Acheron, Sherrilyn Kenyon

Holy shit balls, Batman! I did not see this pairing coming!!

Wow. Ok, a lot to cover here. I've been waiting for this book.

As you can probably guess, this is Acheron's book. And it is a doozy.

So, lucky for us, Kenyon takes pity and doesn't make us relive the vast majority of Ash's horrific life. Most of the worst part is through his sister, Ryssa's point of view. She only finds out about what happened to him from 7 to 17 once she rescues him at 17. Thank god we don't have to experience it with him.

It's super sad and hard to deal with regardless.

For one, every time his sister, Ryssa, tries to help him, she makes it worse. You know she loves him and wants desperately to save him, she just can't seem to make it happen. Being a woman doesn't help either.

For Apollymi too. I can't imagine a mother having to deal with the loss of a child like that. Not giving him up, exactly. Or at least not only that, but not wanting to and knowing there's no way you'll never see him again. Never hold him again. I can almost forgive her for wanting to destroy the world. Almost.

But here's my holy shitballs moment: Ash's love is Tory!!

OK, you have no idea who Tory is. I know.

Grant County and Will Trent In Review

 (<--- awesome picture of Karin, right?)

So, Grant County and Will Trent have come to a close for now. Well, Grant County is over for good I think. They'll all be Will Trent crossovers under the Will Trent name. 

That's what it looks like, at least.

I love them for the most part. 

I think my feelings about Lena are clear, so I'm not going to go belabor that. 

But lets not get too far ahead of ourselves. 

So, a lot happens over the course of these series. I think Slaughter's choices make for a really...surprising and interesting series. 

That doesn't mean I'm happy with all her choices. 

Unseen, Karin Slaughter

Fucking Lena.

Goddammit.

So, last we saw Lena, she was leaving Grant County with Jared, Jeffery's son, in Broken.

Now Jared's in the hospital after being shot. In the home he shares with Lena. Just days after a raid she's leading goes bad. Really bad.

You can see where I'm going with this right? Lena's sloppiness at least, negligence at most, have caused someone else to pay with their lives. Again.

You would be mostly right. Jared makes it. And while their marriage is going through some issues, they come out at the end intact and looking up. Talking about kids. (Cause Lena as a mother isn't a bit terrifying.) Also, Lena's actions aren't directly responsible for his attack, though they didn't exactly help.

Her case is related to his attack and she could have done more, but mostly after the fact. So, maybe she couldn't have stopped it, but...

She also got Will involved.

You can imagine Sara's opinion on that.

Criminal, Karin Slaughter

O. M. G!!

This was fantastic!

We finally get to learn more about Will's past.

So, Will and Sara are still going strong. Unfortunately, he spirals into despair when he finds out his father was released from prison.

We know is father killed his mother, but not much else.

Actually, there's another reason this is an awesome book: not only do we learn more about Will's past, we learn more about Amanda's.

Now, in Fallen, Faith's mom tells Will that Amanda is more like his mom that he thinks. As soon as she said that, I figured Amanda had found him when he was a baby. Still, now we get to see the whole story play out.

So, as much as I love that we learn about Will's origins, I love that we get to see young an naive Amanda.

Yes, Amanda was naive. Sheltered even.

Fallen, Karin Slaughter

I love this one! This series just gets better and better.

So, we learn a lot about Faith, her mom, and her mom's past. Remember I mentioned Will investigated Faith's mom? Well, now we get some answers.

So, Faith had her baby. I don't think I mentioned she was preggers, but she was. Like her first child, this was an oops baby. The father doesn't even know about the baby until this book. Kinda a shocker for him since they'd broken up before Faith even knew she was pregnant. She also found out she had diabetes at the same time.

So, Faith's life has been pretty all over lately.

Now, she's just had her baby and is returning home from mandated work training when she realizes something is wrong: her mom isn't answering any of her phone calls.

She finally makes it home in time to find one dead, one hostage, one with a gun, but no mom. Her mom managed to get the baby into the locked shed where her weapons are kept, but other than that, there's no sign of her mother.

Faith calls 911, but storms the house herself and kills the remaining two baddies. And despite one being a hostage, they are both baddies.

So, we start with some harcore Rambo shit from Faith.

After that it gets a bit more complicated.

Undone, Karin Slaughter

So, this is the first crossover with Grant County. It's 3 years since the events in Beyond Reach.

A woman is hit by a car. She's been raped and tortured. Blinded. She walks out into the road, and...

...ends up in the ER with Sara.

That's where we begin.

Will and Faith are working well together, though there's still some...kinks to work out.

Where in Triptych, I felt that Will and Angie were just 2 damaged people who loved each other, but didn't know how to have a relationship, in this one...

I feel like Angie stopped being a victim and started being an abuser.

Stay with me, here.

We weren't in her head, like we were in Triptych, I admit that could be part of the switch, but I think it's more than that. In this book, Angie was cruel. She hurt Will on purpose. She wanted him to know that he wasn't worthy of anyone but her. He tries to stand up for himself. He tries to make a break, and she makes it clear that he's stuck with her. That he's not good enough to be with anyone else.

She calls him stupid.

She's...alluded to that before. Mocked him for his disability, thought subtly, but this was something different. This was "I can control you, and don't you forget it."

Like I said, she switched roles for me in this one.

