A Bookworm's Book Reviews

Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) – Jesse Q. Sutanto

This is book 2 in the Vera Wong Series. Book 1 is Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Title: Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)

Author: Jesse Q. Sutanto

Genre: Mystery

Plot: Vera Wong feels bored with life. It’s been a year since someone died in her tea shop. She desperately wants more excitement in her life again. Then she gets a scam call and tells her police officer friend Selena, who also happens to be dating Vera’s son Tilly. Vera runs into a young woman named Millie outside the police station. They strike up a conversation and Vera learns that Millie’s friend Thomas has gone missing. Vera takes it upon herself to look into Thomas’s disappearance. Thanks to some snooping at Selena and Tilly’s place, Vera learns that Thomas died and it’s probably a suicide. But she doesn’t believe that. So, Vera does what she did last time and gathers up all possible suspects at her house and feeds them. She gets to know each of them and sees who’s behind Thomas’s death. But this time, she uses her new friends, and the new suspects, to use the internet to her advantage. But her new people are hiding deep secrets about how well they actually knew Thomas. So, who was Thomas really? Can Vera solve the case? Or is she in way over her head this time?

Rating: 4.5 – a fun, light hearted murder mystery

Opinion: I really enjoyed the this book. I had high hopes for this one since I loved the first one so much. I thank my book club for helping me find the first one. This one still had the same messages of loneliness, and the importance of family, friends, and community. But made it different and relatable. I liked that the author talked about how easy it is to fake things online. It’s easy to make your life seem perfect and the addiction of likes and views when you post things. But it shows the ugly side of comment section and the ache you can feel when you feel like you can’t compete with what others are posting. I enjoyed seeing Vera Wong bring more people together again. The new characters bring new adventures to Vera and her family from the last book. They do a great job of helping Vera expand her family and helping them with the new problems in this book. They have great character development. Everyone learns important lessons and learn and grow from their experiences. Vera always brings a smile to my face with all of her antics to try and help the people in her life. I like that everyone else is always so supportive of Vera as well. They know they can’t always stop her, but they can be there to protect her. Something I found interesting, and never really thought about, was phone scam rings. I guess it makes more sense that people are working in groups to scam as many people as possible. But it was extra despicable in the book that the bad guys were using children for their scams. But I’m glad they were brought them to justice in the end. Overall, I loved this book and I’m glad I found the sequel. Part of me hopes there more books in this series. Though, just happy there was a second one. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a happier, simpler murder mystery.

Letters from Father Christmas – J.R.R. Tolkien

Title: Letters from Father Christmas

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

Genre: Fantasy, Children’s Book

Plot: Over the course of 23 years Father Christmas wrote letters to the Tolkien children. He thanks them for the letters and what’s been going on at the North Pole. Some years the North Polar Bear knocked over half of the annual fireworks. Other times Goblins attacked or stole the presents. Some years they were able to have a great bonfire and feasts. Every year Father Christmas tries to include a drawing of the year’s events. He’s always grateful for their letters. He continually writes until the kids outgrow Father Christmas.

Rating: 4.0 – a cute little collection of letters from Santa to a family’s kids

Opinion: This was such a cute book. I enjoyed seeing another side of Tolkien’s works. He’s such a clever and creative author. I enjoyed seeing how much effort he went through to write letters to his kids as Santa. And that he could find new things to write each year and could continue his story from the previous years. I loved the pictures Tolkien included with the letters. It’s a very sweet addition for his kids. I’m glad he still remembered to include his older kids in his letters even though they were addressed to the younger ones. The letters made me want to do something like this for my kids someday, if I ever have kids. I highly recommend this book to read to your kids at Christmas time.

The Memory Collectors – Kim Neville

Title: The Memory Collectors

Author: Kim Neville

Genre: Fantasy

Plot: Evelyn, or Ev for short, has a unique ability. She can feel emotions that people have left on ordinary objects. Those emotions can rub off on others in unexpected ways. Ev knows this better than most. That’s why she’s super careful about handling those objects. That’s why she thinks those objects are better off destroyed. Then she meets Harriet. Harriet has been collecting those emotional objects her whole life. She’s been forced to relocate with those objects as they’re affecting her apartment neighbors. Harriet asks Ev for help, along with a mutual friend Oliver. Ev is hesitant at first, but accepts. Then Ev’s sister Noemi shows up unexpectedly. Noemi wants to know more about their family’s past. Ev is reluctant to share. Bu the more they help Harriet, the more the past comes up. Noemi learns why Ev wants to keep the past buried. Harriet learns that all those emotional objects can come with price. But what is really hiding in Ev and Noemi’s past? What is the true cost of all of Harriet’s objects?

