Star Wars: Join the Resistance

Fiction by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker

https://www.audible.com/

I'm not really a "Star Wars" person. I'm not saying I'm not a nerd, but I'm not the kind of nerd who has memorized entire comic book/science fiction universes, or the kind who knows how to speak Klingon. I go to these kinds of movies, but I have to ask my husband what they are talking about sometimes.

Funny story: When the original "X-Men" movie came out (2000), comic book movies were much less mainstream than they are today. My husband and I went to see it in the theater and I swear I was the only girl in there. The surrounding pack of male nerds were side-eyeing us and wondering if maybe one of THEM could get a girlfriend too someday. Now when we go to the new films in the franchise, it's full of couples. I like to think we gave those dudes the confidence they needed.

But I digress. 

What I was saying was, even though I'm not a "Star Wars" person, these were super fun stories to listen to. I really enjoyed all of them (it's a trilogy), and they can be for kids or adults.

I also read by these authors: Cut and Run

How to Defeat the Demon King in Ten Easy Steps

 Audible Original Fiction by Andrew Rowe

https://www.audible.com

This story takes place in a world where history repeats itself. Literally. Over and over, the Demon King rises to power, slowly crushing everyone to consolidate his rule until much of the world is under his evil thumb. Then, a hundred years after the Demon King's appearance, the Hero is born, who is destined to defeat the Demon King and save the world. Everyone accepts this timeline, because it has held true for thousands of years.

But THIS time, the Demon King is advancing so far and so quickly that most of the world is already conquered, and it's been less than a quarter of a century. Yui Shaw decides not to wait for the Hero to be born, and to try to defeat the Demon King herself!

This was a fun little story that was kind of like a video game come to life. I liked it!

I also listened to recently by audible originals: The Getaway

Castle on the Rise

Fiction by Kristy Cambron.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I couldn't get interested in this story. I'm not sure why. 

It turns out that it's the middle of a trilogy, which is not indicated on the cover OR in the description, so that could be it.

Also the narrative kept jumping from the present day to 1910 to 1789, which didn't let me get interested in any one of the stories before it skipped to another.

Anyways, I just didn't finish this one. Sorry.

I also read by this author: The Ringmaster's Wife

The Getaway

Fiction by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

An Audible Original

https://www.audible.com/

This was a short one from audible originals, by an author team I have read and enjoyed before (see An Anonymous Girl). Therefore, I expected to be hooked quickly when listening. But I felt the story really took a while to get going.

In fact, I think you could skip/skim quite a bit of the whole first hour of this two-and-a-half hour story and enjoy it more. But the last hour and a half were really good!

I also listened to recently from Audible Originals: Cut and Run

Children for Sale Trilogy

Fiction by JJ West

https://www.amazon.com

This is a set of three books available only through amazon.com with kindle unlimited, about a mass kidnapping of American kids by a foreign entity. 

It was an interesting idea, but the story was not well-executed. I didn't believe a lot of the plot, the characters were not realistic, and the ending left a lot of loose threads hanging. 

I'm not giving it a complete thumbs-down because I did finish all three (short) books, but I don't recommend this series.

Devoted

Fiction by Dean Koontz

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

A new stand-alone novel by Dean Koontz? Yes please!

This was a new story but in vintage Koontz style: Very-good people threatened by evil-bad people with a super-fast pace and a uh-oh-weird twist. This one involves a dog, too.

Warning: it can definitely get scary and graphic, but still. Loved it!

I also read recently by this author: Nameless Series

The Life She Was Given

Fiction by Ellen Marie Wiseman

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Nine-year-old Lilly Blackwood has lived all of her young life locked in an attic room, where her parents say she must be kept for her own protection. They tell her she is a monster and must never be seen by anyone, and indeed she ends up in a circus "freak show" in the year 1931.

The story then shifts to eighteen-year-old Julia Blackwood in the year 1956, who has run away from home to escape her own intolerable parents. Are they the same people who imprisoned poor Lilly? The reader must wait until the end of the story to find out how these two women are related.

I also read by this author: What She Left Behind

Sparkling Cyanide

Fiction by Agatha Christie.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

One year ago, Rosemary Barton drank a fatal dose of cyanide-laced champagne in a roomful of people at a restaurant. Although this seemed a most bizarre way to commit suicide, the coroner had ruled that she must have put the powder into her own drink, since no one else could have done so, according to all the witnesses. And who would have wanted to murder Rosemary in any case?

But now, her sister Iris is beginning to believe that more than one person at the restaurant that night could have wanted Rosemary dead. And so the party is assembled again at the same table. Will someone else end up dead? You bet!

This was an interesting mystery, featuring Colonel Race as sole detective for once.

