Author: megs14malloy

Review: The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands

~ megs14malloy

The Blackthorn Key (The Blackthorn Key, #1)The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars**

In 1665, London, Christopher Rowe is a young apprentice to apothecary, Master Benedict Blackthorn.

Blackthorn saved Christopher from a no doubt, harsh and uncertain future, by adopting him from a local orphanage. Since that time he has acted as a caring father figure and mentor to the young boy.

Christopher is very clever, adept at following chemical recipes, deciphering puzzles and reading complex codes.

Along with his good friend, Tom, the baker’s son, Christopher gets himself into all sorts of wild hijinks with his experiments.

When the city’s apothecaries begin being systematically killed off, it is up to Christopher to figure out who is behind it and stop them before he too, falls victim.

Relying on his knowledge, acquired through his Master’s many lessons, as well as his own ingenuity, Christopher slowly pieces together the mystery of the Cult at the heart of the matter; putting his own life in danger along the way.

I really enjoyed so much about this story. It’s such a strong start to a Middle Grade series.

I loved the historical setting and the relationship between Christopher and Tom most of all. Tom was a perfect, lovable side kick, and those can go a long way in this type of story.

This does get really dark. I was living for it and even as a Middle Grader, certainly, would have been living for it. There are murdery bits, and evil villain bits and actually, fairly scary bits.

If you are a reader who is sensitive to that type of content, just go in knowing you will find that here.

As a science lover, I also enjoyed those elements included in the story. There were even codes for Christopher to work out, left for him as clues.

The narrative really made science exciting and I love seeing Young Readers exposed to a science is cool storyline. Not only is science cool, it saves the day.

I’m really excited to continue on with this series. I am definitely down for going on more adventures with Christopher and Tom.

If you are looking for a fun, fast-paced, slightly dark, Middle Grade Mystery series, I suggest you give it a go as well. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

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Review: Kingdom of the Wicked (Kingdom of the Wicked #1) by Kerri Maniscalco

~ megs14malloy

Kingdom of the Wicked (Kingdom of the Wicked, #1)Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars**

Emilia and her twin sister, Vittoria, are witches, who live secretly among humans on the island of Sicily. Their family runs a renowned local restaurant, where both girls work.

At eighteen years old, they’ve been raised hearing the lore of their family, and other beings of the underworld; mostly at the knee of their beloved Nonna.

But these stories become all too real after Emilia discovers the body of her murdered sister.

Overcome with grief, Emilia’s saving grace seems to be her need for vengeance. Her overwhelming need to find her sister’s killer keeps her from wallowing in despair for too long.

Pairing herself with a Prince from Hell, Wrath, Emilia begins to follow clues through the shadow-ridden Sicilian streets, as more and more witches fall to the same fate as Vittoria.

In the beginning, I’ll admit, I wasn’t sold.

The first couple of chapters seemed generic. Emilia felt like many YA characters I had read before. I was sceptical.

However, I am so happy to report, I had no reason to be. Once Emilia and Wrath met up, everything began to fall into place and I ended up really enjoying this.

While the format was slightly typical, as far as enemies-to-lovers tropes go, I still thought it was special; and I love that trope.

I thought the evolution of their relationship was perfectly paced and the way they worked together, two thumbs up. Until the bitter end, I was with them, hook, line and sinker.

As the story unfolded, I was so impressed with Emilia’s guts and determination. She’s up against some super scary forces, yet never backs down.

Pushing herself to the limits, her ability to stare straight in the face of danger was admirable. By the end, she’s one of my new favorite heroines.

As far as Wrath goes, we stan. Everything about him, from his snarky attitude, his knowledge of all things dark and hellish, his tattoos, his sexy outfits, I loved it all.

I also feel like we have so much more to learn about him. Fingers crossed this happens moving forward in the series.

The atmosphere is top notch as well and I liked that Maniscalco didn’t shy away from some very dark images and scenes. This last bit of this book was absolutely wild and I cannot wait for the next one to be released!!!

Seriously, is it too early to request a copy!?

Thank you so much to the publisher, Jimmy Patterson, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review.

I truly appreciate it!

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Review: Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke

~ megs14malloy

Sour CandySour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved reading this book, which feels weird to say because of the content.

It is horrifying, grisly, stomach-churning, haunting, and I loved every minute of it.

I mean, what can I say, it’s what I like.

Sour Candy was my Halloween night read. I lit a pumpkin scented candle, grabbed an adult beverage, snuggled into my bed and read it from start to finish.

Coming in under 100-pages, this novella packs a lot in.

Phil Pendleton has his head in the clouds, straight off a hot night with his lady, as he enters his local Wal-Mart looking to buy them chocolates.

