Pages Read Per Day: 139.54 pages Average Rating: 3.2 out of 5 stars. Out of all the books that I read and reviewed this year ( My 2020 Reviews ), I wanted to share my top ten books of 2020. In order to narrow down the list to ...

For generations, they have lived underground, with only a small view of the outside. They know the outside is a toxic, barren wasteland. Even though they know the dangers of the outside, there are people who dream and hope. These dangerous people infect the others with their optimism. So they must be punished. The punishment is simple, the dreamers are given exactly what they hope for: a chance to go outside. Juliette is unexpectedly promoted to Sheriff, when the previous Sheriff leaves the silo is in terrifying ritual. She has very little regard for the customs that she needs to be following and quite a bit of newfound power. As she begins investigating, she discovers the subtle hints of a disturbing conspiracy. Following the clues may lead to the truth or to the death of every human... I would not have picked this book up if I saw it on a shelf at the library. Based on the cover (which I am not supposed to be judging books by) and the summary of the story, it didn’t really seem like ...

When food editor Olivia Shaw’s mother passes away, Olivia is shocked to learn that she has inherited an estate and a title to go with it. Olivia leaves San Francisco, still reeling with grief and shock, to uncover the things that her mother has been hiding from her. As soon as she sees the manor, Rosemere Priory, she recognizes it as the subject of her mother’s paintings. But Olivia still can’t figure out why her mother never talked about it and why her mother let such a beautiful building fall into disrepair. In order to look for answers Olivia begins digging into her mother’s past. As she goes digging, Olivia realizes the manor with peeling wallpaper, broken rooms, and growing vines hides inconceivable secrets. Even though her life back in San Francisco is calling her name, Olivia finds herself falling in love with the delightful English town as well as the residents. But to make the best decision Olivia has to first uncover all of the secrets that Rosemere Priory is hiding behind it...

Superheroes do more than just save the world and stop crime. In Abby Hamilton’s house they also drink milk straight from the carton and steal the television remote. Abby’s older brother is the famous Red Comet, a superhero who has saved the town countless times. But he’s also her brother and annoys her to no end. Abby has never wanted to be a superhero, especially since she has no powers of her own. Or so she thought until the town’s newest supervillain, Iron Phantom, comes crashing into her life and saves her from a mugging. The Iron Phantom claims that he’s not evil and that their town is under a new threat. As Abby follows him deeper into the secrets of the city, she learns that superheroes can’t always be trusted and sometimes the good guys are the ones wearing black.   Considering that I am a huge fan of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and superhero movies in general, it should be no surprise to any of you that I picked up this book. The title itself was convincing en...

Beware of the spoilers to  Fallen ,  Torment , and Passion  that lurk beyond this message... Trust your love, no matter what. Even if it seems like the world is about to end and evil is about to triumph, trust your love. Time is running out, Lucifer is getting closer and closer to rewriting history. His plan to erase the past doesn’t sit well with Luce and Daniel but to stop him they have to find the place where the angels fell to the earth. As dark forces are closing in on them, Daniel begins to doubt if he can survive losing Luce again. But they have to face the upcoming battle together. Lifeless bodies, destroyed hearts, and sacrifices may not be enough to succeed. After all, the curse has always been centered around Luce. It is about her and the choices that she made in the past. The future of the world depends on the choice that she has to make in this lifetime. Will Luce make the right choice? I’m going to start off by saying that this is the best book in the Fallen...

This review was requested by the author. Beware of the spoilers to Into the Fairy Forest  that lurk beyond this message... Pippa Gardener would have never thought that she would have to split her attention between the fairy world and the human world but here she is. An assignment from the fairy world: Find Queen Mab’s long lost son all while juggling a trip to New York City with her classmates. Her quest of finding him is derailed by teenage hormones, earthquakes, and geysers but that is nothing compared to the fact that she has no idea what to do once she finds him. On top of it all, the fairy world is preparing for a fight but will they be fighting on the same side? When I finished reading Into the Fairy Forest , the ending had me looking forward to reading the next book, Rise of the Hidden Prince. I was expecting it to be just as good as the previous book but unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. I wouldn’t say that Rise of the Hidden Prince was a huge disappoint...

