A sturdy entry in a fantasy series about unbreakable bonds.
The fourth book in Wilder’s (The Danger in Justice, 2018, etc.) paranormal romance series featuring immortal warriors and reincarnation.
Katerina not only dreams about her past lives but remembers them when she’s awake—or, at least, many of them. In her first life, many years ago, her name was Kepa, and she was the sole witness to a murder of Four, one of the most powerful so-called immortals, who can live for thousands of years. Another immortal, Two, gave Kepa the ability to recall her past lives in the hope that her memories would reveal the murderer, but it took centuries before she even got close to remembering the event. Each time she was reincarnated, she would eventually find Arsen, the immortal warrior who’s bound to her, but lately they’ve been unable to stay together. Now, she’s been called back into service, and she decides that if she’s going to be forced to spend her time translating old documents, she’s going to do it somewhere scenic—a beautiful Greek island. Within days of arriving there, however, Katerina begins to recall a past life that she’d forgotten, as well as parts of her own relationship with Arsen that had created their bond. Now that Katerina is in the house that Arsen had built for her, there may be a chance for them yet. Readers will find that there’s a lot to unpack over the course of this novella, and the author helps new readers catch up by offering a fair amount of backstory. Despite this, there will likely be parts of the tale that will be confusing to those who lack familiarity with the previous books. That said, readers who focus only on Katerina and Arsen’s relationship will have little problem following their story, which is a solid romance. Indeed, the second-chance-at-love plotline alone makes the book worth a read, mainly for the author’s clear, emotional prose (“Arsen was tangling his fingers in her hair and she was breathing in, holding the warmth close, locking the scent of his skin deep in her lungs”).
A sturdy entry in a fantasy series about unbreakable bonds.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2019
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 385
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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