The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

 

Founded by the mysterious genius known as the Designer, the archipelago of Prospera lies hidden from the horrors of a deteriorating outside world. In this island paradise, Prospera's lucky citizens enjoy long, fulfilling lives until the monitors embedded in their forearms, meant to measure their physical health and psychological well-being, fall below 10 percent. Then they retire themselves, embarking on a ferry ride to the island known as the Nursery, where their failing bodies are renewed, their memories are wiped clean, and they are readied to restart life afresh.

Proctor Bennett, of the Department of Social Contracts, has a satisfying career as a ferryman, gently shepherding people through the retirement process--and, when necessary, enforcing it. But all is not well with Proctor. For one thing, he's been dreaming--which is supposed to be impossible in Prospera. For another, his monitor percentage has begun to drop alarmingly fast. And then comes the day he is summoned to retire his own father, who gives him a disturbing and cryptic message before being wrestled onto the ferry.

Meanwhile, something is stirring. The Support Staff, ordinary men and women who provide the labor to keep Prospera running, have begun to question their place in the social order. Unrest is building, and there are rumors spreading of a resistance group--known as "Arrivalists"--who may be fomenting revolution.

Soon Proctor finds himself questioning everything he once believed, entangled with a much bigger cause than he realized--and on a desperate mission to uncover the truth.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Passage comes a riveting standalone novel about a group of survivors on a hidden island utopia--where the truth isn't what it seems.

MY REVIEW: 4.5 Stars

I’m not even sure what I just read! 

Proctor is a Ferryman which is a creepy job! He takes people to the ferry that takes them to the Nursery island! Yeah…..

There is some stuff with his father that is really sad. 

AND…

Then this book goes right off the rails! The twists in this book are beyond what I could have imagined! I’m still not sure I understand some of it but it’s not in a bad way. I definitely recommend the book! 

*Thank you to the publisher for the offer to read this book and Netgalley for the digital copy! 

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

The Nightmare Man by J. H. Markert

 

Blackwood mansion looms, surrounded by nightmare pines, atop the hill over the small town of New Haven. Ben Bookman, bestselling novelist and heir to the Blackwood estate, spent a weekend at the ancestral home to finish writing his latest horror novel, The Scarecrow. Now, on the eve of the book’s release, the terrible story within begins to unfold in real life.

Detective Mills arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder: a family butchered and bundled inside cocoons stitched from corn husks, and hung from the rafters of a barn, eerily mirroring the opening of Bookman’s latest novel. When another family is killed in a similar manner, Mills, along with his daughter, rookie detective Samantha Blue, is determined to find the link to the book—and the killer—before the story reaches its chilling climax.

As the series of “Scarecrow crimes” continues to mirror the book, Ben quickly becomes the prime suspect. He can’t remember much from the night he finished writing the novel, but he knows he wrote it in The Atrium, his grandfather’s forbidden room full of numbered books. Thousands of books. Books without words.

As Ben digs deep into Blackwood’s history he learns he may have triggered a release of something trapped long ago—and it won’t stop with the horrors buried within the pages of his book.

MY REVIEW: 4.5 Stars 

I’m trying to find the words for this review. It’s a sad day as Queen Elizabeth has died so I’m going to keep this short. 

I kept going back and forth between 4 and 4.5 stars. Some things I didn’t like for my own personal reasons. There were also many times I got confused with all of the different people of them being called by different names. 

All of this aside, I felt this was a refreshing horror novel. I loved the different ways the deaths were portrayed. I loved certain other aspects I can’t mention as they would be major spoilers! There are twists and turns, gruesome scenes and crazy revelations. I did grow to love a few characters and some deaths in the book got to me. 

I might have to get a physical copy of this one but definitely a finished kindle version

*Thank you to Netgalley and Crooked Lane for a digital copy of the book 

Mel 

Terminal Peace by Jim C. Hines

 

The third and final book of the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse follows a group of unlikely heroes trying to save the galaxy from a zombie plague.

Marion “Mops” Adamopoulos and her team were trained to clean spaceships. They were absolutely not trained to fight an interplanetary war with the xenocidal Prodryans or to make first contact with the Jynx, a race who might not be as primitive as they seem. But if there’s one lesson Mops and her crew have learned, it’s that things like “training” and “being remotely qualified” are overrated.

