Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh – Review

Tags

5 stars, Book Review, contemporary, Nalini Singh, New Zealand, suspense

About Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh

My mother vanished ten years ago.
So did a quarter of a million dollars in cash.
Thief. Bitch. Criminal.
Now, she’s back.
Her bones clothed in scarlet silk.

When socialite Nina Rai disappeared without a trace, everyone wrote it off as another trophy wife tired of her wealthy husband. But now her bones have turned up in the shadowed green of the forest that surrounds her elite neighborhood, a haven of privilege and secrets that’s housed the same influential families for decades.

The rich live here, along with those whose job it is to make their lives easier. And somebody knows what happened to Nina one rainy night ten years ago. Her son Aarav heard a chilling scream that night, and he’s determined to uncover the ugly truth that lives beneath the moneyed elegance…but  no one is ready for the murderous secrets about to crawl out of the dark.

Even the dead aren’t allowed to break the rules in this cul-de-sac.

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Review of Quiet in Her Bones

Aarav is the unreliable narrator of this tale.  His remembrance of his past, recent past and long ago past (10 years ago), is marked by unexpected memories clouded by personal relationships.  The fact that he seems to be taking a variety of prescription drugs (and doesn’t always remember taking them) also adds to possible memory impairment.

Typically, not my favorite type of narrator, I decide to withhold judgement on this untrustworthy storyteller until I had more facts.  Because this is a book by Nalini Singh.

The facts came.  Bit by bit.  Not in any particular type of order unless you count misorder as a type.  The back and forth timeline was as untidy as Aarav’s mind.  When you add the questionable memories of Aarav, there were times, when I wondered if I had really read what I thought I had read.  The psychological ambiguity is what keeps the reader from coming up with a definitive answer until….well, until the answer is presented by the author.

I could not decide whether Aarav was a good guy or bad guy.  His dad is a controlling misogynist and mom is/was both a loving mom and selfish.  Based on this, how is a boy supposed to grow up?  As personalities go, Aarav is not the person I want to hang out with, but he does have a moral center.  (Thankfully.)  Plus, he has a little sister to protect, so that also adds to the good-guy-ness.

There will be a point in the book when the reader learns why the narrator is so unreliable.  Until that time, and even after, anything can happen. Anybody can be the killer.

Through Netgalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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The Seven-Foot Cupid (Passion Island Trilogy, #1) by Edward Hoornaert – Review

Tags

4 stars, Book Review, colonization, Edward Hoornaert, romance, scifi, scifi romance, series

Review by KJ Van Houten

About The Seven-Foot Cupid by Edward Hoornaert

Ember Dayle prides herself on handling anything her newly colonized planet can throw at her. After an injury, she’s determined to prove herself again. She gets her chance when ordered to explore a mysterious cave on a wilderness mountain. Until that’s done, the last thing she needs is the distraction of a man.

Tyler, an explorer from her town’s fierce rival, is sent to explore the same cave. Like Ember, he’s been in an accident…but he was the only survivor. When he meets Ember, he’s drawn not only to her beauty and toughness, but by her ability to deal openly with her accident.

Booker is a naïve Apprentice Cupid for a secret group hoping to make the colonists healthier, and smarter by helping people with strong genes fall in love. His first assignment: Ember and Tyler. His strategy: lock them in an abandoned cabin together. With nothing else to pass the time, maybe they’ll find love.

He doesn’t realize he’s locked them in with the fiercest, most intelligent native beast ever discovered. Can love help them survive?

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Review of The Seven-Foot Cupid

One-word summary: Cute. Sweet. Refreshing. (Okay, that’s 3 one-word summaries.)

Multi-word summary: What do you get when you have a cupid-in-training and 2 discouraged souls? Add in that Cupid is not the cute little angelic immortal we all know and love, but a genetically-perfect human agent of a secret agency with the goal of matchmaking for the purpose of encouraging human population growth on a recently-colonized planet.

Then you have two encroachment agents from competing settlements – that is, ranger-like agents whose job it is to investigate flora and fauna to save such lifeforms from human interference – or rather to ensure various locales are safe for human expansion.

Ember and Tyler are from settlements that are ongoing rivals in pretty much every category. Both humans are encroachment agents, each with a past that has left them uncertain of their abilities to perform their jobs well, each with something to prove.

Booker is a cupid-in-training tasked with getting Ember and Tyler to break the division among townships, realize that they are genetically compatible, and hopefully fall in love. Booker is young, fresh out of training, this is his first assignment, and, when nothing goes quite the way he expects it to, quickly learns that he just might be in over his head here. And that says a lot when he’s 7-foot tall, much larger and intimidating than everyone around him.

Bottomline: I enjoyed this one. It was light, makes a great break from reading action-heavy or drama-heavy like my last few reads. I feel bubbly inside after reading this one. Only a bit annoyed that there is 1) the concept of perfect genes (How is that defined, why would any gene be better than another?) – even if the story shows perfect genes doesn’t mean perfect is really perfect; 2) an implication that motherhood (and parenthood in general) is the ultimate goal (isn’t it enough to just fall in love without needing subsequent marriage and children?); and 3) Several typos throughout, could have used another round of editing or another pair of eyes on it. But really, those concerns are afterthoughts. The story is fun, promising a lot of potential to be explored in this new world along with a fun secret agency to perhaps be exposed. It is not as campy as the Alien Contact for Idiots series (which is fun and I highly recommend), but lighter than the Repelling the Invasion series (which I LOVE, it’s one of my favourites in the SFR genre). Definitely looking forward to more.

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The Russian Cage (Gunnie Rose, #3) by Charlaine Harris – Review

Tags

4 stars, alternative history, Book Review, Charlaine Harris, magic, romance, Russia

About The Russian Cage by Charlaine Harris

Picking up right where A Longer Fall left off, this thrilling third installment follows Lizbeth Rose as she takes on one of her most dangerous missions yet: rescuing her estranged partner, Prince Eli, from the Holy Russian Empire. Once in San Diego, Lizbeth is going to have to rely upon her sister Felicia, and her growing Grigori powers to navigate her way through this strange new world of royalty and deception in order to get Eli freed from jail where he’s being held for murder.

Russian Cage continues to ramp up the momentum with more of everything Harris’ readers adore her for with romance, intrigue, and a deep dive into the mysterious Holy Russian Empire.

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Review of The Russian Cage

Gunnie Rose is back in another gunslinging adventure in alternative history.  The United States has been divided up into several independent regions. This time Lizbeth Rose goes west to the Holy Russian Empire, that west coast part of what we know as the United Stated, that is now governed by refugees from Russia.

After receiving an enigmatic letter from her sister Felicia, Lizbeth determines that Eli is in trouble and heads west.  Readers of this series will know that Eli is Lizbeth’s sweetheart, the two having teamed up together in the 2 previous adventures.  Lizbeth’s occupation is Gunnie, a hired gun, usually hired for protection purposes.  But this time, Lizbeth is not on the job.  She is on her own.

In the Holy Russian Empire, Lizbeth finds a world she is totally unfamiliar with, but her relentless determination means she will figure it out fast.  Eli is in prison for a big part of the book.  I missed him being a big part of the story as he is a nice contrast to Lizbeth.

Lizbeth was pretty much on her own for most of the planning and plotting.  She does meet and team up with Eli’s family, digging into royal affairs and Grigori challenges.  The Grigori are the magicians of the HRE and may be friend or foe.  Eli’s family are secondary characters that I wanted to sympathize with, but I found them to be one-dimensional.  I think I wanted a little more depth to Eli’s family.  Since I like him, I wanted to like his kin.

The Russian Cage was not nearly as satisfying as the first two books in the series, which had me cheering for Lizbeth and Eli while appreciating the world that was the setting for their adventures.  In this book, the urban setting, as opposed to the more rural western setting of the first two books, did not play out as well for a Gunnie.  Also, there was a point in the book where Lizbeth crossed a line that I did not like for her character. Plus, not enough Eli, him being in jail and all.

Through Netgalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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