Rating: 3.5 – a different style of hidden pasts and magical objects

Opinion: This was an interesting book. It intrigued me that objects carried a strong emotional tie to the previous owners and that they could affect the new owners in similar ways. I liked that idea because we have emotional connections to things in real life. I liked that objects could lose their potency with time and space. I liked that different characters had different ways to interact and keep themselves safe from the objects with strong emotions. I liked that there were different ways that the characters felt about the emotional objects and called them by different names. I didn’t love the writing style of the book. Parts of the book seemed a little jumbled and not as clear as I would’ve liked. Some of the character jumps were unclear and took me a second to realize that story was continuing from a different point of view. It made it a little harder for met to connect with the characters. I wish that there were better character development for some of the characters. I also feel like the plot got lost a little bit. It kept getting side tracked by all the different points of view in the story. I wish I had a better explanation for certain things that happened in the book. Overall, I feel like this book had good ideas but kind of fell flat. It probably just not a good book for me. I’d recommend this book for anyone who wants a realistic style fantasy.

The Dollmakers – Lynn Buchanan

Title: The Dollmakers

Author: Lynn Buchanan

Genre: Fantasy

Plot: Shean is a very talented doll maker. She’s one of the youngest who’s ready to take her license exam to be an official doll maker. In the country of One, where dolls come to life to fight the Shod, this means you’re ready to make those dolls. But Shean’s licenser says Shean’s dolls are suited for artistry instead of fighting the Shod. Shean is furious. The licenser refuses to changer her mind. Shean’s mentor offers her a different way to impress the licenser and get the proper guard doll license she so desperately wants. Shean must travel to the city of Web and talk with Ikiisa. Ikiisa is a very unusual doll maker with unusual techniques. Shean’s mentor think Ikiisa has more to teach Shean. It will be up to Shean to learn something. The people in the town called Web are slow to warm up to outsiders. An Shean has some ideas to help the people of Web welcome her. Will it help? But what will happen when the Shod show up? Can Shean help defend the city against them? Or will all of her plans come to ruin?

Rating: 4.0 – a different take on fantasy

Opinion: This was a surprisingly interesting book. This was the first book in a long time that made me mad at the main character. The writing was well done to make me irritated with her in the first third of the book. I really hoped that something would happen to her to knock her down a few pegs. Her ego was huge, and I thought of her as a ‘Karen.’ It was starting to make me think I wasn’t going to like this book because of how much the main character annoyed me. I’m glad that somethings did happen that knock her down a little bit and that she actually learned a few things from her adventure. So I could actually enjoy the book. My coworkers got a kick out of how much the main character annoyed me at first. I liked how the magic system worked in the book. It was interesting that the doll makers weren’t entirely sure how the dolls came to life, only that it worked. Some of the characters learned a little more about the magic throughout the book. The author left it open for the characters to learn more after the end of the book. Throughout the book the author drew some pictures of some of the characters and landscapes of the book. That was a nice touch. There was also a map at the beginning. I’m glad I’ve been seeing more authors do that lately. Overall, this was a great book. I was presently surprised with how good it was. The book had an open ending so I’ll probably read the other books related to this one if the author writes more in the future. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves fantasy.

Violet Thistlewaite is Not a Villain Anymore – Emily Krempholtz

Title: Violet Thistlewaite is Not a Villain Anymore

Author: Emily Krepholtz

Genre: Fantasy

Plot: Violet Thistlewaite is looking to settle down after her former boss, and villain, Guy Shadowfade, was killed. She was Shadowfade’s right hand witch, known as the Thornwitch. Her ability is to control and grow plants. But Violet can also destroy a whole farm’s crops in minutes. Now that Shadowfade is dead, Violet wants to start a new life. She settles in Dragon’s Rest and opens a floral shop. Her grumpy landlord Nathaniel Marsh, is hesitant to welcome her. He’s seen what Shadowfade and the Thornwitch can do. So, he’s weary of any newcomers in case they want to take over since Shadowfade’s gone. The longer that Violet stays in Dragon’s Rest, the easier the good side of her magic is to use. The less worried she is of anyone learning she was the Thornwitch. She’s great at encouraging Nathaniel and the other residents of Dragon’s Rest to be open to new things. Her floral business starts booming. When a blight starts affecting the town’s crops. Nathaniel and Violet come together to find the solution. But what is causing the blight? Is it the shady stranger that also worked with Shadowfade that recently moved to town? Is it someone else? Will Violet and Nathaniel be able to stop the blight? Or is it too late?