As he stands in the candy aisle making his choices, he hears a blood-curdling scream.

Glancing over he notices an ill-behaved child, pitching a fit, as often occurs in Wal-Mart, and a bedraggled mother who looks to be at the end of her rope.

When a manager intervenes, the situation, if anything, escalates.

Phil tries to assist, but as we all know, no good deed goes unpunished. That’s the last moment of normalcy Phil will have.

Certain aspects of that moment, and the debilitating health effects that followed, reminded me a bit of Thinner. I love Thinner, so comparing these is absolutely a compliment from me.

I also loved how Burke built the intensity in this. The story gets more strange as it goes along, and with that, the horrific nature builds and builds.

Playing off the classic creepy kid trope, this story took that to the next level. I was horrified for Phil.

I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys a quick and memorable horror story!

You know who you are.

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Review: Tinfoil Butterfly by Rachel Eve Moulton

~ megs14malloy

Tinfoil ButterflyTinfoil Butterfly by Rachel Eve Moulton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Tinfoil Butterfly is strange, heartbreaking, and beautiful.

Meshing real life horrors with subtle fantastical elements, there’s a lot to unpack for such a short novel.

Emma is hitchhiking across the United States, trying to reach the Badlands of South Dakota.

Along the way she gets picked up by a man named, Lowell. It doesn’t end well.

Fleeing for her life, Emma comes across an abandoned diner where she seeks refuge from an oncoming storm.

This is where she meets, Earl, a little boy whose face is hidden behind an odd tinfoil mask.

Earl ends up stealing Emma’s loaded gun and implores her to help him get rid of George.

Emma is stranded. Earl is her only contact and she gets pulled into his bizarre and dangerous world as the snow begins to fall.

This entire novel is steeped in an ominous atmosphere. As the reader, you go along with Emma as she tries to drag information out of Earl.

It turns out, he has lived a torturous life, the truth is hiding just under the surface, but you can’t quite get to it. Regardless of the past, Earl is scared to leave it behind.

Earl isn’t the only one with a dark past. Emma is on the run from her own. Damaged and broken, she is forced, while in the clutches of a crisis, to revisit each painful moment of it.

The truth of Emma’s past is admittedly difficult to read. Trigger warnings for: (view spoiler).

I loved the bond formed by Emma and Earl.

I though the evolution of that relationship over the course of the story was very special. It brought the humanity of the characters to life in a way that filled my heart with empathy for them both.

Paired with the beauty of their relationship, however, is equal amounts of horror. We’re talking horrific, realistic, painful content.

There were times I felt sick to my stomach, but honestly, the story is worth it.

The feelings of violence and fear boiling just under the surface really never let up, making this a tense read.

With this being said, it also feels quiet and subtle at times. I have no idea if I am explaining this accurately.

It’s almost something that you just need to experience for yourself.

I do recommend this for people who enjoy darker contemporary stories, or slow burns with equal parts violence and beauty.

You know who you are. Pick it up!

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Review: In the Hall With the Knife by Diana Peterfreund

~ megs14malloy

In the Hall with the Knife (Clue Mystery, #1)In the Hall with the Knife by Diana Peterfreund
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

In the Hall with the Knife was so much fun and the exact vibe I was hoping for.

This story brought all of the Clue movie over-the-top drama and I was living for it.

I decided to pick up this novel over Halloween week. I had no idea how perfect that choice would end up being.

Set at a posh boarding school, Blackbrook Academy, on the coast of Maine, this story follows multiple perspectives including Peacock, Green, Mustard, Scarlet and Mrs. White.

When a winter storm hits, the academy’s access to the mainland gets cut off, stranding a hand full of students, the headmaster and a couple of other school employees.

They corral everyone into Tudor House, which seems to be a highpoint and therefore escaped major flooding and damage.

The manse generally acts as a girls boarding house, with Mrs. White at its head, but they manage to find room for everyone.

The house includes all of the stately charm you would anticipate with hardwoods, stained glass, and rooms such as the lounge, billiard room and conservatory. Oh, and secret passageways, don’t forget the secret passageways.

When on the first night, the headmaster ends up dead, our intrepid characters are left to figure out what happened.

Some suggest an accident, other suggest suicide, but very quickly it is clear that it was murder.

I had a ton of fun reading this. It was campy, it was ridiculous and I thought it was a blast.

I think if you go into it with the right mindset, you will have fun with it to. It is definitely not a story to take too seriously.

I’m actually really excited to pick up the next installment. This one left off at an interesting and sinister spot.

I want more!!!

