Carries Book Reviews

The Lies We Tell: a novel by Jamie Holland
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Martie Wheeler is a normal thirteen year old girl dealing with tragedy and loss after the death of her father. She’s anxious but keeping it all inside as her older sister Blaire has been acting out and fighting with their mother so Martie wants to be the good daughter.

Their mother decides it would be best to move across the country to give the family a fresh start. Before leaving Martie learns of the kidnapping of two young girls around her age and the thought of what could happen to them also weighs heavily on young Martie.

Taking place in 1974 during the time of Nixon leaving office The Lies We Tell is a haunting tale of love, loss and the way one family deals with tragedy. A young girl doing her best to learn to cope with the loss of her father and learn the truth about just what happened that day.

Absolutely loved young Martie as she was a character that immediately upon learning her story. Reading her voice as she’s telling of her family and life just made me want to hug and comfort her and make her pain go away. Her mother is focused on her older sister who is being a typical teenager and reacting by yelling and disobeying but Martie is keeping it all bottled up inside.

As for the setting, if Nixon weren’t mentioned occasionally I don’t know that I’d even of been able to tell what time period this took place in. The focus is on the healing of this family and the events that led them up to that point in their life.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

FIND ME by Cait Jarrod
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lyse Haynes has always been superstitious. When she was younger she was told a story of how every year there are only two candy hearts printed at Valentine’s that have the words FIND ME on them. The pair that finds the hearts are destined to be soul mates but they have to meet up with each other in Heather Ridge, Virginia.

When Lyse receives an invitation to her high school reunion she really doesn’t want to attend until she finds that a box of candy hearts has been sent to everyone. Opening her own candy Lyse finds that she has one of the two FIND ME hearts and is determined that it is destiny for her to go.

Another great Candy Hearts Romance novella of two people separated coming back together again taking place in a quaint little town that has become Valentine obsessed. Lyse and Cooper were both great but of course the road to romance is a little bumpy for the pair.

Each of the Candy Hearts Romance novellas seem to read find as a standalone, great little quick romantic stories.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Watching by J.M. Thorne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Roo has been captured by aliens and taken aboard their ship in order to perform for them. The aliens are blood thirsty, they enjoy watching humans bleed and to perform means to survive being carved up night after night on a stage while an audience watches. Roo is determined he will not do as they say and will find a way to revolt.

Alien creepiness conquering the human race at it’s finest as far as the overall plot of the story goes. The human race is being wiped out by the incredible blood lust and losing it’s last hope of fighting back and surviving. As far as the horror of the story it was completely there. All of those alien invasion, experimenting on humans just got a little more horrific in this one.

The thing that I didn’t like about this read at all though was the fact that at 89 pages it is a short read but there are no chapters involved at all. The story is broken occasionally by **** between paragraphs here and there but I’m not a fan of the run it all together type of books. Also, told in first person this also made it stand out every time Roo is adding an I did or an I had I was seeing the I I I swimming around the page with very little dialogue throughout. I just felt that took away from some of my enjoyment of reading the story and had to get used to it while reading.

Overall, a “bloody” quick read for the alien invasion fans.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

White Lies by Zoe Markham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Abigail is very familiar with starting over. Both of her parents are in the Army and she’s had to move and start new schools quite often in her life. This time her older sister Beth has started at uni so Abigail is going to be boarding at Cotswold. When she arrives she meets a young man by the name of Tyler who seems quite nice and then two of her three roommates and seems to hit it off wonderfully with them.

However, during her first meeting with her new roommates Abby tells a few little white lies about her past which eventually catch up to her when her third roommate, Scarlet, feels threatened. Scarlet seems to be determined to ruin Abby’s chance at a fresh start and fitting in to the new school at all costs.

White Lies became one of those books I just couldn’t put down. A fairly fast paced read that kept me engaged throughout just waiting to see where it would all go. I thought so many times that I knew what was going on and where it was going to go but in the end I wasn’t even close. A wonderful edge of your seat thriller that will have you guessing all the way to the end.

Abby is the type of character that you can’t help but feel for. She’s pretty much had to be a loner most of her life with the exception of her older sister Beth who is her lifeline during her tough times. The other students follow along with their leader, Scarlet who for whatever reason dislikes Abby no matter how hard she tries to befriend her. Scarlet is the perfect “villain” that you don’t know whether to hate or feel really sorry for.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend checking this one out if you enjoy YA thrillers with a bit of horror element thrown into the mix.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Drone Man by Hudson Owen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Drone Man takes place in a sort of apocalyptic feeling version of New York that has been overrun by gangs. A retired Marine lives in a building in the city and takes justice into his own hands killing a high ranking gang member. The leader of that gang vows revenge upon Cain and does everything he can to get to him.

With this book I really felt the author had a checklist of gang type activity and tried to toss in everything in a relatively short story. It jumps back and forth from the gang’s and Cain’s perspective but tosses in a lot of random stuff between both that probably could have been left out to give more depth to the story.

At one point I started getting this kind of cartoonish feeling to what I was reading. I had images of Cain being the Roadrunner and Santana being poor Wile Coyote. I know that’s a horrible liking to the events but it just really didn’t seem to be real as there’s no real depth given to events to make me care about the characters or happenings and it just seemed to be heading down a predictable path.

Overall, not really for me I’m afraid, too much too quickly to get invested in the book or characters.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.