Rating: 4.5 – a great story about starting over.

Opinion: This was a great book. I really enjoyed the themes of starting over and healing. It is important to know that it’s okay to start over, even you don’t have squeaky clean past. You can have a past, but you don’t have to let it define you. People can change, if they’re willing. For the book, I do like that people wanted Violet to reveal her past on her own time, and not their own. Revealing the hard things about the past is hard. So when people get the chance to talk about it on their own terms, it makes them feel more validated and accepted. I like that the book talks about living up to your parent’s legacy. Nathaniel wanted to live up to his parent’s legacy by doing the same thing they did, but can’t because he’s not them, which leaves him frustrated. I liked that Violet helped him find his own path while honoring his parent’s legacy. It made me happy that the two learn to work together to find the cure for the blight. They use their strengths to help the town. They both want to help and do so to the best of their ability. In the end, they do find a way to cure the blight and capture the new bad guy. I liked that the ending was all wrapped up but left a loose string or two so that there could be sequels sometime in the future.

Pandora – Susan Stokes-Chapman

Title: Pandora

Author: Susan Stokes-Chapman

Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy

Plot: Dora Blake is the daughter of late antiquities dealers in 1799 London. Her scheming Uncle Hezekiah now runs the shop. He passes forgeries as the real deal while hiding the fact that he has real antiques on sale for the black market. Dora starts to realize this when a Greek vase comes into the shop. Some of the people who transported it say it’s cursed. Hezekiah brushes off though his recent injury could say otherwise. Dora starts to investigate and break free while Hezekiah blokes her at every turn. She turns to an amateur antiques expert, Edward Lawrence, for help. But his help comes with hidden strings. Edward wants to investigate the black market antiquities sales and Hezekiah’s shop might be his ticket. So, who can Dora really trust? Can she find out the truth of the Greek vase? Will she ever escape Hezekiah’s thumb?

Rating: 3.4 – an interesting historical fiction mystery

Opinion: This was an interesting book. It was different than I was expecting. I thought it was going to focus more on the mysterious vase. But the vase is just one of the many subplots in the book. The story focuses more on Dora’s plans for making her own way in the world away from her uncle and Edward’s plan to get into the world of antique dealership. For me, it took away from the story. There were too many things going on to distract from the mystery of the vase. It made it feel like less of a mystery and more of a simple historical fiction. It made it harder for me to connect to the characters. They know people who connected them to the answers they were looking for and for ways to get around Hezekiah. It also made it feel like there wasn’t as much of a plot. I kept waiting for more mystery about the vase but nothing really ever came of it. They found what was really going on with the vase. They found out the mystery behind how the vase came to be and what Hezekiah had to do with it. This was a decent book but not one of my favorite ones. I’d recommend it for anyone who wants a simpler historical fiction mystery.

Through Water and Stone – Karen Barnett

Title: Through Water and Stone

Author: Karen Barnett

Genre: Historical Fiction

Plot: Talia has just lost her job with an athletic clothing company. She returns to her grandfather’s house in Zion National Park in shame. But her grandfather welcomes Talia home with open arms. Talia picks up a job with the gift shop in Zion. On the way, she gets pulled over by a park ranger, Blake. Though they had a rough start, they soon become friends. On a date, they decide to try the ancestry sites. Talia learns that her ancestors might not really be her ancestors. She starts to do some digging and learns what really happened to her grandfather’s family.

Henry and Alma Eriksson work in Zion National Park in 1948. They’ve recently lost their son in a flash flood. Almost a year later, they find a baby boy abandoned near a bridge on one of Henry’s patrol routes. The park rangers and police search for the baby’s parents with no luck. Henry and Alma agree to care for the baby boy and make the adoption official when no parents come forward. Three years later, a couple, the Johnson’s, come forward saying the now three year old is theirs. The evidence is circumstantial, but fits. Is the baby truly the Johnson’s? Or someone else’s?

