You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles

Title: You Have Arrived at Your Destination (Forward #4)

Author: Amor Towles

Publisher: Amazon Original Stories 2019

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 54

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER

Nature or nurture? Neither. Discover a bold new way to raise a child in this unsettling story of the near future by the New York Times bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow.

When Sam’s wife first tells him about Vitek, a twenty-first-century fertility lab, he sees it as the natural next step in trying to help their future child get a “leg up” in a competitive world. But the more Sam considers the lives that his child could lead, the more he begins to question his own relationships and the choices he has made in his life.

I absolutely adored A Gentleman in Moscow, but this story just didn’t quite intrigue me enough. There is a beginning of a larger story in here along with some interesting background world building. The problem is that it just doesn’t go anywhere for me. Oh well.

Forward

• #1 Ark by Veronica Roth

• #2 Summer Frost by Blake Crouch

• #3 Emergency Skin by NK Jemisin

• #4 You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles

• #5 The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay

• #6 Randomize by Andy Weir

Next up on the TBR pile:

Emergency Skin by NK Jemisin

Title: Emergency Skin (Forward #3)

Author: NK Jemisin

Publisher: Amazon Original Stories 2019

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 38

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER

What will become of our self-destructed planet? The answer shatters all expectations in this subversive speculation from the Hugo Award–winning author of the Broken Earth trilogy.

An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet’s finest, fled centuries ago. The mission comes with a warning: a graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind—hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out ages ago. After all this time, there’s no telling how they’ve devolved. Steel yourself, soldier. Get in. Get out. And try not to stare.

My favorite story from this collection! Jemisin is a master at dropping the reader into new worlds but not overwhelming you with confusion. We learn about the world as we need to, adding layer and layer to the story being told. In this case, when the characters name the resource the traveler needs to retrieve, I gasped out loud. Jemisin manages to connect this fantastical story directly to our current world with a commentary on social justice and environmental responsibility. She packs a punch in this very short story.

Forward

• #1 Ark by Veronica Roth

• #2 Summer Frost by Blake Crouch

• #3 Emergency Skin by NK Jemisin

• #4 You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles

• #5 The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay

• #6 Randomize by Andy Weir

Next up on the TBR pile:

Summer Frost by Blake Crouch

Title: Summer Frost (Forward #2)

Author: Black Crouch

Publisher: Amazon Original Stories 2019

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 75

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Fall TBR; COYER

A video game developer becomes obsessed with a willful character in her new project, in a mind-bending exploration of what it means to be human by the New York Times bestselling author of Recursion.

Maxine was made to do one thing: die. Except the minor non-player character in the world Riley is building makes her own impossible decision—veering wildly off course and exploring the boundaries of the map. When the curious Riley extracts her code for closer examination, an emotional relationship develops between them. Soon Riley has all new plans for her spontaneous AI, including bringing Max into the real world. But what if Max has real-world plans of her own?

While the story is fine, it’s one that I have read many times from previous authors. I guessed the ending about one page into the story. From there, it was just pretty boring for me. If I try to step outside of my own experience, the story is good. The progression is nicely paced and the questions raised are interesting. I just have read it before.

Forward

• #1 Ark by Veronica Roth

• #2 Summer Frost by Blake Crouch

• #3 Emergency Skin by NK Jemisin

• #4 You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles

• #5 The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay

• #6 Randomize by Andy Weir

Next up on the TBR pile:

Ark by Veronica Roth

Title: Ark (Forward #1)

Author: Veronica Roth

Publisher: Amazon Original Stories 2019

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 45

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Fall TBR; COYER

On the eve of Earth’s destruction, a young scientist discovers something too precious to lose, in a story of cataclysm and hope by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Divergent trilogy.

It’s only two weeks before an asteroid turns home to dust. Though most of Earth has already been evacuated, it’s Samantha’s job to catalog plant samples for the survivors’ unknowable journey beyond. Preparing to stay behind and watch the world end, she makes a final human connection.

As certain doom hurtles nearer, the unexpected and beautiful potential for the future begins to flower.

An introspective little story with a science fiction backdrop. This one was less about technology and more about people. While I don’t think it quite fit with most of the other stories in this collection, I enjoyed the quiet story about plants and beauty. This is super quick, but a good story.

