Carries Book Reviews

Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Three years prior Cass and her older sister who she adored, Emma, had disappeared leaving investigators and the family clueless as to what happened to the girls. Was it a drowning? Kidnapping? Runaways? But now three years later Cass shows up on the doorstep of her mother and stepfather’s home safe but insisting that they must find and rescue Emma.

When investigators arrive including forensic psychiatrist Dr. Abby Winter Cass begins to tell a story of how she had followed Emma one night and the pair ended up on a mysterious islands as prisoners. Cass’ escape and her details lead to more questions leaving Abby with the feeling that things just aren’t adding up. As the holes begin to appear Abby is determined to find out just what happened to the girls all those years ago.

Emma in the Night is one of those thriller reads that had me hooked for the opening pages when we find out that one of the two girls has returned. Knowing she is back the book takes the reader back slowly but surely as we learn what had been happening over the course of the years. Told from the point of view of the victim and investigator you get both sides of where the investigation is leading.

I will admit for a while this one wasn’t looking as if it would be quite the five star read as the story unraveled. I had this sense of where the twists were taking us along the journey as we got to the answer of what had happened to Emma but then the author just kept going and adding on a few more twists and turns that ended me with completely loving the story. I’d definitely say check this one out to the thriller fans, it was a bit slow but even with my impatience I came away loving the book.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Sparks of Light by Janet B. Taylor
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Sparks of Light is the second book in the Into the Dim series by Janet B. Taylor. In the first book of the series we met Hope Walton as she was attending her mother’s memorial held about eight months after it was believed that her mother had been a victim in an earthquake while traveling overseas. After the service for her mother Hope received an invitation from her mother’s sister to come for a visit while her father travels. Not wanting to be left with her grandmother that had never accepted Hope into her family since Hope was adopted, she battled her anxiety and boarded a plane to meet her mother’s family.

When Hope arrived at her mysterious aunt’s home she is told that her aunt had to leave for a few days. Hope is full of questions, especially when it’s let slip that her mother had been there right before her supposed death but no one was answering Hope’s inquiries until she stumbles upon some strange artifacts and costumes beneath the manor. Only after Hope’s discovery did her newly acquired family let Hope in on their secrets. They are a group of time travelers and her mother had been trapped in twelfth century England, left by another group of time travelers who had been in somewhat of a feud with Hope’s family.

Sparks of Light picks up Hope’s story a couple of months after the end of the first book in the series. Hope and her family have returned to the present time and are trying to regroup and figure out what their next step needs to be. Meeting up with the person spying on their enemy they find out about plans in the making for the other time travelers to steal a dangerous device from the inventor Nikola Tesla. Another adventure awaits the group as they will need to also travel back to the same time and stop the device from being stolen or the future could be in danger.

This series is one that for me the more I read the more I love what the author has come up with as far as the world and characters as the story develops. Starting off the series I was a tad worried if I would like it or not but everything has just grown on me so much. Hope was a character that was plagued with a slew of anxieties and phobias and had been home schooled and protected but she has grown so much during the two books. The other characters are also a mix of strong and quirky and fun to follow.

For the history buffs the time traveling aspect of the books leads readers to explore different times and places and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing where the next book takes us. This time the book included one of my absolutely least favorite settings in the story when the group traveled back but after the first few cringes I ended up understanding where the author was taking us and found that it was done in a way that I still enjoyed the action this provided for the story.

When finished with this second installment I’d rate it at 4.5 stars and would recommend any fan of young adult sci-fi fantasy type of books to give this series a try although I do suggest starting at the beginning of the series.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

 

Great. I was lost. Shading my hand over my eyes, I decided the far right should take me in the general direction I wanted to go. So I went that way, only to end up at the edge of the house, but not where I’d started, and not close enough to the rose garden to get me inside.

Strangely enough, however, a boy played outside, using sidewalk chalk to color a picture of…what the hell was he drawing? Maybe some kind of dying animal with blood gushing from its side and an arrow sticking out of its back.

It didn’t look right, whatever it was.

