Tag: review

Everyday things · Thriller/Horror

Horror Books I’ve read and recommend

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Be afraid. Be very afraid! Mohaha ha oh, *chough* just kidding.

Halloween is here and by that, everything we think, do and see is influenced by this horror culture we live in. I first thought that i would make a horror book list with like five books I wanted to read this month. However my job has been crazy and I have hardly had time to sit down and write the reviews on the books I do have read.

So instead of a list of books I have not read, I thought I would make a list about the top 5 horror books I do have read and also recommend to you.

Enjoy!

18890038.jpgIntensity by Dean Koontz
The first book I ever read by Koontz and I probably was way to young when I read it to. But I loved it. It was probably more terrifying for me as a young child reading the book than now as an adult. But just have to recommend it. You get to met Vess who is not right in the head. In his cellar there is 16 year old Ariel and Chyna who Vess has taken everything from, takes it up on her self to save Ariel. It is just an great and terrifying book. In Swedish (the language I read the book in) the title is “Psykopaten” which translate to “The Psychopath” is just a more fitting name for the book really. Just read it. Click here to read more about the book.

67035.jpgRelic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. (Book 1)
I dont think this book was supposed to evolve to an series but I´m really happy for it because I LOVE freaking Pendergast. He does not have the big main part in the first and second book but from the third one it is all about him. I still choose to recommend the first book because it is such an great story. The monster is loose at the museum. Yeah I know, how cliche isn’t that but the story is about just that. An monster, museum and the people who tries to fight it. The story is just great and one of those cozy horror story’s. Click here to read more about the Pendergast Series.

6962671The King of Plagues – Jonathan Maberry (Book 3)
There is like nine books so far in the series about Joe Ledger and I have read three and the last one was so far the best one. In this series we get to follow Joe who is a Teamleader over an highly secretive group of black ops people. They more or less is trying to save the world. The books are great written but are a little to long or slow sometimes. But they are still great and Joe Ledger is one of my favorite characters. The story line is reality horror. He writes about stuff that could really happen and it makes it real and horrific for me as an reader. Click here to read more about Joe Ledgers series.

23150980.jpgEllie Jordan, Ghost Trapper by J.L Bryan (Book 1)
This is more of an young adult kind of horror story even though it is not labeled as an young adult. The story is about Ellie who is working as an Ghost Trapper and each book is about a new case. I really like these storys. They are not to long and wordy as often fantasy books can be and they are really good written. There are today 8 books in the series and I have read two so far. Click here to read more about the series.

36013075It – Stephen King
Well I just had to have this one on here. Not because it is such an great horror story but because it is such an great story. Just as an story should be. I often find King to be over the top with his books which takes the horror right out of it. It gets just to unreal. And it happens in this book to. But not until the end. So I as an reader still gets like 1000 pages of that clean, heart beating horror that I love. Here we meet the Clown Pennywise who is killing people around the town Derry. 7 Kids takes it up on them self to kill Pennywise to save them self and revenge those who have been kill. Well, it is not that easy. Click here to read more about the book. Click here to read my review of the book.

Have you read any horrors lately? What books would you recommend?

Contemporary · Romance

Pagan – Jessica Gadziala

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34537960.jpg| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis:
Pagan-
Fighting. F@cking. F@cking things up. That was my life. That was how I got out of the world I had been raised in. And it was how I intended to keep living my life.

That was, of course, until I came across her. The game changer.

Kennedy-
Hard work. That was pretty much all you could say my life consisted of. It was what got me out of a rough childhood. It was what made me get my first taste of success. Before things went to hell, that is. But it was what was going to get me back on my feet too. So I didn’t need any distractions. Certainly not one that came covered in scars, blood, leather, and in a cloud of cigarette smoke.

Yet, there he was.
And I was thinking maybe a distraction wouldn’t be that bad, right?

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My thoughts:
My biggest problem with this one is that I totally did not connect with either Pagan or Kennedy. I really did not like Pagan at all. Kennedy was somewhat nice. A girl I probably could have connected with if it was not for that the book was kind of superficial.

As you probably now by now, I love Gadziala and her books. But I do not love every book by her and this is one of them. It felt forced and superficial. Not even the “dark things” was that dark. It took me like 50% before I started to like the book and then it was suddenly over. It all was just a little to easy and a little to perfect.

Dont get me wrong here. I do love a happy ending and I do not want to change that. But the road to that ending dont have to be as fluffy, easy and perfect all the time. Yeah there are happening some “dark” stuff but it all it´s fixed a little to easy.

