Return to the Willows by Jacqueline Kelly

I loved Wind in the Willows growing up – even if it was 80 years old already by then. I was really excited to see this “sequel” and couldn’t wait to dive into reading it. Return to the Willows contains all the same great characters that appear in Wind in the Willows, plus some extras. Toad is still a walking (or hopping) disaster, Ratty and Mole are still spending the days on the river and Badger is as gruff as ever.

In this new adventure, Toad has a hot air balloon, which he crashes and then it blows away. Well, in a series of events, the weasels have gotten hold of the balloon and are determined to get it fixed and claim it as their own. In the process, the weasels kidnap Toad’s nephew, Humphrey, to repair the balloon. Toad and friends now need to rescue Humphrey before something awful happens to him while in the clutches of the weasels.

Sticking very close to the feel of the original work, Return to the Willows was a fun read. Unfortunately, it didn’t stay consistently fun for me. The first part of the book felt a little chunky and didn’t flow well with the later parts rescue story. I felt the first half of the entire book was easy to put aside from something more entertaining.

Some of the ease at which I had putting this book aside might be due to the footnotes. I didn’t like them. I felt they were distracting from the story and many of the things they felt needed clarified, didn’t need clarified. Also, they were a bit snide – if an emotion can be expressed through just words, I think it was in some of the footnotes. I stopped reading the footnotes entirely halfway through the book so that I could settle into just reading the story of Toad and friends. The footnotes were just too distracting and didn’t carry the same fun feel as the writing in the novel.

The illustrations look like they are going to be a lot of fun and I think the number of illustrations was similar to what can be found in the Wind in the Willows so I didn't have problems with them. The artwork style is different but I think Clint Young managed to do a good job bringing the characters of this book to life.

 

While this book contains some of the feel of the Wind in the Willows, I do have to wonder how much today’s reader is going to enjoy it. The language is slightly antiquated and the characters at times are a little stuffy. If the current 8-12 year old reader enjoys Wind in the Willows, this book is one you can’t pass up – it is a well-done sequel but it has some issues. 3 Stars.

I received this book through the Amazon Vine program.

Dead Spots by Melissa F. Olson

If you enjoy urban fantasy with a bit of mystery and love triangles, then you’ll love this book. I don’t care for love triangles, which is my biggest pet peeve with this book. They don’t add anything to the story for me because I have to wonder how often those really happen and I guess, I feel like it is so rarely that seeing them in every book I read is annoying. Luckily this book isn’t about the romance so much as it is about Scarlett.

Scarlett is a null – which means that any magic creature that comes within a certain distance of her, is nullified and becomes human. It also means she is a good crime scene cleaner because she can defuse the paranormal forces around her and leave the humans none the wiser.

Scarlett has a problem though. She works for the most powerful vampire in Los Angeles and when she doesn’t make it to a job quickly enough; the cops get there before she has a chance to clean up a very grisly murder. The problem doesn’t end there though. A werewolf shows up on a scene too and the first detective on the scene sees him go from wolf to human when he enters Scarlett’s sphere of influence. When she manages to escape from the detective, she leaves behind something he can track back to her on accident. Now she needs to figure out how to keep a human from finding out too much about her world (and getting killed), and figure out who and what killed three vampires in the middle of a park.

This book was an awesome read for me. I’ve already said I don’t like love triangles but I found so much other great things that I can give that a pass. The quick pace and fun characters really made this book for me. I enjoyed the first page to the last page and couldn’t put this book down. This book is not perfect but every time I pick up a book, I am not looking for amazing character development or deep and insightful plots; I’m looking to be entertained. The characters didn’t have sustainable development but they were entertaining and had a little depth. Scarlett managed to come off as a strong and in control with some very human flaws.

Dead Spots gave me a mystery, enjoyable characters with some funny moments and classic love triangle (at least the men in it were interesting without Scarlett making moon eyes at them). 4.5 Stars.

I received a copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program. This book is schedule to be published on October 30th. 

The Retribution by Val McDermid

This book has been languishing on my to be read pile for a while. I really enjoy Val McDermid’s books but for some reason, this one just wasn’t calling out to me. Well, after recently reading Vanishing Point by McDermid, I decided it was time to read this installment of the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series. It was thrilling, disturbing and in the end, I was a little disappointed.

Before going into what I thought about this book, I should mention what it’s about. The Retribution takes us back to serial killer, Jacko Vance from the previous novel Blood in the Wire. Vance has spent years in prison but his years have been spent thinking over the pleasure he took in his crimes and how he is going to pay back those that put him in jail. In this book, Vance manages to escape prison and now has his sights set on punishing Tony and Carol. A side plot is Carol is working on series of murders that are just now starting to look like the work of a serial killer. 

Now that you know what this book is about, you probably wondering why I called it disappointing. Well…first I did enjoy this book and read it very quickly. McDermid can write a thrillingly paced story and keep the reader on their toes. What I found disappointing about this novel was two fold. One part is that things seemed almost too easy to Vance. Escaping and then carrying out the items on his revenge list just didn’t seem to have any real hiccups. The book might have been written to show how intelligent (and crazy) Vance is and that he was meticulous in plotting out his revenge, I still would have expected more problems to come his way since he had been behind bars for over a ten years.