The war is escalating. (This might be Mops’ fault.) The survival of humanity—those few who weren’t turned to feral, shambling monsters by an alien plague—as well as the fate of all other non-Prodryans, will depend on what Captain Mops and the crew of the EDFS Pufferfish discover on the ringed planet of Tuxatl.

But the Jynx on Tuxatl are fighting a war of their own, and their world’s long-buried secrets could be more dangerous than the Prodryans.

To make matters worse, Mops is starting to feel a little feral herself… 

MY REVIEW: 4.5 Stars 

I loved this trilogy!! I love the original storyline, the characters, and space as the setting 

In my opinion, this trilogy is underrated!! I think theses books should get more attention! The books are funny, have wonderful species of characters and you care for them! I’ve already ordered my hardback to go with my first two books!  Highly recommend! 

I’ll leave it with some fun quotes! 

*Humans are little more than animals. I say this not out of malice or racism. Indeed, I’m quite fond of human beings. But after years of study, I’ve found them to be an evolutionary quagmire of inefficiency. Scientifically and objectively, humans are a primitive species. 

They have redundant lungs and kidneys, but only a single brain or heart, as well as seemingly "optional" organs like the appendix. Even more absurd is their reproductive system. Half the species keep their genitalia on the outside of their bodies! Then there’s the human gastrointestinal abomination if ever there was one!! 

*The human GI tract is more than seven and a half meters long. Despite this absurd length, humans regularly emit foul-smelling exhaust as a byproduct of inefficient digestion. Krakau biochemists have tried for years to reduce these emissions through a carefully controlled diet, but their efforts have met with minimal success. 

** Thank you to Netgalley and DAW Books for a digital copy of this book. 

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

The Art Of Prophecy by Wesley Chu

 

 

 

An epic fantasy ode to martial arts and magic about what happens when a prophesied hero is not the chosen one after all—and has to work with a band of unlikely allies to save the kingdom anyway, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lives of Tao

So many stories begin the same way: With a prophecy. A Chosen One. And the inevitable quest to slay a villain, save the kingdom, and fulfill a grand destiny.

But this is not that kind of story.

It does begin with a prophecy: A child will rise to defeat the Eternal Khan, a cruel immortal god-king, and save the kingdom.

And that prophecy did anoint a hero, Jian, raised since birth in luxury and splendor, and celebrated before he has won a single battle.

But that’s when the story hits its first twist: The prophecy was wrong.

What follows is a story more wondrous than any prophecy can foresee, and with many unexpected heroes: Taishi, an older woman who is the greatest grandmaster of magical martial arts in the kingdom but who thought her adventuring days were all behind her; Sali, a straitlaced warrior who learns the rules may no longer apply when the leader she pledged her life to is gone; and Qisami, a chaotic assassin who takes a little too much pleasure in the kill.

And Jian himself, who has to find a way to become what he no longer believes he can be—a hero after all.

 MY REVIEW: 4 STARS 

I absolutely loved the character, Taishi. She's an older lady with a disability but can kick your arse and take names at the same time. She's one bad ass master. She decides to take on Jian who is part of a prophecy that kinda falls flat. This puts him in hiding as people want to kill him. I loved the parts when Jian and Taishi are together the most and the humor is fantastic! 

Some of the other characters are doing their own thing. Qisami is pretty evil but she didn't kill that dog people... repeat.. she didn't kill that dog!!!!!!! 

I'm up in the air whether I want to own the physical copy. I did use one of my Audible credits to get the book as I couldn't seem to get through it with my Netgalley copy. The narration is very good and funny as hell at times so I do recommend it. 

Overall, the book was enjoyable and I will be reading the rest of the books in the series/trilogy

*I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House Publishing - Ballantine for a digital copy of this book. 

Mel

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

 

The mind-blowing new thriller from the New York Timesbestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion 

“You are the next step in human evolution.” 

At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep. 

But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways. 

The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy. 

Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost. 

Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human. 

And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution? 

Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential. 

MY REVIEW: 2 Stars 

I’ve had this book for a long time when Netgalley had it available, but I couldn’t get into it. So, I waited until it actually came out at my library and tried listening to the audio. 