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Review: Even If We Break by Marieke Nijkamp

~ megs14malloy

Even If We BreakEven If We Break by Marieke Nijkamp
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I don’t even know what to say. This book was a huge disappointment for me.

I knew going in, the reviews were not the greatest. Regardless of the super interesting synopsis, it seemed a lot of readers were not enjoying it.

Frequently, I find myself in the minority opinion on polarizing books, however, so I still wanted to give it a shot.

I love slightly cheesy, teen slashers, particularly with weekend getaways or gaming elements. This book sounded like it would be a great fit for my tastes.

We follow five friends, who I believe are in high school, who head off to a cabin in the Arizona mountains for a weekend getaway playing a RPG they created.

There are costumes, a murder mystery to solve and things go south fairly quickly. Before you know it, we have a real life murder mystery on our hands.

I would surmise that incorporating a high fantasy RPG into a narrative story would be a complicated task, and I think I’m right, because I found it confusing AF.

I was still sort of intrigued, but then it went off the rails.

The big baddie was super obvious, so no real suspense there and then the drama to reach the conclusion was ridiculous. I’m sorry, but it was.

There was also a lot of hard-hitting contemporary topics sprinkled throughout that seemed oddly out of place. It made the overall intent of this novel confusing.

There were some diverse characters in here, which I love to see, but in a way, it felt overplayed; like it was just an effort to get them in there for that sake alone.

I don’t know, it didn’t come off as genuine? Perhaps because they were portrayed so one dimensionally.

This is just my opinion, of course, and I would love to see OwnVoices reviews on this story.

If you are unaware, this novel features trans-rep, nonbinary-rep and disability-rep. I also would really like to see reviews from individuals who actually participate in RPG; I would love to hear people’s opinions on how that was represented here.

Without belaboring the point, I didn’t like this. If you pick it up and enjoy it, or even love it, I am so happy you had that experience with it.

Sadly, it just wasn’t the right fit for me. On to the next!

Original:

1. A Weekend Getaway.
2. A Game.
3. Deadly Secrets.

I will
never
 skip a book with these buzzwords.

Sign me up!

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Review: I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

~ megs14malloy

I'm Thinking of Ending ThingsI’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. Wow. WOW. Wooooow. Wwwoooowww. Wow. WOW. Wow. Wow. Wooooowwww. Woooow. Wow. wOW. WOW.

I first heard of this book when Kayla, from BooksandLala, read it and mentioned it on her YouTube channel. From her reaction to her experience reading it, I knew I wanted to pick it up.

Since that time, I have successfully avoided all spoilers, reviews and honestly, even the synopsis.

On a whim, I decided to start the audiobook on Saturday.

First, let me just say, the audiobook was amazing, and in my estimation, absolutely the best way to experience this story.

I am not going to say a thing about the content of this book. I wouldn’t want to spoil one single sentence for anyone who hasn’t read it, but wants to.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things is unconventional, it’s weird, it’s dark and it shook me. When the reveal happens in audio, I was out walking my dog and was so chilled, I had to stop walking.

I genuinely thought this was brilliant.

Regardless of the final outcome of this novel, throughout the entire story I was creeped out.

It’s such an odd experience, because there is nothing overtly scary happening, but the feeling of dread that I had the entire time I was listening to it was pretty epic.

Overall, I think this audiobook is an amazing experience. If you are looking to be played and have everything you thought you knew flipped on its head, pick it up.

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Review: The Mirror Man by Jane Gilmartin

~ megs14malloy

**3.5-stars**

Hello, my lovelies! Earlier today I posted a bit about Jane Gilmartin’s new SciFi release, The Mirror Man.

At the time of that post, I was 71% of the way through and was predicting a final star rating of between 3.5 and 4. I am happy to say, I finished up with it a couple of hours ago, and as predicted, my final rating is 3.5-stars!

On my rating scale, a 3-star book is a good book and a 3.5-star book is getting close to really good. It’s a book I would recommend to certain people with particular tastes, but not necessarily to everyone.

For me, the first 3/4 of this book was quite compelling. Our protagonist, Jeremiah Adams, finds himself in a precarious situation, essentially held hostage at his place of employment due to an illegal cloning experiment.

As we get towards the end however, it loses all its danger. It’s like the baddies just give up. It just didn’t make sense and ended up way to neatly for the protagonist. I didn’t get that choice. He should have had to fight harder or something. There were also a few plot holes that I thought could have been improved upon. I’ll admit, I was let down by the way it ended.

Overall though, it is an interesting story that would translate well into film. Perhaps they could add a bit more suspense towards the end. I think this would be a great read for someone just getting into Techno-Thrillers or SciFi in general as the concepts are all easy to understand.