Rating: 4.0 – a sweet telling of found family and finding your true purpose

Opinion: This was a really sweet book. I enjoyed learning more about Zion National Park. I heard about it but never realized how beautiful and dangerous it is. You hear about the flash floods, but not realize how fast they truly happen, especially in the slot canyons. But I loved seeing the characters in the book come together. Everyone in the park treated each other like family. All of the staff protected and cared for each other whenever they could. I thought it was interesting that Hank and Alma never told Billy that he was adopted. But I think it was different back then. And with all of the drama surrounding his discovery and early childhood, I could imagine why they wouldn’t want to tell him. I still wondered why they didn’t tell him when he was older. It made me happy that they still treated him like he was truly part of the family, especially the other people working in the park. As far as anyone was concerned, Billy was Hank and Alma’s son. I appreciate this author because all of her sappy romance is clean. There’s an element of friendship that blossoms into romance. The characters truly care for and support each other. All of the characters have a great character arc. They learn from their mistakes and grow. I also love that there’s always aspects of Christianity in the books and that there’s always lessons to be learned about life in her books. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves Christian based historical fiction books.

Prepared – Courtney Konstantin

Title: Prepared

Author: Courtney Konstantin

Genre: Thriller, Sci-Fi

Plot: Alex has a nice life with her family in the suburbs of Las Vegas. Then a wave of disease sweeps the country, turning everyone into cannibalistic monsters dubbed the infected. She’d always thought her doomsday preparing father was odd, now she understands all the lessons he taught her and her sister. Now Alex uses what her father taught her to keep her family safe. And get them to safety in her father’s old compound in Montana. But her first step is to get her kids out of the house and past the infected and into the RV. Once the kids are in the RV, Alex high tails it into the desert around Las Vegas. But soon, Alex and her kids need to resupply. When Alex encounters a family who just lost their parents, Alex takes in two more kids, teenagers this time. They’re quick to help Alex out, which she is very grateful for the extra help. As they travel, they quickly learn who they can trust. But their allies are always changing and thinning out thanks to the infected. So who can they really trust? Can Alex keep her expanded going after all of the horrors they’ve seen? Will they ever make it to her father’s compound?

Rating: 4.0 – a different take on the zombie apocalypse

Opinion: This was an interesting book. I stopped to talk with the author at the Saturday market in my hometown over the summer. I’d never read a zombie apocalypse book, so I thought I’d give it a try. Then I thought October would be the perfect month to read a zombie apocalypse book. It was surprisingly good. It wasn’t as graphic as I thought it was going to be. There was still violent moments, cause zombies, but there wasn’t so much a focus on the gore while their fighting them off. I liked the book focused more on family, and found family, and taking care of each other when the world is going to pieces. More of the people wanted to work together. I liked that Alex got the kids safe before setting off to kill the zombies. Though how the author described that part got a little repetitive for me. I found it interesting that the author based the zombie outbreak off of a true event out of Florida. I got a kick out of the moment when mom curses in front of the kids, and one of the kids called her out on it. It made the story a little more true to life for me cause I could see a kid doing that in real life. Overall, it was a really good book and surprisingly easy read. It is a part of a series that I’ll read sometime soon, hopefully. I highly recommend this book for someone who enjoys zombie apocalypse style books.

