Three Science Fiction/Supernatural Mini-Reviews

I've got three books that I read physical copies of that sort of fit together for this post.  One is an adult science fiction, one is more new adult paranormal romance/fiction, and the third is YA paranormal.  So I decided to group them all together. 

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch:

Genre:  Adult science fiction
Published:  July 26th, 2016
Source:  Checked out book as part of employee lending program at bookstore where I work part time
My rating:  4 stars

I'm a fan of time travel and alternate realities.  I am definitely a subscriber to the multi-verse theory that there are all different worlds out there, each based on one little change in a decision that was made creating a different future.  When the bookstore I work at part time chose this to be one of the push books, back in June I believe, I was actually excited they'd chosen a book that for once I might actually want to read so that I could help promote it as more than just the store push book.  I did really enjoy this.  It had a great idea behind it, and really it made you think about how should it really end?  Who really is the "right" one?  There were times that it was very hard to put down, and other times that it did move a little slow, but in the end I was definitely pleased overall with the story.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:
“Are you happy with your life?” 

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. 

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. 

Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.” 

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

From the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy, Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.

The Return (Titan #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout:

Genre:  NA Paranormal Romance
Published:  February 16th, 2015
Source:  I think I won a copy from the author on her Facebook group at one point?
My rating:  4 stars

I love Seth.  As much as I knew he wasn't the right one for Alex in the Covenant series, I still adored him.  I could maybe compare it to how I loved Jacob in the Twilight universe, but not for Bella.  This book definitely took this wonderful world created by Armentrout into a new direction, one that was definitely an exciting place to be.  As usual, something I love that the author does a lot, was that she tied in the tv show Supernatural.  I also like that this means her stories will often take place in Missouri or Kansas, the two states I live and work in, so it makes them have a personal connection for me.  As part of the giveaway, I believe I won the other books in this series as well, so I look forward to reading on and finding out how Seth will do with his new interest, Josie.  And I do snicker every time she calls him Sethie.  Did I mention how cool it was meeting the guy who is the cover  model for the books at Apollycon?  And that I got to go get him and the other ones coffee?  :-)

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:
The Fates are cackling their bony asses off…

It’s been a year since Seth made the deal with the gods that pledged his life to them. And so far, the jobs they’ve given him have been violent and bloody–which is kind of all right with him. But now Apollo has something else in mind for Seth. He’s got to play protector while keeping his hands and fingers off, and for someone who really has a problem with restraint, this new assignment might be the most challenging yet.

Josie has no idea what this crazy hot guy’s deal might be, but it’s a good bet that his arrival means the new life she started after leaving home is about to be thrown into an Olympian-sized blender turned up to puree. Either Josie is going insane or a nightmare straight out of ancient myth is gunning for her.

But it might be the unlikely attraction simmering between her and the golden-eyed, secret-keeping Seth that may prove to be the most dangerous thing of all.

Because history has once again been flipped to repeat.

The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl (The Haunting of Sunshine Girl #3) by Paige McKenzie:

Genre:  YA Paranormal
Published:  April 4th, 2017
Source:  ARC received after requesting one from author to review
My rating:  4 stars

I did really like this book.  It really had some great moments, and definitely added to the whole luiseach mythology that it began in book one and continued well throughout the series.  The ending was done very well, and very original and it worked perfectly.  Unfortunately, about halfway through I got a little bogged down and moved on to other books, and then it took me a little bit before I was in the mood or not swamped down with other review books and was ready to pick it back up.  There honestly were a lot of twists, and that is a good thing.  It really kept me going when I did pick it up.  It made it hard to put down once I did pick it up and had some time to read.  There were many characters throughout that I wondered about, and then there were several new ones that you grew to really like, only to have them ripped away, or else only to find out they weren't who you thought they were.  I loved the big showdown at the end, and loved the way that Sunshine had to basically sacrifice herself to save the day.  Very "Buffy-esque" in my opinion, and anyone who knows me, knows how much I love Buffy and what high praise that is coming from me.  As I read more and more adult romance these days though, I was definitely reminded of how squeaky clean this story was in the love department.  Not a bad thing at all.  It is just definitely something you can recommend if you want to make sure that there isn't too much of that for the teen you are giving it to.  If you're interested in my reviews of the first two books, you can go HERE (Book 1) and HERE (Book 2).  Since this is a sequel, I'm counting it as half of one of the books for my September is for Sequels Challenge, since I started it before September, and technically doesn't count.


You should also remember this is based on a YouTube series, which you can go check out HERE.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:
Sunshine Griffith can communicate with ghosts. Even more amazing—to herself; her boyfriend, Nolan; and her adoptive mom, Kat—she’s recently learned she’s a luiseach, one of an ancient race of creatures who have lived among humans for centuries, protecting them from dark spirits and helping them move on to the afterlife.

