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Book Review: The Girl in the Spider’s Web

The-Girl-in-the-Spiders-Web

Rating: 4 stars

This fall, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist return in the highly anticipated follow-up to Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

In this adrenaline-charged thriller, genius-hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist face a dangerous new threat and must again join forces.

Late one night, Blomkvist receives a phone call from a trusted source claiming to have information vital to the United States. The source has been in contact with a young female super hacker—a hacker resembling someone Blomkvist knows all too well. The implications are staggering.

Blomkvist, in desperate need of a scoop for Millennium, turns to Lisbeth for help. She, as usual, has her own agenda. In The Girl in the Spider’s Web, the duo who thrilled 80 million readers in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest meet again in an extraordinary and uniquely of-the-moment thriller.

When I first saw that there was going to be another book in the Millennium Series, I jumped for joy. Having read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, I was very excited to see what was going to happen next for Lisbeth and Blomkvist.  However, I was also very surprised. I didn’t expect there to be another book in the series because the author of the original three books Stieg Larsson died in 2004. So when I found out about The Girl in the Spider’s Web, I was very excited to see how David Lagercrantz would continue Larsson’s story.

And what a story it was. Lagercrantz did an excellent job in writing this book with the same style and feel as the rest of the series.

What I love about the series the most is Lisbeth and Blomkvist’s relationship throughout the series and The Girl in the Spider’s Web doesn’t disappoint in continuing to grow that relationship. What I love about their relationship is how both characters come from different walks of life. But yet, they are able to form a connection with each other out of the oddest of circumstances and still able to live their own separate lives.

I also love Lisbeth as a character. I love her character because she just doesn’t give a shit. She has her own personal views and she sticks by them until the end. Lisbeth has a way of handling things and disregards what others tell her to do and I love that about her character.

Another aspect of The Girl in the Spider’s Web I enjoyed was all of the action that took place in the story. Like the rest of the series, this book has a lot of action that keeps the reader on their toes and makes them want to continue reading to find out what happens next. It is a thrilling read that any crime loving book nerd would be interested in checking out.

I also love how The Girl in the Spider’s Web switches perspective. Not only do we get Lisbeth and Blomkvist’s perspective but we also get to see the story from the villain’s point of view as well. I love reading books like this where you have those changing perspectives because it gives the reader access to what the main antagonist is thinking. Having these different perspectives allows the reader to get a better understanding of the antagonist’s actions and see them as more human capable of making bad decisions.

The one thing with The Girl in the Spider’s Web that I didn’t enjoy was the ending. I didn’t like the ending because I want to know what’s going to happen next. Yes, they caught most of the bad guys, but I still have questions about what’s going to happen. I also didn’t like it because it sounded final as if this book is going to be the last book in the series. While there is the possibility of there being another book after this one, Lagercrantz leaves us hanging with no details or hint of there being another book after The Girl in the Spider’s Web.

However, I overall enjoyed reading this book just as much as the rest of the books in the series. Seeing Blomkvist and Lisbeth’s characters once again was really nice and I really enjoyed reading a book in this series again. David Lagercrantz did a wonderful job with this book and I can’t wait to see what else he’s written. I highly recommend reading The Girl in the Spider’s Web to anyone interested in reading a book with a set of diverse characters and an action packed story that will keep you wanting more.

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Book Review: Sweetwater Blues

Sweetwater Blues Book Cover

Rating: 4 stars

Rodney Earwood and Palmer Cray had been best friends for as long as either could remember. They were brothers in all but the genetic sense, each born late in the lives of good women who had given up on the dream of motherhood by the time their respective miracles occurred.

They wandered the hills of North Georgia, hunted the pine woods, fished the cool, green streams, and camped under the stars. They shared each other’s clothing, each other’s families, and each other’s homes. They grew into tall young men, and on a hot May afternoon right after they turned eighteen, they both graduated from Sweetwater High School, numbers seven and eight in the crooked, sweaty line that held a class of thirty of Sweetwater’s finest. Shortly thereafter, Rodney and Palmer flew a Camaro into a tree, Palmer flew into a haystack, Rodney flew into the great beyond, and nothing in Sweetwater was ever the same again.

I really enjoyed this book. The story was interesting, wanting me to continue reading to find out what happened next to Palmer Cray. It was written at just the right pace to where I could continue reading the book from where I stopped.

I really liked the characters because they kept the story going. I really liked reading about Palmer’s relationship with his cousin Cheddar as he continued to live out his life in jail. Especially because Palmer didn’t expect to room with him and it really surprised me as a reader.