Forward

• #1 Ark by Veronica Roth

• #2 Summer Frost by Blake Crouch

• #3 Emergency Skin by NK Jemisin

• #4 You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles

• #5 The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay

• #6 Randomize by Andy Weir

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Haunting of Winchester Mansion by Alexandria Clarke

Title: The Haunting of Winchester Mansion

Author: Alexandria Clarke

Publisher: 2019

Genre: Horror Mystery

Pages: 440

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Fall TBR; COYER

In the small town of Black Bay, a vacant, forgotten house sits atop an overlooking bluff.

When Bailey and Bodhi Taylor move in and begin renovations, the house seems perfect. But things move on their own, screams echo from the basement, and Bailey sees a shadowy figure out of the corner of her eye. Is the house haunted? And if it is, what does the ghost want with Bailey?

CW: Child death

Well that was a bust for me. I was hoping for some creepy supernatural mystery a la Darcy Coates. Instead, we get a very lackluster mundane mystery with a few supernatural bits. I called the murderer within the first 50 pages and then felt myself becoming more and more bored over the course of the last 400 pages. The story was way too long and drawn out for what it was. The main characters frustrated me. I was not happy about their backstory and the casual way it was dropped. Seriously needed a content warning there… Add in the weird way the story was broken up and edited and I was very annoyed by it. I suspect that this was three novellas that were then smashed into one big book. If you are going to do that, please edit the transitions better. Very annoying.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Cinders by Michelle D. Argyle

Title: Cinders

Author: Michelle D. Argyle

Publisher: MDA Books 2010

Genre: Fatnasy

Pages: 172

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER

Cinderella's happily-ever-after isn't turning out the way she expected. With her fairy godmother imprisoned in the castle and a mysterious stranger haunting her dreams, Cinderella is on her own to discover true love untainted by magic.

I was sucked in by the tagline “a dark Cinderella tale.” And while we do get some shades of that, this book was mostly boring. I couldn’t seem to care about any of the characters. Even the villains were lackluster. And I wasn’t excited by the trajectory of the storyline. Mostly I read this and then was glad to delete it off my kindle app.

Next up on the TBR pile:

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

Title: 56 Days

Author: Catherine Ryan Howard

Publisher: Blackstone 2021

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 305

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER

No one even knew they were together. Now one of them is dead.

56 DAYS AGO

Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket queue in Dublin and start dating the same week COVID-19 reaches Irish shores.

35 DAYS AGO

When lockdown threatens to keep them apart, Oliver suggests they move in together. Ciara sees a unique opportunity for a relationship to flourish without the scrutiny of family and friends. Oliver sees a chance to hide who—and what—he really is.

TODAY

Detectives arrive at Oliver’s apartment to discover a decomposing body inside.

Can they determine what really happened, or has lockdown created an opportunity for someone to commit the perfect crime?

After hearing about this book for the past two year, I finally put it on my shortlist and start reading. I was very annoyed by all of the characters at the beginning, but as the mystery began to unspool, I was hooked. Once we know of the dead body, even a few thoughts, I was desperate to finish the book and put all the pieces together. Oliver and Ciara we two very flawed, but interesting characters to follow. Amongst the various thrillers that I have tried, this was in the top tier. Thrillers still aren’t my favorite, but this particular book was a good one.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Wasted Words by Staci Hart

Title: Wasted Words (The Austen’s #1)

Author: Staci Hart

Publisher: Staci Hart Novels 2016

Genre: Romance

Pages: 349

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER; Finishing the Series

Spice Rating: 5

Falling for my roommate might be the worst idea I never had.

Guys like Tyler Knight don’t go for girls like me.

He’s an ex-tight end with a face so gorgeous, he belongs on a billboard, and I’m a book nerd with glasses and a comic book obsession. I might not know much, since most of my boyfriends exist between the pages of books, but I do know when I’m out of my league.

So instead of obsessing over Tyler, I put all my energy into playing Cupid, using the book bar, Wasted Words, as my playground.

When he kisses me? Welp, there’s no hiding the truth.

But the last time I trusted someone with my heart, it shattered, and the pieces never quite fit together again. With Tyler’s high profile job and the subsequent barrage of women, there doesn’t seem to be room for me. And so my heart breaks over and over until it finally falls apart again.

And this time, I don’t know if I can pick up the pieces.

