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take2max's reviews
453 reviews
The Girl in Cell 49B by Dorian Box
adventurous
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The Girl in Cell 49B is a story about a girl battling her darkest demons. She has multiple demons: guilt, aggression, and rage. She also has a soft spot for underdogs. Emily has a dark past – her mother and sister were raped and her family home was burned to the ground, nearly killing her in the process. She carries a lot of guilt around because she feels she should have somehow saved her family instead of running away, which ultimately saved her life. After changing her appearance and assuming a new identity and living as Alice for three years, her aggression gets the best of her when she witnesses a nasty bully abusing his girlfriend at a gas station. Unable to stop herself, she walks up to the bully and points a gun in his face. The bully stops his behavior and they drive off but not before the gas station employee reports her to the police and they capture her using the gas station security camera.
This lands her in juvenile jail where the authorities discover, after taking her fingerprints, that she’s the lost girl that disappeared after the horrific home invasion that killed her family all those years ago. She’s also a person of interest wanted in a murder in another state.
Once she’s in juvenile jail, she quickly learns how to navigate the various caste systems and befriends a few underdogs who she feels compelled to try and save. Once her own trial starts, she quickly learns that THE LAW could quickly make or break her and in order to give herself the best chance of surviving a “fair” trial, she begins using the law library in juvenile jail to teach herself how the law works and how she can make it work for her.
This is a story about grit, determination and self-perseverance. This character has had to adapt to a cruel world, learn how to fight and defend herself while somehow managing to keep her sense of self. She’s unusual in that she has a big heart and she can’t stand to see good people being treated unfairly. But she also has a dark side. A side that she finds hard to control and keep under control. Once that dark side of her is unleashed, she can be cruel, dangerous and unpredictable. Emily’s journey is just beginning and she intends to use her new-found interest in the law to help people who can’t help themselves while trying to keep her dark past from destroying her and those she cares about.
Snatched by Karin Slaughter
4.0
This was my first real taste of a novella and I must say - I enjoyed it very much. It was compelling, horrifying and fast all rolled into one tasty novella. Recommend.
Rabbit in the Road by Oliver Campbell
3.0
So. I'm on a kick to read a ton of ebooks this year because it's all about being read, right? And sometimes, these off-the-road authors are more interesting than the "block-buster" authors. And. There is a nifty site you can go to and download FREE Kindle books (for a limited time) so - win-win! (The site is: http://bit.ly/oGu4Dw ).
This is a story about finding your soul mate - only, when this character finds her soul mate, it's not necessarily a good thing. In fact, it could get her killed.
It's a cross-genre morsel dipped into paranormal and sprinkled, very lightly, with a soft coating of romantic. And there's a rather gory aftertaste.
It was different. The plot was different, the format was different and yet, it somehow worked as a whole. The writing is choppy and a bit elementary. The story makes giant leaps forward, but the authors do a good job of slowing things down a bit to assess the emotional damage along the way.
I wouldn't read it again, but I'm glad I have it a go.
This is a story about finding your soul mate - only, when this character finds her soul mate, it's not necessarily a good thing. In fact, it could get her killed.
It's a cross-genre morsel dipped into paranormal and sprinkled, very lightly, with a soft coating of romantic. And there's a rather gory aftertaste.
It was different. The plot was different, the format was different and yet, it somehow worked as a whole. The writing is choppy and a bit elementary. The story makes giant leaps forward, but the authors do a good job of slowing things down a bit to assess the emotional damage along the way.
I wouldn't read it again, but I'm glad I have it a go.
Whale Song by Cheryl Kaye Tardif
4.0
This story is all about finding a new normal after facing an impossible situation.
The story was both simplistic and complicated at the same time. The story starts off happy, perfect even, and then slowly devolves into a convoluted, complicated, bitter new reality.
Sarah is a happy, lucky little girl with two doting parents. Everything is picture perfect in her world shaken only by the small hiccup of having to move to a new area for her father's job.
But they settle in, find a new normal, and life marches forth. Sarah is so distracted by a bully at school, she doesn't realize her mother is growing increasingly ill until she collapses and ends up in the hospital.
Her life is never truly happy from that point on.
I won't spoil it, but suffice it to say, her, and her father, face the ultimate moral decision. I personally agreed with their decision, but I could totally understand where some people might not have agreed and indeed, felt they made the wrong decision. Life is precious until suddenly it's not.
It's an emotional roller coaster and if you've lost someone close to you recently, it might be a hard read. But it makes you think, evaluate and appreciate life and reassess your own personal values - something that seems to be sorely lacking in today's "it's all about me society."
The story was both simplistic and complicated at the same time. The story starts off happy, perfect even, and then slowly devolves into a convoluted, complicated, bitter new reality.
Sarah is a happy, lucky little girl with two doting parents. Everything is picture perfect in her world shaken only by the small hiccup of having to move to a new area for her father's job.
But they settle in, find a new normal, and life marches forth. Sarah is so distracted by a bully at school, she doesn't realize her mother is growing increasingly ill until she collapses and ends up in the hospital.
Her life is never truly happy from that point on.
I won't spoil it, but suffice it to say, her, and her father, face the ultimate moral decision. I personally agreed with their decision, but I could totally understand where some people might not have agreed and indeed, felt they made the wrong decision. Life is precious until suddenly it's not.
It's an emotional roller coaster and if you've lost someone close to you recently, it might be a hard read. But it makes you think, evaluate and appreciate life and reassess your own personal values - something that seems to be sorely lacking in today's "it's all about me society."