Deadline
The second in the Newsflesh trilogy is still a cracking read but it’s just little less interesting or compelling than the first book.
After the events of the first book we see things from gradually deteriorating perspective of Shaun Mason as he investigates a conspiracy dumped his lap.
You have to read this if you’ve read the first book – especially since the third book promises to be very interesting…
Feed
Mira Grant is the pseudonym Seanan McGuire uses for her horror books.
Feed is the first of a trilogy set in a post zombie uprising world.
Georgia and Shaun Mason are news bloggers who get the nod to cover a presidential campaign and find themselves caught up in conspiracy and murder.
Feed has great characters, excellent worldbuilding and I got genuinely invested what happens as the story unfolds.
Another compelling book by this author and I highly recommended it if you have any stomach for zombies and horror.
Blackbirds
Miriam Black can see your death. A single touch of her skin on yours and she will see how and when you’ll meet your maker.
Unable to change the events that she forsees, she has become profoundly cynical – a drifter using her gift to be present when others die and scavenging their money and personal effects before moving on down the line.
The events of this book find her gifts getting her in trouble with genuinely evil people and putting her sanity and safety at risk.
This is a really enjoyable book with a lead character that you quickly become invested in despite her obvious flaws. I can’t wait to read the sequel.
I’ve classified it as fantasy but apart from Miriam’s real psychic ability this could be just an excellent example of a hard boiled thriller.
Recommended if you like thrillers or urban fantasy.
Flat Out Love
I’m pretty much unable to resist a good bargain and when this book cropped up in the 99p daily Kindle deal with the promise of a good romantic comedy I jumped at the chance.
Imagine my disappointment when this turned out to be full of cliche characters and crashingly obvious plot twists.
The author has a pleasant, readable voice but the book is utterly forgettable.
Kill The Dead
Stark returns to fight off a zombie invasion of Los Angeles. He does this while also acting as Lucifer’s bodyguard and mingling with the Hollywood elite.
It’s a fun enough book and the central character remains enjoyably cynical but it’s just not as good as the first book.
Recommended if you enjoyed the first book.
The Song of the Quarkbeast
The second of Fforde’s YA fantasy sequence sees our heroine plunged into a battle for the future of magic.
It’s a fun little romp – if a little disjointed feeling compared to the first book.
I’m looking forward to book three – which looks like it’s going to be very interesting.
Certainly recommended if you’re looking for an amusing YA fantasy.
Rosemary & Rue
I don’t normally re-read books so quickly but I was looking for something to divert me at lunchtimes now that I no longer eat at my desk. This, the first Toby Daye book, just happened to be on my phone.
It’s a very enjoyable urban fantasy novel that sets up the series with a deft hand. There’s a lot of seeds planted in this first book that go on to pay off with interest in later volumes and it was fun to catch that this time around.
If you have any tolerance for urban fantasy please check out this series – it starts well and gets better.
This Lullaby
Remy is a cynical young woman about to graduate from high school and escape her home town to Stanford for college. Convinced love is a sham following her Mother’s many marriages she jumps from boyfriend to boyfriend without ever getting emotionally invested. Then she meets Dexter – the singer of an indie band newly arrived in town and things stop being so cut and dried.
This is an expertly constructed and very enjoyable slice of teen romance. Recommended by a fellow fan of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries I raced through this in a couple of days.
It nicely hits that funny, smart romantic tone that I’m sucker for in films and TV without ever getting too melodramatic.
The Knife of Never Letting Go
It was a surprise to hear that Mr Ness had become an award winner for YA fiction.
Back in 2005 I read a collection of his short stories and a future writing science fiction for teenagers didn’t look very likely at that point.
That said – this is a really good book.
Todd has grown up in a world filled with Noise – the thoughts that pour from the mind of every man since the war with the native aliens.
He’s the last boy in Prentisstown, just days away from his birthday and the ritual passage into adulthood when his world is changed by the discovery of a hole in the Noise. Forced to go on the run he learns the extent of the lies that have ruled his life.
Ness writes in a way that pulls you into the story, while also having really interesting things to say about the nature of identity and the drawbacks of psychic ability.
I’m looking forward to reading the sequels and I would definitely recommend this book.
Fletch
IM Fletcher is a reporter. While under cover as a beach bum investigating a drug ring he’s approached by a wealthly stranger with an unusual proposition.
This is a well constructed and sardonically funny thriller.
Fletch is the epitome of the likeable asshole and the central mysteries remain compelling right until they’re wrapped up in a satisfying fashion at the end.
Recommended if you like entertaining, fast-paced comic thrillers.