I’ve come to the conclusion that I just don’t love all of the authors books and that’s okay, there are plenty of people out there that love them. 

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book. 

When We Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

 

Learn about the Mass Dragoning of 1955 in which 300,000 women spontaneously transform into dragons...and change the world.

Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours. But this version of 1950's America is characterized by a significant event: The Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales and talons, left a trail of fiery destruction in their path, and took to the skies. Seemingly for good. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex's beloved Aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn't know. It's taboo to speak of, even more so than her crush on Sonja, her schoolmate.

Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of dragons: a mother more protective than ever; a father growing increasingly distant; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and a new "sister" obsessed with dragons far beyond propriety. Through loss, rage, and self-discovery, this story follows Alex's journey as she deals with the events leading up to and beyond the Mass Dragoning, and her connection with the phenomenon itself.

MY REVIEW: 4.5 Stars 

First off let us appreciate the beautiful cover of this book!! 

I had mixed thoughts on the book. In the beginning I loved reading about these women turning into dragons. I was hoping it was going to be more about these dragon women. But, the book focused on Alex and her coming of age story. 

Alex goes through a lot of sadness in this book. I give kudos to her for taking care of her cousin/sister Beatrice, while still in school. 

There were a couple of things here and there I didn’t care for but over all I loved it and want the hardback. 

I totally get where the book was going at the end with the dragon women and what this was actually standing for in the world back in the day. 

Like I said, I definitely hope to add the physical copy of this book to my collection 

*Thank you to Netgalley for a digital copy of the book. 

Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett

 

 

 

The jaw-dropping conclusion to the acclaimed Founders Trilogy, from the Hugo-nominated author of Foundryside and Shorefall

“Bennett concludes his Founders trilogy . . . with characteristically high-spirited mayhem. Great fun, with nonstop action.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
 
Sancia, Clef, and Berenice have gone up against long odds in the past. But the war they’re fighting now is one even they can’t win.

This time, they’re not facing robber-baron elites or even an immortal hierophant, but an entity whose intelligence is spread over half the globe—one that uses the magic of scriving to control not just objects but human minds.
 
To fight it, they’ve used scriving technology to transform themselves and their allies into an army—a society—unlike anything humanity has seen before. With its strength at their backs, they’ve freed a handful of their enemy’s hosts from servitude, and even defeated some of its fearsome, reality-altering dreadnoughts.
 
Yet despite their efforts, their enemy marches on. Implacable. Unstoppable.
 
Now, as their opponent closes in on its true prize—an ancient doorway, long buried, that leads to the chambers at the center of creation itself—Sancia and her friends glimpse a last opportunity to stop this unbeatable foe. To do so, they’ll have to unlock the centuries-old mystery of scriving’s origins, embark on a desperate mission into the heart of their enemy’s power, and pull off the most daring heist they’ve ever attempted.
 
But their adversary might have a spy in their ranks—and a last trick up its sleeve.
 
And to have a chance at victory, Sancia, Clef, and Berenice will have to make a sacrifice beyond anything that’s come before.

 MY REVIEW: 4 STARS  

That epilogue though!!!!!

 The conclusion of this book broke my heart! And, with that being said, it was still a great book. 

The evil Trevanne is trying to kill the world while resetting things and who knows what all, it's a bit confusing for me at times. I can just say the big baddie in the book is destroying things and made me sad. 

The gang is doing everything in their power to stop the evilness and yes, this involves some deaths. 

We also get a great look into Clef's life. He's my favorite and it's really sad as backstories are sometimes. 

 Overall, I loved the book. I didn't love it as much as the first two but it's still a great book. I'm happy-ish with this conclusion. Sorry......sad people, just sad!

*Thank you to Netgalley for a digital copy of this book. 

Mel  

The Woman In The Library by Sulari Gentill

 In every person's story, there is something to hide...

The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.

Award-winning author Sulari Gentill delivers a sharply thrilling read with The Woman in the Library, an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship and shows us that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.

 

MY REVIEW: 2.5 Stars 

 I love the idea of this book, but I couldn't get into it all the way. 

We have these people that meet at a table in the Boston Public Library. They hear a woman scream.... 