Having survived an abyss full of demons, Sunshine Griffith must figure out who—or what—has been organizing the forces of darkness against her. Do they want to destroy her and the rest of the endangered luiseach? Do they want to take over the world? Nolan has figured out that Sunshine’s death would trigger a calamitous event, so not only does she have to stay alive for herself, but for the fate of civilization. It’s not just the demons who want Sunshine dead, though. Her biological mother, Helena, is back. And what is Helena’s history with the mysterious man in black?

Fortunately for Sunshine, she has a lot of people (and ghosts) to help her stop the darkness: Nolan, her father and mentor Aidan, her mom Kat, Victoria, Lucio, Anna, and Ashley—whose handsome new crush, Sebastian, seems hauntingly familiar. But time may be running out as an unexpected event unleashes a fierce war between the luiseach and the demon army. In the midst of the fiery battle, Sunshine will learn a shocking truth about herself and what sort of sacrifice is required to save the world.

Teaser Promo for Five Upcoming YA Reviews

I'm a little behind in reviews, March got away from me, and so while I'm in the middle of reading these books, I wanted to bring everyone's attention to them as they are all being published over the last few weeks.  The ones I've started have been really good so far, and I look forward to getting through them and on to the others as well.  Below I'll share the covers and the blurb from Goodreads.

1.  Blood Rose Rebellion by Rosalyn Eves:

Published:  March 28th, 2017
Source:  Won through a giveaway in Shelf Awareness newsletter.

Synopsis from Goodreads:
The thrilling first book in a YA fantasy trilogy for fans of Red Queen. In a world where social prestige derives from a trifecta of blood, money, and magic, one girl has the ability to break the spell that holds the social order in place.

Sixteen-year-old Anna Arden is barred from society by a defect of blood. Though her family is part of the Luminate, powerful users of magic, she is Barren, unable to perform the simplest spells. Anna would do anything to belong. But her fate takes another course when, after inadvertently breaking her sister’s debutante spell—an important chance for a highborn young woman to show her prowess with magic—Anna finds herself exiled to her family’s once powerful but now crumbling native Hungary.

Her life might well be over.

In Hungary, Anna discovers that nothing is quite as it seems. Not the people around her, from her aloof cousin Noémi to the fierce and handsome Romani Gábor. Not the society she’s known all her life, for discontent with the Luminate is sweeping the land. And not her lack of magic. Isolated from the only world she cares about, Anna still can’t seem to stop herself from breaking spells.

As rebellion spreads across the region, Anna’s unique ability becomes the catalyst everyone is seeking. In the company of nobles, revolutionaries, and Romanies, Anna must choose: deny her unique power and cling to the life she’s always wanted, or embrace her ability and change that world forever.

2.  The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl (Haunting of Sunshine Girl #3) by Paige McKenzie:

Published:   April 4th, 2017
Source:  Requested ARC from author

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Is Sunshine Griffith who she thinks she is? Now that her luiseach powers are fully awakened, and having barely survived an abyss full of demons at the end of Book Two, Sunshine must figure out who—or what—has been organizing the forces of darkness against her. 

Thanks to her brainiac boyfriend, Nolan, they not only unearth that Sunshine's death would trigger a calamitous event, but that all civilization depends on her survival. So when an unexpected event unleashes a fierce war between the luiseach and the demon army, Sunshine will learn a shocking truth about herself. Can she bring herself to make the ultimate sacrifice to save humankind? 

3.  What Girls are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold:

Published:  April 1st, 2017
Source:  ARC received from author

Synopsis from Goodreads:
This is not a story of sugar and spice and everything nice.

When Nina Faye was fourteen, her mother told her there was no such thing as unconditional love. Nina believed her. Now Nina is sixteen. And she'll do anything for the boy she loves, just to prove she's worthy of him. But when he breaks up with her, Nina is lost. What is she if not a girlfriend? What is she made of?

Broken-hearted, Nina tries to figure out what the conditions of love are. She's been volunteering at a high-kill animal shelter where she realizes that for dogs waiting to be adopted, love comes only to those with youth, symmetry, and quietness. She also ruminates on the strange, dark time her mother took her to Italy to see statues of saints who endured unspeakable torture because of their unquestioning devotion to the divine. Is this what love is? 

4.  Zenn Diagram by Wendy Brant:

Published:  April 4th, 2017
Source:  ARC received from publisher

Synopsis from Goodreads:
The more I touch someone, the more I can see and understand, and the more I think I can help. But that’s my mistake. I can’t help. You can’t fix people like you can solve a math problem.

Math genius. Freak of nature. Loner.

Eva Walker has literally one friend—if you don’t count her quadruplet three-year-old-siblings—and it’s not even because she’s a math nerd. No, Eva is a loner out of necessity, because everyone and everything around her is an emotional minefield. All she has to do is touch someone, or their shirt, or their cell phone, and she can read all their secrets, their insecurities, their fears.