I also enjoyed reading Sweetwater Blues because there was a lot of character development for Palmer and Cheddar. Before the accident, Palmer was a carefree high school student who did what he wanted with his best friend Rodney. However, after what happened and spending time in jail, Palmer grew as a person. Even though he was guilty of the crime he committed, Palmer didn’t let the system get to him and became a better person as he continued his sentence. Cheddar also underwent character development throughout Sweetwater Blues. The reader can see this through his relationship with Palmer and through the way he acts as the story continues. The reader can see that Cheddar is a changed man and that he wants to do better for himself once he’s released. I love seeing these developments in Sweetwater Blues because the reader is able to better understand these characters and their predicament.

The only aspect of Sweetwater Blues that bothered me was the portrayal of jail life Atkins gives to the reader. I felt at times as if it wasn’t realistic and wished he included more detail about jail and how inmates have to cope so they can get out. I know part of that is because Palmer had good connections so he was very fortunate, but I wanted to see more of jail life for Palmer and see how he copes with being messed around by other inmates. While the reader does see some of that in Sweetwater Blues, I don’t think Atkins included enough to where I could get a good sense of what jail is really like for those placed in it.

Overall though, Sweetwater Blues was a wonderful read for me. I enjoyed every moment I spent reading this book and recommend it to anyone interested.

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Book Review: Hades

Hades Candice Fox Book Cover

Rating: 3 stars

Twenty years ago, two children were kidnapped and left for dead.
Raised by a master criminal, they grew up to become cops. Very unusual cops . . .

Homicide detective Frank Bennett has an intriguing new partner. Dark, beautiful, coldly efficient, Eden Archer is one of the most enigmatic colleagues Frank has ever worked with—that includes her brother Eric, who’s also on the Sydney Metro police force. All of them are tested to the core when a local man discovers a graveyard of large steel toolboxes lying at the bottom of the harbor. Each box contains a grisly trove of human body parts.

For Frank, the madman’s clues are a tantalizing puzzle. For Eden and Eric, the case holds chilling links to a scarred childhood—and a murderous mentor named Hades. But the true evil goes beyond the bloody handiwork of a serial killer…

Hades was a page-turner of a read. I was immediately hooked into the story about Frank’s new mysterious partner Eden. As a fan of crime novels, this book really intrigued me. I really liked reading Hades for a number of reasons. For one, I enjoyed seeing the novel switch back and forth from Frank’s perspective to learning more about Eden and Eric’s upbringing. I loved finding out more about why Eden and Eric acted the way they did so as to better understand their characters.

While I felt as if Frank and Eden should’ve had more of a connection throughout the novel, I was able to easily understand why that wasn’t the case. Eden is a very elusive woman and doesn’t want anyone knowing what she and Eric have been through. However, I felt as if Frank should’ve at least been clued into what was going on so as to better understand her character and her actions throughout. Another reason this book was an okay read for me was because I felt as if all of the characters in this book were extremely flat. I felt no reason to connect with any of the characters and that bothered me. While Hades is a crime novel that focuses more on the crime and catching the bad guy, I felt as if there should’ve been some characters aspects mentioned. We get that Eden and Eric are both cold blooded people because this book drives that point home enough. But I felt as if the rest of the characters didn’t have any real character flaws mentioned and if they did, they weren’t really explained.

I also was bothered that the novel didn’t delve deeply into Frank’s own past. The reader knows that Frank’s past isn’t perfect, but the reader never finds out more about Frank other than a couple of details in his life. He’s never fully explained and the novel focuses more on Eden and Eric than on him, even though the whole story is told from his perspective. Throughout Hades, he takes the role of being the backseat driver in the story, yet is seen as a main character since the novel is from his perspective. That bothered me because his own life and the choices he made are never explained quite as in depth as Eden and Eric’s life growing up with Hades.

So while Hades was a page-turner read for me, I found some details in the novel lacking that would’ve made the story more enjoyable to me. What made Hades worth the read was learning more about Eden and Eric’s past and the crime that took place that connected with their lives. I can’t wait to see what Eden has in store for me.

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Book Review: Landline

Rainbow Rowell Landline Cover

Rating: 4 stars

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble; it has been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems beside the point now.

Maybe that was always beside the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect him to pack up the kids and go home without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts…

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

I really enjoyed reading Landline. It is the second book by Rainbow Rowell that I’ve read and has become my favorite so far. What I loved about this story was how Rowell carried it out. In the beginning of the book, the reader quickly realizes that Georgie’s marriage to her husband Neal isn’t perfect. While Georgie is at work, her husband Neal spends his day at home, taking care of the kids and everything around the house. But the reader is able to easily see that Neal isn’t happy with this arrangement. The reason I love these details being portrayed in Landline is because marriages aren’t perfect. And the reader gets to see this through Neal and Georgie’s marriage to each other and what happens over the next couple days.