*A romantic comedy inspired by Jane Austen’s Emma*

A random pick from my extensive Kindle library. And I really enjoyed this one. We get a contemporary retelling of Austen’s Emma (in my top half of Austen novels) with a few tweaks here and there. I enjoyed seeing a modern Emma deal with modern matchmaking obstacles. Thankfully our heroine, Cam, is not a wilting wallflower or a sheltered damsel. She’s an independent woman with baggage, but manages to work through most of that baggage inside these pages. We get to see her actually grow and change independent of the romance aspects. Focusing on the romance, I really loved Tyler’s point of view the best. He was a great modern Knightly. He had his own backstory to work through. I loved seeing the two of them together as a relationship unfolded. We didn’t have to wait until the end to get our main characters together. Thank goodness! After finding this one, I am definitely reading the rest of Hart’s Austen inspired modern romances.

The Austens

• #1 Wasted Words

• #2 A Thousand Words

• #3 Love, Hannah

• #4 Love Notes

• #5 Pride and Papercuts

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Bees by Laline Paull

Title: The Bees

Author: Laline Paull

Publisher: Ecco 2014

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 340

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR; COYER

The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Hunger Games in this brilliantly imagined debut set in an ancient culture where only the queen may breed and deformity means death.

Flora 717 is a sanitation worker, a member of the lowest caste in her orchard hive where work and sacrifice are the highest virtues and worship of the beloved Queen the only religion. But Flora is not like other bees. With circumstances threatening the hive’s survival, her curiosity is regarded as a dangerous flaw but her courage and strength are an asset. She is allowed to feed the newborns in the royal nursery and then to become a forager, flying alone and free to collect pollen. She also finds her way into the Queen’s inner sanctum, where she discovers mysteries about the hive that are both profound and ominous.

But when Flora breaks the most sacred law of all—daring to challenge the Queen’s fertility—enemies abound, from the fearsome fertility police who enforce the strict social hierarchy to the high priestesses jealously wedded to power. Her deepest instincts to serve and sacrifice are now overshadowed by an even deeper desire, a fierce maternal love that will bring her into conflict with her conscience, her heart, her society—and lead her to unthinkable deeds.

A strange novel with an interesting premise that didn’t quite land for me. I was intrigued by a novel written from the perspective of a bee. We get to glimpse the inner workings of the hive. Once we get into the actual story, I was less committed to the entire novel. The characters didn’t quite come alive for me. I was confused as many turns by the motivations and the overall purpose of the characters. It was hard to connect with the story as written and ultimately I was left wanting more.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Title: Jurassic Park

Author: Michael Crichton

Publisher: Ballantine Books 1990

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 416

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR; COYER

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price.
 
Until something goes wrong. . .

I read this novel way back in sometime in the 1990s. I had hoped that the book would hold up to my memories. Thankfully it really does. The story is nonstop action from the moment Chapter 1 starts. We get to meet all the intriguing characters and set up the island. Of course, we all know that things are going to go sideways very soon. Once all the different parts of the system start to fail, everything kicks into high gear. While the book is better than the movie in almost every aspect, I did forget just how much I dislike Lex as a character. She is just terrible. The movie changed the dynamic and definitely improved the characters. Otherwise, I forgot just how much I did like Ian Malcolm. Overall, I love this book so much.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Title: The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni #1)

Author: Helene Wecker

Publisher: Harper 2013

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 486

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Spring TBR; COYER

Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay by a disgraced rabbi knowledgeable in the ways of dark Kabbalistic magic. She serves as the wife to a Polish merchant who dies at sea on the voyage to America. As the ship arrives in New York in 1899, Chava is unmoored and adrift until a rabbi on the Lower East Side recognizes her for the creature she is and takes her in.

Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire born in the ancient Syrian desert and trapped centuries ago in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard. Released by a Syrian tinsmith in a Manhattan shop, Ahmad appears in human form but is still not free. An iron band around his wrist binds him to the wizard and to the physical world.

Chava and Ahmad meet accidentally and become friends and soul mates despite their opposing natures. But when the golem’s violent nature overtakes her one evening, their bond is challenged. An even more powerful threat will emerge, however, and bring Chava and Ahmad together again, challenging their very existence and forcing them to make a fateful choice.