Maybe I´m not giving the book justice here. Maybe I´m still fucked in my head, since I read the book by Karin Slaughter. Maybe I need some time. Get my head on straight again.

Oh well. One great thing about the book though is that I have started to learn to know some of the new characters and oh my. I see some really good books in the future.

Contemporary · Romance · Suspense

Run To Ground – Katie Ruggle

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32331591| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: He lost his mentor.
He lost his K9 partner.
He almost lost his will to live.
But when a ruthless killer targets a woman on the run, Theo and his new K9 companion will do whatever it takes to survive—and save the woman neither can live without.

Grieving the death of his partner, Theo Bosco has no room in his life for distractions. Though his instincts scream that he should avoid Juliet ‘Jules’ Jackson, he can’t seem to stay away. It doesn’t help that Theo’s new K9 companion has fallen head over paws with Jules’s rambunctious family.

Or that when he’s with her, Theo finally knows peace.

When Jules rescued her siblings, whisking them away to the safety of the beautifully rugged Colorado Rockies, she never expected to catch the eye—or the heart—of a cop. Yet as Jules struggles to fight her growing attraction to the brooding K9 officer, another threat lurks much closer to home…

And this time, there’s no escape.

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My thoughts: I dont know what I expected and had a pretty much of an open mind before I started this book. It is a new series from an author I totally fell in love with earlier last year. I loved that her first series all hang together but still was like stand alones. And even this series is based out in the Colorado mountain. You just get this warm, fuzzy feeling when you read her books. She makes everything come alive and it is like you are there. I can really see the mountains, feel the sun and everything that is around it.

The story however I did not feel for this time. It was no big things really that can give me a concrete reason to why I not liked this book more than a three star rating. It was just a lot of small stuff that made the story not as great as it could have been.

I felt that it was somewhat wordy and repeatedly. The dynamic between Theo and Jules was not as natural as it could have been. And it is pretty irritating that the same words was used to describe his mood and her fright all the time. If you dont have any words left to describe something, you have probably described it to often and it is time to say stop, that is enough. We get it.

I do have to say that I really liked the twist that started up in the end. It was some what predictable but I still liked it because it was a little different from what you first would expect.

There will be more books in the series and even tough this first one not was a top favorite, I still like her books and story’s and I will read more by her. 🙂

Contemporary · Fiction/Science Fiction · Mystery/Crime · Suspense · Thriller/Horror

The Good Daughter – Karin Slaughter

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33230889| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Two girls are forced into the woods at gunpoint. One runs for her life. One is left behind…

Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn’s happy small-town family life was torn apart by a terrifying attack on their family home. It left their mother dead. It left their father — Pikeville’s notorious defense attorney — devastated. And it left the family fractured beyond repair, consumed by secrets from that terrible night.

Twenty-eight years later, and Charlie has followed in her father’s footsteps to become a lawyer herself — the ideal good daughter. But when violence comes to Pikeville again — and a shocking tragedy leaves the whole town traumatized — Charlie is plunged into a nightmare. Not only is she the first witness on the scene, but it’s a case that unleashes the terrible memories she’s spent so long trying to suppress. Because the shocking truth about the crime that destroyed her family nearly thirty years ago won’t stay buried forever…

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My thoughts:

Extremely dark story and at first it kind off pissed me of. The reason is that I could not understand why, why on earth a person who have lived trough something terrible and gets bullied and hurt for it years after, still stays behind and live with those people around them for years and with people who caused it in the first place. I could not wrap my mind around it and it made the whole thing even worse. Especially when the truth started to come out.

But you certainly fast feel that this is a KS book. Because she has a twisted mind and a frighting ability to make you as an reader feel every emotion, experiences every event and you can’t read fast enough to satisfy your self. And as always I need to read something more happy after because I always feel emotionally drained after one of her books. I dont know if that is a positive or a negative thing. I do love her books, but it makes me completely drained after.

A solid four is my rating for this one. I feel that it was a little more wordy than here usual work and the constant word battle between all the characters started to bother me in the end.

I really like the end though. I know from experience that Slaughters ends in books can be a little ruff and not always as satisfying for me as an reader but here it is just perfect. According to other reviews on Goodread this is supposed to be an series. Right now I feel happy with the end and do not feel need to follow the sisters in the future. But i’m not gonna close the door on it. Maybe I want to read it in the future. Who knows?