Thank you so much to the publisher, MIRA, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review, as well as including me in the blog tour. I appreciate the opportunity and had fun reading this one!

Blog Tour: The Mirror Man by Jane Gilmartin

~ megs14malloy

Hi, book friends! Good morning! Happy Sunday and start to Halloween Week! The most wonderful time of the year.

Let’s chat about The Mirror Man by Jane Gilmartin. This fast-paced, Sci-Fi Suspense novel explores the ramifications of a near future, illegal cloning experiment.

Our protagonist, Jeremiah Adams, works in the marketing department for ViGen Pharmaceuticals. He’s surprised when he is offered the opportunity to take part in a top-secret scientific experiment, for which he will be generously compensated. We are talking millions of dollars.

What does he have to do? It’s pretty simple, he agrees to allow ViGen to create a clone of him that will then go out and live his life, while he is secluded in a luxury apartment for a full year.

Just to be clear, this means, the clone, who will have Jeremiah’s memories basically uploaded into its head, will then go and live at Jeremiah’s house with his wife, Diana, his teenage son, Parker and their dog, Louie.

Jeremiah agrees. He’s been having a rough go of it at home lately, anyway, and could use a break.

As part of his agreement, Jeremiah will be required to watch the clone go about his life for a minimum of 4-hours a day, via carefully placed video cameras. Another employee of ViGen, Brent, is to be his companion during these viewing sessions. They’re trying to determine if the clone veers at all from Jeremiah’s normal pattern of behavior.

He also must meet with a psychologist to discuss how the whole process is making him feel. Other than that, his only contact is with the two heads of the experiment, Drs. Scott and Pike.

I am currently 71% of the way through this novel. I have been flying through it. The narrative style is very addicting. It’s a solid Techno-Thriller and would definitely make a good movie.

I was impressed with how quickly the action kicked off. There’s no pages and pages of background filler on the experiment. The opening scenes are the clone getting its finishing touches before heading out into the world, and just like that, Jeremiah is enclosed in his room.

It’s mere moments before you can feel a sense of dread starting to seep in. Like when Jeremiah realizes the exterior door of his apartment doesn’t have a handle on his side. He is literally a prisoner at the mercy of the few ViGen employees who are actually privy to the experiment and know of his whereabouts.

As you continue turning pages, the true sinister nature of the story begins to reveal itself. I am loving the relationship between Jeremiah and Brent, right now. Brent brings a lot of much need humor. Although some of the plot is predictable in a 1990s-Techno-Thriller way, it’s still fun and engaging.

According to my e-Reader, I have under two hours left. So, I am going to go finish it up now and then I will circle back here with a full review. Right now my star rating is hovering between a 3.5 and 4. Stay tuned to find out more!!!

Review: Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards

~ megs14malloy

Five Total StrangersFive Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Mira lives in California, while her mother lives in Pittsburgh. It’s Christmas and Mira wants nothing more than to be over on the other Coast with her Mom.

Last year, her Aunt, her Mom’s sister and closest friend, passed away. They both took it hard, but her Mom really struggled.

Mira is concerned about her mother’s mental health as she tries to cope with that loss around the holiday.

So, when her connecting flight from New York to Pittsburgh gets canceled due to inclement weather, Mira needs to find another way to get home to her.

Luckily, the girl she was sitting next to on the plane, Harper, is renting a car, along with three of her college friends, Brecken, Josh and Kayla.

There is room and they are heading in the same direction, so Harper offers Mira a ride. It would sure beat any of the other options, like sleeping at the airport.

Mira accepts, but she has her reservations. She doesn’t know these people at all.

As they hit the road, the weather gets progressively worse. They see a lot of accidents and even have a few close calls themselves. As you can imagine, the stress level in the car is ratcheting up.

They’re now at each other’s throats and it’s not pretty.

Anything that could possibly go wrong, does for this group. Conditions get to the point where they are barely able to drive at all.

They make a few pit stops and yep, you guessed it, those don’t go well either!

I had fun with this one, y’all. Richards did a great job or bringing your typical Teen Scream to the page.

The cast of characters played well off of one another and it definitely kept me guessing. There’s some uncertainty as to what people’s motives are and I enjoyed that element a lot.

The suspense continues to build throughout the story. Items start to disappear from the car and it feels threatening rather than accidental.

Although there were some plot holes, and I wasn’t sold on the ending, I did have fun with it. I think if you don’t take it too seriously, it’s quite an enjoyable read.

Thank you so much to the publisher, SourceBooks Fire, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review.

Blizzard Scares are some of my favorite scares, so I am definitely happy that I had the opportunity to read this one. It’s perfect for this time of year!!

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