I shook my head and jerked my gaze from the disturbingly morbid sketch. “Hey, kid.”

The boy jumped and looked up, hopping to his feet and backing away from me as I were the scary one.

No idea who he was; he looked too young to be Mr. Nash’s son from the photos I’d seen, plus he had white blond hair, the complete opposite shade of the young man in all the pictures in Mr. Nash’s office. But he was here, so he’d have to do.

Wanting to appear as non-threatening as possible, I smile and waved. “Hey. Sorry for bothering you, but do you know how to get to the rose garden?”

That must’ve been the wrong question to ask. His face drained of color. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “You can’t go there.”

What? “Why not?”

“A monster lives in there. Half her face is melted off. She eats the thorns from the roses so she can spit them at people, stabbing them in the neck to slice their throat open until they bleed out and die.”

O…kay.

Somehow, I’d stumbled across one of the children of the corn. Nice.

Lifting my eyebrows, I drew my own step in reverse. Time to retreat. “Dude, that’s gruesome.”

Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me.

He gave a serious nod. “It’s true. My mom’ll tell you she’s real too.”

“Oh yeah?” Relieved he wasn’t claiming he’d sprouted from Satan’s cabbage patch but actually had a mother, I glanced around for this wise, all-knowing parent of his. Maybe she could tell me how to get to the conservatory. “Who’s your mom?”

“The cook,” he said, puffing up his chest as if that were the most important title in the house. “She’s worked here for fifteen years. She knows everything about this place there is to know. So…don’t go into the roses. You won’t come out alive. Lewis, the groundskeeper, doesn’t even go in there.”

Aha! So this place did have a gardener. I knew it.

I took a second to ponder why I was being sent to garden then, when Mr. Nash already paid someone to maintain the place. But if Lewis refused to go into the roses, as the kid had said, maybe it was rumored to be haunted or something, and that was where I came in. Then again, why wouldn’t Mr. Nash just hire a new groundskeeper who wasn’t so scared and superstitious? Then I stopped pondering the whys. It wasn’t my place to question strange, rich people and their strange, oddball orders. I was just here to do what I was told and save my mom.

Nodding gravely to the boy, I said, “Thanks for the warning, kid. But I think I’ll take my chances. Which way?”

He looked at me as if he’d never see me again because I was headed forth to my death, then he lifted his hand and quietly pointed toward another opening in the path of bushes.

“Thanks.” I nodded and got out of there before some of his creepiness started rubbing off.

Fortunately, he’d steered me in the right direction. I landed right at the outdoor entrance into the glass gazebo. Propping the door open, I carted my supplies inside and then paused to breathe deeply.

But fuck me, it smelled good in here. You didn’t have to be a flower enthusiast for this garden to amaze you. It was like the holy shrine of roses. A hallowed kind of reverence filled my chest. Haunted or not, I liked it. It felt peaceful and yet revitalizing.

Suddenly intimidated because I didn’t want to mess anything up in such a perfect place, my hands shook as I flipped back to the pages about rose care. The more I skimmed, however, the more confused I became.

These roses didn’t need a lick of my attention. They were all in excellent condition as if someone already tended to them. Maybe creepy kid had been wrong, and Lewis the groundskeeper came in here hourly to care for them.

Still…What the hell?

I frowned and slid my finger along the silken petals of a blood red rose. Perfectly pruned, weeded, and watered. It was as flawless as a thing could get.

But I couldn’t go tell Mr. Nash they didn’t need anything, could I? What if he fired me for lack of work to do, or because he thought I was lazy and lying about the roses not needing care?

I looked around again, searching for anything to water, or clip, or re-soil. It was crazy how thriving every single flower looked.

Maybe this was some kind of test, and Mr. Nash wanted me to fail. What if he’d never intended for me to work for him and the contract I’d signed to save my mom was being burned in the fireplace in this office as I stood here like a dumbass with nothing to weed.

Confused and worried, and growing a little angry, I scowled at a wall full of pink vine roses growing to my right. But they were honestly too pretty to be glared at, so my mood settled.

