The Underachiever's Guide to Love and Saving the World

 Fiction by Sloane Brooks

https://www.amazon.com

At the beginning of this story, Courtney is a high-achieving but miserable girl who is busy earning money, pleasing her family , and generally being what other people want her to be. Then she loses her job and decides to embrace her inner underachiever and just try to be happy. 

And then she goes through a portal into another universe.

This was a strange and quirky book. I liked some of it, but in general it was too long. The characters were good but the story was too slow.

Once was Willem

 Fiction by M.R. Carey

https://www.audible.com

This was a very interesting story, set in a 12th century England where magic is real. It’s imaginative and has great characters.

I also read recently by this author: The Boy on the Bridge

Duma Key

 Fiction by Stephen King

https://www.audible.com

Edgar Freemantle loses his right arm in a freak accident that also leaves him with a major head injury. On top of that, his wife of over 25 years decides to divorce him. Edgar wants to end it all, but settles for a change of location, renting a beach house on isolated Duma Key, a Florida island.

Once Edgar is on the island, however, strange things begin to happen, Did Edgar choose to go to Duma, or did Duma choose him?

This was an interesting and kind of frightening story. I loved the characters.

I also read recently by this author: End of Watch

After Death

 Fiction by Dean Koontz 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Michael Mace dies at the beginning of this story, but he doesn't stay dead.

This is not a zombie book, however. Michael comes back as Something Else, but he's also still Michael. 

It's a pretty interesting story, and in classic Koontz style you never have to wonder who the good guys and bad guys are. It's quite clear; if Michael were wearing a literal halo (and the bad guys forked tails) it would not be more plain.

This story has good characters and an interesting plot.

I also read recently by this author: The Bad Weather Friend

The Hike

 Fiction by Drew Magary

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Ben is away from his home in Maryland on a business trip when he takes a small hike and ends up very far from where he expected. Instead of a wooded trail in Pennsylvania, he is... Somewhere else...

This was a very strange book that leaves the reader wondering what is really happening and what Ben is imagining. It was interesting.

No One Leaves the Castle

Youth Fiction by Christopher Healy

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This fantasy themed, locked-room mystery was okay but I didn’t love it.

Legends and Lattes

 Fiction by Travis Baldree

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

What happens to a D&D character after the quest is over? Where do they go if they are living “happily ever after?”

Well, in the case of an orc named Viv, it’s time to hang up her sword and….open a coffee shop!

Wait, what?

Yeah; just go with it. This is a strange story but kind of a fun one. 

The Fragile Threads of Power

 Fiction by V.E. Schwab

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I recently read a book by this author that I really liked (see below) and so when this book was featured on the "BRAND NEW" area in the library I snapped it up.

This book, however, I didn't enjoy. In the prologue, the author introduced FOUR (count them!) separate character storylines and dropped them after a couple of pages. Then, the main body of the story began with ANOTHER character storyline and seemed to stick with it. (I had liked a couple of the other ones better, but oh well.)

I told myself to forget all that other stuff. This part would be the real story and it would make sense. But I kept getting confused; the author repeatedly referenced unexplained things in the past. Sometimes the story would flash back to another time but only very briefly. I couldn't get interested because I was still unclear about what was actually happening. I DEFINITELY felt that "This here is a sequel and you are missing some major backstory" kind of feeling. When I still felt lost after a hundred pages I gave up. I'm labeling this book DNF (did not finish) and returning it to the library.

Out of curiosity I checked the information online about the book. Although it is not listed as a sequel, it IS one. There was a series of THREE other books before this, in which I assume things were explained? Maybe I will go back and read those, because it seems like they are necessary in understanding this one.

In the past I have never posted anything about books I did not finish, but I've decided to start now, logging them in their own category. I will not give the DNF's a thumb rating because that seems unfair, but really I guess a DNF is the ultimate thumbs-down...

I also read by this author: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Dragon Heist

 Audible Original Fiction by Alexander C. Kane

https://www.audible.com/

I love this author. I was overjoyed to discover a new book by him.

In this story, like all of the ones I have read by Mr. Kane, the world is just the regular old real world, EXCEPT... one weirdo twist. In this one, it's that dragons exist. Like, it's still the regular USA, and the protagonist lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, But there are dragons... 

I also read by this author: Dade County Death Cruise

I also listened to recently by Audible Originals: Stuck in Magic

Stuck in Magic

 Audible Original Fiction by Christopher Nuttall

https://www.audible.com

Elliot Richardson is a soldier in the modern USA, and then he somehow falls into another dimension or something and ends up in a world of magic. It’s not explained how or why this happens because that’s not the important part. 

The important part is the idea the author is exploring: what would really happen to a regular modern person if they actually went back in time or into another world or whatever. And the answer is: that would actually be a really tough situation that the person might not even survive. 

This is a common plot device in books—the going to another world thing— and I usually enjoy these stories a lot. But seriously, if you think about it, how could you possibly navigate a completely different world? Would you even understand the language? How would you get food and shelter? Wouldn’t people there (at best) avoid you or (at worst) kill you?

So this was an interesting story. It had some repetitive elements I didn’t love but in general it was a good book, and the narration was great. 

I also listened to recently by audible originals: The Case of the Haunted Haunted House

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

 Fiction by V. E. Schwab

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story has an interesting premise. What if you had immortality and eternal youth BUT —there’s always a but— you could never form a relationship with another human being? How long could a person live like that?

