Book Review: The Dead Girl's Stilettos: A Bexley Squires Mystery by Quinn Avery

The Dead Girl's Stilettos: A Bexley Squires Mystery by Quinn Avery
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟 (3 stars)
Publisher: Indie (April 2019)

The stilettos of the title are gold with diamond heels and are the main clue that Bex Squires has to solve the case and exonerate the man who's hired her, Dean Halliwell. She's still got a bit of name recognition from her last investigative report that garnered her national attention but her funds are running low when she gets a call to help mega-star Dean in her tony, old home town of Papaya Springs, CA. This is right up her alley as she also wants to track down her troubled, missing younger sister, Cineste.

Book Review: The Stranger Inside by Laura Benedict

The Stranger Inside by Laura Benedict
My rating: 🌟🌟 (2 stars)
Publisher: Mullholland Books

"I was there. I saw what you did."
Am I the only person who heard Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight?

Book Review: Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates

Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟 (3 stars)
Publisher: Ecco

It was thoroughly miserable existing in this hellscape with Adriane/Mary Ellen.

Book Review: The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2) by John Scalzi

The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4 stars)
Publisher: Tor Books

As middle installments go, this was better than many I've read.

Book Review: The Last: A Novel by Hanna Jameson

The Last: A Novel by Hanna Jameson
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4 stars)
Publisher: Atria Books (April 9, 2019)

Though I thought this would be mostly about the murder discovered in the days after a global nuclear attack, this turned out to be a quieter apocalyptic story with the murder mystery receding into the background at times and ultimately being secondary to something that seemed totally unrelated at the outset.

Book Review: Binti (Binti #1) by Nnedi Okorafor

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 🌟🌟 (2 stars)
Publisher: Tor

I'm going to be an outlier to book world here but no apologies.

Book Review: We Never Told: A Novel by Diana Altman

We Never Told: A Novel by Diana Altman
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4 stars)
Publisher: She Writes Press (June 2019)

The story opens with a discussion between sisters Sonya and Joan after their mother's death. They're going through her papers and find information about the baby she gave away when they were teenagers. This is the crux of the title, the secret they never told. It isn't until the very end of the book that this situation comes back full circle and is hardly the main thrust of the story as related. Usually, I'd be annoyed that such a big thing was strung out so very long but in the reading of this book, I found I didn't mind. It was so engaging a read that I often had to remind myself about the big revelation at the beginning.

Book Review: The Riverboat Mystery (Jenny Starling #3) by Faith Martin

The Riverboat Mystery by Faith Martin
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟 (3 stars)
Publisher: Joffee Books

Jenny's off cooking for a small group cruising in a riverboat steamer. This is her summer break and as her luck goes, she has landed in a nest of prickly people with resentments to one of the parties in particular and of course before too long, there's a dead body in her galley pantry.

Book Review: Above the Ether: A Novel by Eric Barnes

Above the Ether: A Novel by Eric Barnes
My rating:  🌟🌟🌟🌟(4 stars)
Publisher: Arcade (June 2019)

To say that I'm a climate fiction fan never sounds quite right to me because they're usually disastrous human extinction events that completely untether modern civilizations and I find them fairly terrifying, but I am drawn to them. So when I saw this, I knew I needed to read it.

Book Review: The Social Affair (New Hope #1) by Britney King

The Social Affair by Britney King
My rating: 🌟🌟 (2 stars)
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent

When you tell friends you're a fan of psychological thrillers and they gift books, you have to read them. This had some good elements that piqued my interest but there were also some problem areas that left me unsatisfied by the book's end. The social media take was an interesting one as a cautionary tale for two types of users. I'm neither type and thought both Josie and Izzy foolish in their usage.