We also get letters from a writer and her beta writer. He has to do research for her as she's from Australia and can't come to Boston due to covid. Sooo.... are these people real? Are they just characters in her book? One of them is a murderer. Is it a real person or a person that's in the book. Yes, I'm going to say it? This is a book inside of a book that's possibly inside another book! 

 Sigh... Unfortunately, for me this was a miss. I was confused at times and I didn't really connect to the characters. 

 This is just my opinion! I suggest you read it and see if you just might love it. I have friends that loved it and that didn't so you never know. 

 *Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a digital copy of this book. 

  

The Island Of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

 

Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof, and this tree bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings and eventually, to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas returns. He is a botanist looking for native species, but really, he's searching for lost love.

Years later a Ficus carica grows in the back garden of a house in London where Ada Kazantzakis lives. This tree is her only connection to an island she has never visited--- her only connection to her family's troubled history and her complex identity as she seeks to untangle years of secrets to find her place in the world.

A moving, beautifully written, and delicately constructed story of love, division, transcendence, history, and eco-consciousness, The Island of Missing Trees is Elif Shafak's best work yet.

MY REVIEW: 5 Stars 

This book definitely made me cry 🥺



I don’t even know what to say really. I loved the Fig telling her part of the story. I mean as a tree lover that was something super special. Kostas with his love of animals and nature made me love him from point A. But, there are some sad things in the book. I’m not even going to hint at those parts, they involve people, wildlife and trees. The owners of The Happy Fig damn near broke me. (Read the book) 

I’m just going to leave with a few quotes, the first is from Ada. I’ve done exactly what she does in this quote but it was many times in my home and not school. And the I’ll leave some from the Fig. 

*Ada*

Her voice cracked but persisted. There was something profoundly humiliating yet equally electrifying about hearing yourself scream - breaking off, breaking away, uncontrolled, unfettered, without knowing how far it would carry you, this untamed force that rose from inside. It was an animal thing. A wilderness thing. Nothing about her belonged to her previous self at that moment. Above all her voice. This could have been the high shriek of a hawk, the soul-haunting howl of a wolf, the rasping cry of a red fox at midnight. It could have been any of them, but not the scream of a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl.

*Fig*

I wish I could have told him that loneliness is a human invention. Trees are never lonely. Humans think they know with certainty where their being ends and someone else’s starts. With their roots tangled and caught up underground, linked to fungi and bacteria, trees harbour no such illusions. For us, everything is interconnected. 

I don’t have any of their charms, I admit. If you were to pass me on the street, you probably wouldn’t give me another glance. But I’d like to believe I’m attractive in my own way. What I lack in beauty and popularity, I make up for in mystery and inner strength. 

Most arboreal suffering is caused by humankind. 
Trees in urban areas grow faster than trees in rural areas. We also tend to die sooner. 
Would people really like to know these things? I don’t think so. Frankly, I am not even sure they see us. 
Humans walk by us every day, they sit and sleep, smoke and picnic in our shade, they pluck leaves and gorge themselves on our fruit, they break our branches, riding them like horses as children or using them to birch others into submission when they become older and crueller, they carve their lover’s name on our trunks and vow eternal love, they weave necklaces out of our needles and paint our flowers into art, they split us into logs to heat their homes and sometimes they chop us down just because we obstruct their view, they make cradles, wine corks, chewing gum and rustic furniture, and produce the most spellbinding music out of us, and they turn us into books in which they lose themselves on cold winter nights, they use our wood to manufacture coffins in which they end their lives, buried six feet under with us, and they even compose romantic poems to us, calling us the link between earth and sky, and yet they still do not see us. 

Long after the island was partitioned and the tavern fell into disrepair, Kostas Kazantzakis took a cutting from one of my branches and put it in his suitcase. I guess I will always be grateful to him for doing that, otherwise nothing of me might have remained.

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

They Shouldn’t Have Killed His Dog by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman

 There have been iconic moments in the action movie genre over the years, but nothing has come close to matching the kinetic, balletic gun-fu of the John Wick films.