My second disappointment was Carol’s reaction when Vance’s revenge starts happening. I’m not going to go into much detail with it because it might reveal too much of the story, I’ll just leave it by saying that I found her reactions over the top and unbelievable. Maybe it was right on with Carol’s characters but it has been years since I’ve read a Carol Jordan and Tony Hill novel so for this particular installment, I felt it wasn’t in character for her.

This was a good, fast paced and suspenseful read. I liked how other characters on Carol’s team of investigators got the spotlight a little while investigating the other serial killer. It added a nice touch to this novel. I just wish some things had been different with the Jacko Vance storyline (although he is still disturbing). 3.5 Stars.

I received a copy of this novel through the Amazon Vine program.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There is the second book in a series and the main character, September, returns to fairyland for an additional adventure.

In the first book, September gives her shadow as payment to save another child from being taken to under-fairyland. September’s shadow now rules fairyland and taking all of fairyland’s shadows.

This book had many of the same great things as the previous one – September is a great and this book has some nice development with her character. I found the shadows of her friends a bit predictable and missed the fun they brought to the previous book. While this book tried to have them being fun, they just never felt the same as A-through-L and Saturday in the first book. It is darker then the first book as September sees what her shadow has done while ruling Fairyland and stealing the shadows from Fairyland above. September also dwells a bit on what will happen with her growing up since she turns 13 in this book.

The theme of growing up is interesting and I did like how it brought interesting questions but I think for me, it also was part of while this book didn’t work as well for me as the previous one. September is losing her “wild bits” as she grows up – just like the shadows are the wild bits and magical parts of their solid counterparts in Fairyland above. I missed the light-hearted and happiness that came with the previous book – and growing up isn’t all about losing the wild parts.

This book was beautifully written and enjoyable. I just missed the lighter touch the previous book had at times. 3.5 Stars.

I received this book through the Amazon Vine program.

The Map Thief by Heather Terrell

A not so up-and-up political mover named Richard Tobias, has hired lawyer Mara to recover a map stolen from a dig site in China. Although Mara senses he isn’t telling her everything, she takes the job. What she discovers quickly into her search for who stole the map and where it is now, could change the course of what every child is taught about the European “Age of Discovery.”

This was a fast, fun and interesting mystery. This book is told using three characters. Mara is the modern day character, Zhi is the maker of the map in 1420’s China and Antonio is a navigator for Vasco de Gama in the 1490’s. The characters don’t have amazing depth or development but they were enjoyable to read about. I particularly liked how all the pieces fit together at the end – including the story of Antonio, which I didn’t feel like connected with the other parts of the book except that he had seen the map.

The historical sections of this book rang true to me as reading it…aside from the fact that as far I know there has never been a map discovered showing China had “discovered” the world first. The way it was presented in this book makes me wonder though and I wouldn’t shrug off the notion as impossibility. I’m not a history buff either so, as I said, the historical facts felt true to me as did the different locations throughout the novel.

I enjoyed The Map Thief for all it’s twists, turns and intrigue. 4 Stars.

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The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder

I should put disclaimers on this review because my rating doesn’t really do the book justice. Mo Hayder is a very talented writer and I enjoy the flow of her narratives (I've read Birdman). I struggle with the content and “ick” factor in her books. This book had many of those creepy moments; I had to stop listening (this was an audiobook) because it was getting to me. I can’t even say creepy is the right word; it was more like I need to step away and shake off the chill/tension. I couldn’t take how dark the characters were at times – and I’m not talking about dark as in the character doing something wrong/bad/evil all the time just the gritty side they all had.

Grey has left her graduate program to continue researching a mysterious film that documents one of her obsessions. Her obsession is the Japanese occupation of Nanking in 1930s. Grey has found out that a film might have been shot of the Nanking massacre. Determined to find the film, she sets off to Tokyo to find a Chinese professor, Shi Chongming, who is teaching there that might know where the film is.

Grey isn’t a warm and fuzzy character. In fact, there are no warm fuzzy characters in this book. Hence why I called them dark earlier – there are no bright characters and one of the only characters I found even slightly refreshing was Strawberry. Strawberry is the owner of a teahouse called “Some Like it Hot” where Grey ends up working to help stay in Tokyo. She was quirky and I didn’t find her as dark as everyone else – including Grey. The characters all have the flaws which in part fits the topic of this novel but at the same time, really hurt my ability to connect or care for any of them.

Even though you know what Grey is going to discover about what happened in Nanking, I think the ending and build up for it still had surprises. I thought this novel was interesting and the audio production was excellent. Narrators Simon Vance and Josephine Bailey were excellent for the most part. I had my “ick” moments (horrified might be a better way to describe how I felt at parts) and struggled with the gritty characters so this book gets 3 Stars.