Beyond Reach, Karin Slaughter

Ok, kids, we're doing this one a little differently.

I give a general spoiler warning in the blog intro/description, but I still try to be conscientious of what I give away. I only usually call them out in my reviews if they're pretty obvious and I'm being facetious.

However, as I also say in my review, these aren't meant to be a synopsis of the book, but I do have to give some sort of run down in order to make the parts I want to talk about make sense.

But, in order to discuss this amazeballs book honestly, I need to reveal a huge spoiler.

Which brings me to the different part. Normally, I put the page break in mostly for space and try to place it where it makes you want to read the rest of the review. Because of this major spoiler, I'm placing the break after this intro.

This really was a great book (with and without spoilers), and I absolutely would tell you to read this and the whole Grant County series (in order). But, if you're not like me and a major spoiler ruins it for you, makes you want to not read something, do yourself a favor: Read this book, then come back and read my review.

If not....keep reading....if you dare...

Faithless, Karin Slaughter

Well, the Lena break was short lived.

And the Sara/Jeffery peace was short lived, too.

They've decided to move in together, so that's a step forward. But just as all seems right in the world, something else comes down on them. What was it I said in the Indelible review? They keep getting things thrown at them, testing them, but they keep making it work. Well, this time it's hepatitis. (Read the review for Indelible, and others, on my blog.)

Yeah, you read that right, hepatitis, as in the STD. Remember that little...*ahem* indiscretion, that ended his marriage with Sara the first time around? Yeah, the other woman called to tell him she had Hepatitis and he needs to get tested. Jeffery waits almost a week before telling Sara, making any excuse he can to stay away from her, and out of her bed. Her assumption, of course is that he's having another affair.

While chasing after a pissed off Sara, they stumble, literally, over a pipe jutting out of the ground. A pipe that leads to a coffin with the body of a young girl in it.

And the games begin.

They trace the body back to a farm and church out in the boonies. It gives off the cult vibe like no body's business. A big family, where the women folk do women things, and the men folk are in control. They take in at risk people: addicts, homeless, runways. The kind of people cults love.

Now, one of the family is found in a box.

Can you say "suspicious"?

A Faint Cold Fear, Karin Slaughter

Lena, Lena, Lena. Jesus. *sigh*

Ok, so in book 3 of Grant County, Lena has left the police force. She would say she was pushed out. She never met Jeffery's requirement for staying on: seeing a professional. Well, she did, but in typical Lena fashion, it was after she left and she didn't want to tell Jeffery because she thought he'd judge her. *eye roll* Which makes no sense because he was pushing her to do it. In actuality, he gave her an ultimatum, and she gave him her badge and gun. It was her choice to go.

*Sigh again*

So, we see her in this book at the site of what looks like  a suicide working for campus security. And of course she's miserable. Chuck, the head of the security, is pretty much a dick, so that doesn't help matters. The whole situation is pretty awkward.

So the case revolves around a number of suicides. The first, seems odd, but there's nothing specific to point to to call it suspicious, let alone murder. It just escalates from there, the killer getting more and more careless.

Honestly, the case isn't that important. I mean, it structures the book, but it's not the primary point. This is what I think of as a set up book. The character development is the point, not the case. The killer was a slight surprise, as his presence in the previous books didn't indicate him being a psycho.

The real story here is Lena's continued downward spiral. While working on campus, she meets Ethan Green, a grad student, and starts a relationship with him. And OH! what a clusterfuck it is!

Kiss the Dead, Laurell K. Hamilton

So, it's still Read a Romance month, so next up is some hot and steamy Anita Blake.

However....it wasn't one of my favorites. The plot was just kind of...lacking. Wah wah. Basically, a group of vampires want to be" free." Unfortunately, their methods for doing that are to kidnap a minor and then martyr themselves (aka suicide by cop - or executioner, in this case). The have a leader, a master, but they haven't blood oathed. Somehow the master misses the part where he can influence lesser vamps without a blood oath.

So, when they're around him, he can keep them on board with his plan for peaceful dissent. Unfortunately, when he's not around, his mojo wears off and they decide being martyrs and killing cops is the better plan.

Sigh.

Antia ends up setting them straight. That's basically the entire book plot wise.

Now, relationship wise, there was much more.

Hush, Hush, Becca Fitzpatrick

This book should be a how to book: How to Have Unhealthy Relationships and Make Bad Decisions.

I mean, these kids are six-fucking-teen!!! Maybe, maybe, if they were at least freshman in college, instead of sophomores in high schooll, it would have been better. Still bad, but better. I mean, Patch is this physically and sexually intimidating pedophile, for the love of God! He may look like a high schooler, but he's been a fallen angel since the 1500s!

OK, deep breath. Keep it together, Michelle. Let me back up and explain the book before I go on a rant.

So, this is the first book in a quartet about young love, a la Twilight. Let me make sure I'm clear here: I have never read Twilight. I have never seen the movies. I can only take my information from conversations I've had with those who have seen or read these stories. As opposed to Twilight's vampire leading man, the main male character, Patch, is a fallen angel. Hear that again: A fallen angel. An angel that God had such an issue with that He cast the angel out. And what did Patch get cast out for? Lust. Yup, the angel cast out for lust is now after a 16 year old girl, Nora.