Fantasy/Paranormal · Fiction/Science Fiction · Romance · Suspense

Wolf Trouble – Paige Tyler

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24763130| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: He’s in trouble with a capital T…

There’s never been a female on the Dallas SWAT team and Senior Corporal Xander Riggs prefers it that way. The elite pack of alpha male wolfshifters is no place for a woman. But Khaki Blake is no ordinary woman.

When Khaki walks through the door attractive as hell and smelling like heaven, Xander doesn’t know what the heck to do. Worse, she’s put under his command and Xander’s protective instincts go on high alert. When things start heating up both on and off the clock, it’s almost impossible to keep their heads in the game and their hands off each other…

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My thoughts: I´m still kind of uncertain when it comes to the genre fantasy/shapeshifters. It´s a little to much make believe for my taste but I still need to say that I really enjoy this series. How weird am I? And a hypocrite! Because I can read and enjoy books about worlds that is so far fetched that make these books look like reality, and still I have problem with them. And I blame the Twilight hysteria of 2008 and forward. I read some of the books before they even was a thought about make them into movies, loved them. When the films came out the hysteria around it wanted to make me gag and ever since I have had such problems with vampires, werewolfs and what not. But i´m trying. There is so many good books out there that I want to take part of.

I did like this book more than the first one. I think it is because the story is a little bit more exciting with the stalker and forbidden attraction and what not. But I would have liked to see/feel more from Khaki since she is a new wolf. Only three months in and I feel she took way to easy on the whole situation. At least one freak out would have made it a little more believable.

I do feel a larger connection with the characters this time. Most of them I have meet before in the first book and I really start to love some of the guys in the group and I can hardly wait to read there own books.

Overall an easy read. Doesn’t make your heart beat to hard and fast and you don’t loose any sleep over it but it is still a great read that I could recommend to those who would like this kind of books.

 

Contemporary · Romance · Suspense

14 Weeks – Jessica Gadziala

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33950707| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: I was a bit of a wild child.
I had a past.
I had gotten into trouble.
All that was behind me, though.
And for the first time in my life, trouble had found me.

When the other private investigators wouldn’t help me, I found the huge, hulking Tig willing to lend his expertise. What I didn’t expect was the growing attraction between us or the crazy series of events that would put our budding relationship to the test.

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My thoughts: Well, the book is okay. I got myself through it. But it was not one of my favorites which is to bad. I do really like Gadziala and her books but obviously, I can’t like them all. And this one is not on the top of the list.

I didn’t really like Kenzi. I understand that she wanted to be strong and independent but you don’t have to be a bitch about it. And since it was such an focus on her strength and attitude I felt that Tig just got lost. And the constant repeating of thoughts about them self and each other was a little irritating and later on just boring. When they started a rant about there feelings och thoughts and questions (that they have already ranted about before) I started to skim read. And I hardly never skim read Gadzialas books, even if it´s not one of my favorites. And that just show how unenthusiastic I was about the book.

The story is nice but i would have liked to read more about the abduction because that really was no suspense at all. And I did have ha feeling from the start which made it easy for me to figure out what is what and how. And the part with Kenzie and Cass in the park was just fantastic. I loved that part and I needed that. It probably saved the book a star.

I really liked Reese though and she was hardly not there the entire book. But she is a character I probably will completely love when I get to her book. She will get her man in the Henchman series and there I still have book nr 8 to read before I can read about Reese and she is in book nr 9. But i´m really looking forward to it.

DNF · Mystery/Crime · Suspense · Thriller/Horror

DNF – Abandon – Blake Crouch

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6049585| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: X|

Goodreads synopsis:
On Christmas Day in 1893, every man, woman, and child in a remote gold mining town disappeared, belongings forsaken, meals left to freeze in vacant cabins – and not a single bone was ever found. One hundred thirteen years later, two backcountry guides are hired by a history professor and his journalist daughter to lead them into the abandoned mining town, so they can learn what happened. With them is a psychic and a paranormal photographer, as the town is rumored to be haunted. A party that tried to explore the town years ago was never heard from again. What this crew is about to discover is that twenty miles from civilization, with a blizzard bearing down, they are not alone, and the past is very much alive.