I also read recently by this author: The Hollow

The Unhoneymooners

Fiction by Christina Lauren.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Olive and Amelia are identical twins, and Olive feels that she inherited all the bad luck in the family while her sister sails through her charmed life. After all, Olive has just lost her job and has no romantic prospects to speak of, while Ami is marrying the love of her life in a lavish ceremony she has ingeniously pulled together on a shoestring budget with her mad bargain-hunting skills. 

Still, the tables turn at Ami's wedding when disaster strikes and ruins the reception, leaving Olive to wonder if her luck has changed. Will Olive find love and maybe a new job?

This was a fun little romance story with enough wit to keep the reader laughing and engaged throughout. I will look for more by this author.

Run

Fiction by Blake Crouch.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was an exciting and fast-paced thriller about a family fleeing an unknown threat that is sweeping the nation, turning ordinary people into crazed killers.

I also read recently by this author: Dark Matter

The Truth Teller

Fiction by Angela Hunt.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Lara Godfrey has just lost her husband Michael to a very aggressive cancer, but she still wants to have his baby. Fortunately, Michael banked his sperm before submitted to the treatments that ultimately failed him, so she is able to proceed with an artificially conceived pregnancy. Geneticist Dr. Braun assures her that he can isolate and remove any of Michael's sperm that might have been affected by cancer genes. 

But Lara does not know that her doctor has been bought off by an eccentric billionaire who has ideas of growing a new genetically altered super-race of humans. Can Lara save her child from becoming an experimental subject?

This was an interesting story that got very exciting at the end. The book was originally published in 2000 and then "updated" later, but they should have left it alone, and said it was set in 1999. The editors only changed some of the dates and identifying details, so it got confusing to read. Still, it was a good book.

I also read recently by this author: Passing Strangers 

My copy of this book had a prettier cover (from amazon.com)

 

Don't Look Down

Fiction by Jennifer Cruise and Bob Mayer.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Lucy Armstrong usually directs TV commercials, but when both her ex-husband and her sister beg her to come on location and take over an unfinished film whose director died unexpectedly, she doesn't say no. When she sees the mess the movie is in, and all the strange things happening on set, she rather wishes she had refused. Still, there's a few hot guys in the picture, including said ex-husband who seems to want her back...

This was a fun little story, as I'd expect from Jennifer Cruise.

I also read by these authors: Agnes and the Hitman

Dark Matter

Fiction by Blake Crouch

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of this book, we have a physicist named Jason who teaches at a local college and earns a decent living, supporting his wife Daniella and fourteen-year-old son Charlie. Sometimes he wonders what would have happened if he hadn't made the decision years ago to focus on family instead of his career. Would he have become an award-winning scientist like his college roommate? And would Daniella, an aspiring painter when they'd met and now a stay-at-home mother, have become a famous artist if she'd never met Jason and had their son together?

Usually one can never know the answers to questions like these, but in this story, there is the multiverse. In the multiverse, every choice you make creates a different reality, another world running parallel to your own world, in which  the opposite choice plays out. So what if there was a way to access this multiverse, and find the answer to that "what-if" question? As the plot continues. the reader can see all the possibilities and pitfalls of a world where anything is possible.

This was an exciting thriller that gave me a lot to think about.

My Absolute Darling

Fiction by Gabriel Tallent.

https://www.barnesandnoble

This story was both beautiful and terrible. It's like a cross between Gather the Daughters and Where the Crawdads Sing, both of which I read recently. It takes the nature girl from "Crawdads" and subjects her to horrible abuse featured in the misogynistic dystopian society of "Daughters."

It was fascinating to read, but terribly graphic. Still it's not without hope for the main character.

The Hollow

Fiction by Agatha Christie.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is a classic Agatha Christie setup. Lord and Lady Angertelle host a house party for a long week-end. They invite a few relatives and friends, including a married couple and the husband's mistress, plus a bachelor cousin and the woman who refuses to marry him. Oh, and they invite Hercule Poirot to lunch.

Is it any wonder someone is murdered?

I also read recently by this author: Towards Zero

The Ninth Hour

Fiction by Alice McDermott

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

This is a story about some Irish immigrants in New York, maybe around 1900. (It doesn't say the specific year it's set in.)

The main point here is the characters, and they are lovely and well-drawn characters. I really enjoyed reading about them. I plan to look for more by this author.

Towards Zero

Fiction by Agatha Christie

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

The premise of this story, and the origin of the title, is that a murder story begins long before the actual murder, with the characters coming together and finally converging on the zero hour-- the murder itself.

In this book, the characters are: a retired judge, an old lady, an Englishman from Malaysia, a suicide survivor, and a tennis professional, along with the tennis pro's young wife... and his older ex-wife. This is an obvious recipe for disaster! I like that this mystery is not solved by a detective, but by a regular person.

I also read recently by this author: The Moving Finger