I also love these details because Rowell shows her readers that relationships aren’t perfect. The reader can see this throughout Landline when Neal leaves for Omaha with the kids. While he’s away, Georgie feels guilty that she didn’t go with him to his mother’s house. She also begins to reflect a lot on their relationship and wonders if they were even meant to be together. Or if they would’ve been better off not getting married in the first place. I love that Rowell makes Georgie reflect on their relationship because while they aren’t perfect for each other, the reader learns from this book that if you love someone enough, being perfect with each other doesn’t matter. As long as you are willing to be by your love’s side, you will be able to conquer all of the problems your relationship brings to the surface.

I also enjoyed reading Landline because of Georgie’s relationship with her best friend Seth. While they make Seth out to be the guy Georgie was meant to be with, I’m really glad they didn’t end up together. Yes, the reader can easily see how good of a couple they could’ve been, but I feel that her relationship with Neal was much stronger than her friendship with Seth. I know that she and Seth have been friends longer then she’s been with Neal, but I felt a stronger connection between her and Neal despite their imperfect relationship. I also found Seth to be highly entertaining and funny and just couldn’t picture the two of them being together as a couple.

Landline was also an enjoyable read for me because of the different dynamics of relationships Rowell brought into the book. Not only do you have an imperfect relationship between Neal and Georgie, but the book also has Georgie’s younger sister Heather who turns out to be gay and Georgie’s mother is married to a man closer to Georgie’s age than her own. There’s also Seth, who they make seem to be Georgie’s soul mate but really isn’t. I really like that these relationships between characters are completely dynamic because it made reading Landline for me that much more enjoyable. The book not only had dynamic characters but dynamic relationships, which made the book not turn out the way the reader would expect. While I don’t mind reading books where best friends of the opposite gender end up together, it’s also very nice to see that they can also be friends without becoming a couple too.

The only issue I had when reading Landline was the ending. Without spoiling any of you, I felt as if the ending of the book was pretty flat. Yes, it did catch me by surprise because it wasn’t what I was expecting, but I also felt as if the book just suddenly ended and everything was okay in Georgie’s universe. The reader never gets to find out what happens after that Christmas and whether Georgie and Neal’s marriage does continue on and that really bothered me when I finished reading.

However, the ending of Landline didn’t make me enjoy reading this book any less. I overall really enjoyed reading this book more than I did Fangirl and can’t wait to read some more of Rainbow Rowell’s other novels.

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Book Review: The Prayer Box

The Prayer Box Lisa Wingate

Rating: 3 stars

When Iola Anne Poole, an old-timer on Hatteras Island, passes away in her bed at ninety-one, the struggling young mother in her rental cottage, Tandi Jo Reese, finds herself charged with the task of cleaning out Iola’s rambling Victorian house. Running from a messy, dangerous past, Tandi never expects to find more than a temporary hiding place within Iola’s walls, but everything changes with the discovery of eighty-one carefully decorated prayer boxes, one for each year, spanning from Iola’s youth to her last days. Hidden in the boxes is the story of a lifetime, written on random bits of paper–the hopes and wishes, fears and thoughts of an unassuming but complex woman passing through the seasons of an extraordinary, unsung life filled with journeys of faith, observations on love, and one final lesson that could change everything for Tandi.

This book was an okay read for me. It wasn’t what I was expecting to read, but I thought it was okay. What I liked about The Prayer Box was the background story the reader received about Tandi and why she was on Hatteras Island. Her dark past with her ex-husband was something I found I could relate to and pulled me into reading this novel. I also enjoyed Lisa Wingate’s writing. She is very descriptive about Iola Anne Poole’s Victorian house and it made me interested in finding out what Tandi was going to find in the home. She also described the scenery on the island well enough to where I could picture where Tandi and her children were living.

I also enjoyed reading about Tandi’s growing relationship with the people around her and her children. Lisa Wingate shows some strong character development with Tandi that I really enjoyed seeing as she was reading Iola’s letters.

However, there was a lot in The Prayer Box that was missing for me. The letters Tandi finds in the boxes that were written by Iola were really disappointing to me. I felt as if they didn’t really give the reader Iola’s character. If anything, the letters told us more about Iola and her past, but I didn’t feel as if I could understand her character from reading them. While I did enjoy hearing about Tandi’s past, the reader really doesn’t get a whole lot about why she and her children left. We know that Tandi’s ex-husband Trammel was bad, but I felt as if we as readers don’t get the full picture as to what happened with him. We also don’t get a whole lot about what’s going to happen to Tandi now that her ex-husband is in jail and that Iola’s house isn’t going to be destroyed. The book just suddenly ends with no real conclusion.