Addie LaRue has been this way for over three hundred years. She remains healthy beautiful 23-year-old, but no one can ever recognize or remember her. As soon as her conversation with another person ends, they have forgotten her. She cannot even keep possessions or a home; everything slips away. How can this have happened? How can Addie keep living with it?

The book is about the answers to all of those questions. It’s really good!! I enjoy a good “what if this crazy impossible thing” story when the author really works out the details. I recommend it!

The Accidental Alchemist

 Audible Original Fiction by Gigi Pandian. 

https://www.amazon.com

Zoe Faust is an alchemist, and she is older than she appears. She has just bought a new (to her) historic home in Portland and plans to take some time fixing it up while continuing to run the online business she’s been operating for years out of her motor home. But when she opens the first crate of her belongings sent from storage she gets a surprise visitor! Then the handyman she hired to help with home repairs ends up dead on her doorstep. 

This book was trying to be both a murder mystery and a sci-fi fantasy story, but it didn’t really work. It was an okay book but not great and the characters didn’t catch my interest. 

The Big Dark Sky

Fiction by Dean Koontz

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Joanna Chase hasn’t been back to the old ranch in Montana since she was a child. After all, both of her parents were killed there. But now she hears a mysterious voice calling her back. At the same time there is a serial killer with a god complex on the loose not far from that same place. 

This was a strange story, as I should certainly have expected from Mr. Koontz. The characters were good and there were some surprises too. I liked the slight twist at the end. 

A Rip Through Time

 Fiction by Kelley Armstrong 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In this story, a Canadian police detective called Mallory is visiting Edinburgh when she almost gets murdered on 20 May 2019, next to a rip in time. This inexplicably catapults her back 150 years to the same day in 1869, into the body of a housemaid who also almost got murdered in the same spot.

Yeah, it's complicated, but just go with it.

As long as you accept the premise, this is a fun story with interesting characters. The author has a sequel scheduled for later this year as well, which I plan to read.

The House in the Cerulean Sea

 Fiction by T.J. Klune

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In the universe of this book, there are children born as magical creatures, such as sprites and gnomes, or even telekinetics and shape-shifters. In order to control both the children and people's fear of them, they are monitored by the government and mostly housed in orphanages. Linus Baker works for the social services agency that oversees such orphanages. He tries to do a good job and help the children, although it is difficult because of all of the agency rules.

Then Linus is sent to a special orphanage with children so magical and special that their very existence is classified. There he has to decide whether the children or the rules are the most important thing, and also if he might risk falling in love.

This was a fun and warm-hearted story.

The Unusual Second Life of Thomas Weaver

 Fiction by Shawn Inmon

https://www.amazon.com

Fifteen-year-old Thomas Weaver makes a stupid mistake in 1976 that he regrets for the rest of his life. But what if he had a chance to go back and re-live that moment? Could he make things turn out differently?

I love time travel stories. I really do. I especially love stories where people can change their fate (or just try to) by time travel. So when I saw this premise I was completely on board, especially at $3.99 on kindle.

It was really good! And there's a series; hooray!!

Fairy Tale

 Fiction by Stephen King

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

The title of this book is both fitting and confusing. For one thing, if the reader is expecting fairies he will be disappointed. On audio, this novel clocks in at over twenty-four hours of narration, and the first one-third or so of it is squarely in the real, mundane world, before any "magic" happens. But the characters are so compelling!

I really liked this book, both writing and narration. I can see how it's not necessarily for the regular Stephen King reader, however. But I loved the complex hero Charlie Reade and his adventure.

I also read recently by this author: Lisey's Story

Too Many Curses

 Fiction by A. Lee Martinez

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a fun little fantasy story about a castle ruled by an evil magician (Margle) and managed by his pleasantly efficient assistant, Nessy. One of Margle's odd quirks is that he never kills his enemies; rather, he curses them to horrible (but creative!) fates and imprisons them in his castle forever. Nessy's job of keeping the castle in order is greatly hampered by the cursed things, such as a bleeding wall that makes a nasty mess; plus there are quite a variety of monsters that simply must be fed on schedule.

I enjoyed this book; it was funny and also had an interesting plot.

The Sword in the Stone

 Fiction by T.H. White.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is the first book in the classic The Once and Future King, a set of four books published together in 1958 about the legends of King Arthur. I got a free limited version of this from audible.com, but was not able to finish the full thirty-three hours (!!!!) before the time expired. Unsurprisingly....

This is the story that the 1963 Disney animated movie was based on, and in the beginning it had the same fun lightheartedness of that film. But later on, it got kind of boring. I think this was because the author was trying to insert modern (1950's) political statements into a classic story, but I could be wrong. 

Anyways, it's a decent story, and the characters are much less one-dimensional in the book than in the Disney version.

Enchanted Inc

 Fiction by Shanda Swenson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Katie is a small-town girl recently arrived in New York City, so when she sees strange things around her, she chalks it up to that oddball big-city vibe. Only in New York, right? 

Except it turns out that not everyone is seeing these things: girls with wings, stone gargoyles that move, and people summoning the subway with a flick of the wrist. She's actually a rare person who is immune to magic, able to see through the everyday enchantments that the rest of us miss. And this gives her a great job opportunity...

This was a fun little book that's the beginning of a series.