In They Shouldn’t Have Killed His Dog: The Complete Uncensored Ass-Kicking Oral History of John Wick, Gun-Fu and The New Age of Action, bestselling authors Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross take you behind the scenes of a franchise that includes three films with more on the way, while exploring the action classics that led to John Wick as well as the films it inspired, like Atomic Blonde. They bring you right into the middle of the action of the John Wick films, detailing how the seemingly impossible was achieved through exclusive interviews with the cast, writers, directors, producers, stuntmen, fight choreographers, cinematographers, studio executives, editors, critics, and more. Together, they break down key action sequences while also providing a look back at the road the action genre has taken that led to John Wick, and a look at the character itself, an anti-hero who carries on the grand tradition of Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name, but with a twist — and a never-ending supply of ammo — while showcasing the enduring appeal of the action movie as well as John Wick’s unique reinvention of the genre. 

MY REVIEW: 2 Stars 

I love John Wick to death, but unfortunately the book didn’t work for me. I thought it was going to be something totally different. I wanted a book chock full of John, but there were other movies and people and tidbits. I did enjoy the parts about Atomic Blonde. 

I’m sure plenty of people will enjoy the book, I was just personally looking for something more. 

*Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy of this book. 

March Fairyloot

 One item didn’t come but it will be in the April box 

1. A Circe wooden bookmark 

2. Raven Cycle sticker sheet and beautiful Tarot cards from Daughter of the Moon Goddess. I’ll miss these if I go to book only! 

3. Raybearer Throw Cushion Cover 

4. Threads Of Fate Tea Tin. I like to use these for little things and not tea

5. And the beautiful book of the month that I’ve read and loved. THE GIRL WHO FELL BENEATH THE SEA

Happy Reading! 

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

February Fairyloot 2022

 Wait until you guys see the beautiful book!! 

1. We have a pair of socks inspired by the starless sea 

2. A Crescent City Necklace 

3. Moon Goddess Tote Bag

4. Celestial Bookends

5. Tarot Cards with Mustang and Darrow from Red Rising 

And last but not least, the beautiful book with artwork pieces as well. The book has beautiful endpapers which I prefer over the dust jacket art, amazing stained edges, and foil embossing on the cover! DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS 

Happy reading everyone! I hope to love this book! 

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾💕🌸🦋🍄🍁🍂🌲🕯🙏🏻

Misrule by Heather Walter

 

Does true love break curses, or begin them? Sleeping Beauty’s dark sorceress reclaims her story in this sequel to Malice.

The Dark Grace is dead. 

Feared and despised for the sinister power in her veins, Alyce wreaks her revenge on the kingdom that made her an outcast. Once a realm of decadence and beauty, Briar is now wholly Alyce’s wicked domain. And no one will escape the consequences of her wrath. Not even the one person who holds her heart. 

Princess Aurora saw through Alyce’s thorny facade, earning a love that promised the dawn of a new age. But it is a love that came with a heavy price: Aurora now sleeps under a curse that even Alyce’s vast power cannot seem to break. And the dream of the world they would have built together is nothing but ash. 

Alyce vows to do anything to wake the woman she loves, even if it means descending into the monster Briar believed her to be. But could Aurora love the villain Alyce has become? 

Or is true love only for fairytales?

MY REVIEW: 3 Stars 

I really don’t know how I feel about this book. I thought I would love it as much as the first book, but this one just wasn’t as good to me. Although, the last bit and the ending was really good. Sigh… 

I did reread Malice and changed my 5 star to 4.5, but that’s ok as most books don’t get 5 stars that much any more from me. 

The majority of the book didn’t win me over until about 65%? I didn’t really care for the imps, they took away from what I felt in the first book. They weren’t bad, I was just over it. Anyway, I read it and will probably get the kindle edition at some point. 



Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book. 

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

***

The second book cover is even more beautiful! 

January Fairyloot Unboxing

 Here we go! 

1. We have a James Herondale Trinket Dish. 

2. A Scythe Enamel Pin 

3. Aaron Metal Bookmark 

4. These Hollow Vows Tea Towel 

5. August Flynn Puzzle 

6. Tarot Cards of the month - Which I love! It’s Cassius and Sevro from Red Rising 

And the book of the month: Only A Monster by Vanessa Len. We have a purple stencil sprayed edges. And instead of art on the back of the dust jacket (which I’m tired of) we have art on the end pages. Oh, we have done pretty embossing on front but I forgot the picture. 

Happy Reading!

Mel 💕