A friend recommended this one and then my online book club chose it for June’s read. Seems like the universe really wanted me to read this one. Don’t be fooled by the summary. This book is squarely character driven. There is a plot, but it operates as a way for us to explore more of the characters’ natures and growth. I was intrigued by the world depicted and the two seemingly disparate cultures presented. I enjoyed seeing how the golem and the jinni are able to find commonalities with each other and their circumstances. We get to see two beings create identities despite their beginnings. I ended up enjoying this novel, but there were a few points where the slow pace got to me. I had hoped for a bit more action or plot. I’m still debating if I want to continue reading this series.

The Golem and the Jinni

• #1 The Golem and the Jinni

• #2 The Hidden Palace

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Library of the Unwritten by AJ Hackwith

Title: The Library of the Unwritten (Hell’s Library #1)

Author: AJ Hackwith

Publisher: Ace Books 2019

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 384

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Spring TBR; COYER

Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing-- a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto.

But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil's Bible. The text of the Devil's Bible is a powerful weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell….and Earth.

Loved the premise and the settings, but ultimately, this one fell very flat for me. We are dropped into this plot line and action becomes nonstop from there. Very quickly it become very difficult to keep track of everything that was happened. The book didn’t have any quiet moments to sit and reflect on anything that was happening. On the other side, the characters were hard to really love. I enjoyed Brevity and Leto, but a lot of our time was spent with Claire and Ramiel. Those two were not easy to like or all that interesting of characters. The incredibly unlikeable characters are not really my jam. In the end, I was not all that interested in continuing the series.

Hell’s Library

• #1 The Library of the Unwritten

• #2 The Archive of the Forgotten

• #3 The God of Lost Words

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Vampire Villain by Melody Raven

Title: The Vampire Villain (Evil Rising #2)

Author: Melody Raven

Publisher: 2019

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 232

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Spring TBR; COYER

Spice Rating: 5 (albeit with a vampire)

Marcus might look like an angel, but he's always been a villain. So when he's tasked with infiltrating the Vampire rebellion he doesn't expect it to be complicated. But his plans might take on a new path as he grows closer to a mortal, who can't--or won't--die.

After Gena is brutally murdered and mysteriously resurrected, she sets out to discover the truth about her supernatural background. But when she crosses paths with the sexy and vengeful Marcus, she realizes that there is more to her past than she ever realized.

With time running out, Gena and Marcus search for answers to her past, while going head-to-head with their enemies. Will it end the same way it began--with Gena's death?

Oof this one did not land at all. I read the first one and, for the most part, enjoyed it. I liked the spin on the vampire myth. This volume I could not get behind at all. First off, Gena is just way too blasé about everything and never truly understands how much danger she is in. I really hated that she never really asked enough questions about what was going on. And Marcus is the worst of the alpha male type. He never tempted me at all. And then we find out just what Gena and I got even more annoyed. Nope. Don’t believe, don’t care. Guess I am done with this series.

Evil Rising

• #1 The Lost Vampire Prince

• #2 The Vampire Villain

• #3 Her Very Own Demon

• #4 The Werewolf and the Siren

• #5 Beauty and the Shapeshifter

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Title: The Priory of the Orange Tree (The Roots of Chaos #1)

Author: Samantha Shannon

Publisher: Bloomsbury 2019

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 848

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Winter TBR; COYER; 52 Book Club - High Fantasy

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction--but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

The Nerdy Bookish Friends club started 2023 with this behemoth! And what a story it was. I will admit that it took my about 100 pages to really get into the story. There are many people and places to keep track of and I had to orient myself to this world. This is high fantasy and definitely involves a lot of world-building at the beginning. Once, I settled in, I started to connect to some of the characters and began to see the big conflicts brewing. I really enjoyed how Shannon wove the stories of all these very different characters to highlight their prejudices and biases. By the end of the book, I was glad that I had read it, but I must say this wasn’t my absolute favorite. The pacing seemed very off throughout the book. I was extremely bored at many times throughout and then something would happen and I wouldn’t be able to put the book down. I may have been more satisfied if this book had been broken up a bit in two separate volumes. Still debating about reading the prequel that’s just about to be published…

The Roots of Chaos

• #0.5 A Day of Fallen Night

• #1 The Priory of the Orange Tree

• #2 TBD

Next up on the TBR pile: