Consumed by J.R. Ward 4 ✭

Title:	Consumed
Author:	J.R. Ward
Publisher:	Gallery Books
Series:	Firefighters
Genre:	Romance, Mystery, Suspense
Publish Date:	October 2, 2018
Sold by:	Simon and Schuster
Pages:	416
Ages:	18 +

Rating: ✭✭✭✭

Thank you Gallery Books for giving me this ARC copy of consumed. Reading Consumed was like coming home. When you read a book, and you easily enjoy the complexity of each individual character instantly for however brief the introduction you get to them, you know that it is going to be a good series. To me, it felt like meeting a new set of characters with that same quality of the OG Black Dagger Brotherhood characters.  I say OG BDB because I haven't read the last few books and I lost a little interest in them. I want to continue but it isn't high on the list. This makes me not a superfan but a fan. So when I say I have that original feeling of expectation to a great new series, I mean it.

There are a ton of good characters that get some screen time here. It isn't just a story about Anne and Danny, although their story is amazing, you don't have to focus on them. This is a whole crew of people who all have their own life problems. So seeing everyone in this world interact through the rest of the series as it comes out should be really good. They're all relatable in their own ways, and if you can't relate, you understand the character type in general.

One of the things that I really liked was reading J.R. Ward's acknowledgments section in her new book. She wrote about how she worked with police and fire while there were working. It sounds like they gave her some job shadowing time to help her learn more about the careers behind her characters. They answered her questions and got to see their selfless heroism, her words not mine, in action. I think that truly helped her story feel even more real. You get the feeling of pride in what they do, but also that they're regular guys/gals who are just doing their job.

I really recommend Consumed. It is a great beginning to a series. It isn't drawn out building a world or characters, they develop as you go. The cliffhanger is just enough that you want to continue the plot without having to stress out about it until whenever the next one is. I personally appreciate this. I hate when books leave you with more questions than answers. Thankfully this doesn't do that.

 Consumed is slated to release on October 2, 2018. The prices at the time of this review are $12.99 for Kindle, $17.70 for the Hardcover.

Final Fall by Heather W. Petty 4 ✭

Title: Final Fall

Author: Heather W. Petty

Series: Lock & Mori

Genre: Crime, Mystery, Romance

Publish Date: November 28, 2017

Pages: 208

Ages: 14 & up

Rating: ✭✭✭✭

I want to be completely honest here. I never read the first two books in the series. Oh my god. Do I wish that I did? Heck yeah. I mean at first, I was totally confused because I had no clue who the perspective was coming from and why they were imprisoned. But you know, you roll with it because it's interesting. This person who is caged in is kind of bad ass and smart. I think when I was halfway through my copy from the publisher is when I had to shop around for the first two books in the series. I am kind of disappointed that this series didn't seem to have the presence in the public that I felt it deserved. I feel like this should have already been on my radar. 

I think this is a great crime solving book for teens and up to read. There are masterminds behind masterminds it seems in this series. That really has made me feel like I have missed out on not reading the first two books. Mori is a strong, smart, and maybe a little crazy. She uses her own brilliance and fierce determination to accomplish her goals. I am not sure if I would call her a role model, but I would definitely agree with aspects of her being admirable. 

I feel like Lock is a key player in this book but in the background. Always there but not. This is mostly a result of the things that have happened in the previous books. I wish that I could have gotten to know his character some more but I was able to get a good feel for his character. I think that this series could still live on with the kind of person Lock is. That would be pretty cool to read. 

If this had been the first book in the series I would have said that it shows promise of a good series and a future with awesome characters. It's the end of the series according to Amazon's blurb, but I am bummed out because I would really be ok for it to continue. I have to read the whole series to get a full feeling for the series as a whole. If I were my pre-teen self, this is a book that I would absolutely enjoy and get hooked into.

Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine 5 ✭

Stillhouse Lake is a horrific story for any mother to read and imagine herself as the main character. Gwen, aka Gina Royal, was once married to a murderer. She was labeled as "Melvin's Little Helper" but she was acquitted at her trial. The problem with the internet is that people can read into, and believe whatever they want. So she has been trying her damnedest to protect her two children from the people who send death threats. These people are sick as hell and think that punishing Gwen and her kids would be some sort of vigilante right they get. 

As a parent, this can be horrific to think about. People sending you death threats to you and your pre-teen/teen children. Gwen has become very militant in their family procedure. They pick up and move at any sign of complications. They don't trust anyone or anything even. Even police, knocks on doors, and even the mail are not trusted things. So to grill this paranoia into the reader, the beginning of this book can feel a little repetitive and slow. 

Even though it has a slow beginning it does pick up. It seems like all at once everything is changing. The family emotions are changing, they're feeling more at peace, and maybe even normal. They are beginning to trust people and then things turn. A body is found mutilated and missing skin just like her ex-husband use to leave around. Most of the town believes its Gwen or her family and from there on out it becomes a steady pace to the end of the book.

Check out a preview sample right here without even leaving the page.

This is book one in the Stillhouse Lake series by Rachel Caine. I decided that I absolutely had to pick this book up not only because it was a Kindle Firsts read but also because I am a fan of Rachel Caine's writing. I have read a handful of her books before. So I had to get while the gettins is good. The next book in the series is Killman Creek.You can pre-order the sequel to the series which will be released December 12, 2017. How about that? A book you can read and the sequel isn't a year away!

Hidden by Kendra Elliot 3 ✭

This is the first book in the Bone Secrets Series by Kendra Elliot. It is a total of a six book series.Lacey Campbell is a former gymnast and the survivor of the Co-ed Killer. Lacey's testimony was the one that put him away in jail. Now eleven years later she is a forensic odontologist, which means she looks at teether and bones. So in the beginning of this book, it is truly devastating when she is inspecting a set of teeth at a homicide and realizes that she knows whom they belong to while they are just sitting in the palm of her hand. They belong to her best friend Suzanne who went missing when they were both attacked by the Co-ed Killer.

Jack Harper is a former cop who now runs his families business. He is seen as a rich "playboy" but thankfully the book doesn't focus on this like a lot of other books where the millionaire playboy is the main love interest. Suzanne's body was discovered on one of his properties. What makes this even more puzzling is that he was one of the cops on the case all those eleven years ago.

This book has many perspectives and sometimes it jumps a little weird. The best way that I can explain it is that they needed to cut down on the size of the book and just cut whole paragraphs of descriptive scene changes. That is the ONLY reason why it is rated so low and that may just be my personal take on the writing and my comprehension of these scene changes. I hope that I am not judging this too harshly because of my personal comprehension issues, but that's just how I felt.

This is an amazing book if it wasn't for that. The characters points of view are written great. It makes you think about who could be the killer many different times. Not only does it give you Jack and Lacey's view but it also shows you the killers perspective, one of the cops on the current case, and even Lacey's report ex-boyfriend/ best friend. I really enjoy mysteries that make you guess along while you read. It's the kind of thing that you have to take a break to really think, did they give me enough clues to figure it out for myself.

Click below to read a free preview without 
even leaving the page!

I borrowed this book for FREE using my Prime Reading, but you can also borrow a copy for free using Kindle Unlimited. Prime Reading is free if you already pay for Amazon Prime and it is like a lite version of what you can get with a Kindle Unlimited Subscription. Now that I am done with the #sellout mode, haha. 

Rahab and Joshua (a biblical love story) by Rivha Gonen 4 ✭

As the title suggests this is a biblical story a girl who was raped and had to become a prostitute. She helps some spies hid in her home while they are trying to help take over Jericho. I'm gonna let you know, I am not religious at all. So to be this was a very interesting read. And while I understand that there are actual facts here as well that are supposed to be accurate, so I really want to understand the view of this time of conflict.

Rahab really had a rough childhood, and it goes into a lot of detail about her father's childhood and life too. There is so much information about the characters and their lives. It is written extremely well. It's very interesting (again I am not religious) how there is a prostitute in Jesus' lineage. After reading this book, I may even be interested in learning more about different religions in general. 

I did receive a free copy of the book to give the author a completely honest review. So when I saw a few typing errors, I am hoping that it was just the copy I had received was an ARC. In one instance there was suppose to be a town name, but it was just two random letters. But this I am sure will be fixed in no time if it hasn't already been fixed.

Click here to check this book out on Amazon.com

This book is going to be released for kindle on July 31, 2017. It will also be a Kindle Unlimited book!

Missing By Adiva Geffen 4 ✭

This is a great book about private detectives in Israel that is super fast paced. It's like one of those action movies that start off with a shocking bang and just keeps going with twists and turns. A realistic crime suspense movie adventure would be good to describe it. 

There is runaway girl that the detectives are trying to get home. However, when the girl, Daria, commits suicide it sends them on a wild chase with cults and other crazy stuff. The book is great at hooking you into the adventure as they try to discover what happened to Daria. I've been reading a few books that take place in another country lately, and it has been an amazing trip. I feel like this give me another tale to add to my places my mind has been.

The characters, Sammy and Dikla, are very interesting. Although I personally think crime-solving characters have to have some quality that makes them stand out, to begin with. There is a strength here that is admirable that you see. 

For a book that was recently translated into English, I was pleased with the quality of the writing. The books formatted great also. The author is a best-selling author so you would expect the best. That is what you get here. A must read for those crime solver lovers out there.

I did receive a free copy of this book so that I could provide the author with an unbiased review. This book can be pre-ordered now for Kindle and it will be released July 24, 2017 for only $3.99. 

Click here to look at this book on Amazon.com