Sure, Eva’s “gift” comes in handy when she’s tutoring math and she can learn where people are struggling just by touching their calculators. For the most part, though, it’s safer to keep her hands to herself. Until she meets six-foot-three, cute-without-trying Zenn Bennett, who makes that nearly impossible.

Zenn’s jacket gives Eva such a dark and violent vision that you’d think not touching him would be easy. But sometimes you have to take a risk… 

5.  Keeping the Beat by Marie Powell and Jeff Norton:

Published:  April 4th, 2017
Source:  ARC received from publisher

Synopsis from Goodreads:
It was supposed to be the best summer of her life. Instead, seventeen-year-old Lucy finds her best friend, Harper, shot dead in an LA swimming pool. How did things ever go so wrong? The story circles back to trace the steps that led to this disaster.

Only Harper McKenzie could have taken five girls from their school and reinvented them as Crush, the top prospect to win the international talent contest Project Next. As soon as the band finds its footing, it scores a huge win in the UK semifinal. Next stop, LA! 

The girls will spend a luxurious summer in Hollywood, living as reality TV stars while they prepare for their performance in the Project Next final. With a mansion to themselves, they’re the toast of the town … living every girl’s dream come true. 

It’s way too late when Lucy discovers that Harper’s heart has never been in Project Next at all. Joining the competition was just part of Harper’s elaborate ruse to reconnect with her no-good ex-boyfriend. Harper will risk anything — from her friendships to the band’s reputation — to get him back. 

Meanwhile, the other members of Crush are throwing themselves headfirst into sex, drugs and rock and roll. With the band in crisis and the final approaching, Lucy must decide whether she wants to play to Harper’s beat or set the rhythm for the rest of the band. 

This fast-paced story takes unexpected twists, unraveling the mystery of Harper’s murder and exploring the complicated relationships among members of the band. Writing team Marie Powell and Jeff Norton — with many years in the entertainment business between them — deliver one-part wish fulfillment and one-part cautionary tale as they go behind the scenes to reveal what no one sees on “reality” TV. 


So I've started the top two, and the others are on the top of my TBR pile.  Check back later tonight as I plan to post at least one, if not two reviews.  The YA review is for sure, that is Toward a Secret Sky by Heather Maclean, it'll was a 4 star book! 

Review and Giveaway: The Awakening of Sunshine Girl (The Haunting of Sunshine Girl #2) by Paige McKenzie

First, I have to say thank you to the author for sending me the ARC of this to review.  I really enjoyed the first one, which I had received an ARC of from the publisher without even requesting.  When I heard this was out, but I hadn't seen an ARC yet, I tweeted  #booksfortrade asking if anyone had one.  I was lucky enough to have the author see my tweet and offer to send me one.  Have I mentioned before that authors are my rock stars?  :-)

I've always loved ghost stories and going to haunted places.  You can read more about this as well as my review of the first book, The Haunting of Sunshine Girl, HERE.  The first story had a really spooky plot.  But we also learned some things about the main character, Sunshine, that are what really drive the story in this sequel.  If you haven't read the first one, and still plan to, you should do two things:  click on the link above to go read that review, and then come back and scroll quickly to the bottom of this post, so you don't read any spoilers for the first book, and then enter the giveaway!  Now, on with my review of the second book.

We left off the last book with Sunshine finding out that the man she's met named Aidan is someone from her past.  He is actually her birth father.  He's come to teach her about what she is, a luiseach, someone who is able to help spirits move on, to keep them from becoming dark spirits, and if they do become dark, they can help protect humans from them.  In fact that is part of what Sunshine had to do in the first book, work with a spirit that had not been moved on.  In fact Aidan had kept the spirit there to give her the test.  At the beginning of this book Sunshine is overwhelmed by the spirits from a car wreck that has just happened.  They cause her to get so cold that it is a good thing she was at the hospital where her mother worked so that they could take her in and help her.  It is at this point that Aidan steps in and introduces himself to Sunshine's mother and tells her what is going on.  He proposes that in order to help Sunshine learn to deal with this type of situation she needs to go to one of the luiseach training centers located in Mexico.  There's no one else there, as all of the other luiseach don't agree with Aidan, and they want Sunshine gotten rid of.

While in the compound which is located in a jungle area, Sunshine will remember things about her mother, and find that her mother is on the other side of the fight.  she has had to leave her friend/protector Nolan behind.  Which on the one hand is a good thing, because she has had to tell him that whenever they get close, something about him repels her.  Even though the two of them definitely have an attraction to each other.  But it isn't just Sunshine and her father at the training center, there is also an attractive boy about her age named Lucia, another luiseach.  He is being trained by Aidan, and is on Aidan's side because of what happened to his family.  During the training time it will come out that Aidan may be actually working on something else, and that all his training may not be quite as straight-forward and normal of training for a luiseach.  She will miss Nolan, who will be dealing with his own findings back home, as he tries to help Sunshine in the only way he knows how, the thing he is best at, research.  The ending will leave Sunshine at a crossroads of how to go on.  Is what Aidan was working on something that she needs to help him with?  Or is the other group, the ones that want her gone, do they really know what is best?

