ARC, Books

Book 654: Law and Addiction – Mike Papantonio

Unlike, Off the Grid, this book was worth saying yes to the publicist.* This book was engaging, a fast read, and had characters that were written well and believably realistic from the newly minted idealist lawyer Jake Rutledge to the West Virginia county chief prosecutor Eva Whistler, all of these characters felt real.

Law and Addiction is the story of Jake Rutledge and his battle against the opioid epidemic and big pharma after his twin brother dies of an opioid overdose. And, honestly, you couldn’t get more timely with a book release with all of the news stories about Purdue Pharma (Google News search) and the crackdowns in Boston after a corrections officer was attacked via Boston 25 News.

Continue reading “Book 654: Law and Addiction – Mike Papantonio”

ARC, Books

Book 653: Off the Grid – Robert McCaw

I requested a copy of this from the publicist, when they reached out to me about my next read, Mike Papantonio’s Law and Addiction.* Unfortunately, I probably should’ve just stuck with the latter. This book has a lot going for it, the protagonist sounds interesting (a veteran, a cop, a dark secret), the location is exotic (Hawaii), and international intrigue, but nope nothing pays out.

I’m honestly not sure whether I should be more mad at the author or the editor. I’m not sure there was an editor, based on some of the super repetition (that had nothing to do with the story or dropping clues) and the super formal/stilted way the characters spoke to each other. Seriously, it was painful at some points. I did look into Oceanview Publishing and it says it’s an independent publisher, but based on this book I had to wonder if it was more vanity than independent, which doesn’t reflect well on them.

Continue reading “Book 653: Off the Grid – Robert McCaw”

ARC, Books

Book 651: Sorted – Jackson Bird

I am always on board for reading anything from LGBTQ+ authors, but particularly nonfiction (memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, etc.). So when the publisher reached out about this one I downloaded it (and somehow actually got to it the week it was published).*

Overall, I really enjoyed this. I mean page one is a J.K. Rowling/Albus Dumbledore quote, of course I was going to enjoy this. I had no idea about Bird’s connection to Harry Potter (or that the Harry Potter Alliance, now known as Fandom Forward even existed)! This being said, I wasn’t totally enamored with the book and didn’t figure out why that was until roughly 80% of the way through the book.

Continue reading “Book 651: Sorted – Jackson Bird”

ARC, Books

Book 649: A Hero Born (Legends of the Condor Heroes #1) – Jin Yong

I was already thinking about requesting this on NetGalley when I received an email from the publisher, so I thought “why not?”* I might’ve been sucked in by the advertisement that this was the Chinese The Lord of the Rings, but I can neither confirm nor deny that. (It totally was—we all know it.)

I wasn’t sure what to expect going in to the book, I honestly kept putting it off because I assumed it would be way too hard to read. When I started the book to find dozens of pages of prologue, character lists, and historical information I started to get worried this was going to be more tome-like (i.e. Dickens; This was also initially published serially in a Hong Kong newspaper) and less like the martial arts movies that made huge splashes in the late-90s/early-00s in the US (think “Hero”, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, “House of Flying Daggers”, etc.).

Continue reading “Book 649: A Hero Born (Legends of the Condor Heroes #1) – Jin Yong”

ARC, Books

Book 637: The Vanished Bride (A Brontë Sisters Mystery #1) – Bella Ellis

As I mentioned in my June recap, I sort of Twitter-shamed Berkley into granting me access to this book—and I do still feel a little guilty about it. I tweeted because I was so mad that sites like NetGalley force bloggers/reviewers and publishers into tiny little boxes.

How are you supposed to represent everything you are as a blogger/reviewer when they give you 50 words or less and that’s about it? I get they’re trying to provide a service, but it’s like come on be user friendly for all the users. Why would I include that I have dedicated Jane Austen and Brontë pages on my website when I read hundreds of other books. UGH. Either way, the kind people at Berkley took pity on me and granted me access to the review copy and here I am.*

Continue reading “Book 637: The Vanished Bride (A Brontë Sisters Mystery #1) – Bella Ellis”