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My thoughts:
I could not finish this one. I could not even get myself longer than 20% in the book. This because the writing is so, so bad. It is seriously terrible. There are weird formulations, words are split up in a way that makes the reading choppy. And me who not even has the English as a first language can ignore all the wrongs. And I am not an Grammar Nazi. Not even in my own language and I can read and like books with bad grammar. But this is just to much. And then I started reading some reviews and found out that I really don´t miss anything. And it is to bad, because the plot was really exciting and probably can be by another author. So now I don’t feel so bad anymore for not finishing this book and can go on with a book that I hopefully will like. 🙂

Fantasy/Paranormal · Fiction/Science Fiction · Humor/Funny

The Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy – Douglas Adams

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386162| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Seconds before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

Together, this dynamic pair began a journey through space aided by a galaxyful of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed, ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian (formerly Tricia McMillan), Zaphod’s girlfriend, whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; and Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he’s bought over the years.

Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? For all the answers, stick your thumb to the stars!

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My thoughts: This is not (and please don’t shoot me) some literary wonder, where the book will make some big impact on you, your life or/and cause you some sleepless nights. No, nothing like that. I didn’t expect that either. I haven’t seen the movie and all I knew beforehand about the book was that the answer is 42.

But what is my thoughts about the book? Well, it is okay. Kind of funny sometimes. Really light read. But maybe not in my taste. I don’t know really. It is okay. A great book for the younger people. Don’t feel that much for it so I really don’t have that much to say. Will probably not continue the series.

DNF · Romance · Suspense · War/Military

DNF – Renegade by Catherine Mann

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6587714| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: X|

Goodreads synopsis: Untamed and Undercover: Third in the Dark Ops series.

Tech Sergeant Mason “Smooth” Randolph lives to push boundaries. But he never anticipated how far outside the box he would land when an in- flight accident sends him parachuting into Nevada’s notorious Area 51- and into the handcuffs of sexy security cop Jill Walczak.

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My thoughts:
Nope, nix, nada, never! I did not finish this book. Reason? Well it is boring. There is really nothing that keeps me going. The characters is stereotypical with no depth. The whole serial killer story is just not as center of attention which it should be when four/five is dead. The whole “in the killers mind” is just childish and not wherry believable and I think most of it is because of poor writing skills.

Sorry Catherine but I just don’t think your books is anything for me. This was the third book. I was not that excited after the first two but when I´m not even able to finish this one, I just feel that i have tried my best and it is time to devote my reading time to something that i would enjoy.

Fantasy/Paranormal · Fiction/Science Fiction · Thriller/Horror

IT – Stephen King

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36013075| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis:‘They float…and when you’re down here with me, you’ll float, too.’

To the children, the town was their whole world. To the adults, knowing better, Derry Maine was just their home town: familiar, well-ordered for the most part. A good place to live.

It was the children who saw – and felt – what made Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurked, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one’s deepest dread. Sometimes IT reached up, seizing, tearing, killing . . .

The adults, knowing better, knew nothing.

Time passed and the children grew up, moved away. The horror of IT was deep-buried, wrapped in forgetfulness. Until they were called back, once more to confront IT as IT stirred and coiled in the sullen depths of their memories, reaching up again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality.

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My thoughts:
It is a lot of talk about “IT” right now and it´s all because of the movie who had premier earlier this month. Me my self have not seen the new movie yet but I saw the old one when I was a kid. I thought that I should read the book this time since I don´t remember that much from the movie. So I did. I did not only read it. I also listened on the book so I could follow the story even when at work or doing boring house chores. Perfect solution. 🙂

It is a really good book. It is a good story, great characters and a exciting plot. Can not say that it is scary in any way though. But i´m not that kind of person who gets scared by books. I like that you feel like you are really there in the story. You can feel the heat of the summer sun in 1958. You can feel the panic and your own feet against the ground as they are being chased. You are just there. But you can also really clearly see that this is a Stephen King book. Because everything takes just to long. It is a little to much in the end and one thing just don’t make sense to me. And that’s to bad really.

I felt a few times through out the book that it was going to slow and I wanted them to “just get on with it”. Around page 500-600 it was dead calm. The calm before the storm, you could say, but it was a boring calm. If I didn’t have the pressure to get done with the book so I could see the movie, it would have been easy for me to lay down the book at that point. That’s the problem with me and Kings book. They are great, then they are like on hold, in a grey area that´s just pissing me off and makes the story stop. If I don’t get myself over those 100+ pages, I will probably never pick up the book again.

But I ended it and i´m happy for it. I would totally recommend this book to who ever likes to read big books. I don’t think you have to bee an horror fanatic och fantasy reader or anything like that to read this book. It is really for everyone, I believe. Just have an open mind.

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