One Breath Away

One Breath Away is unlike any other true crime story I have read.

Jennifer Mee, a young girl know for having incurable hiccups accused of setting up a robbery where the target was murdered. The story is broken into several parts, Jennifer before she had hiccups, during her having hiccups, after her hiccups, and finally the trial. The last part was the most interesting for my be far. The first three parts were a bit long with too much fluff.

Normally when reading a true crime story there are parts that just make me cringe in the person's childhood. I did not encounter that with Jennifer's story. Jennifer was not the typical type of person a true crime story would be written about. It was nice to read such a different type of true crime story.

The writing had too much filler for me despite that the story read smoothly and easily. Since I have to be in the right mood for true crime I am not going to go out of my way to find another book by M. William Phelps.

The Princesses of Iowa

The Princesses of Iowa is not my usual style of book however I enjoyed it.

Paige is not the type of heroine I can usually identify with, on the outside she has it all popularity, jock boyfriend, involved mother, and good grades. However on the inside the pressure to be perfect nags at her all the time as she has to constantly watch what she says, how she dresses, her grades, who she looks at in school, and a bunch of other things while yearning to break free and be herself. 

The writing was smooth and easy to read. All in all The Princesses of Iowa was just a fun easy read to relax with.

Stung

Stung started out a bit odd. I was not sure what was going on which was the authors intention I think. It could have been due to bad writing though that is hard for me to believe since the writing picked up a lot the more I read.

Fo wakes up in her house having no memory of what has happened to her. Instead of the pristine room she recalls the house is a mess and clearly been abandoned for awhile. While searching the house for her family she is attacked by a beast and escapes the house into a world she does not recognize.

Slowly the story is revealed of what happened to the world and what the beasts are.

I did have some issues with the story. Some things are not explained like the importance of honey. Currency is in honey but they never said what the honey is used for and why people want it so badly. The relationships between characters were also rocky at times and a bit unbelievable yet they slowly grew on me.

I am not sure if this is a trilogy or not but I plan on getting the second book.

Friday 56: The Big Burn

This is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice.

1. Grab a book, any book.

2. Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader.

3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. 

4. Post it.

5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda's most Friday 56 post.

The Big Burn page 56:

Never before had the fate of so much territory been determined by a small, mostly unarmed group of tree specialists.

Reign of Blood

Reign of Blood was not really what I thought it would be but I ended up enjoying it.

April is one of three remaining humans in the world as far as she knows. Her mother and younger brother were not affected by the virus that turned humans into feral vampires. Despite even being bitten by vampires April does not lose her mind and start craving blood. Determined to live April and her family hide in a bunker at night and pillage the city of Las Vegas during the day for supplies. This has worked out well for April until one day her mother and brother disappear leaving behind blood. Unsure what to do April hunts for her family hoping for the best but fearing the worse.

The writing felt a bit repetitive at times with the fight scenes and it was gruesome in part. I scare easily and parts did scare me but not enough I stopped reading. Since I do not want to give spoilers I cannot say what else I did not like but I did like it enough to want to read the squeal.

The Murder of an Angel

The Murder of an Angel is the fourth and final book in the Confessions series.

Tandy Angel has solved several murder cases since the death of her parents however none try her wits more then attempting to figure out who is trying to kill her. Having taken Angel Pharmacy special pills to make her smarter, more focused, and sharper for years Tandy constantly wonders if she is crazy and hallucinating. Several times I wondered the same thing.

The writing was a bit weak at times with setting up characters, unlike previous books in the Confessions series it was pretty obvious who the criminal was. Despite the problems with the overall mystery I did like the way the writing was done and how Tandy constantly questioned her sanity. My other issue was several things felt unfinished at the end, the relationship with CP, James, and Tandy was not well done and ended on a strange note. I also was not a fan of how the mystery was resolved.

Winter

Winter is the fourth and final book in the Lunar Chronicles. I really wanted to love Winter but I had some problems with it.

Cinder continues to remain an awesome character who has grown a lot from the shy insecure cyborg. Her growth seems natural and while she does have setbacks I love how she remains true to herself. Despite immense pressure on her to save Lunar from Queen Levanna Cinder continues to be an easy going person who does not dream of power.

Scarlet was not around in Winter as much as I would have liked, she was my favorite character. I did not really see much change in Scarlet overall, I could be forgetting some stuff since it has been awhile since I read the first three books.

Cress is adorable and her insecurities make sense. Having been imprisoned on a satellite for most of her life it is understandable she lacks social grace. Instead of her just suddenly developing social abilities Cress remains a lot like how she was with small bursts of courage that make her personality show up.

I wanted more Winter, I expected Winter to be primarily about Winter. I do not feel like I really got to know Princess Winter so that was disappointing for me.

Winter is a hefty book and at times it felt super repetitive. I kept flipping through the pages to make sure I had not read something already. Nor was I a huge fan of the ending overall. I wanted something more from it like an epilogue. While the writing was nice it did seem to repeat itself at times. All in all I enjoyed the Lunar Chronicles.