This review was requested by the author. Pippa Gardener would tell you that she’s just a normal teenager, except weird things keep happening to her. She can’t use her cell phone to save her life, her mother dies in a mysterious fire, another fire seems to come after her, her friend almost gets eaten up by the ground, and she meets the most beautiful boy she has even seen, Pan. Pan brings her into a world like no other, and all of a sudden, Pippa is attending fairy weddings, running around with satyrs, trying to find the truth about what is going on, and battling a centaur…? Even though Pan is the one that brought her into this mess, there is nothing that Pippa wants more than to run right into his arms.  When I was approached by J.M. Stephen to read Into the Fairy Forest, I was excited. I had previously read Nod and I had enjoyed it even though it wasn’t the kind of book that I would have picked up by myself. When I read the blurb for this book, I realized this one was up my alley...

Beware of the spoilers to  Fallen  and Torment that lurk beyond this message... Luce would die for Daniel. In fact, she has. Over and over again. Over hundreds of years Luce and Daniel have shared the same fate: They meet, they fall for one another, Luce dies, and Daniel is left alone, broken, and grieving. But maybe there is a solution to this, a way to stop the cycle from repeating itself, a way for them to be together with Luce dying. Luce is sure that her past lives hold the information that she needs to break the cycle once and for all. So, Luce sets off on a journey of many lifetimes. She is going back through the years to see her past with Daniel and to find the key to making their love last. But it may be more dangerous than she realizes as Cam and the Outcasts are hunting her. No one is looking for Luce harder than Daniel because he knows that if Luce manages to rewrite their history together, the love that they share could go up in flames.  This is the first bo...

Beware of the spoilers to Fallen that lurk beyond this message... Hell on Earth. That is what Luce feels when she has to stay away from her boyfriend, Daniel, who happens to be a fallen angel. Even though it took the two of them an eternity to find each other, he still says that he has to go away from her. Daniel wants to keep her safe from the Outcasts, a group of immortals who want to kill Luce. In order to keep her safe, Daniel drops Luce off at Shoreline, a school for Nephilim, the children of fallen angels and humans. There on the California coastline, Luce learns about Shadows and how to use them. As she learns a little more about her previous lives she realizes that Daniel may not be telling her the truth. He is definitely hiding something and that may change everything that Luce knows about their relationship.   This is not my first time reading Torment, however I read it quite a few years ago and could not remember much from it. The main thing that I recalled from th...

Luce Price can’t take her eyes off of Daniel Grigori. There is something about him that is achingly familiar. He is mysterious and the one bright spot at Sword and Cross, the boarding school in Georgia, that may as well be a prison. What else would you call a place where no cell phones are allowed, security cameras watch the students' every move, and the students are all screw-ups? Daniel has made it clear that he wants nothing to do with Luce but she is unable to let him go. Much like a moth that is drawn to a flame, Luce needs to find out what Daniel is hiding, even if she loses her life in the process.  This is my second time reading Fallen but the first time that I am writing a review about it. Before I do review it however, I do want to say that this book does have religious undertones to it which I will not be commenting on. The only things that I will be talking about is the storyline. I thought the concept of this story was interesting. I have never heard of any other story...

Vee has always been behind the scenes. Whether it be the costume and makeup artist for her school’s plays or the shadow to her best friend, Sydney, Vee is comfortable away from the spotlight. Vee decides to play Nerve, the game of dares, but she isn’t sure if she’s cut out for it. But Nerve knows exactly how to keep her playing, tempting her with amazing prizes, the shoes she wanted, a hot partner, and much much more. Her partner, Ian, gives her the courage that she needs to keep going but the game is slowly getting deadlier and deadlier. How far will Vee go to win those prizes? Is she willing to put her own life at risk to win everything that her heart has desired? Let me start by saying, I watched the movie before I read the book. Actually when I watched the movie I had no idea that there was a book. A couple weeks ago, I was browsing in the library when Nerve caught my eye. So I picked it up and decided to give it a shot. The first thing that you are probably wondering is: was the b...