I bet Mom would love them. She was a fan of pink. And flowers. Plus, these were the good-smelling kind. I’d be a good son if I brought home such a flower to her. And it seemed as if they grew in abundance, not as if they were one of the rare breeds Mr. Nash had spoken of. So I reached for a bloom to pluck it from the vine without even thinking beyond how much it’d make my mother smile.

Behind me, a voice growled, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Jumping half out of my skin because I’d been certain no one had been in here with me, I whirled around only to gasp, “Shit!”

The creepy cook’s son hadn’t been lying.

In front of me stood an irate woman with half her face melted off.

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The Rules of Persuasion
Amity Hope
Published by: Entangled Crush
Publication date: August 14th 2017
Genres: Romance, Young Adult

After tragedy hit her family, Meg Matthews officially crossed the line from “good girl” to “bad girl.” Motorcycle? Check. Graffiti? Check. The only thing Meg hadn’t planned on was blackmail. Too bad now a certain infuriating boy holds Meg’s future in his hands…

When Luke Prescott—star pitcher and town golden boy—catches Meg vandalizing the school, she’s given two choices: face the consequences or enter into a fake relationship with him to get his parents and his ex off his back.

But as Meg and Luke grow closer, they both realize they’ve been keeping secrets from each other. Their fake relationship might be doomed from the start—if they can’t learn to open up to the one person they never thought they’d trust.

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Author Bio:

Amity lives in beautiful northern Minnesota with her two sons, two cats and their Rottweiler.

She has a degree in elementary education and worked in that field for ten years before deciding to self-publish.

Her first self-published novel, Twisted, was listed by Amazon as a Top 100 Kids & Teens Kindle Book of 2012. It hit Amazon’s Teen & Young Adult Contemporary Romance Best Sellers List in several countries. Truths and Dares held the #1 position on Amazon’s Best Sellers in Teen & Young Adult Contemporary Romance eBooks in the UK. Her latest book, The Rules of Persuasion, will be releasing this August from Entangled Publishing.

If she’s not writing, or spending time with her boys, she’s most likely reading.

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Watertight
E.J. Stevens
(Ivy Granger, #7)
Publication date: 2018
Genres: Adult, Urban Fantasy

When Torn is accused of murdering a local mermaid, Ivy Granger is plunged into the deep end of water fae politics.

With her psychic gifts and newfound wisp powers, locating Torn’s alibi should be simple. Too bad a deadly enemy with a score to settle is lurking in Harborsmouth’s darkest waters.

Ivy Granger might be in over her head. Even with the help of her kelpie king fiance, Ivy only has until the next high tide to prove Torn’s innocence. With the clock counting down and the bodies piling up, Ivy better hope she finds an alibi that’s watertight.

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Author Bio:

E.J. Stevens is the bestselling, award-winning author of the IVY GRANGER, PSYCHIC DETECTIVE urban fantasy series, the SPIRIT GUIDE young adult series, the HUNTERS’ GUILD urban fantasy series, and the WHITECHAPEL PARANORMAL SOCIETY Victorian Gothic horror series. She is known for filling pages with quirky characters, bloodsucking vampires, psychotic faeries, and snarky, kick-butt heroines. Her novels are available worldwide in multiple languages.

BTS Red Carpet Award winner for Best Novel, SYAE finalist for Best Paranormal Series, Best Novella, and Best Horror, winner of the PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Paranormal Fantasy Novel, Best Young Adult Paranormal Series, Best Urban Fantasy Novel, and finalist for Best Young Adult Paranormal Novel and Best Urban Fantasy Series.

When E.J. isn’t at her writing desk, she enjoys dancing along seaside cliffs, singing in graveyards, and sleeping in faerie circles. E.J. currently resides in a magical forest on the coast of Maine where she finds daily inspiration for her writing.

Connect with E.J. on Twitter @EJStevensAuthor. For more, including a list of her books, freebies, and upcoming events visit http://www.EJStevensAuthor.com.

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