No Ordinary Dog – Will Chesney

Title: No Ordinary Dog

Author: Will Chesney

Genre: Memoir

Plot: Will Chesney grew up wanting to be a Navy SEAL. He was bound and determined to pass all of the requirements, even when some of his friends ‘wash out.’ Will pushes through basic training, and BUDS (which included the dreaded Hell Week) for a year before he becomes a SEAL. During his first deployment in Afghanistan, he sees the values of having a dog on his team. Will signs up for dog handler training. Upon completing training, he goes to see where the military gets their dogs. The team comes back with two. Will gets assigned to a Malinois named Cairo. The two form an immediate bond. They work very well together. Everyone is impressed with Cairo’s ability to get the job done and still be friendly. Then Cairo gets injured on his first deployment during a night mission in Afghanistan. Will is obviously worried about his dog. While Cairo recovers, Will learns what happened on that mission. Cairo had done everything right and was trying to come back to Will. The dog had done everything right and saved soldiers lives when he found some of the ‘bad guys.’ Will finishes his deployment while Cairo heals from his wounds. Not long after Will returns, he gets the call that he’s getting deployed again with Cairo. Will learns he and Cairo are going to be a part of Operation Neptune Spear. This operation was going after Osama bin Laden. Their mission is clear, clear the compound, get bin Laden, dead or alive. Will and Cairo help secure the compound while the other soldiers search for bin Laden and his men. The mission goes down with few hitches. Will and Cairo, and the rest of SEAL team 6, return home as heroes. They even get to meet President Barak Obama and Joe Biden. Not long after they return, Will starts getting sick with migraines and back pain. As much as modern medicine helps, it’s being with Cairo that helps the most. As much as Will wants to stay with the SEALS, he puts in for medical retirement. Then Cairo his much deserved retirement. Will petitions to get Cairo, and is granted. Together, they learn about how to deal with life after the Navy Seals until the end.

Rating: 4.5 – a great look at the real life of a Navy SEAL and a military dog handler

Opinion: This was an incredible book. It really shows an in depth look of what happens in the military and Navy SEAL program. I liked seeing an in depth look into how tough the Navy SEAL training really is. It makes sense why only a few people in each group make it through the entire training program. You hear about how tough the training really is, but to actually see what happened, makes it that much easier to understand. It takes a special sort of person to make it through SEAL training. The book shows a great look of what it takes to be a SEAL and a dog handler. It was interesting, but understandable why not a lot of soldiers wanted to be dog handlers in the military. With all of their duties, soldiers would’ve added their dog handler duties on top of that. But, you could tell how much the dogs meant to the soldiers, and how much they helped on their missions. It was easy to see in the book how much Cairo meant to Will, and how much Will meant to Cairo. It makes sense, but I found it interesting that the military dogs had to stay in a kennel instead of staying with the soldiers. Especially since the military wanted the handler and dog to have a strong bond. I found it interesting learning more about the mission that took down Osama bin Laden. For some reason, I thought there would’ve been a lot more complications with the mission. With how big of a target he was, I thought there would’ve been more resistance. It made me so happy that Will was able to adopt Cairo after his retirement. I liked Will’s honesty with his and Cairo’s struggles after both of them retired. I liked that he found people to help and support him through his rough seasons in life. I cried when Will talked about the end of Cairo’s life. Their story was so well written. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a solider’s viewpoint of the Navy SEALs and an amazing story of the bond between humans and dogs.

The Haunting of Paynes Hollow – Kelley Armstrong

Title: The Haunting of Paynes Hollow

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Genre: Thriller

Plot: Samatha Payne is reluctant to hear her grandfather’s will. She hasn’t been in contact with him in over fourteen years. Not after she saw her dad bury a neighbor kid and took his own life after being accused of murder. Samantha wanted to leave everything behind. But with her Aunt Gail’s help, she agrees to go. The lawyer says Samantha is set to inherit her grandfather’s entire property if she can spend a month at the cabin there. He wants to truly see that her father was not the man she thought. If she can do it, she can sell the property and earn the money she so desperately needs. If she doesn’t, the property will go to someone who really doesn’t need the money or care about the place. So, Samantha goes to her grandfather’s place. Her aunt decides to accompany her. Not long after, she starts seeing things from her past. Memories she wanted to keep buried. A few days into the visit, Aunt Gail goes missing. Samantha starts to question what she’s seeing. Some of the things she seeing couldn’t possibly be real. Or could they? Are the stories she’s heard growing up have some truth to them? Is there someone, or something, behind what’s going on at Paynes Hollow?

Rating: 4.3 – a great retelling of Sleepy Hollow and local mythology

Opinion: This was a great book. It started out slow, but it built up the creepy factor real quick. It started out kind of gross creepy, but it was a part of the mental game of making the main characters think they were going crazy. It made you believe the characters could be seeing things. It also connected to the character’s childhood memories. I’m also glad there were characters that helped the main characters see things rationally. There were hints about who was behind the human components that were well placed if you know where to look. I wasn’t expecting the addition of the mythology to the book. The author did a great job of blending that into the real world. It didn’t feel fake or out of place. The way the author wrote the mythology into the book felt believable. It made me want to learn more about the mythology and history of the place. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves creepy thrillers.