While this really wasn't the same ghost story as the first one, it still had some parts with ghosts that were definitely creepy as you read the details of those ghosts. The main house of the training compound did have a definite creepiness to it, especially the room with the baby bed where Sunshine had been when she was a baby.   I really enjoyed learning more about the background of the luiseach, and exactly what the story was behind Sunshine's birth, and why she'd been given up for adoption.  I like all the characters, even the new ones, and by like, I mean the ones you are supposed to hate or dislike, I really did!  I will definitely be purchasing this title for my school library to give to those students who have read the first one, also in my library.

As I mentioned in my first review, there is a YouTube Channel that these books are based on, again you can go and check it out HERE.   And, because I have really enjoyed these books, I want to give my readers a chance to win one!  I also want to get the word out and share my love of the series on Goodreads.  So that is something you can help me with in the Rafflecopter below.  This giveaway is international as long as The Book Depository will deliver to your country.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: The Haunting of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie

I have to thank Weinstein Books and Perseus Books for sending me an ARC of this title.  I didn't know anything about the YouTube Channel before I found out about this book.  I've always enjoyed a good ghost story, and when I was younger, I used to go to the library and check out all the "true haunting" books.  About 10 years ago I even went to a couple "real" haunted houses with my younger cousin and aunt and my mom.  One was a Bed and Breakfast, called the Mason House Inn that is located in Bentonsport, Iowa, where we went and had a paranormal expert named Christopher Moon give us lessons on how to try to catch evidence of ghosts, and even shared his own findings.  And we went up to a cemetery at night, and it was pretty spooky.  So anyway, when I heard about this book I was instantly interested based on the description.

The main character is Sunshine Griffith.  She and her mother have just moved from Texas to a small town in Washington state, and into what Sunshine calls a "creepy" house.  And she likes the word creepy.  She uses it to describe just about everything, the house, the street that really only seems to contain their house, and what is going on in the house.  Right away she gets a weird feeling in the house, and starts hearing sounds.  Footsteps on the 2nd floor, even though she figures out that the way it is carpeted up there, she shouldn't be able to hear any footsteps even if there was someone up there.  She also hears whispering, most of the time so quiet she can't tell what it is saying, but sometimes she can.  And a little girl's laugh too.  And anyone who watches scary movies knows just how creepy that sound can be.  Next things start being in different places than where she left them.  And then, one night she and her mom are both home and hear what sounds like a little girl yelling for help, and splashing noises.  They run upstairs to where the bathroom door has slammed shut, and water seems to be coming out as it seems the tub is overflowing.  But when the open the door, there isn't anyone in there.  The water is pretty gross though, as if the pipes were dirty, and it leaves a slimy coating on everything that touches it.  After they get it all cleaned up, it's as if her mom has lost all memory of what happened, as if it got scrubbed away as they cleaned.  And now that Sunshine should actually have her mom on her side, her mom acts almost angry when Sunshine brings it up.  Her mom begins to change as well, growing more distant.

Yes, she started a new school.  And she does make a friend pretty quickly.  You see Sunshine was really into photography at her old school, she even has a really fancy camera, and likes to develop the film herself.  When she signs up for the art class at her school, it is almost as if it was an afterthought.  All the students do all day is get stuff from a craft supply closet and make sculptures out of pipe cleaners and other similar things. The teacher is really weird and creepy.  Sunshine is fortunate enough that a nice boy sits across from her the first day.  Nolan talks to her and really becomes a good friend. When she finds out that his grandfather really used to be into paranormal things and that Nolan respected and paid a lot of attention to what his grandfather did, she feels able to share what is going on in her house.  And together, they start to investigate these strange events.  Together they will learn why Sunshine is seeing these things but now her mom isn't. 

There is also someone that is an unknown narrator who chimes in every once in awhile.  And this person knows exactly what Sunshine is dealing with.  But they don't come forward and reveal themselves until the very end. 

A great story.  The haunting is very well set up in the story, and I like the whole background story that we learn bit by bit throughout the book.  I'm guessing there will be a sequel, or a series you might say as the ending of the story leaves us.  I enjoyed it so much I had to go start looking through the YouTube channel:  The Haunting of Sunshine Girl Network.  I got through a few very short, like 1-2 minute videos tonight, and subscribed as well.  I'll be going back as I have time to watch on.  There are quite a few similar things in the video to the book so far, but it is different enough to be its own thing.