I also found Tandi’s character to be disappointing. While I do understand what she went through, I felt as if she didn’t really learn from her past. The reader can see this in The Prayer Box through her relationship with Ross and the relationship she has with her children at the beginning of the book. Ross is a lot like Tandi’s ex-husband Trammel and she even mentions that when she’s talking about him. However, Tandi doesn’t realize how bad of a man he is for her even after what happens with Gina. Instead, she’s upset about his cheating but doesn’t do anything. The relationship Tandi has with her children in the beginning of The Prayer Box is terrible. It is exactly the way Tandi says she was raised as a child. But Tandi doesn’t realize this at all when she talks about the way she was raised and doesn’t even realize her bad parenting until near the end of the book. Then when she tries to be a better parent it always falls flat to me. While I do enjoy seeing that she is trying to do her kids right by her, I felt as if Tandi never really learns from her experiences. Her character made reading The Prayer Box that much more difficult for me.

Part of the reason I struggled with reading this book was because I placed high expectations on this book. I was expecting a lot more than what I got out of The Prayer Box, but I just couldn’t connect with it on the level I wanted to. It just didn’t speak to me in the way it has with other readers and that’s why it’s an okay read for me. While there were parts of The Prayer Box that I enjoyed, it was an overall okay book to read. I definitely enjoyed reading The Story Keeper more and am interested in reading some of Wingate’s other novels.

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Book Review: In the Heart of the Dark Wood

In the Heart of the Dark Wood Cover

Rating: 4 stars

A motherless girl hungry for hope . . . and the dream that could be leading her astray.

Almost two years have passed since twelve year-old Allie Granderson’s beloved mother Mary disappeared into the wild tornado winds. Her body has never been found. God may have spilled out his vengeance on all of Mattingly that day–but it was Allie’s momma who got swept away.

Allie clings to memories of her mother, just as she clings to the broken compass she left behind, the makeshift Nativity scene assembled in Allie’s front yard, and to her best friend, Zach. But even with Zach at her side, the compass tied to her wrist, and the Nativity characters just a glimpse out the window, Allie cannot help but feel lost in all the growing up that must get done.

When the Holy Mother disappears from the yard one morning, Allie’s bewilderment is checked only by the sudden movement of her mother’s compass. Yet the compass isn’t pointing north but east . . . into the inky forest on the outskirts of Mattingly.

Following the needle, Allie and Zach leave the city pavement behind and push into the line of trees edging on the Virginia hill country. For Allie, the journey is more than a ghost hunt: she is rejoining the mother she lost–and finding herself with each step deeper into the heart of the darkest woods she’s ever seen.

Brimming with lyrical prose and unexpected discoveries, “In the Heart of the Dark Wood” illustrates the steep transition we all must undergo–the moment we shed our child-like selves and step into the strange territory of adulthood.

This book moved me in ways I wasn’t expecting. When I first saw the premise of the book, I originally thought it was going to be an okay read with a very happy ending. However, this book took several turns I didn’t see coming. They were turns that enthralled me, making me want to continue reading. That is one of the many reasons why I enjoyed reading In the Heart of the Dark Wood.

I also enjoyed reading this book because I felt a strong connection with Allie. From the very beginning, I sympathized with Allie’s character because I knew exactly how she felt. While I myself haven’t lost my mother, I know what it’s like being without one parent, feeling as if a part of you is gone. In a way, losing anyone you care about is like that, and this book heavily portrayed that in a way that moved me emotionally. While Allie does struggle to let go of her past and to continue moving forward, when she does let go, it’s in a very adult way, which allows the reader to see her develop as a character.

I also enjoyed reading In the Heart of the Dark Wood because I enjoyed hearing about their journey and how both Allie and Zach were able to survive as the townspeople kept looking for them. I enjoyed hearing about their adventure because the author writes in plenty of detail, pulling the reader’s attention with every passing minute. The context of the text is very lyrical and beautifully written and really pulled at my emotions. When I was near the end of the book, I was crying because I was so emotionally invested in what I was reading. Allie is such a sympathetic character that it was hard not to feel bad for her and everything she has gone through.

However, one aspect of In the Heart of the Dark Wood that bothered me was how the time Allie and Zach spent in the woods dragged on. While reading about their time in the woods was enthralling, there were aspects of it that seemed to take forever to become interesting. One example is the creature in the woods that has been following them. They have encounters with this creature two or three times before they are finally able to see what creature is pursuing them. This bothers me because the reader doesn’t figure out what creature Allie and Zach encounter until the very end of the book. I was also bothered by how Allie finds her mother in the woods. While it’s good to know Allie finally has closure with what happened to her mother, I was hoping that things would go differently for her.

In the Heart of the Dark Wood was a pleasure to read. It kept me guessing at every turn of the page and really enthralled me emotionally.

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